Well, someone had to un-embolden the enemy. Obviously, it's Joe's turn to play the hero. It's going to be a long summer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_(unit)

Someone recently compared our relationship to the Iraq war as that to the compulsive gambler who insists that the next roll of the dice will be the one that pulls him out of his slump, or the compulsive drinker who insists that as of tomorrow morning, he's going to get a fresh start and his problems will soon be over.

One can shake ones head and feel pity whan one sees an individual engaging in such self destructive behavior. But when the behavior is being perpetuated by the institutions that are actually responsible for guiding an entire nation, then we are officially in deep shi!^

Won't ANYONE point out that the Emperor is naked?

I think that we need to see how close Mr. Greenwald will come with his predictions. I would put good money that at least 95% of what he says in this column will be spit out verbatim by the talking heads in September.

What is truly galling about all of this is the way in which the American public has been steadfastly ignored. Why would it matter what we think about this debacle. I understand that we don't live in the pure form of a 'democracy' wherein what the masses states will be done (government by poll being inherently unfair), but goodness, do our elected officials simply disregard our concerns?

Yes, I know. Naive in the extreme.

Perhaps we should try to convince Russ Feingold to get in the Presidential race, at least then we would have a candidate who seems to understand this whole 'we the people' business.

One of the eye rolling cliche in politics has been that the Republicans are the daddy party. I never realized till now that to some extent it is true: for the pundit class. These people have daddy issues. This is why they find it so hard to abandon Bush. Or why they take the word of a general as infallible. Or why there can never be too much safety, civil liberties be damned (after all you can trust daddy to have our best interests in mind).

Maybe this is why the pundits mystify us so much. We are adults that don't need a daddy to get us through out lives. They on the other hand are scared children.

In the great discourse on the pros and cons of the Iraq War, there is one question that is not being asked. "Could there be another reason besides pride that the US has not pulled out of Iraq?"

For instance, the billions of dollars being paid out to contractors with no oversight?

For instance, the massive growth of "security groups" run by people with strong neocon ties?

Maybe it's time someone followed the old adage and "followed the money".

Here's an even more informative link re:FU's

http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Friedman_Unit

Whatever they are paying Klein it's too much...

Probably more like this...

Sunni Resistance Receptive to Sadr Alliance

(...)

But a Navy Seal special operations officer recently returned from eight months in Anbar province, who discussed the situation there with high-ranking Pentagon officials at the end of April, suggests that that the views of Sunni leaders are quite compatible with those of Sadr. A source familiar with the officer's account said the Sunni Sheiks in Anbar have been telling U.S. commanders that the United States must withdraw its troops, and that the Sunnis know how to handle both al-Qaeda and the Shi'ites.

The officer also reported that Sunni tribal sheiks have explicitly disavowed the notion that Sadr is a pawn of the Iranians, insisting instead that he doesn't like either Iran or the newly-renamed Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, which was created in Iran and supported by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The sheiks have warned their U.S. military contacts against aggressive military actions against Sadr's followers in Sadr City during the troop surge, according to the account given by the special ops officer. They said Sadr hopes such provocative United States actions will ultimately result in a new Shi'ite resistance war against U.S. forces, and they urge swift withdrawal to avoid that outcome.

Sadr's project for a Sunni-Shi'ite united front against both al-Qaeda and U.S. occupation offers a potential basis for an eventual settlement of the sectarian civil war in Iraq as well as for U.S. withdrawal. But it could also be the basis for a new and more deadly phase of fighting if Sadr returns once more to military resistance.

http://www.antiwar.com/porter/?articleid=11016

OT about Klein from yesterday

Joe Klein versus Bob Shrum

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/014290.php

Remember the old joke about the boy who was promised a pony for Christmas if he behaved well? He didn't, and was given a pile of horse manure instead. On Christmas day, his parents arose to see him digging in the manure, muttering, "Where there's shit there's got to be a pony!" The Bushies are convinced that somewhere in Iraq there is a pony.

Since Iraq has become safer we should see the return of the remaining 2 missing soldiers. I mean why would they remain hostages if their captors are on the run and no longer interested in attacking the US military occupation. Whew! Thanks Time! I can now relax over this Memorial Day weekend and enjoy the sunshine while Bush makes Iraq secure and safe for our young troops in harms way. Now that Al-Queda is on the run maybe gas prices will decline too!

... if Joe Klein would be willing to go to Iraq and see for himself how much progress is being made.

The rest of Joe Klein's article is an attack by (unnamed) US intelligence officials on the democratically elected Iraqi government that Bush supports -- in public.

This adds more substance to the rumors that a coup is in the offing to replace Maliki.

Klein's story also contains an incomprehensible sentence, "It's not impossible that the Iraqis will eventually remove the al-Qaeda cancer from the Sunni insurgency—which would put a serious crimp in President George W. Bush's current rationale for the war, that we're there to fight al-Qaeda."

I have no clue what this means.