Iraq: And the Beating Goes On. posted by Richard Seymour

It's becoming a mildly entertaining ritual, (ghastly bloodshed notwithstanding), for defenders of the war to insist that a) the fighting is really just localised, b) it's all over now, everthing's going to be fine and c) it's the fault of the Islamo-fascists/terrorists/extremists etc.

Well, if it is just "Islamo-fascists", the fighting now seems to have spread to Saudi Arabia . How's that for a geographical leap?



Not exactly "localised", then. And furthermore, it ain't all over.

Fallujah is once more aflame .



The truce has broken , 9 people have so far been killed by US helicopter gunships (as they went after those incorrigible insurgents, naturally).

Of course, this will all be over soon and Iraq will have a democracy (to be run by the infamous purveyor of death squad terror, Mr John Negroponte). A corrupt IGC may not have much to say if Mr Negroponte feels it necessary to once more recruit a motley crue of neo-Nazis and violent scum to deter the threat of a good example once again. He will have Ba'athist soldiers and mercenaries at his disposal too. That should put the locals in their place.