Mr Bu$h appeared Thursday at the Naval War College in yet another of his patented road show speeches before a tame audience, pleading for people to understand that the mess in Iraq really isn’t his fault, and would people just cut him a little slack because in another 19 months he might actually be out of our hair?

It was all standard, pre-packaged Bu$hit and by once again appearing before a bunch of uniforms he knows they’ll receive him politely, because they respect the office, no matter how contemptible the occupant.

The most noteworthy thing about the speech was when he dreamed his little dream that one day his Iraq would be “like Israel.”

They’re still hosing off politicians and leaders in half a dozen Middle East capitals today, because in that part of the word Israel is not considered a worthy exemplar of anything admirable.

Frequent commenter 7of6 illustrates the point better than I could:

The US political elite just doesn't get it. Israel is not popular in the Middle East, and it isn't because Middle Easterners are bigots. It is because Israel is coded as the last European colonial presence in the region, an heir to French Algeria, British Egypt, and Dutch Indonesia-- and because the Israelis pugnaciously continue to try to colonize neighboring bits of territory. (This enmity is not inevitable or eternal; in 2002 the Arab League offered full recognition of Israel in return for its going back to 1967 borders, but the Israeli government turned down the offer.)

Israel’s not a very good democracy to point out, since its political arena has been in the scaly-clawed grip of some of the worst right-wing maniacs the Middle East has seen in 60 years. And some people say they’re in full control of the US foreign policy apparatus.

It occurs to me that Iraq once was just like Israel: a well-armed bully frightening the crap out of all its neighbors. But then another well-armed bully, Mr Bu$h, said, “Fuck Saddam! We’re taking him down!”

Go read the rest of 7of6’s piece. It’s educational.

UPDATE: 7o6 stopped by and noted that he was just channeling Professor Juan Cole, regretting he couldn't write as well as Cole, although I've read some of 7of6's pieces, and think he's wrong. In any case, duly noted.

There was a very unsettling announcement from the McCain campaign yesterday.

(CNN) — Normally VIP visits to Iraq are kept under wraps, at least until the day of the trip. But Senator John McCain Friday night said he’s going to Iraq next week.

Responding to a question in Chicago about whether the Iraq strategy can succeed, the Republican presidential candidate said, “I understand the sorrow of the American people. I visit the wounded quite often at Walter Reed and Bethesda. I’m going to Iraq on Monday. And I’m going to be proud. I would rather spend the 4th of July with the men and women in Iraq than anywhere else in the world.”

McCain told reporters, “I’ll be at a re-enlistment ceremony for a large number of them who have decided while in combat to re-enlist because they believe in the mission. And they believe what they’re doing. And they believe the consequences of failure can be catastrophic.”

John – may I call you John? I feel like I know you, because I learned a lot about you in Psych 202 in college. John, I think this is a bad idea. I know you’re getting tumeled a lot in the news and ratings lately, but your campaign finances aren’t doing too badly, although there have been some rough patches.

McCain… wrote a memo to supporters which was surprising in its besieged tone:

"Politics certainly is not a business of calm seas and light breezes. More like a ship in a storm, in campaign life we ride the high crests and sail through low troughs. I've been at the very top and I've suffered through the challenges of the bottom."

In a plea for contributions, McCain, who made no specific reference to the amount he has raised so far, contended that his campaign organization will carry him through rough financial waters:

"We have built a grassroots organization in the early primary states that is second to no one in the race. It is this strong infrastructure that allows us to weather any storm we face."

In the first quarter, McCain's fundraising problems were compounded by the fact that not only did he raise less than his opponents, but he also spent a much higher percentage of his contributions, 64 percent, leaving him with a paltry $5.2 million in the bank as of the end of March, less than half the cash on hand of Giuliani and Romney.

In effect, McCain had the highest "burn rate," and only a steady decline in the polls to show for it [emph added].

Here’s the thing: sneaking into Baghdad just for a photo op is kind of cheesy, you know? The troops know what they’re doing. They’re motivated by their dedication to what they understand their mission is. This will be your sixth trip, and even as an ex-pilot you’ve got to hate that quickie corkscrew spiral planes have to use to get into Baghdad Airport without getting fired upon. Do you take Dramamine for that or do you still have the right stuff? Never mind. I really don’t want to discuss your gastric system.

But more importantly, the troops know what you’re doing. You might well believe the nonsense your advisers have told you that being seen in photos and videos with guys in camo is imperative but the troops know you’re shamelessly crawling for votes.

Do you remember your last visit in April when you swaggered around a Baghdad market to prove just how safe the city is now? I saw the pictures and the videos. I also saw the 100 troops armed to the teeth and heard about the helicopters needed to supply air cover.

You got your cheap photo op and 30 minutes after your press conference insurgents lobbed six mortar bombs into the area where you were. Then the next day they went into that same market and ambushed and killed 21 people.

That tells me the insurgents read US newspapers, and watch CNN. They’re aware of what’s going on, and you’ve told them three days ahead of time that you’re coming.

John, if you really insist things are getting better, demand your pilot take the long, low, slow glide path into Baghdad. That’ll prove to me you’ve got the guts to be President. Otherwise stay home, John. There’s enough innocent people getting killed over there without your stirring the pot.

MG Jeffrey Schloesser, who took command of the Fort Campbell-based division last year, said Tuesday that the politics of the war must be separate from those who fight its battles. He fears that the importance of the fight may be lost because Americans don’t support the troops.

"The last thing that you want to have happen is an Army in combat with people saying that we really question what our government is having them do," Schloesser told reporters.

This may come as a shock to General Schloesser, but the essence of democracy is questioning the government. When citizens blindly accept whatever their rulers tell them it’s not democracy.

While no sane American questions the dedication, motivation and desires of our Army, many do question its current mission. I know General Schloesser may find this unbelievable but a CBS poll released yesterday indicate that 77% of Americans feel the war is going badly. Perhaps General Schlosser should take note of the fact that most Americans get their information from TV news, which is notorious for taking any press release the Pentagon spews out and parroting it unquestioningly.

So, General Schloesser, if Americans no longer support an ill-conceived, poorly-planned, failing occupation of a country that did us no harm, and has suffered close to one million civilian casualties in our attempted conquest and occupation, I would suggest that the fault lies not with the American public but rather with the Pentagon which is massaging managing the news from that country.

The 101st returned last fall from a yearlong deployment to train Iraqi security forces in urban areas, including Baghdad and Tikrit.

The Pentagon announced this spring that the division would deploy again in September, with units splitting between Iraq and Afghanistan.

With that deployment approaching, Schloesser said soldiers do not want their efforts to be lost amid questions that cut to the heart of a "social contract" the military shares with the civilians it protects.

"What they (soldiers) do want is the acknowledgment that what they're doing is important," Schloesser said.

We’re sorry “your” troops are having a problem with basic logic. As CG it’s your duty to explain the situation to them properly. They’re actually our sons, daughter, husband and wives – not yours. I’m a bit surprised you have forgotten this, since you were once an enlisted man.

I think I speak for most Americans when I say that we know how important the job of soldiering is. Quite a few of us in fact have done that job. Some of us have done it in combat, too. We know our sons and daughters, husbands and wives accept orders and go out and fight and die over there, but more and more, Americans don’t believe spending the next 30 years in Iraq is worth the price. So, if your argument is that the “social contract” is so important, we’ve decided we want the soldiers home. Now. Today, or at least as soon as is possible. So let’s start upholding your end of that social contract, OK?

So please don’t tell us we don’t support the troops. When the Army failed to give them adequate food and water we dug into our own pockets and sent it to them. When we learned their helmets were defective we held bake sales and garage sales to raise money to buy helmet pads, in an attempt to lessen the horrendous traumatic brain injuries that the Pentagon has just now realized were a problem.

Four years after the problem arose, General Schloesser. I guess you were all in staff meetings, and missed the memo.

And by the way, you’re not protecting me over there, and neither are the troops of the 101st that you’re commanding.

This morning Mr Bu$h called for patience from his critics, asking them for some time as he waits something magical to happen.

