How Low Can the Expectations Go?

Think back, back, back, to a time when a chimp-like creature stuffed the crotch of his flight suit and strutted on the deck of a US aircraft carrier to declare the end of major combat operations in Iraq. Remember that? Oh, so glorious, wasn't it? Yes, and it was played over and over on television screens everywhere, with pundit bootlickers like Peggy Noonan wetting her panties over how "manly" that simian creature looked in uniform.

Yeah, well, how far we've fallen, eh? The New York Times, despite its rah-rah runup to the war, courtesy of the now-jailed Judith Miller, is even recognizing the desperation of the Bushits in the reality of Iraq, so distant from the highpoint of the ape in the flightsuit declaration of "victory."

Americans continue dying in Iraq, but their mission creeps steadily downward. The nonexistent weapons of mass destruction dropped out of the picture long ago. Now the United States seems ready to walk away from its fine words about helping the Iraqis create a beacon of freedom, harmony and democracy for the Middle East. All that remains to be seen is whether the White House has become so desperate for an excuse to declare victory that it will settle for an Iranian-style Shiite theocracy.

Now, in addition to betraying our own citizens, the Bushit team is betraying woman, minorities, and secularists in Iraq.

Mission accomplished!