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Neocon architect says: 'Pull it down' (emphasis mine):

NEOCONSERVATISM has failed the United States and needs to be replaced by a more realistic foreign policy agenda, according to one of its prime architects.

Francis Fukuyama, who wrote the best-selling book The End of History and was a member of the neoconservative project, now says that, both as a political symbol and a body of thought, it has 'evolved into something I can no longer support'. He says it should be discarded on to history's pile of discredited ideologies.

In an extract from his forthcoming book, America at the Crossroads, Mr Fukuyama declares that the doctrine 'is now in shambles' and that its failure has demonstrated 'the danger of good intentions carried to extremes'.

We have some wonderful parting gifts for you.

"By definition, outsiders can't 'impose' democracy on a country that doesn't want it; demand for democracy and reform must be domestic. Democracy promotion is therefore a long-term and opportunistic process that has to await the gradual ripening of political and economic conditions to be effective."

Read the whole article. Fukuyama has his Emily Litella moment: "never-mind" after 2,287 deaths of Americans, and countless (literally, since we refuse to count them) Iraqis (both innocent and not so much, but honestly, who could blame them... we did after all invade their country) in pursuit of the neocon vision of utopia, one of their preeminent architects now proclaims it maybe wasn't such a good idea after all.

Of course, we'll really never know, because Dick, Dubya and Rummy are such abject incompetents, not to mention devoid of any moral compass or concern for the nation that so many gave their lives to preserve.

I wonder when Rush and Hannity will start labelling Fukuyama a "liberal", now that he is calling the whole thing a farcical mistake.

Too bad it was a mistake of global proportions. Too bad that it may have been a mistake that could take decades to repair. Too bad it has cost us not only the precious lives of 2,287 (and counting) of our brave soldiers (and an order of magnitude more with shattered or lost limbs), but roughly $400 billion (with-a-$%#@!-B) and counting that could have been put to better use.

Let's hear from an embedded journalist (emphasis mine):

While there may have been some flaws in the Marines' execution of orders, the fundamental flaw lies in the orders themselves and in the planning for their execution. The architects, the strategists, and the tacticians of the US endeavor in Iraq have handed US troops a catalogue of Sisyphean tasks - install a democracy; help restore infrastructure (and protect it); build an Army and security apparatus from scraps and dregs; crush a disparate horde of mostly invisible enemies. Add to this the burden of force protection, steps troops must take to guard themselves and their bases against attacks. The 20-somethings of the Army and the Marine Corps (and their older counterparts in the Reserves and the Guard) are neither trained nor equipped to tackle all of this. Finally, throw on top of this pile the instability that transitions between US units inevitabily causes and you have a recipe for continuing disaster.

The Administration's response to this reality is to prematurely offload responsibility for Iraq's fate on the nascent and shaky government and on the incipient Iraqi Army, which relies on the US for everything - food, weapons, vehicles, training, command and control, air and heavy-weapon support.

"[I]t will be up to the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people to seize the opportunity they have right now and to allow their people to have jobs and a future that would tell their people that the insurgency offers nothing and that the new government is the way ahead," JCS Chairman General Pace told reporters at a February 21 news conference. Would that the "opportunity" the general describes actually existed.

Arianna has more (emphasis mine):

I was originally going to title this post "Jack Murtha's Crystal Ball." After all, he's been saying for weeks that "Iraq is not about terrorism; it's about civil war" -- and the bloody events of the last two days have proven his assessment all too true.

But Murtha isn't a soothsayer.

He's a truthteller. He wasn't reading the political tea leaves, he was reading the facts on the ground (and listening to what his wide range of military sources were telling him).

He was willing to see the inevitable -- unlike far too many of his fellow Democrats who continue to be blinded by the fear of not appearing strong on defense, and unlike President Bush who continues to be blinded by his fanatical belief that we're bringing democracy to Iraq. True, it's Fanatical Belief 4.0, since the earlier versions didn't pan out, but it's a fanatical belief nonetheless.

Mark Twain said: "What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure that just ain't so."

This describes Bush to a T. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he knows for sure that we're bringing democracy to Iraq.

After meeting with his Cabinet today, Bush was asked about "the danger of civil war in Iraq" but refused to even address the notion, insisting "the Iraqi people want to live in a democracy."

Preznit Doofus Dowrong really is the Emperor with No Clothes... his aides are deathly afraid to tell him anything that might not fit into his fantasy world-view just as they were afraid to tell him that the situation in New Orleans was beyond f***ed up. The same applies to Dead-eye Dick (who still, to this day, maintains that the insurgency is in its last throes):

Q You drew a lot of heat and ridicule when you said eight months ago, the insurgency is in its last throes. Do you regret having said that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I think the way I think about it is as I just described. I think about when we look back and get some historical perspective on this period, I'll believe that the period we were in through 2005 was, in fact, a turning point; that putting in place a democratic government in Iraq was the -- sort of the cornerstone, if you will, of victory against the insurgents.

Seriously, you can't make this sh*t up. I think he actually believes that things are getting better in Iraq. Either that, or the cocktail of drugs that his physicians have him taking for his ticker have some sort of psychotropic effect that leaves him in a permanent state of hallucination.

Finally, we have Wreckless Rummy (who maintains to this day that the Iraqi military and police are improving their ability to assume more responsibility when all evidence points to the contrary).

These treasonous war criminals may well be acting on the best of intentions, as their apologists would have us believe. But, as we all know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Welcome to hell.