Instahoglets 23rd Feb. 06

Knight Ridder: "U.S. intelligence and military officials warned Thursday that the next few days could determine whether Iraqi soldiers and police, overwhelmingly dominated by Arabs from Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, will heed commands to quell the unrest or dissolve their units and fight on the basis of ethnic and religious loyalties."

If the latter, then Bush's "we will stand down as they stand up" is dead in the water and the full-scale "hard" civil war is on.

Fester at Comments From Left Field explains why a general insurrection in the south of Iraq would be very, very bad news for Coalition forces - it would cut their lines of supply and finish them as an effective fighting force within days if those lines could not be reopened.

Too little, too late - the US military has established a counterinsurgency academy in Iraq which is teaching the McMaster Doctrine (I've named it after it's most successful proponent in Iraq) of "hearts and minds as well as balls to the wall". If only they had listened to the 'mavericks' months ago. Ah well, maybe it will help for the next war, eh George?

Wouldn't it have been nice if Iran was onside against Al Qaida and helping the US keep the Shia from starting ethnic cleansing in Iraq? Unfortunately, Bush and the neocons sabotaged what began as very promising cooperation from Iran in Afghanistan so that Bush could get a soundbite out of the "axis of evil" speech. Now they have a Gordian Knot of their own making - one which no sword can unravel.

Bill O'Reilly breaks ranks and becomes the most prominent neocon mouthpiece to date to suggest that the US get out of Iraq because "there are so many nuts in the country -- so many crazies -- that we can't control them." Expect a growing surge from the Right over the coming months of those who swear they were never neocon sycophants or ever supported Bush uncritically over Iraq.

Rummie had to change his story the other day and admit the Pentagon is still planting stories in the media in Iraq. I wonder when they will get around to admitting they plant stories in the media around the world and at home, too? They don't even have to pay to play - they give anonymous tales to "insiders" and lazy journalists then print those tales verbatim as if they were the facts.

Or the neocons at the Pentagon can always get their sycophantic shills to say whatever face-saving bullshit they want then simply neglect to step up and correct the mistakes. Here's another "The WMD Went To Syria" tale - all of which ignore the official findings of Bush's own inspectors that such a happening was "unlikely".

E. J Dionne hits it out of the park in an article, "Creating Wealth For The Poor". Much of what he suggests, incidentally, was implemented by Brown in the UK as soon as Labour gained power back from the conservatives and Britain now has the strongest economy in Europe instead of one of the weakest.