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[Update: A reader has had difficulty following my stilted insertion of historical references and quotes below.....helpers added in brackets. \sarcasm off.]

Spartacus resigns. Nobody else says: "I'm Spartacus."
[Spartacus, a 1st Century, B.C. Thracian Gladiator and Rebel leader is finally defeated in battle by Roman Imperium, Crassus. In the 1960 film version Crassus comes for Spartacus, and him only, of the surviving Spartan and Thracian fighters. When asked, "Where is Spartacus?", they each claim to be Spartacus, attempting to take the place of their leader. This is doubtful, but Crassus did round up and crucify 6000 Thracians, lining the Via Appia, all the way north to Rome.]

Horatio, I am dead...:[Wm. Shakespeare; Hamlet's dying words.]

NYT: Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser known for his hawkish views on Iraq, has resigned his membership on the Defense Policy Board, which counsels the secretary of defense on policy issues. ..."I have just published a book that calls for far-reaching reform of government departments responsible for combating terrorism,'' he wrote. "Many of the ideas in that book are controversial and I wish to be free to argue for them without those views or my arguments getting caught up in the [Presidential] campaign.''

Now cracks a noble heart - goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest...[Horatio's farewell words to a dead Hamlet, his friend.]

"The fact that the Defense Policy Board is not a decision-making body but is simply a forum enabling the secretary of defense to hear a variety of opinions and observations (often opposed to one another) is simply not understood by the general public,'' he wrote.

Hey, nonny, nonny. [... is a 15th & 16th Century nonsense phrase, similar to "La-dee-dah!" used by Shakespeare a lot.] Surely, somewhere, Max Boot's heart is fluttering too--ah, here he is, in Foreign Policy:

“Failure in Iraq Has Discredited the Neocons [?]”

Too early to say. The emerging media consensus that the U.S. occupation has fizzled is ludicrously premature. Sure, there have been a lot of well-publicized problems, such as terrorism, crime, and electricity shortages.

Yes, aside from the iceberg, Captain Smith, I think the voyage is going swimmingly. [Smith was Captain of the Titanic.] Boot flutters some more...

To a large extent, this blame is unfair. Many of the early problems of the occupation were due to the administration’s failure to commit sufficient resources to Iraq. This oversight was largely the fault of policymakers, such as Rumsfeld . . . If neocons had been in control, they would have done far more, far earlier, in both Afghanistan and Iraq, possibly averting some of the postwar problems. But fairly or not, neocons will doubtless be held responsible for the outcome in both countries; their numerous enemies, on both the left and the right, will see to that.

And finally, the Washington Monthly delivers the coup de grace:[french for A deathblow delivered to end the misery of a mortally wounded victim]

Dissent is indeed breaking out inside the neoconservative tent. One of their colleagues, Robert Kagan, recently wrote in The New York Times that the net result of U.S. policy since 9/11 has been that "America, for the first time since World War II, is suffering a crisis of international legitimacy. Americans will find that they cannot ignore this problem."

Indeed... Yet another Neocon treading the path to awareness. Except, now, with seemingly no self-deprecation or blame-shouldering whatsoever, Kagan and fellow neocons are warning Americans against falling into the hole they've dug for us and the World. When cooler heads advised against the demonization of our European and other allies, against the short-term cathartic trap of Hollywood High Noon bluster over coherent, sustainable strategy, they--we--were scoffed at as ignorant amateurs or Pollyannas. In all the online threads of debates over this issue, from Tacitus, to Little Green Footballs to National Review Online, the wreckage of hope over experience along with buckets of leftover spittle aimed at liberals litters the conservative landscape. The mental and rhetorical gymnastics that were merely frustrating then, have morphed into tragically affirmed delusion, enablers delivering us to the net result of U.S. policy since 9/11: The loss of our hard-earned claim to world leadership.

Gee, thanks. What's Second Prize I wonder?

I've never claimed clairvoyance on my resume but will happily own up to learning from the second kick of a mule--one does not exist long in this world without opportunuties to learn that lesson. Neocons, it seems, did not. I suspect they had chances aplenty, but were blinded by their hormones. In much the same way that sensible business-people suspended their knowledge of the basic laws of Finance to swoon over the "New E-economy", many Americans left their common sense at home and went looking for a bat, forgetting that vigilantes were often tossed in the hoosegow, often alongside their captives, for ill-advised action or for lynching the wrong man. There is gulf between action and wise action. And many are re-learning what they inherently knew all along from practical life experience: "leadership" is a personality trait, not a job description. Nor is it the domain of one political ideology. And "Truth", even if you capitalize it, and print it on a banner, doesn't mean it's True. Ditto: Mission Accomplished.

[In case you missed it, I am avowedly anti-Richard Perle, anti-Neocon, and less than convinced that this administration is doing its best in the War on Terror. I'm also against the hate amendment, but that's two posts back and a whole different Kettle of Monkeys. I hereby now declare a moratorium of 1 day on confusing prose and historico-literary references.]