Bush: Iraq is returning to normal

I think he's flipped out this time for sure:

President Bush, saying that "normalcy is returning back to Iraq," argued Thursday that last year's U.S. troop "surge" has improved Iraq's security to the point where political and economic progress are blossoming as well.

I guess he somehow overlooked the headlines from the past couple of days:

Thursday: 225 Iraqis, 4 Americans Killed; 538 Iraqis Hurt

Friday: 101 Iraqis, 1 US Soldier Killed, 190 Iraqis Wounded


That's a return to normalcy? And it gets even stranger:

Bush coupled his description of the situation in Iraq, meant to lay the groundwork for next month's report to Congress by U.S. military and diplomatic chiefs, with a forceful slap at war critics.

Wait a minute -- the man who unleashed all this chaos on innocent people is slapping at his critics? Words escape me once again ...