The Iraq war is plagued by the law of six months. In six months, we’re told, things will be better: the Iraqi’s will hold elections; the Parliament will pass the constitution; the sectarian militias will be drawn into the political process; the surge will work. It’s all bullshit. So long as US policy is to act out the belief that American hegemony is good and necessary for the world, whether the world likes it or not, nothing will go right. Six months has from the war’s outset only told of more pain and suffering and death, and that will continue to be the story until the United States withdraws.