Saturday, September 08, 2007

It's 16 Months Until The Next President Takes Office

Yglesias:

In both political and policy terms, I think all of the candidates should consider that in the real world they need not Iraq policies that will make sense in the fall of 2007, but Iraq policies that will make sense in January 2009 after over a year of additional political stalemate in Iraq, continued bloodshed and refugee flows, and continued deterioration of the readiness of the American military.


In more general terms, the stark inability of Democrats to think 6 or 12 months ahead on the issue has been revolting. Waiting for the ponies, or president Bush to come around, or the ISG to save the universe, or sensible Republicans to do the right thing has always been their strategy. But should have always assumed the obvious, that 6 or 12 months from now there would be no ponies, no sensible Republicans, and no wise old men of Washington to save the day. September is here, nothing will change... and these people appear to actually be surprised by this.

As for the presidential candidates, 16 months from now the US death toll will likely stand at just about 5000. Billions more will have been wasted. Still there will be no sensible Republicans, no ponies, no wise old men of Washington, etc.

Oh, and there will be lots more dead, maimed, and displaced Iraqis.