U.S. Sniper Program in Crosshairs

jesus christ

I haven't finished the article yet but I'm already confused.

Instead, commanders find themselves relying on numbers, which is how body counts began to creep into the Iraq war.

At the time there was a new commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, who was talking about winning hearts and minds. The snipers' commanders were talking about bodies.

If our desired end state in Iraq is a stable protective occupation such as the ones we have in Japan and Korea, then wouldn't the desire for progress point to a decrease in the Iraqi body-count?

The whole article highlights the fact that if we can back away from our own self-interested positions long enough to see things clearly, then there is no question that WE are the intruders.

Good post, Michael.

Why do they need to inflate the body count? Who doesn't think enough people are dying in Iraq?
Who makes these kinds of decisions, and if I were to talk to him, would we even be able to comprehend each other?

Michael, thank you and yes, this is the most important story of the day.

Horror stories like this are just one of the many reasons John McCain should never ever be elected president. I'm firmly convinced he sees the Iraq war as a way to "avenge" our "loss" in Viet Nam.

Michael:

I forgot to mention....

Thanks for the link. I wouldn't have seen this otherwise.

Absolute BS.

You've just joined John Smurfa in the HATE AMERICA FIRST club (never mind the FACTS on the ground -- including the ludicrous assertion that we were willy-nilly popping off villagers in Vietnam like some county carnival targets).

Truth?

Our guys GET KILLED SPARING & PROTECTING CIVILIANS, EVERY G-D DAY.

Freaking media scum idiots.

Nice job... NOT!

PS: You can send Mrs. Tillman, God bless her, the news that about 1/3 of the deaths in Iraq 1 were from friendly fire -- and that percentage has DROPPED significantly in Iraq 2 and Afghanistan. Not an accident that we've gotten better, but certainly ignored by spastic katie Couric on the way out the Dan Rather doggie door at Castro Broadcasting Service.

= LES MOONBEAM ACCOMPLISHED =

When the United States wallowed in Vietnam's counterinsurgency quagmire decades ago, the same pressure placed on soldiers resulted in some of the worst atrocities of that war.

...

Total lib loon conjecture, with ZERO proof.

Typical media non-sense.

CNN must be hiring this week.

Or maybe the Weather Channel.

PS: CBS lost their sole remaining American testicle against Westmoreland, in court. When does someone at DOD finally take the Salon and Kos klods to task, for their daily doses of subjective slacker BS?

Tokyo Rose must be singing in her sink hole.

PD-

It's easy to reduce the body count. Stop patrolling.

There is nothing that makes sense out of this. Calling it counter insurgency is itself a ridiculous foundation. There's no identifiable insurgent force, and there's no target for an "insurgency." There's just disorganized opposition to an occupy army. There's no "enemy." There's no territory to take. There's no metric for success.

And it you're a sniper, what else can you count.

It maks Jarhead seem like the long lost past. The protagonist is a sniper, the shooting part of the pair. He's given one target in his entire Gulf war I tour. And that target is rescinded before he can fire.

While this guy who used to live in the neighborhood was also a sniper. And said he wasn't sure of his confirmed kill count. somewhere in the 20s.

Why would these elite American soldiers kill an unarmed prisoner in cold blood? The answer: pressure from their commanding officers to pump up a statistic straight out of America's last long war against an intractable insurgency.

...

Total lib loony toons.

This IS the kind of fictional media op-editorial feigning as fact that puts the press a peg lower than lawyers and lynchmen on the career kindness scale.

Oh, goodie!! We've got some Iranian weapons to show you!

Now can we get our Iran war? ...D'oh!!:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_05/013695.php

"Our guys GET KILLED SPARING & PROTECTING CIVILIANS, EVERY G-D DAY."

Except for all those killed in the airstrikes we launch against schools and hospitals. And the ones we send to Abu Ghraib. And the ones that get shot by Blackwater guards. And the ones that get killed by death squads. And the ones that get blown up by suicide bombers. And the ones...

