Does Bush Really Want a Democratic Iraq?

Iraq is a violent mess, with no "democracy" in sight.

Did you know that buried in the Bush Administration request for another $82 billion for a third US year in Iraq is $658 billion for a brand new US embassy in Baghdad, which would be the world's largest embassy...a fortress-like super-bunker that would be bomb-proof and wired for state-of-the-art surveillance and communications?

Also included in the $82 billion of taxpayers' money are 14 US "enduring bases" designed for long-term encampment of thousands of American soldiers.

So I ask you....does George Bush really want an independent and democratic Iraq?
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From Reuters this afternoon....

Iraqi lawmakers adjourned in protest Tuesday and demanded an apology after a Shiite legislator linked to a radical anti-American cleric tearfully said he was handcuffed and humiliated at a U.S. checkpoint.

It was the third consecutive day that Iraq's interim parliament was sidetracked from its job of setting up a government and writing a constitution.

Beyond the sandbags and blast walls of the U.S.-protected Green Zone, where the National Assembly meets, at least a dozen Iraqis were killed and more than 60 wounded in a series of attacks, including two that targeted the army and its recruits.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, the nation's most feared terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the worst attack, a suicide bombing near an army recruitment center in Baghdad that police said killed at least six Iraqis and wounded 44.

A car bomb in western Baghdad targeting a U.S. patrol wounded seven Iraqis, police and hospital officials said.

Laith Abdullah, the husband of a woman injured in the attack, angrily criticized the legislature for worrying more about its rights than the violence. "The government should be concerned about all the people getting hurt," Abdullah said.

But in the National Assembly, lawmaker Fattah al-Sheik stood and cried as he described being stopped at a checkpoint on the way to work Tuesday. He claimed an American soldier kicked his car, mocked the legislature, handcuffed him and held him by the neck.

"What happened to me represents an insult to the whole National Assembly that was elected by the Iraqi people. This shows that the democracy we are enjoying is fake," al-Sheik said. "Through such incidents, the U.S. Army tries to show that it is the real controlling power in the country, not the new Iraqi government."