It’s kind of surreal, scannning the cable news stations today. It’s a one-topic news day, and that’s Iraq and the threat of civil war. There seems to have been a major shift over just the past few days. A tipping point? I don’t know, but Josh Marshall, who is usually pretty level-headed and able to keep his emotions out of his posts today sounds downright grim. Not that he’s ever been pro-war or a great optimist that Bush is doing the right thing. But today he sounds depressed and hopeless.

Gloom…has been building over Iraq. Increasingly, the Wise Heads are forecasting disaster. Wise Heads say they see no realistic plan, hear no serious concept to get ahead of the situation. Money, training, jobs…all lagging, all reinforce downward spiral highlighted by sickening violence. There seems to be no real “if”, just when, and how badly it will hurt U.S. interests. Define “disaster”? Consensus prediction: if Bush insists on June 30/July 1 turnover, a rapid descent into civil war. May happen anyway, if the young al-Sadr faction really breaks off from its parents. CSIS Anthony Cordesman’s latest blast at Administration ineptitude says in public what Senior Observers say in private…the situation may still be salvaged, but then you have to factor in Sharon’s increasing desperation, and the regional impact.

Note: “quagmire”…when you are in a bad situation you created yourself, and would quit in a minute if you could, but which if you did, it would make everything else worse. So you can’t…and it gets worse anyway.

I wish I could give snippets of all the Iraqi stories on the news today. Things seem to be coming to some sort of head. But as Marshall says, there’s no way out. Maybe all we can do right now is be grim and depressed.