The George and Tony Dog n' Pony Show

So I'm scanning through some of the renditions of the joint presser starring the plain talking and likeable George Walker Bush and the clever and witty Anthony Charles Lynton Blair.

Along with the much ballyhooed admissions of error and regret from the principal performers there is the plea for more international support for the new government of Iraq.

OK - I support them.

So what?

What the hydra BushBlair creature is really asking for here is more than that kind of mere "support".

They need money, matériel and manpower. In other words - lend us your armies and don't send us the bill.

Now, only a fool would claim that the preferred outcome of this USUK FUBAR for the international community would be allowing Iraq to become a failed state. By the way, USUK is pronounced "you suck".

However it would also take a fool to claim that the current USUK military and diplomatic leadership would be the optimal implementors of any new or creative strategies with greater likelihoods of achieving better outcomes.

So in light of that I think that the international community has a window of opportunity here. Whether the opportunity will be taken up is not my call but here's how I see it.

Increased international support, ie. increased committment of money, matériel or manpower, must be made contingent on various undertakings by the respective governments of the US and UK.

Bush must fire Rumsfeld and Rice and all their neo-conservative assistants and sycophants immediately. The architects of the disaster have clearly demonstrated that they are incapable of cleaning up their mess. Decisions as to their replacements must be made in some fashion or other that involves neither Bush nor Cheney. Perhaps a bi-partisan panel of congresspersons chosen at random. However it is done the replacements must not be fellow travellers of the architects.

Blair has to let Goldsmith come clean about his pre-war advice as to the legality of the war. Depending of what Goldsmith delivers Blair then has to submit to the will of Parliament as to whether he remains PM or is arrested and put in the dock in The Hague.

Bush himself must stand before the UN General Assembly, with Cheney asleep in a chair beside him, and explain to the world exactly how the tragedy of September 11, 2001 was exploited by the neo-conservative PNAC crowd. And he must ask for forgiveness.

Then we can talk.