"The surge is working, my friends." Really?

[Ninong]

Moqtada al-Sadr Orders Cease Fire

Looks like he's calling on the Mahdi Army to cease fire. Let's see if it works.

I still can't figure out if he started this or if it just started all by itself without his specific authorization. The whole thing just doesn't make sense.

[Ninong]

Make That 1,300

The Maliki government now admits that they fired 1,300 Iraqi police and soldiers for refusing to fight in the government's poorly planned and disastrously executed offensive against Mahdi Army elements in Basra. Previously the government reported that 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen, including two high-ranking commanders, had either refused to fight or had gone over to the other side.

Gen. Petraeus has told us that this was something he was not even informed about until just a couple of days before it started. Al-Maliki even went to Basra himself to "be on the front lines." He initially demanded that the Mahdi Army turn over all their weapons within a week. Within days after the government's offensive began it was obvious that they were losing badly. U.S. close air support was brought in to rescue them and the Brits even sent commandos in to "advise" them.

By the end of the first week al-Maliki not only dropped his demand that the Mahdi Army surrender all of their weapons, he sent a delegation to Iran to beg the Iranians to please ask Moqtada al-Sadr to call a ceasefire. In an attempt to throw his weight around, al-Maliki came out looking like a weakling. Moqtada al-Sadr is more popular with Shiites than al-Maliki is, especially in the south around Basra. The Iraqi army and police forces are predominately Shiite. What we witnessed in this last bit of theatre of the absurd was two major Shiite elements fighting each other for control. John McCain is claiming that al-Maliki "won" because Moqtada al-Sadr cried uncle. John McCain is clueless, as usual.

[Ninong]

Al-Sadr: Troops Should Get Jobs Back

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) — Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is demanding the Iraqi government reinstate all security forces fired for deserting during fighting in Basra.

Monday's statement comes a day after more than 1,300 soldiers and policemen were sacked for abandoning their posts or refusing to fight when clashes broke out.

The anti-U.S. cleric says those who gave up their arms "were only obeying their grand religious leaders" and "were driven by their religious duties."

He says in a statement issued by his office in holy city of Najaf that they should be reinstated and even rewarded for their loyalty.

Here.

[Ninong]

Pentagon Report: Iraq War 'a major debacle' with 'outcome in doubt'

It is absolutely astounding that most of the major media are ignoring this very significant report published by the National Defense University and written by one of former-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's top aides.

It was published by the National Institute for Strategic Studies, a Defense Department research center. It is extremely critical of the Bush administration, especially Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice.

Rumsfeld, who was closely allied with Vice President Dick Cheney, bypassed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the report says, and became "the direct supervisor of the combatant commanders."

" ... the aggressive, hands-on Rumsfeld," it continues, "cajoled and pushed his way toward a small force and a lightning fast operation." Later, he shut down the military's computerized deployment system, "questioning, delaying or deleting units on the numerous deployment orders that came across his desk."

The report also singles out the Bush administration's national security apparatus and implicitly President Bush and both of his national security advisers, Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley, saying that "senior national security officials exhibited in many instances an imperious attitude, exerting power and pressure where diplomacy and bargaining might have had a better effect."

Here.

[Ninong]

'Honor Killings' On The Rise In Iraq

In Basra alone 36 women have been killed since the beginning of the year. This is the story of one of those killings. A 17-year-old Iraqi girl whose only crime was that she carried on a conversation with a 22-year-old British soldier in public at the aid station where they both worked.

"She never did anything more than talk to him. She was proud to be a virgin and had a dream to give herself to the man she loved only after her marriage," said Zeinab.

"What they did to her was ugly and pathetic. Rand was just a young girl with romantic dreams. She always kept her religion close to her heart. She would never even hurt a petal on a rose."

When the girl's father found out about his daughter's infatuation with one of the infidel invaders, he beat her to death. Her mother called for her two brothers to come and restrain their father but they instead joined in and helped him finish her off. Her father, uncles and brothers all spat on her corpse when she was buried without ceremony. That's part of the honor-cleansing ritual. They all feel much better now that their honor has been cleansed.

Two weeks after the murder, Leila left Ali. She could no longer bear to live under the same roof as her daughter's killer and asked for a divorce. "I was beaten and had my arm broken by him," she said. "No man can accept being left by a woman in Iraq. But I would prefer to be killed than sleep in the same bed with a man who was able to do what he did to his own daughter, who, over the years, had only given him unconditional love."

