Report: Iraq now has Taliban Emirate

According to a posting in the Angry Arab News Service, a marvelous blog site run by Professor As'ad AbuKhalil, Al-Mustaqbal newspaper is reporting today that the Taliban has established an Emirate in districts south of Baghdad and is conducting "acts of assassinations and kidnapping on the road near those districts which extends to Najaf and Karbala".

Hmmmm, somebody forgot to tell the president. At a campaign event in Derry, New Hampshire, he puffed up his great success in eliminating the Taliban:

So I said, if you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorist. I was speaking to the Taliban at this point in time. And they ignored what we said. And thanks to a great military, the Taliban are no longer in power. (Applause.)

Okay, a couple of other points -- we've got too much work to do here. (Applause.) Thank you all -- too much work here. And so we went in and removed the Taliban from power. Now, remember, al Qaeda was training there. They trained thousands of killers. And al Qaeda no longer has a safe haven, they're on the run in that part of the world. And we're safer for it. We're safer for it. (Applause.) We're safer because people now are free in Afghanistan, as well.

My GOD. How out-of-touch is Bush when the country he invaded has become a magnet for this? I wonder how many Americans understand that MOST of Iraq is outside the control of the US and its puppet government?

Meanwhile, Kerry talks about how he's gonna take control of it from mismanaging Bush, bring in allies, train Iraqis, etc. It's bullshit, of course. "Fresh leadership" will not convince Iraqis to accept peace on US terms.