Oh yes, and one other thing: When somebody perhaps screws up in the combat zone, they do get investigated, as SOP.

Do we have anything in place like that at Time-CNN-Jazeera yet?

Hello?

Anyone homer?

Inquiring minds at Pointer want to know.

"How do you keep score? How do you prove you are winning?"

Call Tim Russert? Wolfie? Send paid Generals w/ financial ties to the military industrial complex to explain to a compliant press? I remember reading the story of sniper teams placing material that might be used to make IEDs on the ground, then take their position and if an Iraqi passing by picked up the material it meant they were insurgents, then the sniper took em out. Good post.

Now you need to get to the bottom of the suicide numbers that the Pentagon has been fudging. Yes! The Pentagon! Imagine that.

"There's just disorganized opposition to an occupy army."

Lib Loon Iraq Lie # 2,341 (collect them all).

Ahem.

IRAN is organizing, aiding, arming and abetting a significant number of the terror bastards roaming the streets in Sadr City, among a few remaining enclaves of hangers-on (to quote Cheney) -- and EVERY report of merit shows that the Surge is not only working, it is spreading, when we attack the violent minority still making progress at anarchy only.

Yes, some troops screw up.

That does not diminish the need for our actions on the ground in Iraq -- and elsewhere.

Someday, maybe even Philadelphia will be free at last, free at last, thank Obmamma almighty, free at last!

"Except for all those killed in the airstrikes we launch against schools and hospitals."

STOP PICKING ON AIR MARSHALL HILLARY.

"...And the ones that get shot by Blackwater guards..."

Sorry, what PROOF do you have, on that?

Any?

No?

Next!

What needs to be in the crosshairs IS the careers of the kooks that wrote this poisonous troop-bashing fiction.

= JANET COOKE ACCOMPLISHED =

IRAN is organizing, aiding, arming and abetting a significant number...

Yes, why would any regional power be at all interested in the outcome of a civil war on its borders?

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/4846,opinion,neighbours-arm-their-proxies-in-iraqs-civil-war

I'm not condoning anything, just saying that this is what nations do, regardless of membership in the "Axis of Evil" (copyright 2002, David Frum.)

"...a former colleague of mine and crackerjack investigative reporter at Salon..."

Did you mean crackerjack, or crackhead?

Only a crackhead would write or believe the surreal tripe posted in your snippets, as worthy of serious consideration.

Smells like some more fake tenured Vietnam vets on their collegiate typewriters, that actually got no father than Fort Dix during Tet.

Truly sad, what gets shoveled along as "news" these days.

QH,
Why don't you just enlist already and go to Iraq to experience it firsthand? What's keeping you? Not enough "testicular fortitude"?

Wow. "How do you keep score?" Like this is some video game.

You can really tell when QH's meds wear off. He should stop posting at around 3pm Eastern, probably when they take him down for arts and crafts.

This is disgusting. And it's reason enough to get out of Iraq, aside from the countless other reasons.

Okay, QH, here's an honest-to-God question:

Have there been instances in the past, be they in Vietnam or Gulf 1 or Gulf 2, where US soldiers have intentionally targeted civilians and/ or committed murder, as defined by the Geneva conventions or common sense?

And if so, was that morally wrong?

I'll acknowledge in advance that I'm a "loony lib" and supporter of "Obonger" (which is a nonsense monkier, by the way), so forget the vitriol and name calling . . . and maybe answer the damn question.

What was the purpose of all that secret equipment they were carrying around, if not for planting?

QH obviously hasn't read the article, or he'd know that it's composed almost entirely of court testimony by the very soldiers who he's defending as the pinnacle of truth and integrity.

QH/obamish is a reliable indicator of the importance of any post. The louder he squeals, the clearer it is that there's something behind the story being referenced.

Breaking news…………… Joseph Goebbels, long thought to have committed suicide in a Berlin bunker in 1945, is alive – and posting to Swampland under the aliases "Question Hillary" and "obamish."

