Occasional reader Zane sent this link yesterday, a WaPo article entitled US Strategy on Sunni’s questioned, with his emphasis and mark-up included below:
Shiite and Kurdish officials expressed deep reservations on Sunday about the new U.S. military strategy of partnering with Sunni Arab groups to help defeat the militant organization al-Qaeda in Iraq.
“They are trusting terrorists,” said Ali al-Adeeb, a prominent Shiite lawmaker who was among many to question the loyalty of the Sunni groups. “They are trusting people who have previously attacked American forces and innocent people. They are trusting people who are loyal to the regime of Saddam Hussein.”
Throughout Iraq, a growing number of Sunni groups profess to have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq because of its indiscriminate killing and repressive version of Islam. In some areas, these groups have provided information to Americans about al-Qaeda in Iraq members or deadly explosives used to target soldiers.
The collaboration has progressed furthest in the western province of Anbar, where U.S. military commanders enlisted the help of Sunni tribal leaders to funnel their kinsmen into the police force by the thousands. In other areas, Sunnis have not been fully incorporated into the security services and exist for the time being as local militias.
In an interview Friday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told Newsweek that some American field commanders “make mistakes since they do not know the facts about the people they deal with.” Maliki went on to say that arming the tribes is appropriate in certain circumstances “but on the condition that we should be well aware of the tribe’s background and sure that it is not connected with terror.”
Other Shiite politicians are openly opposing the strategy.
“We cannot take weapons from certain insurgents and militias and then create other militias,” said Abbas Bayati, a Turkmen Shiite lawmaker who is part of the majority bloc in parliament. “You need to open recruiting centers and provide training; now what is going on is giving weapons and money to the tribes and individuals.”
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator, acknowledged the potential benefits of reducing the strength of al-Qaeda in Iraq but said of Sunni Arab groups: “They take arms, they take money, and in the future they will be a problem. Politically, they are still against the Americans and the Iraqi government.”
One senior Iraqi government official described the American military policy of partnering with local Sunni groups as “nonsense.”
“Every three months they have a new strategy. This is not only a distracting way to conduct policy, it is creating insecurity for all. I don’t think these strategies have been thought through deeply. It is all about convenience,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. (Zane: No can do, ethnic affiliation says everything in Iraq)
Zane point out that all the opponents of the plan are Shi’a and Kurds – all the enthusiasts are Sunni. In my brief reply to him, I threw in my own 2 cents: I suspect that one of the reasons the Shi’a have been so reluctant to forge the kind of political compromise on constitutional amendments and resources policy is that they don’t really feel compelled to – sure the Sunni/Queda bombings hurt, but not in any strategic way and in any case it adds to the traditional Shi’a stockpile of carefully nurtured grievances.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki can hide behind a dilatory exterior because he knows we have to support whatever it is that his Shi’a dominated, democratically elected majority party does or does not do – it is far too late to sweep the chess pieces to the floor and start again. His partisans also believe that if we pull out precipitously, their control of the police and army means an inevitable Shi’a victory when the civil war really comes. And I’m not talking here about the US partisan-tinged reading of the tea leaves about whether or not there is a civil war in Sunni car bombs and nighttime Shi’a retribution squads, but the indisputable reality of wholesale, industrial scale ethnic slaughter. Should that come, Malki’s people believe they will win – they are now armed, trained and super-abundant. The Kurds? They will politely cheer both camps from the sidelines, so long as they keep oil-rich Kirkuk and something not so very much different than autonomy, call it what you will to keep the Turkish army on side.
Arming the Sunni to defend themselves against Al Qaeda changes that cost calculus and that’s what we’re seeing in the reaction Zane notes above. It’s an exploitative strategy rather than a deliberate one, following as it does the long and bloody campaign to quash the Anbar insurgency: The Baghdad fight is all about what kind of neighborhood the people will live in and who will live next to them. The Al Anbar fight on the other hand has been about what kind of country it will be when all is said and done, who live over them.
