The NY Times warns of ... what, exactly?

The New York Times published an unusually good piece of reporting the other day, May 27, with this lead:

WASHINGTON, May 26 - There is one matter on which American military commanders, many Iraqis and some of the Bush administration's staunchest Congressional critics agree: if the United States withdrew its forces from Baghdad's streets this fall, the murder and mayhem would increase.

Read it at NY Times.

Funnily enough, the paper on the same day published one of its foam-flecked assaults on the monster who inhabits the Oval Office, in large part because he frets about sectarian violence in Iraq:

Speaking to graduates of the Coast Guard Academy, Mr. Bush declared that Al Qaeda is "public enemy No. 1" in Iraq and that "the terrorists' goal in Iraq is to reignite sectarian violence and break support for the war here at home." The next day, in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush turned on a reporter who had the temerity to ask about Mr. Bush's declining credibility with the public, declaring that Al Qaeda is "a threat to your children" and accusing him of naïvely ignoring the danger.

It's upsetting to think that Mr. Bush believes the raging sectarian violence in Iraq awaits reigniting, or that he does not recognize that Americans' support for the war broke down many bloody months ago. But we have grown accustomed to this president's disconnect from reality and his habit of tilting at straw men, like Americans who don't care about terrorism because they question his mismanagement of the war or don't worry about what will happen after the United States withdraws, as it inevitably must.

Er, yes, right! I think I understand. I think I do ...