Who wants to be the next president?

The gritty truth remains -- even though it's not available through the usual media channels to many Americans.  Andrew Bacevich lays it on on the line.

The real legacy of the surge is that it will enable Bush to bequeath the Iraq war to his successor -- no doubt cause for celebration at AEI, although perhaps less so for the families of U.S. troops. Yet the stubborn insistence that the war must continue also ensures that Bush's successor will, upon taking office, discover that the post-9/11 United States is strategically adrift. Washington no longer has a coherent approach to dealing with Islamic radicalism. Certainly, the next president will not find in Iraq a useful template to be applied in Iran or Syria or Pakistan.

According to the war's most fervent proponents, Bush's critics have become so "invested in defeat" that they cannot see the progress being made on the ground. Yet something similar might be said of those who remain so passionately invested in a futile war's perpetuation. They are unable to see that, surge or no surge, the Iraq war remains an egregious strategic blunder that persistence will only compound.

Several years ago it became apparent that the Bush "legacy" is what's being left for the next president to clean up.    The surge will "turn bad" during his or her presidency.  What has been true all along will be the burden of the next president. After all, things are going just great now, aren't they!  If you don't agree, you're another one of those tiresome Bush-haters.