so within 6 months, we have managed to get ourselves where israel has been for the last 20 years, only on a larger scale.

and bush's approval still is in the fifties.

amazing, no, astounding. it boggles my mind.

where did those people go to school?

where did those people go to school?

...In America?

No...this isn't like Viet Nam - it's like Occupied France in WWII.

"...But southern France didn't turn out to be the idyll the exhausted veterans of the Eastern Front had expected. The French Resistance, the maquis, murdered unwary German soldiers and sabotaged rail lines. When the invasion came, Das Reich's march north to Normandy was slowed by Resistance activity and it reacted savagely, shooting and hanging civilians and cold-bloodedly killing all 650 men, women, and children in the village of Oradour..."

http://users.pandora.be/dave.depickere/Text/dasreich.html

Today I am so ashamed to be an American veteran.

Ashamed? .... LEST WE FORGET ...

Another card in that stacked deck the likudniks hung on the armed forces is by the time the facts on the ground proove the validity of original contingency assessments, and the lying guile of the likudniks, the "Wet Spots", like other monuments to the dead were "considered by likud to be jess like straw mixed with mud in their emperial brickwork...

Jess same ol sheet.... FUBAR

Don't you just love the smell of mortars in the morning? Apocalypse anyone?

Today I am so ashamed to be an American veteran.

No, Lurch. Don't be ashamed of being an American anything. Be ashamed at how Anti-American some of our fellow countrymen are.
Is it not self-fucking-evident that ALL men are created equal? That they (we) ALL have the same rights? -- Rights that are not granted by governments nor can they be rightfully taken away by governments? Is it not self-fucking-evident that some, but certainly not all of these rights are:
A) The right to continue living (life)?
B) The right to freedom of thought and action in accordance with one's own conscience limited only by it's infringment on the rights of others (liberty)?
and C) The right to try to make a better life for one's self (the pursuit of happiness)?

We keep hearing how "we" are there to give them freedom, give them liberty, give them this that and the other. We cannot give them what is already theirs. The best we can hope for is to stop taking it away from them.

Don't be ashamed of being an American. Be ashamed of the anti-Americans amongst us.

Noon -

so within 6 months, we have managed to get ourselves where israel has been for the last 20 years, only on a larger scale.

and bush's approval still is in the fifties.

It shouldn't be surprising at all. Sharon has been elected - twice.

And the US has already been learning from the Israeli army: see here, from 31 July 2003.

I say we draft Jenna and the other one, and send them to help America's "progress" there.

Googling Lt. Col. Steven Russell gives quite an interesting view of the conflict in Tikrit.

Photo of him with hooded prisoner

Quote From July 30th(!) Christian Science Monitor
'I believe this is a ... losing enemy and they're down to their last act in Tikrit.'- Lt. Col. Steven Russell

From AP Tikrit tribal elders talk with U.S. soldiers...
This article is full of the Lt. Col's wisdom and statecraft.

Quote From July 30th(!) Christian Science Monitor
'I believe this is a ... losing enemy and they're down to their last act in Tikrit.'- Lt. Col. Steven Russell

Quote from Blazing Saddles:

Bart: "Well, can't you see that's the last act of a desperate man?"
Howard Johnson: "We don't care if it's the first act of "Henry V"! We're leaving"

Saddam Hussein was a blood thirsty tyrant, right? His regime was one of the worst in history, we are told, right? So how is dropping bombs on mud flats going to help? As far as shooting random 'suspects', well the Iraqis are probably used to that. This quite probably just feels like another brutal government to them.

This shit does not bode well at all. It is quite possibly to late to have any ending in Iraq that is favorable towards Americans. Thanks George.

My heart's breaking....

Those guys need to get out of there, and fast. They aren't doing anyone any bit of good over there. They're certainly not showing the Iraqi people the good and noble side of America.

The NYT had an article about some guys getting their legs ripped off by an RPG-7. (Tom Tomorrow linked to it.) These guys may well live, but their losses will not be counted by those heartless bastards in power as 'casualties' due to their 'good fortune' of not dying on the scene.

This is not what these guys trained for, it's not what they volunteered for -- it's not what America is about!

Well. I am an outsider. Not an American. I came to America to study in one of the great American universities. The world, or atleast people in my country (classified as one among the third world), loved America before this blatant display of imperialism. America was a beacon of hope in a world muddled with violence and entrenched vested interests. America was looked at as an young country with strong ideals. Democracy and freedom were synonymous with America.