"We're still at the beginning of this offensive, but we're seeing some hopeful signs," Bush said in his weekly radio address, in which he likened U.S. troops deployed around the globe to the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

"We're engaging the enemy, and killing or capturing hundreds," said Bush, who is losing GOP support for his decision in January to send 30,000 extra troops to Iraq to secure Baghdad and Anbar.

Umm…. Still at the beginning, and all the “al Qaeda” seem to have slipped away.

[A]ccording to local residents, most insurgents fled Baqouba two days before the offensive started, tipped off by reports on Iraqi television that U.S. and Iraqi government forces were set to begin a massive sweep of the city.

As Stars and Stripes reported yesterday the offensive in Baquba killed 60 of the estimated 500 “al Qaeda” suspected to be in that city. There were also 74 suspects arrested.

When Mr Bu$h referred to killing “hundreds” of the “enemy” I’m sure he meant these, too.

BAGHDAD - American soldiers rolled into Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City slum on Saturday in search of Iranian-linked militants and as many as 26 Iraqis were killed in what a U.S. officer described as "an intense firefight."

But residents, police and hospital officials said eight civilians were killed in their homes and angrily accused U.S. forces of firing blindly on the innocent. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the raids and demanded an explanation for the assault into a district where he has barred U.S. operations in the past.

Under Viet Nam rules these dead civilians would be VC “terrorists”, and the women and children would be “terrorist sympathizers.” So, maybe it is progress of a sort: it provides a body count, which is now considered a “metric” although two years ago CENTCOM said they don’t count Iraqi dead. It also cuts down on the potential terrorists, just in case they weren’t terrorists when they were alive.

And of course PM Maliki specifically prohibited operations in Sadr City, and while our rulers pretend he’s the head of a “sovereign nation”

The military explains that they were rolling and took fire, so they returned fire. Surprisingly, civilians disagreed with them.

Witnesses said U.S. forces rolled into their neighborhood before dawn and opened fire without warning.

''At about 4 a.m., a big American convoy with tanks came and began to open fire on houses -- bombing them,'' said Basheer Ahmed, who lives in Sadr City's Habibiya district. ''What did we do? We didn't even retaliate -- there was no resistance.''

According to Iraqi officials, the dead included three members of one family -- a father, mother and son. Several women and children, along with two policemen, were among the wounded, they said.

Viet Nam rules are bizarre. From the same NY Times article:

[T]wo American soldiers are accused of killing three Iraqis in separate incidents, then planting weapons on the victims' remains, the military said in a statement. Fellow soldiers reported the alleged crimes, which took place between April and this month near Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, it said. … [Name deleted] is charged with three counts each of premeditated murder, obstructing justice and ''wrongfully placing weapons with the remains of deceased Iraqis,'' the military said. He was placed in military confinement in Kuwait on Thursday.

[Name deleted] Sandoval faces one count each of premeditated murder and placing a weapon with the remains of a dead Iraqi, a statement said. He was taken into custody Tuesday while at home in Texas, and was transferred to military confinement in Kuwait three days later, it said.

That’s how you turn a “terrorist sympathizer” into a terrorist, but it’s a bit surprising that US troops are now carrying “drop guns.” I always thought only bad cops did that.

Stars and Stripes has an online story today that is probably the most honest and accurate view of the Baquba operation that has been published. Unlike articles in WaPo and the NY Times, it has some understandable “metrics” – you know, facts - to help a reader judge whether we got our money’s worth.

After about 20 minutes of searching [a mosque], an Iraqi interpreter the Americans call “Cal” produced a couple of sheets of paper with Arabic writing. The paper warned local residents not to cooperate with the Iraqi police, army or U.S. forces. It was signed on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq in Diyala province, an underground umbrella organization for al-Qaida and other insurgent groups in Iraq.

“This is exactly what we’re looking for,” said Capt. Stuart Chapman, 25, of Richmond, Va.

Other documents found at the site included identity cards, ration cards and piece of notebook paper with a sketch of an AK-47 rifle and a flag of the Islamic State of Iraq drawn in a childish hand.

Other documents identified the mosque as Wahabbi, a fundamentalist branch of Islam that is the state religion of Saudi Arabia and one to which many Sunni insurgents adhere.

Well, OK. I did promise some facts, and finding a piece of paper urging local residents to not cooperate with the infidel crusaders does seem kind of minor. Really, that's just pro forma agitprop. The identity cards and ration cards might well be important, although chances are good that when they go to pick up Mohammed al-Rashish he’s going to say, “Hey, you found my ration card. Thanks for returning it,” or words to that effect.

I do wish the leaders at MNF-I and CENTCOM would pay more attention to the Wahabbi connection, because those are the buggers who actually killed more than 3,000 Americans n September 11th. You know, the Saudis.

The fact-stuff is all in a sidebar. Perhaps the most important item is a description of food distributed. Nothing says an occupying force cares about the occupyees more than feeding them. It’s the best way to win hearts and minds.

Oh, wait.

That sort of information could prove vital as U.S. and Iraqi forces move into the next phase of operations in Baqouba. With almost no hostile fire reported in days, combat operations are winding down. The focus of the effort now is to consolidate control and persuade local residents to begin cooperating with U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces.

The overall intent of this phase of the Baqouba operation, said Capt. Issac Torres, commander of Company C, is to “lock down the local population and keep pressure on them” until they begin turning in al-Qaida and other insurgents who remain in the city.[emph added]

Well, that could explain why all the food was distributed. The ocupyees are going to be locked in their homes and not allowed outside to shop or go to work until they give up all the bad guys.

Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Col. Steve Townsend, commander of 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said about half of the estimated 300 to 500 fighters thought to be in Baqouba at the beginning of the operation had either fled the city or gone into hiding.

But according to local residents, most insurgents fled Baqouba two days before the offensive started, tipped off by reports on Iraqi television that U.S. and Iraqi government forces were set to begin a massive sweep of the city.

This explains one of the central reasons why whatever we do in Iraq is going to come out looking like something a dog left on your front lawn. With the Bu$h malAdministration, propaganda is king. Everything is geared to getting as many favorable column inches as possible, and nothing is allowed to stand in the way of getting that daily favorable publicity. Covert spies can be outted, war invasion plans can be shown to foreign citizens, military operations can be betrayed – nothing matters but getting some good publicity today.

The insurgents fled before the operation began. Now we get to do the whole thing all over again. In Anbar. Again.

A cynical man might feel forced to ask whether the Arrowhead Ripper and Phantom Thunder operations would have been successful if Democrats had been in charge.

While fumbling around looking for some information I happened upon a citation to an article I wrote last year. Looking back at that article made me realize that our views and opinions about life in the Age of Bu$h can change change and evolve. I’m not thinking about major chasm- creating change, but rather shaded and nuanced views of events.

It’s a good thing to read the piece because it shows how perceptions can change. I’m not talking about the wide, overarching view of George Bu$h and his little band of fascists as being less malign than we believe them to be; there’s ample evidence to convince all but the blind drunk and stupidity-addicted party faithful that the evil these people have wrought will take decades to repair.

But back then we actually saw some indication of sanity in the perceptions of people who believed George Bu$h knew the jig was up in October 2006 and the daily virulent barrages against Democrats were a sign of that understanding, rather than the fact that he was just engaging in the sort of electoral politics he preferred.

Mr Bu$h is in some ways a classic exemplar of the Republican Party of the times: vicious, mendacious, unprincipled, guided by no plan more complicated than self-aggrandizement and grabbing as much booty as possible. The voters seemed to have come to that realization last year, and seemed to have given the Democrats a chance, which they’re muffing, because they need a super majority of around 82 Senators and 400 Congressmen to get anything meaningful accomplished. Democracy may be messy, but the author of that phrase never dreamed that a nation riven asunder would try to direct the affairs of other nations as well as their own.

