House of Cards¹

CNN reporting for the White House office of Agitprop: Bush to tout Iraq progress, official says

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush is expected to emphasize what his administration calls “bottom-up” political progress in Iraq in a major address to the nation Thursday night, a senior administration official said.

Amid Democratic criticism and Republican concerns that the so-called troop surge has failed to produce national reconciliation at the top levels in Baghdad, the official said the president is expected to argue that grass-roots efforts by Iraqis are “laying the groundwork for national reconciliation” but there is a “long haul and tough work ahead.”

On the first full day of Ramadan the pattern continues to show the “success” of the “bottom-up” political progress as CNN reports – Key Sunni ally of U.S. assassinated

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A key Sunni sheik who united with U.S. forces to fight al Qaeda militants in Iraq was assassinated Thursday by a roadside bomb, officials said.

The bomb struck a convoy carrying Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Reesha and his security detail, a Ramadi police official and an Interior Ministry official said.

At least two of the sheik’s bodyguards were killed and five other escorts were wounded in the afternoon attack.

Abu Reesha, 39, was head of the Anbar Salvation Council — also known as the Anbar Awakening — a coalition of tribes that has been working with the U.S. military to counter al Qaeda in Sunni-dominated Anbar province.
…

Abu Reesha was one of several Sunni leaders who met with President Bush during the president’s surprise visit to Anbar on September 3. In a photograph taken during the six-hour visit, a smiling Bush is seen shaking hands with the sheik.

And the New York Times adds – Compromise on Oil Law in Iraq Seems to Be Collapsing

BAGHDAD, Sept. 12 — A carefully constructed compromise on a draft law governing Iraq’s rich oil fields, agreed to in February after months of arduous talks among Iraqi political groups, appears to have collapsed. The apparent breakdown comes just as Congress and the White House are struggling to find evidence that there is progress toward reconciliation and a functioning government here.

In the terms of my youth, not only are we not seeing “the light”, but they haven’t managed to find “the corner” that must be turned to locate “the tunnel.” I will give these people this, it took a lot longer for the people of Vietnam to hate Americans as much as the Iraqis do, and the world-wide hatred of the United States also took a lot longer to gel.

1. Despite delusions of competence, the Shrubbery, even with Rove, is no Francis Urquhart, although the legacy media™ seems more than willing to report anything based on: “You might say that; I couldn’t possibly comment,” although it is shortened to “off the record.”