His position on Iraq has too changed, and that drastically. His first vision that got him any traction atall and about which he could not be caught lying particularly was to make a model democracy to serve the Middle East as a role-model for democracy.

Now he just wants to hand off the mess to the locals as soon as he can do so with any sort of dignity, at which point he will declare victory.

He originally believed, foolishly and despite wise advice to the contrary, that uncorking the highly polarized and tribal environment of Iraq and handing them democracy on a silver subcontract would be relatively straightforward as soon as Saddam fell. He had no concept of the ground truth of the region, their long-standing internecine hatreds and their cultural differences. He thought it was just a military problem, and he didn't even handle the military part of it well. Except for the turkey.

A