Reality in Iraq

According to Editor & Publisher, The Washington Post has acquired a "sensitive" cable detailing the situation in Iraq sent from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad (perhaps from Ambassador Khalilzad himself) to the Secretary of State just before Bush's recent surprise visit:

This cable outlines, the Post reported Sunday, "the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government."

It's actually far worse than that, as the details published below indicate, which include references to abductions, threats to women's rights, and "ethnic cleansing."

The White House may wish it were otherwise, and it may spin it differently, and it may even believe its own spin, but there is a truly disturbing disconnect between what Bush and his apologists are telling us about Iraq and what's really going on there.

No, this isn't news. Many of us have been saying this for a long, long time. This cable just reinforces what we've been saying (both about Iraq and about the spin).

The White House will no doubt offer some of the usual spin in response to "KHALILZAD". (Or it'll hope no one pays this story much attention.) But shouldn't the U.S. embassy in Baghdad know what it's talking about? Its report of reality in Iraq surely bears far more resemblance to the truth than anything we've ever heard from Bush and his various mouthpieces of delusion.

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Digby responds to the cable here.