Now what do we have? America is being equated with imperialism. The latest bully on the block. Every nation worth its salt now wants to protect itself from an any future possibility, however remote, of aggression from USA. Probably governments and statesmen around the world always knew that for America, its own interests come first before anything else. But atleast the common masses believed in the ideals of America. The young men everywhere in the world subscribed to the American view of individualism and freedom of choice away from centuries old traditions. But now, those same masses see America differently. No one questioned America when it went into Afghanistan. It need to root the Taliban out. Everyone understood it and supported that cause. But Iraq was a different matter altogether. People did support American concerns about Iraq's WMD but not the pace of action and the urgency with which the agenda was put implemented. Attacking a sovereign country by a superpower against the wishes of UN is naked 21st century imperialism and colonialism.

The wrong path has been chosen. There is no way to undo the damage. The only action which America can do now is to withdraw from Iraq after installing a representative government in there. It will take years, the sooner the better. American arrogance and hubris is threatening to the rest of the people in the world. Americans are not God's gift to the world. Americans are not the chosen ones to teach the meaning of life ot people in the world. Other civilizations have had a longer history. One does not win hearts and minds by force. One does by example, by being noble and just. History is replete with examples. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela...

It sounds like Lt Col Russell is going to single handedly get the Sunnis off of the fence.

And it's not like some us on the blogs didn't see it coming. Mark my words, it's gonna get a lot worse. The Israeli Army is a Martha Stewart of competence and discipline compared to the current US army trained on Grand Theft Auto. We'll think fondly of Colonel Kurtz as an amiable scout leader compared to what we'll discover in, say, 6 months.

The U.S. military remains uncertain about whether either helicopter was the target of an attack but the two helicopters were in range of rocket-propelled grenades as they flew along the marshy banks of the Euphrates River in deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit.
Witnesses said a rocket hit the second helicopter before it crashed at high speed. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. ...
Maj. Gen. Thomas Romig, the Judge Advocate General of the Army, was aboard the lead helicopter, sources said.

Well, they have to do something, anything, whilst they realize just what kind of public relations desaster they have just brushed by....
A two star General, no less!

The Iraqi occupation has tipped over into full blown insurgency. Since the assassination attempt on Wolfie of Arabia, the insurgents have the initiative. There are not enough troops on the ground to control Iraq; the Sunni triangle or anywhere else. Anyone with an ounce of sense knows you don’t sweep “through Iraqi neighborhoods before dawn Saturday, blasting houses suspected of being insurgent hideouts with machine guns and heavy weapons fire”. This means the officers are out of control. You loose it like this when the situation has collapsed. You no longer are getting rational orders from up above. You want out but are stuck the middle of the hell hole with aliens all around. Like Gordon at Khartoum.

Howard Johnson: "We don't care if it's the first act of "Henry V"! We're leaving"

Gabby Johnson: 'RARIT!'

I wonder what Bush the Minor will do when the American army faces defeat in Iraq. Unleash the nukes and blow them back to the stone age ala the strategy of Trent Lott? We have already used uranium bullets and shells in that forlorn country. Will the big stuff be next?

Amazing how what GWB touches turns to shit. He reminds me of that famous little guy from the Fearless Fostick days (Joe Plzptpk)which Lil Abner used to read about. How that little black cloud was always over his head and how various kinds of doom followed him everywhere he went. An apt symbol for miscreant from Texas who always manages to survive his own incompetence. And now the world is his stage. Just totally awesome. Imagine, Joe P. on a global level.

Not more than a week or two after Bush started mouthing off about his "war on terrorism" back in '01, Ariel Sharon got smart fast and started to use that phrase to lend an air of legitimacy to his actions against the Palestinians.

Now, we're ripping a page from Sharon's playbook: destroying the houses of "suspected" insurgents in a campaign of counterterror(ism). What's the next step? Blackhawks firing missiles into the vehicles of "suspected" insurgents? Taking out an entire crowd to kill a "suspected" insurgent having a cup of coffee?

Occupied France?

Nah, the French were relatively civilized in their opposition.

The better parallel is Soviet occupation of Afganistan. Remember that? Remember how the mujahadeen eventually learned to ambush Soviet helecopters with stinger missiles and then fade into the rocks? Sound vaguely familiar?

