According to the Washington Post, almost 1 in 3 National Guardsmen from Louisiana are in Iraq or in other war-time roles.  It is a shame that Bush and Rumsfeld has OUR troops there in Iraq playing the role as "CORPORATE GUARD"...losing their lives due to greed. 

I wish Bush would have been stranded  in Mississippi or Louisiana during this catastrophe.

The political situation in Iraq got even messier yesterday.  The AP reports:

Iraqi officials completed work on a new constitution yesterday, but the draft was rejected by Sunni Arab negotiators, setting the stage for a bitter campaign leading up to the Oct. 15 referendum.

This account from the NYT about how the final few minutes of the constitutional debate in Iraq went yesterday really paints a picture.  Clearly, democracy in Iraq is taking on the character of the Bush administration.  Don't worry about the substance, just maintain the appearances.

I am almost surprised they didn't fly a banner of the National Assembly with a banner declaring: Mission Accomplished.

The political drama began at 11:20 p.m., when the Assembly members began filing into their chambers inside the protected Green Zone here. As midnight approached with all its momentous implications - including the possible dissolution of the Assembly - a series of cryptic events took place with a dreamlike slowness.

When GOP Senator Chuck Hagel talks about the Iraq War, it's not exactly coming out as glowing praise for the Bush Administration's handling of it.

On CNN, for the second time in a week, Hagel said:

Hagel said "stay the course" is not a policy. "By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq ... we're not winning," he said.

Hagel also said:

That's a quote from a military aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell regarding his involvement in the famous "WMD speech" before the UN.

Read the article from CNN and watch the CNN Presents documentary "Dead Wrong -- Inside an Intelligence Meltdown."  this Sunday at 7pm CT and rebroadcast at 10pm CT.

Yesterday's comments by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) on CNN have to have the White House in all-out panic mode.

Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska on Thursday said the United States is "getting more and more bogged down" in Iraq and stood by his comments that the White House is disconnected from reality and losing the war.

The longer U.S. forces remain in Iraq, he said, the more it begins to resemble the Vietnam war.

Don't you all just get sick to your stomach every time you hear a republican accuse dems and liberals of being troop haters if they question this administration about this war. I saw this at AmericaBlog :

On Clinton and Bosnia

"You can support the troops but not the president."
--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years."
--Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?"
--Sean Hannity, Fox News,

"[The] President . . . is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."
--Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."
--Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W Bush

"I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning . . I didn't think we had done enough in the diplomatic area."
--Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

"I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our over-extended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today"
--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."
--Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)

Try as they might, the Bush administration is having a hard time putting a happy face on the fact that Iraq had to extend their deadline for coming up with a constitution.

The NYT says:

The Iraqi political process descended toward paralysis on Monday, when leaders failed to meet the deadline for completing the new constitution and voted to give themselves another week to resolve fundamental disagreements over the future and identity of this fractious land.

The WP reports that:

The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say.

The entire Bush administration should hang their head in shame when they read a story like this one.  And the President should as well, whenever someone tells him about it, since he doesn't read newspapers.

According to the NYT:

For the second time since the Iraq war began, the Pentagon is struggling to replace body armor that is failing to protect American troops from the most lethal attacks by insurgents.