And The Beat Goes On

New Spasm of Violence Sweeps Iraq, Killing 110
So this is what winning the war in Iraq is like.

Sunday, September 12th

• Baghdad suffered at least seven car bombs, and insurgents fired a dozen mortar bombs or rockets around the so-called Green Zone compound housing Iraq's interim government and the U.S. embassy.


• South of Baghdad, three Polish soldiers were killed and three wounded when they were attacked near Hilla.


• A U.S. helicopter opened fire on a crowd milling around an abandoned armored vehicle, killing a television journalist reporting from the scene. The U.S. military said its aircraft had been shot at from the crowd.


• U.S. troops mounted a major offensive on Thursday in Tal Afar, a suspected haven for foreign fighters about 60 miles from Syria. The military gave no immediate explanation for the heavy death toll there.


• In rebel-occupied Ramadi, west of Baghdad, U.S. tanks and helicopters fired on a residential district, killing 10 Iraqis, including women and children, a doctor said. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.

But the ever optimistic Condoleezza Rice proved once again that she is living in an alternate universe.

U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said there would "undoubtedly be violence up until the elections and probably even during the elections."


"But it is entirely possible to hold these elections," she told CBS TV, adding President Bush's administration was standing by its goal of seeing them held by January.

Of course the Bush administration can't afford a real democratic election because the winner would throw the U.S. out the day he took power. So much for oil and permanent military bases.