The End of the Our Iraq War is Taking Shape

According to the LATimes, attempts by Vice President Dick Cheney, and others, to counter Rep. Murtha, a decorated veteran of Korean and Vietnam, backfired. See:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051126-18565500-bc-iraq-bush.xml

The same article predicted that:

. . . the president is expected to say at the Naval Academy in Annapolis that Iraqi troops are close to being able to operate on their own.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said recently that the United States should be able to start reducing the number of troops in Iraq soon.

So, who is going to take over in Iraq? It looks like a new dictator is going to take charge, Abdul Aziz Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Shiite Muslim religious party that leads the transitional government and whose armed wing is the most feared of Iraq's many factional forces, according to the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/26/AR2005112601211.html

Good bye, Saddam - hello, Hakim.

George Bush can take credit for replacing a secular tyrant with a Shiite tyrant. Was that worth all the American human and monetary sacrifice?

P.S. Let's not forget Moktada el Sadr, another turbaned jewel. He's even more aggressive than Hakim, so in a showdown he might be the winner. Just lovely.