And After All That Hard Crusading

The peace, freedom and democracy which have characterised Iraq since 2003 suffered a bit of a blip this week, causing the White House to break out in sporting jargon. A spokesbeing called on the Iraqi government to "step up to the plate" lest it drop the ball now that the baton has been passed in front of an open goal in the final straight towards full democrato-pacificatory liberalisation. The trouble seems to be a set of Islamic extremists who, by some small oversight or other, were not expunged from the new, free Iraq when the forces of Shock and Awe went in to make the country safe for peace, democracy and Halliburton. The Islamic State of Iraq, said the White House, "is not only a threat to the stability of Iraq, but a threat to the entire region", and may even be trying to undo all the good work that George W Bush and the Reverend Poodle managed to achieve with all that white phosphorous and depleted uranium. The White House spokesbeing went so far as to condemn as "despicable" the extremists' practice of targeting innocent Iraqis, rather than collaterally detrimenting them in a civilised, Christian fashion.