So Veto it, Bitch!

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The Senate passed the Supplemental today, brushing aside threats of a veto and mountains of stale rhetoric and presidential pissing and moaning about Democrats determined to set a “date certain for surrender."

The Dems kinda shrugged and said “Whatever” like a parent ignoring a toddlers temper tantrum. (When my kids screamed "I hate you!" after I had the audacity to set limits and enforce them, I calmly responded "Good. That means I'm doing my job." Same principle applies here.)

From the Blue Dog conservatives to the progressive left, the Democrats said “No” with one voice to Bush's demand for war money with no policy strings attached. "He's not getting what he wants," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza (Calif.), a conservative "Blue Dog" Democrat. (emphasis mine)

The bill will get to Bush on Monday – and Tuesday will be the fourth anniversary of the farcical dog-and-pony-show on the flight deck of the Abraham Lincoln. You remember Mission Accomplished, right? (I’m guessing he doesn’t whip out the 'ole veto pen before Wednesday.)

Behind the scenes, the talks on the next version have already started, but Democrats are not willing to give any more ground than Bush. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) said yesterday that putting the force of law behind benchmarks has always been an issue that has divided congressional Republicans from the White House -- making it a potential wedge to push next week.

The bill passed yesterday sets strict requirements for resting, training and equipping troops but would grant the president the authority to waive those restrictions, as long as he publicly justifies the waivers. The bill also establishes benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet: Create a program to disarm militias, reduce sectarian violence, ease rules that purged the government of all former Baath Party members and approve a law on sharing oil revenue.

Unless the Bush administration determines by July 1 that those benchmarks are being met, troops would begin coming home immediately, with a goal of completing those withdrawals by the end of the year. If benchmarks are being met, troops would begin coming home no later than Oct. 1, with a goal of completing the troop pullout by April 1.

As the president commences the wailing and gnashing of teeth over being told “No” the Democrats are getting their act together and going on the offense. Democratic leaders in Congress are working in concert with Liberal organizations and planning hundreds of rallies, meet-ups and news conferences to protest the coming veto. Americans Against Escalation in Iraq is organizing what it anticipates – and fervently hopes - will be a historically large outpouring of sentiment against the Iraq war within hours of the anticipated veto. Planned events include news conferences just after the veto and "signature rallies" -- some of which could draw thousands of people -- the following day in about 50 places represented by fence-sitting Republicans lawmakers.

I, for one, am positively spoiling for this fight. I want to see this newfound backbone and resolve calcify and become a permanent fixture of the Democrats and obstacle to the Republican perfidy, malfeasance and flat-out hackery that have been the hallmark of the last six years.

[--Cross-posted from Watching Those We Chose]

Sure would be nice to have a "Plan B" about now...

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[Shameless self promotion alert: This was cross-posted to Watching Those We Chose, and from there it was linked at the Salon Blog Report.]

On Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced that construction of the “wall” around the Adhamiya neighborhood would stop, saying it was too reminiscent of “other walls.”

He did not elaborate, but he did not need to. The reference to the fence separating Israelis and Palestinians was obvious. “I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop,” Mr. Maliki told reporters during a joint news conference with the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa. “There are other methods to protect neighborhoods.”

Meantime, the messages coming from the American command. were in disarray. Lt. Colonel Christopher Garver declined to verify whether construction would continue or not, stating that the military remained “in dialogue” with the Maliki government. At the same time, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV was backing away from the “concrete caterpillar” as fast as he could, practically denying the idea was ever more than that – an idea. “The military does not have a new strategy of building walls or creating gated communities.”

(Yet last week it was all the rage...)

The fact is, sequestration of neighborhoods was reported in the LA Times in January; but it actually goes back to Vietnam and the idea of “Strategic Hamlets” – a notion that failed miserably then, too, by the way. (The only example I can come up with of it actually working was the British in Malaysia, but talk to a sociologist about the dynamics that made it possible there that do not exist in Iraq).

Opposition to the wall has gathered steam since the American military announced it, and on Sunday both Sunni Arab and Shiite groups sharply criticized the idea. The Sunni Arab Iraqi Islamic Party and the Shiite group linked to the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr both announced that they opposed dividing Baghdad by sect. In sharp statements, they said the wall would increase sectarian hatred and fuel efforts to partition the country.

