Iraq is in Chaos

This is how Lou Dobbs started last night:

Iraq tonight appears to be plunging even deeper into anarchy and chaos as the United States struggles to come up with a new strategy...The abductions raise new questions about the loyalty of the Iraqi security police and the ability of the Iraqi government to control its security forces. The kidnappings also indicate that the U.S. strategy to stop sectarian violence in Baghdad has failed.

The abductions yesterday shows just how inept and weak the Iraqi government is:

This is just another indication that Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi president, has not been able to disarm the militias, not been able to end the infiltration of the Iraqi police from Shia groups. And it's that kind of a divide within the security forces that is undermining any attempt to end the fighting between Sunni and Shia factions in Iraq today...Well, you know, there's a -- there's a problem with the Iraqi military having divided loyalty, sometimes local loyalties over a national loyalty. But within the police, which are run by the Interior Ministry, it's even a deeper problem of infiltration by these militias. And it shows that Nouri al-Maliki is either unwilling or perhaps realistically unable to move against those militias, given the power he has now. And with that being the case, that is just a prescription for continued civil unrest, perhaps a low-level civil war that could erupt into a high-level civil war.

This CNN poll shows how far Bush has fallen:

By nearly two to one, the public says they want the Democrats in Congress to have more influence over the direction of the country than President Bush.

That same poll once again shows that public doesn't identify with either party:

In the "USA Today"-Gallup poll, the number of people who call themselves Republicans is sharply down. But the number of Democrats hardly changed. More people are calling themselves Independents. They're waiting to see what the Democrats deliver.

The ever patriotic Dobbs chimes in on trade:

...the idea that 30 consecutive years of trade deficits run by this country would somehow elude the attention and the interest of our public policy makers
and our elected officials is utterly mind-boggling.

And he puts it bluntly, as always, on the illegal immigration issue:

The key here is Washington has failed the people of this country. They know it. They want their borders secured. They want their laws enforced. It's a simple thing. It's the constitutional responsibility of the people here in this town and they have failed Washington. And I believe that's the principal reason -- one of the principal reasons -- why you saw so many people frustrated and angry on Election Day.