Giving Max The Boot

Conservative war cheerleader Max Boot, a model of veracity, penned this drivel in an Op-Ed column appearing in today’s New York Times (the subject was whether or not we ingrate Americans should be complaining about the proposed recess by the Iraqi parliament)…

The United States needs to keep pressing for important bills — especially laws on sharing oil revenue, de-Baathification and provincial elections — to be passed as part of a broader reconciliation process. The failure of Iraqi politicians to make more progress is frustrating.

OK, now what exactly is going on with “de-Baathification” here? Can anyone tell me? Does that mean that we’ve given up on the Sunnis? Then what is the point of the Petraeus strategy of “embedding” our people in Iraq? Wasn’t that supposed to help the Sunnis primarily? Wasn’t that supposed to be the main reason for “the surge”?

But we shouldn’t kid ourselves that even in the unlikely event that all these bills are approved by September, they will mark a turning point in the war. At best they will give Gen. David H. Petraeus and President Bush some signs of progress they can point to in arguing for more patience from the American public to give the “surge” a chance to work.

“Arguing for more patience”? This war has already dragged on longer than World War II with no end in sight!

The problem isn’t that we’re impatient. The problem is that we’ve been too patient with the limitless failures of Bushco's conduct of the war!

This is not meant to be an excuse for Iraqi politicians, who should be doing more to end the violence ripping their country apart. But our politicians, who are reduced to quivering piles of Jell-O by the threat of falling opinion polls, aren’t in the best position to point fingers at Iraqi politicians who perform their duties under constant threat of death.

And oh yeah, Max, about those polls…

Some have argued that it’s far more important for the Iraqis to meet, because they’re in the middle of a war. But lest we forget, there are American men and women fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq right now. We’re in the middle of a war, too.

No, Max. They’re in the middle of a war, not you.

(And I don’t really have to point out whether or not Boot actually served, do I?).