Was Ms Rice’s statement that the Iraqis have “limited time” to get their asses in gear and create a functional national government based on something-or-other right? Undoubtedly, but I don’t think the Iraqis are suited to voluntary coalition at this time. The tribal and sectarian differences are too great. Saddam Hussein was an Iraqi, and he needed a massive support network of suppression to keep a lid on it all. We’re trying to do the same with less than a fifth of the military might he had, and we’re foreign occupiers as well.

Recent talk from “military leaders” indicate they have believe there is a limited time span in which to inflict enough military damage to the insurgents, Ba’thists, Iraqi Army professional leaders, and yes, even al Qaeda, who are most likely nowhere near as numerous as the Bu$h malAdministration is currently pretending they are.

That’s a non-starter – a throw-away line created to keep the 70% of Americans who have had enough quiet. I’ve said before that George Bu$h is psychologically incapable of accepting a reduction of forces in Iraq. He would view that as an assault on his ego, and the fantasies of “flypaper military action” will keep us in Iraq in force after his departure in January 2009, just in case he actually goes.

Last October when Andrew North, the Welshman, and I felt we saw a finite end to the Iraqi millstone of lost treasure we were right in a general sense, but it’s inconceivable that the Iraqis will get their show on the road on our timeline. Back then we didn’t understand the full details of the confiscatory oil laws, although the Iraqis did, and I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a bit of the resistance is over the theft as well as the brutal occupation. That resistance will continue until every last American is out of the country, at which point the eviction of American oil companies will commence..

With fuller understanding now, and the acceptance of the bitter pill of the Democratic Party’s current feckless state, I can see we have years of bitter blogging about the leech of Iraq ahead of us.

Who is the fox? (I am the fox)
Who are you? (I am me)
Who is me? (Me is a thief)
You'll bring your poor, poor mother grief, so

After the fox, after the fox
Off to the hunt with chains and locks
So, after the fox, after the fox
Someone is always chasing after the fox

Burt Bacharach

There’s a report that US commanders in Iraq, expecting Congress to impose some sort of timeline soon, are switching their emphasis from the Baghdad environs to the wilder west, in the Anbar region.

BAGHDAD — U.S. commanders plan a summer of stepped-up offensives against Al Qaeda in Iraq as they tailor strategy to their expectation that Congress soon will impose a timeline for drawing down U.S. forces here.

The emphasis on Al Qaeda, described by commanders in interviews here this week, marks a shift in focus from Shiite Muslim militias and death squads in Baghdad. It reflects the belief of some senior officers in Iraq that the militias probably will reduce attacks once it becomes clear that a U.S. pullout is on the horizon. By contrast, they believe Al Qaeda in Iraq could be emboldened by a withdrawal plan and must be confronted before one is in place.

Since the Army feels that the a-Q senior leadership escaped their dragnet in the Baghdad belts it isn’t a bad idea to try to keep after them. There haven’t been any stenography pieces in the major newspapers for a day or two, so it might be reasonable for the Army to believe they’ve gotten what they’re going to get in Baghdad and environs. There hasn’t been much exulting in print and I wonder whether the MNF-I considers the operations in Baghdad and Baquba failures?

This can be a very tricky and politically dangerous shift in focus. When the escalation was gearing up, the Army’s focus was on the Mahdi Army, which is loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, who apparently instructed his followers to go to ground and not to confront the US forces. The Army then sifted to the Sunni insurgents, and everyone who raised a weapon was designated “al Qaeda,” surely a poitical decision made in Washington.

U.S. officials, burned by previous claims of progress that turned sour, are offering only the most guarded of forecasts for the current offensives.

"This is the most diabolical enemy out there. I've never seen anything like it," the top U.S. commander here, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, said in an interview.

"It is far and away the most complex situation we've been in during my time in uniform," he said. "I've done two other tours here, and this is far and away, orders of magnitude, more complex."

It‘s a bit disappointing to learn that the man who was charged with overseeing the writing of the Army’s counterinsurgency manual, and who has been lionized as an expert in that sort of warfare, is so easily flummoxed once he’s off the sand table.

David Kilcullen, a former Australian Army officer and GEN Petraeus’ primary counterinsurgency adviser says he is very realistic about the situation in Iraq.

"We haven't turned the tide. We haven't turned the corner, there isn't light at the end of the tunnel. But what we have done is take a failing enterprise and put it on a sound long-term footing."

A reduction in U.S. forces will happen, he added. "We will downsize. Absolutely," he said. "But what we are trying to do is put the operation on a sound footing so the Iraqis can handle it, and we can make it sufficiently stable."

The push against Al Qaeda in Iraq, including the offensive over the last two weeks in Baqubah, north of Baghdad, offers several potential advantages for U.S. forces.

The fight involves the kind of high-intensity operations that play to U.S. strengths. It pits American forces against an opponent that the U.S. public already considers an enemy, and provides clear "metrics" for measuring success.

A lot of observers noted that everyone was al Qaeda, especially every dead body. This was a political decision, probably brought about by Mr Bu$h’s plummeting poll ratings.

As for using body counts as a measure of success. – Hello, Vietnam.

The Army leaders believe that if they can show some progress against “al Qaeda” this summer, it might give the national government some breathing room to get themselves in order before the expected drawdowns begin – possibly after September, although some observers believe that Mr Bu$h will insist that each soldier withdrawn from Iraq be replaced by another. Anything less might be interpreted as his failure, an as we all know, Mr Bu$h never makes a mistake.

So, it will be off to Anbar this summer, chasing after all those escaped al Aqeda leaders.

There was a report at 415 AM, Eastern time of a “complex attack” that killed five Americans and wounded seven others, all from the same patrol.

BAGHDAD - Five U.S. soldiers were killed and seven wounded in an attack on their combat patrol in southern Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday.

The complex attack Thursday began with a roadside bomb, the military said in a statement. Small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades followed shortly after the blast, it said.

All seven wounded soldiers were evacuated to a military hospital, and one has since returned to duty, the military said.

One of the wounded soldiers has reportedly already returned to duty.

A complex attack will use more than one method of attack, in this case a bomb followed by infantry fire. Often the fire will appear in an L-shaped ambush.

That brings the June total to 99 dead Americans, a lower figure than the 126 killed in May, which was the worst month for casualties since November, 2004’s 137 Americans killed in country.

For the second time, the Congress has rejected Mr Bu$h’s bullshit immigration bill, which was intended to supply a mass of new low-pay workers like the bracero program of the 40s. It would also have theoretically rounded up all of the estimated 12 million illegals in the country and eventually deported them, after separating them from their children, who by virtue of having been born here are US citizens and thus not eligible for deportation.

It was a poorly considered bill, written in haste to serve the political goal of keeping the savage base of the Republican Party enraged at yet another bogeyman, in addition to al Qaeda, Muslims, Democrats, Catholics, and all people with dark skins.

The bill failed, and Mr Bu$h just appears on television, apparently shattered that he didn’t get what he wanted after trying to twist arms in a White House meeting with Republicans.

Video here. Of course, Josh Marshall’s description of Mr Bu$h as a “sad sack president” is just editorializing, you understand.

The long saga of body armor, the Point Blank Interceptor vs Pinnacle’s Dragon Skin, has reached a new chapter.

As I noted here, the Army's current Interceptor is made by a company associated with David H Brooks, a deep-pockets Republican campaign donor. It utilizes a base of Kevlar sheets reinforced with ceramic plates to provide a degree of protection. The first issues had no side protection, a matter the Army corrected with add-on units until a new design could be produced.

Pinnacle makes their armor differently, with a Kevlar base and interlocking laminated ceramic plates that sort of resemble fish scales. (Although I’m sure “Dragon Skin” sounds more dynamic that “carp skin.”)

Soldiers have been prohibited from buying and using the Dragon Skin armor in the sandbox. In fact they’ve been told that if they use it, the Army will void their GI Life Insurance policies.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Soldiers will no longer be allowed to wear body armor other than the protective gear issued by the military, Army officials said Thursday, the latest twist in a running battle over the equipment the Pentagon gives its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army officials told The Associated Press that the order was prompted by concerns that soldiers or their families were buying inadequate or untested commercial armor from private companies - including the popular Dragon Skin gear made by California-based Pinnacle Armor.

