It's About 2012

Or so I'm tempted to speculate when I read something like this by Steve M, about the U.S. (i.e., Cheney) backing an al Qaeda-linked organization formerly headed by Khalid Sheikh Muhammed that carries out terrorist attacks in Iran.

In other words, we're backing al Qaeda allies against the country that offered to help us against al Qaeda.

Just add this one to the whole sad inventory of things they've done (and continue to do) that are so recklessly, catastrophically stupid that they defy explanation. An inventory that (I sometimes think) can't be explained by any standard measure of incompetence or corruption or arrogance or even any perfect-storm combination of the three.

And it makes me wonder: are they trying to do this much damage? Have they given up on 2008? Are they committed to simply making life hell for the next (Democratic) president?

Are they banking on 2012?

I ask semi-facetiously...but only semi-. Consider the damage they're doing to executive power. Consider Iraq: Republicans worry about total meltdown if we're still there during the 2008 elections...which Bush has said is a certainty. Leaving the mess for the next folks is a lousy strategy for 2008, but it may not be a bad strategy for 2012.

Whatever their motives, we've got another 22 months of dealing with this madness. All we can hope to do at this point is limit the damage until it's over.

[Cross-posted at If I Ran the Zoo]