I agree with D_L

"jesus christ"

When did we become what we started this country to fight against?

"Sorry, what PROOF do you have, on that?"

I didn't know there was a question of whether or not they've killed Iraqi civilians:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/17/iraq.main/index.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1012/p99s01-duts.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/14/AR2007101401491.html

You read it here, America: Liberals consider our troops broadly war criminals.

THAT should do well in November, eh?

= HOWARD SCREAM ACCOMPLISHED =

Anyone doubting the liberal loathing of America's fighting men and women need read no more than this board, to see the pale pile of leftist stench feigning as progressive and thoughtful.

And all from the comfort of their oil & ore based PC's, to boot.

Yikes.

Why do you feel the need to label? Can you not stand on the your own two feet when it comes to issues?

Try and answer some of those questions without having a hissy fit, QH.

lsumarkb - it's futile. He's in full on Gollum mode now.
It was a mistake on my part to try to engage him in the first place.

Besides Mai Lai, this kind of story always reminds me of Michael Sherry's "The Rise of American Airpower," an excellent cultural history. From a review -

"Sherry argues that the decision to drop the bomb was shaped by changing feelings about the use of air power during the war. While the United States initially attempted to focus on strategic targets, this proved inefficient and unreliable. Soon tonnage dropped and area leveled became the measure of success."

Although on a smaller scale, the logic behind trying to measure success from 'enemies killed' in Iraq is the same. We've lost sight of our strategic goals and have embraced a measure of success that only leads to massive destruction.

It's Baloo's lesson to Mowgli about the Bandar-log:

Mowgli had been trying to make himself heard by pulling at Bagheera's shoulder-fur and kicking hard. When the two listened to him he was shouting at the top of his voice: "And so I shall have a tribe of my own, and lead them through the branches all day long." "What is this new folly, little dreamer of dreams?" said Bagheera. "Yes, and throw branches and dirt at old Baloo," Mowgli went on. "They have promised me this, ah!" "Whoof!" Baloo's big paw scooped Mowgli off Bagheera's back, and as the boy lay between the big fore paws he could see the bear was angry. "Mowgli," said Baloo, "thou hast been talking with the Bandar-log -- the Monkey People." Mowgli looked at Bagheera to see if the panther was angry too, and Bagheera's eyes were as hard as jade-stones. "Thou hast been with the Monkey People -- the gray apes -- the people without a Law -- the eaters of everything. That is great shame." "When Baloo hurt my head," said Mowgli (he was still down on his back), "I went away, and the gray apes came down from the trees and had pity on me. No one else cared." He snuffled a little. "The pity of the Monkey People!" Baloo snorted. "The stillness of the mountain stream! The coo of the summer sun! And then, man-cub?" "And then -- and then they gave me nuts and pleasant things to eat, and they -- they carried me in their arms up to the top of the trees and said I was their blood-brother, except that I had no tail, and should be their leader some day." "They have no leader" said Bagheera. "They lie. They have always lied." "They were very kind, and bade me come again. Why have I never been taken among the Monkey People? They stand on their feet as I do. They do not hit me with hard paws. They play all day. Let me get up! Bad Baloo, let me up! I will go play with them again." "Listen, man-cub," said the bear, and his voice rumbled like thunder on a hot night."I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the Peoples of the Jungle -- except the Monkey Folk who live in the trees. They have no Law. They are outcastes. They have no speech of their own but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen and peep and wait up above in the branches. Their way is not our way. They are without leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter, and all is forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do not drink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we do not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die. Hast thou ever heard me speak of the Bandar-log till to-day?" "No," said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very still now that Baloo had finished. "The Jungle People put them out of their mouths and out of their minds. They are very many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they desire, if they have any fixed desire, to be noticed by the Jungle People. But [we] do not notice them even when they throw nuts and filth on our heads."

