The process of investigating serious allegations regarding executions in Haditha is nearly over and the honor of the US Marines has been retained intact.

An investigating officer has recommended dismissing murder charges against a U.S. Marine accused in the slayings of three Iraqi men in a squad action that killed 24 civilians in the town of Haditha, according to a report.

The government’s theory that Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt had executed the three men was “incredible” and relied on contradictory statements by Iraqis, Lt. Col. Paul Ware said in the report, released Tuesday by Sharratt’s defense attorneys.

“To believe the government version of facts is to disregard clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, and sets a dangerous precedent that, in my opinion, may encourage others to bear false witness against Marines as a tactic to erode public support of the Marine Corps and mission in Iraq,” Ware wrote.

H/T to reader Crosspatch for the link. The process of making reparations by those who flung wild and unsubstantiated acussations against these Marines and our Military has yet to begin. Especially from those ex-Marines like Jack Murtha who took the word of enemy propagandists over the word (and evidence) of our people on the front lines.

It is time for the Haditha Hounds who brayed in the press and smeared the reputation of good people caught in an unforgiving situation. Death is the ultimate tragedy and war brings way too much of it. But exploiting death for ones personal, political benefit – and smearing others in the process – is a sin nearly as bad as the sin of baseless killing. The liberal Democrats owe these Marines a public show of support and gratitude for surviving the attack, and then surviving the smear campaign and ultimate investigation, and in doing so restoring honor to the US Marines. Anything short of this act of recognition would simply confirm the motives of the mud slingers. Semper fi!

The media’s desire to create a new My Lai massacre (you know, the kind of act which is remeniscent of Ghengis Khan) they latched onto an incident in Haditha to tarnish the military. It seems that the ones who will be tarnished are the media and others who ignored clear evidence the event WAS an ambush and our Marines acted correctly.

Much of that evidence remains classified, but it includes videos of the entire day’s action, including airstrikes against insurgent safe houses. Also included was all of the radio traffic describing the ongoing action between the men on the ground and battalion headquarters, and proof that the Marines were aware that the insurgents conducting the ambush of the Kilo Company troops were videotaping the action — the same video that after editing ended up in the hands of a gullible anti-war correspondent for Time magazine.

For those rampaging about Pat Tillman, this act is aking to friendly fire. Any news source that takes propaganda films at face value is either stupid or colluding with the enemy. What is clear here is the media was used to attack our soldiers and now needs to own up for their role in this mistake. H/T Clarice Feldman

The Washington Post has, thankfully, begun to present the Marine’s side of Haditha.  Up until now the story has been a bizarre combination of incredible coincidence (as in the bomb that detonated in the Marine convoy was just outside the house of supposed human rights zealot and budding video cameraman) and strange time delays in the story actually coming out.  Not to mention all the inconsistencies.  So it is good that the other side, our Marines, have a chance to have their say in the court of public opinion.

A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his attorney said.

Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.

Wuterich’s detailed version of what happened in the Haditha neighborhood is the first public account from a Marine who was on the ground when the shootings occurred. As the leader of 1st Squad, 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, Wuterich was in the convoy of Humvees that was hit by a roadside bomb. He entered the house from which the Marines believed enemy fire was originating and made the initial radio reports to his company headquarters about what was going on, Puckett said.

Wuterich’s version contradicts that of the Iraqis, who described a massacre of men, women and children after a bomb killed a Marine. Haditha residents have said that innocent civilians were executed, that some begged for their lives before being shot and that children were killed indiscriminately.

Tragically, even the Marine’s side of the story sounds too aggressive for most people.  Given the Haditha region’s penchant for violence and the history of staged attacks by Al Qaeda and the insurgents, I am in no position to determine if it was too agressive for the environment or rules of engagement.  It seems very border line.  What is clear is the garbage flowing through the press is more propaganda than fact.   People died unnecessarily because they got caught up in the middle of a battle.  A battle created by the insurgency.

