Ignorance is freedom.

The Iraq war is the Bush Administration’s fault. Period. Enabled by a Republican congress, it was fought incompetently from the day Baghdad fell, onwards, and will prove to be the biggest boost to terrorism since, well, nothing comes close. Maybe the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Everything about it: the incredible corruption on the ground (and the one man prosecuting that corruption FIRED THIS WEEK by the Republican Congress), the willful disregard of our allies’ advice, the failure to talk to Iran and Syria, the strategic military failures, ALL OF IT, is Bush’s fault. The MSM ignored successes? Give me a break. Iraq was, from day one, mor dangerous than Vietnam ever was. An election happened, purple finger pointed skywards? Pointless. This was screwed up from the first moment, and the kicker then is that we posted nuclear bomb plans IN ARABIC on the internet. Does the incompetence ever, ever end?

Yeah, you can think about it a little longer. I thought about it for two years. But I came around over a year ago, and its been a steady slide since then. This is a disaster, and it is All Your President’s Fault.

I hope he gets creamed on Tuesday. He deserves so much worse.

As Moqtoda rises to power (whether we stay or go) making the Iranian president look like a tame kitten by comparison, throw the UN and the French under the bus.

…but every morning, don’t forget to take an honest look in the mirror.

Elections Matter!

Make no mistake about it; this war – the single worst foreign policy debacle in U.S. history – isn’t an “American” failure, it’s a Republican failure, one that will, and damn well should, get shoved up their a** during every election cycle for decades. It’s a little phenomenon known as chickens coming home to roost; with the Simpering Imbecile and the Snarling Savage in the lead, the Republicans tried to divide this country with every resource at their disposal, with their disgusting refrain of “cut and run,” and their cynical attacks on the patriotism and bravery of veterans like John Murtha and Max Cleland. Now they can shoulder full and exclusive repsonsibility for the disaster.

Of course, we can expect to start hearing lots and lots about “bipartisanship” and the “politics of personal destruction” from the Republicans. And rest assured, we’ll support extending every ounce of bipartisan cooperation we’ve received from the Republicans over the years.

As to the impossibly execrable Ralph Peters throwing in the towel, here’s an alternative title for the post: “Giant rat scampers down the gangway of the sinking ship.”

the militias attacking sunnis has a dleterious effect on the syrian-iranian realtionship. Iran funds militas to kill/defend against sunnis. Syria funds baathists that kill shiites to impose fear upon them.

this alliance in regards to lebanon, doesn’t hold up much longer.

worst case? a shia sunni civil war splits the country, but also splits any future alliance between sryia and iran.

I find the mafia comparison apt, as the mafia assisted the us during WWII. We have a horrible hx of making deals with the devil, but for the time being, Iraq does get it together until the sunnis are beat. The militias more as propoganda, than effect, will be the primary source that drives the sunnis to coordinate with the govt.

The sunnis don’t deal until they are losing or beat.

I can’t give you an exact number of our soldiers killed by the Shia militias but I can give you at least 1 name, Army Cpl. Kenny Stanton killed by an Iraqi police infiltrated by the Mahdi army. That would be the same Mahdi army headed by Muqtada al-Sadr and based in Sadr City and the same army that US forces have been in an ongoing battle with since 2004. On top of the expected increase in violence for Ramadan, the additional increase in US casualties can be attributed to the US initiative in the past couple of months to disarm these militias in Baghdad. Of course, the militias have been fighting back and our soldiers are taking the hits.

In addition, US Army trainers are estimating that 70% of the Iraqi forces that we’re training are actually members of the Mahdi Army and other militias. Our guys have to watch their backs from the very people they are training. The point of the militias infiltrating the Iraqi Security Forces is for training, easy access to weapons (undocumented and untracked weapons) and to position themselves to control the government. They know that all out chaos is much more likely than peace and are doing their best to get the upper hand.

BTW, you keep using the word insurgency. When in your mind does the insurgency become a civil war? There will never be battles on the scale of Gettysburg in Iraq. So what would be your qualifying threshold?

And just so you don’t think I’m pulling an O’Reilly and talking out my ass, here are just a couple of news links that back up my points.

Article 1

Article 2

The militias? They have a lot of catching up to do, if they want to be the problem that the insurgency is. If I’m maliki or any other shiite, I want the militias around and scaring the crap out of the sunnis.

100 plus solders killed in october, how many by militias?

unethical, dirty, call it what you will to let them do the work, but if the govt is going to succeed, it must continue.