Because it's always someone else's fault.

With the Putz and the rest of the Bushies like Austin Bay, Iraq is always someone else's fault. Always. Never the Great Leader's. Never Don Rumsfeld's or Dick Cheney's. Never the inherent screwed-upness of the mission itself.

No, it's the fault of the Democrats, the media...now it's our elections.

COMPETING CLOCKS ON IRAQ: "the military clock in Baghdad, the Iraqi government clock, and the US political clock in Washington." Biggest strategic bind: "the U.S. political cycle."

We've been taking casualties in Iraq longer than we did in World War I, World War II and Korea. But it's our "political cycle" that will keep us from achieving the Great Victory.

Mmm-hmm.