With the Iraqi parliament STILL planning on taking a two month vacation beginning in a couple of weeks and absolutely no progress toward any political benchmarks to show, one has to ask oneself, do they really want political reconciliation or do they just want us to fight and die for their civil war?

To me the total lack of progress on political reconciliation makes it quite clear that they are not interested in reconciliation at all. Th Shiite dominated "unite government" wants our guys to do their dirty work for them. They want us to kill as many Sunnis as possible before America wakes up and stops believing the hundreds of totally hollow promises to make political progress.

They want war. They want total victory over the Sunnis. They do not want to share power with them on any level.

I for one say it is long past time that people realize that fact. If they want to kill each other, let them do their own killing. Why should our troops die for their centuries old conflict? Why should the blood of that conflict continue to stain our troop's hands?

While we fight and die, the "unity government" will be on the beach somewhere enjoying a two month vacation, not having met a single benchmark in all the years that they have now been in power. Bush's troop escalation gave them "breathing room" as promised. Room to vacation while our troops die in ever increasing numbers.

When are we going to wake up to these simple facts???