Ralph Nader Intends to Blow Up the Moon with Republican Support

One thing that astonishes about Democratic partisans out in Netrootsia is just how thoroughly unexamined are their assumptions about what The Meshiach is going to do when the good lord delivers him--or, increasingly unlikely, her--unto Washington. "But Obama is going to end the war," someone said to me just the other night, face alight and bosoms aflutter, as if this nutty assertion was going to alter the Good Ship Abstention from its set course, which is neither into nor out of the doldrums.

"No he isn't," I replied flatly, and I found that my friend was totally unable to formulate a response--could not muster any evidence that this would in fact be the case, because there is no such evidence. The belief that Obama is going to end the war is as crazy an article of faith as the conviction among certain types that John McCain is going to win it. How will Barack Obama end the war? And if the answer is anything other than, "Upon assuming office, he will immediately begin the complete withdrawal of all American military forces, ordering an orderly withdrawal of all personnel and as much materiel as can be effectively salavaged, ceasing any and all interference in Iraqi internal affairs, engaging in no military action except the direct protection of departing soldiers and civilians, to be completed with no residual presence in-country by a date no more than three months distant," then, kids, I've got to tell you, he's not going to end the war.

What, instead, "ending the war" seems to mean is that a Democratic president by virtue of not being George W. Bush is going to effectuate precisely the sort of "reconciliation" that we are all being endlessly told is the necessary precondition to leaving. This is rarely stated outright, but always implied. Democrats are going to "use diplomacy". Words on the wind. It is a euphemism for the incredible notion that the United States is going to catalyze a negotiated settlement among grievants in Iraq that returns the territory to something resembling its pre-Invasion equilibrium, but Now With More Democracy! In case no one has noticed, the Turks have invaded Iraqi Kurdistan, the Iraqi Kurds are about to have a civil war (as well as expel the Arabs from Kirkuk), and among Arab factions--well, who the fuck even knows? Proportional representation and factional power-sharing is not the goddamned answer. Just look at the fucking Balkans!

Because no Democrat can accept a.) that Iraq as a national entity is thoroughly fucked, and b.) that Iraq is going to remain fucked during and well after our departure, no Democrat can end the Occupation. And that assumes that elected Democrats want to end it, which is itself a highly dubious proposition. Meanwhile, you can expect these very same Donk boosters to start clamoring that we "do something" about Sudan as soon as they have their hands back on the lever.