Conservative pretzels

I've been reading conservative writers lately and they are twisting themselves into irrational pretzels over Iraq.

Their basic war paradigm is deeply flawed. They look at Iraq and see only us against those who attacked us on 9-11. Their enemy is Al Queida. Neither comports well with reality. The absolutist conservative world view is all black or white, with no shades of grey. They live in an "us vs. them" world. Their victory-or-defeat set of choices leaves no room for diplomacy and their war model is failing them.

Now for the pretzel. There is reason to think we've already lost. There isn't much reason to think we will accomplish much more in that poor country. Conservatives are now blaming the Iraqi people for conditions there. Its close enough to the truth to serve as a moral fig leaf to cover their flaccid policy. They will see a defeat and surrender but they will not call it ours. It will be Iraqi. It'll be just as much a defeat in January '08 as it would be tomorrow. They need more time, however, to confect their puff pastry of shifting responsibility.

I've seen conservatives blame the patient for being sick before. Now they are doing it again.