"We're very concerned that people are spending their hard-earned money on something that doesn't provide the level of protection that the Army requires people to wear. So they're, frankly, wasting their money on substandard stuff," said Col. Thomas Spoehr, director of materiel for the Army.

This may surprise some people, but quite a few generals in Iraq and Afghanistan wear Dragon Skin. It’s apparently also the body armor of choice for Republicans when they sneak into Iraq for a photo op.

A cynical man would wonder how the generals would react to the news that their families would get no SGLI payment if they got capped. I don’t know whether junketing Republicans would get their life insurance paid, because…. Well, just because.

When Murry Neal, CEO of Pinnacle heard about the embargo of his armor other than for the nomemklatura he said,

"We know of no reason the Army may have to justify this action," Neal said. "On the surface this looks to be another of many attempts by the Army to cover up the billions of dollars spent on ineffective body armor systems which they continue to try quick fixes on to no avail."

NBC did an investigation about the body armor problem and as part of their investigation conducted some independent ballistics tests which showed the Dragon Skin armor was superior. The Army counter-attacked, claiming that in their tests the Dragon Skin failed, noting specifically that armor-piercing ammunition was stopped more often by the Point Blank vest.

The Army's ESAPI is a rigid ceramic plate about 12-inches high and six inches wide. Soldiers wear front and back plates and two smaller side plates, all of which are designed to stop armor piercing AK-47 rounds found in the war zone. [emph added]

Pressed by a House Armed Services Committee investigation, Mr Neal asked for a “fair test” of his armor against the Point Blank vest.

Pinnacle president Murray Neal faced sharp questions from skeptical Armed Services Committee members during the June 6 hearing, many of whom wondered how earlier Army tests that showed massive failures of Dragon Skin could jibe with the NBC report and Neal's own contention that the government tests were inaccurate or rigged.

In late 2005, Army and Marine officials were startled to note that the Point Blank vests were being penetrated by a new type of armor-piercing round.

Interestingly enough, the Army put out a solicitation for new vests on June 20th asking for vests capable of defeating armor-piercing rounds. [emph added] The Army has agreed to include Pinnacle’s Dragon Skin armor in the new tests.

Paul Charlton, the former U.S. attorney for Arizona, one of the eight Attorneys fired for not following the Bu$hCo line, testified yesterday to a Senate committee about his time as an US Attorney, and the official DOJ philosophy about the death penalty.

While convicting a meth manufacturer of murdering his dealer, Charlton sought to get a long imprisonment. There was considerable evidence for a conviction, but no body. Typically, such a case in a Federal court can be won for imprisonment.

They decided against seeking the death penalty according to a simple rule: while the evidence had been sufficient to convince a jury that Rico was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, it was not sufficient to be sure beyond all doubt. Rico had been convicted based on the testimony of cooperating witnesses, despite the lack of forensic evidence (there was no body). Charlton explained:

This paucity of forensic evidence, evidence that doesn't forget and cannot lie, means, in my opinion, that Rios Rico should not be a death penalty case. If a government seeks to take another person's life it should do so on only the best of evidence.

It's not that prosecutors didn't know where Rico's body was -- it's in a landfill. But it would cost $500,0000 to $1 million to retrieve the body. When Charlton requested that money, the Department refused.

Abu Gonzalez, following the advice of his Death Penalty Committee, denied Charlton’s request to put aside the death penalty request. A cynical man might think the Committee was operating under Mr Gonzalez’ orders to demand the death penalty. After all, when he was Governor Bu$h’s apparatchik in Texas, they regularly disposed of death warrants in 5 or 10 minutes. If life is cheap in Texas, why would its cost change in Washington?

There’s much more, including some truly stunning details in testimony recounted in Paul Kiel’s excellent summation of how much regard Mr Gonzalez has for human life.

Senator Pat Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent subpoenas to our White House, Dick “dick” Cheney’s office and the Justice Department demanding documents that would expose the illegal and extra-constitutional wiretapping Mr Bu$h ordered, (probably on January 21st, 2001.) We've already learned that they were tapping phones and computers before September 11th.

The move put Senate Democrats squarely on a course they had until now avoided, setting the stage for a showdown with the Bush administration over one of the most contentious issues arising from the White House’s campaign against terrorism.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the committee, said the subpoenas seek documents that could shed light on the administration’s legal justification for the wiretapping and on disputes within the government over its legality.

Senator Leahy is a pretty sharp man, and he knew this day was coming. I’m a bit disappointed these subpoenas weren’t issued three months ago because it was obvious from Mr Bu$h’s lies in 2005 and 2006 that he’s got a lot to hide.

It’s possible that Senator Leahy and his colleagues don’t quite understand what has been going on. We often speak about the “Beltway mentality” and this is a perfect example of that. If the Democrats have been using their cell phones to discuss strategy – bad move. It’s just like having a conference call and signing Mr Bu$h in to it. Anyone who expresses surprise that such an outlandish thing could happen should pick up their buggy whip, hop onto the wagon, and have ole Dobbin take you back to the farm. These are the people who declared torture to not only be legal, but to be a preferred method of obtaining intelligence. They declared they were tapping phones inside the US.

How stupid do you have to be to trust them to do anything legally?

They will refuse these subpoenas, of course, just as they refused the subpoenas to provide documents relative to the scouring out of the Justice Department in order to replace competent professionals with Federalist hacks.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers' demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors.

Dear Senator Leahy: They’re laughing at you. They don’t give a Chinese fart what the Constitution says, or what you think your powers are. Are you going to do anything about it?

I hope the Senators have finally realized there are only four recourses for this action. They can push the issue, and take the necessary legal steps to enforce their subpoenas; they can start impeachment proceedings tomorrow; they can refuse to provide one penny in funding until the subpoenas are provided, or they can fold up their tents and once again shamefully grovel, begging Mr Bu$h to forgive them for daring to annoy him with their Constitutional duties.

Howard Dean recently sent out a fund-raising email in support of the begging letter sent by Tom MacMahon, DNC Exec Director, to all the faithful who supported the Democratic Party in its victory last year.

Mr MacMahon’s email ended up in the round file 3 seconds after I opened it, but I have a bit more respect for Governor Dean.

Dear Governor Dean,

Thanks for writing me to express your concern for the efforts of Tom MacMahon’s
Group to counter the lies of Fred Thompson. I’ m well aware of Fred’s past record as both a lobbyist and actor. Lobbyists are of course scum, and infest our national political discourse like a cancer. I‘d be more inclined to fight back against them if my party had come out publicly with a solid platform dedicated to getting them and the corruption they spread out of the process, but of course, you and that party have refused to do hat.

As for him being an actor, what else did you expect? Republicans live in a world of make-believe and an actor perfectly symbolizes their party.

While we’re on the subject of things we want you in the party leadership to do that you haven‘t done, why are we still fighting to enforce an occupation in Iraq that is wanted only by our defense industry, Big Oil, and their leashed dogs, the Republican Party? Why haven’t George Bu$h and Dick Cheney been impeached? Why hasn’t Alberto Gonzalez been declared in contempt of Congress for blatantly lying while under oath? Why hasn’t that execrable Bankruptcy Bill been repealed and replaced by something that actually follows the principles of the Democratic Party? Why hasn‘t that Nazi monstrosity Patriot Act been changed? Why has nothing been done about health care?

When you announced your 50 state strategy I, and millions of others in this country, eagerly seized upon an idea that would obviously carry us forward into a new era, and it did, didn’t it? Please don’t think you got there all by yourself. Hundreds of liberal and progressive bloggers, and millions of their readers, gave small donations in ten and twenty dollar amounts to bring new Blue candidates into the political arena to fight for our ideals. When I give a donation like that I give up something. I had many meatless dinners last year to get that new blood in Washington.

