Running commentary by Matt Giwer, © 2004 2004 December 26 Rumsfeld in Iraq again This time the troops were ordered to lay off the hardball questions so he felt free to give a bit of what passes in Washington for wisdom. The ultimate solution to the insurgency problem lies with Iraqis not with Americans. Here is a hardball question, Donald, what makes you think they haven't? Washington wisdom, Potomac Paranoia, real Iraqis side with the Bush administration not with their families, relatives, friends and fellow Iraqis. More Washington Wisdom Some brainfart named Cordesman gave reasons why the insurgents might be motivated to be against the Americans. Among them was family. Brilliant! Another was fear of being on the losing side. How can the Americans be the winning side? Even if they believe the propaganda line that Americans will eventually leave Iraq how does fighting the Americans put them on the losing side? In twenty years when a child asks, "What did you do in the war, Daddy?" can you imagine anyone answering, "I fought on the side of the Americans" even if they did? The Vietnamese did not when fighting the Japanese, French or Americans. Same with every other country. In Ireland those who helped the Brits were introduced to the tradition of kneecapping if they were permitted to live. Keep the Irish in mind. They look like us. They are Christians. They have been fighting the British for four hundred years. The fatal conundrum By the party line America wants Iraqis loyal to Iraq's future but also insists on determining what that future will be. By definition the insurgency thrives on the American presence. It only exists because of the American presence. The longer America stays in Iraq the stronger the insurgency. If America were to give a date for leaving the insurgents would rush to join the emerging Iraqi government. It is inconceivable that any future Iraqi government after the Americans are gone would ever punish the insurgents in any way. 2004 December 25 Merry Christmas, Fallujah Generous Santa has arrived in Fallujah. A partially damaged home is worth $2000, substantially damaged is worth $4000 and completely destroyed worth a whole $10,000 is the maximum compensation. If a retail store was destroyed the compensation is between $1500 and $3000 depending upon the size and what it sold. Needless to say this is no where near replacement cost. Needless to say the poor bastards have been screwed again. Also needless to say there is no electricity, water or sewage. Bodies are rotting in every street unless the flesh has been stripped by dogs. "Unfit for animals" is the common observation. All because four mercenaries doing lord knows what were killed there nearly a year ago. The logic is simple and primitive. No resistance or even the appearance of resistance can be permitted. It is not permitted to even ignore the Americans. They must be actively praised. Keep in mind there was not the slightest suggestion Fallujans wanted the insurgents removed much less a suggestion they were willing to pay this price for it. For the record, after six weeks and some returns permitted there is still fighting in the city. Or, as the traditional Iraqi saying goes, "liberated my ass." Shi-itification program well underway Ba'athists, mostly Sunni, ran the country and were fired by Bush through his proxy Bremer. It was so unfair they had all the good jobs. It is a fact they had all the knowledge and experience to do their jobs. The puppet government has rewarded relatives, putting them in charge of day to day government operations. In five or ten years of learning on the job they may get the country running smoothly. For now there is a shortage of everything and prices are rising to reflect that. Christmas Prayer We pray for the Israelis that whatever god they worship may teach them simple humanity. 2004 December 24 Staying in Iraq If withdrawing from Iraq will only encourage our enemies will staying and killing more Iraqis make them our friends? I had to ask as so many are against withdrawing. The war was lost when Britain announced the airport road from Baghdad was no longer under control. The US admitted it a few days later. The compensation The compensation for damages has been announced. It is up to US$10,000 and no more. That is a far cry from the original promise. I guess the future resistance members were supposed to accept the original promise was a lie and not shoot Americans on sight. It is sort of fun for Americans to view Iraqis as people with big bellies in a dusty country rather than the most advanced "Arab" nation in the world. I have no idea how far US$10,000 goes in Iraq today or would have gone in the passed. I do know in situations like this price gouging is the free market not the exception. Every family that returned was given US$100 without any idea what that would buy -- other than criminals looking for the money. Even better all reports from the city say there is nothing to spend the money on so it appears to be a meaningless gesture. And the city has no water or electricity. What hath god wrought? Bomb Syria! The border between Iraq and Syria was drawn by a British civil servant. The region is populated. The Brits decided to which country they would belong. They never gave a damn about the Brits. Because of this the border was always more open than the US/Canada border. It is more like the border between Florida and Georgia. Neither Syria nor Iraq patrolled the border. The US knew all this when it invaded. Now looking to blame Syria for most of Iraq's ills (Iran for the rest of them) it demands Syria close the border. You may remember America's first attempt to terrorize people to prevent crossing. The most famous was the slaughter of a wedding party. Knowing the border was open the US complained that is was open and demanded Syria close it. Note closing the border is something trigger-happy American troops have been unable to do. This makes Syria responsible and a target for Americans as is desired. 