Iraq: Better or Worse

We keep being told that the situation in Iraq is improving. So much so that the McCain candidacy in the U.S., which depended on it, has stumbled under the weight of the growing economic crisis. Iraq hardly makes the news anymore.

But Iraq just won't go away. The latest forecast is for increasing battles between the large ethnic minority of Kurds in the north, who would much prefer their own homeland and control over the rich oil fields in the region, and the Arab majority who control Baghdad.

The problem is heightened by the fact that Turkey, with its own Kurdish problems, is adamantly opposed to Kurdish independence. The Kurds are in a vice, but they have been strong allies of the U.S.

The Bush administration used a sledgehammer to try to perform surgery. (See today's New York Times story.)

The Good News:

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was found guilty of multiple corruption charges. The senator, who is 84 years old, continued to urge "Alaskans to re-elect him to a seventh full term next week" (Neil Lewis, The New York Times). Stevens is, of course, one of the leaders in the senate in leading the way to the deregulation that helped lead us into the current economic crisis. Greed, it seems, trumps rational thinking more often than some people believe, at least until they are forced to face the facts.

In the meantime, John McCain called upon Sen. Stevens to resign from the senate today (NPR.org).

The Dude describes the openness of his administration: "As you know, these are open forums, you're able to come and listen to what I have to say." — George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Oct. 28, 2003.