American efforts to build a government structure around former Baath Party stalwarts - officials of Saddam Hussein's army, police force and bureaucracy who were willing to work with the United States - have collapsed. Instead, the former Hussein loyalists, under threat of beheadings, kidnappings and humiliation, have mostly resigned or defected to the fundamentalists, or been killed. Enforcers for the old government, including former Republican Guard officers, have put themselves in the service of fundamentalist clerics they once tortured at Abu Ghraib.
Reading the above, I'd insert the usual "George W. Bush: Uniter, Not Divider" comment, but it's just not funny:
In the last three weeks, three former Hussein loyalists appointed to important posts in Falluja and Ramadi have been eliminated by the militants and their Baathist allies. The chief of a battalion of the American-trained Iraqi National Guard in Falluja was beheaded by the militants, prompting the disintegration of guard forces in the city. The Anbar governor was forced to resign after his three sons were kidnapped. The third official, the provincial police chief in Ramadi, was lured to his arrest by American marines after three assassination attempts led him to secretly defect to the rebel cause.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/international/middleeast/29province.html?hp
Further in the article, American commanders note that they have no idea what to do about the fact that Al-Anbar has become the Arab Afghanistan, a petri dish for fundamentalist terror groups.
1000 Americans, and who knows how many Iraqis, died for this? Is this the democracy of which Bush is so proud?
Also, go check out the times articles about how closely Bush is coordinating his own campaign. It brings up the Wonkette comment, that we all knew in 2001 that Bush was great at raising money and running a campaign. We just didn't know it was the only thing he was good at. I mean, if he were half as involved with postwar planning for Iraq, half as worried...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/politics/campaign/29elect.html?hp