His biggest mistake may still be ahead

Bush’s speech crowded its way into the prime time schedule last night, but the mainstream media’s ogling of sports heroism, celebrity feuds, and electronic toys soon returned to normal. Beckham! Rosie! iPhone!

Still, the chattering classes were very busy this morning, back in their own corners of the noosphere, arguing about which way the new way might go.

Leading up to the speech, leaks and briefings foreshadowed a more vigorous game of whack-a-mole with extra players in Baghdad... a muscular new mask for the same old dim-wittedness. But now we see that the new way goes way beyond a simple escalation of American boots, blood, and body count.

Patriot missiles are being deployed. For what? To reassure our regional allies against IED attacks? There’s news of a US raid against the Iranian consulate in Kurdish Iraq, coordinated, perhaps, with belligerent rhetoric by Bush and Rice, and the movement of another carrier group to the Gulf. It all amounts to another brush off of the Iraq Study Groups’s own premises for "The Way Forward" in Iraq... constructive diplomacy with Iran and Syria.

Then there’s that "green light" that will now be shining over the war. Bush doesn’t like having to fight his battles (that is, having other people chase down his demons) with hands tied. This is a President who cherishes freedom, and he wants the freedom to kick ass.

The circumstances are quite unfortunate for the American servicemen and servicewomen who must bear the burden of this folly. It's been terribly unfortunate for the Iraqi people who must suffer the direct consequences, and could be even worse for innocent victims inhabiting whatever target he decides to pop off after next.

The green light and the supernatural voice that Bush claims to hear in his head say "Go," while the voices of American voters and countless experts go unheeded.

No wonder that most people are so easily seduced back to the happy babble of the MSM. It looks like that show they call democracy jumped the shark a long time ago.