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$h malAdministration policy which requires that all activity anywhere in the world must always be portrayed in the arena of daily US news consumption in a way which best reflects on Mr Bu$h. Thus, due to a lot of adverse publicity about the surge escalation, it was demanded that GEN Petraeus and GEN Odierno create reams of statements and press releases that were supremely confident, if not arrogant. Over the last years al Qaeda leadership have proven that they are masters of the press release and news management. It’s hard to beat experts when you’ve got one hand tied behind your back by stupid and arrogant egos in Washington.

One noteworthy outcome of these clearing operations should not surprise anyone. We are no longer fighting “militias,” “insurgents,” “gunmen,” “Ba’athist dead enders,” “Sunni fighters,” “Mahdi Army death groups,” or even the resistance. Now it’s al-Qaeda, al-the-time. When dictating news reports to simpleton news reporters it’s best to use a simpleton theme.

The al Qaeda leaders who are judged to have escaped will of course pop up again somewhere else, in early September, just before GEN Petraeus is scheduled to render a report to Congress in which he will cite some progress while noting there is still much work to be done. He will also ruefully imply that he would be able to clear up this rat’s nest sooner if only he had more troops, as if this lack of shooters was somehow Congress’ fault, rather than a result of Mr Bu$h refusing to supply the tools needed to end his ego-war.

Note: When I started writing this essay I considered using the song most familiar to me: the Rolling Stones’ “Time is on my side” but I think the excerpt above is far more relevant