Stitches

The British stand down, and actual departure, from Basra and the southern rump of Iraq means no one friendly to America's military mission is sitting on that mission's several hundred miles of supply lines running up from Kuwait.

If the Shiite militias want those supply routes cut off and shut off, they can do it any day they choose. That would necessitate either an immediate American re-invasion of the south, or a fighting retreat in the direction of,  umm,  somewhere besides Iraq.  Quick.

There are indications that Cheney and Commander Guy plan to send a few thousand more American troops into the Basra region this fall, as the British bug out, rather than let it go native. They will be sending several of the same imaginary divisions that were sent east to Stalingrad in '43, but did not arrive. They are still rested and available, therefore.

Just in time, too, because of the disastrous condition of the American fighting machine over there. Especially the boot-wearing cogs in the machine. Our men and equipment are well beyond worn out, and running on momentum at this point.

Staying on your feet, and staying in the ring is not the same thing as fighting. This isn't Round One, when all things were possible, when there was a light at the end of the tunnel. If there was a referee for this lollapalooza, this fight would be over.

It's getting harder to sew things up back home as well.

I am actually looking forward to September, when the de facto schism in the Democratic Party between the DLC/Blue Dog fifth columnists and the progressive Left of the party hits the point of very public and irreconcilable differences.

That point will arrive as the Blue Dogs make it plain that they will vote with the GOP to give Bush whatever further funding he wants, AND to continue Da Surge into the spring, AND to expand the American presence into southern Iraq, AND to raise the Federal debt ceiling (what, again?), AND to lower corporate taxes some more.

AND anything else Karl Rove adds to his shopping cart between now and then, since he can get anything he wants from the Democratic Party by saying, "BOOOO!"

In their usual attempt order to hold the Party together, Nancy and Harry will advise everyone to follow the Blue Dogs in their rightward fealty, which will completely enrage -- and thoroughly disaffect -- the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," as the late Senator Wellstone so succinctly put it.

The fireworks alone should be spectacular. The "et tu" speeches as the knives come out will be heartrending.

If the Democratic Party shifts leftward, and runs on the progressive platform the country is screaming for, it will attract an overwhelming majority of Americans, and it will get the landslide it is hoping for in 2008. The core of that platform is to get out of Iraq with no strings, and no lingering. No "Korean Model."

Alternatively, if the Democrats somehow manage to hold the current GOP-Lite coalition together through next year, they will limp all the way to November of 2008 only to discover that their base, and the Independents they are so counting on, will stay home in droves, vote Green, write in their dog's name, or spend Election Day repeatedly voting for Jack Daniels rather than vote GOP-Lite yet again.

Something's got to give, because it is dawning on most Democrats and Independents that -- the way things are headed -- whomsoever the shiny, new Democratic President is in 2009, they will be continuing the Iraq Occupation for many long years to come.

The nation's enthusiasm for that is right up there with plague, drought, and locusts. How do you go in the voting booth and pull the lever for that? How do you do that to yourself, to your kids, to your country?

The time is ripe for abrupt changes. So many stitches have not been taken in time.