“Surrounding areas of the capital with barbed wire and concrete blocks would harm these areas economically and socially,” the Islamic Party said in a statement sent by e-mail to news organizations.

“In addition it will enhance sectarian feelings. This will cause great damage to the neighborhood’s residents and have a negative effect on these areas instead of solving problems. It will deepen the gap between the people and encourage sectarianism.”

Abu Firas al-Mutairi, a representative of the Sadr movement in Najaf, said: “The Sadr movement considers building a wall around al-Adhamiya as a way to lay siege to the Iraqi people and to separate them into cantons. It is like the Berlin Wall that divided Germany.”

“This step is the first step toward dividing the regions into cantons and blockading people there,” he added. “Today it happens in Adhamiya. Tomorrow it will happen in Sadr City,” the Shiite slum in Baghdad that is a stronghold of Mr. Sadr.

There is a great deal of disarray amid the chaos these days, it seems. Things appear to be coming to a head. The dynamics are shifting perceptibly. Every new day unleashes fresh horrors. As American men and materiel are wearing out in the desert, the insurgents adapt. They gain strength and strategic skill. I’m sorry, but I can’t see any scenario in which the situation improves and Americans are still in the country.

The congress needs to hold firm and refuse to authorize any more funding without an exit strategy.

For the love of Mike, the way the sands are shifting it makes absolutely no sense to pour more blood and treasure into this mess without binding conditions. I'm frankly offended that they would even dare to ask for such a thing! I mean really, aren't you the least bit offended at the insistence on a blank check when they haven't gotten one thing right so far? What the hell?

Enough is enough. Deal with the fact that we aren’t going to win because that isn’t even an option. Stop with the sacrifice of young men and women on the altar of Bush’s vanity. The refusal of the president to deal with reality is costing a lot of deaths among young Americans. They are constituents of the members of Congress. It is time they serve them and bring an end to this madness. Let the 30% who are never going to come around anyway continue their shouting down the well of delusion. Is trying to placate those people enough reason to continue the escalated death of Americans? I don’t think so. They are unreachable. Write them off and move on. We have to stop the war without them. They are going to yammer on no matter what. They are still yammering about Vietnam, for crying out loud. you think there is any possible way they won't do the same damned thing this time? I don't. Not if their past work is any indication.

For those who have to tell themselves that something was "won," fine. Here’s your chance to declare victory and go home. Please take it.

Thank Mr. Maliki for standing up and telling the military “No.” Then roll up your gear, and get the fuck out.

Shell Game

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With Live Shells!!!

Let’s see…Add 30,000 troops and initially quell the sectarian violence in Baghdad – but, well, on closer examination, maybe not.

For every piece of news indicating “progress’ there are two more pointing out setbacks. Increase security in Baghdad and Anbar, and all hell breaks loose in Diyala.

Tamp down death squad activity – and a couple of bridges across the Tigris get blown up.

It isn’t so much tit-for-tat as it is pure, unadulterated one-upsmanship.

From the Washington Post:

U.S. commanders say sectarian murders fell from 1,200 in Baghdad in January to fewer than 400 in March. Markets are reopening, and a few thousand families have trickled back to areas they had fled.

But they agreed that among the most troubling trends in Iraq has been the proliferation of suicide bomb attacks, because they risk reigniting sectarian revenge killings and undermining the government. Suicide bombings have increased 30 percent over the six weeks that ended in early April, according to military data.

"When you have these big explosions, there is a very high risk of a major setback because it sends a message of instability and insecurity," said Fallon, head of U.S. Central Command.

It is virtually impossible to eliminate the suicide bombings, the commanders acknowledged. "I don't think you're ever going to get rid of all the car bombs," Petraeus said. "Iraq is going to have to learn -- as did, say, Northern Ireland -- to live with some degree of sensational attacks." A more realistic goal, he said, but one that has eluded U.S. and Iraqi forces, is to prevent the bombers from causing "horrific damage."

