Our heart is no longer in Iraq

Our heart is no longer in Iraq
Baltimore Sun: Even its critics once believed that the Bush administration stood for something in Iraq: creating a stable, reliable ally in the Middle East. Trying to do so may have been right or wrong, brilliant or foolhardy, but it seemed to be the objective of American policy. However, Washington's passivity over the past week while the now-defunct Iraqi Governing Council anointed a good number of its members as the nucleus of the new transitional government calls into question whether there's anything left that can rightly be called American policy.
The White House may not yet be ready to cut and run, but it sure looks as though it has cast its moorings loose in Iraq.
Not so long ago, the idea was that with U.N. help, a nonpolitical governing body could be put together to prepare the country for elections next year. Whoops! Now it's got a governing body composed of politicians who are preparing themselves for elections next year.
Tough talk persists
President Bush was still talking heroically Wednesday about Iraq, but his real attitude seems to be that whatever causes the least trouble for the time being is fine with him. Yet it's abundantly obvious that the first thing Iraq's newish leaders will have to do to establish credibility is to pick careful fights with the United States. It's still not clear how much sovereignty they'll really have, and finding out will be a contentious and potentially explosive process.
Is the Washington of George W. Bush tiring of the adventure in Iraq? After the prison scandal and the Ahmad Chalabi intelligence scandal, has the gung-ho gone?
Sadly, this is not a game where you can pick up your ball and go home. Washington will have to be patient with a new government that is sure to be long on posturing and short on gratitude, and even then it will be a good outcome if things just don't get worse.