In fact its starting to sound like we have two Afganistans on our hand. The first one is still unfinished and now we have a second one in Iraq. Two years ago the US whipped the Taliban in short order because the Taliban fought like a WWI-era army, hiding out trenches and fixed positions waiting to be bombed. Now they've retreated back into the mountains and appear to be doing what they do best: hit and run guerrilla warfare.

Doesn't anyone read their history anymore?

In retaliation American fighting troops backed by Bradley fighting vehicles swept through Iraqi neighborhoods before dawn Saturday, blasting houses... with machine guns and heavy weapons fire. "This is to remind the town we have teeth and claws and we will use them," said Lt. Col. Steven Russell.

This is a known terrorist tactic that has been used against the Iraqis for a few months now. As with all terrorist tactics, it has no military function. It's designed to bludgeon the civilian population into submission. I remember a grey-haired gentleman boasting of the benefits of it earlier this year.

It's called Shock and Awe.

You want out but are stuck the middle of the hell hole with aliens all around

Jim, they aren't the aliens. WE are the aliens in Iraq.

But you are right. The upper levels of command seem to have broken down and major decisions on policy are being made at lower and lower levels in the chain of command. This is definitely a clear sign of collapse. Kind of reminds you of the Crusades when the nobles and knights lost control of the frenzied masses who went on to slaughter everything in sight until the cities and countryside ran with blood -- and that was before they even got out of Europe. We may very well be on the cusp of a bloodbath. And part of the pain is that we are going to have to bring these men whom we have turned into animals back home to roam our own streets.

In retaliation, American troops backed by Bradley fighting vehicles swept through Iraqi neighborhoods before dawn Saturday, blasting houses suspected of being insurgent hideouts with machine guns and heavy weapons fire.

Pardon me for a moment, while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

This is only going to get worse, much worse.

A couple of years ago I came across a reprint of an old book called The Hidden War by Artyom Borovik. Borovik was a Soviet journalist who spent some time with Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 80's. It's an interesting look at the last gasps of a war between unequal forces.

A few points Borovik raised stuck with me:

a) The Soviets had an easy time capturing the cities. The tanks rolled right in. Their military model (much like ours) assumed that controlling urban areas would be the end of it. What got them in trouble was the resistance dispersed throughout the countryside.

b) As Soviet casualties started rising, the troops started getting more jittery and misbehavior towards civilians and 'suspected resistance' got more harsh. This started a vicious cycle. The tactic of U.S. troops levelling nearby houses is not an Israeli exclusive--the Soviets did it in Afghanistan 20+ years ago.

c) The resistance had limited resources, so they got creative with what they got. There's a story of a booby-trapped hot-tea thermos and plastic explosives that is astounding, considering the mujahedeen were mostly illiterate tribesmen (remember the 'homebrew' rocket-launcher that almost hit Wolfowitz?)

d) The Soviets quickly put together a 'local government' as well. They were based in the Capital. Most of these 'ministers' were either ignored or taken out by the mujahedeen.

People don't like the Vietnam analogy. Fine. Go read up on Afghanistan and the Soviet parallels. There are differences, of course. A big one being that the U.S. was pumping money and arms into the insurgents (who eventually morphed into the Taliban).

The difference is in Iraq, we are pumping money and fresh arms into the country ourselves! You think some of the $78B isn't going to trickle down to shopkeepers who will use profits to fund local militia? Who needs an outside superpower when we are happy to give them money to buy more mortars they can use against us.

This could keep going for quite some time. *sigh*

A great post.

CJW wrote: we are going to have to bring these men whom we have turned into animals back home to roam our own streets

I've been thinking about this too. There will be, hell there already are, some seriously damaged psyches coming back to the states. Repercussions will include violent crimes.

That they (we) ALL have the same rights? -- Rights that are not granted by governments nor can they be rightfully taken away by governments?

And don't forget:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Where's the NRA supporting the Iraqi people's right to bear arms ?

Russell think he fights on the side of God. I wouldn't be surprised if there is already a large bounty on his head.

Do they really think shooting up a neighborhood is going to win popular support? One night, Russell's command is gonna get hit hard and everyone will wonder why.

