Just another day in the life and death of Iraq XXV

By Michael J.W. Stickings

From CNN:

-- "Nine U.S. troops died in Iraq during the weekend, including five killed by roadside bombs, the U.S. military reported Sunday."

-- "Iraqi police found 51 bodies across the Iraqi capital, all shot to death, a Baghdad emergency police official said Sunday. Some were blindfolded with bound hands, and showed signs of torture. They are believed to be victims of the Sunni-Shiite sectarian warfare."

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Oh, but there may be "significant changes" ahead, according to National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. "'The president has said that what is going on in Iraq is not going well enough or fast enough,' Mr. Hadley said [yesterday] on the NBC News program 'Meet the Press,'" as reported in the Times.

Which is laughable, given that this is Bush's war. He wanted it and he got it and he's responsible for it. And, however disastrous it's been and continues to be, it's evidently a war he still wants to fight -- desperately, stubbornly. Hadley said that there won't be withdrawal for the sake of withdrawal: "'That's cut and run, and of course, as the president has said, cut and run is not his cup of tea,' Mr. Hadley said." Not his "cup of tea"?! This war isn't anyone's cup of tea anymore. It certainly isn't the American people's cup of tea. And, Mr. Hadley, isn't there a better way to put it than "cup of tea"? In case you haven't noticed, people are dying. Lots of people. American troops and many, many Iraqi civilians. It's a gruesome mess. If Bush doesn't favour withdrawal, it's not because it's not his "cup of tea". It's because he inhabits a realm of fantasy, a bubble of delusion and self-righteousness, that is largely impenetrable.

Hadley said that Bush will present his new direction in "weeks, not months". But it's already too late. Those of us who pay attention to reality, including Democrats and Republicans alike who are proposing various plans for withdrawal, have known that for a long time.

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Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said this in opposition to calls for an international conference on Iraq: "We are an independent and a sovereign nation, and it is we who decide the fate of the nation."

There you go, Mr. Hadley. Would you mind passing that along to your boss?