More on Why We've Lost in Iraq

Military Shrugs Off Attack on Wedding Party:

A US Marines general says he has no need to apologise for an attack in the remote Iraqi desert that killed about 40 people, who witnesses say included women and children celebrating a wedding.

"How many people go to the middle of the desert 10 miles [16 kilometres] from the Syrian border to hold a wedding 80 miles from the nearest civilisation?" Major-General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, which operates in western Iraq, said in Falluja...

Asked about witness testimony and footage from Dubai-based Al Arabiya television that showed weeping relatives lowering bodies, one of a child, into graves, he said: "I have not seen the pictures but bad things happen in wars. I don't have to apologise for the conduct of my men."

Juan Cole, who's been to the Middle East and knows more than just a little bit about the region, notes:

In my trips to the Gulf I was always taken to the desert late at night by my hosts for a kind of extended picnic, with lots of (gender segregated) festivities, poetry, singing.

Furthermore, he cites a reader of his website, who writes:

On many occasions, Saudis I know spent the weekend “in the desert” for a wedding or other celebration. On one occasion, a Saudi that I worked with . . . asked me if we could trade cars for the weekend so he could attend a relatives wedding being held “in the desert”. I had great fun driving his Mercedes around Riyadh that weekend while he had great fun driving my jeep to and from the desert. And his “30 males of military age” comment? That’s truly ridiculous. I’ve been to LOTS of weddings that had “30 males of military age with them”.

Our military has no understanding of the culture or customs AND has the gall to chalk up a horrific incident as "the breaks of the game." Yet some folks still wonder why Iraqis detest us...