The President’s Iraq war is lost.

...

Every one of the proposals coming from outside the real Administration starts from the assumption that its policy has failed. ... [B]etween the President’s resolve to persist in folly and the public’s instinct to be rid of Iraq there is a range of choices that could prevent the disaster from inflicting permanent damage on American interests. This kind of clear, rational thought is less heartless -- even, in the end, less defeatist -- than willful blindness.

That would make a great Democrat bumper sticker, wouldn't it? "Clinton '08: Less heartless than willful blindess"

On a related note, over the weekend I ran across Joan Didion's Political Fictions, which I now see was listed as one of Amazon.com's Best of 2001. It caught my eye after having read her most recent NYRB piece on Cheney.

Alternative Realities | George Packer in The New Yorker