May 24, 2006
More signs of progress in Iraq in the midst of continue homicide bombings. The country’s first constitutional government since the fall of Saddam Hussein took office last weekend. Unfilled cabinet posts and last-minute sectarian bickering underscore the difficulties the new government will face in bringing peace and order to the country. President Bush hailed the latest developments as progress. The president said, "the formation of a unity government in Iraq is a new day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in peace," bush said. "and the formation of the unity government in Iraq begins a new chapter in our relationship with Iraq."
That last part sounds like a signal that troop withdrawals could begin soon. The administration probably wants to show pictures of Americans coming home from Iraq before the fall elections. The insurgent-terrorists will just as surely want to do all they can to sow further instability and chaos. The new so-called unity government had truly better be unified.
All of this is an iffy proposition with so many religious and ethnic perspectives battling each other, but there seems to be no other way.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
