You Knew It Was Just A Matter Of Time

The Bush administration, wanting to get some traction ahead of the State of the Union address and just after the lukewarm reception the "surge" announcement received, probably didn't have a lot of fun this weekend:

Item 1 -

BAGHDAD, Jan. 21 — The United States military said that two marines died Sunday in western Iraq and that an additional seven service members died Saturday. The deaths brought the weekend toll to 27 and made Saturday the third-deadliest day for United States forces since the war here began.

Item 2 -

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Twin bombings Monday tore through stalls of vendors selling second-hand clothes and DVDs in a busy Baghdad market catering to Shiite Muslims during a religious festival. A market also was attacked north of the capital, and police said nearly 100 people died in the renewed campaign blamed on Sunni Muslim insurgents.

Item 3 -

A humanitarian spokesman told the BBC that neighbouring countries where most Iraqis have fled to are closing their doors "one by one" to Iraqis.

About 2m Iraqis live in increasingly difficult conditions in countries like Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon.

The rest of the world has almost completely ignored the problem and the crisis is coming to a head, spokesman Kasaram Mufarah said.

Item 4 -

War's Arab Supporters Bitter Over Its Results

By Anthony Shadid

"It's a success story for al-Qaeda, a success story for autocratic Arab regimes that made democracy look ugly in their people's eyes. They can say to their people: 'Look at the democracy that the Americans want to bring to you. Democracy is trouble. You may as well forget about what the Americans promise you. They promise you death,' " said Salameh Nematt, a Jordanian analyst and the former Washington bureau chief for the Arabic-language daily newspaper al-Hayat.

Added Magdi Khalil, an Egyptian writer and proponent of the invasion, "Everything, everything is very gloomy."

Item 5 -

Time and again, Americans try to comfort themselves over Bush's illegal and failed invasion with not as many have died in this quagmire as in Viet Nam. The yardstick they use is the U.S. death toll after 15 years in Viet Nam vs. less than 4 years in Iraq II, WMD Boogaloo.

In 1961-1965 the U.S. had 1,864 deaths in Viet Nam compared to over 3,000 in Iraq. Relative troop involvement isn't the same but Bush's quagmire is nowhere near finished.

Yea. Mission Accomplished.

snarkasm, snarcasm, snarky

Bush
Iraq