Over at the Whiskey Bar

Billmon asks some good questions:

Understated headline of the day:

Baghdad Attack Counters Wolfowitz's Upbeat Message

Don't want to go too far out on a limb there, do we?

Even better than the headline, though, is this paragraph:

Brig. Gen. Jack Dempsey, a senior officer in the division, told Wolfowitz the launcher was a "Rube Goldberg device" and that its crudeness indicated the weakness of the forces opposing U.S. occupation, rather than their strength. He insisted, as Wolfowitz did through his quick trip here, that the security situation is actually improving in Iraq.

The perpetrators of Saturday's attack -- whoever they are -- just pulled off an incredibly clever and audacious operation in the heart of the supposedly secure Green Zone, came within an ace of nailing a Deputy Defense Secretary, and chased a whole bunch of American VIPs out into the street in their fucking underwear. And all Gen. Dempsey can think of to say is to criticize the "crudeness" of their rocket launcher???

What Gen. Dempsey is expressing is simply the arrogance of the rich, transferred to the battlefield. It reminds me of the old ironic yuppie aphorism -- about how the guy who dies with the most expensive toys wins. In reality, of course, the guy who dies with the most toys is just dead, and in Iraq, it's likely to be a particularly nasty and unpleasant death.

If I were Donald Rumsfeld, I don't know what I'd be worried about most: the fact that the guerrillas are running rings around the likes of Gen. Dempsey, or the fact that the Gen. Dempseys of the world don't even seem to realize it.


I don't know why I even bothered writing this post. This snippet from the New York Times says it all:

All over the city, the occupying authorities have put up large billboards featuring bucolic scenes of date palms arched over a river bank. Inspirational messages are splashed over the pretty pictures. "Baghdad is getting better," says one.

I wonder how much of the skimmed Iraqi oil money the Coalition paid the Rendon Group to come up with that slogan.

Surreal for real.

It appears that the elitist Americans running this show are so far out of touch with the reality of the situation that they think what works here on commercial-oriented citizens is what works everywhere. (Have a look at the slick magazine they've just come up with for publishing over there - "the Middle East is the Disneyland of sand surfing" - I am not kidding.) These people truly have not spent enough time out of their own closeted circles.

Personally, I am fine with letting them stay in those circles, just don't have them in charge of world affairs.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.