Is Anybody Paying Attention?

Are things rapidly deteriorating in Iraq? Oh, you bet they are. From Daily KOS:

In less than two days, we have 10 dead, 16 wounded and 2 missing and possibly kidnapped. In addition, the power has been blown in Baghdad, the water no longer works, and the average temperature is 110 degrees.
Meanwhile, the lights are on at the Presidential Palace as Jerry Bremer labors away in air conditioned opulance.

Is it a pattern of resistance? Maybe. But the complaints about US and British behavior, the cultural misunderstandings between the occupier and the occupied is what is driving the killing. The British act like Amara, a den of smugglers, will turn over their kin for defending their faith and honor. There was no misunderstanding on their part. The British disrespected them and they paid for it.

The coalition has misjudged the Iraqi people and their awareness. They treat them like Afghans, isolated from the world, and they are not. They are no more isolated or religious as your average Texan. They know the world well enough to know the CPA is ruining their lives. Who wants to swelter and drink dirty water? Freedom doesn't eliminate cholera.

The lack of Arabic speakers, the ignorance of basic religious and local customs, the force being used is leading to disaster.

The policy in Iraq is speeding towards a nationwide resistance that the US is unable to deal with. Blaming current conditions on Saddam is a handy foil, but fooling no one. Saddam was truly hated across Iraq. The Shia tribesmen who fought him are clearly not his foils. They are hard men, who live by rules one crosses only if they want to die. Calling for an arrest is as foolish as sending dogs into their homes. Anyone who knew the region would have known they would kill transgressors for a serious offense.

Make no mistake about what is at stake here. If the US is driven from Iraq, the policy failure will be the greatest since Pearl Harbor. We have no more troops to send. The few and scattered replacements we're getting vary in capability to a frightening degree. We can kill more people, but they can kill and wound us in turn.

The apologists try to spin day after day of bad news from Iraq with distractions. At this point, I'd argue that the WMD hunt, while politically relevant, is fast being overtaken by the utter disaster taking place on the ground.

This must stop. Why are there no more mass rallies and marches? Where did all the liberals from January and February go? Where's the pre-war outrage? Hello? Is anybody out there?