7.15.2007 | one month vacation

Must be nice, to have those infidels over in your country fighting for your right to take a one-month vacation. This is what the Iraqi parliament will be doing. Poor souls, they don't get the two months that seems to be the norm in lazy places.

The puppet head of the Iraqis, prime minister Nouri al-Maliki said, according to this AP story, that Iraq really doesn't need us anymore:

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday that the Iraqi army and police are capable of keeping security in the country when American troops leave "any time they want," though he acknowledged the forces need further weapons and training.

Well, fine. Let's leave, and see how long this moke stays in power. As for their shortened vacation (in real countries with real economies, folks don't tend to get even one month of vacation...), this is beyond belief. Yes, it's a hotter than hell in Iraq in August, but I did not notice that our troops there will be on vacation.

We should be screaming at any Iraqi in power, "Listen up asswipes, it's your country. You need to do the heavy lifting. If you can't, f*** you and the camel you rode in on. We're outta there." But we won't do anything so undiplomatique.

It also appears that the situation on the ground isn't quite as rosy as some would have you believe. From that AP story:

On Friday, the Pentagon conceded that the Iraqi army has become more reliant on the U.S. military. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, said the number of Iraqi batallions able to operate on their own without U.S. support has dropped in recent months from 10 to six, though he said the fall was in part due to attrition from stepped-up offensives.

Let's leave before any more Americans have to die so that some Iraqi politicians can take a month off.