Its going so well, I read this yesterday in between watching world wide equity markets getting hit.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/
world...0764204872.html
then I read it again and it makes no sense at all, kind of like the war!
Money quote: "The air force said the air strikes would allow US and Iraqi troops to move into the area to set up a permanent base of operations."
so much for mission accomplished..
Read a tiny article in my local paper this morning, that one of our MRAPS (you know, the heavily armored vehicle that was supposedly mine-resistant) was blown into junk, killing on US soldier and injuring several more.
We build a better vehicle.
They build a better bomb.
What with the impending GLOBAL financial in the works, I have feeling that "the war situation (will) not necessarily develop to our advantage."(sic)
Looks like there may be LOTS more people with no jobs, and an axe to grind with the US. If they could only find someone to give them financial support...
i am feeling all doom and gloom today. but at least the surge is working! oh yea, it's not... sigh, returns to bed and pulls up covers.
The Surge is working?
Yeah, about like Haloscan is working. 
Uhm, "...GLOBAL financial meltdown in the works..." damn preview button...
We build a better vehicle.
They build a better bomb.
Yep, and building a better bomb takes less time than it did to get the MRAPS to Iraq.
Notice the pentagon falling all over it's collective dick, slobbering over how WONDERFUL the MRAPS are...
While the article says:
Counterintuitively, it may also be that a better way to reduce overall US casualties is to have personnel operate outside their vehicles. Successful counterinsurgency (COIN) operations, in particular, require close contact with the local population to provide them with security and to develop a working knowledge of the local environment that, together, produces the intelligence necessary to defeat an insurgent enemy force.
I guess this tactic got left out of Petraeus's COIN rewrite...
Of course, after 4 years of shooting and bombing Iraqis somewhat indiscriminately, that horse has been out of the barn for a loooooooong time. Good thing we never tortured prisoners... whoopsie! wrong again. I guess we did.
Remind me why the Iraqis should love us again?
The Asia Times Online has just run a great two-part piece by Mark Perry on the Iraq Fuckup.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Mid...t/
JA23Ak02.html
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Mid...t/
JA24Ak01.html
A sample: "Don't let the quiet fool you," a senior defense official says. "There's still a huge chasm between how the White House views Iraq and how we [in the Pentagon] view Iraq. The White House would like to have you believe the 'surge' has worked, that we somehow defeated the insurgency. That's just ludicrous. There's increasing quiet in Iraq, but that's happened because of our shift in strategy - the 'surge' had nothing to do with it."
It really is a must read, and has the ring of truth.
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