But my party has failed me. We’re still suffering under the same dictatorship that we hade before the Democrats took Congress and I don’t like that. I won’t say I feel like I was taken advantage of, but if you can read between the lines…

So, here’s the deal: no money for national causes until I see some results from my investment. No contributions to DNC, DNCC, DSCC and definitely, under no circumstances whatsoever, one fucking penny for that pack of losers in the DLC. I’ll continue to sacrifice, support Blue candidates, and eat meatless dinners, but the national party sees nothing from me until I get mine.

The ball is in your court, Governor. The latest poll I saw showed 70% of Americans want serious change, and until you obey the wishes of over 200 million Americans, don’t bother asking me for anything more than advice.

Sincerely, etc, etc, etc

I see that that noted man of letters, Fixer, is less polite than I am:

Idon't want your money. I want your party to do the job I and a bunch of other people sent you there to do. End this war, get rid of the Chimp and Cheney, and then you'll get money from me, lots of it, get it? Keep fucking around like you've been doing for the last 6 months and you won't get shit. Keep fucking around and you're gonna have me breaking your balls here until you get on the stick.

Yeah, well.. Fixer is a mechanic, so it’s all nuts and bolts to him. My kind of guy.

Dan at A Blog Named Sue asks:

Why does a Google search for video including the terms "Giuliani+Thank+God+George+Bush" include a link to a video of a snake coughing up an entire hippo?

Logically, there must be a connection between Rudy Giuliani and a snake, right?

A tip of the too-small Kevlar helmet to Dr Atta J Turk for brining me this little slice of reality.

Everyone is familiar with the AP Photograph taken by Joe Rosenberg showing the raising of the US flag atop Mt Suribachi on Iwo Jima.

It was a historic photo that sent a thrill through a war-weary America. SGT William H. Genaust, a Marine combat photographer with the 28th Marines, was also there and shot moving picture film of this event on February 23, 1945. The film was played in every movie theater in America, again bringing heart to a nation sick of war.

On March 4th SGT Genaust was still shooting film on the island and was accompanying some troops on Hill 362 as they were clearing some caves being used as defense positions. The troops asked SGT Genaust to shine his camera light into the cave so they could see if it was occupied, and when he did a burst of machine gun fire killed him.

His body was never recovered, one of about 250 unaccounted for.

Each year a search team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command returns to Iwo, seeking unexplored sites where remains might be found.

IWO JIMA, Japan - A team of U.S. searchers looking for the remains of the Marine who filmed the famous flag raising over Iwo Jima say they've located two possible sites and recommend a larger group excavate them, officials said Wednesday.

"Our investigation has been very successful," U.S. Army Major Sean Stinchion told The Associated Press, the only civilian media with the search team that had been surveying and digging on the island for 10 days.

"We found two caves and tunnels. We will recommend a follow-up team be brought in to use heavy equipment," he said.
…
The seven-member team arrived on Iwo Jima on June 17 and began slashing its way through thick, thorny brush on the island's interior in search of the area where Genaust is believed to have been killed.
…
The search was prompted in large part by information provided to JPAC by Bob Bolus, a Scranton, Pa., businessman who became intrigued by Genaust after reading a Parade magazine story about him two years ago. Using his own money, Bolus put together a team of experts, including an archivist, forensic anthropologist, geologist and surveyor, that was able to pinpoint where Genaust's remains were likely to be found.

JPAC officials stressed that searchers came to the island hoping to find other remains as well.

"Our motto is 'until they are home,'" said JPAC spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Brown. "'No man left behind' is a promise made to every individual who raises his hand."

DEBKAFile has reported that the USS Enterprise battle group is heading towards the Middle East.

According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, the US naval build-up off the shores of Iran marks rising military tensions in the region, accentuated by last week’s Hamas victory which has endowed Iran with a military foothold on Israel’s southwestern border.

The USS Enterprise CVN 65-Big E Strike Group will join the USS Stennis and the USS Nimitz carriers, building up the largest sea, air, marine concentration the United States has ever deployed opposite Iran. This goes towards making good on the assurances of four carriers US Vice President Dick Cheney offered the Gulf and Middle East nations during his May tour of the region.

The “Big E” leads a strike group consisting of the guided-missile destroyers USS Arleigh Burke DDG 51, USS Stout DDG 55, Forrest Sherman DDG 98 and USS James E. Williams DDG 95, as well as the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg CG 64, the SS Philadelphia SSN 690 nuclear submarine and the USNS Supply T-AOE 6>

On its decks are the Carrier Air Wing CVW 1, whose pilots fought combat missions in the Gulf and Arabian Sea during 2006. The Air Wing is made up of F/Q-18 Super Hornet strike craft, the Sidewinders Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-86, the 251st Marine Fighter Attack Squadron MFA, and the Electronic Attack Squadron VAQ 137.

The 32nd Sea Control Squadron VS consists of S-3B Vikings. The Airborne Early Warning Squadron VAQ 3 flies E-2C Hawkeye craft. The Fleet Logistics Support Squadron VRC is based on C-2A Greyhounds.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report Washington is considering deploying the fourth US carrier for the region in the Red Sea opposite Saudi Arabian western coast to secure the three US carriers in the Gulf from the rear as well as the Gulf of Aqaba and Suez Canal.

DEBKAFile has the reputation of being a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mossad, the Israeli Secret Service. It has frequently been used as an outlet for rumor, provocation, and misdirection disguised as news. It is always wise to triple-source information picked up from this source.

Global Security monitors US Navy movements, and reports Enterprise as “Post Deployed,” noting it returned to its home port, Norfolf, VA, on November 22, 2006. Eisenhower and Stennis arrived in the Middle East area in January and February, respectively.

I don’t know what the turn around for aircraft carriers is usually. They typically make a six-month overseas deployment, followed by at least as long a period in home port.

The DEBKAFile report is eerily specific, because the Navy is kind of shy about discussing its submarines. This might be a sign of extremely good record-keeping, strategic guessing, or a threat-feed direct from the Pentagon.

There is a report dated June 22, repeating the DEBKA report word-for-word. Interestingly enough that report copies a June 21st report from a Russian-language website. The .ua domain is The Ukraine.

Such sources are NOT valid cross-checks for DEBKA articles.

I had a short piece about ADM Mike Mullen when he was nominated to replace GEN Peter Pace. At the time WaPo described him from interviews with colleagues as:

Mullen's Navy background would lead him to make decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan from "a different perspective," focused less on ground tactics and more on political dynamics, said retired Adm. Robert J. Natter, who attended the Naval Academy with Mullen.

Mullen is a realist, Natter said. "A realist would say this is as much a political issue solvable only by the Iraqis as it is a military force issue partially solvable by the U.S. military."

There was speculation at the time that ADM Mullen was not going to allow himself to be bullied into signing off on an attack against Iran.

Perhaps ADM Mullen has caved, and agrees with Mr Cheney that the long-hoped-for military confrontation with Iran is not capable of being resolved by political means.

Another war right now would be just the thing to make people stop wondering whether Mr Cheney belongs in the Executive or Legislative departments.

A tip of the too-small Kevlar helmet to The Crazy Bird.

UPDATE: Thanks to alert reader Shanks, we learn that the USS Nimitz is visiting Madras in the Bay of Bengal this week.

WASHINGTON: When the American nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz rounds off the Indian peninsula and heads up Bay of Bengal later this week for an unprecedented port call at Chennai, Indian military historians and long-serving mandarins could be forgiven for a few wry smiles and dry sailorly quips on the occasion.

Just over a quarter century ago, in December 1971, the United States dispatched its then frontline aircraft carrier USS Enterprise to the Bay of Bengal in an effort to intimidate New Delhi, then in the thick of a war with Pakistan. India refused to blink, and an ugly American effort at gunboat diplomacy, engineered by the subsequently disgraced Richard Nixon and his minion Henry Kissinger, passed off without incident.
…
USS Nimitz will incidentally be in Chennai on July 4, the American Independence Day, while two Indian vessels, the tall ship INS Tarangini and the newly acquired amphibious dock INS Jalashwa will be on US shores in Boston and Norfolk.