2004 December 23 On-going bushit about Iraq Every day we hear explanations of what why Iraqis are behaving as they are. A typical one explains their refusal to cooperate against the resistance as being in fear of them. Sounds good. Sounds plausible. How does he know? If these people will not cooperate is he saying he has gained the confidence of these people and they have told him why? Does he speak Arabic? Is he lying to himself as well as to us? Even if he had gained confidence and been told, why did he believe them? What would he have done if he were told the Iraqis agree with and support the resistance? I don't know but if I were an Iraqi I would not take the risk of saying that to find out. Without a lot more information not one of these statements about Iraqis and their motivations and actions can be taken seriously. We have to first know how they know what they are saying is true before we can evaluate what they are saying. As we have no background information at present there is no reason to believe anything we have been told. Rebuilding Fallujah Hate to say I almost told you so. I pointed out the promise of repairing and rebuilding homes was not going to happen because there were no work crews standing by. When they announced forced labor for the repair I pointed out the hundreds of thousands of tons materials for the repair were not staged outside the city ready to move in. Yesterday they announced financial compensation for the damages and destruction. So getting the materials and labor for the repairs is now the responsibility of those who were harmed. So lets try another almost I told you so. The compensation will be far less than what is needed in the best of circumstances. The real circumstances will be both labor and materials at a very high premium making making repair unaffordable. The US will blame price gouging and wash its hands of the entire affair. 2004 December 18 US loses control of Mosul Maybe its wishful thinking by the good guys. If true the population is four times that of Fallujah. The assault on Fallujah took 20,000 troops. More than a month later it is still not under control. Do the math. 80,000 troops is more than half all of all troops in Iraq and double the number of actual combat troops. The war is over. Iraq won. 2004 December 16 Bombing Fallujah continues Weeks after the victory over the rebels/insurgent/terrorists in Fallujah the fighting continues. They apparently do not watch CNN to know they have been wiped out. 2004 December 12 Armored vehicles Finally the troops in Iraq have gotten the attention of Washington on vehicle armor. It took the public humiliation of SECDEF Rumsfeld, whom Bush has rewarded by keeping him on. We learn from this the only way to get Bush to do what is needed is public humiliation. It requires disrespectful public challenges. It requires people whose concern for staying alive is greater than promotion. This is a war of choice. There was no requirement for this war. There was certainly no requirement to go to war on a specific date. We were not attacked. Bush chose to go to war unprepared. The buck stops on his desk. No place else. You go to war with what you have only if you have to go to war. Saying no one expected the resistance was lame when first used. Continuing to use it is lame. Lame is what us old farts called lamebrain. It is Bush's job to expect these things. I read at least a dozen people in addition to myself saying resistance was a certainty. It is inconceivable it was not expected in Iraq. It was expected and ignored. Preparing for it would have delayed the war schedule. 2004 December 07 How bad is it? The Defense Minister of Australia was unable to get from the Baghdad airport to the Green Zone in Baghdad to consult on Australian troops in Iraq. Insurgents attacked collaborators and killing one only three blocks from the Green Zone and held their own against Americans in APCs. The post Mission Accomplished death toll of Americans reached 998 and December is just beginning. The more the back of the insurgency has been broken the greater the number of attacks every day. Eleven American troops have been killed since 3 December, in the last four days. That is nearly three per day which is about average. Americans still think the troops are fighting for our freedom, the dumbass turds. Not Kurds, turds. Seventeen collaborators were killed over the weekend, 23 others wounding in just one attack on Sunday. The resistance has started keeping the peace and enforcing the law in Mosul. They did this after the 5000 police collaborators cut and ran. All in all it looks like victory is at hand but not for the foreigners. 