Iraq Today

Oh, this is good (not). Iraq's (Kurdish) President is calling on the (Shiite) PM to resign. Remember, it's supposed to be the Sunnis who are causing problems... Juan Cole warns that such political "tottering" could lead to the collapse of the Iraqi government. He also calls the new constitution a sick joke:

given that it is two weeks before the referendum and no ordinary Iraqis have seen the text of the new constitution, and given that the Sunni Arabs reject it to a person even just from the little they know of it, this constitution is another sick joke played by the Bush administration, which keeps forcing Iraq to jump through hoops made in Washington as "milestones" and "tipping points" to which the Republican Party can point as progress.

Cole also slips this out:

Personally, I'm not sure Zarqawi exists...

In fact, Cole could find himself in a prison cell next to Cindy Sheehan pretty soon if he keep this stuff up:

A Government of War Criminals
A Press of Agents Provocateurs
A Bureaucracy of Foreign Spies

Just reading ordinary press reports on the state of government and the press in Washington is like stepping into Orwell's 1984.

The Attorney General authorizes torture, the president orders it with weasel words, and the press acquiesces, mostly not even bothering with even a feeble protest...

Damn straight, mate.

Meanwhile, Rummy's man takes over from General Myers as head of the US Army. When the order comes to invade Iran or Syria, don't expect any questions from Perfect Pete.

At the same time, the top soldier in Blair's UKGB says his army is "guilty by association" for facilitating Blair's unwanted war:

Some of the opprobrium attached to the war is also attached to the fact that the armed services are taking part in it. We are, if you like, guilty by association with a decision to go to war that not the whole of this country enjoined.

General Sir Michael Walker, chief of the defence of staff, also discourages talk of "winning" in Iraq:

Winnable is the wrong word. I think what it is, is that there is a 'my glass is half full'...

And lest anyone think all this talk of pull-outs and compromises should be filtering through to the corridors of power in DC, Condi Rice continues to try and rationalize the Bush Doctrine:

In a world where evil is still very real, democratic principles must also be backed with power in all its forms: political and economic, cultural and moral, and yes, sometimes military. Any champion of democracy who promotes principles without power can make no real difference in the lives of oppressed people.

I wonder what Gandhi would have said about that? I guess it depends on how you define the word "power"...