Wake Up Baghdad

From The Washington Post, today in Iraq.

The good news:

Meanwhile, in what appeared to be a new development in the 14-month-old U.S. occupation, about 500 women staged a demonstration against violence in Sadr City, a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in eastern Baghdad that has been the scene of repeated clashes between militiamen and U.S. occupation troops.

...

"The people who pay for the violence are the women," said Salama Khufaji, a former Governing Council member whose brother was assassinated by insurgents in late May. "We want a stop to the violence, the U.S. to leave the neighborhood and a reactivation of reconstruction projects like water and sewage."

And the bad news:

BAGHDAD, June 19 -- In a bloody surprise attack, the U.S. military launched precision weapons into a poor residential neighborhood of Fallujah on Saturday to destroy what officers described as a safe house used by fighters loyal to Abu Musab Zarqawi and perhaps, at times, by the fugitive terrorist leader himself.

Residents said about 20 people were killed, including women and children, despite a cease-fire with U.S. occupation forces that has brought relative peace for the last six weeks to the rebellious city 35 miles west of Baghdad. Images from the site of the blast showed two collapsed houses, with people in white robes picking through the rubble looking for buried victims and lost property.

"This leads to nothing but more confrontation with the enemy," Abdullah Janabi, head of Fallujah's Mujaheddin Council, declared in an interview with the al-Jazeera satellite television network.

I wish nothing more on Zarqawi and his goons than exactly what happened here; however, it is becomingly increasingly clear that in Iraq, the US has been lured into larger-scale version of the war of attrition that currently ensnares Israel and Palestine. And while it is a war the US most certainly will win - at what cost, and with what end result?

Profiles In Idiocy

Via Pandagon, more proof of liberal bias on college campuses.

If I may, a few changes to Mr. Adams' parable:

“A woman invaded Iraq only to later realize that it would not be the 'cakewalk' she had predicted. She spotted a man on the street and shouted to him, ‘Excuse me, can you help me? I just invaded Iraq an hour ago and things aren't going as well I thought.’ The man consulted his Blackberry and replied, ‘That's because Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden met a few times in the mid 1990s but nothing ever came of it, and additionally, one needs only to look toward British attempts to occupy the area to discover that the Iraqi people have strong nationalistic roots.'

She rolled her eyes and said, ‘You must be from the UN.’

‘I am,’ replied the man. ‘How did you know?’

‘Well,’ answered the woman, ‘everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I still want to continue my invasion of Iraq. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.’

The man smiled and said, ‘You must be from the Bush Administration.’

‘I am,’ replied the woman. ‘How did you know?’

‘Well,’ said the man, ‘you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You’ve risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met but, somehow, it’s my fault.’”

We learned a lot from Mr. Wright that day. Before we went home, Mr. Wright said that he was going to come back the next day and teach us about school vouchers. But for some reason we never had Mr. Wright as a substitute teacher again. And we never invaded a Middle Eastern country without cause again.

By the way Jesse, how's Dodgeball?

Instadouchebag

Having a tough day? Perk up! At least radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is going to be held accountable for helming a revolt which resulted in over a hundred American deaths.

SADR'S DECLINE CONTINUES: "NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr sent his fighters home on Wednesday in what may mark the end of a 10-week revolt against U.S.-led forces that once engulfed southern Iraq and Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines."

It's not clear how well things are going with Fallujah, but the response to Sadr seems to have been handled quite well.

I suppose that's true, if your definition of "quite well" equates to handing legitimate political power to a man who stirred the Iraqi insurgency to what has become, for US forces at least, the bloodiest of the invasion's 16 months.

Here's what Glenn isn't telling you.

The statement came a day after the US president, George Bush, said America would not oppose a political role for Mr. Sadr, whom it had branded an anti-democratic thug only weeks earlier.

Dan Senor, a spokesman for the US-led administration in Iraq, told CNN that Mr. Sadr was "seeking to save face".

Someone is definitely "seeking to save face" here, but whom isn't so clear.

The Ballad Of Balad

Via the Whiskey Bar, this story; which states that the US plans to turn complete control of the Baghdad International Airport over to Iraqi authorities by mid-August.

Billmon posts this update:

A reader, who I'm guessing probably wants to remain anonymous, sheds a little light on the airport situation in Iraq.

