the lives of the Iraqis, both those who have them, and those who are losing them, have become irrelevant to the politicians in the US, Britain, and here. The lives that are important are their political lives, even more important than those of their own citizens who are putting theirs on the line, and losing them, as they try to find a victory, or perhaps a "peace with honour" like they tried to find in Vietnam. As happened in Vietnam, I believe Bush and Co. have gotten themselves into a situation where abandoning the war and continuing it are as bad as each other when it comes to choices. Perhaps if Bush can hang on and pass the problem to the next President, history won't judge him as badly as it should, much the same as LBJ handed the problem to Nixon, and Bush will be able to justify to himself the decisions he took to go into Iraq as being right. The real reason the US death toll in Vietnam went from a couple of hundred to 50,000 was that LBJ considered it political suicide to pull out in 1965. The so-called fight against communism became secondary to holding onto office in the US. The same scenario is being played out in Iraq now.
