Delusions

"We're making great progress," and the Iraqi election is "a historical marker for our Iraq policy," chirped George W. Bush, adding, without a hint of irony, "I suspect if you were asking me questions 18 months ago and I said there's going to be elections in Iraq, you would have had trouble containing yourself from laughing out loud at the president."



Bush acknowledged that in parts of four of Iraq's 18 provinces, "terrorists are trying to stop people from voting," failing to mention that one-half of the population of Iraq lives in those four provinces, and refusing to acknowledge that the insurgency is growing stronger, having just this week demonstrated that they have learned how to successfully attack and kill 50,000 pound Bradley armored vehicles.



Meanwhile Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security advisor, said that the only chance the U.S. might have of meeting its goals of producing a reasonably stable Iraqi government would be "if we are willing to put in 500,000 troops, spend $200 billion a year, probably have the draft and have some kind of wartime taxation," adding that even then, far from the Jeffersonian democracy Mr. Bush extols, the most we can hope for is a Shiite-controlled theocracy.



Toward the end of the week, U.S. forces handed the insurgents another victory when they mistakenly dropped a 500 pound bomb on a private home. Residents said the U.S. attack killed 14 civilians. The Pentagon acknowledge its mistake, but said only five were killed.



Los Angeles Times - Bush Optimistic About Iraq Vote Despite Warnings