Umm, what's up in Iraq?

[Ghoulish Delight]

So, the last I heard, there was yet another 1-day extension for the Iraqi constitution...then Katrina hit and I haven't heard a peep. Anyone know what's going on? Is there a draft constitution?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Last I heard they were still giving them extensions.

I also heard that they handed over one big city to complete Iraqi control, but it's a city that hasn't seen much in insurgents, so it's not that huge a deal.

[sleepyjeff]

At least Rove is now on page 26 E or further in most papers now :)

[SacTown Chronic]

Iraq? We won!

[Name]

Iraq? We won!
So the troops are on their way back then?

[TigerLily]

So the troops are on their way back then?
no...they will be there for a while. Some feel we need a foot hold in the middle east....

[PanTheMan]

MISSION ACCOMPLI****tED!

Read the Iraqi "Constitution" (Google it)......read Article 7.

They Want an Islamic State.

I would have loved to have seen the faces of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld. and Co. when they read that. I Bet the Circle Jerk LOST ALL RYTHEM.

[Name]

Like that should be any surprise.

[wendybeth]

At least Rove is now on page 26 E or further in most papers now :)

Yeah, I noticed that as well. :rolleyes:

[wendybeth]

Pan, you're gonna have to pace yourself- I only have so much mojo....:snap:

[PanTheMan]

Pan, you're gonna have to pace yourself- I only have so much mojo....:snap:

I Shall try. However there is SO MUCH to laugh at when it comes to Bushie and friends....

(shhhh..I haven't even started.... :evil: )

[PanTheMan]

In the first days of the Hurricane Katrina crisis, White House staff became worried that President Bush was OUT OF TOUCH with of the dire reality of the situation. Newsweek reports, "Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor [Dan] Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One." Bartlett's plan seemed to work -- the next morning, Bush made his first critical remarks about the disaster relief efforts. Unfortunately, after two and a half years, no one seems to have made President Bush a similar DVD about Iraq. Just before his focus turned to Katrina, Bush was likening the war in Iraq to World War II and claiming again that U.S. forces are making "progress." Another reality check is needed. As President Bush prepares to meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the Progress Report offers its suggestions for what Bush needs know about the dangerous direction we're heading in Iraq:

WAR STILL COSTING AMERICANS DEARLY: American soldiers continue to make the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq. fourteen U.S troops have been killed already this month, a rate of one per day.

STILL NO CONSTITUTION FIVE WEEKS FROM VOTE: "Iraqi politicians have failed to conclude negotiations on a draft constitution," Reuters reported yesterday, "and it remains unclear when a final text may be printed." Not only does the delay indicate a continuing political stalemate, it also threatens the October 15 referendum. By today, at least five million copies of Iraq's draft constitution were to have been distributed to the Iraqi public to give them time to read and debate the document before the planned vote.

RECONSTRUCTION GRINDS TO A HALT: "The U.S. will halt construction work on some water and power plants in Iraq because it is running out of money for projects," according to the Los Angeles Times. Spikes in security costs due to the rampant violence cut into the money first put aside for such major infrastructure projects. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) calls the reconstruction effort "slower, more painful, more complex, more fragmented and more inefficient than anyone in Washington or Baghdad could have imagined a couple of years ago."

HUMAN RIGHTS VACUUM: A United Nations human rights report released last week described "consistent" reports of "systematic torture in police stations," and said that individuals detained by the Ministry of Interior are often found dead in the streets, the corpses often bearing signs of torture, apparently "victims of extrajudicial executions." Additionally, the Shi'ite-led government has had to repeatedly deny accusations from Sunnis that "it tolerates sectarian death squads among police forces," though the government has admitted that "abuses do occur." The report also criticizes "mass arrests" by U.S. and Iraqi forces, and long detentions without charge, which it says "could damage support for the new political system."

KATRINA AFTERMATH HIGHLIGHTS NATIONAL GUARD CRISIS: "The National Guard is stretched so thin by simultaneous assignments in Iraq and the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast that leaders in statehouses and Congress say it is time to reconsider how the force is used," the AP reports. Indeed, shortages caused by the war in Iraq actually delayed the Guard response in Mississippi and Louisiana by a full day, according to Lt. Gen. Stephen Blum, head of the National Guard Bureau. The strain on the Guard is also being felt in Iraq, where troops from the Gulf Coast were refused even 15-day leaves, "told by commanders there are too few U.S. troops in Iraq to spare them."

VIOLENCE SPREADING SOUTH? Violence is now spreading into even the typically peaceful regions of Iraq, which are overseen mostly by British troops. Multiple deadly car bombs in the Shi'ite south last week have coalition and Iraqi authorities "wondering whether they are seeing the start of a fresh wave of violence in the run up to next month's referendum on the new Iraqi constitution," BBC reports. In any case, analysts still see Iraq as the world's prime spawning ground of terrorism. "One used to be worried about Afghanistan being the center of terrorist activities," United Nations leader Kofi Annan said last week. "My sense is that Iraq has become a major problem and in fact is worse than Afghanistan."

EVEN WAR SUPPORTERS LONGING FOR A WHITE HOUSE STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS: Numerous recent public opinion surveys show that Americans simply do not want to "stay the course" any longer in Iraq. The feeling is so widespread that the Bush administration "is now starting to lose its base on the war," according to former administration Iraq adviser Larry Diamond, "and if this continues, it will come under increasing pressure to accelerate our withdrawal." One such member of the the president's base, Ret. Col. David Hunt, a Fox News contributor, recently expressed frustration with how the administration is handling the war. "This has been a terribly conducted war. It's been 28 months of this – it's time to get upset," he said. "We're getting shot at by people who put bombs in dead dogs. We’re not fighting it right."
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THAT is What's up In Iraq. The BODY Count.