Scenario II (pessimistic)

It is not very difficult to imagine this one, though it is pretty discouraging. With all apologies to Goodwin, one has to wonder what went through the minds of the Germans after the terrible Winter in Russia. Many must have read the tea leaves and realized that, eventually, they were doomed. Yet the Propaganda machine kept functioning almost up to the very end. Two winters later the Germans still felt they had a chance and subjected the allies and their own armies to the useless slaughter of the Battle of the Bulge.

As many commentators have done recently, this is an explicit referral to Barbara Tuchman's The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam (there are many Republicans who still feel that we need not have "lost" the Vietnam War; that it was all the peaceniks who deprived them of victory. Stupidity dies a slow death.)

So, here goes:
1. Bush and Cheney remain in office until their term expires in January, 2009.
2. The Republicans remain in control of the Senate and the House.
3. There is no change in the Supreme Court which continues to hear triviality (Anna Nicole Smith) and ignores Bush's breach of the Fourth Amendment, Torture, etc. etc.
4. Bush goes to the UN get a carte blanche to attack Iran. He launches multiple missile strikes against Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Iran goes batshit as does the rest of the Islamic world.
5. Iran attacks American forces in eastern Iraq.
6. Terrorists launch multiple attacks using shoulder launched missiles against commercial airlines. All airlines are indefinitely grounded.
7. There are revolutions in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Fundamentalists take over. The flow of oil from the mid East to the West is permanently damaged.
8. The economies of the West go into a tailspin.
9. China calls in her debts on the United States Treasury. Since we don't have the money to pay this, China extracts a promise of non interference on repossesion of Taiwan and confrontation with India.
10. Because India is threatened, it attacks Pakistan.
11. Many commentators have projected the danger of the nuclear tipped Israel sitting in the middle of a sea of Islam. The possibility that Israel will not use nuclear weapons is remote. It may be the beginning of the end.
12. On the home front Bush pardons Libby, Kenny Boy, Abramoff and DeLay. They all resume their previous posts and do as much damage to their enemies as possible (Patrick Fitzgerald flees to Ireland.)

Christ, I can't do it any more.