Politicians are stupid everywhere...

Politics rears its Iraqi head

Today brought some bad news for the Surge. "Iraq's three-member presidency council has rejected a draft law to hold provincial elections and returned it to parliament, the president's office said on Wednesday." Fortunately, the other two laws which were part of the reform package "the 2008 federal budget and a general amnesty" passed. But "the law to hold provincial elections has not been approved and has been sent back to the parliament".

Each passing week forces commanders on the ground to extemporize while Baghdad's partisan politics plays its dreary games. And every delay raises the risk that stagnation would provide an opportunity for trouble to break out again. In the same week the veto was passed sixty four pilgrims were killed in the Shi'ite south, including the 74-year old chief of the Iraqi Journalists' Union, Shihab al-Timimi. The men on the ground have done their best. Now the politicians will do their worst.