Awesome snarkage! ;O) Keep ‘em coming!

- A

“Why, by reducing the murder rate in Baghdad, to, say, the level of Philly, DeeCee, or Palm Beach County, Florida, I suppose.”
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Most military commanders feel that the current lowering of violence is due to the cease fire called by Muqtada Sadr. The radical cleric is wanting to combat Baath related Sunni forces before he turns his Mahdi Army back on American troops.

“American commanders have said that they are aggressively negotiating with Sadr officials to help keep his militia, the Mahdi Army, in check. But if the cease-fire ends, if Mr. Sadr’s whims shift, that could push violence up again–no matter how many troops are here.”
http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=4222F1B5186D3314DFF5D87ADD76BFF6?diaryId=116

And his whims just may shift:
“The debate over rehabilitating former members of Saddam’s ruling Baath Party has been a major obstacle to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s push to stem support for the insurgency by bringing minority Sunnis into the political process.

A parliamentary session on Sunday adjourned in turmoil after lawmakers loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pounded their fists on their tables in protest.

“There are Baathists who committed crimes and atrocities against the Iraqi people and those must be tried,” Bahaa al-Araji, a lawmaker from al-Sadr’s 30-member bloc, said Monday at a news conference.

He complained that the legislation failed to distinguish between Baath members who were forced to join and those who willingly participated in suppression of majority Shiites.”
http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=4222F1B5186D3314DFF5D87ADD76BFF6?diaryId=140

Add to that a stable and effective central government, a trained and loyal Iraqi military and police force that are capable of handling further incidents themselves, with minimal help from U.S. forces, and I would say that’s about it. All current indicators prove we are well on our way.
##

The problem is that the government of Iraq is always going to be in turmoil. Their constitution declares them as an Islamic Theocracy. However the Shia are tired of 35 years of opression under minority Sunni rule. “The situation in Iraq has never been about religion: It’s about pro-Saddam Sunni Baathists versus anti-Saddam Shiite militias. It’s more about revenge and power stemming from Saddam’s rule than it is about who the rightful successor to Mohamed was in 632 A.D. If the political sides don’t resolve these issues that have built up over the last 40 years, the violence will again engulf the country when Moqtada al-Sadr declares an end to his ceasefire.”

“Get used to the idea of a U.S. presence in Iraq for the long-term. Both front running Democrat and Republican Presidential candidates have commited to that.”
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You may want to rethink that as well.

Comment by O. Bigfoot — November 28, 2007 @ 11:45 am

Comment by John Kerry — November 28, 2007 @ 11:24 am

And how do we “win in Iraq” exactly?

WOW. It’s a war against liberals being fought overseas. Who would have thunk it – oh neocon’s with their imagination, my bad.

Who owns the media? Not the reporters.

Its the advertisers. Advertisers can and will kill a story in America’s media. In SA we are somewhat tougher because we are struggling to regain our legitamacy after Apartheid, (And hence our product, the readers) but in America, well you are controlled by advertising executives – and they are largely conservative yuppies.

/sarc off

Journalists don’t control what lands up in your papers. Editors do. Editors answer to advertising execs, who in turn land up answering to CEOs. Readers, are really just product sold to advertisers.

Oh, and who is it that keeps on going on about the “lib’rul” media again?

…no smarter than a bag of toe-nail clippings…

“What the media are missing is how we will get out of Iraq and leave a stable Iraq behind,” said Col. Steve Boylan, spokesman for Army Gen. David Petraeus, commander of coalition forces.

MAYBE THEY’RE MISSING IT CAUSE YOU AIN’T TOLD US WHAT/WHEN IT IS, DUMBCLUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You would think the Grand Master of Imperial Amerikkkaâ„¢ could keep his guys in line better than this.

Journalists also say that over time the story their news organizations have been interested in has changed, often in ways that reflect how the domestic debate in the United States has shifted.

It’s not the message, IDIOT, it’s the media!

However, some good news:

The largest shift came in regard to coverage of private contractors. Fully 79% report new interest from their editors in covering the role of these contractors. (The survey was conducted in October and early November, shortly after guards employed by the private security firm Blackwater USA were accused of killing 17 Iraqis.)