Mencken-esque

"Nobody ever went broke," observed the journalist H.L. Mencken, "underestimating the intelligence of the American public." Perhaps it is this piece of wisdom that John McCain and other Republicans have in mind as they insist that President Bush's surge tactic in Iraq has been successful and that now "We're winning!" By convincing the American public that we are indeed winning the war in Iraq, McCain and his pals hope to win the presidency this fall.

Granted, there has been a drop in the overall level of violence in Iraq in the past few months. Increased security due to the surge may in part account for this. A more significant factor is our paying eighty-thousand Sunni insurgents three-hundred dollars a month each not to kill us. Also part of the deal is that we get these men jobs in the Iraq army or police forces. That the predominately-Shiite government is balking at embracing these traditional enemies makes it not only possible but probable that sometime soon they will return to their old ways, then the violence will spike up again. In other words the decrease in violence is most likely just a lull in the violence -- the calm at the eye of the bloody storm.

We're winning? Just a few days ago Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki welcomed with open arms Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad --one of the "axis of evil" sort to whom Bush refuses to speak. That the Shiite government in Iraq is on very friendly terms with Iran and will be heavily influence by Iran in the future is without doubt. So it is for this that we've sacrificed four thousand lives (and counting) and half a trillion dollars (and counting)? An Iraq that's essentially a satellite state, not of the U.S. (only in Dick Cheney's dreams . . .), but of Iran?

John McCain has always relished his reputation as a "rebel." If he sincerely believes we are now winning the war in Iraq he's a rebel all right -- a rebel without a clue. Let's hope the American public is not so clueless come November.