What A Fool Believes


So, I see Rummy popped out of his armored box to check up on his handiwork in Messopotamia. I guess some of the locals recognized our SecDef's taste for fresh blood:

The bodies of 24 kidnapped Shiites were found as visiting US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discussed the worsening security in Baghdad with Iraqi and US officials.

In another gruesome example of the sectarian bloodshed that has engulfed Iraq, 24 Shiites were executed after 26 were abducted earlier on Wednesday from the town of Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad.

Wonder if he offered up a "My goodness!" Or maybe he insisted, in countering Riverbend, that it was "only one 14 year old CHILD young woman raped...I keep hearing the reports saying 'rape, rape,' but it was only 14 year old CHILD young woman...I mean, are there that many 14 year old CHILDREN women in the whole country?" And then maybe he paused for a laugh.

OK, so I made that up...but you've gotta wonder what combination of mechanics and electronics exist within Rummy's viscera, substituting for a heart...even if it was pretty much expected he'd reject calls for an end to judicial immunity for U.S. military personnel.

Oh, and here's more "Ode to Freedom*:"
(*-aka, a "messy" thing)

Private Uday Abdullah is one of 50,000 Iraqi troops and police sent on to Baghdad's streets last month to make the city safe -- but he does not see the point.

Lounging in the shade to escape the midday heat on Tuesday, the soldier said it is gunmen from rival Shi'ite and Sunni parties with clout in the government who rule the streets.

"We arrest lots of gunmen and they just walk free the next day. They're always from the Mehdi Army or the Badr Brigade or the Islamic Party. So what's the point of our job?" he said.

Many in Baghdad wonder the same thing as checkpoints set up as part of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's crackdown on violence spawn ever greater traffic jams but have failed to prevent dozens dying in sectarian shootings and bombings this week.

"We do nothing but create huge traffic jams with these checkpoints," Abdullah said.

Pointing to the traffic backed up on Senak Bridge, a major artery over the Tigris river, he said: "I am standing here. But I have no desire to be here."

Raed Abd al-Hafudh Saleem, a lieutenant in Baghdad's traffic department, is equally bemused and cynical.

From his concrete booth in the middle of a busy intersection in upmarket Mansour, he has a clear view of the many vehicles carrying heavily armed men that speed past every day.

"I don't know who these people are. I can't stop them because they never hesitate to point their guns at me."

Every morning, when he reports for duty at his little booth, he finds fresh bullet casings littering the road.

"I don't know where they come from. Everyone carries a gun in this country, from the bodyguards of officials and members of parliament to private security companies.

"How can I distinguish between all those and the insurgents, and militias?" he said.

He told how bodyguards recently fired into the air to clear the road for a ministerial convoy. When he remonstrated with them, one man fired a burst from his AK-47 just past his head.

"He said to me: 'Who are you to say this? I am the state."'

"I am the state," eh? Sounds like someone the GOP oughta tap for a campaign contribution.

On the other side of the fence, by the way, American soldiers continue to find out about how messy freedom is, too:

Hidden bombs have become the insurgents’ primary weapon, and the number of explosives they plant is an important measure of their activity and determination to fight. The number is on the rise nationwide.

In June, there were 1,481 I.E.D. attacks throughout Iraq, and 903 instances in which the bombs were found and neutralized, according to figures compiled by the American military in Baghdad. That is a sharp increase since January, when there were 834 such attacks and 620 cases in which the bombs were found before they exploded.

Many soldiers rate an explosion from one of the bombs as the war’s most frightening experience.

“It jerks you around,” said Pfc. Daniel Rullo, 21, a medic from Binghamton, N.Y., with Company A. “You squeeze your hands to make sure you are still alive. Lots of times the vehicles fill up with smoke. It is the worst feeling out here, worse than getting shot.”

The battle between the insurgents and the American forces is a grim contest of measure and countermeasure. Armored Humvees and other defensive measures have considerably improved the Americans’ ability to survive the bomb attacks.

In addition to Kevlar helmets and body armor, each soldier is equipped with special gear to protect against bomb explosions: glasses that deflect flying debris, called ballistic glasses; fire-resistant gloves; and combat earplugs.

In a kind of arms race, the insurgents have responded to the American protective measures by stepping up the frequency and power of the bombings.

More and more, like I mentioned yesterday, we're seeing in Iraq a fusion of the worst elements of the Israeli occupation (and now invasion of Lebanon) with the worst elements of the French/Algerian War...except for one thing: we have NO natural constituency or ally in Iraq. Under those circumstances, we're in the position of fools...or suckers.

Fits Dubya and Rummy to a tee.