This goes back to the true source of the deaths.  No IED then the Marine’s would have driven right by (as they did daily which is why there is a clear indication those who have video are part of this attack).  Those who shot and ran away, drawing the Marines into the nearby buildings when they were standing by their Humvees discussing what to do, are also to blame.  They coaxed the Marines into the apartment building where people were trying to hide – and who were killed.

Could the Marines have used a little more constraint?  Who knows.  Maybe constraint has killed and injured so many they have had to be aggressive.  But one thing is for sure.  No Marine would have been in the apartment if not for the insurgents, who attack from behind civilian skirts and run away when confronted.  This is confirmed by others in the region:

A Marine who served near Haditha in November said it was not unusual for Marines to respond to attacks “running and gunning” and that it was standard practice to spray rooms with gunfire when threatened. “It may be a bad tactic, but it works,” he said. “It keeps you alive.”

What is important is there never was a cover up!  The Marines on the ground reported they killed a large number of civilians immediately:

After clearing the second house, Puckett said, Wuterich immediately got on the radio and reported the “collateral damage.” When the company radio operator asked him to estimate how many civilians had been killed, he said he thought it was about 12 to 15.

McConnell, the company commander, “knew the number was high” and reported it to the battalion executive officer, a major, according to McDermott, his lawyer. McConnell also said that a Marine intelligence team investigated the civilian deaths and reported their findings to senior Marine commanders, the lawyer said.

Wuterich told his attorney that he never reported that the civilians in the houses were killed by the bomb blast and maintains that he never tried to obscure the fact that civilians had been killed in the raids.

This is critical.  No effort was made to hide the events most troublesome aspects.  No effort was made to imply the deaths happened in any other manner than they did.  And this demonstrates that the new media will buy into any claim, no matter how wild, if it supports their liberal view.  And they will report it without checking all sides of the story, let alone reporting all sides.  I go back to the first few lines of that Time POS:

If the Marines are indeed guilty of an atrocity, they had the ill fortune to have committed their crime in the worst possible place: outside the front door of a budding Iraqi journalist and human-rights activist.

Yes indeed. That was an amazing stroke of coincidence.  Or planning.

To understand what are the possible explanations for what happened in Haditha it is important to look at the reporting, and understand Haditha was AQ Central and the likely source of a propaganda snuff film to excite the liberal (and blindered) western media. So let’s look at the liberal media’s reporting on Haditha for some clues.

April 3, 2003:

Two female suicide bombers carried out an attack which killed three coalition soldiers at a checkpoint north-west of Baghdad on Thursday, Iraq says.

A pregnant woman who ran from the car just before the explosion died in the blast as did the driver of the vehicle, who Iraq’s official news agency said was also a woman.

The Arabic television station al-Jazeera broadcast separate videotapes of two Iraqi women, one saying she was seeking “martyrdom” and the other threatening a jihad or holy war against American, British and Israeli “infidels”.

US Central Command in Qatar said the incident occurred on Thursday evening 18 kilometres from the Haditha Dam and about 130 km (80 miles) from the Iraq-Syria border.

November 7 2004:

Iraqi insurgents have stormed a police station, disarmed 21 officers and shot them dead, police say.

The attack at Haditha in the western province of al-Anbar was the latest in a series of violent incidents across the Sunni Triangle area.

…

Fighting at the Haditha police station, 200km (120 miles) west of Baghdad, lasted about 90 minutes, sources say, as the building was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

The gunmen fled, taking with them vehicles and weapons looted from the police station in Haditha.

The bodies of 21 policemen were later found with their hands tied behind their backs.

Notice the trade mrk of the insurgents.

Continue Reading »

In a previous post I postulated how Haditha was actually an AQ set up, using real live people instead stunt doubles for the death scenes. Reader SBD has noted other times where Marines have had video recordings of bombing attacks in Haditha (From previous post’s comment section):

Marine Corps Times October 24, 2005 Monday

SECTION: FAST TRACK; Pg. 9
LENGTH: 632 words
HEADLINE: Around the CorpsBODY: Iraq RCT–2 links car bomb to video evidence Members of Regimental Combat Team 2 found a video camera in the possession of three men stopped at a vehicle checkpoint northeast of Haditha, Iraq, on Oct. 12, according to a 2nd Marine Division news release. Minutes later, a similar white, four–door sedan approached the checkpoint. U.S. forces guarding the checkpoint used hand and arm gestures to signal the vehicle to stop, but the car continued to accelerate toward the checkpoint, even after warning shots were fired, according to the release. The vehicle detonated shortly after the first shots were fired, killing the driver.