This stabilizes the western, nationalist front, at least for now, and was an opportunity that opened up to us when the Al Qaeda terrorists, harried by our forces from Fallujah to Ramadi and then finally into wretched desert hovels outside the major cities turned their butchers knives to local throats in frustration. The Sunni tribes reacted explosively, and our exploitation of that reaction shows at least that ground commanders have not lost the ability to act audaciously.
Additional political pressure is being applied- SecDef Gates recently conveyed his “disappointment” to the Iraqi premier in person – and the combination of western stability and central goading must be intended to open up new operational opportunities. Opportunities such as the on-going assault against Al Qaeda in Baquba, north of the capital.
Michael Yon is embedded and reports:
Northeast of Baghdad, innocent civilians are being asked to leave Baquba. More than 1,000 AQI fighters are there, with perhaps another thousand adjuncts. Baquba alone might be as intense as Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah in late 2004. They are ready for us. Giant bombs are buried in the roads. Snipers
gil,
I beg your pardon regarding the syllables comment. That wasn’t polite nor correct, since it’s your spelling that is falling apart.
I think that regarding the polls and American’s wanting the war to end, that maybe the real answer is not what the polls indicate. Most of the polls ask generic questions: Do you like the way the war is being run? People who are against the war shout YES, because they want the war to end. People who want to win the war shout YES, because they don’t see that the politicians are trying to win the war at all. Both make a tally for ending the war according to the poll takers, but not really. Polls can be very tricky to set up and be truly indicative of what people want to happen.
I’m sorry you think I don’t have a brain, because I think we are winning this war, howbeit slowly and painfully. The Iraqi government does need to be propped up for a while; it needs time to develop a level of competancy and trust among its own people. That’s happening slowly and painfully, too.
I haven’t heard about vacations over there, so I can’t comment on that part.
The realism you cite, however, is interesting. Realistic to me means thinking farther ahead than January 2009 and the next president, who you obviously think should be a Democrat. One who will pull us out of Iraq, and probably elsewhere around the world, and then wonder why we’re being attacked here at home, whinging “How come they hate us when we pulled out of Iraq?”
Realistic to me means having the fortitude to do the hard tasks of winning this war, with our minds, hearts, and treasure. I want our leaders to be thinking consistently about more than the next election and their polling data. I want a leader who will stand for something and not change his (or her) mind according to the whims of public opinion. Our leaders are supposed to know more than we do about what’s really happening and I want to know they are working hard to do everything they can to protect us here at home.
I don’t care if it a Republican or a Democrat who wins as long as whoever it is will be a strong leader and have the guts to do the hard things that true leaders have to do.
I also want generals in the field who can do likewise.
I’m beginning to wonder if English is his second language. It must go with his being a “sinic” and all.
Answer to James Fher.
Fair points all indeed.
I see it some how different tough.
If we live as you say indeed we will give not only Al Quaida, but all our enemies the feeling that we are not willing to stay and fight….. But if on the other hand we stay and fight we will give Al Quaida the perfect opportunity to get us into a never ending quagmire of dead and destruction…… Just ask the Israelis that have been at war for 50 years now.
Now Israel is in a war for it’s survival…. We are not. You might hear that terrorism can destroy our way of life, but let’s get real here. No cave dweller with a death wish will stop our way of life… The Soviet Union could, a future angry Nuclear Powered China could… But not Osama or his cousin.
The Civil War in Iraq is going on as we speak. The Republican Right is correct in saying that if we live it will get worst… Unfortunatelly if we stay the “worst” just turns into attrition with our soldiers right in the middle.
That’s why is a quagmire… There is no good solutions… Just sides that pretend they have solutions.
