Juan Cole's review of where we are in Iraq is a must read.

Critique of US Policy in Iraq
by Juan Cole

Bush Administration policies in Iraq have largely been a failure. It has created a failed state in that country, which is in flames and seething with new religious and ethnic nationalist passions of a sort never before seen on this scale in modern Iraqi history. The severe instability in Iraq threatens the peace and security of the entire region, and could easily ignite a regional guerrilla war that might well affect petroleum exports from the Oil Gulf and hence the health of the world economy.

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"Victory"? Forget it
Bush is trying to keep Americans from abandoning his disastrous war by claiming victory is at hand. But even his own generals know that's a lie.
By Sidney Blumenthal

When new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki unveiled his government last week, five months after his country's elections, and was unable to appoint ministers of defense and interior, President Bush hailed it as a "turning point." And that was just one month after Maliki's mentor, former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari, to whom he had been loyal deputy, installed in the position through the support of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was forced to relinquish his office through U.S. pressure. Bush has been proclaiming Iraq at a turning point for years. "Turning point" is a frequent and recurring talking point, often taken up by the full chorus of the president ("We've reached another great turning point," Nov. 6, 2003; "A turning point will come in less than two weeks," June 18, 2004), vice president ("I think about when we look back and get some historical perspective on this period, I'll believe that the period we were in through 2005 was, in fact, a turning point," Feb. 7, 2006), secretary of state and secretary of defense, and ringing down the echo chamber. This latest "turning point" reveals an Iraqi state without a social contract, a government without a center, a prime minister without power and an American president without a strategy.

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The elephant in the Iraqi chamber

The narrative that the Bush administration and its apologists have been trying to peddle regarding Iraq is that a "sovereign" Iraqi parliament is now in power in Baghdad, and the government confirmed yesterday by that parliament is now well launched on its task of restoring peace and order in the country. (And if, um, the Iraqi government should fail at that-- well, that would be their own fault, wouldn't it?) This narrative completely ignores the "elephant in the room" of Iraqi politics, i.e. the continuing and heavy-handed influence exercised over the Iraqi parliament and government by US officials, primarily "Ambassador"-- in reality, "Viceroy"-- Zalmay Khalilzad. Indeed, Khalilzad was actually in the chamber yesterday during the crucial parliamentary session that confirmed PM Maliki's (still incomplete) government list. WaPo reporters Nelson Hernandez and Omar Fekeiki made clear in this report that Khalilzad was not only present but also helping to direct and stage-manage events there:

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Iraq is Disintegrating as Ethnic Cleansing Takes Hold
Across central Iraq, there is an exodus of people fleeing for their lives as sectarian assassins and death squads hunt them down. At ground level, Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold on a massive scale.

The state of Iraq now resembles Bosnia at the height of the fighting in the 1990s when each community fled to places where its members were a majority and were able to defend themselves. "Be gone by evening prayers or we will kill you," warned one of four men who called at the house of Leila Mohammed, a pregnant mother of three children in the city of Baquba, in Diyala province north-east of Baghdad. He offered chocolate to one of her children to try to find out the names of the men in the family.

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Both Turkey and Iran battling Kurds within Iraqi borders

Basically, it is exactly the scenerio everyone feared and no one wanted to happen.     Both Turkey and Iran have been launching military raids into northern Iraq against a Kurdish paramilitary group that is based there, posing a dangerous new threat to stability both within Iraq and to the region.     Turkey recently launched a massive military operation involving more than 250,000 troops against the PKK (nearly double the number of US troops in Iraq), concentrated in the mountains along Turkey's borders with Iran and Iraq. Extensive incursions into northern Iraq have been reported, aimed at cutting off the PKK's supply lines to Turkey from its camps in northern Iraq.    Iran, meanwhile, has begun attacks on PKK units based in Iran, and the Iranian military has entered Iraqi territory in hot pursuit of PKK militants.

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Calling out Rummy

Following is a recent email exchange between Larry DiRita, from SecDef McNama... err, Rumsfeld's office, and Joe Galloway. Genl. Barry McCaffrey insisted to Joe that he release it to us, and to everyone else who can read, so he did. A little hard to follow just below, but it gets easier and very interesting. Here's both sides, folks. What they used to call "unvarnished", like it or not.

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Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight

The U.S. military is sending troops with serious psychological problems into Iraq and is keeping soldiers in combat even after superiors have been alerted to suicide warnings and other signs of mental illness, a Courant investigation has found.

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Easily Dispensable: Iraq's Children
By Dahr Jamail

Cherishing children is the mark of a civilized society. - Joan Ganz Cooney If, as I would like to believe, the above quote suggests all children and not merely those born in Western democracies, I am no longer certain that we live in a civilized society. That women and children suffer the most during times of war is not a new phenomenon. It is a reality as old as war itself. What Rumsfeld, Rice and other war criminals of the Cheney administration prefer to call "collateral damage" translates in English as the inexcusable murder of and other irreparable harm done to women, children and the elderly during any military offensive. US foreign policy in the Middle East manifests itself most starkly in its impact on the children of Iraq. It is they who continue to pay with their lives and futures for the brutal follies of our administration. Starvation under sanctions, and death and suffering during war and occupation are their lot. Since the beginning of the occupation, Iraqi children have been affected worst by the violence generated by the occupying forces and the freedom fighters.

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