It’s a deadly shell game. Or, as Heinlein would say – it’s a Bug Hunt

A Crisis of Confidence

General Jack Sheehan explains today on the Op-Ed page of the Washington Post precisely why he refused the billet of White House implementation manager for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He lays it out well. (And confirms what we pretty much knew all along.)

…What I found in discussions with current and former members of this administration is that there is no agreed-upon strategic view of the Iraq problem or the region.

…The United States has and will continue to have strategic interests in the greater Middle East well after the Iraq crisis is resolved and, as a matter of national interest, will maintain forces in the region in some form. The Iraq invasion has created a real and existential crisis for nearly all Middle Eastern countries and created divisions among our traditional European allies, making cooperation on other issues more difficult. In the case of Iran, we have allowed Tehran to develop more policy options and tools than it had a few years ago. Iran is an ideological and destabilizing threat to its neighbors and, more important, to U.S. interests.

…Activities such as the current surge operations should fit into an overall strategic framework. There has to be linkage between short-term operations and strategic objectives that represent long-term U.S. and regional interests, such as assured access to energy resources and support for stable, Western-oriented countries. These interests will require a serious dialogue and partnership with countries that live in an increasingly dangerous neighborhood. We cannot "shorthand" this issue with concepts such as the "democratization of the region" or the constant refrain by a small but powerful group that we are going to "win," even as "victory" is not defined or is frequently redefined..

…It would have been a great honor to serve this nation again. But after thoughtful discussions with people both in and outside of this administration, I concluded that the current Washington decision-making process lacks a linkage to a broader view of the region and how the parts fit together strategically. We got it right during the early days of Afghanistan -- and then lost focus. We have never gotten it right in Iraq. For these reasons, I asked not to be considered for this important White House position. These huge shortcomings are not going to be resolved by the assignment of an additional individual to the White House staff. They need to be addressed before an implementation manager is brought on board.

General Sheehan is the latest in a series of retired General Officers who have spoken out against the Bush administration and the policy – or lack thereof – with regard to Iraq.

Will it embolden the Democrats on the funding issue? What will the morning bring? Dana Perino is about to have a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day...

Boom Town

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going" General Jack Sheehan.

The "Splurge" has been underway for two months now. And to what end has it brought us?

In the last week two vital bridges in Baghdad have been destroyed by suicide bombers, attacks by suicide bombers in Baghdad yesterday killed 57, and a suicide bomber struck in the heavily secured parliament building in the Green Zone itself.

In March, more American troops were killed than Iraqi forces. April is on pace to be more deadly still, with 40 fatalities last week alone.

This is not what "success" looks like, and Americans do not get to win Iraq's civil war.

Those in charge don't have any idea what the hell they are doing. Turns out real warfare ain't exactly that much like Risk, afterall. (Who knew???)

The stench of desperation hangs heavy in Washington, and grows thicker and more sickening by the day.

The geniuses who know nothing of war outside Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers have painted us into a corner and decimated the military of manpower and materiel - to the point it will take decades to rebuild.

The desperately out-of-touch who advocate the "Splurge" stubbornly insist that the "new" strategy will work - because it has to. There is no contingency in case it doesn't and McCain admitted as much yesterday in a campaign appearance in Iowa.

“I have no Plan B,” Mr. McCain said in an interview. “If I saw that doomsday scenario evolving, then I would try to come up with one. But I cannot give you a good alternative because if I had a good alternative, maybe we could consider it now.” He went on: “I am not guaranteeing that this succeeds,” said Mr. McCain, “I am just saying that I think it can. I believe it has a good shot.”

Based on what, Senator? On the escalating violence? On the ratcheted up casualties? On the fact that we have to redeploy Guardsmen back to battle even though that violates the contract they signed when they joined? On the fact that we are force to extend battle tours for the Active Duty Army in a shell-game attempt to maintain the numbers of troops in theatre?

How the fuck is it *supporting the troops* to send them into escalating violence with no alternative strategy in place? People who advocate death and destruction and support this criminal president and his cabal of minions do not get to question my patriotism, got that? (Too shrill? Too fucking bad, I don't give a rat's ass what some mendacious fucktards who support this clusterfuck think. I will be at least this shrill for the better part of the next year, until someone I love dearly completes his tour and comes home safely.)

