Iraqi Councilman Kills 2 US Soldiers, Wounds 4

I was just over on HuffPost and saw an article that showed just how bad the situation really is over in Iraq, and how far the US is away from 'victory', militarily, politically, everything-lly.

Follow me over the jump for the full story...

A disgruntled local official opened fire Monday on U.S. soldiers attending a municipal council meeting southeast of Baghdad, killing two of them and wounding four other Americans, U.S. and Iraqi officials said

During a time when this 'surge' is supposed to be opening doors and providing stability for the Iraqi Government to actually start governing, not only are attacks still happening daily, hourly, but now actual elected Iraqi officials are violently turning on the US troops.

"The attacker came out of his car with an AK-47 rifle in his hand and started firing on the American soldiers until he was killed by the return fire," said Hussein al-Dulaimi, 37, who owns an agricultural machine shop across the street.

Al-Dulaimi, other residents and a police official said the attacker had been a Sunni member of the municipal council until he was ousted by Shiites during sectarian violence following the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine north of Baghdad.

But the Interior Ministry said the gunman was still an active council member.

Calling people who oppose the US presence 'extremists', or those distinctly from only a dangerous fringe no longer really applies. This man was an elected member of the government, and still was angry and frustrated enough, even from his position, to do what he did.

Being inside the government may have given him a deeper view of the US presence, which is different from the large majority of the population, which only sees the brutal black and white of the day-by-day war in the streets. He would have seen favorable laws passed, Blackwater contractors given blank checks and free reign to do as they pleased, and a thousand other odious policies pushed through, at the benefit of the US, and the detriment of his people.

I just feel like this is a sort of flashpoint, one of those events that is like a litmus test as to how bad the situation actually is on the ground.

Unfortunately, this won't hit the MSM, as they are only devoting literal minutes to Iraq coverage every week, but I hope someone out there remembers this day, as it is a harbinger of what is to come during McCain's proposed hundred year presence...that the surge is not working, 'victory' is not in sight, and we need to clear out and let the Iraqi people decide their own fates going forward. If this doesn't say 'time to leave', I don't know what does....