Where is the Iraqi Government?

Where is the Iraqi Government?

Greeted by antiwar protesters at almost every stop
in a tour of a working-class region of England, Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said Friday that the Bush administration has probably made thousands
of “tactical errors” in its handling of the Iraq war. But she defended
the invasion as the right strategic decision.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein “wasn't going anywhere
without military intervention,” Rice told a crowd of British foreign
policy experts in the clubhouse of the local soccer stadium here. And, she
said, “you were not going to have a different Middle East with Saddam
Hussein at the center of it.”

But in response to a question about whether the administration
had learned from its mistakes over the past three years, she said officials
would be “brain-dead” if they did not recognize where they had erred.

“I know we've made tactical errors, thousands
of them I'm sure,” Rice said. “But when you look back in history,
what will be judged is, did you make the right strategic decisions.”

Rice did not cite specific mistakes in Iraq, and State
Department spokesman Sean McCormack said she was speaking figuratively. Rice,
a former political science professor, frequently tries to place the turbulent
years since Sept. 11, 2001, within the scope of history.

“One of the things that is difficult to tell in
the midst of big historic change is what was a good decision and what was
a bad decision,” she said

'Tactical
Errors' Made In Iraq, Rice Concedes

Condi is screwed either way and so are we.

If Bush, Rummy and the bunch have made “thousands” of
errors, which comes close to the picture, Rice just admitted they're all incompetent. If seen through
the lens of whether Bush, Deadeye and Rummy made the “right
strategic decision,” they look like they can't lead. Either way, reality steps in and gives the final verdict. Condi's spin can't help once that happens.

Iraq was a bad decision. Why? Because we elect people to protect
the United States' interests, not go on some democratic joy ride that ruins America's prestige,
influence and brand around the world, which is exactly what George W. Bush and
his bunch have done. Taking the cynical view, we don't elect our presidents to invade oil rich nations, build mega bases, then say it's all to spread peace, prosperity and freedom. The Iraqis aren't buying Bush's latest line, that's for sure.

I mean, seriously, Sistani won't
even open mail from Bush.

I keep coming back to what Bush said recently about the next president
drawing down in Iraq, somewhere after 2009.

With the gigantic permanent bases being constructed, it's one
of two things, either Bush slipped up and actually told the truth, which is
that we're planning to stay around for 10 years. Or he's daring the Democrats
to push him to redeploy, which we're going to do anyway, so what's the point?

This brings us back to Murray
Waas' article earlier this week, which revealed that Bush knew all along
that there was no uranium from Niger, but said there was anyway. Rove and others have been
“insulating” Bush and keeping the truth from coming out for years. It's what's called a cover-up.

Misinformation has become the talking point of the Bush administration
and is woven in so deeply that we cannot possible know the truth about what's
going on in Iraq, on the NSA illegal spying, on our ports and borders, you name it. So it's time to get really simple with our demands, starting first with Iraq.

Where is the Iraqi government? Months after the final vote, the
Iraqis are still dithering and Bush is taking photo op junkets to Cancun that
accomplish nothing. Meanwhile, Condi is dickering with the press on the word
“thousands” because she can't read her own press notes.

There's only one thing that matters. The Iraqis need to form a
government now. Why isn't this happening? Someone needs to get off their diplomatic derriere and find out.