360-Degrees, Vol 4: More Pro-Hezbollah Marchers in Baghdad

Here we go:

The demonstrations are getting larger. News reports vary on the size of the pro-Hezbollah rallies by Iraq's Shia population in Baghdad.

• The New York Times, in one report, estimates the crowd as numbering in the "tens of thousands".
• In a separate report they call it, "more than 100,000" strong.
• Meanwhile, the Associated Press describes that crowd as "hundreds of thousands".
• The Los Angeles Times tabs it as "at least a 100,000".
• Organizers estimated the crowd between 250,000 to 1-million.

I offer all of this in stark contrast to the US military's press release which estimated the crowd at a ridiculously out-of-whack 14,000. I got a serious chuckle out of that one.

US officials know full well that the day the Shiites join the Iraqi insurgency en masse, the game is up. They know it. We know it. And they know we know it. That's not to say the that this game didn't come out of the box "pre-up". This whole project was a non-starter from day one. But the prospect of the Shia going sideways on it marks the "last throes, if you will" of the occupation.

Meanwhile, while the world is set ablaze, your President takes a vacation. After all, he's already told us this is a problem for some future president to worry about. Profiles in leadership.

PS - The photo the demonstrators are displaying is that of the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.