From Regina's Lair
Dateline: July 12, 2006 - Middletown, CT

Donald Rumsfeld visited Iraq today and met with Iraq leaders to discuss the major escalation of civil violence in that country.

Well, guess what the outcome is?

General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, is talking not only NO major troop withdrawals anytime soon, but also about the possibility of recalling and increasing the number of US soldiers there. The sectarian violence is so terrible that over 100 civilians have been killed in Iraq in the past couple of days by feuding factions of Iraqi citizens. Shia "death squads" are roaming freely, especially in Baghdad, killing other Iraqis with impunity.

Rumsfeld said the solution to ending the increasing civil violence is as much a political as a security issue. Apparently, however, the pitiful puppet government we've installed in Iraq just isn't ready to make decisions necessary to permit the United States to reduce US troop presence there. Iraq Prime Minister Nouri Maliki told lawmakers today that the government has "one last chance" to avoid an all-out civil war - the national reconciliation plan he rolled out in June.

Naturally, good ol' Don has no prediction as to when Iraq might be able to take control of its own country. He claims that the Iraqi government is busily engaged in reviewing the entire situation as well developing and implementing ways to stimulate broader support from Sunnis and Shiites alike. To me, this is Bushspeak for "This government doesn't know what the F**K it's doing - so we're going to have to stay here until officials figure out how to effectively lead a nation."

My take? I don't know that there is any group in Iraq that can lead that country away from civil war - Bush's brags to the contrary, the Iraq people have NO EXPERIENCE with democracy and no idea how to proceed to establish and nurture it. No country that is fundamentally a theocracy - again Bush's claims to the contrary - is educated enough in diversity and freedom to understand the workings of a democratic republic. Of course, Georgie-Porgie doesn't understand how to nurture a democracy either - hence the cursed mess we Americans are caught in.

IMHO, this latest crisis in Iraq pretty much seems to doom the chances of most of our brave and overtaxed troops returning home anytime in the near future. In fact, Iraqi war veterans may be recalled and sent out to the hellhole that Bush & Company, in their arrogance, hubris and deceit, has unleashed on the world.

© 2006 RC deWinter