Dread

I'm feeling a bunch of it.

The upcoming Petraeus report (written by the White House) is one of those events where you pretty much know the outcome before it starts. Kos has a great post up about it:

Despite the GAO report detailing the abject failure of the Republican's Iraq strategy, did anyone really think September was going to bring more than the same bullshit? The White House Petraeus report will take all about the Success(!) we're having, and do so by refusing to count all the dead people. Then, all those "moderate" Republicans who have been supposedly antsy about Iraq will declare that they're all still antsy, but willing to wait until the Magical Spring to make things happen.

The Very. Serious. People. in DC will furrow their brows and talk gravely about how all "responsible" people agree that sending other families' kids to die in Iraq is the "right" thing to do since it's the best way to protect their fragile little egos.

Then everyone will have a jolly good time accusing Democrats of hating the troops, at which point Dems can either 1) call bullshit and work to end this thing, or 2) cave, and see their approval ratings sink to low-single digits while sabotaging their electoral chances in 2008.

Either way, the media will buy the "Magical Spring" trope and run with it, not realizing that it would ultimately give way to "Magical Autumn", which would then give way to "Magical Never".

Jeez, I hope he's wrong and fear he's right. The Democrats do not have the votes to pass legislation stopping the war. But they do have enough votes to stop funding the war. But like Kos, I suspect they'll be driven by fear of a public backlash at "not supporting the troops" while being oblivious to the real backlash that will occur if they don't stop the war.

It's all so predictable and depressing. I'm going to try and hold out good thoughts that this time the Dems will do something that is a) right and b) smart.