Bush's Islamic Republic

I seldom find David Brooks's opinions helpful, but today he cited Peter Galbraith on the matter of Iraq's proposed constitution (Galbraith likes it) in a somewhat optimistic context. Of course, that was written before the latest cancellation by the Iraqi parliament of a vote on it.

While we wait, there's fascinating reading in Galbraith's article, "Iraq: Bush's Islamic Republic," published in the New York Review of Books this month. For example,

There is, in fact, no Iraqi insurgency. There is a Sunni Arab insurgency. And it cannot win. Neither the al-Qaeda terrorists nor the former Baathists can win. Even if the US withdrew tomorrow, neither insurgents nor terrorists would be knocking down the gates to Iraq's Presidential Palace in Baghdad.