Iraq on October 5, 2006 ... and the band plays on ...

Rotting corpses in the sand ... killed by the same police forces (a.k.a. insurgent and sectarian militias of the Mahdi Army) we trained, armed and, in every sense of the word, created!

How often have we heard President Bush state that we will stand down when the Iraqi forces can stand up"?

Now, both we and the Iraqi parliament are asking the Iraqi police force to stand down. Does that mean it's time for us to "stand up"? Something's wrong here.

But the fact is, the authorities in Baghdad are asking an entire brigade (1200 police officers) to suspend activities (stand down) today because the Iraqi Shiites are finally willing to admit that it is the very same forces that were trained by the US Forces that are kidnapping and murdering Sunni Iraqis in record numbers and in even more barbaric ways as the ... band plays on.

Of course, no one is standing down and, in fact, new word coming in from Baghdad this evening is that the militias (drawn from the police forces trained and armed by US tax dollars) are now using the hospitals and morgues in the greater Baghdad area for command posts and staging areas.

We have created our very own Frankenstein. Good going, Mr. Bush!

In addition, the Ministry of Interior has fired 1700 officers for corruption, abuse of authority and collaboration with the marauding militias. Whereas the earlier insurgency was a direct result of our taking out the previous Government, the new murderous -- even barbaric -- militias (more armed insurgents) are a result of our taking a "hands-off" attitude towards the ongoing civil war ... hoping to reduce American casualties, of course. I wasn't surprised to find reference to this "tactic" in the transcript linked to by the latest posting on the blogsite created my brother Richard from Connecticut.

Trouble is, the casualties (Iraqi and American) are climbing while Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and their ilk are impervious to the death and suffering being endured by everyone involved. The dead are generally tortured in accordance with Sha'ria Law (the conditions of the headless bruised bodies is consistent with my memories of living almost a full decade under Sha'ria Law) which suggests that the trend towards a full-blown theocracy is peeking out through the blooodstains on the white death shrouds.

Imagine carrying a dead child to the morgue or a hospital only to be shot dead yourself while identifying the child (as a Sunni, for example) to the morgue or hospital personnel who are actually police officers acting in their capacity of Shiite militia members.

It is estimated that only 40-50% of the corpses are even accounted for, thanks to the fear of transporting the bodies to proper "disposal" points.

This war/occupation is quickly devolving to something akin to Dante's Inferno by the week.

And here at home, we are all humored [sic and sick] by the disgusting (double-ugh!) instant messaging of our Republican lawmakers and their under-age pages.

However we can turn the situation in Iraq around. We simply have to get Cheney and Rumsfeld away from President Bush so he can see clearly what his actions (dictated by C & R) are accomplishing. For starters, he might read Thomas E. Ricks' Fiasco, The American Military Adventure in Iraq (but turned right-side-up this time).