Friday, October 15, 2004

NewsClip: Way to win hearts and minds, bozos ...

"U.S. warplanes pounded the insurgent [sic] stronghold of Fallujah, where residents were marking the first day of the holy month of Ramadan on Friday, a day after city leaders suspended peace talks and rejected the Iraqi government's demands to turn over terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. U.S. troops detained Fallujah's top negotiator in the peace talks, witnesses said. Khaled al-Jumeili, an Islamic cleric, was arrested as he left a mosque after prayers in a village about 10 miles south of Fallujah, they said. There was no immediate U.S. comment.

Read more ...

This is the kind of thing that makes me wish the guys over at Stupid Evil Bastard hadn't already taken the motto "What the fuck is wrong with you people?"

Don't get me wrong. War is war, and it is indeed hell. The resistance isn't going to stop resisting for Ramadan, and the occupational forces can't just give their guys a 28-day furlough in the expectation that nothing will be happening.

But it's not just the resistance that matters, if the goal is, as alleged, "democratizing" or even "pacifying" Iraq. What matters is 27 million Iraqis whom the US forces allegedly want to get hooked on mom, baseball and apple pie. Does timing a major offensive to coincide with Islam's holy month strike anyone as the best way to win friends and influence people? No, it didn't strike me that way either.

Yes, I know that Iraq is a lost cause ... but if our Lords and Masters in Washington are going to pretend otherwise, they should at least keep up appearances. This is stupidity on steroids.

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