Mission Accomplished

The extended deadline for agreement on a new Iraqi constitution has come and gone. This is, sadly, no great surprise. The parties have agreed to extend the deadline for a further three days but it's hard to see how this extra three days is going to produce the agreement which has, so far, been so elusive. I suspect the three days are mostly to discuss what they're going to do about the fact that no agreement seems possible.

The Independent highlights some of the problems which still have to be overcome. I have to again ask why no-one in the US or UK government's seems to have grasped that these problems would occur before we invaded Iraq. It's not rocket science. As I've said before, Bush Senior understood only too well what a mess invading Iraq could turn out to be.

Not so for Dubya though. Remember Mission Accomplished? When that happened, I took it as the final proof of something I'd been pretty sure about for quite some time: Bush Junior genuinely didn't have the slightest understanding of the extremely difficult and complex situation which would unfold in an Iraq under US and UK occupation. Powell's warnings concerning the "Pottery Barn Rule" were completely lost on the man.

Two years on, and with no sign of anything approaching stability developing in Iraq, can anyone seriously argue that I was wrong?

BTW, the Whitehouse assertion that the banner was the work of the navy is disgustingly disingenuous. He's the freakin President, for flump's sake. He's the Commander in Chief of US armed forces. What he says, unfortunately, goes. You think his aides would allow him to be photographed with that banner, as part of a stage managed public appearance no less, if they hadn't approved the message? Come on, really? No, I'm afraid that argument, like so much the Bush administration has said, stinks of the rectal produce of a bovine male animal.

Update
I heard Bush say this on today's news:

This talk about Sunnis rising up, I mean the Sunnis have got to make a choice. Do they want to live in a society that's free, or do they want to live in violence?

In other words, why don't these horrible foreign fellows just do exactly what we want? He still seems to have no understanding of the difficulty of finding an agreement. Do his advisers just not tell him what's happening?

No, I'm afraid it looks as though the Sunni's are being lined up to play first sacrificial scapegoat in this deadly farce. The three main regional groups, with their uncomfortable accompanying histories, were always going to find it very difficult to reach agreement. I'd say it would be hard enough in a secure and stable environment, and that's a luxury Iraq does not offer at present.

The fact that Bush still doesn't appear to understand any of this is irrelevant, it's clear that it is the fault of the Sunni's. There have been absolutely no misjudgement's from good ol' George, no siree. He's not to blame for any of this. This is definitely, positively, definitively, 100% not George's fault in any way whatsoever.
Hey, there's that awful smell again...