Mr. Sullivan goes on: "So what would be the feasible conditions for withdrawal? I see none. Even if we were to "win," as in Afghanistan in the 1980s, Cheney sees that as a reason to stay. If there is any chance of "losing," we also have to stay. The same logic applies to Pakistan were Musharraf to fall. And Saudi Arabia if that autocracy were to collapse. If the criterion is now space for Islamist terrorists to return, then we don't so much have mission creep as mission explosion. We're talking empire here - for ever. At least that's the logical conclusion of Cheney's control-fixation. And, of course, as these occupations create more terrorists, Cheney uses that as more reason to keep fighting. There is no end to this strategy - just permanent war, occupation and terror."

Moreover, Sullivan points out that all the extensions of executive power and privilege undertaken by this Administration, the marginalization of Congress, the stacking of the courts with like-minded authoritarian-minded judges, and the complete trivialization of checks and balances--- all this is intended to enable us to fight this Forever War under a grand war leader. This theory has been promoted as "the unitary executive," as I pointed out in a much earlier article here on RK, 16 January 2006, called "The Unitary Executive: King John Triumphant" 

What we have here, in other words, is the Divine Right of Kings enshrined in the Bush Presidency.  Or in ANY Republican leader hereafter.

I hope the Cheney fans read tomorrow's story in the Washington Post about the human sacrifice of this war, as shown in the head trauma cases.  There is a quote on the top of the article:

"We can save you. But you might not be what you were."

Neurosurgeon, Combat Support Hospital, Balad, Iraq

I sometimes have the feeling that supporters of this long, groundless war liked to play the board game Risk as a teenager, and do not have the human capacity to see the difference between board games and real blood.

I agree. However, when I was in the Army, we played an advanced version of Risk to help us think strategy.  It is obvious to me that bush-cheney have no concept of strategy at all since they have just fumbled and bumbled through two wars as our casualities have mounted.  It tells a lot when you ponder that bush-cheney refused to listen to strategists such as Colin Powell who can actually win a war and instead chose to listen to neonuts and their think tanks. I really believe that bush-cheney could care less about the suffering of our troops and the lives that they have destroyed in pursuing their neonut fantasies.

--Those who have known him {cheney} over the years remain astounded by what they describe as his almost autistic indifference to the thoughts and feelings of others. "He has the least interest in human beings of anyone I have ever met," says John Perry Barlow, his former supporter. Cheney's freshman-year roommate, Steve Billings, agrees: "If I could ask Dick one question, I'd ask him how he could be so unempathetic."--

from: http://www.rollingst...