Now - Explain to me - in specific detail, not mealy-mouthed platitudes - why I should have any faith in anything proposed by the gang who couldn't shoot straight? I'm not a silly little girl with pie-in-the-sky ideals that have no basis in reality. I am a seasoned observer. I grew up in the Navy, I married the Air Force and I joined the Army my damned self. This criminal enterprise in the White House and their mendacious minions in the Pentagon (many of whom have slunk away and recanted - like Perle and Adelman - but should still be hung by the neck until dead) have been absolutely positively 100% wrong about absolutely positively everything to this point. As I am not insane, I do not keep trying something over and over, expecting a different result.

I consider "Victory will be a stable democratic Iraq" a mealy-mouthed platitude. Nice sentiment, but how do we achieve that? What cost are you willing to bear to see that end? Are you willing to pay some taxes? Do you believe strongly enough in it to put your skin in the game? To encourage your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews to join up? Or do you only have the courage to carry a balance on your charge-cards because the president said to go shopping?

What cost are you personally willing to bear to achieve that end? That is the real question. Because while the American military is at war - the American people are at the mall.

Krauthhammer has officially gone off the rails

Charles Krauthhammer is increasingly unhinged from the realities of warfare on the ground in Iraq. He is so consumed with putting a positive spin on this clusterfuck that he will go to any lengths of linguistic gymnastics to carry water for George Bush and attempt to make his case.

The landscape is shifting in the two areas affected by the Splurge, Baghdad and Anbar. Of course, this shift is not for the better. Just yesterday a suicide bomber grabbed headlines by blowing himself up in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament. But the more devastating suicide bomber was the one that took out the Sharafiya Bridge. Baghdad is a city divided by the Tigris. That bombing isn’t as sexy, but it was more strategically important and the effects realized will be farther reaching. The parliament bombing was a psychological coup. The Sharafiya bridge was a strategic one.

Krauthhammer jumps through a whole series of hoops to make the case that because tribal chieftains in Anbar have united against al Qaeda, that is a promising sign. Why, he even uses the phrase turned the corner! Of course, that corner we turned put us on the Sharafiya Bridge…

Come again? al Qaeda has never enjoyed wide support in Iraq, and nobody with a window to reality is pushing that meme. The Iraqi’s want all foreign forces out of their country, and that includes the interloper al Qaeda-Iraq fighters. Oh – and they are only a marginal force of about 4% of those fighting. (But they sure get a lot of credit for as small as their numbers are…Just sayin’)

Lets look at Krauthhammer's actual inanity:

How at this point -- with only about half of the additional surge troops yet deployed -- can Democrats be trying to force the United States to give up? The Democrats say they are carrying out their electoral mandate from the November election. But winning a single-vote Senate majority as a result of razor-thin victories in Montana and Virginia is hardly a landslide.

This from the guy who called Bush’s selection by the Supreme Court and the narrow victory in 2004 as a mandate? Please. Not a single Democrat lost a seat. Both houses of congress, 28 Governorships, and strength gained in statehouses throughout the land. You cant unthump the electoral results.

Second, if the electorate was sending an unconflicted message about withdrawal, how did the most uncompromising supporter of the war, Sen. Joe Lieberman, win handily in one of the most liberal states in the country?

Lot’s of us are asking that question. By the way – last I checked, Connecticut was one state of 50 and certainly not the epitome of Americana. Nice head-fake though. Half a point for that.

And third, where was the mandate for withdrawal? Almost no Democratic candidates campaigned on that. They campaigned for changing the course the administration was on last November.

You have to be kidding me. We voted to change back then, but it isn’t fair to carry that over and say we disapprove of this new-and-improved strategy? The unmitigated audacity of that statement just floors me. The election was a referendum on the war, and Americans want it over. 70% of us aren’t barking fucking mad. We recognize futility when we see it. Sorry reality isn’t working the way you would like, but, well, reality and facts have a well known liberal bias. Oh – and clocks turn forward. As soon as the conservatives get their minds around that, we’ll all be a lot better off.

