Antiwar.com Blog

Any guerrilla war has lulls, slowdowns, little coffee breaks that last a week, a month, sometimes years. It doesn’t mean the war’s over. The VC used to go home when it was time to harvest the rice crop; every time they did, the Saigon PR office would declare that the insurgency was beaten. Sadr and his boys are going to work us the way you work a can lid: back and forth, over and over, sheer metal fatigue. They’ve got a whole new crop of martyrs to worship, and all they have to do is wait for another policy mistake to outrage all their followers. One thing you can be sure of, if you’re an Iraqi Shiite: outrages are like buses, there’ll always be another one coming along. When it arrives, they’ll get on board, fight us again, lose again, win the propaganda battle again, and come back a little stronger, with more of the Shi’ite poor on their side. After a half dozen lost battles, they’ll be so strong we’ll be glad to catch the last chopper out of Najaf and let’em martyr each other, instead of paying hundreds of billions of my tax money to be their Santa-Claus bogeyman….Gary Brecher, War Nerd, 04 September 2004

***********

The bombings, the shootings and kidnappings go on daily in Iraq. But two years after US troops pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, there are signs of hope that Iraq is finally turning the corner. The number of US casualties, the scale of militant attacks and the amount of civilian blood spilt have been reduced sharply from the peak in January and February. The security situation is still bad, but it is less awful than it has been for the past year.

American and British commanders are careful to caution that this may be a lull, little different from those seen in February and June last year. Yet in the Green Zone, the fortified government enclave in Baghdad, coalition and Iraqi officials dare to hope that they are gaining the upper hand……Telegraph, 13/04/2005

***********

Chanting “Death to America” and burning effigies of President Bush and Saddam Hussein, tens of thousands of Iraqis flooded central Baghdad on Saturday in what police called the largest anti-American protest since the fall of Baghdad, the capital, exactly two years ago.

The peaceful demonstration by angry young followers of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr underscored the United States’ accomplishments and its failures since the end of the war.

The Paradise Revolution…..LENIN”S TOMB

Thanks to blogslut for the picture

All those recently elected Iraqis who’ve been screwing around like forming a government is no big deal, have had the riot act read to them by Rumsfeld.

Rumsfeld’s message was made extremely loudly and clearly in his indomitable style when he told the interim Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari about Washington’s frustration with the fact that 10 weeks after the historic elections here in Iraq, the government has still yet to be formed.

The defense secretary made the Iraqi officials fully aware of his belief that this delay is having damaging effects on Iraq’s future. It not only undermines the faith of the Iraqi people in democracy. But, every day the formation of the government is delayed is yet another day that U.S. troops are going to have to remain in this country. In addition, the power vacuum only feeds the insurgency that is making the daily lives of regular Iraqis so miserable.

That’ll show ’em.

If a power vacuum feeds an insurgency, is that why it has grown so large under the US occupation? Just asking.

Frontpagemag still sucks. My advice to anyone contemplating interaction with the Frontpagemag gang is don’t. I learned the hard way that you really can’t talk to a psycho like a normal human being. You’ll only encourage his delusions of grandeur.

(Hat tip: Arthur Silber.)

Frontpagemag still sucks. My advice to anyone contemplating interaction with the Frontpagemag gang is “don’t.” I learned the hard way that you really can’t talk to a psycho like a normal human being. You’ll only encourage their delusions of grandeur.

(Hat tip: Arthur Silber.)

A reader sends this tidbit from the very throne of the America-hatin’ liberal media, The Southern Illinoisan:

At John A. Logan College Friday morning, [Sen. Dick] Durbin sat down with a four young soldiers who had been affected – both directly and indirectly – by PTSD.

Benjamin Jones of Du Quoin, who served in Iraq from January to June 2003, took part in some of the most brutal aspects of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“I was in the infantry; my job was to fight,” Jones said. “We had a lot of casualties. I had to pick up several of my friends piece by piece. I had to kill women, children, old men – everyone.”

On second thought, maybe Glenn Reynolds would prefer the ticket to France. Or so says Arthur Silber, who finds another reason for the neocons to fall in love with the home of the OJs (original Jacobins).

Hey, if it’s good enough for Richard Perle…