Reports The Guardian, Aug. 24:

An American military commander in Iraq today said a senior Republican senator's call for a troop withdrawal would represent "a giant step backwards" in one of the country's most precarious regions.

The sad—and frightening—thing is that Americans generally have such a poor sense of history that many will get taken in by Bush's warped Vietnam analogies, delivered to applause at a National Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention in Kansas City Aug. 22. The Washington Post offers some quotes:

Remember back in March when the Brits pulled out of southern Iraq, citing "progress"? Looks like the only thing which has "progressed" is a violent internecine Shi'ite struggle for political control. From the LAT, Aug. 21 (links and emphasis added):

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed the governor of Muthanna province yesterday, and armed men in a fleet of sport utility vehicles kidnapped a senior government minister on a busy Baghdad street.

Freedom's on the march. From Reuters, Aug. 18:

BAGHDAD — Rare footage from inside a Baghdad prison camp shows hundreds of inmates packed into wire-mesh tents, protesting their innocence.

The Iranian military has shelled territory in Iraqi Kurdistan intermittently over the past three days, wounding two women and forcing the evacuation of 200 families, local officials reported Aug. 18. Hussein Ahmed, the mayor of Qal'at Dizah, a town close to the Iranian line, said several thousand Iranian soldiers could also be seen near the border. There was no immediate comment from Tehran or Baghdad on the reports. Jabar Yaour, undersecretary at the Ministry for Peshmerga Affairs in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, said the shelling took place across a range of about 50 kilometers (30 miles). "Damage has occurred in Kurdish villages on the Iraqi side and resulted in the evacuation of more than 200 families from these villages," Yaour told Reuters.

In a July report, Oxfam warns that while armed violence is the greatest threat facing Iraqis, the population is also experiencing another kind of crisis of an alarming scale and severity. Eight million people are in urgent need of emergency aid; that figure includes over two million who are displaced within the country, and more than two million refugees. Many more are living in poverty, without basic services, and increasingly threatened by disease and malnutrition. Oxfam finds: "Despite the constraints imposed by violence, the government of Iraq, the United Nations, and international donors can do more to deliver humanitarian assistance to reduce unnecessary suffering. If people's basic needs are left unattended, this will only serve to further destabilize the country."

This piece is far too optimistic and soft on Bush, but perhaps the writer wants the president to listen, and is phrasing his critique thusly. We think that's a lost cause, but the historical analogy is still worth considering. Richard Bulliet writes for the International Herald Tribune, Aug. 2:

Bush and Napoleon
What does George W. Bush share with Napoleon Bonaparte? Perhaps only one thing. Both men launched spectacular attacks on Arab countries, won stunning initial victories, and then became bogged down in a hopeless military occupations.

Did you happen to see this one? From AP, July 31:

NASHVILLE — A proud enclave of Kurds has lived in this city for decades, starting businesses and soccer leagues, holding down good jobs and blending into the immigrant neighborhoods south of town. But now the Kurdish immigrant community has been shaken to see its young people joining a street gang that blends old-world customs and new-world thuggery. Police blame the gang for a string of rapes, assaults and home invasions. The gang calls itself Kurdish Pride and is made up of 20 to 30 teenagers and young adults.