Bloomberg.com: reports, "A senior Iraqi Shiite Muslim lawmaker, Dari al-Fayadh, and his son died in a suicide car bombing in Baghdad." Al-Fayadh served as the acting speaker of the Iraqi parliament during its first session in March. He was a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the same part as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. So a year after the turn over of "power" the carnage continues with no end in sight. We were told once the CPA turned power over to Iraqi things would get better, we were told once there had been elections things would get better, we were told so many things that have turned out to be lies.... A year after we turned things over it's hard to see any meaningful progress in Iraq. I know it's hard work and all but one would expect that things would be at least a bit better. Bush & Co. keep telling us that all we hear is the bad news, but then they never offer up any hard evidence of anything really good happening. Ok, some schools might be open, but the road to the Baghdad airport remains dangerous. Ok, they had elections, but bombs go off every day all over the country. There still appears to be massive corruption and "in Baghdad, the power is off for four hours, then on for only two."
Meanwhile Bush will get on T.V. tonight, probably surrounded by flags and soldiers in uniform and maybe a tank or two in the background (shit, he might even have Saddam's golden gun on the table too) and tell the American people that victory is just around the corner if only we remain steadfast. No matter what Georgie says, remember it's been a year and what do we have to show for our efforts? He'll be sure to talk about "political" progress but ask yourself, how much of the country does the Iraqi government really control? How much of an impact are they having? No amount of liberal bashing will make the situation in Iraqi any better. We need a new policy and it appears the only way we're going to bet a new policy is through regime change in Washington, D.C. Bush has managed to ensure that any President who follows him will have a poison pill to swallow.
