...the general hasn't read the news. According to David Brooks, noted war correspondent and scholar (among others similarly credentialed), we are now in the "post-war" phase. Since all of the news from Iraq is so good, how can it be other wise? And really, how can you trust an Iraqi to know how Iraq is? It's not like he's ever written an op/ed column for the WaPo.

We never said it would be belly dancers and magical unicorns when Western troops left. We said it would be better for us and maybe them too if we did. Few will care if Iraq erupts in flaming cannibalism if it happens 6 months after the last GI leaves.

I must wonder if, considering the our government's status in Iraq--which is an independent and sovereign nation, as we all know—as protector of that country’s people and government, why we didn’t launch interception aircraft when Turkey attacked the Northern Kurdish areas. Would we have allowed Iranian aircraft to do the same? I cannot but assume we had warning of the attack and, in effect, condoned it to placate our “allies” in Turkey. Perhaps they were merely acting as our surrogate force since we also consider the PKK to be a terrorist group. But doesn’t it seem politically sensitive that we allow a foreign power (Turkey) to attack a sovereign nation under our protection (Iraq), with the full knowledge that such an attack will, by its very nature (high speed fighter-bombers at night), result in “collateral damage”—i.e. civilian casualties? Is life getting to be so cheap in our dealings with Iraq that we’d allow this without a military response?

soooooo modern-day Democracy-like. Turkey had an excellent model/mentor to follow: Us. So, letting our allies bomb "troublemakers" without accountability has become the standard non-response from the Bushits. Look no farther back than the slaughter resulting from the air raids perpetuated by the Israelis on Lebanon that occurred in spite of the outcry from the world as we sat on our hands in approval. It's time to replace the Statue of Liberty with a replica of the three sitting monkeys...

"...and now we are faced with a situation where these police are loyal to their parties not their country."

I guess we really are bringing American Democracy to Iraq!