W in the Desert Quicksand

Check out this excellent new blog:

World in Conflict

It's edited by my old friend Paul deArmond (aka Warbaby), the Bellingham activist who has made a nice little career out of countering right-wing extremists in his neck of the woods with floods of information and well-organized opposition.

Check out especially this post by guest writer Danius Maximus, the pseudonym of a semi-retired political analyst:

Bush in Free Fall

The war in Iraq has proved to be only a temporary and rapidly evaporating help to Bush's political fortunes. The equation of support for war equals support for Bush has already vanished and his standing in the polls is now roughly the same as it was before 9/11. From here on out, Iraq is more likely to generate bad new for Bush than provide support for his presidency. All the same, Bush's political opponents will not benefit from passively waiting for things to get worse.

And Paul chimes in:

The Iraq war is a quagmire that will produce bad news and keep the Bush administration on the defensive indefinitely. Bush may get a bump from occasional good news--the death of Hussein's sons, or maybe, someday, the capture or death of Hussein himself. But the Administration and its supporters are staking too much on the proposition that this would turn the situation around. Indeed, reporter Robert Fisk has argued that the death of Hussein may embolden the opposition to the occupation, since disgruntled Iraqis may conclude that they have little to lose by forcing the Americans out. And make no mistake about it--Iraqis have a good deal to disgruntle them. The persistent sabotage against the power grid and the oil industry is causing relentless suffering and hampering economic recovery, and the Bush Administration has no idea how to solve the problem. There is no reason to believe that attacks on American troops will abate, whether Hussein is dead or alive. The United States clearly does not have an adequate force structure, nor does it have any significant reserves to spare to shore up a deteriorating situation. Equally problematic are administration efforts to recruit other nations to provide troops. The bad news is going to drip drip drip. There is no better in the Iraq situation--there are only varying grades of worse.