Chaos? What Chaos?

"I keep reading stories about it's a country in chaos. This is simply not true," Iraqi supremo Paul Bremer today told the Washington Post. "It is not a country in chaos, and Baghdad is not a city in chaos."

Got that? Thugs with AK-47s roam the streets, the UN and international aid agencies are pulling out because the inadequate military force cannot or will not guarantee their safety, but it's not chaos. Water supplies, electricity and oil pipelines are being bombed on a daily basis but, Hey! it's probably safer than South Central LA, right?

Bremer also dismissed suggestions that the UN would do a better job of controlling Iraq.

"What exactly is it that happens on the ground that makes things better if the U.N. is in charge of reconstruction?" Bremer said. "How does the situation on the ground get better?"

Well, let's see. I guess the Iraqi people would think that they they have successfully repelled an invasion and will soon be able to take control of their own country. So that should reduce the number of soldiers being killed, for a start. Anti-US Islamic fanatics would stop pouring in across the borders. And presumably the UN would ensure their are enough peace-keepers in the country to do the job they are supposed to do, whereas Bush knows that sending in more troops now will be political suicide.