In my perception, Iraq war for folks living here in Whitman Land, has become another kind of background noise[1] even though it has now been going on for longer than three years. Ok, let me be more generous and say that, at the very most, it has become a bumper sticker with two tropes that I see here: "support our troops" or "war is not the answer". And only as this background noise has grown louder in the recent months - I guess loud enough to disturb the dreaming (for example, about those gaint flat screen TVs to be had for under $1000 at Wal-Mart) of citizens - did we see some political fallout and feedback.

So counter this, GWB is running around like a headless chicken. For example, he will be meeting the Iraqi PM Maliki in Jordan (cos' that Baghdad-ian Green Zone is too damn hot for a sitting president to visit) to discuss something, as well as to practise the art of soul gazing (GWB should patent this, and sell license rights to other world leaders):

"These critics say, in effect, that the 56-year-old Iraqi leader has failed, so far, to meet the test set by Mr. Bush when the two men met for the first time in Baghdad in June. At that meeting, the American leader told Mr. Maliki he had come to “look you in the eye” and determine if America had a reliable partner here."

• from a NYT article today: "Deeper Crisis, Less U.S. Sway in Iraq"

I wonder what would GWB find this time around when he looks Maliki "in the eye"? What will he do if Maliki insists on wearing Ray Bans to the meeting? Guesses anyone?

[1] Do I sound cynical? Do I? Some of my Republican friends argue that I am blind to fact that the United States went into Iraq to save those ungreatful Iraqis just as it did with those French traitors. Yes sir, we always go to save dem savages from themselves. But they also say that since Iraqis have shown themselves to be ungreatful, United States should leave, and let them all rot in hell. I tell them to take responsility of breaking and bungling in Iraq, and now send it half a million troops with a trillion dollars or two to fix it, if they can.