Things are doing remarkably well in Iraq - continued

The other day Dick (shooter) Cheney told us that in Iraq it was going "remarkably well". Over at The Moderate Voice long time war supporter, Michael van der Galien throws in the towel.

I really do not see how this situation can be saved. The US led alliance has done a marvelous job screwing this thing up completely. Sunnis against Shiites, Shiites against Sunnis, Shiites and Sunnis against the US, Shiites against Shiites, Shiites against the Iraqi government, Sunnis against the Iraqi government.

Here is one of the reasons.
Shiite militia seizes Iraqi city

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized total control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by one of the country's powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dispatched an emergency security delegation that included the Minister of State for Security Affairs and top officials from the Interior and Defense ministries, Yassin Majid, the prime minister's media adviser, told The Associated Press.

The Mahdi Army fighters stormed three main police stations Friday morning, planting explosives that flattened the buildings, residents said.

As the New York Times reports:
Bush Faces a Battery of Ugly Choices on War

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 — The acknowledgment by the United States Army spokesman in Iraq that the latest plan to secure Baghdad has faltered leaves President Bush with some of the ugliest choices he has yet faced in the war.

He can once again order a rearrangement of American forces inside the country, as he did in August, when American commanders declared that newly trained Iraqi forces would “clear and hold” neighborhoods with backup support from redeployed American forces. That strategy collapsed within a month, frequently forcing the Americans to take the lead, making them prime targets.

There is no assurance, though, that another redeployment of those forces will reduce the casualty rate, which has been unusually high in recent weeks, senior military and administration officials say. The toll comes just before midterm elections, in which even many of his own party have given up arguing that progress is being made or that the killing will soon slow.

The situation in Iraq is spinning out of control faster and faster. The Bush administration has no control of the situation. The month of October is on it's way to becoming the worst month for US troop deaths since the invasion. This war is over. Even the Republicans will not want it still on the table in 2008. It's all over.