Thought Theater

There are countless takes on the Petraeus report and the degree to which the Bush administration may have influenced or manipulated the content.

Generally speaking, it appears that the President, through the report and its proposed troop reductions, may have succeeded in buying the support of enough Republican Senators to insure that the Democrats cannot or will not attempt to impose a deadline for troop withdrawals.

It certainly appears that the President intends to hand off the mess in Iraq...and therefore force his successor to bring the war to a conclusion. Presumably, the President has come to two conclusions. One, the war cannot be won before the end of his term...and two, he will not be the one to concede that the effort is futile and seek an exit strategy.

One cannot underestimate the strategic acumen of the Bush administration...regardless of one's chosen ideological alignment. Unfortunately, I can't help but wonder whether this latest effort is anything more than a last ditch effort to rescue, or at least sufficiently blur the certainty by which historians will be able to characterize the Bush legacy.

If the President's apologists are able to argue that his successor shifted strategies before his "bold" vision was able to come to fruition, they may be able to deflect some of the negative evaluations and attributions which appear to be headed his way.

Given the abundance of analysis that has already been disseminated today, I decided to provide the following graphic in an attempt to offer my own sarcastic summarization of the closing strategy and the parting message of the President. Feel free to let me know if you see an alternate message or if it reads the same to you.