Officials said sailors from the USS Nimitz will volunteer in numerous good will events in the local community, such as cleaning local sites, refurbishing buildings, and interacting with different members of the community in Chennai. Unstated, but clearly on the agenda, are also efforts to heal the 1971 abrasion.

More on the USS Enterprise here and here.

As we’re hearing this morning some unknown political activist managed to penetrate three layers of security, gain access to the lobby of the Mansour Hotel, and set off an apparent vest bomb that killed about 12 people and wounded another 18. Among the dead were four Anbar sheiks, 2 Sunni and 2 Shiite, who were deeply involved with the Anbar Salvation Council, which I‘ve written about several times.

The bombing struck at the heart of one of the rare bright spots for the American military. Just last year some senior military officers had all but given up on Anbar, the sprawling western province. But a group of Sunni sheiks banded together to fight Al Qaeda and supply young men to the police, bringing a significant turnabout. Anbar has allowed the American military to claim some success in its long-held ambition of splitting Sunnis away from the sway of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

The Council has been actively and aggressively (although probably temporarily) representing American interests in Anbar province, carrying a fight to the al Qaeda guerrillas there.

The Mansour Hotel s supposed to be a very fine hotel, well-appointed, quite luxurious, located just outside the Green Zone, with good views of both the US Embassy an Haifa Street, notorious site of major street battles several months ago between US forces and Madhi Army fighters. It is the permanent location for the Chinese Embassy, several news organizations and several members of the Iraqi Parliament. One could expect the security there should have been quite. A knowledgeable observer speculated that with such high-profile targets in the hotel at least one of the security rings would probably have been a top-level mercenary group, such as Blackwater.

This bomb attack comes hard on the heels of the disturbing accusation that one of the pivotal figures, Sheik Abdel Sittar Baziya, considered the leader of the US-paid led Salvation Council left the country with $75 million that he never delivered to the tribal factions.

Spread the Word reported on June 11th that the Council might be dissolving because of internal dissent.

Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, 35, a leader of the Dulaim confederation, the largest tribal organization in Anbar, said that the Anbar Salvation Council would be dissolved because of growing internal dissatisfaction over its cooperation with U.S. soldiers and the behavior of the council's most prominent member, Abdul Sattar Abu Risha. Suleiman called Abu Risha a "traitor" who "sells his beliefs, his religion and his people for money"...

A cynical man would probably ruefully note that, prior to associating with the American Army, Sheik Sittar Baziya had been a rather notorious brigand, robbing passing caravans.

Quick UPDATE: The dissolution of the Anbar Salvation Council of course means that all those "cowardly" "al Qaeda" "senior leadership" that LTG Odierno was whining about the other day now have a safe place to set up shop once again in Anbar, to continue the endless game of Iraq whack-a-mole.

On Sunday I wrote a piece about “racing turtles,” trying to convey the image of mine warfare. You move slowly and calmly because the mine and mechanical booby trap have much more patience than you do. They will sit there, immobile, quiet, with neither breath of inhalation nor buzz-click of timer, waiting for you to find them.

Mines and booby traps come in different styles and types. After four years of Mr Bu$h’s ego-war many Americans know abut them to the extent that they are called IEDs, or VBIEDs (vehicle borne) which is also the term for “very big” IEDS, unless they’re called “big m-f’s.” Some Americans are also familiar with the effects of these bombs – the shattered, missing limbs, destroyed eyes and brains – a trail of wreckage that will haunt our nation for 50 or 60 years in some cases.

Michael Gordon describes bomb-hunting in this morning’s NY Times and to his credit he only mis-describes the insurgents as “al Qaeda” once.

[T]here were a few early indications that the bomb threat in the area might be more challenging than the Americans had expected. The street the soldiers had raced across was strewn with slender copper wires, which the insurgents used to set off buried bombs powerful enough to upend armored vehicles.

As the platoon watched from its new foothold south of the road, a Buffalo vehicle, a heavily armored truck with a V-shaped body to dissipate bomb blasts and a giant mechanical claw, began to scour the nearby roads for bombs. It found three, which were exploded by American combat engineers.

“Controlled dets,” a soldier called out, referring to a deliberate detonation of a discovered bomb. The good news was that the buried bombs had been found and neutralized. But some had been deeply buried on the road the platoon had just crossed.

In discussing the “Lebanese flypaper” I tried to give a quick sense of some of the difficulty encountered by infantry and armor in the steep hills of Southern Lebanon, because that is what the troops in Baquba are facing. Buildings are hills; streets are valleys. When the streets are mined, you either risk getting killed to pass through, or you sit and wait. The third method, climbing on top of the buildings, doesn’t work, as the unit Gordon was with found out.

To blast a path through the next bomb-ridden stretch of road, combat engineers brought in a mine-clearing device. A bright fireball appeared over the street and a cloud of gritty dust engulfed the platoon’s house as the soldiers huddled in the back and plugged their ears.

Afterward, as Sgt. Philip Ness-Hunkin, 24, walked to the house next door, he saw copper wires leading to the home. The gate was unlocked and the front door was invitingly open.

“Right in the front door there was a pressure plate under a piece of wood,” he said, referring to a mine that is set to blow when it is stepped on. “Over in that neighborhood there were wires going all over the place.”

“H-BIED,” a soldier called out, using the military’s acronym for a house-borne improvised explosive device.

The last place the platoon wanted to be was next door to a house bomb and a series of structures that had not been cleared. If the soldiers got into a firefight and had to dart in and out of the houses along the road, they might be diving into a series of deadly booby traps, explained First Lt. Charles Morton, 25, the platoon leader.

The explosive-rigged house needed to be destroyed by an airstrike or artillery fire. So the soldiers were instructed to move back across the road they had just crossed.

Once there, the troops clambered into a two-story house. When Sergeant Mennitto got to the second floor, however, he spotted antiaircraft ammunition and a detonation cord next to two propane tanks. The platoon had escaped from one house bomb, only to encounter another.

So this platoon’s advance was held up for a day while they waited for artillery or an airstrike to clear the houses for them. The next day, finally, an M1 tank appeared and blew the houses with its main gun.

The insurgents/Sunnis/Mahdi Army death squads/resistance/ militants/Ba’athist dead enders are going to make the Americans destroy as much of Baquba as they can.

Nothing makes a people more loyal to a resistance than having their homes destroyed by a foreign occupier. It’s funny; I learned this back in the Viet Nam era. I don’t think many of our military leaders were around, then.

The LA Times brings us a story today full of promise and hope and renewed optimism:

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has begun exploring ways of offering Congress a compromise deal on Iraq policy to avert bruising battles in coming months, U.S. officials said.

With public support of the war dropping, President Bush has authorized an internal policy review to find a plan that could satisfy opponents without sacrificing his top goals, the officials said.

The president and senior officials "realize they can't keep fighting this over and over," said one administration official, who along with others declined to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly or because decisions were pending.

Mr Bu$h intends to offer Congress a compromise on policy? I think we’ve been here before when he offered compromises on Social Security, Katrina aftercare, the bankruptcy bill, and several Iraq funding bills. Those were done by proxy, through a lockstep Republican Congress, other than for the most recent Iraq funding bill, in which our Democrat leaders played vertebrate for a month of good press, and then delivered what Mr Bu$h demanded from the beginning. We’ve also seen how Mr Bu$h compromises with things like the stem cell bill. The fact that such a bill might actually save Americans’ lives or improve their health is less important than the supposed “respect for life” of a man responsible for killing a little bit south of one million human beings in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush was victorious last month in the most recent round of his battle with congressional Democrats over Iraq. He forced them, after weeks of struggle, to accept a $120-billion emergency war spending bill that did not require reductions of U.S. troops in Iraq. But future White House battles with Congress are looming.

Mr Bu$h will handle the future “battles” in the same way he has in the past. He will sit and wait, and excoriate his opponents as traitors deliberately seeking to hurt the troops that he has abandoned to his ego, and the trained seals of the American media will unthinkingly parrot his words.