Remember in November, actual Americans, that in Foggy Obamabottoms no U.S. soldier really does any good, and only the UN can dictate cause (aside from Kosovo when a Clixon flights in), and the Hague rules the SCOTUS and not the other way around, and the French fought bravely twice last century, and Alec Ballsless will indeed some day make good on his promise to ski-daddle Dean style to Nice when the nice finally leaves NBC News, and Jorge McGovern got ripped off in 72, and Petra Kelly was simply misunderstood, and the Red Brigades meant well, and the Black Panthers cherish the PTA, and abortion makes more meal available for fueling Hempwood's eco-limos, and the only good Catholic is a Kennedy cafeteria Catholic, and John Kerry served with honor in Cambodia, and we now need to get the shock troops out of Compton and Philadelphia since those people really don't want us there anyway, and Bill Boy was the first black STD vaccine recipient aside from the Lakers, and Jimmy Carter deserves another chance, and the world would be safer but for Bush never mind Bin Laden say as far back as oh 1996 read your 9-11 Report for once demlix, and Monica provided massage therapy that kept the terror war devils at bay, and the Taliban were just aggressive traveling salesmen, and the Jews ruined my liquid girl lunch at Trader Vic's by showing up, and Alicia Keyes is musically brilliant, and TMZ rocks my after news world, and what Michelle thinks matters to Michigan, and The View equals freedom, and Oprah's my center, and The Whole World Catalog could add three more pages of Buckminster Fuller if they have the tree budget this year, and starvation in Africa has nothing to do with farm subsidies in Iowa thanks again Senator Harkin, and race riots in Belgium are a Walloon plot to elevate Cheney to Czar of Forever, and Cher looks good, and flowers cry, and dogs whistle, and Pelosi cares...

In psychiatry, thought disorder or formal thought disorder is a term used to describe a pattern of disordered language use that is presumed to reflect disordered thinking. It is usually considered a symptom of psychotic mental illness, although it occasionally appears in other conditions.

It describes a persistent underlying disturbance to conscious thought and is classified largely by its effects on speech and writing. Affected persons may show pressure of speech (speaking incessantly and quickly), derailment or flight of ideas (switching topic mid-sentence or inappropriately), thought blocking, rhyming, punning, or 'word salad' when individual words may be intact but speech is incoherent.

3 guys screw up.

Lib remedy?

LOSE THE WAR.

What a plan.

Honest to Allah, do you people EVER get tired of dumping on America's armed forces?

Paul Daniel Ash> Do you think QH goes off on this weird tangents because he can't think in a linear manner, or because it's a defense mechanism to keep himself from thinking in a certain (scary/"evil"/wrong) manner? (for example "If I think about what they're saying I might think they could be right, then I'll be evil too")

BTW Chamberlites, did I mention that in Foggy Obamabottoms no U.S. soldier really does any good, and only the UN can dictate cause (aside from Kosovo when a Clixon flights in), and the Hague rules the SCOTUS and not the other way around, and the French fought bravely twice last century, and Alec Ballsless will indeed some day make good on his promise to ski-daddle Dean style to Nice when the nice finally leaves NBC News, and Jorge McGovern got ripped off in 72, and Petra Kelly was simply misunderstood, and the Red Brigades meant well, and the Black Panthers cherish the PTA, and abortion makes more meal available for fueling Hempwood's eco-limos, and the only good Catholic is a Kennedy cafeteria Catholic, and John Kerry served with honor in Cambodia, and we now need to get the shock troops out of Compton and Philadelphia since those people really don't want us there anyway, and Bill Boy was the first black STD vaccine recipient aside from the Lakers, and Jimmy Carter deserves another chance, and the world would be safer but for Bush never mind Bin Laden say as far back as oh 1996 read your 9-11 Report for once demlix, and Monica provided massage therapy that kept the terror war devils at bay, and the Taliban were just aggressive traveling salesmen, and the Jews ruined my liquid girl lunch at Trader Vic's by showing up, and Alicia Keyes is musically brilliant, and TMZ rocks my after news world, and what Michelle thinks matters to Michigan, and The View equals freedom, and Oprah's my center, and The Whole World Catalog could add three more pages of Buckminster Fuller if they have the tree budget this year, and starvation in Africa has nothing to do with farm subsidies in Iowa thanks again Senator Harkin, and race riots in Belgium are a Walloon plot to elevate Cheney to Czar of Forever, and Cher looks good, and flowers cry, and dogs whistle, and Pelosi cares...

thought disorder or formal thought disorder is a term used to describe a pattern of disordered language use that is presumed to reflect disordered thinking.

