READ THE REALITY ABOUT BAGHDAD

As the final days before (s)Election 2004 tick away, I'm not sure what to focus the bulk of this blog on. One obvious choice is pointing out just how incredibly, incredibly wrong King George is about this rosey picture he's spinning regarding Iraq. While there is "progress" being made, there is also the opposite (congress?). In fact, it would be fairly easy to argue that for every step forward the Iraqi provisional government and the US "forces" make, they also get shoved back at least five or six steps by a bizarre conglomerate of insurgents, terrorists, jihadists and by some accounts, Saddam loyalists. I was watching Real Time with Bill Maher the other night and someone (I forget who) mentioned that Saddam is running the insurgents like the way mafia godfathers run the mob from prison. From what I've read, Saddam's gone a bit loopy in custody, so, personally, I doubt that he's controlling much of anything beyond his garden.

The point is, Iraq is a mess and the USGov hasn't a clue how to fix it. If they did have a clue, don't you think they'd be doing it right now?

Still, there is the promise the October Surprise brings us. This is something the Republicans usually cart out shortly before the election to make sure they win. This can be anything from securing the release of hostages (or making sure they stay in custody as we saw in 1982) to carrying the head of Osama bin Laden on a pike to a press conference in the rose garden. As the days skitter by, we'll all be watching for some kind of OS--will it come? Who knows. One thing that is not surprising is the continued descent of the situation in Iraq.

If it got much lower, it'd be the China Syndrome...

Anyway, for proof of just how lousy it's getting over there, you need only to check out Christopher Allbritton's Back to Iraq blog on a semi-regular basis. I'll make it easy for you by pointing you to this article with a tempting excerpt below to whet your appetite:

My friend, John Martinkus, was the one kidnapped Saturday and held for 24 hours. He was very lucky to be freed. I had to be circumspect yesterday because of security concerns, but John is now out of the country and the embargo has been lifted. Here's the story as he related it to us:

Saturday around 2 p.m or so, John was picked up about 500m from our hotel compound. He turned out of the front gate, took the first right -- as most of us do -- and a car stopped in front of him and a tailing car pulled in behind him. Four men with pistols jumped out and three of them managed to force their way into the car, putting guns to the heads of John, his driver and his translator. They then took him to western Baghdad, held him overnight and interrogated him.

There's also this bit that explains how everything wrapped up for this guy:

Now, this was serious. There's no doubt the sheikh would return to fetch John and turn him over to al-Tahwid w'al-Jihad. So, in a fit of humanity, after the sheikh left, the nationalist captors took John and released him. We're unsure of the ramifications of this act at this point and if there will be any retaliation within the Sunni resistance or against us. It's possible.

As frightening as John's experience was for him, it shows that journalists' plans for “security through obscurity” has been blown out the window. John's captors said they received a phone call that he was on the move and that the time for taking him was now. This fits in with our intelligence that there are kidnap teams up and down Jadirya Street looking for us. His captors said they had penetrated the staff at the Hamra Hotel, where many of us live. They have people in the compound watching us. They know who we are and they're looking for “soft targets” -- reporters moving around with little security or few precautions.

That guy has his Austrailian-ness to thank for being alive right now. As Allbritton says, if he were American, he'd have been killed quickly.

in case you're curious, Allbritton writes for Time magazine--but before you accuse him of being part of the liberal media, I must say: do you think he'd make up a story about his friend being abducted? Here is a New Zealand Herald story about it. Here's a Google News search if you want to read more about it.

So, Mr. "President," keep looking at Iraq through those (Karl) Rove-colored glasses and I and many others on the "Internets" will continue to prove you wrong. Hell, it's been such a bitch of a four years, we just might keep doing it after you leave office. After all, how many of you loser-Republicans couldn't get over the fact that Clinton ushered in a time of tremendous prosperity and wealth for America?

(Don't worry, I'm not Clintonite, I barely am going to vote for Kerry--but if I thought Nader, or a lemur had a chance at beating Bush, I'd vote for them.

Of course, this doesn't address the fact that through electronic ballot boxing and the Florida government's failure to fix the truly messed up voter rolls the Republicans could easily fix the election.

HA! And I was worried about what I should talk about between now at the (s)election...