An *Outing* at the Pentagon

It isn’t often that my husband finishes whatever he is reading and casts a smug look my way and says something like “Gates is steppin’ all over his dick on this one.” And launches into what passes for a tirade in the most reflective, responsible person on the entire face of the earth. (This is the guy you want in a missile silo, okay? I mean, if they are going to be out there, this is the guy you trust with that duty. When he rants, people listen.)

Call him the anti aWol.

He gets no jollies from the misfortune of others, as a general rule. But he really loathes George Bush, as only a veteran can. While aWol was AWOL, he was holding a draft card and dreading trips to the mailbox. While aWol was drunk in a gutter, he was an enlisted Airman with a heavy-duty AFSC. While aWol was running his first oil company into the ground, he was bootstrapping an engineering degree. While aWol was cutting a swath of fecklessness across Texas, he was restoring the integrity of the officer corps and rebuilding a military decimated by lies and politics during the Vietnam era. While aWol was stumbling through life, he was stitching back together the tattered remnants of the Honor Code. (I also have a brother who fits that description, except for the draft-card bit. When I say I see things differently, that view isn’t from the belfry.)

I listened when he pointed out days ago that there was an extension coming, and that Gates was going to get caught with his pants down on this matter. When aWol threatened that tours might have to be extended if the funding battle drags on, he looked at me and said “Gates just got fucked. Extensions are already a done deal. Watch this unfold. Gates may be losing his touch. But look for him to try to frame Inman anyway.” When the insider Contra-gate jokes come out, he's overdosing on Schadenfreude...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates complained bitterly today that "some very thoughtless person" at the Pentagon leaked word about duty extensions for Army units in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gates said that the leak robbed the Army "the opportunity to notify unit commanders who could then talk to their troops 48 hours before we made a public announcement."

We all know that they would have liked to keep that ace in the hole for the funding battle, but it didn’t work out that way.

So plan B…Take advantage of the Friday News Dump, like they did last week with the redeployment of the Guardsmen. But that didn’t work out so swell, either. The push-back is well underway, it would seem.

If I were a betting woman, I would put my money on that leak coming from a low-level Captain at the Pentagon who has done a tour. Or a civilian with some skin in the game.

Here is the deal – most of the people at the Pentagon are non-partisan professionals. They are just people, doing their jobs and collecting their pay. Lots of folks who do 20 or more rotate through the Pentagon, and there are tons of civilians who work there. Most of the people who work there are civilians, in fact. So stop being afeared of the Pentagon. It isn’t some magical, mystical, evil place. It’s a big building with an interesting geometric shape, and it happens to be the headquarters for the nation’s defense services. It has an aura that isn’t really deserved. And it smells funny - or at least it did when I was a kid.

For every “famous” person who has an office in the Pentagon, there are, at minimum, a couple of thousand who are actually making things work and who never hold a presser. Those folks are going to be there after this criminal crew is banished to the cruel, fickle hands of history. They see the devastation this petulant, brain-damaged president and his craven, capitulating minions, have wrought, and they are quietly pushing back against the tide of mendacity.

And you know what? Evil doesn’t win when good people do something.

So step up. Take stock of your abilities, and then do something.

Lot's of contact information, readily available on your left.

UPDATE: If it turns out that it was Senior Brass who leaked, I will owe Larry Johnson a beer. The email exchange has been archived for future examination by relevant congressional committees.

So tell me...is this what 'success' is supposed to look like?

On Tuesday, insurgents waged a pitched, all-day battle in Baghdad against American forces. Four insurgents were killed, and sixteen Americans were wounded. An American helicopter was brought down with small-arms fire, but no casualties were reported in that incident.

The pitched battle in central Baghdad shut down the Sunni-dominated Fadhil and Sheik Omar neighborhoods just after 7 a.m., according to reports from the U.S. military. American and Iraqi troops came under fire during a routine search operation, and true to recent form, the fighting raged until helicopter gunships swooped in, engaging insurgents with machine gun fire.

