How Do You Say “Fox News” in Farsi?

But the neocons are even more fanatical about this than their paleo cousins. I really think they would prefer to see Iraq sink into complete chaos, and pay the price of another 1,700 American deaths, rather than pass even nominal military control to the United Nations.

Dreaming of Blue Helmets

Rally Effect

I’ve heard military guys refer to this as the "fuck up and move up" school of personnel management. Which I guess we can modify to "fuck up, help cover the Defense Secretary’s ass from potential criminal charges, and then move up."

Rewarding Failure

“Some people say Baker’s reckless charges have severely damaged Spc. Baker’s morale and crippled his ability to extract information from Al Qaeda prisoners — information that could save American lives,” reported Fox News personality Brit Hume. “They’re demanding that Baker retract his allegations and offer a full apology to Spc. Baker.”

Slander

But the American people apparently missed all those
White House warnings about "generational commitments." Too busy watching the Michael Jackson trial, I guess. But what happens if (or, more likely, when) the voters decide that one generation of dead and maimed American soldiers is one too many? What if they don’t want to go to Tehran?

Going to Tehran

From:    cbaily@lincolngroup.com
To:      psyops@centcom.mil
Copy to: puppets-list-iraq, puppets-list-afghanistan
Subject: Message Ready to Read (MRR)

Expanding our exiting 'Message Ready to Read' (MRR) supply, we are proud to deliver the new agreed-upon format for the body count campaign. (We have now succeeded in a single format for the eastern and western campaign!)

This will help you to achieve reporting the recommended 10:1 ratio of casualties in any future incident.

Thank$

Christian B.

Attachment:

Cont. reading: Make Your Own II

Atrios pointed; to a Boston Globe piece about Iraq, that has an interesting bit on Iran.

A former Pentagon official, journalist, and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Leslie Gelb, a man with considerable political and military knowledge, came back from a fact-finding trip in Iraq …

In a report to the council, Gelb was scathing about America efforts to train an Iraqi army. ”If you ask any Iraqi leader, they will tell you these people can’t fight. They just aren’t trained. And yet we’re cranking them out like rabbits." As for plans to train a 10 division Iraqi army by next year, Gelb was scathing. ”It became very apparent to me that these 10 divisions were to fight some future war against Iran. It had nothing to do, nothing to do," with taking Iraq over from the Americans and fighting the insurgents.

The Boston Globe author refers to Gelb’s CFR talk 10 days in Iraq. There Gelb says:

If you ask any Iraqi leader, they will tell you these people can’t fight. They just aren’t trained. And yet we’re cranking them out like rabbits. I’m going to leave the names out of here because I really do admire the people involved, and I know what political pressure is. I said, "Well, where is all this heading?" And no kidding, he said to me, "A 10-division Iraqi armed force." And I lost it at that point, the only time in the whole trip I just lost it. I said, "Ten divisions! The United States Army has 10 divisions!" And he said, "And two mechanized divisions." I said, "We have two mechanized divisions! You’re going to create an Iraqi army as big as the American Army? Are you nuts?" And then the next PowerPoint chart comes up: "Well, we need a division here and we need a division here and we need a division"–it became very apparent to me that these 10 divisions were to fight some future war against Iran. It had nothing to do–nothing to do–with taking that country over from us and fighting the insurgents. It made no sense to me. It was the single-most disturbing conversation I had ..

Why doesn´t this make sense? And is Gelb really scathing here or did he miss his portion of Kool Aid and this is for real?

Lyndon Baines Bush

"Decadent Fonts"

A bit late friday art blogging.

Two Cows by Wolfgang Ohlhaver (detail)
40”x55”, acrylic on canvas, (full view)

Wolfgang is a former art teacher and local known artist living in my part of Hamburg. I meet him today and photographed this one. He has made a bunch of similar pictures of cows against just a white background and nearly lifesize. He is engaged in animal rights and working for better herding conditions.

Some miles north from here are the roots of these Holsteiner-Frisians, also named ‘Schwarzbunte’ (black-colorful ones). Big, pretty and peaceful animals. Those coded  markers in the left ears were introduced after the BSE panic. You will get yours with  Patriot Act III.

As a child I did seriously believe that black-white mottled cows made milk and brown-white mottled cows, uncommon in my hometown, made chocolate. I really bitched to my mother about letting me keep this believe after I milked my first brown checkered one.

So what’s on your mind?

There appear to be enough "top Al Qaeda aides" in Iraq to fill Shea Stadium. Zarqawi’s inner circle alone would probably take up the entire upper deck. This is not only bad news, but bad storytelling.

Form Over Substance

Remember 1990? The Japanese economy was invincible. They were invading the markets with their cars, semi-conductors, and buying assets all over the place, what with the land in Tokyo being worth more than the whole of the USA (or something like that). Remember how it ended? Well, now have a look at this:

Cont. reading: The Biggest Bubble Ever

Headline:
[top | important | most wanted | close | key] al-Zarqawi [aide | lieutenant | associate | "cell prince" | figure] [captured | arrested]

Dateline:
(some date) (some place in Iraq)

Body:
[Iraqi | US | US and Iraqi] forces have [nabbed | captured | arrested] [a | one | two] [senior | middle] [figure | operations chief | terrorist operative] of [Jordanian | al-Qaeda-linked | Iraq's most wanted] terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi.

(arabic name), also know as (other arabic name), was [detained | picked up]  on (some date) during an [Iraqi police | US military | US and Iraqi] [raid | road block | operation] in (some place in Iraq).

A [spokesman | US General | Iraqi minister] talked of a ["major catch" | "significant impact" | "big step forward"].

Some examples:

Cont. reading: Make Your Own

.. if the pink tutu Democrats see that the hearings are not a bad way to get their preening mugs on the tube, they might be more inclined to show up, giving the hearings a little more heft, if only through weight of numbers. Which might draw more media coverage.

Getting Traction

Second Opinion

Rep. John Conyers just finished today’s ‘hearing’ on the Downing Street Memo. Thanks to bloggers the memo now has gotten some serious traction in the U.S. too.

You will read the details and takes on that ‘hearing’ in tomorrows papers and I am not eloquent enough in English to give a decent short take of the C-SPAN stream, but some remarks may be allowed:

There were some 10 cameras in the room of that ‘hearing’, which was not an official Congress Hearing, but a pure Dem show in some basement room.

Cont. reading: Bring It On

If it Quacks Like a Duck . . .