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Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

IF IT’S NOT COCAINE, WHAT IS IT?

September 19, 2004 by cmackie

He must be snorting something. Dummy Boy
insists, “I’m pleased with the
progress”
 in Iraq. That’s what he told a New Hampshire newspaper in
an interview published Saturday, the same day a suicide car bomb killed 19 people and
wounded 67
, when it “plowed into a crowd of men seeking jobs with the
Iraqi National Guard” in Kirkuk.


Never mind that it was the third bomb of the week “aimed at Iraqi security forces.” Never
mind that “attacks on state officials have become common.” Never mind the kidnappings of
foreigners. Never mind the sabotaged oil pipelines. Never mind the campaign “to cripple the
institutions of the interim government.”


Never mind that insurgents control Falluja. Never mind that “American forces have lost
contro
l
over at least one provincial capital, Ramadi, and have only a tenuous
grip over a second, Baquba,” another provincial capital near Baghdad. Never mind
that “other large cities in the region, like Samarra, are largely in the hands of insurgents.”


Never mind that “polls show increasing anti-U.S.
sentiment
and a growing sense that American forces should get out and leave
things to the Iraqis.” Especially never mind the National Intelligence Estimate that says civil war
could erupt down the road. (See DARK DAYS AHEAD.) Why
shouldn’t he be “pleased with the progress” in Iraq?

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Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
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