In today's WaPo, there's further evidence that the men and women who can shoot straight are getting awfully tired of having to clean up after The Gang Who Couldn't:

The outgoing U.S. Marine Corps general in charge of western Iraq said Sunday he opposed a Marine assault on militants in the volatile city of Fallujah in April and the subsequent decision to withdraw from the city and turn over control to a security force of former Iraqi soldiers.

That security force, known as the Fallujah Brigade, was formally disbanded last week. Not only did the brigade fail to combat militants, it actively aided them, surrendering weapons, vehicles and radios to the insurgents, according to senior Marine officers. Some brigade members even participated in attacks on Marines ringing the city, the officers said.

The comments by Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, made shortly after he relinquished command of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force on Sunday, amounted to a stinging broadside against top U.S. military and civilian leaders who ordered the Fallujah invasion and withdrawal.

....With no security forces in Fallujah now -- U.S. troops do not patrol inside the city limits -- the area has become a haven for insurgents, Marine officers said. Among the foreign-born fighters believed to be holed up in Fallujah is Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is alleged to have organized car bombings, kidnappings and other attacks targeting Americans and Iraqis.

What a mess. And yet, somehow, we appear to be holding an election in which the central truth of our national life today -- the fact that we may actually be losing the war in Iraq -- is just off the table.

It's remarkable. Insane, really. But, you know, as long as it's other people's kids who are being asked to give the last full measure of their devotion to this dubious adventure, I guess it's okay for the rest of us to continue to pretend that Election 2004 is really about Botox and swift boats and typewriter fonts and panic!

After all, we glib, plugged-in types are paying for this campaign extravaganza. And we expect a little goddamned entertainment -- even as we quietly look down our noses at all the regular Americans who can't seem to make sense of a brie-and-circuses political process that blithely refuses to address the very real possibility that, once again, one of them is going be the last man asked to die for a mistake.

UPDATE: Sen. Joe Biden points out that our problems in Iraq have actually gotten worse since the transfer of power in June.

MORE: Bloody Sunday.

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