When all else fails, time for a Photo Op

The just-released GAO report on Iraq concluded that “Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report.”

Meanwhile, from the Iraqi government indicates that “Bombings, sectarian slayings and other violence related to the war killed at least 1,773 Iraqi civilians in August, the second month in a row that civilian deaths have risen, according to government figures obtained Friday.”

Not one, but two British Generals involved in the Iraq invasion have gone public with the fact that Bush’s Secretary of Defense initially in charge of the Iraq clusterfuck, Donald Rumsfeld, was a complete fucking incompetent:

Maj. Gen. Tim Cross, the most senior British officer involved in postwar planning, said he had raised serious concerns about the possibility of Iraq falling into chaos but that they were dismissed by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

“Right from the very beginning we were all very concerned about the lack of detail that had gone into the postwar plan, and there is no doubt that Rumsfeld was at the heart of that process,” Cross said in the Sunday Mirror.

The comments come a day after the release of critical comments from the general who led the British army during the invasion.

Retired Gen. Mike Jackson also singled out Rumsfeld for criticism, saying his approach to the invasion was “intellectually bankrupt,” according to excerpts from his autobiography published Saturday by the Daily Telegraph.

So, obviously, it is time for Bush to stage a Photo Op:

President Bush made a surprise visit to this isolated and well fortified air field in Anbar province Monday to meet with top U.S. and Iraqi officials and to showcase what he calls one of the successes of his decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Iraq.

You see, because sneaking into an “isolated and well fortified” base proves that teh Surge is working. Besides, just look at all Bush’s “heckuva job, Brownie,” Photo Op did for New Orleans.

Meanwhile, the British had their own “Mission Accomplished” moment in Iraq:

Earlier, British troops quit the Iraqi city of Basra, leaving the southern oil hub without British forces for the first time since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The withdrawal from the Basra Palace complex, under daily mortar and rocket fire by Shi’ite militias, is a step towards handing over Basra province to Iraqi control and an eventual British pullout from Iraq.

Even as our only substantial ally leaves Iraq, Bush poses for photos, waiting to leave office and to leave our next President holding the festering, fecaloid shambles of his Iraq misadventure.

UPDATE: Proving his utter disingenuousness once again, Bush hints that a troop reduction is possible if “the kind of success we are seeing continues,” whateverthefuck he means by “kind of success” in the context of the Grade AAA clusterfuck that is Iraq.

Bush doesn’t have any choice in the matter — General Pace has already gone on record stating that we cannot maintain the current force level in Iraq without severely compromising our military’s ability to protect our nation from other threats.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is expected to advise President Bush to reduce the U.S. force in Iraq next year by almost half, potentially creating a rift with top White House officials and other military commanders over the course of the war.

Administration and military officials say Marine Gen. Peter Pace is likely to convey concerns by the Joint Chiefs that keeping well in excess of 100,000 troops in Iraq through 2008 will severely strain the military. This assessment could collide with one being prepared by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, calling for the U.S. to maintain higher troop levels for 2008 and beyond.

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According to administration and military officials, the Joint Chiefs believe it is of crucial strategic importance to reduce the size of the U.S. force in Iraq in order to bolster the military’s ability to respond to other threats, a view that is shared by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

Bush is going to be forced to reduce troop levels next year, or finally accomplish the wrecking of our badly overstretched military. His comments today serve two purposes: it’s a carrot to the American people, rhetoric to garner support for a continuation of the current escalation for as long as it can be maintained; and also an attempt to lay the groundwork for the narrative, a fictional one in the absence of any change in the failed political outcome in Iraq, that Bush’s escalation was somehow a success.

The next trick for BushCo and the Neocons will be to attempt to sell the story that Bush’s “success” was somehow turned to failure by our next President.