Thanksgiving Day massacre highlights waning US power

[cal04]

It may or may not go down in Iraq's dreadful recent history as the "Thanksgiving Day massacre". But one thing is certain: the car-bombing that killed more than 130 people in the Sadr City district of Baghdad could not have come at a worse moment for the beleaguered Bush administration as it seeks to end the sectarian violence tearing the country apart and get US troops home.

Like the killing of Pierre Gemayel in Lebanon on Monday, the atrocity might have been timed to expose how the US - its military power and moral authority sapped by the war - has lost most of whatever influence it had to shape events in the Middle East.

Over the next few days, President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney will lead, in person, an unparalleled diplomatic effort by Washington to find a face-saving exit formula. It comes ahead of the completion of keenly awaited Iraq policy reviews by the Pentagon and by a bipartisan commission headed by the former secretary of state, James Baker.

Mr Cheney leaves today for Saudi Arabia and talks with King Abdullah. At the top of the agenda will be a possible role for the Saudis in reining in the Sunni insurgency, suspected of being behind the bombings in Shia Sadr City. Early yesterday, Iraqi media said the Vice-President had brought forward his trip in order to make a surprise Thanksgiving Day visit to the 145,000 US troops in Iraq, similar to the secret journey made by Mr Bush in November 2003. However, the White House swiftly denied the report.

Rupert Cornwell
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2009982.ece

[Trajan]

1. George and Dick ask in unison :

Diplomacy ? ... what's THAT ??

[ChoralScholar]

2. Waning US power is a bit misleading.

There has been no army in history that could stop what is going on in Iraq right now.

This massacre is evidence that we are in over our heads. We've got to get out.