Yes Virginia, spin does travel at 360°

Yesterday, Matt Yglesias blogged about a Fox News Sunday interview with O'Hanlon and Pollack. In case you don't attend to the daily political minutiae, O'Hanlon and Pollack recently returned from Iraq and declared that we'll need more time (at least another Friedman unit) to see the full fruit of the Iraq surge. Subsequently, Glenn Greenwald reminded everyone that O'Hanlon, has been wrong about everything probably since birth:

Chris Wallace, journalistic instincts perking up at the sight of a newsworthy coup proposal asks "When you say a different government, meaning ousting Maliki and putting another man in?" Pollack, because he's a smart guy recognizes that this is a bad idea and says he "wouldn't necessarily suggest that the United States try to oust anyone" since, after all, "Our experience of ousting foreign leaders has been a very bad one." At this point, however, he proceeds to suggest ousting Maliki.

But I think what we could do is go to the Iraqis and say, "Look, you're planning to have national elections in 2009. This government is deadlocked. It can't do it. You need to move those national level elections up and get a new parliament, hopefully one that actually can produce real results."

Will we be giving the Iraqi electorate explicit instructions on who they're supposed to vote for in these elections?

They tiptoe around the issue of course. The only type of government that can keep Iraq together is an iron-fisted, unaffiliated, strong-willed, decisive, paranoid, and bloodthirsty regime. Reminds me of *gasp* Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath Party. Given how iron-fisted, unaffiliated, strong-willed, decisive, paranoid, and bloodthirsty the neoconservative ilk has been here in the states, it's a wonder that the Iraq occupation has been such a spectacular failure.

Also, NPR reported that the Brits are under siege in Basra. The host reported that tribal militias have taken over the city and the killing. Within the same breath and without hint of irony, the host reported that the Brits believe they are handing over control to Iraqi security forces.