Americans are notoriously good at moving on, which tends to amount to turning our backs on the messes we’ve made, and averting our noses from the stench of what our government likes to call foreign policy. Currently that government is taking pains to assure us that the mess in Iraq is improving, and hinting heavily that we lend our attention to the fresh hydra’s head of Iran. Time to move on. The President’s troop "surge" is doing the trick, Eden is just around the corner, the war really was the grand idea it was always billed to be.

The decider, our war President, our own little Churchill, the brush-clearing virtuoso of the age is back on the case, ready to lead us to glory in Iran. Tempting as it is to think that the best thing for America to do at this point is bomb the Persians, let’s turn our eyes and noses back to Iraq for a moment.

There’s enough rot there to turn the stomach of a blind man devoid of a sense of smell.

Twelve Whiffs Of Failure