like a patient etherized upon the table

daily kos

A lot of Very Important People keep telling me that I have to continue being patient with the Iraq war. People like the President of the United States:

March: Bush Pleads for Patience in Iraq War

May: Bush Urges Patience on Iraq

June: Bush urges patience on Iraq

July: War In Year 5; Bush Requests Patience

August: Bush pleads for more patience for Iraq war efforts

September: Iraqi civilian deaths up, Bush urges patience

Contrary to what the frequently-wrong media pundits say, I (and, I'm willing to bet, you) do understand the gravity of the situation in Iraq. It's the mother of all messes. One of the worst blunders our country has ever made. It's just a big ball of bad and there's no way to get around it. If we stay it's bad and if we leave it's bad. The word of the day, the week, the month, the year and the decade is: "Bad."

And here we are, four and a half bad years after we strolled into Baghdad with our picnic baskets and Starbucks franchise leases, being asked to be patient just a little while longer because we're this close to going from "baddest" to "badder" on the scale of bad. Fine. I'm a reasonable man and perfectly capable of being patient. I've even heard it's a virtue.

But I want something in return. I want the nincompoops who orchestrated this farce in a massive rush of non-patience to excuse themselves from the public stage. That includes the president, the vice president and the secretary of state. They need to resign, find a nice rocking chair far away from D.C., and never be heard from again.

It includes the neocons and their think-tank buddies who continue to flap their gums about how awesome the Iraq war is going and wouldn’t it be swell to bring the same kind of awesomeness to Iran NOW NOW NOW!!!

It includes the journalists who helped beat the drums of war by "catapulting the propaganda" and advancing the official White House narrative. And it includes the members of the House and Senate who believe that buying "five rugs for five bucks" at an Iraqi marketplace surrounded by armed guards and attack helicopters is all the proof I should need that things are going swell, so sit down, shut up and be patient.