Fortunately most real soldiers don't have this sort of diffuclty. Incoherent, ranting, bloodlust-filled cheerleaders for indiscrimate bombing, who inhabit message boards on the other hand......

"Have there been instances in the past, be they in Vietnam or Gulf 1 or Gulf 2, where US soldiers have intentionally targeted civilians and/ or committed murder, as defined by the Geneva conventions or common sense?"

SORRY FDR, WHAT WAS THAT?

I COULDN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE DIN OF THE JAPANESE CAMP BUILDING IN ARKYSAW.

DID YOU OR HARRY SAY SOMETHING ABOUT CARPET BOMBING THE B-JESUS OUT OF DRESDEN, TO KEEP STALIN OCCUPIED?

HELLO?

Preview of DNC Kentucky Debate 2008...

Hillary: We need to retreat from Iraq.

Obama: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP.

Hillary: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, and ignore Iran.

Obama: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, ignore Iran, and buy some quickie real estate in Chicago.

Hillaroid: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, ignore Iran, buy some quickie real estate in Chicago, and blame Bush for Monica and Pardongate.

O'Bonger: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, ignore Iran, buy some quickie real estate in Chicago, blame Bush for Monica and Pardongate, and declare the President of Canada our new Secretary of the Inferior.

Hillaroy: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, ignore Iran, buy some quickie real estate in Chicago, blame Bush for Monica and Pardongate, declare the President of Canada our new Secretary of the Inferior, and build a Lieberry extension with Red Chinese restaurant contributions.

Otis: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, ignore Iran, buy some quickie real estate in Chicago, blame Bush for Monica and Pardongate, declare the President of Canada our new Secretary of the Inferior, build a Lieberry extension with Red Chinese restaurant contributions, and surrender to Vermont.

Hipplery: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, ignore Iran, buy some quickie real estate in Chicago, blame Bush for Monica and Pardongate, declare the President of Canada our new Secretary of the Inferior, build a Lieberry extension with Red Chinese restaurant contributions, surrender to Vermont, and offer statehood to Belgium (the Walloon section).

Officious: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, ignore Iran, buy some quickie real estate in Chicago, blame Bush for Monica and Pardongate, declare the President of Canada our new Secretary of the Inferior, build a Lieberry extension with Red Chinese restaurant contributions, surrender to Vermont, offer statehood to Belgium (the Walloon section), and federalize man-mutt sex west of Sacramento.

Horsehips: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, ignore Iran, buy some quickie real estate in Chicago, blame Bush for Monica and Pardongate, declare the President of Canada our new Secretary of the Inferior, build a Lieberry extension with Red Chinese restaurant contributions, surrender to Vermont, offer statehood to Belgium (the Walloon section), federalize man-mutt sex west of Sacramento, and outlaw the Marines.

Oodles: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, ignore Iran, buy some quickie real estate in Chicago, blame Bush for Monica and Pardongate, declare the President of Canada our new Secretary of the Inferior, build a Lieberry extension with Red Chinese restaurant contributions, surrender to Vermont, offer statehood to Belgium (the Walloon section), federalize man-mutt sex west of Sacramento, outlaw the Marines, and nuke Israel.

Horatio Hornblower: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, ignore Iran, buy some quickie real estate in Chicago, blame Bush for Monica and Pardongate, declare the President of Canada our new Secretary of the Inferior, build a Lieberry extension with Red Chinese restaurant contributions, surrender to Vermont, offer statehood to Belgium (the Walloon section), federalize man-mutt sex west of Sacramento, outlaw the Marines, nuke Israel, and trade Utah for Gaybec.

