"...as if it just "happened," and that somehow giving Bush any credit for it is ridiculous."

Oh, credit where credit's due. He's inflicted 18 months of complete and utter anarchy to the entire country leaving thousands of people dead every month. Huge swathes of every service infrastructure were destroyed and remain off-line..you know, the little things, like water, electricity, and crossing a road without being blown up. We were told it was because there were WMD's ( there were none ), we were told it was because there were connections to terrorists ( there were none ), and now we're told its because they needed democracy. I can think of dozens of other countries that needed democracy, dozens that have human rights issues orders of magnitude above that of Iraq. If this was about humanity or rights to 'freedom' - start somewhere where millions die every year not because of an evil dictator they refuse to depose, but because there's no food, no water, no medicine, no shelter.

On the glorious day of the elections, to celebrate their newly found freedom, they kill a few more fellow Iraqi's to celebrate. Welcome to the free world, here, have a suicide bomb.

BBC News"Some polling stations did not even open in the Sunni towns outside Baghdad" - wooyay, democracy everyone.

If the Iraqi people had wanted democracy THAT badly, if they were deserving of demoncracy THAT much, if democracy was what the REALLY needed...

Why didnt they revolt against the reigeme years ago?

Call me a leftie or whatever you want - I make no political statement in what I say. I just see a US administration invaiding a foreign nation, against the will of the UN, slaughtering thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians and wonder, just how screwed up is the Bush character if that's the best he can do for 'liberty' and 'freedom' in the world. Come clean, admit it's about Oil, admit you lied about the WMD's that never existed, or the links to terror groups that never existed.

But dont say it was for 'freedom'. There's dozens of places that need more attention that Iraq if 'freedom' is what you're seeking in the world. They lied about why they went to war, and they've screwed up the war once they started it. There is nothing to be proud of, particularly elections which see just another day of suicide bombings and death.

Doug