The stodgily-unbiased and fact-oriented Christian Science Monitor has a crushingly bleak analysis of the endgame in Iraq today. The article goes through several “best” and worse case scenarios. Guess why I put that first word in quotes. Try me.

My two favorite quotes from the article:

The current situation is “semiseparation,” says Mr. O’Hanlon. He estimates that about half of the possible ethnic cleansing that could occur in mixed neighborhoods, has. …

“A reasonable outcome would find something like 30,000 to 40,000 troops in Iraq for 25 to 50 years,” says Dr. Krepinevich in an e-mail.

So, in other words, the US might have toppled the Hussein regime in a matter of days, but in 5 years it has managed to facilitate segregation of neighborhoods and regions and INCREASE outright ethnic cleansing. Well, at least we’re halfway there already so we’ve only got to see this one more time over again when we fail miserably. At least according to Dr. Andrew Kerpinevich, veteran Army planner and now president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, we’ve got another 25-50 years before that happens.

Why doesn’t eveyone join me in a big “ooh-rah!”

I’m afraid that my first post ever on Blue Sunburn will be scant on content. News in AZ was slow this weekend and I’ll be watching closely to see what arises in Phoenix as well as this developing Renzi indictment. Nasty business, all that. Well, at least we don’t live in New York right now.