Republicans Anonymous

In keeping with Mr. Bush's demand for more "good news" from Iraq, I imagine Mr. Bush's most recent briefing on Iraq went something like this:

President Bush: "So, what's the good news from Iraq today?"

Nervous Aide: "Well, the vast majority of the Iraqi police force was NOT assassinated yesterday."

President Bush: "Excellent! Get Baghdad's Deputy Chief of Police on the phone. I want to congratulate him."

Nervous Aide: "Unfortunately, sir, the BBC reports that he isn't in the majority..."

Baghdad's deputy police chief has been killed outside his home in the south of the Iraqi capital.

Brigadier Amer Ali Nayef was shot dead along with his son, Khalid Amer - also a policeman - as they left the family home for work in the south of the city.

Violence has been escalating in Iraq ahead of elections due on 30 January.

This is the second killing of a senior official in less than a week. Last Tuesday, Baghdad governor Ali al-Haidri was shot dead in a roadside ambush.

As for the upcoming "corner-turning" elections, the New York Times' Bob Herbert notes:

The unthinkable is getting a tentative purchase in the minds of the staunchest supporters of the war: that under the current circumstances, and given existing troop strengths, the U.S. and its Iraqi allies may not be able to prevail. Military officials are routinely talking about a major U.S. presence in Iraq that will last, at a minimum, into the next decade. That is not what most Americans believed when the Bush crowd so enthusiastically sold this war as a noble adventure that would be short and sweet, and would end with Iraqis tossing garlands of flowers at American troops.

It appears that Iranian-style theocracy, not democracy, will sweep the Middle East due to Mr. Bush's ill-fated adventurism. I wonder how far one hundred billion dollars (and counting) would have gone to save Social Security? I expect we'd have had enough change left over to rebuild Afganistan properly and pay down some of the deficit.