The Rules

In an excellent overview of how things went FUBAR in Fallujah, the LA Times quotes Maj. Gen. James N. "Mad Dog" Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division.

"You know my rules for a gunfight?" he asked a reporter outside the meeting. "Bring a gun, bring two guns, bring all your friends with guns."

Whatever you think of war in general, or this war in particular, there's really no denying the wisdom of Gen. Mattis' rules.

"Bring all your friends..." And Bush got us into a gunfight with many of our biggest and best friends left behind. His job was to enforce the rules, and he broke them.

Even the most fervent supporter of the war in Iraq, your most hawkish neighbor, has to admit it by now. In leading us to war with friends left behind, Bush screwed up his job.

And you've got to ask. If you screwed your job up as bad as Bush has screwed his job up, wouldn't you get fired?