Frankly in the end the solutions will come from the streets not from politicians. The faith of Iraq, and the Republican party is beeing fought right now in the streets of Bagdhad, and all trough Sunni and Shiite enclaves all across Iraq. Our troops I am sorry to say are now in Iraq only to provide Bush with some political cover that he no longer even has.
Want to know what the future holds???
Look for a new Republican plan to come up this fall just in time for the 08 elections. It will include a re-deployment including the return of a good portion of our troops to America. It will of course be called differently and will have Bush’s backing. It will be “different” from the Democratic plan and politicians from the two sides will be more than happy to tell you why in their never ending political posturing.
As for waht will happen to Iraq??? Sincerely do you think that Irak is more important to our politicians than their jobs??
The writting is on the wall ; The American people want us out, or on our way out. Politicians might not hear the people, but they do feel the heat… ANd right about now they are feeling it trust me on this one.
So in the end as it always was said… The solution (or lack ) will indeed be political…. And a lot of people will loose their lives. After all that’s what happens when a dumb, delusional “War Leader” makes a mistake.
Lex:
You’re a fucking retard. It embarrasses me that people of your minimal intellect are defending our country. I look forward to the day when you disagree with a non-bellicose foreign policy and you salute smartly and SHUT THE FUCK UP. You…ARE…WRONG.
Answer to P3
We all wonder. I for one wonder if you have any manners …. And if you debate with insults only.
That’s usually what happens yo people when they lost an argument. They change subject, and they turn to insults.
Lady…. Please try to earn it will you?
Sheesh Lex,go flip the chicken over.
Thanks Doug – your superior persuasive skills have at last caused the scales to fall from my eyes.
All of my arguments fall away in front of your carefully crafted “fucking retard” rebuttal. I’m ashamed that someone smarter than me isn’t defending the country for you. If only I’d studied harder, I could have gone to a better school, maybe. Learned something worthwhile. I could have learned what it meant to “disagree with a non-bellicose foreign policy,” and why that double negative would be a good thing for me to be able to do.
I would maybe understand why free speech rights don’t extend to servicemen, why I should “SHUT THE FUCK UP” in capital letters.
Drip.
Hmmm…Lex, if you were REALLY busy defending our country, you wouldn’t have time to respond to every little troll on this blog. Are you SURE you’re in the military, because my military friends all seem to be just a wee bit busier than you.
I do suppose our Fuhrer needs plenty of people like you, unable to think independently, to carry out his illegal whims.
OK, so it is burning on one side while you back and forth with these assholes… No curry sauce in the world is going to cover that up…
Doug, you are such a jerk. PLEASE, get lost…
It’s only a quarter past nine on the left coast, Doug, and I’m on leave this week. I’ve plenty of time to bandy compliments with Atlanta-based juveniles who feverishly hit “refresh” over and over again in a blog comment box with midnight drawing nigh, trying to see if they’ve left a mark.
Time, but little interest. I’m just not that into you.
Lex, take the chicken off, go inside and have a nice evening with your family.
See now I thought I’d have to say something, but Lex et all is on the ball.
Someone clear something up for me though, if they would be so kind.
Whatever the policy is, as long as a member of the military follows orders, can they comment freely (on an online forum such as this) as to what they believe the wisdom of that policy is?
I would think yes, judging by some of what I’ve read, but I don’t know officially what goes.
Answer to P3
You did not answer my questions dear Lady.
For starters where do you plan to get the trillions of Dollars needed for your war???
What politician will keep his/her job to see us trough a decade of quagmire while offering us the sacrifice of spending trillions on an adventure as we see our troops and our Army go up in smoke??? …. That’s your “realism” ???
What a winning political platform you offer Lady!!!I am sure the Republican Party will call you tomorrow to offer you a job as a political strategist.
In your “realism” you forgot that polls aside in 06 your side lost the Congress on Iraq. You don’t like the polls now??? Wait till the polls become the new realism as your side is defeated again… But in your “realism” the polls are wrong…. Then the 23% approval rating of the Democratic Congress most be wrong too right?
