What is the American Army doing in Iraq?

The Iraq Study Group or Baker Commission reported its conclusions over a week ago, telling anyone who is interested that the U.S. policy towards Iraq has been a failure on a massive scale, adding that short of a massive new commitment of troops, the war has been lost.

Already, there is speculation that the horror that was once a shiny dossier called variously neoconservatism, pre-emptive strikes, project for a new century, whatever, must now come to an end, at least, for most Americans, with a rapid withdrawal of the U.S. Military and a high-sounding speech by Bush that in translation will read "to hell with Iraq," though for many Iraqis, they already exist in a sort of American-made hell.

There's been a mini-civil war within the Republican Party too, with one side praising James Baker, who served as Secretary of State to the former President George Bush, for steering the report in the direction of a realistic sense of "how do we get out of this mess as quickly as possible?"

The other side of course, threw the usual insults, that Baker was a "surrender monkey," (New York Post), and tantamount to a side-kick of Osama, because he is advocating something short of "total! victory!" Here is what President Bush has done to Iraq, quoting from Mark Danner, a writer who has covered Mess O'Potamia from the start:

'As Iraqis do their shopping or say their prayers they are blown to pieces by suicide bombers. As they drive through the cities in broad daylight they are pulled from their cars by armed men at roadblocks who behead them or shoot them in the back of the neck. As they sit at home at night they are kidnapped by men in police or army uniforms who load them in the trunks of their cars and carry them off to secret places to be tortured and executed, their bound and headless bodies to be found during the following days in fields or dumps or by the roadside. These bodies, examined by United Nations officials in the Baghdad morgue,

often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones (back, hands and legs), missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails.'

Everything that President Bush said would or could be achieved by the Iraq invasion, has in fact had its opposite come true. For example, Iraqis have danced in the streets alright, but they danced most memorably a couple of years ago when a mob tore some American contractors to pieces and then stuck their heads and body parts on sticks. Second example: overthrowing Saddam Hussein was supposed to increase stability in the Middle East and increase U.S. prestige everywhere. Now the entire region is volatile with unleashed fury, and the U.S. military is seen helplessly bogged down.

I can't think of anything else to say, as "told you so" is wearing thin. But in fact, "told you so" is about the only thing worth saying, aside perhaps from "get out now."