Reality matters less than perception. A couple of weeks of bloody chaos and anti-war sentiment tips and then avalanches against the president and the war.
The delicacy of the situation is almost palpable in the bombing of the mosque. I hear former supporters of the war edging now right up to, "Those people are impossible. We've done all we can for them. Let them fight it out. To hell with them."
I am not at all surprised by this but hoped that W.'s advisors who took us into this thing were smarter and better-informed than me.
If by some miracle, there is no evil power on the ground there now that can take the next step from the mosque bombing and ratchet up the bloody chaos, we could still pull it out. Hard to see it falling that way, though.
The division between the Sh'ia and Sunni is exaggerated and not as stark as some portray. They intermarry and Sunnis are part of the government. The Kurds are Sunnis.
The most disheartening news coming out of Iraq right now, is the possibity of a civil war. If that happens, there is not much we are going to be able to do. We cannot go out and shoot civilians and involve ourselves in an internal conflict. If Iraq allows itself to be drawn into a civl war, they could lose their Democratic government and all their new freedoms in a heartbeat. This could be a successful tactic for Al Queda and it would be devastating for the Iraqi people if this happens.