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The US should cut its losses, pull out of Iraq promptly and never again use its military might to build a nation according to its own values, according to former CIA chief John Deutch. That’s a pretty damning pronouncement coming from someone who used to hold George H.W. Bush’s job as head of the United States’ covert army. These are the guys who intervene in other countries for a living. If they think the war is hopeless, it’s really hopeless. Gradually more and more members of the ruling class are speaking aloud of the need to get out.

Several commentators quoted by ZNet

…take issue with the conventional assumption that the U.S. military presence is a stabilising factor without which Iraq’s descent into civil war would be more certain or bloody.

They also argue that the administration’s argument [for] Washington’s global “credibility” is outweighed by other considerations, including the damage that the continued U.S. presence does to U.S. interests in the Arab and Islamic world more generally and the reduced ability of the U.S. to deal with other important security challenges while it remains bogged down in Iraq.

As noted by Deutch, continued investment in a losing proposition could result in “an even worse loss of credibility down the road.”

Of course Deutch thinks the U.S. has some credibility to lose, with which I strenuously disagree.

In the wake of the July 7 terrorist bombings in London, Tony Blair has been at great pains to deny that British foreign policy contributed in any way to the attacks. This is especially difficult to pull off in the face of the recent report from Chatham House, Security, Terrorism and the UK, which says what seems so obvious: Britain’s alliance with the United States has made Britain a target.

The report … says that the UK is at particular risk because it is the closest ally of the US and has closely supported the deployment of British troops in the military campaigns to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam’s regime in Iraq.

The report claims that there is “no doubt” that the invasion of Iraq has imposed particular difficulties for the UK and for the wider coalition against terrorism. According to the paper, the situation in Iraq has “given a boost to the Al-Qaeda network’s propaganda, recruitment and fundraising”, whilst providing an ideal targeting and training area for Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.

No surprise there. That’s what we predicted before Bush started the war in Iraq, and before he started the war in Afghanistan. So what are Blair and Bush doing to misdirect attention away from the elephant in the room?

Simple. To any question about the causes of the attacks, they respond as if they’d been asked about justification for the attacks. That way they get to deflect any examination of their own actions, and repeat over and over for the cameras that there is no justification for terrorism. Of course there isn’t any excuse for terrorism. We didn’t ask you whether you thought there was an excuse. We asked whether you provoked it. A Chatham House representative, to her credit, kept her own eye on the ball:

Clearly the British and American governments will continue to lower this discussion to new intellectual lows. It’s as if nothing they’ve ever done has ever provoked anger in the world.

Indeed. What Blair, Bush and their political allies want you to believe is that terrorism exists for no reason at all. Terrorists are just evil people, they tell us, and there’s no sense examining their motives any further than that. It’s a neat, tidy formula, perfect for the pliant citizens of the empire, simultaneously dismissing curiosity about the world abroad, and critical thought about the government at home.

OK, let me see if I have this straight. Joseph C. Wilson IV is a former diplomat who traveled to Africa on behalf of the C.I.A. before the Iraq war to investigate reports concerning Saddam Hussein’s efforts to acquire nuclear material. Wilson publicly disputed one of the administration’s claims about the Iraqi nuclear program.

Karl Rove retaliates by leaking to the press that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, is a CIA agent.

The White House pretends great outrage and begins an “investigation” of the leak. White House press secretary Scott McClellan explicitly denies that Rove did it. The President says, repeatedly, that whoever DID do it would be fired.

Now Rove admits it. And the White House suddenly has a new policy, which is that they won’t answer any questions about it, or even admit to their own earlier remarks.

Under often hostile questioning, Mr. McClellan repeatedly declined to say whether he stood behind his previous statements that Mr. Rove had played no role in the matter, saying he could not comment while a criminal investigation was under way. He brushed aside questions about whether the president would follow through on his pledge, repeated just over a year ago, to fire anyone in his administration found to have played a role in disclosing the officer’s identity.

I’m no friend of the CIA. It’s a criminal organization with a long, long rap sheet, and it should be abolished. Under a Socialist government it would be. That said, it’s worth pointing out that this administration apparently will stop at nothing to manipulate the press, silence its critics, and cover up its own lies. They’re shameless. And those who support them knowing this, need to be ashamed.