NO Lady the polls all say the same thing…. Time’s up. You have no more kick the can down the road Bull any longer. You get no more chances. Sorry take it as a good looser…. You are like the little kid that don’t want the game to end because you are loosing… Grow up will you.
NO ONE WILL STAY IN IRAQ FOR DECADES LADY…. I don’t want to call you delusional but Lady if you think any one other than you and the 20+ % of Right Wing Neo Cons will follow you … there is just no other way of putting it. Americans do have other priorities and have lost patience with your “we need more time” strategy. By the way in 09 it will not matter if it is a Democratic or Republican President the end will be the same…. We move on period. You want to stay behind fine.
It’s like my spelling. No question is bad….
You grasp of reality Lady. No question is bad..
OH, no one is perfect.
gil
I get that no one wants to stay in Iraq for decades – but as much as it might not be what anyone wants, it might be whats best. By that I mean is we are training the Iraqi Army to fight the American style – that is with lots of air cover to call when things get sticky. Who provides said air cover if we left tomorrow? and ask lex – it takes a while to train people to do air support well. Let alone buy the stuff they need.
That said, yeah I do think no politico will allow anyone to stay in Iraq for decades – because yes, the political capital is too much. Which is unfortunate, because I think it takes a big person to say that the answer might involve commitment. I’m not saying they would win popularity contests, but they would be right – at least as I see it.
Wanting something to end, and actually ending it are two different things. This is not a game. It does not end. If I were lucky I could predict how things would go for the next 50 to 100 to 1000 years and make it turn out better for all, but I cant. Because whatever happens, it gets passed on to the next set of elected officials, the next generation, those that follow. To just throw up your hands and say “Its over, you loose, your opinions don’t count anymore” throws out just as much as someone that decides to put decisions off.
I think the absolute worst thing to do right now would be to get out of Iraq as fast as possible. Do you know of a place called Sudan? The ongoing ethnic cleansing going on there? Small potatoes to what happens in Iraq if we left ASAP. And seeing an IRANIAN or SYRIAN army (overtly, the Iranians are there covertly already) rolling in is not much more of a positive image
Also, its our war. Not your war, my war, or whatever. We’re all in this together – however we disagree on fighting it.
Ah, I remember when I was young and knew how to solve all the problems in the world, save for the one that involved the cute co-ed in my Physics 221 class, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and her clothing. But I digress…
Gil? I’ve read four of your missives. Your main argument seems to be proof by assertation. The further I read the less my desire to respond and the greater my desire to consider the time spent a loss and move on to other, more important, tasks in my life.
Now if you’ll pardon me, I have to run off and iron my toaster cozy.
– Max
“Deciding to lose a war, deliver up 25million people to a savage enemy and abandon our strategic position in a critical part of the world…” Lex, sent you an email that covered all three of these points today, although that wasn’t my intention.
This new crowd makes me miss Casca.
Boy am I glad I left when I did last night.
Sheesh. Reason and logic must not be taught in schools any more at all. Let alone spelling.
P-3W,
“Do the hard things it takes to win this war”.
Like raise taxes to afford to fight it for as long as it takes?
To bring back the draft to have enough soldiers to fight this war for as long as it takes?
Fat chance any Republican will support that kind of heretic talk.
As for “whoever said it could be done easily”, I say go back to 2002 and 2003. You’ll find lots of Republicans who said it when they were fooling the rubes (the American public) into supporting the war.
Just one thought emparted to me by my Team Sargent in the way back… never ever get into a pissing contest with a snake or in this case a troll. Best
PS, Zane… agree where’s Casca, my new best bud, when we need him.
Zane, the feeling is mutual. I was watching Frontline. They have their left wing axe to grind too, but I think in this episode gave a non-psychotic if imperfect recapitulation of how we got where we are now.
