An impeachable offense is whatever Congress decides it is. Certainly the impeachment of Clinton proved that. Congress could impeach if it wanted to. It just doesn't want to. Too many powerful corporations are getting rich off this little escapade and, as Little Hawk points out, both parties are beholden to them.

As far as the surge working, we already know that millions have fled that country which certainly cuts down on casualties and we know that Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed to have the Mahdi army stand down for a while. The Sunnis are getting arms from the US now so they don't want to upset that and al-Qaeda's presence was always an exaggeration. And the army admits it kind fudges numbers when it calculates the death toll (not to mention that "contractor" are never counted).

What this means is that al-Sadr has been promised Iraq and it will be his as soon as we leave. There is no other reason he would agree to stand his army down. As we can see, they were the primary insurgents in this whole thing. We were not fighting al-Qaeda, we were fighting the Shiites--the very people we put in power.

The deal is this: the US has told all the parties to give us time to convince the American people that the surge has worked so that the US can declare victory and get out. We will be leaving by election time, folks. We're out of people--we just can't stay. Not only are we running out of soldiers but Blackwater is history and this war cannot continue without them. So the administration is swinging deals to give us time to get out in a way that we don't lose too much face.

So al-Sadr has bought into that. Why not sit back and wait for the Americans to leave? Al-Maliki wants us gone because he is furious that we armed the Sunnis. Probably the ONLY group that doesn't want us gone are the Sunnis. We're a big screen for them to hide behind now. But now they have plenty of American arms to carry on the conflict after we're gone.

So that is how it will shake out. Iraq will fall into al-Sadr's hands and the Republican party will crow about having achieved the objective. Whether the public buys it or not remains to be seen. After all, this war was never about al-Sadr or al-Qaeda or the Sunnis--it was about Saddam's non-existent WMD and Iraq's non-existent ties to al-Qaeda that we were told was such an urgent matter that Iraq had to be invaded right now at this moment. And, of course, bin-Laden is as elusive as ever.

The idea that we liberated Iraqis (whom the majority of Americans feel only the deepest hatred and contempt for) would be laughable were the whole thing not so tragic.

But anyway, expect the press (that liberal press that never reports about all the GOOD things in Iraq--remember that?) to play up on this "the surge is working" crap for the next few months. It's necessary in order for a victory to be declared so that we may then cut & run because we have discovered that Humpty-Dumpty doesn't go back together very well no matter how much money and lives you waste trying to achieve it.

The Brits know it and that is why they left. The same goes for the Japanese and the Italians and the Dutch and everyone else. It's funny, a few weeks ago I read about Iraqi refugees returning to Iraq because they are out of money and cannot find work. One Iraqi girl likened it to returning to death row. NOW I'm reading that Iraqis are returning because the streets are safe!!! Funny too how the surge is working while at the same time 2007 has been the most deadly year for American soldiers yet. And if Iraq is now so secure why is the Bush admiinistration is begging Congress on the sly for another $23 billion for "security."

In the end, I don't care. Let's just get out. Declare your little victory and get our people out of there.