Gates drinks the Kool-Aid

From Think Progress:

Gates Spins Increased Violence In Afghanistan As A ‘Manifestation’ That The Taliban ‘Has Lost’

Recall, an increase in suicide-bombings in Iraq is cited as evidence that al Qaeda is on the run.

... Cheney's famous 2005 pronouncement that the insurgency was in its "last throes"... based on an increase in violence!

The evidence doesn't matter. The conclusion is always the same: things are going swimmingly!

But, wait! There's more!!

US Afghan poppy drive a 'failure'
A former US ambassador to the United Nations has criticised President George Bush's attempts to eradicate the opium poppy fields in Afghanistan.
Richard Holbrooke has described the US policy as "spectacularly unsuccessful".

Germany rejects troop request for southern Afghanistan

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan?
By MARK THOMPSON/WASHINGTON, Time
Fri Feb 1, 2008
It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said.

... and this Administration's official response (quoted in third article, above):

Despite such grim news, the message to the Foreign Relations Committee from the Administration was that things are actually getting better. "Progress is being made," said Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher at the hearing. "If you add together the achievements in roads, achievements in education, achievements in health care, we see a profoundly changed situation in Afghanistan."

Evidence be damned!

Ah! But the surge is working wonders in Iraq, remember! Just last month. the Iraq Parliament passed a long-awaited de-Baathification law, and violence is declining!

But wait! If you order right now, you also get...

Iraqi VP refuses to ratify Baathist reconciliation law
Fri Feb 1, 2008, AFP
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq's Sunni vice president refused Friday to ratify a law supposed to reintegrate former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party into public life, saying it would instead worsen their exclusion.

AND:

Female bombers kill 72 at Baghdad pet markets

... well, yeah, but we have a PLAN! If you call RIGHT NOW, you get the extra added bonus:

Pentagon brass split on troop cuts

... and let's not forget...

Envoy: US troops to be in Iraq into '09

Tell me again - why are we there?

I hesitate to use "never" or "always" - only one exception, one counter-example, is sufficient to disprove & discount a statement with either qualifier. How 'bout seldom?

Seldom has an Administration been so willfully dismissive of reality - as perceived by the rest of us.

No matter the reality, no matter the evidence, the conclusions are always the same: things are just peachy!

Stop the madness!