I must confess a certain amount of excitement. My bones tell me that we’re at that “end of the beginning” place in history. There’s a smell of of June 1863 in the air. I wonder if that incompetent monkey Bush will be remembered for a Diyallah Address at some long distant date. The Lincolnian similarities ring in my brain.
Ultimately, I don’t fear the Islamos following us home. We’re really good as a people about focusing our minds on that sort of problem. Now handing the oil in Iraq over to the Iranians, which is what our departure would do, that is something to fear for the entire world.
BTW, “Lex: You?
Zane, the feeling is mutual. I was watching Frontline. They have their left wing axe to grind too, but I think in this episode gave a non-psychotic if imperfect recapitulation of how we got where we are now.
I must confess a certain amount of excitement. My bones tell me that we’re at that “end of the beginning” place in history. There’s a smell of of June 1863 in the air. I wonder if that incompetent monkey Bush will be remembered for a Diyallah Address at some long distant date. The Lincolnian similarities ring in my brain.
Ultimately, I don’t fear the Islamos following us home. We’re really good as a people about focusing our minds on that sort of problem. Now handing the oil in Iraq over to the Iranians, which is what our departure would do, that is something to fear for the entire world.
BTW, “Lex: You’re a fucking retard.” ROTFLMFAO! That was a good one.
Concur, Snake Eater. I’m withdrawing now…
Lex ?
Lex – nice combination of condescending attitude and ignorance. Explain why winning, just to win, is fruitful.
And before you hit me with the pinko label, I was stationed on North Island (NAVSPECWARGRU1) – so save your “I’m the military man” bullshit for someone else.
Well, very nice to meet you too, ibf. You deftly eviscerated what was shortly to become my standard appeal to authority as a military man who enjoys labeling his opponents as pinkos right up front – well done!
I mean, I’ve never actually used that approach, but I was considering doing so when the next snarling troll with a potty-mouth substituting for a point of view wandered in, and now I’m quite stymied. Huh.
Anyway, it’s a rare and unanticipated treat to get to explain to “military men” why the winning of wars is “fruitful” – most of them tend to get it. Part of that whole “fight and win” thing we’re taught to do. You know: The mission.
It has to do with such esoteric issues as national security, prestige and influence in strategically important parts of the world. It also tends to involve – once the wars are actually started I mean, otherwise the whole thing becomes meaningless – inflicting more pain and death upon your enemies than they can inflict upon you. Imposing your national will, in other words, rather than having the enemy impose it upon you.
I could go on, but instead I think I’ll recommend that you go to the library – there’s one just down the road from the VA center, on New York Avenue – and read a book. Start in the “history” section. Budget some time.
Get out of the way Lex. He couldn’t possibly understand all those words. You’ll get your whites dirty.
IBF, if brains were gas, you wouldn’t have enough to get a pissant’s minibike halfway round a cherrio.
ibf, Agreed the jurys still out re you and the “pinko label”…(a little sensitive in that area… EH ?)…but the case is proven, beyon a reasonable doubt, re you and the ” crude,ignorant( your word), Spec-Ops wannabe/wash-out label “…nicely done young fella. Best
Zane, In retrospect…it might have been a mistake to encourage Casca see # 66 & # 69 above…he’s gone round the bend talking about pissants on minibikes and such…must have had raw meat for lunch… He’s in my prayers. Best
No, that came from the drill instructor archives, ca. 1978, back before self-esteem when inflicting physical pain on recruits was still understood, unless there was somebody watching.
Geez Louise! What am I missing? Is Troll hunting season open? Hotdog!
Lex., didn’t they have that big ol hook on the “Gong Show”. I’d use it if’n I were you!
b2
Answer to Lex.
You know you sound kind of confused about Iraq.
First of all let me remind you that since it was the Right Wing Republicans that got us into the mess that Iraq is today….. Just ask Rummy …. You guys are about the last ones any sane individual would go to get Military advice.
