Shrinking the circle of Neverland

Lots of folks are talking about the incredible story in WaPo tomorrow in which a bunch of administration types admit how completely we've screwed the pooch in Iraq. Digby points out that

We broke it, we bought it and now we are throwing it in the trashcan.

Yes, very noble.

We're winners.

In case anyone's wondering, aside from the hideous loss of life for no good reason, we have also spent so far 187 billion dollars to depose Saddam and turn the country into an Islamic theocracy and send it into anarchy. Excellent. Very noble. Worth every penny and every life.
...
Maybe it's all trial balloons, but this has a whiff of panic about it. I sense some very serious disarray within the administration. They are all over the place. I'm wondering if a palace coup isn't taking place before our eyes.

What is interesting to note in all this is the way the circle of the deluded seems to be shrinking. Were Bush, Cheney, Rummy and Condi previously surrounded by a large cadre of true believers, or was it just that the troops were bound by fear and the code of omerta? I dunno, but whichever it was, the spell is obviously wearing off. You might now be able to count the number of kids believing in Tinkerbell without having to take your socks off.

I'd wager there are many, many people these thugs have stepped on over the last five years who are just itching to get their licks in. There are scores of scores to settle, and enough scandals, illegality and plain old fuck-ups in need of daylight to allow the victims of every last one of them a measure of payback.

A year ago, they were all too scared to speak up. But Bush's aura of omnipotence has been nullified. There are too many leaks and too much heat for the Godfather to enforce the code anymore. A positive feedback loop is now feeding on itself -- leaks beget more leaks, disloyalty embodens further disloyalty. The worse it gets, the worse it will get, and the pace will accelerate.