What a great day! My niece starts a new life with her husband, whom she married Saturday and Iraq's inchoate government takes its first baby steps.
U.S. Hands Power to Iraqis Two Days EarlyBAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S.-led coalition transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government two days early Monday in a surprise move that apparently caught insurgents off guard, averting a feared campaign of attacks to sabotage the historic step toward self-rule.
Legal documents transferring sovereignty were handed over by U.S. governor L. Paul Bremer to chief justice Midhat al-Mahmood in a small ceremony in the heavily guarded Green Zone. Bremer took charge in Iraq (news - web sites) about a year ago.
"This is a historical day ... a day that all Iraqis have been looking forward to," said Iraqi President Ghazi Al-Yawer. "This is a day we are going to take our country back into the international forum."
I heard NPR's enumeration of all the troubles Iraq faces -- and I don't mean to make light of the substantive obstacles. But the nation has a chance today it didn't have before the Coalition troops rolled into Baghdad.
And the US is safer without Saddam's financing and harboring of terrorists.
Good luck!
UPDATE: WSJ Best of the Web points out something I missed:
You've gotta love that bit about the press feeling "duped": He said the handover would be June 30, not June 28! BUSH LIED!!!!Posted by jk at June 28, 2004 08:58 AM
As I watch the events of Iraqi sovereignty transpire I can't help but compare the situation there to the "Palestinian" areas within Israel. They could have had the same treatment were it not for the likes of Yasser Arafat and the al Aqsa Murderers Brigade.
Posted by: johngalt at June 28, 2004 12:58 PMAmen. It was unfortunate that the UN took over "Palestine" and fortunate that a US-Military-led Coalition took over Iraq.
Q. E. friggin'D!
Posted by: jk at June 28, 2004 01:58 PM