A crumbling facade

There shouldn't be much doubt left just how comically inept Bushco has been in its occupation of Iraq. But in case anybody needed a reminder, word comes out today that the U.S. managed to flub a ceremonial handover of operational command:

A much-anticipated ceremony to transfer operational command from U.S-led forces to Iraq's new army was postponed on Saturday at the last minute amid confusion, a U.S. military spokesman said, citing poor planning.

The event had been hailed by the U.S. military as a big step toward Iraq taking responsibility for security, key to any eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces. U.S. commanders, with 140,000 troops on the ground, would still have a big say.

"There was an error in planning between us and the Iraqi defense minister over the ceremony. This all boils down to a bureaucratic thing," said Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson. He said the ceremony had been rescheduled for Sunday.

Johnson played down suggestions the glitch reflected logistic and communication problems between the two forces. Iraq's Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.

Reporters who had been invited to attend the ceremony in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone were left sitting in a bus for more than one hour as the U.S. military first informed them that the event had been delayed for later in the day and then postponed until Sunday.

Not that the ceremony was likely to represent anything more than a weak attempt to generate some good news in the midst of the burgeoning civil war by pretending the U.S. is on its way out. And nobody paying any attention to the current status of Iraq was about to believe that for a moment - after all, at last notice Bush still planned not to withdraw troops during his presidency, and there hasn't been any indication to my knowledge that the U.S. has backed off its plan to establish long-term bases in the country.

But if there's one thing Bushco has usually managed to get right, it's a meaningless photo op. And if even that's now beyond the combined capability of the U.S. and Iraqi governments, there's all the less reason for any optimism about what's going to be left behind when the U.S. finally does leave.