Sixty miles north of Baghdad, in the mostly Sunni city of Muqdadiyah, a woman with a suicide vest strapped beneath her black abayah blew herself up in the midst of 200 Iraqi police recruits. At least 16 men waiting to learn if they had been hired were killed and scores were injured.

The curfew that was imposed on the capital city on Monday, the anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein, had barely been lifted when artillery fire was heard around the city. A rocket crashed into the playground of a grammar school, killing one student and wounding fifteen students and two teachers.

By days end, 52 Iraqi's had perished, most from Sunni enclaves.

Iraqi president Nouri al-Maliki, traveling in Japan was dismisive of (yet nervous about) the calls for withdrawal of American forces made by firebrand Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as Shi'ites protested in the holy cities of Kufa and Najaf yesterday.

"We see no need for a withdrawal timetable. We are working as fast as we can," al-Maliki told reporters during his four-day trip to Japan, where he signed loan agreements for redevelopment projects in Iraq.

"To demand the departure of the troops is a democratic right and a right we respect. What governs the departure at the end of the day is how confident we are in the handover process," he said, saying "achievements on the ground" would dictate how long American troops remain.

Al-Maliki has repeatedly rejected setting a timeline for U.S. troops to withdraw. He has said it remains impossible to say when his forces will be able to take up full responsibility for security. Beyond that, his government is perilously weak and could easily fall without American backing, both politically and militarily.

American casualties are picking up. At least 45 Americans have been killed in April, four on Tuesday. 3285 Americans have died in Iraq since the invasion was launched four years ago. And for what? I have heard a lot of feeble attempts to justify this bullshit - but none of it stands up to scrutiny.

Saying "we have to win" is not a strategy - in fact, it belies the pathological delusion that permeates this president and the ever-dwindling number of supporters of his war policy - now down around 20%. With every snit-fit he throws, his position erodes and he loses support. So please, Decider - don't you ever shut up.

Violence Returns to Baghdad

After initially abating in the face of increased American troop presence, the bloodletting resumed in Baghdad on Thursday. Twenty-five bodies were found in the streets, in an indication that militia / death squad activity was ticking back upwards. A particularly bloody day in Baghdad ended with a coordinated bombing attack in a crowded Shi’ite marketplace.

Another Shi’ite neighborhood was the target of bombings in the city of Khalis in the explosive Diyala province.

In both instances, attacks were coordinated to inflict maximum civilian casualties. In the Baghdad marketplace, the bombers positioned themselves at either end of a maze of shopping stalls and blew them selves up. Over a hundred were wounded, and hospital officials estimated, based on a crude tally of body parts, that eighty perished.

The attack in Khalis followed the same attack strategy. Fifty-two were killed and eighty more were wounded. The local health center was quickly overwhelmed and ran out of basic supplies.

In both attacks, the bombers struck around 6:00 p.m. on Thursday evening, in crowded marketplaces, as Muslim families hurried to purchase provisions before Friday, the Muslim holy day.

In Tal Afar, after three days of particularly vicious sectarian fighting, the city remained under curfew, patrolled by American forces to keep the sides separated long enough for the currently enflamed passions to cool.

The initial success of the troop build-up was short lived, and we are right back where we started, but now more heavily invested. It is time to accept reality. All the wishful thinking in the world is not going to salvage a hash-mark in the “Win” column for the United States in Iraq’s civil war, and to even pretend its possible is folly pure and simple.

Is this what "Success" looks like?

Revenge for the suicide bombings in Tal Afar two days ago have left scores of Sunni’s dead, after a suicide truck bomber targeted a Shi’ite Mosque by luring victims to the truck under the guise of selling wheat.

Within hours, Sunnis were rounded up and herded into the street, where many were shot in the head. The death squads were the local police. Tal Afar is a mixed city, but the police force is predominantly Shi’ite.

Back in Baghdad, more evidence that the insurgency is adapting to the increased American troop presence is accumulating rapidly.

In the areas that were targeted first for security sweeps by American forces, the bombs are going off again.

And here is a delightful new twist on insurgent tactics…Insurgents are capturing government buildings, like agriculture offices and the like, and blowing them up. This serves a dual purpose – it disrupts government operations at the local level – and it denies the Americans moving into the provinces in the attempt to “clear and hold” positions with too-few troops the opportunity to make a base of operations of the buildings most likely to have reliable water and power.

