all going according to plan in iraq, i'm sure

Our plan for civil war in Iraq, according to our esteemed de facto Defense Secretary:

The plan is to prevent a civil war, and to the extent one were to occur, to have the . . . Iraqi security forces deal with it to the extent they're able to.

That's what Rummy told the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday, when discussing exactly what the hell we plan to do if (IF?) Iraq REALLY gets bad.

Sounds like a bold and confident plan. Rummy & General Abizaid said the key is to form a unified Iraqi government that includes the main Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish groups. That sounds so easy, good luck with that.

Now wasn't it about three years ago that Buckshot Cheney and Rummy and Baby Bush said we'd be greeted as liberators by the Iraqi people? (Heck, they way they were talking, I thought the biggest threat would be the risk that rose petals would jam tank treads and cause our liberator-infantrymen to slip.) Wasn't it over a year ago when Cheney said the insurgency was in its final throes and soon our troops in Iraq could all go to Disney World? Almost three years ago when Baby Bush landed in strutting Tom-Cruise-in-Top-Gun mode on that carrier with the big "Mission Accomplished" sign (which of course the White House had nothing to do with) and declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq? And now our loftiest goal is to hope there isn't a civil war and to rely on Iraqi security forces to deal with it if they can.

Not only have NONE of those predictions (not to mention the prediction that we would find weapons of mass destruction, remember them?) been realized, but now Gen. Abizaid says sectarian violence is an even MORE serious problem than the insurgency. Actually, they are more or less the same thing. Insurgents have been largely Sunni who don't want to live in a Shiite/Kurd dominated Iraq. Sectarian violence is Shiite vs Sunni.

Aren't things just going swimmingly? Three more years.