This past week, national pundit-at-large G.W. Bush asserted that the “catastrophic success” of a swift military victory in Iraq helped produce the still-potent insurgency. (reference) Ignoring the lunacy of the implication that if only the military had been more slow and methodical about the invasion that the insurgents would have been more welcoming, I love the phrase “catastrophic success”.

Literally, the phrase means that we got what we wanted and it was a disaster. That’s a surprisingly accurate description of what occurred. More surprising when you consider that this catastrophe is the cornerstone of the rationale the GOP is using for why G.W. should be re-elected. He got us into this quagmire, we are right where he expected us to be, and dammit, he’ll get us out if we leave him in office. After all, he’s already “turned the corner.”

This is not the American way. I don’t care if you are an NFL coach, a military general, or a top corporate executive. If you lead a group to disaster we promptly give you lots of money to go quietly into retirement and insert some other guy for us to follow out. Maybe that’s not a bad idea. How much could it possibly cost us? It has to be cheaper than the alternative.