2004 December 06 Equally matched Eight American divisions and a few thousand lightly armed resistance fighters. Fallujah reconstruction A few days ago I said the tens of thousands of construction teams needed were not in place. I am correct in that. But I was wrong in saying there would be no reconstruction. I was wrong. The current plan is to make returning to one's home conditional upon forced labor in the clean up and repair work. The story is they will be paid but no suggestion as to how a fair wage working among unexploded ordinance will be determined. Still to be answered is the source of thousands of tons of construction materials. Just for the fun of it, everyone will be required to wear ID badges at all times and cars will not be permitted in the city. Buses are promised but no one has said where they will come from. Control of the airport road A couple days ago the Americans agreed with the British that the road from Baghdad to the airport was too dangerous to use, that it was no longer under control. The insurgents hold a strategic line of communication in the capital of the country. US to increase Iraq troops by 12,000 In other times this was called escalation. This time it is just for the duration of the election scheduled for 30 January 2005. So if the election slips then the troops stay longer. If attacks continue to increase, we cannot expect the additional troops to withdraw when they are most needed. 2004 December 02 Factoid If you believe every word of the American press releases it took 20,000 ground troops plus unlimited air and artillery support to subdue 1,600 whatchamacallits. So if 16,000 whatchamacallits start shooting they are equal to 200,000 Americans or at least they lose more slowly if they can hold out long enough to win. And if a country of at least 20 million people can't produce more than 16,000 it is below average on psychopaths. Forget the air and artillery, tell me a country of 20 million fighting foreigners can't can't produce 1% which is 200,000 fighters against 138,000 troops. The real issue is keeping the Shi'ites happy. If they get pissed, such as in delaying elections, they cut off the only land supply line from Kuwait. And then there are 50-60 thousand POWs held by free Iraq. Palestine Some time ago I suggested was the Palestinians should do. Now that Israel has lost its favorite excuse for continuing its crimes and atrocities the new leader has to follow a route something like the one suggested. Abbas is already off on the wrong foot declaring he will never give up the right of return. That is something the Israelis can use as a new excuse to refuse peace. The proper statement is, The government of Palestine does not have the authority to give up the property rights of any Palestinian. Israel will flatter to man into believing he has that power. But I am certain any reading of the document stating the powers of the Palestinian Authority do not include that. If Abbas or whoever wins will say that up front, it never gets on the negotiating table. Abbas has no cause to address it other than to say it does not have the power to negotiate it. To reiterate it needs to begin levying property taxes on all the property outside of pre-1967 Israel and all the other suggestions that any proper government prepares to do when the Israelis leave or become citizens of Palestine. There is nothing to negotiate but the schedule for Israeli withdrawal. If Israel wants to demand compensation for the "improvements" it is up to Israel to find Palestinians who will buy it. It is private property. If it is a fire sale, Israel knew it would be when they were built. 2004 December 01 Iran's interest in Iraq It is really very simple. If the US gets Iraq under control then it will attack Iran. Therefore it is in Iran's interest to make certain that does not happen. November as bad as the invasion It is official. As many Americans died in November as died during April 2003, the month of the invasion. It is good to know "major combat operations" ended in May 2003. 2004 November 30 Reconstruction in Fallujah Reconstruction of the city is promised. Every report says every building is damaged which entire blocks leveled. A city of 300,000 people. So lets say 6 per family or 50,000 residential units plus shops, offices, warehouses, mosques, schools, everything else needed for a city. So lets say people are willing to hold no hard feelings at personal property losses if they just get back places to live and work in a reasonable period of time. Does anyone know if there are twenty thousand construction workers with all equipment and supplies needed just waiting to enter the city once safe? If not then there is no way to restore the city before people get pissed enough to start shooting foreigners. Some whacko Americans are going to insist they "have to understand" we are doing the best we can and claim "most" Iraqis do understand. It is only the anti-Iraqi Iraqis who do not understand, do not forgive and do not forget. Fallujah will never be