When the video camera was inspected, it yielded several minutes of footage showing one of the men from the first sedan speaking to the driver of the car that detonated. The Marines said videotaping suicide car bombings is an insurgent propaganda tactic used to spread fear and intimidate Iraqi citizens.

Earlier, Iraqi Security Forces discovered an insurgent propaganda center in Haditha. The site raided by Iraqi forces included “numerous prepared al–Qaida in Iraq compact discs and audio tapes, three computers, several printers, banner makers, multi–disk copiers and thousands of [blank] disks and tapes,” according to an Oct. 10 Stars and Stripes newspaper report.

Which is more likely: Marines go on a rampage but no one reports abouts it for months, or AQ kills people of their propaganda snuff films? Since we know AQ will bomb and behead on video, seems the track record is clear which is the more likely scenarion.

I must say I have always admired reader SBD’s talent and diligence in finding news articles that have direct bearing on stories, and finding them first! So it seems with the Haditha charade. SBD posted this comment on June 8th (from this post):

A cameraman working for Reuters in Haditha says bodies had been left lying in the street for hours after the attack.

Reuters camerman, Reuters Story, and no mention of Massacre. Maybe reuters has blind cameramen?? Do they really expect us to believe that Reuters withheld a story like this for 8 months when they had a cameraman right there during the supposed massacre?

The media really has no shame.

US details Haditha shoot-out

A roadside bomb that killed a US Marine in the restive town of Haditha on Saturday also killed 15 Iraqi civilians and led to intense clashes with insurgents.

The powerful bomb detonated as a US military convoy was passing through the town, which is 220 kilometres north-west of Baghdad.

The US military says immediately after the blast, gunmen opened fire on the convoy.

US and Iraqi soldiers returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding another in a firefight.

A cameraman working for Reuters in Haditha says bodies had been left lying in the street for hours after the attack.

He says the town has been virtually shut down for the past two days as US and Iraqi forces try to impose order.

US troops have been trying for months to quell the insurgency in Haditha and other Sunni Arab towns on the Euphrates.

It was suspected several months ago that Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was hiding out in the area.

The casualties from Saturday’s blast raised the death toll from attacks across Iraq over the past three days to at least 166.

Sunni-led insurgents are stepping up their battle against US and Iraqi forces ahead of parliamentary elections in December.

– Reuters

Apparently he also posted the at Free Republic. The critical point is that on the scene reporters for the anti-war, anti-Bush Reuters did not make mention of a massacre or incursion into homes, just a street fight. My hat is off to SBD for helping to expose a possible slanderous lie against our military and troops as they simply acted to protect themselves during an attack.

SBD has been doing more research, and found this possibly related article (comment from this post) on an Iraqi cameraman killed just weeks before the Haditha story came out in Time:

I have found something that may be nothing, but seems rather suspicious. The person who was in charge of Iraqi TV was murdered just 2 weeks before the Hadithi story was published by Time. The official had the same last name as the alleged massacre victims in Hadithi. Was he related? Did he provide any of the film or photos used in the massacre alligation? Maybe he had footage to prove the contrary, but more than likely he had access to enough footage from Iraq to manufacture any evidence needed to fabricate this story.

Xinhua General News Service
March 11, 2006 Saturday 4:00 AM EST
SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Political
LENGTH: 101 words
HEADLINE: Gunmen kill senior TV official in Baghdad
DATELINE: BAGHDAD

BODY: Unknown gunmen ambushed the car of the director in the government-backed Iraqia TV in western Baghdad on Saturday, a police source told Xinhua.

“Unidentified armed men shot dead Amjad hamid Hassan, director of Iraqiya TV, near the al-Shurta tunnel,” Captain Ahmed Abdullah from Baghdad police said.