The whole command of the 4ID is fucked up. They already have one battalion commander up on charges for shooting past the head of an Iraqi prisoner. Russell surely seems to be headed towards one as well.

yes yes yes fubar, I'm rereading borovik right now, the afghan/soviet conflict has interested me for the last couple years, honestly, I thought we would get this from afghanistan, apparantly the peoples are too worn out for another resistance and war, one of my most memorable moments from that book is the soldier who was suffering serious manic depression from the war, steady thoughts of suicide creeping in, then he had an accident and was struck with amnesia, and slowly his comrades were telling him what he had told them of his life story, and he kept asking but what am I doing in afghanistan, and no one could properly answer, it is so odd to see photographs of a soviet major with his IL-76 at bagram airbase, and then turn to the television and see a picture or report of colonel so and so at bagram, it is a very good read, realistic, gritty, true, no blinders to it, in a way its funny to think that there are afghans now that probably speak pashtun, russian, and english, says alot, says alot more that gulbuddin hekmatyar is still a warlord in power, he fought the soviets then, he's still going now, its funny to think, he bought or recieved weapons and arms back during the soviet conflict from us, and today he is working for us, in reference to our current conflict, we can scream at the mountain all we want, it will not move for us, it will be there when we are gone, and it will remember our transgressions for many years and generations to come, and thats all this is now, a gordian knot is another good analogy, or the old china shop sign you break you buy, simply, I still feel what I originally felt, that we had no buisness in iraq, and that we could only alienate an alien population, the tactics used against us and that we are using are the same as the soviets, from rpg's to landmines and ied's, the only one I have yet to hear of is the iraqis using booby traps, but the end result is the same a slow low tempo dehumanising experience that will never leave the participants, and we will deal with those scars in our friends and loved ones here at home, I have a friend that came back from afghanistan, a hs buddy, he is... I cannot describe the difference now, I'm not sure I can comprehend it, the end lesson is definately similar to that learned by the soviets in afghanistan, and I just am hoping at this point it doesn't take us ten years, I apologize for the rambling nature of this post, I'm incredably tired, in closing I'm just left to wonder who will be our igor liakhovich, and if anyone at that point will be able to say he died for anything at all

The Post has it as empty houses:

U.S. forces, backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers, destroyed vacant houses said to have been used by attackers in the past

Who exactly do they expect to impress with that?

Who exactly do they expect to impress with that?

Wait, I figured it out: themselves.

The recent bombing of Tikrit homes and surrounding areas only demonstrates the insanity of the Bush Administration. When will Americans soldiers wake up and just walk out of Iraq? The Soldiers need to come back home now before they commit suicide.

P.S. Didn't the Nazis do the same thing to the partisans in World War Two. Shame on this M.F'n Administration. Jail to the Murderers at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for killing our G.I.'s

Democracy in America! What in the world is Bush talking about? I can hear the sound of a drain sucking the life-blood out of this nation as the
fiddler sings Shock and Awe-Shucks. Americans need to take back this country now.
The guy who called in those air strikes should be put in prison.

from king_broke
says alot more that gulbuddin hekmatyar is still a warlord in power,... and today he is working for us

not anymore he aint. the taliban fought him, so that made him our guy, but now he is very anti karzai and teaming up with the taliban again.

and (the mountain) will remember our transgressions for many years and generations to come.

the arabs will probably get over the brutality legacy of war. who knows. but i have a nasty feeling that the pashtun will be thinking revenge 30,60 or 90 years from now. from the russians, and from us. kids will still be growing up with depleted uranium in their bodies as a reminder.

The Mr. Neutron episode is one of my favorites.

Mr Neutron: I have just won a Kellogg's Corn Flake Competition.

Mrs Scum: Oh Mr N! That's wonderful!

Mr Neutron: I got the ball in exactly the right place. The prize is £5,000 in cash, or as much ice cream as you can eat.

(Her eyes go round as saucers and all thoughts of returning to her marital bed vanish under the impact of such imminent wealth.)

Mrs Scum: £5,000!

Mr Neutron: I was thinking of taking the ice cream.

Mrs Scum: (alarmed) Oh no!

Mr Neutron: It's been so hot recently.

Mrs Scum: You couldn't eat that much ice cream Mr N.

Mr Neutron: Mrs S, I can eat enormous quantifies of ice cream without being sick.

Mrs Scum: Oh no! Take the £5,000! Please take the £5,000.

Mr Neutron: I was thinking. If we got married...

Mrs Scum: Oh yes! (she sits very close to him)

Mr Neutron: We could use the £5,000 to buy a spoon...

Mrs Scum: Oh! We could buy a lot more than that!

Mr Neutron: And then fill up with ice cream.

Mrs Scum: Not Forget about the ice cream. We need the money.

