Farewell 2006!

The major news item of 2006 is the defeat of the United States in Iraq, now clear for all to see, and of Israel in Lebanon, shattering the invincibility of the Zionist state and producing a new Arab hero, Hassan Nasrallah.

Let's have a look at the major news items in each month:

January: Hamas wins a majority in Palestinian Legislative Council elections. The U.S. and the E.U., hypocritical champions of democracy, reject the outcome. Sharon suffers a debilitating stroke but lives out the year in a coma.

February: The golden dome of the Askariya mosque in Samarra, one of Iraq's holiest Shiite shrines, is destroyed by a bomb explosion, leading to unprecedented sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia.

March: Slobodan Milosevic dies in his cell at the International Court in The Hague, ending the life of the architect of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia.

April: Chinese President Hu Jintao visits the U.S. but is more cordially received by Bill Gates on the West Coast than by George Bush on the East Coast.

May: The British Labor Party suffers a heavy defeat in local elections, indicating profound disapproval for Bush's poodle, Premier Tony Blair.

June: Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi is killed by coalition forces in Iraq, but the escalation of violence does not subside.

July: Israel launches war on Lebanon, but is defeated by Hezbollah. The so-called invincibility of Israel is shattered and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah becomes a hero in the Muslim world.

August: A United Nations Security Council deadline set on August 31 for Iran to stop enriching uranium passes without Iran complying. There is no proof Iran is aiming to build a nuclear weapon.

September: A military coup in Thailand deposes Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and in China the party chief of Shanghai Chen Liangyu is sacked for corruption.

October: North Korea tests a nuclear bomb becoming a declared nuclear power in an exclusive club. The UN Security Council imposes sanctions including a ban on luxury exports. The six party talks resume in December, but are adjourned after five days without any progress.

November: In the U.S. midterm elections, Republicans lose the House and the Senate. Voters present a clear mandate: “End the war! Get out of Iraq!”. Bush sacks Donald Rumsfeld. In a further setback to Washington, Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega are re-elected in Venezuela and Nicaragua, following in the footsteps earlier this year of Chile's Michelle Bachelet and Bolivia's Evo Morales.

December: Saddam Hussein is executed in Baghdad, but has never been convicted for his worst crimes, the invasions of Iran and Kuwait. The UN Security Council imposes sanctions on Iran because the country refuses to stop its uranium enrichment program. Intended to pressure Iran, they will no doubt have the opposite effect. The resolution may have opened the way for an American invasion.

Notable persons who passed away this year include adventurer Heinrich Harrer, journalist Anna Politkovskaya and singers Wilson Pickett, James Brown and Marishka Veres. The world was also left a bit cleaner by the disappearance of a few villains: Slobodan Milosevic, Pik Botha, Augusto Pinochet and Saddam Hussein.

Bye bye 2006, here comes 2007!