rebuilt by America or the current puppet government. If asked to explain why not the answer will be condescending and to the effect of saying, were you stupid enough to believe we would? I would guess couched in terms of the troops needed to protect the thousands of construction workers were needed some place else to deal with more anti-Iraqi Iraqis. Britain declares defeat Today Britain warned its embassy to leave but not to try to use the airport in Baghdad. It seems the occupation forces do not have control of Baghdad as they do not even have control of the route from the Green Zone to the airport. Today Britain capitulated to the Iraqis and admitted the invasion was lost. "The road between the embassy and the airport is too dangerous to use." Excuse me. We declare victory in Fallujah 60 miles from Baghdad but do not control Baghdad? Sounds like victory to me if the US wins in Fallujah and British embassy personnel are told to get out and can't get out. We have to agree with Bush. Except for Iraq the entire world is better off without Saddam Hussein. 2004 November 29 Iran wants to have nukes So? Russia did and they kept the peace. If by some magic means Iran could set off a nuke in the US, there would be little of civilization left in Iran 24 hours later. Who cares? As usual the Izzies are trying to foment war between Iran and America just as they fomented war between Iraq and America. Israel can retaliate against Iran on its own if nuked first. So what is all the whining about? 2004 November 27 20,802 American medical evacuations from Iraq More than that most likely. That is only the number treated at Landstuhl in Germany. But their wounds were to serious to be treated in Iraq. That is also one in seven of the 140,000 American troops in Iraq. The world is a better place without Hussein. Too bad Iraq is a worse place without him. How about those Fallujah fighters! If we accepted the official numbers they have held out for three weeks and continue to fight against twenty to one odds. And not just against the odds but against helicopters, jet fighters, tanks, APCs, and a host of cutting edge, high tech combat support equipment. But the leaders left the city before the attack so the brains behind the resistance are still at large. Word has it they are in Mosul, a city four times larger than Fallujah. It required 20,000 troops to take over a city of 300,000 and 10,000 have to remain behind to keep control of the city. That means 100,000 troops to take control of Mosul in the same three weeks with 50,000 left behind to keep control of the city. As that many troops are not available the resistance has won. Rebuilding Fallujah This is an absurd promise but it was made. There is no way it can be done fast enough to appear to be delivering on the promise. That will cause more people to join the resistance. It does not matter Americans will view them as unreasonable in their expectations. They do not have to be reasonable and they will not be reasonable. 2004 November 20 Cue the Chorus Iraq has nuclear weapons. Iran has nuclear weapons. The sky is falling. The sky is falling. Well done, Chickenhawk Little. Iraqis cannot be anti-Iraq Iraqis can be against occupation troops which is lawful and moral. They are killing off foreigners and collaborators. Calling them anti-Iraq is a stupidity suitable only for consumption by stupid Americans. If they are against the American vision (hallucination) for Iraq that is their business. It is their country. 100,000 refugees from Fallujah Refugees have not been given a date when they can return to their homes or what is left of them. 100,000 recruits for the resistance after they return. But lets play with the numbers. The city had a population of 300,000. That means 200,000 stayed behind which is totally contrary to American claims. It also gives the lie to the claims that no civilians were killed (murdered) in the attack on Fallujah. With so many people remaining behind that is impossible. Allawi the puppet Puppet, quisling, collaborator in chief, call him what you will. Theoretically he ordered the American attack on Fallujah. In practice he put an Iraqi face on the slaughter ordered by Bush. It is people like that whose bodies are dragged through the streets until they fall apart. I mean Allawi in Iraq. Bush in America is being cheered. Americans are rallying behind all of it, including cold blooded murder. Iraqi troops and police desert What a surprise. It is not that they are cowards. It is that they are mostly loyal to the resistance. If America does leave after the election, if there is an election, the resistance takes over the country. As it is the resistance it will be anti-american. Americans are the only people which killed them. Not quite the best basis for long-term friendship. Elections are a joke Which is as expected. Democracy does not bloom from the barrel of a gun even if they are American guns. There was never any intention of a democratic Iraq. A democratic Iraq would be anti-American and anti-West. Americans do not know or care much about it. Bush the Elder used the democracy ploy on freeing Kuwait and stupid Americans bought it. Bush the Younger invented democracy after all of his other lies were exposed. But since it is impossible to impose freedom we know that is not a serious objective. Given the mood of the country these days, cheering on the murder of prisoners and the like, there is no hope of a public outcry against the Iraq war until thousands more Americans have died and someone in 2008 has the balls to campaign for withdrawal. If Vietnam was any example, 2012 is a more reasonable year. Baghdad joins in the fun Mission accomplished in Fallujah. Baghdad joins other major cities in escalating resistance fighting. 