Gorilla's Guides:

The casualty toll for the Sadr City is now confirmed as more than 200 dead and more than 250 wounded. many of the wounded are not expected to live. That toll is confirmed by several sources but originated with Mohammed al-Askari. It has also now been confirmed that immediately after the bombings Iraqi troops loyal to the green zone government blocked access to Sadr city and prevented ambulances from coming in and leaving. Those troops were supported by US helicopters.

People act as if it is all Shia against all Sunnis against all Kurds. It isn't, and it never has been. The Health Ministry is under Sadrist control, behind multiple check points controlled by green zone troops, and cannot be reached by large numbers without going through those checkpoints. Add to that that Sadr city is policed by the Sadr army - but those men aren't allowed to check for bombs, and the Baghdad anti-explosives unit has no explosives detection equipment. Sadr now has his causus belli against the Green Zone government. The bloodshed you saw before, is nothing compared to what will happen now.

The Sadr army is half out of control anyway. In a situation like this al Sadr has two choices - he can forbid retaliation, and then watch as it happens anyway, or he can sanction it in an attempt to ride the tiger.

The US has gone from being victorious conquerors, to bumbling occupiers, to cat's paws for SCIRI and by extension, for Iran.

This isn't a case of "you broke it, you own it", this is a case of an elephant in a china shop. Until the elephant leaves the room, nothing can be fixed. Because, at this point what is needed is a raw power confrontation between the factions, unrestrained by referees.

Don't like that? Breaks your bleeding heart? Too bad, Iraq's broken and now the bad men are going to fight it out to see who's the toughest, and if one of them wins, he'll put it back together. Sort of. And if none of them win? Well then, how many years of low grade civil war did Lebanon experience? Expect that, after a really serious (as in, you ain't seen nothing yet, baby) round of ethnic cleansing by all parties.

This is what happens when you let incompetent fools who think they're God's chosen agent on earth get in charge of the world's sole remaining superpower. I suppose we can only be thankful that the fool didn't do even more damage, but I daresay most Iraqis would curse me for saying so, and be justified in doing so.

And all you Senators, and Representatives and members of the media who shilled for the war? You're scum. You're worthless, incompetent bootlicking invertebrates with neither the honor and spine required to do your jobs; nor the sense of shame to retire and shut up and never say anything else again on any public issue, since you managed to get the most important issue of your entire career - whether to go to war or not, wrong. And you got it wrong because you either have hopelessly flawed judgement, or because you're a moral invertebrate.

This is why I hardly write on the Iraq war anymore - what is there to say that hasn't been said? What is there to do but blow your top at the fools who think they can still rescue this, or can somehow make it not so bad by staying and bleeding?

Go home. Purge Congress and the House and the Presidency of the fools who made this war possible. Break up the media conglomerates, reinstitute the fairness doctrine and hound from public life the reporters, producers, editors and other assorted flacks who thought their job ain the "media" made them part of the stenography pool. If you have no moral shame, then do it because the Pax Americana cannot afford so many people who cannot do their jobs - these people, with their stupid and incompetent use of violence are a greater threat to America's power than a million Saddams or a thousand bin Ladens.

And while you're at it, you might want to send the Iraqis a few hundred billion dollars of reparations. Because what you did was an illegal unjustified war that killed more than half a million people, made Iran stronger, gutted the US army, and tossed the US's reputation into the sewer.

I was going to say "Heckuva job Georgie", but that's not fair. Georgie had plenty of help - from bootlicking asskissing "journalists", to spineless senators, to the Americans who reelected him in 2004 knowing that he was busy torturing people.

And this is exactly why I have no time for all the sissies whining about how they want bipartisanship, and how the US should forgive and move on.

Justice. 650,000 dead people, and a few thousand dead American soldiers (the soldiers being all most Americans give a damn about) deserve justice. And if you do not seek justice, if you do not give justice, then the guys who did this, who are the same crew, plus some disciples who were involved in Nixon and Iran-Contra, will do it again in 8 years.

And if justice means nothing to you - and lord knows, there's every reason to believe no one cares, then I tell you this; America cannot afford these incompetents. It is one thing to have a hard man like Putin, scum that he is, in charge. It is another to repeatedly elect people who are completely feckless incompetent ideologues.

And I will tell you one more thing - what the world does against rogue hegemonic powers is encircle them with alliances and slowly strangle them to death. And that has already begun. The US gets nothing these days - no meaningful sanctions against North Korea, no Doha trade round, no nice little Georgian puppet state... nothing that it doesn't pay for with cash on the barrelhead (or rather, a lien on your children's future, since you're spendthrifts and broke).

Live up to your ideals, make your founders proud and swamp the sewage out of your own house.

Or others will make sure you are never in a position to do more than kick little Central American nations around, ever again.

For the sun always sets....