Bollettino

"The bodies of two U.S. soldiers missing for days were discovered early Saturday northwest of Baghdad, as the toll rises past 200 for Americans killed since war started in Iraq.

News of their killings came amid a torrent of guerrilla-style attacks and sabotage that has marred U.S. efforts to re-establish order since Saddam Hussein's ouster. About a third of U.S. troops killed in the Iraqi conflict have died in attacks or accidents since major combat was declared over May 1." -- Washington Post

And, to add to our casualties, this is the latest brilliant scheme from our resident representative in Bagdhad, Mr. Bremer:

U.S. military commanders have ordered a halt to local elections and self-rule in provincial cities and towns across Iraq, choosing instead to install their own handpicked mayors and administrators, many of whom are former Iraqi military leaders. -- Washington Post

From another graf:

'The most recent order to stop planning for elections was made by Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which controls the northern half of Iraq. It follows similar decisions by the 3rd Infantry Division in central Iraq and those of British commanders in the south.In the capital, Baghdad, U.S. officials never scheduled elections for a city government, but have said they are forming neighborhood councils that at some point will play a role in the selection of a municipal government."

The guerilla war is being lost at the outset. Can the US adopt a worse stretegy? Well, wait till they unroll their economic nostrums, and a seemingly permanent strata of Iraqi unemployed gets to mull over the American meaning of democracy.

As anybody with a memory that is larger than a flea's will remember, in 91 the Bush administration made the fatal mistake of calling for an intifada and then not backing it up. Why? Because that administration was petrified by the idea that Shi'a power might be installed in Iraq. The present colonial administrator seems to suffer from that same fear. This time, the intifada will be against the Americans.

How many times do we have to make the same mistake?
I guess as many times as there are Bushes around to make it.