Iraq: another regime change?

Saturday, April 01, 2006

As of March 29, 2,531 "coalition" soldiers have died in Iraq since the US-Britis
h invasion: 2,324 Americans, 103 Britons, 26 Italians, 18 Ukrainians, 17 Poles,
13 Bulgarians, 11 Spaniards, three Danes, three Slovaks, two Dutch, two Estonian
s, two Salvadorans, two Thais, one Hungarian, one Latvian, one Kazakh and one Fi
jian. Never mind the Iraqi civilian and military casualties in these three years
. But no one is mentioning the latest mortality -- "democracy," for which these
2,531 men and women died.

It has to be dead if the prime minister in the Iraqi government set up after Ame
rican-sponsored elections is told by the US ambassador that President Bush "does
n't want, doesn't support, doesn't accept" his continuation in office. Redha Jow
ad Taqi, the head of the main Shiite political bloc, said on Tuesday that Ambass
ador Zalmay Khalilzad also said during a meeting that the MP had with him on Sat
urday to convey this message from Mr Bush to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari,
who the Shiites want to remain for another four years.