Former PM says it’s time to give up on ’democracy’ in Iraq.

Iraq’s former prime minister Ayad Allawi has called for the imposition of martial law in a last-ditch attempt to halt the country’s worsening security situation.
The car bomb killed 70 people at Tayaran Square
Dr Allawi is the first major Iraqi politician to suggest that democratic freedoms can no longer be sustained in the face of mounting violence.

He spoke hours before Iraq suffered a devastating double car bomb attack on casual labourers queuing at Tayaran Square, in the heart of Baghdad and within a few hundred yards of the Green Zone, the citadel of government.
A car laden with explosives rammed a police checkpoint and a pick-up was detonated in the crowds fleeing the scene, causing the deaths of 70 people and injuring 220 more. The victims were mainly thought to be Shia Muslims.

“After the explosion, not a single person in the square was standing. I thought everyone was dead,” said Khaled Nasser, a labourer who searched the wreckage for four of his companions.
“I found them all cut in half – no legs – and for some I could only find their heads.”

Now, I don’t mean to be insensitive, but I’m wondering just who Allawi thinks is going to enforce this lockdown of the entire nation. Not that the Iraqis have enjoyed “democratic freedom” much since the invasion, but still- are we supposed to expect that the completely infiltrated militia friendly Iraqi security forces, all four of them, are going to enforce martial law? Or is he talking about US troops, who’ve done such a good job so far of keeping the peace (no slight meant to the troops, who have an impossible job)?

Riverbend, who isn’t posting much these days, spelled it out a while back. These corrupt puppet leaders in the Iraqi government, expats and sycophants that they are, are just as clueless about what’s really going on in Iraq as Bush is. Again, I strongly encourage you to read the Rosen piece in this post from a while back. “Clusterfuckapocalypse” is beginning to be not a strong enough term.