Bush has said he will not accept any American pullback that would imperil Iraq. Democrats are feeling growing pressure from their antiwar base for troop withdrawals, and could sacrifice a crucial 2008 campaign issue if they agreed to a deal with the White House.

At the same time, a deal could be tempting to lawmakers who see it as a way out of a war that has damaged Congress' reputation as well as the president's. Though Democrats would be reluctant to let Bush off the hook, many "would have a hard time turning down a proposal that offers a real way out," said a Senate Democratic aide.

Mr Bu$h will not accept any “compromise” that returns one single solitary soldier to the US. He will not accept a “compromise” that cuts one dollar from his ego-war.

Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi: you are playing the other guy’s game, on his court, with his ball. You cannot impeach George Bu$h, because that would leave us in the talons of Dick Cheney. You have enough material to impeach Dick “dick” Cheney.

This man thinks he is beyond the reach of law. (That is the definition of “outlaw” by the way.) He mocks the very machinery established to protect the country from despots.

This man is an embarrassment to the country and a stain on the very word “democracy.”

IMPEACH DICK CHENEY NOW!!!

The rest will fall into place.

Ev’ryone considered him the coward of the county.
Hed never stood one single time to prove the county wrong.
His mama named him Tommy, the folks just called him yellow,
But something always told me they were reading Tommy wrong.

Roger Bowling/Billy Edd Wheeler

In the Friday NY Times article I referenced yesterday John Burns wrote about the recognition by American generals in Iraq that one of the primary goals of these operations has failed.

Leaving aside for a moment the bullshit propaganda tactic of now titling all elements in Iraq resisting American military forces as al Qaeda, the “senior leaders” of whatever-the-heck-they-are have supposedly left the set, (probably to re-establish the next round of whack-a-mole back in Anbar.)

I noted this:

BAGHDAD, June 22 — The operational commander of troops battling to drive fighters with Al Qaeda from Baquba said Friday that 80 percent of the top Qaeda leaders in the city fled before the American-led offensive began earlier this week. He compared their flight with the escape of Qaeda leaders from Falluja ahead of an American offensive that recaptured that city in 2004.

This escaping was in defiance of the American plan to put a cordon around the city of Baquba to catch them. And now they've done it twice! Failing to catch these leaders prompted LTG Ray Odierno, the ground commander in Iraq, to lash out in a pique that I doubt he learned at Army Vo-Tech, where he graduated in 1976.

Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the second-ranking American commander in Iraq, told reporters that leaders of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia had been alerted to the Baquba offensive by widespread public discussion of the American plan to clear the city before the attack began. He portrayed the Qaeda leaders’ escape as cowardice, saying that “when the fight comes, they leave,” abandoning “midlevel” Qaeda leaders and fighters to face the might of American troops — just, he said, as they did in Falluja. [emph added]

Again, leaving aside the nonsense about every armed man resisting American forces belonging to the a-Q union, a smart commander would have expected that if they did it in Fallja, they could be expected to do it in Baquba, and said smart commander would have made sure that he had planned and prepared a cordon that worked.

LTG Odierno has probably forgotten Tactics 102 as it is taught at West Point. The subject of the course covers establishing delaying forces known as “rearguard” forces during a retreat to buy time for the rest of the unit to escape. It’s just my opinion, but labeling this action as “cowardice” seems a bit silly. I’ll bet if a massive insurgent attack threatened to overwhelm Camp Victory, where MNF-I gets its mail, LTG Odierno would be on the first helicopter out because he’s more valuable as a commander than as a member of a forlorn hope unit.

Speaking of the enemy, whether really al Qaeda or just the same old insurgents/Ba’athist dead enders/Sunni resistance/Mahdi Army death squads, or whatever as cowards is a dangerous sort of mindset. When you speak of your enemy in contemptuous tones there’s a good likelihood you’re thinking that way, and you get careless, and the next thing you know that contemptible “coward” bites you in your fourth point of contact.

As Gorilla’s Guides notes this morning,

The current set of U.S. offensives has already failed and in response to that failure one of the Generals who devised and implemented the failed tactics is complaining about “run away cowards” while neglecting to point out that the said “run away cowards” are busily bringing the mighty U.S: army to a grinding halt. That’s not news either. Once a year the Americans re-occupy Irak and once a year the Irakis deny them control of it by … killing them. That’s no longer news and incidentally “not fair” is rarely said by commanders of victorious forces.[emph added]

I‘ve written several times about our State Department, it’s failures at Middle East diplomacy and the attempts at privatizing our State Department. Coincidentally, much of State’s duties in that region have been assumed by Defense, which introduces even more problems into the mixture.

The regime's answer to all the failures: more propaganda.

Mountain Runner has put up a very good article, as one of a series asking “What the Hell is Karen Hughes Doing?” This latest is a compilation of his* own writing, and some others who have thoughts on the matter.

Ms. Hughes needs to start being effective now and stop wasting our time and money. In a very real sense, Ms. Hughes' failure to lead puts the lives of our soldiers at risk by not countering insurgent propaganda in Iraq, the Middle East, or elsewhere recruits and money flows from. Overall, this is a national security issue as the enemy becomes stronger and more empowered by our failure to participate effectively, if at all, in modern information warfare.

It’s my perception as an outsider that State suffered terribly in status while under the direction of Colin Powell. His usefulness to the Bu$h malAdministration, and hence the utility of State, stopped right after they persuaded him to disgrace this country at the UN.

A quote from an excellent article by Stew Magnusson:

If the United States is to help “reverse the flow of ideas,” who is responsible?

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, at the hearing asked the Pentagon’s Doran if anyone was in charge of countering extremist ideology.

Karen Hughes, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, was his answer.

Hughes was a close political advisor to President Bush, tasked with reinvigorating the State Department’s public diplomacy sector, which had its post-Cold War budgets eviscerated by Congress.

But within the State Department, Rand analysts said, there is little consensus on what public diplomacy means. Is it changing opinions, garnering support for policies or marginalizing extremists? The sector gets short shrift there. And at the Pentagon, the public diplomacy office didn’t open its doors until more than five years after 9/11.

“This strategic uncertainty ensures suboptimal policy performance,” said the Rand study.

I suppose no callused observer of George Bu$h and Dick Cheney is surprised at their disdain of diplomacy. Autocrats are accustomed to demanding what they want, and not in seeking rational compromise with other actors. Their public attacks against critics of their policies of aggression and their two rejections of the results of legitimate elections in Gaza should give pause to anyone foolish enough to think these two respect anything other than raw, naked force.

No one should expect great deeds or successful formulas from a peaceful source as long as these two rule the country.

* I said “his” from reflex. The way I learned English grammar assigns the masculine pronoun to unspecified refferants. The recent revelation about our valuable Digby has not yet changed 50 plus years of reading and writing.

This report seems familiar, doesn’t it?

BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops hoping to directly confront al Qaeda militants in a major offensive in the Iraqi city of Baquba instead found themselves "swimming through a minefield," a senior officer said on Sunday.

The operation in and around Baquba, capital of volatile Diyala province, is in its sixth day and is a major part of one of the biggest offensives by U.S. and Iraqi forces against the Sunni Islamist group in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.

Some U.S. officers said they believed the initial combat phase of the offensive is nearly complete and any militants left could be confronted in the next 24 hours. Hundreds of militants were thought to be still holed up in Baquba's western districts.

But others believe many al Qaeda fighters left Baquba after getting clear signals from U.S. commanders who have said for some time that the city was high on their list of priorities.

"It's frustrating. You set up something that you know will work ... now we know that most of the al Qaeda enemy got away," said Captain Julian Kemper. "Our purpose was not to push them out somewhere else. It was to end it here."

Lieutenant-General Ray Odierno, the deputy U.S. commander in Iraq, has said there was little doubt al Qaeda knew that a major offensive was coming.

"They watched the news. They understood we had a surge, they understood Baquba was designated as a problem area," he told Pentagon journalists on Friday.

On reading about the prepared defensive belts I was reminded of Israel’s unfortunate practice run of this offensive last Summer, when Hezbollah fought the heralded “best Army in the Middle East” to an expensive draw and forced its retreat.

