McCain needs small army to tour Baghdad market

That look

I am not a big fan of taking a walk with a bulletproof vest on, it's too hot for a woman of my age.  That khaki color makes me look big, too. But hey, if McCain needs to make that fashion statement, so be it but I think the queer guys could help with that look.

---

by: miss wild thing @ Sun Apr 01, 2007 at 21:34:37 PM CDT

John McCain: Surge Man

Good evening, Pam.

A salient point lost in the mainstream media's presentation of McCain's visit is the tactic being used by the bombers in Baghdad these days. They generally do not attack while American patrols are making their sweeps. In fact, the game works like this:

In the Shia neighborhoods, security is by and large in the hands of militias, including the Mahdi Army and other more or less organized provisionals. Detailed watch is made by citizens, themselves, who report anyone suspicious to the militiamen. However, those same militia members simply melt away into the houses, alleys, and shops when the American patrols come through, to some extent leaving everyone vulnerable to Sunni bombers.

But the Sunni bombers generally won't show themselves while the GIs are on patrol. Instead, the bombers wait for the window between when the American soldiers have departed and when the militia forces have come back out of the woodwork. It is in those precious minutes that the streets are an open field for abandoning a car bomb or the detonation of a suicide vest.

Essentially, John McCain wouldn't see any signs of trouble because, by the very nature of his presence with all kinds of soldiers, trucks, and weaponry, the bombers aren't going to show up since that's not the environment in which they choose to do their killing.

And the operative word there is "choose": the streets, homes, and buildings of many parts of Baghdad are a killing field of opportunity for both Sunni and Shia forces; and although the Shia are in a position where they want to leave the Americans largely alone while at the same time slaughtering Sunnis in what is coming to be a genocide, the Sunnis don't have any interest whatsoever in preserving the Americans: both the Sunnis and the Shia see the Americans as allied with the latter, and they have every reason to believe that. The Iraqi government, itself, is engaged in outrageous treatment--including torture, extrajudicial executions, and ethnic cleansing--of the Sunnis.

And all George W. Bush can do is enjoy the spectacle of kangaroo trials of former Iraqi officials, who are then summarily hanged. It probably makes Mr. Bush feel better, even though he knows deep in his heart that Saddam Hussein, unlike our President, knew far better how to govern a country that no one since him has been able to manage as anything other than a case study in spiraling anarchy.

Mr. McCain, like his inspiration, George W. Bush, is no Saddam Hussein. It is most unfortunate that this is a disparaging remark about American politicians who would pretend to be leaders.

The Dark Wraith has spoken.

---

by: Dark Wraith @ Sun Apr 01, 2007 at 21:53:41 PM CDT

Denial

I certainly understand the urge to deny what is real in favor of what one hopes is happening.  I spent around thirty-five years denying my sexual orientation - but I would hope that McCain would see some clues in the military presence with which he was surrounded that things aren't as he hopes.

---

by: RogerVictoria @ Sun Apr 01, 2007 at 22:28:40 PM CDT

Rove's McCain Dirty Tricks

When Bush & McCain duked it out for the nomination in 2000, Rove spread these rumors about McCain: 1) he had a black "love child"; 2) he was gay (just about covers every base), 3) his wife Cindy was a drug addict, and 4) he was crazy.  Can it be that Rove, by accident, actually told the truth... about the last one, I mean?

=>The truth usually isn't pretty. Don't blame me for telling it.<=

---

by: Chadster @ Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 03:41:04 AM CDT