So it's official: the Iraq war is a failure. A US government report [PDF] shows that the Iraqi government has met only 8 of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress to gague the success of the "surge" - and that most of the failures are military. Despite this, Bush has declared that the US can still succeed, and again threatened dire consequences if the US withdraws. But it seems that the US people - and the Iraqi people, for that matter - are tiring of that line. But their respective governments are overruling them in the name of "democracy". The Onion couldn't make that one up.
Meanwhile, the killing just keeps going on and on, and has now just become background noise. Last week's massive bombing - the death toll of which has now risen to over 150 - was buried in the news, while the NZ media joke that Paris Hlton got so much coverage because it was a slow news day where TVNZ would lead with "bomb in Baghdad kills 30". The war is a disaster, and its time Congress pulled the plug.
Fortunately, they seem to be moving in the right direction...