Granted, there are no mountains in Iraq. There are cities instead, and they canalize assaulting forces into streets rather than valleys and draws. The US forces are probably fortunate they haven’t drawn more enfilading fire from the rooftops. The patient preparation of mines and RPG points broke the back of the Israeli armor drive. A news report I saw yesterday noted that the troops had already discovered that for safety they had to proceed on foot ahead of any armor. This would expose them to gunfire ambush, though. But sticking and fighting house-to-house is not the chosen battle zone for guerrillas.

After heavy street fighting on the first day, Operation Arrowhead Ripper in Baquba has shifted to the slow and dangerous job of clearing scores of buried bombs and booby-trapped houses.

I remember reading another report that in order to progress down a street, US troops shot a line of det cord down the block to set off the mines or destroy the command wires.

Mines accomplish two goals: they attrit the enemy, and they slow his progress to a crawl.

David Sanger and Thom Shanker, two fairly sensible Timesmen, have a strange report this morning.

WASHINGTON, June 23 — Last month, Congress set a deadline for the American commander in Iraq, declaring that by Sept. 15 he would have to assess progress there before billions more dollars are approved to finance the military effort to stabilize the country. The commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, said in recent days that his report would be only a snapshot of trends, strongly suggesting he will be asking for more time.

Well, we already knew this. In fact, any of a legion of liberal, progressive, or realistic cynics could write that report today and get graded with an A or B- based upon average guesswork.

But even before he composes the first sentences of the report, to be written with the new American ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan C. Crocker, the administration is commissioning other assessments that could dilute its findings about the impact of the current troop increase. The intent appears to be to give President Bush, who publicly puts great emphasis on listening to his field commanders, a wide range of options.

The assessments are likely to conclude that the Iraqi government has failed to use the troop increase for the purpose the president intended, to strike the political accommodations that he said would stabilize the country. That and other views expected in the various reports could also provide some rationale for beginning a reduction of troops in Iraq under conditions far short of the “victory” Mr. Bush, for the past four years, has said was his ultimate goal. He has used that word with far less frequency recently.

It’s unclear to me why Messers Sanger and Shanker would stupidly suggest Mr Bu$h needs a wide range of options. He has no intention of lowering either the number of troops in country, nor the level of violence. Like the fabled monkeys, a million experts could write a million assessments for a million years. It will make no difference. There is only one assessment that will matter.

Shortly before GEN Petraeus’ September 15th reporting date renowned military strategist and Napoleonic War expert Fred Kagan will produce his own assessment, quite likely in either the warmongering Weekly Standard on under the auspices of the warmongering American Enterprise Institute, in which he will declare that the surge escalation has had a good start, but the job isn’t finished yet, and we must keep after al Qaeda (unless that propaganda theme has been replaced with some other bogeyman by then) and GEN Petraeus needs another 30,000 troops to finish the job.

What we laughingly refer to as our military leaders will shake their heads in astonishment. There will be proclamations that there are no other 30,000 to send to Iraq. There will be a quiet meeting in which Mr Bu$h asks our leaders how they like having people snap to attention and salute them when they enter a room or walk by. Well, no. He won’t use those words. He hasn’t the acumen for that. But he will explain to them that he is the Decider-in-Chief, the Commander Guy, and they had damned well better find him the 30,000 that Mr Kagan demands.

The “15 months in, 12 months out” policy will join other discarded enlightened Army policies. Marines will start doing 12 month tours, rather than 7 months in country.

The troops will sit still for this treatment. They are patriotic, loyal, and well-motivated. They believe in what they think our nation is doing over there. Whether they are fully aware of things we know here is uncertain, since Fox Noise is the official news carrier in the Middle East and there is very little opportunity for them to gather news from free and independent news sources like many of the UK papers.

American intelligence agencies, according to senior administration and intelligence officials, are already preparing to submit their own assessment of Iraq’s progress. That is expected to include a judgment about whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is willing or capable of striking the kind of Shiite-Sunni political balance Mr. Bush said was the ultimate objective of the American strategy, and whether the passage of political compromises, none of which have yet cleared Parliament, have any hope of reducing the violence. That report will begin circulating, officials said, around the time that General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker arrive in Washington to testify about what the troop increase has accomplished.

Please. It appears Messers Sanger and Shanker have forgotten that the official US policy is that the American intelligence organs, personified by the CIA, are incompetent, which is why we have intelligence shaping shops in the Office of the Vice President. The professional intelligence reported that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs while Ahmad Chalabi and Dick “dick” Cheney had already decided he did. The CIA, by virtue of its having been proved right, is incapable of accurate forecasting in anything more complex than the weather. Just ask any of the 26%. They’ll tell you the CIA got it wrong, because they went against Mr Bu$h’s famous Gut of Infallibiity.

One more data point:

The reality [of troops levels], officials said, is that starting around April the military will simply run out of troops to maintain the current effort. By then, officials said, Mr. Bush would either have to withdraw roughly one brigade a month, or extend the tours of troops now in Iraq and shorten their time back home before redeployment.

The latter, said one White House official, “is not something the president wants to do” and would likely become a centerpiece of the 2008 presidential campaign. [emph added]

The realities of the 2008 campaign matter far less to Mr Bu$h than the appearance that he was wrong about something. The troops levels will be raised and will be sustained. You read it first in the NYTimes and second, here.

Free child, time is on our side
Free child, where's the freedom we will ride
As time child, runs to make a stand
Time child, cos destiny is in my hand

We enter life with rules
We're told this is the way
Decisions made for us
In which we have no say
What right have they to judge
The way our life should be
A generation fuelled by ignorance and greed

Adam Rickitt

As the escalation continues in Iraq we’ve already been treated to various assessments of its efficacy. Michael Gordon of the NY Times never saw a Bu$h malAdministration initiative he didn’t adore. On Thursday he portrayed the American troops as saviors, rescuing the hapless Iraqis from 11th century fundamentalist barbarians.

The American effort got off to a slow start in the morning when blowing sand precluded reconnaissance and medevac flights. But as the weather cleared, the soldiers advanced into the western section of the city. Soldiers said they had received useful tips from some residents on the location of buried bombs and booby-trapped houses. In the Mufrek neighborhood, several residents said they had been terrorized for months by Qaeda fighters, who commandeered houses to use as positions to shoot at American forces.

The insurgents have imposed a strict Islamic creed, and some have even banned smoking, one resident told Capt. Jeff Noll, the commander of Company B of the First Battalion, 23rd Infantry, during his patrol through the neighborhood.

Things were not perfect on Thursday:

At least three [IEDs] have exploded, in one case overturning a Bradley Fighting Vehicle and in another damaging a heavily armored Buffalo mine-clearing vehicle. One American soldier has been killed and 12 wounded in those attacks.

In a statement, the American military said it had killed 41 Qaeda operatives. Some wounded insurgents were reported to have escaped when they were taken into a nearby home by a group of woman and children, and American troops held their fire. [emph added]

It had to be galling to see that the “al Qaeda operatives” were given shelter by women and children. A cynical man would wonder why the GIs didn’t follow the wounded men into the house and kill or capture them. The women and children would obviously be explained as al Qaeda supporters.

John Burns told us on Friday that Loose Lips Sink Ships and because the Bu$hCo cabal instructed CENTCOM and MNFI to talk up this escalation as the best thing since a millionaire’s tax cut, all the leaders of “al Qaeda” had escaped before the very macho “Arrowhead Ripper” (Baquba) and less muscular “Phantom Thunder” (Baghdad belts) operations.

BAGHDAD, June 22 — The operational commander of troops battling to drive fighters with Al Qaeda from Baquba said Friday that 80 percent of the top Qaeda leaders in the city fled before the American-led offensive began earlier this week. He compared their flight with the escape of Qaeda leaders from Falluja ahead of an American offensive that recaptured that city in 2004.

Operationally, this failure to access the high level leaders is most likely the fault of Bu$h malAdminis