Nothing to See Here; Move Along

by Steve Soto

Five years and over a trillion dollars into this war, and we have bombings within secured areas:

A female suicide bomber penetrated one of the most secure perimeters in Iraq Monday evening and killed at least 42 people near the Imam Hussein shrine in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, according to the Iraqi authorities.

Dick Cheney, today in Iraq:

"If you look back on those five years it has been a difficult, challenging but nonetheless successful endeavor ... and it has been well worth the effort…I was last in Baghdad 10 months ago and I sense, as a result of the progress that has been made since then, phenomenal changes in terms of the overall situation."

To Cheney, this is progress:

Five years after the United States led an invasion of Iraq, millions of people there are still deprived of clean water and medical care, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday.

And yet, the White House and John McCain have succeeded in selling the escalation as a victory, while the public knows less and less about Iraq.

Mission Accomplished!