Betting on Inside Straights...

Without an insurmountable catastrophe (like a nuclear or biological bomb directly attributable to our aggressive posture), are the Democratic elite going to still be whining about neocons, the Iraq War, the Afghan quagmire, and diplomatic in transience in 2008. It will look rather silly at that point. The most likely way for this President to fail is for him to quit – how likely is that?

Let’s look at some trend lines:

• The Iraq War will be over
• Afghanistan will not be controlled by drug cartels
• Syria and Iran will, at worst, be neutralized
• Hamas and Hezbollah will be decimated
• We will have military bases centrally located in ‘gap countries’
• Iraq will be aggravating our trade gap (not just Japan and China)
• Iran will have to expend serious resources to avoid economic, diplomatic, and military envelopment
• Iraq will balance the economic ‘power’ of Saudi Arabia and Iran

Again, the dominoes are falling. The most likely way to lose is to quit. I don’t think Bush will fold a winning hand. The Libs had better start preparing a battlefield defined by whatever winning cards they continue to hold. They have to stop betting in inside straights.