Second. In Iraq in order for us to “win” we most count with the Iraqi doing the “winning” (it’s their country) not us. We won a long time ago. After that our soldiers became policeman…. And on that Mr. confused Right Winger you do not “win” any more than you’ll ever “win” a war against crime.
You are asking our soldiers to “win” Iraq for the Iraqi people by as one of your Republican Senators put it “Patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day.
But of course if you want us to “win” as you say and prevent those horrible Democrats from fucking up your “brilliant” strategy in Iraq (I can see how it’s working) it maight be helpfull for your credibility if you actually show some progress between now and say the turn of the century maibe?
You know my friend the only thing your side is demonstrating to the world is not how you can stand up and fight… Or make others to stand up and fight for you, but how your side can be counted to stand up and follow a failed strategy come hail or high water. That’s not brave, that’s just dumb.
We’re going to keep talking past each other gil, not least because I’m disinclined to cloak my words in faux emotional “authenticity” by saying “fuck” a lot, but also because we have two fundamentally opposed world views. For some incomprehensible reason, you seem to believe that the Republican Party is at war, despite the fact that it was entered into by our democratically elected government, including many members of what you think of as “your side.”
I on the other hand think the country is at war. I didn’t swear an oath of allegiance to any party – I swore to support and defend the Constitution, a document whose processes were used to put our soldiers in harm’s way and which sustains them to this day.
Your language all throughout this discussion is putting party and ideology above country and I frankly think that’s reprehensible, even when you aren’t expressing yourself phonetically.
You keep saying “my side” – I don’t have a side. I have a country. And I don’t really care which party governs that country all that much, so long as they don’t get to office by promising deeply silly people that the best thing for the country to do is lose a war.
We’re done talking my friend. I wouldn’t want a stranger passing by to take me for an idiot by virtue of the fact that I’m arguing with one.
Answer to Lex.
You are right. We do see the world differently. In my world Bush and his Administration started the war in Iraq, unless you think the Democrats did.
Bush as the American “Leader” is also the Leader of the Republican Party, not the Democratic Party. That’s why I contiue to insist on the rather obvious…. This is Bush’s war and by extension the Republican’s war.
America dear Sir is much more than Bush, the Democrats or the republicans. When you continue to say that we most “win” in Iraq, it is trough (last I checked) a Republican Bush lead policy that has gotten us not a darn thing. That’s the relation I find between war=policy=Republican, and the “we” in your statement. We Americans do not trust your policy any longer, and that’s a fact reflected in poll after poll. You see all these talk of victory, with no victory does have it’s cosencuences upon your credibility. It’s not of cowards, or cut and run people altough you are free to call us any way you want; to question openly a policy that as the years go by only produces more death, destruction, and calls from your side of more time. I am sure you understand that if Democrats will be asking you for a decade to get their act together you will say go to hell … And so would I frankly.
I do agree with you that the war in Iraq is more than party. But let’s get real here. From day one this war was transformed into a political Football by Bush and the Republicans, and by the Democrats in general.
The war on terrorism that should have united us has instead been manipulated by politicians to separate us as Americans. If you are for this war, chances are you are a Republican, if you are against it chances are you are a Democrat. If you believe in the ultimate “victory” (wherever that is these days)in Iraq, then you also believe that the only way to achieve it is by staying, and if you don’t believe in victory any longer by living.
If it was only that simple Lex.
The truth as I see it from the middle is this:
The Bush Administration for reasons I can’t even start to comprehend ignored all warning to the contrary and rush us into a war that they DID NOT PLAN . As a consecuence right off the bat the Bush Administration was way over it’s head in Iraq. Their pathological tendency of ignoring advice they don’t like cought up with them, and the result was an occupation carried out with the most incredible incompetence one can possibly witness.
As a result today THERE IS NO “VICTORY” POSSIBLE IN IRAQ. For the life of me I can’t understand why adult people like you, have never come across problems that have no solution because they were incompetently managed. Is this concept new to you guys???