He added that the attack took place at about 10:30 a.m. (0730 GMT).

Iraqi security forces cordoned off the scene and an ambulance reached to evacuate the victims.

The Iraqiya TV cut its regular programs and announced the news and started broadcasting holly Quran following the incident.

LOAD-DATE: March 12, 2006

We shall see if this lead pans out as well as the last one. Good job SBD.

Addendum: seems even Time now sees problems in their reporting:

If the Marines are indeed guilty of an atrocity, they had the ill fortune to have committed their crime in the worst possible place: outside the front door of a budding Iraqi journalist and human-rights activist.

And if the Marines are innocent, they had the misfortune of being bombed outside the front door of a human rights activist.  What are the odds of a bomb being planted at that specific location on that route?  With armed men covering the site from nearby homes?

More on this Time POS later today. But one ponders how far an Al Qaeda sympathizer would go to ensnare the US military in a My Lai styled debacle and have a duplicitous media push for withdrawal from Iraq?  Would they go this far:

[Time’s] McGirk contacted Marine headquarters in Ramadi to inquire about the incident. The Marines sent back an e-mail saying there were 15 civilian deaths in Haditha on Nov. 19 but that the victims were killed by the roadside bomb and by a firefight that erupted when insurgents fired on the Marines. But the videotape showed that many of the dead were pajama-clad women and children. The bodies had wounds from bullets, not shrapnel, and the scene suggested that they had been murdered inside their homes.

The insurgents and Al Qaeda are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths.  So what makes anyone think they would not kill these people before the bombing of the convoy, shoot from the homes of the people they massacred, and then stage video in the next few months?  Doesn’t sound out of bounds for Zarqawi’s thugs.

Our good friend Clarice Feldman has compiled a listing of key events discovered by the blog Sweetness & Light from the Haditha charade that exposes the US news media as an out and out ally of the terrorist propaganda efforts. The news coming from Haditha is not one of massacre by US forces, it is of betrayal and alliances with our enemies by our media. A snippet:

Tim McGirk of Time wrote about the incident at Haditha for the March 27 issue of the magazine. He unsuccessfully lobbied his editors to use the term “massacre” in the story. McGirk seems hardly a neutral reporter. He spent the first Thanksgiving after 9/11 in Afghanistan dining with the Taliban and concluding of this celebratory meal:

Our missing colleagues finally arrive, and I leave thinking that maybe this evening wasn’t very different from the original Thanksgiving: people from two warring cultures sharing a meal together and realizing, briefly, that we’re not so different after all.

Right, Tim. We all want to enslave women, bend the world to Sharia law, behead nonbelievers and otherwise carry on the honored traditions of the Taliban.

What we need is an investigation into the news media for allowing themselves or knowingly participating in this lie and slander against our troops. Anyone who knew there were issues with the people making claims should be called to explain why they hid these issues from us. It is time to demand minimal standards from the media and then challenge them when they cannot meet these standards. And if they cannot meet these standards, then they cannot be treated with any special priveleges by our government that we the people provide to the media.

Addendum:  Seems great minds think alike – not that I am a great mind of course.

America is going to be facing a tough period on the Hadith incident in Iraq. There is always the possibility in war things get out of control. After years of being attacked and seeing the brutality of the Islamo-fascists good people can crack and make tragic decisions. The one thing I want to say at this early juncture is this: don’t play demi-god like Murtha did. We don’t know the facts. We need to investigate this and do what is right. If, and this is a big if right now, something horrible was done by these US Marines then it was not in our name or with our blessing. And it doesn’t negate all the good and sacrifice done in Iraq by 100’s of thousands of others. This is a serious issue because a lot of apparently innocent people where killed. We will bring justice to this. And we should not let it taint anyone but those who lost control. This is the tough job we took on. We may have to face the fact some of us did a horrible thing. That doesn’t make us horrible. Unless of course we too throw away are system of justice and our principles and start rampantly speculating and rumor mongering. Details are coming when the time is right and the information is verified.

I am not going to write extensively on these stories on Iraq, but they are “must reads” to see how the debate on Iraq is shifting with the progress inside Iraq.