Mr Neutron: We need nothing. For there is something I have not told you Mrs S.C.U.M.

Mrs Scum: Oh please call me Mrs S.

Mr Neutron: No I would rather go back to calling you Mrs S.C.U.M., Mrs S.C.U.M. I am the most powerful man in the universe. There is nothing I cannot do.

Mrs Scum: Oh Mr N.

Mr Neutron: I want you to be my helpmate. As Tarzan had his Jane, as Napoleon had his Josephine, as Frankie Laine had whoever he had, I want you to help me in my plan to dominate the world!

Mrs Scum: Oh Mr N. That I should be so lucky!

Mr Neutron: You're not Jewish are you?

I'm reasonably sure that driving around a hostile city taking random pot shots at "suspected" insurgent hideouts and dropping bombs on uninhabited mud flats are not part of any generally accepted counterinsurgency doctrine.

Who cares? They're all just "sand niggers," right? Dear Leader needs them to take a dirt nap! His re-appointment depends on it!

Get with the program, dude.

The Post has it as empty houses

Yeah, right! That's another thing the Americans have learned from the Israelis - if you want to go on a demolition spree or shoot up a neighborhood, just claim the houses were empty and no one will mind. Funny how many empty houses there are in Palestine and Iraq! Especially funny when you realize how many families are without houses!

Jawad,

What makes you think the Arabs will get over it so easily? Perhaps you don't realize how long Arabs' memories are.

And speaking of depleted uranium, I do believe the Iraqis have received a great deal more of that lovely substance and over a far, far greater period of time.

Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

Part III : Status and treatment of protected persons
Section I : Provisions common to the territories of the parties to the conflict and to occupied territories

ARTICLE 33

No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
Pillage is prohibited.
Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.

Yes, but David Brooks has said this is ok.

Sir,
Thank you for your excellent writing.
Love your research.
Does the questiom come down to "is the hunt for Saddam worth one more American life?"
Impeach Bush. Call in the U.N.

Kerry /Kucinich in '04

Wal

Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.

(In lieu of the fact that these people will not be brought to justice) I await the arrival of The American Guardian, especially the special War Crimes issue with a smiling Donald Rumsfeld on the cover.

Can anyone say Lidice?

We don't need to . . . yet

Right wingers tend to think of themselves as the tougher party but this is not always true. One example is the fox in the henhouse, they tend to think of themselves as foxes and the left as unable to defend themselves like chickens. Another analogy is like wolves and sheep.
It doesn't always go this way however. Often a more valid comparison is the jackal versus the rhino. The rhino is placed and defensive like the sheep but when roused to anger it can easily beat the jackal.
In Iraq and Afghanistan they think the people are sheep but they are really rhinos. They think they are wolves who can plunder and dominate at will, but they only rule these countries because they haven't pissed off the population enough yet. Just like Vietnam when the people are roused sufficiently the US will have to leave.
It's the same in politics. The right is surprised by the criticism they get from the left, as if sheep should complain this way as they get shorn of their assets. The anger is rising in the left though and these jackals will find out whether the plunder they shought is from sheep or rhino.
This is like the Clinton Big Dog persona, that chased away the jackals who thought they were wolves and protected the rhino who thought they were sheep.

At the Chelmno memorial site in Poland, there is a monument to the children of Lidice (Czechoslovakia) who were sent to the Chelmno holocaust camp where they all perished. Words fail.

P.S. Didn't the Nazis do the same thing to the partisans in World War Two

No, the Nazis would have rounded up every man in a village and shot them, then set their women and children to the death camps to be turned into lamp shades, then burned down the village.

The Americal Division would have swept through, grabbed a bunch of women and children at random, shoved them into an irrigation ditch, and shot them.

As acts of counterinsurgency terror go, this one was beyond lame. I mean, shooting up empty houses??? What kind of message does THAT send?

We haven't arrived at the Lidice/My Lai stage -- yet. And, given the relatively -- stress that word -- open media environment in Iraq, I doubt the Army could get away with it, even if it wanted to.

The Washington Post has a pretty good story today that points out how little control the Army has in the Sunni Triange. And if that's what the state-sanctioned corporate media is saying ...

We haven't arrived at the Lidice/My Lai stage -- yet. And, given the relatively -- stress that word -- open media environment in Iraq, I doubt the Army could get away with it, even if it wanted to.

I don't think they'll get away with it, but I think it will happen.

