7.19.2007 | Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the classy name that pretentious folks have for Iraq. And, at the head of the class, polishing those apples for some great, liberal teacher, is the Gray Lady. The Times seems to refer to some terrorist group now operating in Iraq as "Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia."

Well, I checked the CIA Factbook, and, wouldn't you know it, there's no "Mesopotamia." Ah, Wikipedia to the rescue. Mesopotamia, as all of us history buffs know, was an ancient empire situated in what became Iraq. Unfortunately, Mesopotamia hasn't existed as an entity for roughly 2,500 years.

But, somehow, al-qaeda is still there. Perhaps they were there in the beginning, way back in the Iron Age? Could be; some things never change. But the Times is hardly a defender of the way things used to be. No, they're a progressive lot, and, perhaps, there's a different agenda being spun here.

Well, as they say, your mileage may vary, but the references in their stories and opinion columns (a redundancy, here), such as this story concerning the "home-grown group with some foreign involvement" that is slaughtering Iraqis. And, when they get lucky, some of our men.

But, wasn't it an article of religious faith, a dogma, for the Times and others on the left that there was no involvement of al-qaeda with or in Iraq? Of course, all it took was the first American boots on Iraqi soil to cause a fully-formed "Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia" to spring up.

Seems pretty clear that the Iraqis were already pretty cozy with al-qeada before we invaded. Also seems pretty clear that folks like the Times are more concerned with sounding learned than with reporting the facts. And simply ignoring any facts they find contravenes their religious dogma.

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.

7.12.2007 | "unsupported and incredible"

There is something more than a little surreal about the legalistic standards used by the mainstream media to judge the rightness of our actions in Iraq. The media, or at least the liberal-leaning elements of it (which is to say most of it) seems to think that we ought to fight terrorists and tribal insurgents the same way we track down bank robbers and grifters.

Gather evidence; arrest them in a calm, civilized manner, with probable cause, and read them their "rights." Likewise, our troops are held to the pristine standards of the world of prosecutors and defense attorneys. Case in point is the ludicrous prosecution of a marine doing what marines do in war: cruise the countryside, risking their butts, searching for and killing terrorists.

One such prosecution of one of our men doing what he was supposed to be doing is reported in this WaPo story. The story relates how Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt was accused of heinous crimes against humanity while taking care of business. For some reason, our government took the side of terrorist sympathizers in Iraq; Arabs for whom lying is second nature. Especially when trying to get our men in dutch.

The outcome of this wasted exercise? The government, and that's our government, spent over 18 months investigating this non-event. Yes, some Iraqis were killed. Boo hoo. They were carrying weapons. Were women and children killed "in cold blood?" Bullshit. Arab lies.

The outcome? From the WaPo story:

An investigating officer in the case against a U.S. Marine accused of murdering civilians in Haditha, Iraq, has recommended that charges against him be dropped, concluding that the government's allegations that the Marine executed a group of men are "unsupported and incredible."

You don't say. The Bushies have totally screwed up what was a picture-perfect invasion of Iraq. We didn't bomb mosques used as terrorist weapons depots and ops centers; we left one of the head shiite terrorists, al-Sadr, live another day. We didn't bomb Falluja flat; we didn't shoot looters on sights.

The list is long, and it all comes down to this: we were not, and remain, unserious about winning in Iraq. We should either start to get truly serious, and to hell with any tender feelings the Iraqis may have, or leave now.

Of course, were we to leave Iraq now, they'd all start to kill each other with gleeful abandon. Somebody tell me how we intend to stop shiites from killing sunnis from killing Kurds? Never happen, with, or without us.

All of Iraq is not worth another American life.