Bush surges into Australia tonight to have a pow wow with APEC leaders as the British retreat from Basra Palace in the city centre to relocate to the airbase outside the city and the Iraqi flag is hoisted over Basra Palace. The end of the occupation of Iraq has begun, as the militias will now say that they chased the British out of Basra with their tail between their legs.

The Americans are still talking about staying till the job is done. Bush, the imperial President, is reduced to show biz: making a six-hour visit to the heavily fortified US airfield in Anbar to bolster support in Congress for the administration's war strategy, only days before a crucial report frpm the US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the American ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, on the success of the American troop "surge".

Steve Bell

Any any sense of withdrawal--or retreat---is politically charged at a time when the Bush administration is seeking to justify its policy of the "surge" and to persuade others that the 160,000 troops are getting the job done.

Remember the spin in 2003--- Donald Rumsfeld thought the GIs could march up to Baghdad, kick out Saddam and the bad guys, leaving the good guys to take over, and Johnny could to come marching home. Oh lets not forget the flowers from all the pretty girls who saw the GIs as long legged gods. So sang the neo cons---Dick Cheney, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and Karl Rove. Only they understood the full picture, so so they say.

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