Bushwhacked Bush!

George Bush must be wondering why it is so difficult to get a deal in Baghdad. After all, don't those Iraqis want democracy? Don't they care about freedom?

Whoever is advising the President have sure kept him from the truth! The trouble is Bush and his pals felt they could kill a few birds with a couple of good-sized stones! Go after the tyrant Saddam Hussein and give Iraq a new sense of freedom and at the same time do a deal on the oil. Everybody wins!

This little idea failed to take into account Arab sensibilities and Kurdish dreams. Now, with the battle hardly won and the hearts and minds turning to anger, George Bush telephones a Shi'ite leader to press him to give concessions to the Sunnis, who are holding back on signing up to a new constitution. Well, what does Bush expect the Shia to do? He wants them to cave in to their former oppressors! The Sunnis are complaining that they will be kept from getting their rightful amount of oil money. Also, they are against federalism.

The streets are full of marching protesters. Back in the USA, Bush has a divided public, with protesting relatives of fallen soldiers camped near his Texas ranch. What Donald Rumsfeld thought would be a walkover is turning into a nightmare.

The only prayer Bush has is to accept that the Iraqis must deal with their own problems. Anymore phone chats to placement pals will only up the temperature in an already overheated Iraq! Oh, and the oil? Let the Iraqis sell it on the open market like any other commodity! Free trade should be the thing, not backroom deals!

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