BBC reader comments has a nifty, delusional, USA'er comment.

[JanMichael]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3207193.stm

Notice that he doesn't answer the question which was "Can the US hand over power in Iraq?".

"Yes. Iraq can and will be made secure. The coalition liberators who have freed the Iraqi people from a disastrous and vicious regime will help the Iraqi create a democratic society founded upon principles that are important to the Iraqi citizens (just as they are doing in Afghanistan). A democratic and free Iraq will change the Middle East and the world for the better."
T. A. Charles, USA

Hmm. More pie in the sky fantasy talk...With that Afghanistan comment I'm surprised he knew how to use a computer well enough to make it to the BBC site.

Hell it seems like those wonderful Warlords, that trashed Kabul back in 1996 and enabled the Taliban to take over in the first place, are running most of the country again.

"There are 11,500 U.S. troops engaged in combating Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, mostly in the mountainous region near Pakistan.

Most of Afghanistan is in the hands of warlords, and Britain, which is charged with border patrol, is struggling to prevent the renewed opium trade across the northern border."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031111/wl_nm/nato_afghan_dc_1

<sigh>

[Kathy in Cambridge]

1. Is it a safe bet that more Iraqis will die under US occupation

than died under Saddam? Do we have an estimate of how many died under Saddam (tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands?). He was in power since 1974. I wonder if the pace of civilian deaths keeps up, if we'll be right up there with Saddam?