2004 November 19 Oil revenues will pay for Iraq Maybe it will sometime in the distant future. At the moment it is costing $5.8B per month. The cost per month has been increasing since all major combat ended. The fighting has increased every month since all major combat ended. Fallujah involving 20,000 Americans was not a major combat operation. Phyrus should have had it so good Troop levels in Fallujah will have to remain at the 5-10 thousand level to continue the pretense that it has been pacified. It took 20 thousand to get to the point of declaring victory. However many have to remain it is that many fewer to deal with the other resistance movements around the country. And if that were all there was to it, it would be simple. To prove goodwill immediate reconstruction, rebuilding, and repair of the damage was promised. That was absurd on the face of it. The trivial damage of Florida's hurricane season took months to repair. The reason is simple. There are a fixed number of construction workers. What idiot imagined he could produce thousands of construction workers and the materials needed on short notice? Either an idiot or a liar. Any fool can hire on as a worker, foreman or supervisor and if you don't mind the burst pipes, electrical fires, leaking roofs and collapsing walls they will do a great job with the materials they don't sell on the black market. And those "construction" workers are the people the 5 to 10 thousand American troops will have to stay to protect. Because the people returning to the rubble that were once their homes are going to start shooting at some one if not stopped. The current fighting is in Mosul which is three times larger needing only 60 thousand troops to reduce to rubble. 2004 November 16 November 2004 With the month half over it is already has the second highest number of combat fatalities for Americans. It is good to announce it before the end of the month so the shock isn't as great. Jewish Threat, Jewish Silence A few days ago the Presbyterian Church, USA received a threat from a Jewish source in Queens, New York. The Church took it seriously. It asked the Anti-Defamation League to condemn it. Silence. Personally I don't care if they say anything or not. I note the hypocrisy of the organization always demanding other people and organizations speak out when the real or imagined target is Jews or Israel. The entire incident is over the Church's plan to divest ownership of stock in companies which do business with Israel. Do Jews really think it is appropriate for Jews to make threats? Or are the organized Jews simply looking after their jobs? 2004 November 14 Mosul controlled by Iraqi Resistance One more city out of control. Some numbers 20,000 American troops are needed to retake a city. This is the third city in need of retaking in the last week. We have no idea how many of the 20,000 in Fallujah will be needed to maintain control of the city. American claims trained Iraqis will do it are believed only by stupid Americans. Collaborators are the first target of the Resistance. This was 20,000 out of 140,000 total American troops. That is one in seven or fourteen percent. Three more cities will take over 50% of American troops plus those needed to garrison Fallujah. Before the conquest, serious military officers said three to four hundred thousand troops would be needed. The political hack officers in need of speedy courts martials agreed with chickhawk Bush. So where will these troops come from? As there will not be a draft the answer is unknown. Fallujah troops diverted to Mosul The Resistance has the initiative. The Resistance asserts American claims exaggerated They claim to have American forces pinned down in Fallujah and claims they are leaving. America claims a few hundred have been diverted to Mosul. It is hard to guess what is going on. America does have a track record of lying about everything Iraq since 9/11. So it is reasonable to assume it is lying about the situation in Fallujah. The difference is the Resistance, which calls itself the Mujahideen, is claiming credit for what they call a bait and switch operation. Even the Americans said most of the fighters had left the city before the attack. With this much agreed by both sides the Resistance is merely claiming to have planned what they are doing now. And oddly a couple days ago America volunteered it had never said this attack would accomplish anything significant. Nothing like preparing the way for failure. 