54 per cent of the country and an even larger percentage of the Democratic Party want some type of plan for getting out of Iraq. Yet the Democrats, who won the election in no small part because of their support of some kind of troop redeployment, flail hopelessly and ineffectively in Congress, paralyzed with fear that someone will label them “soft on Defense,” or worse, “betrayers of ‘the Troops,’” who apparently should be in Iraq for the rest of the 21st Century just to keep us from “emboldening the Enemy.”

I’m tired of the buzz words, the sound bites and the rest of the bullshit. Iraq is a disaster, a sectarian civil war, a toilet of religious and ethnic hate that can never be flushed. Although I have always contended that the invasion was a gross blunder, largely because of the administration’s complete lack of interest in the political and ethnic situation that has haunted the country since its founding, I think it’s clear now to everyone that Iraq will not be a beacon of Democracy. Rather, it is a flashpoint for the growing regional conflict between Sunni and Shiite Islam.

And our policy within this conflict makes no sense. Apparently we’re allied with the Saudis, who are trying to fight back the rising Iranian influence, yet the Saudis bankrolled and funded the Sunni terrorists who hit us on 9/11. In Iraq, though, we’re allied with the Shiite factions, backed by Iran, and fighting the Sunnis. Talk about your mixed messages. I understand nuance is appropriate in foreign policy, but this goes beyond nuance — it’s absolutely insane. The truth is, both sides view us as an enemy — the entire region despises us. Whether they hated us before 9/11, or following the Iraq war, isn’t the issue. Sunni and Shiite Arabs agree on one thing and that is that the United States is their enemy (well, they also agree that Israel is their enemy, but that goes without saying).

Look, I’m no dove. I believe there are plenty of situations where war is a perfectly good solution to a disagreement — hell, there’s nothing more effective then a bloody nose to get someone to the negotiating table, or make them cave to your will. But war is only effective when you have a clear objective and an easily definable enemy. The administration’s catch all opponent, “The Terrorists,” is actually a label that describes any number of factions and groups with widely varying goals. Asymmetrical warfare is a tough business, and if the Russians can’t beat the Chechynian rebels, the French couldn’t beat the Algerians, and we couldn’t defeat the North Vietnamese, then it’s pretty clear that history is against us on this.

Maybe the Democrats should wake up and realize that they will lose in the long run if they don’t do something to end the war. History will judge the administration harshly for its blunders in the Iraq — if the Democrats in congress don’t want to be viewed forever as enablers of that failed policy, then they need to step up and do something.

This morning, Anya and I watched the Arcade Fire’s performance on Saturday Night Live. As always, we danced around the room, and I dipped her and twirled her to the music, much to her delight. Everything was going well until the end of “Intervention,” when Win smashed his accoustic guitar. This sudden act of violence sent Anya into a fit. She buried her face in my chest and wailed miserably.

I tried to dance with her during the second song, but she produced no smiles or giggles. She watched the screen with seriousness, convinced that something bad would soon follow.

Last night, Tina and I tried to watch “The Descent,” but ultimately turned it off. I don’t know what’s happening to me, but in the last year, I’ve found I’ve had very little stomach for horror films, despite an affection for the genre. Even before the cast gets lost underground, I found myself annoyed by the director’s use of cheap scares — I don’t have a lot of patience for sudden jolts of feigned violence, the cinematic equivalent of getting behind an unsuspecting person and screaming: “boo!”

I know the director (Neil Marshall?) was trying to accomplish some pretty complex things with the film, but neither the cast or the budget was sufficent for it. I appreciate the effort, but in the end, I just didn’t have it in me to watch people get killed senselessly on screen.

Some days it’s so difficult, that by the time you reach that magic moment when the girls are asleep and it’s time to clean up the huge heaps of mess they made, you don’t know what to do. Freedom beckons, and it is easy to ignore the mess. I feel like that today.

The terrible two’s have come early. Today, I pulled Rachel out of the dishwasher possibly four times. Yesterday, no less than seven bites were exchanged between the girls, typically in response to the theft of a toy, control of a toy, or because biting is “funny.” It’s amazing how fierce their competition is — even when I come home, they fight over who I will pick up first. On Thursday, when I put Anya down to pick up Rachel, Anya screamed: “HE IS MY DADDY!”

Television is watched in fits and starts, paused to break up a fight, put a leash on a stuffed dog, or give someone “nummies.” Dinner is spent trying to hide pools of ketchup on my plate — the girls are obsessed with “dippy.”

I need a nap.

Well, I’m now on my third XBOX 360. Two weeks ago my original system — which I bought at launch — failed after only a year of use. And then my replacement, purchased out of pocket because the original was out of warranty, started acting up shortly after I got it. Apparently the DVD-ROM drive was bad.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the XBOX 360 has the games I want to play and a superior online service in XBOX Live, I’d probably switch to the PS3 or the Wii. Two faulty systems is pretty inexcusable in my book. I can’t help but wonder if the desperate need to keep costs low has caused them to cut conerns with the design.

A $300 game console should last a good deal longer than a year. There are working Atari 2600 systems that will outlive us all. I know that the 360 is a fair deal more complicated, but you’d think that Microsoft could maintain the generally high quality standards of the original XBOX. I guess not.

I continue to be haunted by Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” a book I read last year over the Christmas holiday. It’s a sign of a truly great work that its images still trouble me months after I read it. But just because the book is genius does not mean that I enjoyed it, or even liked it. Honestly, I wish I never read it at all.

Set in a nightmarish post-apocalyptic America, “The Road” follows a father and his young son as they struggle to survive in a canabilistic wasteland, where the majority of survivors, as few as they are, prey on travelers, enslave the weak, and raise human beings as livestock. Most of the book follows their relatively mundane struggle for survivor — scavanging for food in the ruins, wandering through ash-stained snow — but is punctuated by moments of terror as they encounter other survivors.

Cormac McCarthy is renowned for his cynical views on mankind, and “The Road” is perhaps the apotheosis of his world view, offering only glimmers of kindness amidst unspeakable savagery.

I know I’ve written about it before, but it’s interesting how much this book has lingered in my subconscious. It flickers up into my dreams, into my thoughts, even in my day-to-day interactions with strangers. Good art is supposed to leave an impact, but I can’t help feeling violated by “The Road.” There are images in the book I’d rather not remember, yet I see the scenes clearly in my memory as if I’d lived them myself.

I’m struggling to get through Charles Stross’ “Accelerando,” a brilliant book to be sure, but not a work of art on the level of “The Road.” It’s hard to go back to literature for entertainment after being gutted by literature as art. Even if that book, like the fabled Necronomicon of H.P. Lovecraft, should never be read by mortals.