...is George W. Bush still reading from the Nixon playbook?

One thing you can say for Richard Nixon; at least he didn't start theVietnam War. He just took an impossibly long time to get us out. George W. has no such excuse. He had months to plan. He had a year and a half to gather intelligence. He had an entire wing of the State Department to advise and counsel as to what might happen if we removed Saddam. He had generals, good generals, telling him what US ground forces might expect in the way of resistance. George had the one thing Nixon never had: he had time to evaluate the situation before committing the country to fight.

Interestingly, Nixon's generals told him that victory was just around the corner. All we needed to do was send in more troops (at its height there were 500,000 men in Vietnam), invade Cambodia, put mines in Haiphong harbor, and use saturation bombing (the 1970's version of Shock and Awe). Nixon did it all and still we lost.

George W. Bush is being told by his military commanders (just before he fires them) that victory isn't going to happen... ever.

Nevertheless, on Wednesday of this week, we will be treated to the newest, latest, greatest, can't-miss plan for not losing a war that we never should have started in the first place. I am breathless with anticipation.

As captain of this particular Titanic, President Bush has skillfully navigated the ship of state from one iceberg to the next. In case you haven't been keeping score, allow me to introduce you to the "deck chairs":
Out: Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State (Rumy, you did a hell of a job!)
Out: Army General John Abizaid, Middle East Commander
In: Army Lt General David Petraeus, Commander US forces, Iraq

Moved: Army General George Casey, from Commander US Forces Iraq to Army Chief of Staff. This is apparently Gen. Casey's reward for never mentioning to the emperor that he's naked.

Moved: Zalmay Khalilzad from ambassador to Iraq to ambassador to the United Nations.
Moved: Ryan Crocker from ambassador to Pakistan to ambassador to Iraq (you got to wonder who's wife he got caught sleeping with) .

And, in a move certain to send shock waves throughout the world, Harriet Miers is leaving as White House counsel. You may remember Ms. Miers as the single most bizarre candidate for the Supreme Court since Nixon nominated a guy from the Klan.

Memo to the President: you can change the wallpaper in the cabinet room if you want but it will not solve the problem. Leadership (except for you, Cheney and Rumsfeld) was never the problem. The problem is that, in your own lovable, blockheaded, arrogant way you ignored anyone who happened to mentioned that invading Iraq was a terrible idea. Sometime during the glorious days following your election, you forgot that you know nothing about the world beyond the Skull and Bones secret headquarters.

Mr. President, as long as you are following in the path of Dick Nixon, why not do what he did... declare that our work here is done...pull the troops out...then resign