Fairy Tales Won't Come True.....

The Bush administration's desperately-trumpeted Iraq "benchmark" report by Gen. Petraeus will hit with the force of a deflating "Happy Face" balloon.... The Decider already rendered his judgment, and most of the U.S. public won't believe the report anyway.

The Decider told Australia's deputy prime minister last week that "we're kicking ass" in Iraq. Shades of Bush's "Bring it on." And we know how that's worked out.

And, yesterday at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii Bush asserted that he "came back from Iraq encouraged by what I saw. No question there's still hard work to do, but my resolve is as strong as it's ever been... I believe we're doing the right thing there for the security of the country and for the peace of the world." (WaPo)

Gee.... wouldn't it be nice if he worried as much about the security of our country. But, we digress.

The public has also rendered it's judgment. An ABC News/Washington Post poll this week: "More than half of Americans think the Petraeus report will try to sugar-coat the real situation there, and two-thirds don't believe it will influence" Bush's war policy anyway.

Oh, there may be fancy words, a token draw down.... and, of course, as Frank Rich says in his column in the New York Times today.... it "will be 9/11 all the time this week, as the White House yet again synchronizes its drumbeating for the Iraq war with the anniversary of an attack that had nothing to do with Iraq."

But, make no mistake, as long as The Decider writes the script, Iraq fairy tales won't come true....