Bush still sees Iraq as the center of the war on terrorism.

[bigtree]

Bush SOTU:

"That country is a vital front in the war on terror, which is why the terrorists have chosen to make a stand there. Our men and women in uniform are fighting terrorists in Iraq, so we do not have to face them here at home. (Applause.) And the victory of freedom in Iraq will strengthen a new ally in the war on terror, inspire democratic reformers from Damascus to Tehran, bring more hope and progress to a troubled region, and thereby lift a terrible threat from the lives of our children and grandchildren."


Will Americans balk or just roll over and accept our forces staying put in the face of the inevitable calls for us to withdraw up to and throughout the drafting of the constitution and vote? Will they accept our forces battling the inevitabe escalation of assaults on our troops by the supporters of the Shia faction that has just proved the popularity of a theocracy in the election over our attempt at secular control over the Muslim dominated society in Iraq? Will they stand by and roll over as we defiantly try to hold on to the oil?

Iraqis who placed so much of their faith in their vote won't. Neither will their leaders. I predict a deeper resistance, this time fomented from within the ruling authority as well as from the outside, aligned predictably with Bush's new evil axe, Iran.

Do ya suppose that's why Bush began his saber rattling towards Iran long before he had finished with Iraq? He must have known long before the vote that Sistani was going to pull out this Shia majority.

Suporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr pray on the street in Basra, southern Iraq , during the Friday prayer. Sadr demanded his community's senior Shiite leaders insist on a timeline for a US troop withdrawal.(AFP/Essam al-Sudani)