First up is an Economist article that covers all the progress and notes things could still go bad, but could also (more likely) go well in Iraq.

But times have changed dramatically. Once widely considered the most dangerous and xenophobic city in Iraq and one of the country’s most resilient havens of al-Qaeda, Falluja is now enjoying a new, if tentative, peace. So, no less strikingly, is the whole of Anbar province, in which Falluja lies, and most of the Euphrates river valley. The Americans say that if you go north and north-west through Hit and Haditha and up to the border with Syria near the town of Qaim, it is clear that al-Qaeda has been chased out—with the co-operation of the local Sunnis and the tribal leaders. In those areas, which embrace the vast majority of Iraq’s Sunni Arabs outside Baghdad, attacks against the American-led coalition forces have dropped more than tenfold compared with a year ago.

…

The turning point, apparently, was the al-Qaeda suicide-bombing of a policeman’s funeral in May, when at least 27 locals were killed. Suddenly, it seems, the people began to react against al-Qaeda’s excesses—the enforcement of strict dress codes, the banning of music, even (it is said) the cutting off of smokers’ fingers—and were ready to endorse the local sheikhs’ deals with the American army, even though it had pulverised their city.

…

All the indicators suggest that violence has subsided sharply nearly everywhere, not just in Anbar, but also in Baghdad. The border crossing to Syria near Qaim has opened after several years’ closure. The oil pipeline from Kirkuk, which goes north into Turkey and should carry more than a fifth of Iraq’s oil exports, has been flowing almost without a break for the first time in years; in 2006, it was open for barely 40 days.

The authors can’t let go of their pessimism, even in light of all the progress they report. As you read it the grudging nature of the reporting is evident. But the facts and data presented in this article are really good and show how broad and deep the progress has been in Iraq.

This story from RCP highlights the new leaders in Iraq – the Sunnis who through off al-Qaeda’s yoke and whip.

Six months ago Sheikh Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman al-Dulaimi predicted that tribal leaders would defeat al-Qaeda in Anbar province, the Sunni tribal heartland. Now the young prince of the Dulaim, one of Iraq’s largest tribes, exults that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has been driven out of Anbar by tribal fighters aided by American troops.

The sheikh receives guests in a large reception room decorated with historic photographs of his father and grandfather in traditional flowing robes, meeting respectively with King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and King Faisal II of Iraq. A young man with a trim goatee, in a gray suit and open-collared shirt, Ali Hatem’s hand is constantly hitting the “off” button on his cell phone.

That’s because tribal sheikhs all over Iraq are constantly calling him for information about the movement in Anbar, sometimes called the Awakening (sahwa in Arabic). “People I’ve never heard of before want relations with the sahwa,” says Ali Hatem. “The sahwa is not just an awakening of force but an awakening of heart and spirit, an awakening from sectarian hatred.”

They are regional heros, visited by leaders from across the ME. The Arab Muslim world has a new role model – the brave Sheiks who took on and defeated al-Qaeda! If people cannot grasp the importance of this new phenomena they won’t understand where Iraq and America are headed in a bright new future. The al-Qaeda slayers as heros spells the end of Bin Laden and his thugs. Bin Laden was the hero of the Muslim world, now the Sunni enemies he created have taken that crown from him.

Addendum: I cannot resist adding this pathetic bit of spin from a pro-Islamo Fascist website trying to show how everything is just fine for al-Qaeda in Iraq. Note that the source of this delusion is from “one of the most influential Iraqi Sunni leaders today” – who happens to be so popular in Sunni circles he has had to run from Iraq, like is al-Qaeda brethren!

Sheikh Harith al-Dhari, head of the Association of Muslim Scholars, is arguably one of the most influential Iraqi Sunni leaders today.

…

He concedes that the “resistance has temporarily” retreated in the face of US-funded al-Sahwa (Awakening Council) militias “but that the resistance is regrouping and will bounce back”.

…

How do you explain the security situation improving in areas like al-Anbar province and the lull in Iraqi resistance operations?

