Getting better all the time


The news from Iraq just keeps getting better.

According to yesterday's Guardian, even our propaganda puppets are turning against us:

His hands were bleeding and his eyes filled with tears as, four years ago, he slammed a sledgehammer into the tiled plinth that held a 20ft bronze statue of Saddam Hussein. Then Kadhim al-Jubouri spoke of his joy at being the leader of the crowd that toppled the statue in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Now, he is filled with nothing but regret.

The moment became symbolic across the world as it signalled the fall of the dictator. Wearing a black vest, Mr al-Jubouri, an Iraqi weightlifting champion, pounded through the concrete in an attempt to smash the statue and all it meant to him. Now, on the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, he says: "I really regret bringing down the statue. The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day."

...

... he now says he would prefer to be living under Saddam than under US occupation. He said: "The devil you know [is] better than the devil you don't. We no longer know friend from foe. The situation is becoming more dangerous. It's not getting better at all. People are poor and the prices are going higher and higher."

The record will show that the folks who pulled down that statue were imported special for the event, it not being the spontaneous eruption of joy that it was made out to be.

Today the BBC reports anew something that has been obvious for a while:

An Iraqi police chief cannot trust one third of his officers because they are loyal to illegal militias, he has told the BBC.

General Abdul Hussein Al Saffe, head of policing in Dhi Qhar province, told the BBC's Paul Wood he could not sack them as they had political protection.

The British commander on site must be taking lessons from the Americans. See if you can extract any meaning from this comment:

British commander Maj Gen Jonathan Shaw said Iraqi ministers knew the police were "not perfect".
But the Iraqis were making a judgement for "self-reliance", he said.

"There's always a balance when you have a newly created police force and army," he said.

"It's a question of balancing Iraqi enthusiasm for self-reliance with the risk of when they are capable of taking that responsibility, and that judgement really has to be made by Iraqis, which they are doing.

If that last sentence is an accurate, direct quote, then the man has a future. Tony Snow may meltdown any day, and this guy could step right into his shoes.
Posted: Tuesday - March 20, 2007 at 07:46 PM          

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