(Updated) It's the Iraqis' Fault, Dammit

That dwindling minority of unquestioning supporters of the Iraq war have sought out one fall guy after another as Mission Accomplished has become the Forever War: That cooked pre-war intelligence was the fault of an incompetent CIA. Joe Wilson lied and thousands died. The Democrats have been giving comfort to the enemy. Those treacherous Irani mullahs are to blame. Yada yada yada.

And now that a chickenhawk like Senator Pete Domenici is siddling toward the lifeboats, the gig is truly up despite some modest and temporary gains because of the surge strategy and concomitant offensives against the All Al Qaeda All The Time Insurgency, which suffered a setback today with twin blasts probably set by insurgents who had fled the offensive that killed at least 135 Iraqis.

So, realizing that the political clock is now far outrunning the military clock, the pro-war crowd has turned to the next logical ( and I pray last) bogeyman:

It's all the Iraqis' fault.

There is a certain amount of cred to this because the Iraqis have not been the most ideal occupied population. Like, say, those groveling Japanese after World War II.

But this argument falls on its own bayonet, so to speak, because unlike the Japanese (and Germans and Italians), Iraq did nothing of consequence to provoke a war now slouching into its fifth year.

And while Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki is an improvement over Saddam Hussein, that’s like saying that having one amputated leg is better than having two.

Al-Maliki presides over a government dominated by fellow Shiites that has zero interest in reconciling with the Sunnis. The parliament is paralyzed and even the riches-for-all oil bill is in jeopardy. He has done nothing to alleviate a refugee crisis of staggering proportions that doesn’t get a lot of ink because the MSM is so busy covering suicide bombings and sectarian assassinations.

And like it or not, dearest war sycophants, Al-Maliki is totally the creation of George Walker Bush.

So if you really want the ultimate bad guy, I’ll draw you a map.

Wherever you may be setting out from, it ends at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Photo by Sergeant Tierney Nowland/U.S. Army