O.T husk. Unfortunately, your hopes for a democratic Iraq will never happen. If anything, Iraq is on the verge of bloody civil war with the US stuck in the middle and a target for both factions of the civil war. I fully expect the US to make the same mistake they made in Vietnam and put more troops into a country where they are hated. In fact I expect Bush to use the events unfolding in the south to initiate some form of draft. What "form" that will take I don't know. Because he is now so unpopular as a President with more and more citizens becoming disillusioned with his leadership, initiating a draft would be the final straw. If he isn't already, Bush will become a poster boy for "A lame duck". Once the 2000 military dead number is reached in Iraq that will happen anyway.
There is a very good solution to Iraq (if you were under the impression I'm a liberal). It ain't going to happen of course but the answer (if the US wants to get out of that mess which is FAR worse than the country is being told) is to bring back Saddam Hussain and let him sort it out in his own "unique" way. Hard to say that considering he's up there with Stalin and Hitler but I don't think the average US citizen has ANY idea how those middle east countries function and have functioned for centuries. Of course, the minute the US moves out....the next Saddam Hussain will move in anyway.
And yes, I agree about the union bosses skimming off 7 figure incomes and I shudder to think how much they steal/stole in the way of expenses and other corrupt actions but my experience of unions is British unions and if they (the leaders) skimmed like the US unions do, they would now be serving long prison sentences.