2004 November 13 Win Fallujah, lose Iraq Control of Taji lost. Taji is another oil town 12 miles north of Baghdad. Baji is hundreds of miles north of Baghdad. Baghdad itself is almost completely under Iraqi control. In the Spring of 2004, there was a peaceful protest in Fallujah. One of their largest schools was being used by the US military. They wanted it back. The military fired on the crowd, murdering eighteen people. Who started the fighting? Perception is everything It plays in America when a press release says there were people in the protest firing on American troops. The American press reports it. Americans believe it and firing back is considered justified. Iraqis don't watch American TV. Why would they believe it even if they did? It plays in Peoria but not in Fallujah. Iraqis believe they are killing murderers. 412 seriously wounded airlifted to Germany The numbers are inconsistent and hard to come by. But as of early today 412 good enough for government work. In six days of fighting that suggests about 7 per day dead and 2000+ injured but not seriously enough to evacuate from Iraq. That is also 400 in eight days or 50 per day serious injuries and 5 American dead per day. On the Palestine front There is a bit of good news. Israel does not appear to have as yet formulated a means of frustrating peace with Arafat as an excuse. Maybe it is good news and Sharon has reformed. Most likely it is just another example of the total inability of Israelis to make a decision. 2004 November 12 Beat the crap out of the opposition So the Dems won. What is the explanation? You can listen to the the partisan pundits or you can listen to the professionals. It is your choice. The professionals say they targeted you with stories and positions you were prone to believe. Not one of them says they told you any truth. They all say they told you what was required t0 get your vote so they could win. I do not care what you think you heard. I am talking about what the people who created what you heard said they did. If you discounted everything you heard then I am not talking to you. But if you accepted anything you were told then you are among those sway by professionals. That is what they are saying. That is why they were hired. That is their job. And they are now bragging about screwing you over. 2004 November 10 Beat the crap out of Fallujah Iraqi troops to make Fallujah look legitimate are deserting rather than kill their countrymen. Countrymen over there means mostly co-religionists but it amounts to the same thing. It removes any legitimacy from American and its puppet. 2004 November 11 The Battle of Iraq Mosul is officially in open rebellion against occupation forces. Baiji (or Bayji) joins the fighting. Previously unheard-of in American news reports it has the largest refinery in Iraq and is positioned to control a major export pipeline. 2004 November 08 The Battle of Fallujah marks the true beginning of the Iraqi resistance. Most of the fighters will have left the city before it falls to regroup in other cities. Attacks will increase all over Iraq while the city fighting keeps the headlines. Kerry will not say, I told you so. 2004 November 07 Fallujah attack It is coming and the Americans are going to get their ass kicked real bad. They will win in the sense of declaring victory. Resistance will increase afterwards not decrease. That is good enough for a New Year psychic prediction. Let us look at the facts. The original estimate of 5000 fighters in Fallujah was instantly reduced to 1200 AFTER the press announced there were only 10,000 troops prepared to invade Fallujah. This is the "perfumed princes" response to reality. The gods on high have refused to give them the number of troops needed. So the princes change the estimate of the threat to match the troops available. The gods on high must never be accused of any failure as promotions are at stake. So troops will die needlessly. The battle will take forever. More troops will be sent to keep the fighting going. It will drag out for months but just before the elections it will be declared a success and the elections legitimate. In the mean time attacks all over Iraq will increase keeping most troops from reinforcing Fallujah. Attacks have been increasing since the end of major combat operations was declared by dubyashit. There has never been a decrease in attacks. The US is losing this war. So despite the press releases, how will you know if there is a victory is Fallujah? Look for a surrender. If there is no surrender there is no victory. Bush was in his flight suit but there was no surrender. Iraq has not surrendered. The war is still on. If they get a surrender of one town so what? Russia got that in Afghanistan on rare occasion. 2004 November 04 After Arafat The greatest problem Israel will face after Arafat will be of its own creation as always. Israelis are a hysterical folk. They say the most preposterous things and come to believe them. When they have to face those beliefs are false they blame someone else for not behaving as they believed. That is the way it was with Arafat. The generous offer was far from generous, rather it was grand theft. But as it was rejected it was all Arafat's fault. For decades the only obstacle to peace was Arafat. The instigator of all the resistance efforts was Arafat. The puppet behind every harm that befell Israel was Arafat. Without Arafat Palestinians will be reasonable. No Palestinian can ever settle for grand theft by Israel. The problem without Arafat will be to find another blame for their paranoid delusions. 