Do you look upon our Miltary power as God like? Our troops can produce victory no matter how idiotic the plan was and is?? Do you have any concept that a good strategy gives you victory and a bad one defeat, or at best a quagmire?? Do you understand that if you have a good strategy THE RESULTS ARE SUPPOSED TO START TO SHOW within a reasonable amount of time??
Do you believe that any American wants to loose in Iraq??? NO Sir no one wants to loose. But we are also trying to explain to you and your side that “winning” some times comes from the understanding of our limitations. Just because we can stay, does not mean we can “win” anithing else than 10 years of the same. Just ask the Isrelis what I mean after 50 years of fighting fanatics such as the ones our troops are asked to “police” in Iraq so we can “win”.
Now finally is a good thing that we are done talking. This idiot is not the one advocating for a policy that created the mess Iraq is today…. YOU ARE, and furthermore you want more of the same, But I am the idiot!!!!
Go figure. You know my friend, crazy people never think they are crazy, and idiots never believe they are idiots, and that’s fine….. At the end of the day one can tell an idiot by who he/she follows, or by what he/she believes in…. In your case you follow Bush, and you believe in a “victory” some day down the road with the “brilliant” strategy of stay and fight, as if some how that’s what produces victory. You know Mr. Military genious, History is full of idiots that stood and fought till the end and accomplished nothing than to kill a bunch of brave men.
With that kind of mentality in 08 you’ll find out who the idiot really is. Like I said, the only thing you are demonstrating is not how brave (or smart) you are by supporting a strategy that has not worked…. You just demonstrate how dumb you are.
“That?
“That’s why is a quagmire… There is no good solutions… Just sides that pretend they have solutions.”
gil, I have sat back and waited and that right there is the smartest thing I’ve heard you say in 24 hours. So, look in the mirror, I believe it would apply to “your side” as well. And if you’re so sure that “your side” is going to win in ‘08, then I can’t see the need for your non-stop harping on it now. You could just like, sit down, be quiet and wait for the inevitable, right?
Oh yeah, do me a favour will you? Call me a neo-con right-wing Republican. Please. I can’t wait for that one.
Gil!!
Mom’s coming home and I’m telling her you’ve been playing on the computer again! And by the way, I FOUND the pills you promised her you already took!! Now get back upstairs or else!
Seems the commenter with no editing function doesn’t understand how the United States works. I wonder for what country our little squeaky friend is actually claiming citizenship?
If, of course, “citizenship” is a valid concept in our commenter’s world. Everything being all relative and that.
– — –
OT: Sh1fty, would you have once driven a K car with a leaky windshield washer fluid tank and a tendency to announce same at inopportune moments?
Gil says, “and idiots never believe they are idiots, and that?
Gil says, “and idiots never believe they are idiots, and that’s fine….. At the end of the day one can tell an idiot by who he/she follows, or by what he/she believes in….”
I think he gets it.
From Spree…
Iraq Embeds:Risking Life and Limb to Bring Us Truth
In a followup to Snoopers original piece “Michael Yon’s…Be Not Afraid, here are few more thoughts and articles.
Snooper has already mentioned Michael Yon’s….
Um, wow. Skipped over this one somehow – kinda glad I did. Quite a few people here need to put a repetitive reminder on their personal calendars/iPods/Palm Pilots – “Take Meds NOW”. There is a clear diagnosis for that pesky illness known as “Bush Derangement Syndrome” among us people. There is quite a bit of selective memory going on here, isn’t there.
Phew – glad that’s over.
Somebody mention “quagmire”?
Sorry, but Gil and Jay K’s verbal posturing sent me into flashback mode, back to 1970, when the Left was pushing the “We can’t win in Vietnam” meme so often (and so *loudly*) that people back here actually believed it.
Which confused the daylights out of me, because when I left the Delta, we were winning…