Iraq is now officially sovereign.

[theknife]

meawhile, over in that other country we liberated...

...Washington and London's focus shifted east to Iraq. Meanwhile, the toll of dead and maimed is rising. The infrastructure is non-existent, opium production is rocketing, warlords control large swathes of the country, and the Taliban are back. Afghanistan is unravelling piece by piece.

that other handover is apparently having difficulty transitioning into a democracy:

The Afghan elections have been postponed once already, from June, due to the endemic violence. A second cancellation may just finish off what is left of the Afghan president's credibility. According to international agencies, out of 10.5 million eligible to vote, only 1.6 million have been registered. (President Karzai maintains at least five million names are now on the electoral list.)

Karzai needs help. big time...it's almost as if we're back to square one over there.

In the meantime, the military bill for the Pentagon is a staggering $50bn. While the ISAF cannot get even one helicopter, the US military is involved in operations in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Its mission is not primarily, however, security inside Afghanistan, but a hunt for Osama bin Laden.

so we have NATO and the UN trying to make it work in Afghanistan, and apparently not doing too well. is this a preview of Iraq in a year or two?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=536593