Here in the reality-based world, its tough to imagine the situation on the ground in Iraq and how the president’s new “way forward” could possibly be any more effective than the past four years of “staying the course.”

Fortunately, a few high-ranking defense officials and pundits recently provided us with better context for understanding the road to a “free” Iraq.

This week, Ann Coulter offered the nugget below:

This statement is even more pathetic in print: “Basically, um, it is like California with Baghdad as LA with Hispanics, white and blacks.” She added, “You have the Crips and the Bloods in Baghdad. That’s where all the fighting is…”

Just a week ago, in comparing new tactics proposed to create safe, “gated communities” in Baghdad for civilians (while forcibly “removing” insurgents) to life in Los Angeles, an unnamed Defense official said:

“You do it neighborhood by neighborhood….Think of L.A. Let’s say we take West Hollywood and gate it off. Or Anaheim. Or central Los Angeles. You control that area first and work out from there.”

Said Congressman Peter King (R-N.Y.) last October after returning from a trip to Iraq:

Conditions on the ground are different than what you see on television.—As we go through the city of Baghdad, it was like being in Manhattan. I’m talking about bumper to bumper traffic. Talking about shopping centers, talking about restaurants, talking about video stores, talking about guys–on the street corner, talking about major hotels. And so, at that moment, people must be amazingly resilient and you would never know that there was a war going on…

Sen. Lieberman, who supports Bush’s “surge” as if under hypnosis said on Imus in the Morning, “Let’s hope it works, pray it works, and if it doesn’t, then we’ll figure out what we’re gonna do then.”

The ridiculous statements have only increased since the ax fell on Fmr. SecDef Donald H. “by golly” Rumsfeld and as the president continues to replace commanders on the ground with fresh eyes, expect it to continue.

As Matt Taibbi summed up in Rolling Stone:

The whole idea that “more troops” are needed in Iraq is absurd on its face. They sell this idea in America as though our soldiers are being sent to patrol the streets like New York City cops policing Malcolm X Boulevard on foot — spreading goodwill, talking to shopkeepers, collaring the occasional fare-jumper, and scaring off the odd stick-up kid by their very presence.

How can all of these pols describe Iraq as like outta some kind of dream when in reality it’s nothing short of a nightmare going wronger?