Tipping Their Hat...

To the new constitution in Iraq, or maybe it's "meet the new boss, same as the old:"

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 24 - Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and hand grenades roamed the streets of western Baghdad in cars this morning, attacking police patrols in residential areas, an Interior Ministry official said.

Two policemen and three civilians were killed, the official said. Twenty-four civilians and seven policemen were wounded. Two insurgents were arrested and a third was killed.

"It was raining bullets," a police official in Baghdad told Reuters. He added that a dozen police vehicles had been sent in to try to evacuate forces, but had failed because of the onslaught.

Also today, the deputy justice minister, Awshoo Ibrahim, escaped an assassination attempt when gunmen fired on his convoy in Ghazaliya, west of the capital, killing four of his guards and wounding five.

The mass attack in Baghdad came a day after a suicide bomber killed at least seven people, including an American soldier and an American contractor, when he rushed into a heavily guarded compound in Baquba where officials coordinate emergency response efforts in the region.

You've gotta love how these days the casualty count is almost an afterthought--indeed, the suicide attack merits six paragraphs, in a style that could be referred to as "Associated Press Lite." Ho-hum, another body--for whom EVERYTHING, not just the war, is over.

I'll admit that I'm not a military strategist; however, it seems pretty obvious that Baghdad is both tactically and strategically important, it being the capital and largest city...the fact that gunbattles are breaking out makes me think that even Dick Cheney might have to modify his 'violent last throe' position...if you can't control the major city of the country you're "occupying," then all bets are off.

I think it's also pretty evident that any concern of the insurgents re: the new consititution is likely to be more related to its usefulness as scrap or toilet paper than anything approaching a set of founding principles. Which might be the REAL lesson absorbed by the Iraqis re: the US invasion. Indeed, we ran roughshod through the country early on, although the occupation has been about as effective as an umbrella in a hurricane. Still, I'm guessing enough Iraqis picked up on--or already held--the position that might makes right, or close enough, and have adopted this as a guide.

And Team Bush can do whatever the hell they want--bellow, bray, admonish...whatever...but at this point the iceberg has already done its damage--the constitution, and any elections are merely rearranging the deck chairs.