hello world,

we just haven't had enough pacification, and iraqization, man, what we need is more guns, and bombs, and let them all blow themselves to hell, then when peace is war and war is peace, we'll just all get drunk on highballs and gin and tonic and coke and tell the world it wasn't really a war. Then we can pass the whole thing on to some other poor schmuck and go gamble in vegas. The important thing to remember is that we're doing a good thing, we're saving the world for our own brand of vice and good timey girls and bowling and that sort of thing man, and the price of that, well, it is steep, steep man I tell you, and it doesn't come free or without a price tag, freedom has a cost man, in blood and bullets and dollars and cents. And we've got to keep fighting the good fight on both fronts, on all fronts really. The world is going to hell in a handbasket. But the stock market is looking up. Hell the dow just broke 13000 and all these people crying about there's no good news. Pacification, Iraqization, militarization, we just need a little more time, and a lot more money. Maybe we should have a czar, an Iraqi czar, and a homeland security cheif, and big brightly colored easter bunny inside an easter bunny suit, hopping around on the front lawn of the white house on LSD screaming, No More Wabbits! No More Wabbits! But really man, if Petraus can't get it done who can, maybe we do need to consider this Iraqi Czar. Give him lots of power and some guns and an SUV (black of course, with tinted windows) and a security team and detail of about 20 men and let them drive around Bagdhad looking important and saying important things to the press and that sort of thing. But the important thing to remember man, the important thing is no timetables, can't declare defeat, can't give aid and comfort, can't send the other team our plays, can't switch back to playing defense with our defense we've got to be on offense with the defense over there, or we'll be on defense with the, oh hell man you get the picture. Besides if they come over here and we're over there, we're liable to get the chain of command all mixed up and we won't know who's in charge, DHS, FBI, CIA, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, the Pentagon, the NSA, the White House, the Congress, damn it man, somebody give me a Martini and some blotter acid and tell me the whole thing is over. No More Wabbits! No More Wabbits!

So, to summarize, pacification, iraqization, vietnamization, militarization, stabilization, infiltration, dramatization, prozac nation.

Whatever you do, don't click this link (studies show you're more likely if you shouldn't)

--- Truth To Power

Truth hurts...doesnt it.

Unfortunately, the (Iraqi) officers here are much like their soldiers — they're not in it for any sense of patriotism. They're doing this to get paid," Marine Staff Sgt. Juan Santiago

 "I joined the army to be a soldier in my homeland, among my people. Not to fight for others who I have nothing to do with." Kudish Soldier

Iraqi Army: A Long Tradition of Cut and Run

1982 After the military defeats of 1982, the entire chain of command suffered low morale. On several occasions, signs of mutiny in opposition to the war emerged. According to unverified Iraqi dissident reports, the number of deserters reached 100,000, and in central and in southern Iraq. Many soldiers refused to fight in Kurdistan, and many more joined the armed Kurdish resistance movement.  Link

2002: With the renewed threat of war desertions seem to be on the increase again. In March 2002, Iraq Press reported that the number of desertions had reached an alarming high level - up to 40% of those called up didn't report for military service. This lead to the cancellation of leave for soldiers, and an increased hunt for deserters. Meanwhile even members of the governing Ba'ath party face punishment, if they know of a relative who deserted, and don't report him to the security forces.

Continues.... 

2003: Faced with the desertion of nearly half the new Iraqi army, the U.S. military is thinking about raising the pay scale for Iraqi soldiers as it trains more to join the force, the commander of U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq said Saturday.

2004: Iraqi Army recruits will not fight for the US side in Najaf.

Sunday's showdown in Najaf was troubled even before the fighting resumed. Officials from the Iraqi defense ministry said that more than 100 Iraqi national guardsmen and a battalion of Iraqi soldiers chose to quit rather than attack fellow Iraqis in a city that includes some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. An Iraqi army battalion generally consists of 600 to 900 soldiers. U.S. military officials would not confirm the resignations.

“We received a report that a whole battalion (in Najaf) threw down their rifles,” said one high-ranking defense ministry official. He did not want his name published because he is not an official spokesman. “We expected this, and we expect it again and again,” he said. 2004

2005: Iraqi army and police units are deserting their posts after the recent escalation in insurgent attacks, according to reports from around the country yesterday. 2005

2005: On the Syrian border, US troops in the Sunni city of Husaybah report mass desertions. An Iraqi unit that had once grown to 400 troops now numbers a few dozen who are "holed up" inside a local phosphate plant.

Major John Reed, of the 2nd Marine Regiment, said: "They will claim that they are ready to come back and fight but there are no more than 30 of them on duty on any given day and they are completely ineffective." 2005

2006 American commanders said an entire Iraqi brigade, about 2,500 troops, has taken
over parts of the nearby city of Khaldiyah and an adjacent agrarian area from U.S. troops. But U.S. military advisers who mentor the Iraqi unit said just over half those assigned Iraqi soldiers were actually present. The Iraqi brigade already was short several hundred soldiers before they deployed to Anbar
province from the northern city of Mosul, the advisers said, and about 500 more deserted when they arrived in late August and faced their first insurgentattacks.....Moreov er, an Iraqi army policy giving soldiers 10 days of leave each month means even fewer soldiers are available. Fewer than 1,000 Iraqi troops are consistently stationed in this area if the soldiers on leave are deducted — so
this brigade was in reality about a third of its size on paper.

"A lot of them,when they were told they were coming to Jazeera and Habaniyah, they quit," said Marine Staff Sgt. Juan Santiago of New York City, speaking of two towns just
outside Bidimnah. Santiago saw more than half his trainees quit the Iraqi army
over the fall. The number of Iraqis in the brigade has stabilized over the past
two months as increased patrols have helped control the violence, Santiago said,
but "it's always possible that more will quit......" "Unfortunately, the (Iraqi)
officers here are much like their soldiers — they're not in it for any sense of
patriotism. They're doing this to get paid," Newell said.. 2006

2007: "Some Iraqis are truly motivated. Most are not, but are asked to fight as if they were truly motivated to support the national government, rather than signed up to earn a living and survive. As was the case with the ARVN [South Vietnamese Army] in Vietnam, their [US] advisors often are not trained and lack the language skills to monitor pay, equity in promotion, conditions in quarters, food supply, and the other material conditions critical to real world morale and motivation."

2007: "Even at the best of times, most Iraqi army battalions are at only 60 to 75 percent strength due to institutionalised leave absences. Iraq has no functioning banking system so soldiers have to be given time off each month to take their pay home to their families.

2007: Desertions are rampant. Two Iraqi divisions sent to the volatile western Anbar province to fight alongside US troops against insurgents last year were reported to be 5,000 soldiers short. It is not uncommon for army units sent into combat to have less than 50 percent of their nominal strength".

2007: The McClatchy news service reported "in January that Kurdish soldiers had deserted in large numbers when their units were ordered to move from the north to assist US forces in the current Baghdad security operation. One of the Kurdish fighters declared: "I joined the army to be a soldier in my homeland, among my people. Not to fight for others who I have nothing to do with." Another stated: "I don’t know why we should interfere in this Sunni-Shiite war. If I am going to face a difficult situation in Baghdad, I will leave the army for ever."

 Iraq as a nation is a lost cause an no amount of John Wayne :Green Beret fantasies will change that.

I'm definitely not blaming Iraq for the mess we created but it is time they really started fighting for their country.

I'm believing in the old adage that seems to apply here:

Giv'em enough rope and they'll hang themselves!