TALES TOLD BY IDIOTS

“We're not going to be intimidated by thugs and assassins,” Bush said. “We will achieve victory in Iraq. And by achieving victory in Iraq, we will make it more secure for a generation of Americans. They hope that we lose our nerve. We will not lose our nerve.”
George W. Bush
April 11, 2006

"It is simply not useful to get into fantasy land."
Donald Rumsfeld
April 11, 2006


Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Situation in Iraq could not be worse
By PATRICK COCKBURN
GUEST COLUMNIST
seattlepit.com

BAGHDAD, Iraq --

I have been covering the war in Iraq ever since it began three years ago and I have never seen the situation so grim. More than a week ago, I was in the northern city of Mosul, protected by 3,000 Kurdish soldiers, but even so it was considered too dangerous to send out patrols in daytime. It is safer at night because of a curfew.

I have been covering the war in Iraq ever since it began three years ago and I have never seen the situation so grim. More than a week ago, I was in the northern city of Mosul, protected by 3,000 Kurdish soldiers, but even so it was considered too dangerous to send out patrols in daytime. It is safer at night because of a curfew.

I was in Lebanon at the start of the civil war in 1975. Baghdad today resembles Beirut then.

Bush and Blair have for the past three years continually understated the gravity of what is taking place. It has been frustrating as a journalist to hear them claim that much of Iraq is peaceful when we could not prove them wrong without being killed or kidnapped. The capture of Saddam in 2003, the handover of sovereignty in 2004, the elections and new constitution in 2005 have all been oversold to the outside world as signs of progress.

Three years ago, when Saddam's statue was toppled, Iraqis were promised their lives would get better. Instead Iraq has become the most dangerous place in the world.