Al-Qaeda fighters have committed grave mistakes in Iraq; mistakes that were enough to create a backlash against them and initiate what has become known as al-Sahwa, where the US military and the Iraqi government offer three-month contracts to fund the greed of some tribal leaders, who in their turn arm and fund needy tribesmen to fight al-Qaeda.

Of course the revenge Iraqis want on al-Qaeda for the atrocities they committed on their family, friends and neighbors has NOTHING to do with the sea change in Iraq! Compare this lame propaganda piece with the RCP story above and it is clear who has influence in Iraq and the region – and it ain’t this clown hiding out somewhere outside Iraq.

On the road with the family enjoying a day of rollercoasters at Busch Gardens Williamsburg for LJStrata’s annual birthday bash – with a dash of fast. Take if from all of us, ride the Griffon. Totally wicked. The youngest finally got to do Lochness Monster and are on their way to becoming coaster addicts like their mother (and grandmother). Saturday I hit a milestone on the bike riding from Herndon down to the Potomac to sit for a bit across the river from the Lincoln Memorial, with the Washington Monument directly behind. 46 miles that day.

Anyway, that and some unfinished work leaves me only time for a Fly By for the moment. So let’s start cruising through the news.

Iraq’s President Talabani thinks most of our troops will be able to depart Iraq within a year.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s president said at least 100,000 U.S. servicemembers could return home from Iraq by the end of 2008.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in an interview aired Sunday on CNN, proposed that several U.S. military bases stay in Iraq.

Talabani said he envisioned faster U.S. troop reductions than U.S. commanders have discussed in public, but he emphasized that the pace of withdrawal was up to those commanders.

“I think it is possible at the end of the next year that a big part of the American Army will be back here,” said Talabani, who gave the interview during a trip to the United States. “More than 100,000 (troops) can be back by the end of the next year.”

Of course this differs from the Surrendercrats plan to fold and run in that we would be leaving as victors and there would be a stable, democratic Iraq in place as our ally in the Middle East. The optimism is grounded in the fact things are changing rapidly and radically on the ground. So much security should be the norm soon and political progress will follow. Al Qaeda is the enemy of Iraqi Muslims across all three sects now. The war could be proceeding to a rapid end.

Clarice Feldman notes notes a website that is covering the Marine investigative report on Haditha that should have been obvious to many (at least I thought it was obvious). She notes that the Haditha attack was a PR stunt by al-Qaeda to hook gullible and naive liberal Democrats into calling for surrender in Iraq.

Buried in the mountain of exhibits attached to the once secret Haditha, Iraq murder inquiry prepared by US Army Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell is an obscure Marine Corps intelligence summary (see pdf) that says the deadly encounter was an intentional propaganda ploy planned and paid for by Al Qaeda foreign fighters.

The fact there is evidence to this effect should be interesting grist when Mad Rep Murtha has to testify on libel charges after he stated, as fact, the guilt of the Marines involved before they even went to trial. Murtha is going to be an indicator if the left is guilty of spineless ignorance, or something much, much worse. If he tries to fight off the charges he was duped by a PR stunt, then many could conclude the left may not have been duped after all.

Iraqi forces are definitely becoming stronger and more competent because they are foiling more and more al-Qaeda efforts to regain some ground. In some reporting that SHOULD be headline news in the US Iraqi forces stopped an al-Qaeda offensive to retake Tikrit.

Iraqi forces have foiled an al-Qaeda plot to seize control of the city of Tikrit, security officials said Monday, while a Polish soldier was reportedly killed in a separate incident in Diwaniyah.

The al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist network was planning to attack numerous targets in central Tikrit, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad and the capital of Salahaddin province, in order to control the city and link it to the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda affiliate, according to the officials.

The plan involved assaulting the relatively stable city from the south, the west and the east, avoiding the northern part where US troops are based in a former air force facility, the source added.

Director of the Salahaddin National Security Centre Colonel Jasssem Hussein Mohammed said that Iraqi security forces had managed to raid the militants’ dens, arresting dozens of gunmen, killing scores of others and confiscating large amounts of explosives and weapons.

