A little reality break

Iraq's deputy prime minister has indicated for the first time that the much-heralded elections due in January could be derailed by the country's violent insurgency.

Barham Salih said the authorities were determined to hold the vote, but admitted they would have to assess the security situation nearer the time.

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It is the first time a senior figure in the interim government has acknowledged that the dire security situation in large parts of the country could affect the political process.

Guardian article

Quelle suprise.

Also, it appears that Allawi has indeed managed to "negotiate with terrorists", despite his adamant insistence that he would never do such a thing.

Meanwhile, the Arab satellite TV network al-Jazeera, quoting unidentified sources, reported that an Islamist group had freed two women relatives of the interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, but were still holding his cousin hostage.

Update 9:30am:

Your non-reality based president continues along his merry bubble way, hoping you'll follow along....

President Bush painted a rosy picture of the situation in Iraq (news - web sites), claiming significant progress Saturday in the U.S. military's battle in an insurgent stronghold.

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He said "support continues to grow" internationally for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, even though the multinational force will see some reductions in the coming months.

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The president also hailed the effort to train and equip Iraqi personnel to take over security for their country. He said nearly 115,000 Iraqi soldiers, police officers and other security personnel are now on duty and that 200,000 will be in place by the end of the year.

[...]

Some doubts have been raised about the reliability of Iraqi security forces. For instance, the General Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, said recently that many Iraqis have been insufficiently trained and equipped. In some cases, the only "training" required of new policemen was that they wear a uniform, the report found. And only a fraction of the total number are actual troops.

Yahoo News article