What's ahead in Iraq?

For all my loyal readers I apologize for not writing here for so long. I've been busy at my other Blog.

My take on this whole horrible mess is that sooner or later we're going to get out. I'm assuming shortly after the January "elections."

You can already see pressure mounting on Blair with the Black Watch casualties ( He's got an election coming up in May.); Poland has already said they don't need to be there after March etc. It’s just not politically viable anymore.

I hate to assume, but something tells me Chalabi and Co. won't be sticking around. Allawi is putting on a brave face but I would be surprised if he survived much past our victorious departure.

All the effort and money we've put into the whole venture makes me think we won't be too far away, though, regardless of the return of "democracy and freedom" to Iraq.

We've got the Kurds in our pocket, we'll just plain wipe out any residual Baathist (i.e. Falluja) influence, and we'll make the Shiites sweet by promising them control until we can cut off their money from Tehran. (Then they’ll get theirs.}

Real men want to go to Tehran, after all.

Maybe we keep our big bases close to the Iranian border and coordinate with the Kurds, already thoughtfully provisioned by the Mossad, and focus either, on out-right "regime change," or shock and awe against the Ayatollahs.

After all, the only reason we can't get anything going in Iraq according to the Gaffneys and Perles of the world, is because of the Iranians. I've already heard some neocons floating the trail balloon that there was a 50/50 chance Bin Laden broadcast his latest message from Iran. ( And, of course, there's that big nuclear threat to Israel.)

The continuing stalemate on what to do about Iran between the Powell/European side of the argument and the neocon Bolton/Wolfowitz bunch that has paralyzed U.S. policy for the past four years is about to come to an end.

Bush got his mandate and it's time to start kicking ass and taking numbers. (Come to think of it, maybe Chalabi will find a way to stick around. He's our big contact with them now, right? The mind boggles.)

In closing, let me just say all this coverage of Arafat’s death has knocked Falluja right off the front page. By the time we find how many Marines and Fallujians have died in this pointless exercise, no one will care.