Among those killed were Saudi national Abu Obada, who headed al- Qaeda in the north Tigris area, and Ali Youssif al-Jabouri, the mufti of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, said Major Ahmed Sobhi of the Salahaddin police command anti-terrorism unit.

This is a major setback for al-Qaeda. It would be akin to French or Italian forces finding and routing out a Nazi force attempting to retake some ground before we had entered Germany in WW II. The fact is Iraqi Muslims just took out what has to be one of al-Qaeda’s last fighting forces. This is a clear sign of a major shift in our fortunes in Iraq – as well as the fortunes of Iraqis themselves. The more of these large attacks that are foiled the more impotent al-Qaeda becomes. This should be big news, but so far it is not making many headlines.

And to underscore the lunacy of the liberal left we have this gem of a thought about what is going on in Iran:

If this is true, then why has the United States not already declared war on Iran? In what alternative universe would Washington allow another nation to direct attacks that kill U.S. troops without responding? To revert to the Hitler-era analogy that the Bush Regime is so fond of evoking in regard to Iran, what would the United States have done in 1938 if Nazi Germany had been arming, training, funding and directing deadly assaults on American troops from, say, Mexico?

…

And hey: “Qods” sounds a lot like “al Qaeda,” doesn’t it? That gives you extra traction in the echo chamber — more bang for the propaganda buck.

This ace detective (pun intended) must of not realized we do not name our enemies, they name themselves. I guess the idea of giving Iran the option to pull back and behave before we are forced to take a lot of needless lives never crossed this poor chap’s mind. He likens those who understand that there is more to this situation than similar sounding names “knuckledraggers”, seems he has a lot of mirrors in his house. The left is imploding in a burst of egomaniacal denial. They have so much vested in losing Iraq the entire world is now one big conspiracy theory out to save the evil Bush. They are seriously losing it! al-Qaeda sounds like Qods? You can’t make this stuff up.

No word on whether this Inspector Clouseau of the leftward fevered swamps thinks the student protests going onin Iran right now are actually a plot by the College Republicans to throw a bad light on President Ahmedinejad and help Bush. I am sure there is a rhyme to this reason as well! Maybe Iranians just feel the Mad Mullahs are dangerous???

To further underscore the lunacy of the leftist media, we have a report out today that is a lie of contradictions. The headline (and the soundbite-bottomfeeders who don’t read beyond the headline) claim Iraq is against reconciliation. But when you read the statements by Iraqis it is clear what we have is a false headline – not one that is even close to simply being ‘inaccurate’:

Top Iraqis Pull Back From Key U.S. Goal
Reconciliation Seen Unattainable Amid Struggle for Power

For much of this year, the U.S. military strategy in Iraq has sought to reduce violence so that politicians could bring about national reconciliation, but several top Iraqi leaders say they have lost faith in that broad goal.

…

Humam Hamoudi, a prominent Shiite cleric and parliament member, said any future reconciliation would emerge naturally from an efficient, fair government, not through short-term political engineering among Sunnis and Shiites.

“Reconciliation should be a result and not a goal by itself,” he said. “You should create the atmosphere for correct relationships, and not wave slogans that ‘I want to reconcile with you.’ ”

…

Some politicians remain hopeful. Hashimi, the Sunni vice president, recently drafted what he calls the “Iraqi National Compact,” a 25-point statement of principles that condemns all types of extremism and sectarian discrimination.

This is nitpicking taken to the absurd. The Iraqis are really saying we can and will resolves this. They are ALL confident they can work through the power struggles (part of the problem) and the insecurities and mistrust (most of the problem). The WaPo is so desperate to hold onto their dream of a failure in the US they have twisted the words and intents of these people to present a charade, a fantasty. Somehow it is amazing the SurrenderMedia still thinks their stories can create reality in Iraq. The fact is Iraq will go its way no matter how well or how badly the news media reports on them. We will see major political progress in Iraq, and all the reporting will be about what a surprise breakthrough it was! LOL! The media is always ‘surprised’ when they have been caught misreporting. No one else is, but they sure are. Always the last to get a clue it seems.