The police arrested the father but two hours later they released him. They said their investigation showed that it was an 'honor killing.' That's a good thing in Iraq -- the New & Improved Iraq. The one George Bush told us about, with democracy and equal rights for all.

Things are so much better now in Iraq.

[Ninong]

As They Stand Up, We Will Stand Down

Things are looking up in Iraq. George Bush told me so.

In December 2007, the Pentagon said there were 174,025 trained Iraqi police. In March 2008, they reported the number of trained Iraqi police as 155,248. Hmmm, that's interesting.

In September 2007, the Pentagon said we needed 390,000 trained Iraqi troops to defend their own country so that we could go home. As they stand up, we will stand down. Sounds good to me, how about you?

In March 2008, the Pentagon said that instead of just 390,000 trained Iraqi troops, the real number was 580,000. Wow! That's a big increase, isn't it? And things were going so well according to President Bush that I figured, if anything, the number required to fight the insurgency would be lower, not higher. This doesn't make much sense to me. Why do they need more troops if things are going so swimmingly?

Oops! Make that 646,000 Iraqi troops! The Pentagon now says that they were wrong in December when they said only 390,000 trained Iraqi troops were required and wrong last month when they said only 580,000 troops would be required. The new number is 646,000 trained Iraqi troops required to fight the insurgency which, we have been told, is on the run.

Here's a number that is encouraging: 70%. That's the percentage of Iraqi troops that show up for duty on any given day. That's a big improvement over the 1/2 to 2/3 of Iraqi troops that used to show up for work. However, you can't count on them to show up at a particular time because it is traditional to sleep in. So many of the troops will show up two to three hours late. Another minor problem is that many of the troops who do show up are not willing to actually do any, you know, fighting -- shooting guns and all that stuff that could get you hurt. That's why the Maliki government fired 1,300 Iraqi soldiers and policemen recently -- they refused to fight against elements of the Mahdi Army militia in Basra. Hundreds of them, including two very senior commanders, actually changed sides and began fighting with the Mahdi Army.

P.S. -- In addition to sleeping late, Iraqi troops are used to going home for a couple of hours in the middle of the day for lunch. Which is why many of them will refuse orders to report for duty if the duty station is too far from their homes.

Another problem the Pentagon has uncovered is that the Iraqi government counts soldiers and policemen as active even if they are AWOL, or injured, or even dead.

[Ninong]

Oops! Missed Again...

We bombed Somalia again. This time we killed three cows and a calf. Six civilians were injured. This is our fourth known strike inside Somalia aimed at taking out Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan.

Success At Last!

We finally got one of the bad guys.

Aden Hashi Ayro, his brother and seven others at his house in the central Somali town of Dusamareeb, about 300 miles north of Mogadishu. Six more people were wounded.

This guy, Aden Hashi Ayro, was a murderous thug who was personally responsible for kidnapping and killing dozens of people, including foreign journalists. He was also a big fan of roadside bombs in Somalia. I'm not in favor of taking out innocent civilians and I hope that none of the people killed or wounded in this raid were unassociated with this known al-Qaida leader. Any adults in his house had to know that their lives were at risk. I hope there were no innocent children harmed in this strike. I just can't bring myself to condone this sort of a strike if it is known in advance that innocent people will be killed.

No word on how many cows, if any, were martyred this time.

[Ninong]

Bush Administration Guilty Of "Gross Incompetence & Dereliction Of Duty"

Now who in the world would make such a reckless charge? Probably one of those left-wing commie liberal Democrats who intend to vote for Barack Hussein Obama, who might become our first Muslim president.

"Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars were unnecessarily spent, and worse yet, too many of our most precious military resource, our American soldiers, were unnecessarily wounded, maimed, and killed as a result. In my mind, this action by the Bush administration amounts to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty." -- Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former commander of multi-national forces in Iraq.

Here.

He also says that Donald Rumsfeld lied a lot but we already knew that.

[Ninong]

Five Years Since Mission Accomplished: Oil Six Times Higher Than Promised

Crude Oil now trading at $120.36/bbl.

May 1, 2008 marked the fifth anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. It was on May 1, 2003 that President Bush told us that the battle for Iraq was over and we had won. One of the promises made by his administration was that oil would drop to $20.00/bbl.

Today, May 5, 2008, crude oil is $120.36/bbl. Happy Cinco de Mayo!