Needlenose Nails It

Swopa's post nicely sums up the news from Iraq:

First, there's TODAY'S car bomb near the Green Zone. As I noted yesterday, CNN might as well add 'bomb blast near the Green Zone' to their style sheet. Then they can fill in the details as they arrive.

Then he links to two Los Angeles Times articles. One sheds some light on the "rebuilding the schools" sham (short version: we're NOT), while the other notes a disturbing phenomenon: doctors are routinely kidnapped, either for ransom or as part of an ongoing effort to destabilize the healthcare network.

You'd think the occupying army might want to ensure security and stability...but, right now, survival might be a more pressing issue. Mission Accomplished, anyone?

As Swopa notes, whoever is "president" of Iraq doesn't really matter. They might as well make it a fantasy league game. The real issue is whether or not a functioning nation can be built from the mess we created in the course of invasion and occupation. And, right now, the answer is no, it can't. We've committed $200 billion dollars to the project, and the best we're going to get is what we have right now.

What a fucking waste.