The nerve of a desperate president

By Michael J.W. Stickings

After all he has done -- after dividing the country after 9/11, launching a disastrous war in Iraq on the basis of lies, and using the war for partisan gain -- Bush still has the nerve to say this:

Now it is the responsibility of all of us in Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike, to come together and find greater consensus on the best way forward.

Pardon me, Mr. President, but fuck off. It is your war that has left thousands of Americans and many more thousands of Iraqis dead. It is your leadership, or lack thereof, that has gotten your country where it is today, stuck in a quagmire from which there is no easy way out. It is you who have turned so many of your fellow Americans against you and your warmongers. It is you who have destroyed America's reputation and credibility around the world.

And now, when things look so bleak, when you yourself are so desperate, only now do you reach out and seek consensus. Isn't it a bit late for that now? After all you've done?

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Meanwhile:

Violence continued in Iraq on Saturday as a car bomb in the Shia holy city of Karbala killed at least five people and injured more than 40 others.

The bomb, driven by a suicide attacker, went off near the Imam al-Abbas shrine, the final resting place of the son of the founder of Shia Islam...

In other attacks on Saturday:

• A car bomb killed three people in the northern city of Mosul
• Two people died in a mortar attack in the mainly Shia suburb of Kadhimiya in Baghdad
• Four civilians were killed in separate attacks by gunmen on crowds in Baquba, AFP news agency reports.

Yes, just another day in the life and death of Iraq.