"I was in Iraq back in Nov-Dec, and plans were already long underway to transfer all military air support flights, and all of the rest of the support facilities now located at Baghdad Int'l Airport (they call it BIAP), up to the airport at Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad. They've alread built a huge support base there called Anaconda - the site of several recent mortar attacks - and back in November, I landed here on a Blackhawk, and the place was as busy and well-established as BIAP. They're turning over an airport they're finished with, that is way too close to the bad guys in Baghdad, and isn't as defensible as the one in Balad."

You mean this one in Balad?

A rocket slammed into a U.S. logistics base near the city of Balad on Wednesday afternoon, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding 25 people including a pair of civilians, the military said.

...

On June 6, a U.S. soldier on the same base was killed and another wounded in a mortar attack. Camp Anaconda was also the scene of a mortar attack last July 4 that wounded 18 U.S. soldiers.

Take A Short Walk Off A Long Pier

Talk about timing. From the Washington Post:

There is "no credible evidence" that Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq collaborated with the al Qaeda terrorist network on any attacks on the United States, including the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings, according to a new staff report released this morning by the commission investigating the hijacking plot.
Although Osama bin Laden briefly explored the idea of forging ties with Iraq in the mid-1990s, the terrorist leader was hostile to Hussein's secular government, and Iraq never responded to requests for help in providing training camps or weapons, the panel's report says.

The findings come in the wake of statements Monday by Vice President Cheney that Iraq had "long-established ties" with al Qaeda, and comments by President Bush yesterday backing up that assertion.

President Bush commented today that, if he and Vice President Cheney "can just find a way to repair the flux-compacitor," the two will travel back in time to April of 1995; where, at the "Baghdad Ball," Osama bin Laden almost asked Saddam Hussein to dance, but chickened-out and got beat up by Biff instead.

The President then went on to say that, after making sure bin Laden asks Hussein to dance, he will play guitar with Chuck Berry's brother and "do that crazy thing where he hops around on one foot".

The Phantom Of The Opera Is Here Again


Too good to be true.

The dynasty ends not with a bang, but with a whimper.

And special thanks to DC guy David Aldridge, for reminding us that 3/5 of the Pistons starting roster comes via the Washington Wizards.

Whine And Reason

Via the Daily Howler, this from Jim VandeHei in today's Washington Post:

Since his earliest days in politics, Kerry has appeared somewhat detached from the people and voters who helped elect him. He is cerebral, and his interests -- such as windsurfing -- and his wealth separate him from the general public.

Wow. What marked contrast to "Everyman" George W. Bush, who counts among his interests spending over 40% of each year at one of his three vacation retreats; including one month every August at his multi-million dollar ranch, which features this:

"That's the whining pool," [Bush] says, pointing to the nearly finished swimming pool, which was built as an inducement to his teenage daughters. "If you whine loudly enough, you get a pool."

The general public can certainly afford to buy their daughters a pool, if the gals' whining becomes too much to bear, right?

Up Is Down, Green Is Red

From Bizarro World:

PRESIDENT BUSH: It's good to see so many who served our nation so ably in the Clinton administration.

Thank you all for coming back. Thanks for your service to the country. And welcome back to the White House. We're really glad you're here. And I know the president is, as well.

As you might know, my father and I have decided to call each other by numbers.

(LAUGHTER)

He's 41, I'm 43. It's a great pleasure to honor number 42.

We're glad you're here, 42.

(APPLAUSE)

The years have done a lot to clarify the strengths of this man. As a candidate for any office, whether it be the state attorney general or the president, Bill Clinton showed incredible energy and great personal appeal. As chief executive, he showed a deep and far- ranging knowledge of public policy, a great compassion for people in need, and the forward-looking spirit that Americans like in a president.

Bill Clinton could always see a better day ahead and Americans knew he was working hard to bring that day closer.

Eyewitnesses claim they heard Bush call out "Hello," before waving and leaving the room.

Even Assholes Take Vacations

Thanks for rubbing our noses in it, dick.

And while I'm at it, thanks to these dicks at the Justice Department, for creating an environment which resulted in this:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- The friends and family of an American contractor kidnapped in Saudi Arabia are hoping for a quick release.

But an Internet statement said to be from al-Qaida warns Paul Johnson will be treated as U.S. troops have treated Iraqi prisoners.