Orifice: We need to retreat from Iraq ASAP, ignore Iran, buy some quickie real estate in Chicago, blame Bush for Monica and Pardongate, declare the President of Canada our new Secretary of the Inferior, build a Lieberry extension with Red Chinese restaurant contributions, surrender to Vermont, offer statehood to Belgium (the Walloon section), federalize man-mutt sex west of Sacramento, outlaw the Marines, nuke Israel, trade Utah for Gaybec, and keep Jesus out of bully pulpit political juxtaposition.

Hillarude: Like you said.

Oestes: Same to you.

"The whole article highlights the fact that if we can back away from our own self-interested positions long enough to see things clearly, then there is no question that WE are the intruders."

Maybe in the same way that we should have "intruded" in Rwanda. I think we clump all people together too many times, it is too simply to just say the Iraqi people with out asking if they are Shiite, Suni, Kurds, Christians .....

Speaking of counting, how many kids in Asia and Africa will die today because they can't afford corn meal from Tom Harkin's eco-fueled Iowa and rice from Blanche Lincoln's subsidized Arkysaw and hemp from Booboo Boxer's back yard?

= STARVATION ACCUMULATING =

Which will kill more today:

Our troops bringing freedom to Iraq and soon Iran

= OR =

Tom Harkin's corn-stained populist pinhead subsidy grabbing fat funded earmarked hands?

You make the call.

Dear QUESTION HILLARY,

When future generations read about how we invaded a country under false pretenses, bombed their homes, dissolved their government, turned their cities into lawless hellscapes of terror, labeled the ones who tried to resist "insurgents" and killed them, overran their country with mercenaries who exploited and murdered citizenry with impunity, those future generations will inevitably ask "what kind of populace would enable their government to commit such awful acts?"

I hope you're still alive at that point so that you can look those people straight in the eye and tell them "You just gotta always support the government and the president and trust that they're gonna do the right thing."

I love this country. There is no better one on earth and if we were truly under attack from a foreign threat I know I would do whatever necessary to defend it. But I can also clearly separate the ideals and values that this country was founded upon, to which we all owe a great deal, from the self-interested and short-sighted individuals who run it. I owe very little to them, least of all my unwavering loyalty.

Until you can differentiate between the values that America stands for and should always uphold, and the human and often flawed individuals who can corrupt those values, then you'll never be anything more than a sheep and a fascist.

I say to you good day, sir.

@Comment: Thank you. You put into words what i could only feel.

Michael

Off-topic, but what is McCain's position on the anti-Real ID legislation just passed in AZ? What is his position on Real ID, in general?

If the information in the article is fully correct.. wow. What a complete and total breakdown in the chain of command. Unfortunately it's a story that's pretty familiar to anyone who's served in the infantry. Every unit has a couple of loose-cannon types who think shooting someone will make their life complete or something, then there are also some "captain america" types who believe that they're in a Rambo or Braddock movie and it'll be all blood and guts all the time.

The worst case scenario is when these types combine and you get a guy like Hensley sounds like. (I have never met SSG Hensley and am basing my opinion of him solely off of the article and other NCO's in similar positions that I have known.) Cowboy, thinks its all "cool" wants to do his own thing 'cause he's so hardcore.

You pair this type of person up with weak leadership that also thinks its all about the body counts and kicking ass and taking names for America etc, and you get what you have here. An out of control soldier purposefully put into a bad situation by his command because everyone wanted to be winning.

This really goes back to the complete failure of every single administration and defense department regime to address the glaring hole in America's defense network, namely, insurgency operations. After we lost to North Vietnam (and here I define "lost" as: they accomplished their strategic goals, we didn't) the Army, and military as a whole, in a blindingly bright act of cowardice and denial, refused to take a good, long lessons learned look at Vietnam and come up with a comprehensive counterinsurgency doctrine and instead said simply "we're not going to fight that kind of war anymore."

