Meet the new boss, part whatever

Who can possibly think that the world would be better off with Saddam Hussein still in power? -Surely not the dissidents who would be in his prisons, or end up in his mass graves. -Surely not the men and women who would fill Saddam's torture chambers and rape rooms.

-- George W. Bush, October 16, 2003

Well, dissidents are still in his prisons, thousands are in mass graves in Fallujah, Najaf and elsewhere, killed by US bombs in the past two years. And the torture chambers and rape rooms still operate under the new government--confirmed yesterday by Condi's own State Department:

The State Department on Monday detailed an array of human rights abuses last year by the Iraqi government, including torture, rape and illegal detentions by police officers and functionaries of the interim administration that took power in June.

In the Bush administration's bluntest description of human rights transgressions by the American-supported government, the report said the Iraqis "generally respected human rights, but serious problems remained" as the government and American-led foreign forces fought a violent insurgency. It cited "reports of arbitrary deprivation of life, torture, impunity, poor prison conditions - particularly in pretrial detention facilities - and arbitrary arrest and detention."

And oh, by the way...

The report did not address incidents in Iraq in which Americans were involved, like the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib...

So, under Saddam there was a brutal government arresting, killing and torturing Iraqis. Now there are two.