Mr. Bush Can't Lose

George Bush never ceases to amaze.  Being the most irrelevant and least popular President in living memory is clearly not enough for this admirable polymath; he's now become the first person in history to genuinely provably exist at 180 degrees to reality.  What else can one conclude from this gem: after months of praising himself and his buddies for reducing violence in Iraq, he's now praising himself and his buddies for increasing violence in Iraq.

“It was a very positive moment in the development of a sovereign nation that is willing to take on elements that believe they are beyond the law,”

After all, there's nothing that speaks louder of a strong, united democracy than its ability to start a civil war.

On the subject of the British troops still sitting at the airport with their collective thumbs up their arses waiting for Mr. Brown to do the decent thing (don't hold your breath, lads), the Decider has these words of comfort:

Mr Bush said that the pullback had been “based upon success” in quelling violence

Yes, our success in quelling violence has created the room for a successful transition to violence.  Meretricious, George!  Even better, the British strategy of pullback and pullout as soon as decently possible has created the perfect conditions for our own surge right back into Basra!:

"Three big militias are currently engaged in a particularly bloody battle in southern Iraq.

"U.S. and Iraqi forces are involved in a huge operation to attack an Al-Qaeda stronghold in Mosul.

"But after that, the plan is to turn the coalition's attention on to Basra and we will be urging the British to surge into the city."

So, to sum up, the Blairwatch understanding of things is:

Some Iraqis (A), acting entirely on their own after a visit from Dick Cheney have offensively gone on the defensive by sending thousands of troops against some other Iraqis (B) who are viciously staying exactly where they have been for months under a ceasefire.  Iraqis A, deeply unpopular in their own country, backed by the even more unpopular US military machine and whose political origins lie mainly with Iran, are going to reduce malevolent Iranian influence and strengthen Iraqi democracy by destroying Iraqis B, a nationalist resistance movement led by a hugely popular home-grown avowedly anti-Saddam, anti-Iranian, pro-Iraqi figurehead.  This policy will if necessary be supported by a significant surge in troops from a key ally that doesn't actually have any troops to send and won't send any of the ones it does have in a million years.

You've got to hand it to Dubya, when it comes to taking the biscuit he goes right out there and buys the McVities factory.