I heard Alexander Downer on Radio National this morning selling the war in Iraq, and deriding all those who disagreed with his sunshine and roses optimism as silly nonsense. I just switched off when he denied there was a civil war in Iraq. Our Foreign Minister continues to live in a neo-con bubble.

Just like his hero, one George Bush, who still refuses to acknowledge the undeniable evidence that things just aren't going all that well in Iraq. He is 'staying the course' through a major Iraqi civil war, a catastrophic breakdown of the political process, and the possiblity a government coming to power that ends the occupation by asking the US to leave.

Daily Telegraph

Downer is not known for his candour. Nor is he willing to engage in a serious debate in Iraq. This morning on Radio Breakfast he was just spinning the positive images of Iraqi's going to the polls, the lack of violence and the widespread Sunni participation. Downer avoided mentioning the implausibility of his position that Iraq forms a central front in the war against terrorism. So did the journalist.

Downer has boxed himself into winning in Iraq. Victory is in sight etc etc is Downer's message. Victory? Did we go to war to shed blood to create a Shiite Iraq aligned with Iran?

It's the same victory message that pulsates from the White House. The spin is that insurgency is in its last throes etc etc. How does withdrawal mean complete victory?

As Juan Cole points out:

The Iraqi "government" is a failed state. Virtually no order it gives has any likelihood of being implemented. It has no army to speak of and cannot control the country. Its parliamentarians are attacked and sometimes killed with impunity. Its oil pipelines are routinely bombed, depriving it of desperately needed income. It faces a powerful guerrilla movement that is wholly uninterested in the results of elections and just wants to overthrow the new order. Elections are unlikely to change any of this.