In light of these events, I’ll be stickin’ by that Bug Hunt assessment for now.

A troubling new trend

Attacks in Baghdad, which initially appeared to abate in the wake of increased American troop presence, have ticked back up in recent days as the dynamic changes and the insurgency adapts their tactics.

In a daring attack west of Baghdad, two suicide truck bombers and about thirty gunmen launched an assault against an American military position. The Americans repelled the attack and killed fifteen of the insurgents, but eight Americans were wounded, and the daring nature of the attack on the post in Garna could signal a troubling new change in tactics. The Iraqis now appear to be willing to go on the offensive and attack positions, engage American forces and fight battles.

Of course this new willingness to attack Americans has not resulted in fewer Iraqi casualties. The slaughter of innocents hasn't really shown any signs of slowing down.

Seventy-seven people died in bomb blasts around Iraq on Tuesday. In a particularly insidious attack in Tal Afar, a suicide truck bomber targeted a Mosque, and lured victims to his truck under the guise of selling wheat; then detonated his charges. It was one of a pair of truck bombings in Tal Afar that killed fifty people, total, and wounded two hundred. The second bomb attack in Tal Afar targeted a used car lot.

The death toll for Tuesday is expected to rise. The attack that targeted the Mosque destroyed twenty homes and shops, and victims were still being pulled from the smouldering rubble.

Tal Afar is a diverse city near the Syrian border, home to Shi’ite, Sunni and Turkmen. Last year, president Bush extolled Tal Afar as an example of the progress the United States was making in the region.

In Ramadi, in al Anbar Province, a suicide bomber detonated a car-bomb outside a restaurant on a major street. Seventeen were killed and thirty-two were wounded in that attack according to a hospital source.

You know how I'm always saying it's a Bug Hunt?

Insurgents waged a five-hour pitched battle against Iraqi and American forces in al-Anbar province. The fighting started Amiriya, about 11 miles south of Fallouja on Tuesday night with an hour-long barrage of mortar fire directed at an Iraqi police station. The barrage continued until a United States Marines artillery unit fired on the insurgents and disrupted the shelling.

The fighting continued for hours and only ended when U.S. warplanes strafed militant positions, killing six and destroying their vehicles. The number of wounded was not reported.

I find it noteworthy that there seems to be a pattern emerging of insurgent forces fighting effectively enough against the Iraqi security forces that battles only end with U.S. airpower comes into the equation.

Elsewhere in iraq on Wednesday;

Iraqi police destroyed a massive truck bomb in a controlled explosion today that inadvertently killed one person, officials said.

The truck was parked under an overpass just yards from the Ministry of Finance, which was mostly empty because of a national holiday marking the Kurdish and Iranian New Year. A large quantity of explosives was discovered in the vehicle hidden under crates of vegetables, police said.

Explosives experts were brought in and security forces moved the vehicle to an open area. But the blast was so powerful, that it killed one onlooker, injured seven others and crumbled part of the highway, police said. (Really inspires confidence in those we are supposed to turn the reins over too, no?)

But the bomb was only part of the violence that wracked the provinces on Tuesday.

· Earlier, two roadside bombs targeting police patrols exploded in quick succession in east Baghdad. One officer was killed and three were injured along with a civilian, police said.

· Three mortar rounds slammed into homes in the Madain area, on the city's southern outskirts, killing three people and injuring 10, police said.

· U.S. forces killed five suspected insurgents and detained three others during a raid near Taji, north of Baghdad

· South of Baghdad, gunmen burst into the Ali ibn-Moussa Mosque in central Basra shortly after dawn prayers and opened fire, police said. The imam and a guard were killed and a municipal council employee was injured in the attack, police said.

· The body of a kidnapped police officer was found in Diwaniya, a strife-torn town south of Baghdad, police said.

As troops *surge* into Baghdad in an attempt to secure the capital, the violence just relocates, what Secretary Gates called a "squirting effect" - like the insurgency was so much incompressible liquid.

