Today's Doonesbury Link

Cartoonist Mike Doonesbury continues providing anti-Bush messages from GOP voices in an effort to swing undecided voters. Today's link is to a letter in the Lincoln Journal Star from GOP law-maker Doug Bereuter, who will step down from Congress after 26 years. You can almost feel how painful it is for him to admit this:

"I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake to launch that military action, especially without a broad and engaged international coalition. The cost in casualties is already large and growing, and the immediate and long-term financial costs are incredible. Our country's reputation around the world has never been lower and our alliances are weakened. From the beginning of the conflict it was doubtful that we for long would be seen as liberators, but instead increasingly as an occupying force. Now we are immersed in a dangerous, costly mess and there is no easy and quick way to end our responsibilities in Iraq without creating bigger future problems in the region and, in general, in the Muslim world."

Juan Cole puts the same conclusion in much starker terms today:

Bush has never even talked about having US forces leave altogether when security returns... Bush is a risk-taker in the high stakes game of global blackjack. His recklessness and aggressiveness could well turn the eastern marches of the Middle East into an active chain of political volcanoes.