42 days

Iraq election has monitors worried reports on an secret international meeting involving Canada, Latin America, Europe and Middle Eastern states, held in Ottawa this weekend, trying to pull America's fat out of the fire by figuring out how to organize the Iraq vote -- which is supposed to happen in just 42 days.
Media weren't supposed to know about the meeting, apparently, and no results were announced. But I'll bet they spent the first half-day just venting steam at the Americans for getting us all into this mess. The world has been saying "you broke it, you fix it" to the Americans for the last year, but it has now become embarassingly clear that America is utterly incapable of fixing anything in Iraq, nor even of electing a president who could have turned things around. So the world now feels it has no choice, I think, except to step up to the plate and try to salvage this shattered country.
Liberal house leader Tony Valeri is quoted as saying "We may in fact send people to Iraq. But it certainly needs to be safe, and we need to ensure that Canadians are protected.”
Oh, come on -- there is no safety in Iraq for anyone who is perceived to be on the American "side" there. If we do send people there, they will be risking their lives to witness their faith in democracy, for the chance that our being there will somehow make things a little better for the suffering Iraqi people.
I can admire their courage, while cursing the stupidity that created the need for it.