Reuters reports that the U.N. has less than 50 foreign staff left in Iraq after last week-ends pull out. How’s that for an international vote of non-confidence in the U.S.-led coalition’s ability to keep the peace?

Rumsfeld is now saying that the $87 billion U.S. needed for Iraq is not only “affordable” but that it is a necessary “investment” in international security…. members of Congress don’t appear to be so sure - I wonder if they still enjoy the spin?

Human rights groups are [and rightly so IMHO] concerned about “inquiries” the U.S. is holding as a result of civilian deaths and alleged wrongdoings” - it seems that almost everybody investigated has been exonerated. Show of hands now … how many of you are surprised by that?

And finally it seems that a bunch of the Iraqi defectors introduced to the U.S. by their fair haired Iraqi ex-pat Ahmed Chalabi either invented or exaggerated their knowledge about Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. I don’t know why this should bother the U.S. federal officials conducting the debriefings, Bush and his administration did exactly the same thing and they would have us believe they’re the saviour’s of the free world.

[Side note] I love spell checking posts with Rumsfeld’s name in them - go ahead … spell check it and see what you get.

(The content of this post came from an older pMachine incarnation of stageleft with a different hosting company - comments, if any, didn’t make it into the rebuild)