Bush: "Iraqis are saying 'God, I Love Freedom'"

Wednesday President Bush held a joint press conference with French President Nicholas Sarkozy. When asked about the quagmire that is Iraq, Bush said,

I don’t --- you know quagmire is an interesting word. If you lived in Iraq and had lived under a tyranny, you’d be saying: God, I love freedom, because that’s what’s happened.

And there are killers and radicals and murderers who kill the innocent to stop the advance of freedom. But freedom’s happening in Iraq. And we’re making progress.

I'm not so sure he's spoken to any Iraqis about this, or at least, not Iraqis who aren't politicians who have been put in place by Bush and his cronies.

For example, here's an April 2006 story where Eman Ahmad Khamas told Maui Community College students that "conditions in Iraq are far worse now than when Saddam Hussein ruled."

Then there's this story, from October 30th of this year, where the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, recently named Iraq’s first cardinal, said that "rising violence has made life worse for Iraqi Christians since the U.S.-led invasion."

William Blum's July 21st, 2006 op-ed about "Why Bush's Iraq is Worse Than Saddam's."

Torture in Iraq now worse than under Saddam? That's what this Sept. 21st, 2006 story said.

And let's not forget the Iraqi refugee crisis.

They may be free of Saddam, but they're also free of electricity, food, water ... and safe places to walk.