Two days ago, we were informed that the current situation in Iraq is a “by-product of the success of the surge.”

As the crisis deepens, with widescale defections and heated street-fighting breaking out and the need for US bombing missions and US armor entering into the fray, Captain Ed has some revised talking points. I am sure you will all be shocked to learn that the blame for this can be place solely on war critics and those god damned Brits:

That’s why this isn’t a collapse of the American surge, but a demonstration of the folly of premature withdrawal. The lack of fortitude on Iraq left a vacuum that created bigger problems and more serious fighting than tenacity did. Had we listened to the war’s critics in 2005 and 2006, gangsters would have swallowed the entirety of Iraq, and we would have a second Somalia in southwest Asia.

While just a few days ago the current violence was a sign of the success of the surge, now we are assured that it is not a sign that the surge is failing. At this rate, by Monday of next week, there will be helicopters circling Saigon and we will learn that the real culprits are Code Pink and Cindy Sheehan.

It is simply amazing that the people who were just wrong, wrong, wrong about everything just keep on talking as if they have any credibility. I have come to at least recognize I don’t know what the hell is going on, and this realization goes a long way in keeping me from looking like a total moron. Granted, this is the kind of thing that is hard to analyze using scale models and a sand table, so maybe we should cut our citizen journalists some slack.

*** Update ***

I really wish I could remember who it was that emailed me or commented here (one of the two) that the wingnuts would be blaming the Brits for this.