Bush talks about settling for nothing short of victory in Iraq. But his administration has a new goal, containment.

An old word is gaining new currency in Washington: containment. You may be hearing a lot more of it as the Bush administration hunkers down for its final two years. Containment of Iraq’s low-level civil war, which shows every sign of persisting for years despite the new government inaugurated this week. Containment of Iran’s nuclear power, which may lead to a missile defense system in Europe. Containment of the Islamism revived by Hamas and Hizbullah, by the Sunni suicide bombers in Iraq, as well as by the “Shiite Crescent”—as Jordan’s King Abdullah once called it—running from Iran through Southern Iraq and into the Gulf.

This seems to be a more effective approach to the difficulties that this administration finds itself dealing with in the coming months. It certainly does not sound as manly as "crushing our foes" but in the real world it still may be more then we can hope to pull off.

If impeachment is really off the table then this may be our only hope of keeping Bush from doing any more damage to our country and our reputation before he leaves office in 2008.