"Yet, on the ground in Iraq, the violence gets worse. A U.S. offensive called Operation Matador, near the Syrian border, was met by fierce Iraqi resistance, decimating one Marine unit. Insurgents also carried out a wave of car bombings that left about 450 Iraqis dead, including many police and government soldiers.
"American analysts also seem to have missed much of the significance of Iraq's Jan. 30 (2005) election. In part, it was a vote by the Shiite majority to consolidate its new political dominance over the formerly powerful Sunni minority. But the vote also was a repudiation of the U.S.-handpicked leaders closely associated with the occupation.
"Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and other Iraqis in the U.S.-installed government were trounced at the polls by the United Iraqi Alliance, whose platform called for 'a timetable for the withdrawal of the multinational forces from Iraq.' "
"Breaking with the official optimism in a briefing to New York Times reporters, American military commanders 'gave a sobering new assessment' of the war. One officer said the U.S. military might have to remain in Iraq for 'many years,' the Times reported." [For more, see Consortiumnews.com's "Bush's Dangerous Wishful Thinking."]
Now, almost one year after that article and three years into the war, the Iraqi political situation continues to deteriorate - and Bush plans to hit the road again selling his elixir of happy talk, flag-waving jingoism and delusion.
His political advisers apparently have told him that he still has an audience of Americans who will believe whatever he says.
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'
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