'Their rosy scenarios are as bogus as their WMD'

According to Maureen Dowd, Bush & Co. "have known since July that their rosy scenarios are as bogus as their W.M.D."

That's when the president received a national intelligence estimate that spelled out "a dark assessment of prospects" for stability and governance in Iraq in the next 18 months, as Douglas Jehl wrote in today's Times. Worst-case estimates include civil war or anarchy.

Unlike the president, the young men and women trying to stay alive in the unraveling chaos of Iraq can't count on their daddies to get them out of the line of fire.

That's why Bush's dubious stint in the National Guard is relevant in 2004. He's the quintessential chickenhawk -- extremely warlike as long as his own hide is not on the line. People in Bush's world don't go to war; to paraphrase Leona Helmsley, wars are for the little people. With an attitude like that, Bush is the last person on earth who ought to be commander-in-chief.

(Note to wingnuts: I'm well aware that Bill Clinton evaded the draft -- but Clinton didn't go to war on the basis of trumped-up evidence, and he certainly didn't strut around barking, "Bring it on.")