The mess we're in

Reading Ron Suskind's the Way of the World and Bob Woordward's The War Within helps show the extreme difficulty of being a policy maker in Washington. Suskind's book shows how far off the rails US policy has gone. Train wreck is insufficient. Chemical train wreck with chlorine cloud descending on town with the broken emergency alert system is more like it.

The War Within though shows the other side of the coin. Policy makers know the US in a bad place, but what should or even can they do about it? It is easy for those outside of government to advocate withdrawal, but how exactly do you do it without creating more havoc. The War Within shows a number of very smart and dedicated people trying to wrestle with the issues and finally settling on the surge.

What will be interesting to see is the eventual book on Paulson and Bernacke in 2008.