Yesterday's Most Disturbing News Image

Yesterday, while watching the evening news, I saw an image I found really disturbing. It didn't have anything to do with Foleygate or the Amish school shootings. No, it was much tamer than that, but bothered me nonetheless. It was the image of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice walking off her plane in Baghdad wearing a armored vest over her business suit. Her flight had been delayed nearly 40 minutes because of mortars falling near the airport, and during her meetings, the power went out, a frequent occurrence in Iraq.

If after three years our leaders still cannot walk off an airplane without wearing body armor, something's really wrong over there. The purpose of her trip was to give a bit of a wake-up call to the Iraqi leaders that they need to get their act together and clean up the mess that's still causing violence in the country. We've lost 21 soldiers in the last week, and as the U.S. elections draw closer, I'm guessing the violence will pick up even more.

I'm not in favor of giving a public pronouncement of a pull-out date for U.S. forces, but I think a private declaration to the Iraqi government is much needed to get them motivated to stop the insurgency.

If they can't do it, then the country should be divided into three independent states - one for the Sunnis, one for the Shiites, and one for the Kurds, and we should get out of there and quit trying to civilize the uncivilized. I don't think it really matters to the world whether Iraq continues as one country or three, and if creating three stops the violence, that works for me.

Like many Americans, I'm getting tired of propping up that mess over there.