This is akin to a football team stating "we can't defend against the spread offense, so we won't play anyone who uses it." The United States has lost exactly one war in our history, and it was a counter-insurgency campaign. To think that our enemies wouldn't study this and look to learn ways to beat us from it is just a complete rejection of reality.

When so many leaders reject and ignore their responsibilities it trickles down to the ground level in unpleasant little ways like this.

@Sean DeCoursey: Extremely well put. Had we actually learned lessons from Vietnam, instead of just trumpeting that we learned them, I doubt we would be in our current position.

it is too simply to just say the Iraqi people with out asking if they are Shiite, Suni, Kurds, Christians .....

I feel it is my duty to periodically point out that Kurds are mostly Sunni when they are lumped in relgious group comparisons. It helps to understand how complicated it is that there are Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs, Sunni Kurds, gotta be some Shiite Persians in Iraq. The Turkomen are evenly divided between the two sects.

This is not nearly as simply as that vietnamese thing that messed up LBJ and Nixon.

An out of control soldier purposefully put into a bad situation by his command because everyone wanted to be winning.

COIN is hard. I'd argue that it's impossible for the US. The tactics required are too ruthless. And the hearts and minds tactics don't work.

I meant to add that I saw Mark Danner talking about the resource and ruthlessness commitment for the kind of nation-building/COIN effort necessary in Iraq. His view was that the US citizenry would never support it, both because of expense and the scope of death and destruction. The latter is in question.....

Michael, this is one of the sickest pieces you have written..shame on you for pandering to the extreme loony libtards on this message board..yes, blame america and the troops first....the extreme liberal bias has begun jayackoffroyd must be excited at all the obama liberal swooning and the mccain bashing going on...anyone catch that fair and balanced Anna Curry interview with Mrs. McCain..can u ever imagine an interview with Michelle Obama going like that..never..Michael..I see now that Obama is the candidate now all the ( 78%) admitted liberal reporters are in the tank for obama..why don't you start quoting the wacky libtard website Dailykas...if anybody doubts the bias...check out newsbusters website

anyone catch Obama on youtube or any MSM news channel today saying he visited all 57 states...nice.......if McCain had said it Michael and the MSM would have called out a senior moment and asked people if McCain is too old to be president.

I missed it..

Was it because he counted these?

American Samoa
District Of Columbia
Guam
Puerto Rico
US Virgin Islands
Northern Mariana Islands
Guantanomo Bay

Wow...

Not surprising, though...bad things (not usually this bad) happen whenever management believes that it can "objectively quantify performance" by the use of "metrics".

It's clear from the video that Obama meant 47 states. He says there's one more to go, not including Alaska and Hawaii, which he didn't visit because his campaign manager couldn't justify it. He also seemed pretty tired, which explains he gaffe. I guess he just mispoke.

I think there was also something there about him landing in West Viginia under heavy sniper fire.

for Commie: The Film Strip

"Hussein has chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies ... What happens there matters a great deal here ... for the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face."
- MADDY HALFBLIGHT (D, CU) in 1999

"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction ... Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation. And now he has continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real ... I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force - if necessary - to disarm Saddam Hussein, because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."
- SENATOR JOHN Le KERRY (D, VN) in 2003

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction."
- SENATOR TED KENNEDY (D, UI) in 2002

"As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region, and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."
- GRANDMOTHER NANCY PELOSI (D, SY) in 1998

"Iraq does pose a serious threat to the stability of the Persian Gulf and we should organize an international coalition to eliminate his access to weapons of mass destruction. Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to completely deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power."
- ASTRONUT AL GORE (D, F) in 2002

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Queda members ... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
- SENATOR HILLARY RAMROD SHIKSA (D, CN) in 2002

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983."
- SANFORD BERGLER (D, FX) in 1998

"The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: A rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow."
- BILL CLIXON (D, VD) in 1998

Oops, my bad.

Thought this was the Long Lost Howard Dean University Truth In Washington blog.

Oh well.

HILLARY HAPPENS.