Relartive evil is, well, relative. What does it matter to you if you get run over by a bus whether the bus driver actively hates you and waanted to run you over (Nazi scenario), or merely that he's mad as hell and you're in his way (US army scenario)?

Jawad says: but i have a nasty feeling that the pashtun will be thinking revenge 30,60 or 90 years from now.

yep, those guys are tough, tough, tough - our local cornershop keepers (two brothers) are pashtun and recently one of them singlehandedly saw off three crack loons in a kerfuffle at the shop - they don't take shit and they won't forget shit

ps i've tried to email you at your site, but it bounced back - i'll try again

We haven't arrived at the Lidice/My Lai stage -- yet. And, given the relatively -- stress that word -- open media environment in Iraq, I doubt the Army could get away with it, even if it wanted to.

Well no, they won't get sent to Auschwitz, they'll get sent to Gitmo.

And no, there won't be infantry troops shooting prisoners. Some town will just blow up mysteriously and the military investigation will conclude that it wasn't a smart-bomb that missed a target. But rather a rebel bomb factory that blew itself up.

It's the 21st century and our military can do its killing by remote control. And who will really know the truth?

It's like we're living in Garcia's novel "100 Years of Solitude" where all knowlege of an army massacre fades to myth and then from memory.

And we'll all be encouraged to just "move on"

There's another part of that Mr. Neutron sketch that seemsvery familiar, thinking back to Rumsfeld's memo a couple weeks back:

Captain Carpenter: Everyone's really scared of us, sir.

General: Of us?

Captain Carpenter: Yes, sir.

General: Of our power?

captain Carpenter: Oh yes, sir! They're really scared when they see those big planes come over.

General: Wow! I bet they are! I bet they are. I bet they're really scared.

Captain Carpenter: Oh they are, sir.

General: Do we have any figures on how scared they are?

Shirin,
I guess what i meant was that the pathans (pashtuns) have probably the nastiest preoccupation with revenge. Much more so than the Arabs, or anyone else.

October Revolution. They are not very tough in front of Rumsfeld's army, but they are the obsessive rabbit-boiling horse's-head-in-the-bed kind of nasty. (I am jawad@muslimwakeup.com)

So, aside from the oft-cited examples of Germany and Japan, can anyone point to a single unilateral foreign military occupation/regime change that has been successful in the past 100 years? Lebanon? Afganistan? Vietnam? Philippines? Algeria? Congo?

The differences between Iraq and the German and Japanese occupations have been discussed extensively. Bear in mind also that in 1945 we had a bi-polar world. For the West Germans and Japanese, the alternative to American military occupation wasn't liberation and independence. It was the Soviet Red Army.

Who thinks that the Iraqi's might just be a little bit better behaved today if there were a couple million battle-hardened communist troops on the border, ready to roll in and take over the occupation duties from the Americans?

I personally can't think of a single historical analogy to the current Iraqi occupation that looks good from the American point of view.

You think we're insane, delusionary, counterproductive, terrorist, ridiculous, thuggish, clueless over there? You ain't seen nothing yet. The Bush Politburo has no answer to any problem but violence and additional violence and continued violence and shutting up with violence anyone who disagrees.

And "the president" still at 50%.

This country is finished.

If I were a U.S. soldier in Iraq, I swear I would desert and join the resistance. It would be the only way to save my soul, let alone life.

And "the president" still at 50%.

This really worries me. Either 'muricans don't want to know, or the US media really is played like a fiddle by Shrub inc. Either way, that's no good news. May our american friends wake up and flush El Shrubo from the WH in 2004.

Jawad - the Pashtuns in the cornershop are nice, they don't boil rabbits. Very family oriented. Not very fond of the US, gotta be said.

U.S. insists it retains Iraq initiative

I think if you have to insiste you still have initiatave it's kind of too late...

These quotes are great and really highlight your points. Keep'em coming - on second thought I hope there is no further need to underline the absurdity going on in Iraq, yet, I am not prone to wishful thinking ... I guess you should just carry on, sir.

The Post has it as empty houses

Yeah, right! That's another thing the Americans have learned from the Israelis

You mean like the "empty houses" Ariel Sharon personally blew up in Qibya in 1953 ?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,433318,00.html
69 civilians dead

Fortunately, the US isn't there - yet

And in a related note, the Air Force is scheduled to perform its last development test on the MOAB . Any bets that we see these dropped on Iraq before Billmon comes back from his Sabbatical?