“In the slow blink of a blind eye”

Over at All Spin Zone, Daniel DiRito sums up the bad news:

In the slow blink of a blind eye, we are now being told that al Qaeda has fully reconstituted itself to a level similar to that before 9/11.

It has been 2,130 days since al Qaeda attacked the U.S. World War II lasted 1,365 days, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to Japan's signing of the instrument of surrender on board the USS Missouri. Five years and ten months after 9/11, the outlaw organization that attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is as strong as ever. The same can not be said of the United States.
So what to do? The neocons who got us into this mess think the answer is to attack Iran, a strategy aptly described by Atrios:

I'm probably not the only person who has played a game of Risk with someone who, when losing, decided the best course of action was to just give the board a good whack and scatter the pieces.

In other words, their way to deal with the chaos in which we find ourselves is to create more chaos. With our troops stretched by deployments in Afghanistan (pop. 32 million) and Iraq (pop. 27 million), the best these folks can think of is to attack another, larger country: Iran (pop. 70 million). Why are they taken seriously?
As for Iraq, why are we there? Jim Henley of Unqualified Offerings sums up the rationale for staying the course:

But you’ve got to love the idea of “force protection” as a main mission. The US military could stay in Iraq for the purpose of trying to keep its members from being killed for being in Iraq. There’s a stirring cause. I know a much more effective “force protection” plan, which I call “get the hell out.”

Instead of simply watching in horror as the Iraq misadventure goes from bad to worse, I suggest joining the growing chorus of voices calling for withdrawal. A group called Americans Against Escalation in Iraq is organizing here in Delaware to convince Congressman Mike Castle that the time has come to call an end to this misbegotten war that has cost thousands of lives, billions of dollars, and failed to make us safer. The group's Delaware organizers will be delivering a letter to Mike Castle today, and are asking people to join the effort by calling or faxing his office at 302 428-1902 or (fax) 302 428-1950. Republicans in Congress are increasingly turning against the war; maybe we can convince our congressman to do the same.