Only the Names Change

Well, Ibrahim al-Jaafari gave up his bid for the Prime Minister job, and everyone concerned with democracy in Iraq should be thrilled to know that he reconsidered mainly after talking with Ayatollah al-Sistani and leading cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Separation of religion and politics is so 20th century!

The two replacements for Jaafari are other members of the Iran-connected Dawa Party, so I don't know how this changes things. If the ideology is the same, if the reluctance to compromise on certain aspects of the Constitution is the same, if the Shiite and Sunni militias continue to openly battle in the streets of Baghdad, then the war goes on, with Iraqis continuing to fight each other, American troops still caught in the crossfire, and tragedy all around. Meanwhile annual spending in Iraq has doubled, but less than half of the money allocated for training Iraqi troops, the one thing that will get us out of there, has been spent. Corruption is rampant, billions are missing, lives are lost, and the sad story does nothing but continue.

Jeez, why does everything have to be so depressing on my blog birthday?