Can the squalid disgrace of Iraq get any worse?

It has been announced today that Iraq, as if it hadn't suffered enough, is in the grip of a major cholera outbreak, 4,000 people now in the grip of it in Iraq's northern provinces. In the provinces of Kirkuk and Sulimaniyah so far eight people have died but with that number of cases so far among already under nourished people the death count will undoubtedly climb.

The cause is starkly clear. The water pipes, blown up during the bombing of northern Iraq have not yet, despite four years having elapsed, yet been fully repaired and it appears raw sewage has mixed in with the drinking water.



No doubt the United States and its wretched President will put the responsibility on the Iraqi government which it so enthused over and now distrusts but there have been warnings from the World Health Organisation almost since the invasion took place that the United States and Britain were not doing enough under the Geneva Convention to restore essential services after the illegal invasion - I refuse to call it a war. Britain, belatedly, did something around Basra at the expense of its peacekeeping role but the U.S. it seems has done precious little in the north of the country..or certainly not enough.

As this squalid little man in the White House staggers towards the termination of what is possibly the worst Presidency in the history of the United States, his approval ratings sink below the waves, currently at about 30%. I wonder how he sleeps at night, though I'm sure he does! He is like the proverbial barber's cat - all wind and water! Not only has he initiated the most infamous aggression in American history killing thousands of innocent men women and children but the incompetence of his administration and the lack of post invasion planning has meant that the country has become a savage tribal battleground, almost ungovernable, and its people continue to die from terrorism or simple neglect as is tragically the case with cholera.



Its not as if he can claim magnificent successes at home to compensate for his appalling handling of foreign affairs. He returned from New Orleans this week with jeers and abuse ringing in his ears for the failure of federal authorities to respond quickly enough to what was possibly the greatest natural disaster in American history, but this latter day Nero fiddled while New Orleans flooded. 43,000 city residents are still living in trailers two years after the disaster. The city stll looks like an abandoned wasteland and there appears to be a complete lack of planning between federal and local officials as to the best way forward.

America has another 16 months or so to tolerate this 'dead duck'...Lame' would be too high a compliment...but I feel genuinely sorry for the next incumbent of the White House, be it Democrat or Republican, for he (or possibly she this time?) has a massive job to do. Not simply to do the practical things like extricate America from a mire of its own making in Iraq, and restore diplomacy in place of all the stupid sabre rattling Bush has been doing in the direction of Iran..who now clearly treat him as a joke and ignore him ... but to restore America's image in the eyes of the rest of the world as a nation to be looked up to and respected...as it used to be and I'm certain will be again.

...But its going to be one hell of a task!