2004 November 03 Hitler was lawfully elected Now you see how it can happen. 2004 October 31 Government of the People I have to hand it to Colin Powell. He's got balls. He is telling the world the resistance in Iraq is not legitimate because the UN recognizes the current puppet government. So let me get this right. The people have no say in the legitimacy of their government. Is this the new position of America or is Powell winging it? Is America expressing a new-found confidence in the decisions of the UN? 2004 October 28 Realism or Idealism If we assume idealism in government then the instances of corruption which come to light are all instances of corruption and the system works perfectly by bringing them to light and ending them. If we assume realism in government then the system occasionally fails in keeping corruption from the public and we see only those failures in an otherwise corrupt system. We can decide between the two views. When corruption comes to light we discover it has been going on for years. At best the system takes years to expose corruption so at best the system is in need of drastic improvement. 2004 October 28 Insurgency and Guerrillas Looking at history we find highly guerrilla wars after WWII but no effective resistance during WWII. Despite the praise of the resistance movements against Japanese and German occupation their accomplishments are mostly mythical. Captured records show the Japanese and Germans never treated them as more than a minor annoyance. What is the difference? Again the difference is in the myths. The Japanese and Germans were largely benign occupation forces. The stories about their treatment of civilians is as mythical as the success of the resistance. The occupation troops were bound by strict rules of conduct and violators were publicly punished when possible, meaning executions. Since WWII occupation troops from Algeria and Vietnam by the French, Vietnam against by the Americans on to Afghanistan by Russia and Iraq by America have not been benign occupiers. From the beginning in Iraq Americans met peaceful demands for food and water with gunfire. In Vietnam both the French and Americans meted out similar punishment for disagreement. It is one thing to "disappear" the leaders of resistance. It is quite another to leave their bled out bodies in the streets for relatives to collect, get pissed and get guns. 2004 October 24 A long break There has been some change and all for the worse if you are an American and for the worse if you are an Iraqi and better for one American campaigning to be reelected president. The new Iraqi troops have been so well trained they have yet to win one battle against the insurgents. In fact the insurgent appear to wipe them out at will. The problem might be the training contract was given to the low bidder. Clearly the solution is to hire the insurgents to do the training. The rate of attacks on the occupation troops has doubled while troops have remained the same. I have lost track as to whether this is the third or fourth time the occupation has sworn to take Fallujah. Al Zarqawi, who died in February 2004, is still going strong, single-handedly holding 150,000 troops at bay. America needs to hire this man away from al Qaeda. Even if he is dead he is the most effective fighter in Iraq. America has finally officially confirmed Hussein's shocking web of truths about Iraq's weapons. Bush declared Freedom is God's gift to every man and woman in the world. In doing so he moved beyond president to prophet of God or directly to blasphemer depending upon how great your faith in him or Him as the case may be. It is now official. War in Iraq is preferable to peace as fewer lives were lost in the war than in the continuing peace. Osama bin Laden celebrated his third anniversary of not being able to either run or hide. Las Vegas odds are 3 to 2 for four more years. Israel continues to remind us not to have false sympathy. Even though Palestinians are suffering terribly they did not lose relatives in the holocaust. Bush has found condemning people who say there are problems in Iraq is the best way to solve the problems in Iraq. America attacked Iraq in 2003 because in the 1980s Iraq had chemical weapons supplied by America for use in a war against Iran encouraged by America because Iran threw out the dictator America imposed in Iran. Beheadings work better than an American financed TV network. Improvised explosives work better than smart bombs. 20,000 insurgents keep 150,000 troops pinned down. There has to be a lesson in there somewhere. The latest reason for war on Iraq appears to come down to Hussein having less than maidenly thoughts. When attacking Israel's treatment of Palestinians is called antisemitic, it says that treatment is the essence of Judaism. The invasions troops have gotten a nickname among the Iraqis. That nickname is Jews. Oddly Jews and Christian Zionists think this is a good thing. 2004 August 19 Iraq is not newsworthy The death rate for US troops in Iraq continues to increase but the news has no time for it. Older commentary Page reads: 7693