And when I say this is a Bug Hunt? This is what I mean.

[This post was linked at Salon's Blog Report, Blogging From the Left, on Saturday, March 24]

Initial Pentagon Protest Coverage

I am listening to NPR coverage of todays protests at the Pentagon and the counter protest. A counter-protester said he had been over there and those who protest are free to buy a plane ticket. Some bitch from California openly said "The patriots told the traitors to get out."

Yep. 30% just told 70% of us we aren't real Americans and we should leave. To which I say "How very Soviet of them."

I didn't dedicate a career to defeating an authoritarian regime to stand idly by while America turns into one.

I would suggest that young man - and that hateful harridan - read the Constitution, the document he took an oath to uphold. It says nothing about people who disagree getting the fuck out. It says that we the people have the right to peaceably assemble. It says we are supposed to hold our government accountable.

Hmmmm. I think I know who the traitors are...

I wonder at the intelligence of arming people and sending them out to enforce democracy, but they don’t bother to make sure they know what the fuck it is.

Fucking surreal.

*****

Turn out, tune in, and turn it up.

It's time to bring on the politicians because

there is no military solution.

It's time to stop the war.

It's time to bring the troops home.

It's time to fully fund the VA.

It's time to

ITMFA!!!

Now Even Surge-ier! With 21% More Troops!

Ummm. I was right. Again. Quite a few of us were asking the question "what's the real troop numbers involved in this ill-advised troop buildup fiasco? I for one was quick to ask that question.

And I was right to do so.

A month after Dave Petraeus jetted off to Baghdad to assume command of ground forces there he is back, asking for more troops in addition to the 21,500 that are on the ground or in the deployment pipeline.

And the poisonous vine known as mission creep has taken firm root.

And the Bug Hunt continues - violence increases in the provinces of Diyala and Anbar while Baghdad simmers. Any perceived "peace" in Baghdad is a Potemkin Peace at best.

The surge was originally advertised as topping out at 21,500 additional troops. But on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that Petraeus had requested 2,200 more military police – to serve as jailors for an expected increase in detainees – and that an additional 2,400 support troops would be needed, bringing the total surge to 27,100, a 21-percent increase over original expectations. (emphasis added)

Frederick Kagan, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute and an advocate of adding troops, blames the White House for the impression that the surge is growing. He says support troops were always going to be needed, but the Bush adminstration failed to make that clear. But he adds that Petraeus will ask for even more troops if he thinks they're needed. "Of course the enemy has a vote and the situation can change."

[SNIP]

The US won't be at full strength in Iraq until June. But even then, General McCaffrey warns, lasting gains won't be made quickly. "Can you, by continuous levels of combat presence, change the underlying nature of a civil war? Or course not, and Petraeus knows that,'' he says. What Petraeus can do, McCaffrey argues, is to create conditions in which the Shiite-backed government and allied militias and Sunni Arab insurgents decide it's in neither's interest to keep fighting. (emphasis added)

Petraeus said Thursday that Sunni insurgents appear to be moving out of the way of heightened US combat patrols, and said he may soon dispatch more forces to Diyala Province, just north of Baghdad. Sunni insurgents appear to be regrouping there, he said. Petraeus did strike some upbeat notes, saying that Sunni Arab Anbar Province – home to Fallujah and locale of the most US combat deaths – has been calmer, and attributed that to local leaders saying "enough" to the conflict.

Yep. Moving out of the way. Parse that phrase, why don't you. Moving out of the way. Not changing ideology, not laying down weapons, not striving for peace...Moving out of the way.

An act of self preservation, not political reconciliation. What one does when one wants to live to fight another day.

This is a Bug Hunt, and the Iraqis have the homefield advantage. Our soldiers and Marines don't know who the enemy is. It is an enemy that can fade into shadows and disappear. They are using the same tactics that Americans developed and perfected in our own War for Independence.

They are using the tactics of out-gunned insurgents everywhere.

I lived in the Middle East twice in my life, first as a Navy brat and then as an Air Force wife. The people of the region have a saying - Keeping ones enemy in a constant state of aggravation, agitation and tension is it's own victory.

The war in Iraq has proven that adage true.