Why is this man smiling?

** Bob Cesca, in a HuffPost entry, comments on Bush's demeanor when discussing the most serious issues. These pix are from his recent 60 Minutes interview.

"Abu Ghraib was a mistake. Using bad language like 'bring 'em on.'"

"There's not enough troops on the ground right now to provide security for Iraq and that's why I made the decision I made."

"I think that what they're saying is is that the Iranians are providing equipment that is killing Americans. And therefor -- either way it's unacceptable."

5 steps out of the Iraquagmire

Deepak Chopra puts forth 5 initiatives that could be a REAL way forward. Democrats in need of something concrete to offer should study these:

1. Apologize to the world at the U.N. and plead for help in keeping a fragile peace in Iraq, on the model of keeping the peace in Bosnia.

2. Federalize the country so that each sect has its own autonomous region with loose links to a central government.

3. Facilitate the movement of people to their new states, trying to avoid the same bloodbath that took hundreds of thousands of lives when Pakistan was partitioned from India.

4. Form an international agency to restore and run the Iraqi oil industry. This would be temporary until the federal state can divide the spoils without creating deeper rifts between Shia and Sunni.

5. Concentrate on money and jobs. One of the worst fruits of despotism is that the populace remains passive, uneducated, hopeless about the future, and indoctrinated with propaganda. For Iraq to live in peace, all these deficits must be lessened.

Full article.