Recall, if you will, the perky, upbeat optimism. And now, the perspective from the non-retards:
While Petraeus Testifies, U.S. Iraq Personnel Take Cover
As General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker testify before Congress this week about the security situation in Iraq, telling the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the surge is working and progress is under way, U.S. embassy officials in Baghdad have been ordered to take heightened security precautions in light of stepped-up attacks on the Green Zone, including one on Sunday that killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded 17 others.
Under this new security boost, says a U.S. Embassy official who asked not to be identified, embassy personnel have been told to remain under "hardened cover." Instructed to avoid their trailers, some embassy staffers are now sleeping in their offices and on cots in the new embassy building, currently under construction, according to a source who has spoken with embassy officials in Baghdad. Embassy personnel have also been cautioned to limit their trips outdoors and, when they must leave the protection of reinforced structures, to wear flak jackets, protective eyewear, and helmets.
"This is the security posture as of right now," the official says. "Due to the situation they've advised us to stay inside. At this time, the U.S. Embassy is taking precautions and taking hard cover."
I've been watching closely, and I think I've noticed a pattern: When you're thousands of miles away from the actual action, you can afford to be as optimistic as you want.
It's funny how that works.
2 comments:
Here's one for you guys. Google: Theodore S. Westhusing
Who was he? He was a US Colonel who volunteered to serve in Iraq in 2004. He was a 44 year old devout Catholic who went to church every sunday was married and with three young children. He was assigned to oversee the training of Iraqis for civvie police duty in collaboration with one of our many contractors in Iraq. He reported directly to General Betrayus.
And in 2005, he either put a gun to his temple and blew his fucking brains out or was murdered and someone made it look like he killed himself. Including a suicide note addressed to his commanders.
The suicide/murder occurred about two weeks after he received an anonymous letter accusing USIS ( the military contractor ) of a number of abuses and frauds. He send letter to his commanders stating that the allegations were false. But a mere week after writing this letter he turned angrily on those contractors and referred to those contractors with 'intense disgust' as "money grubbing" and he was found with a gunshot wound behind his left ear from his own 9mm service pistol. This was on June 5th 2005, a little over a month before his tour was to end.
I watched/listened to Crocker and Petraeus yesterday, and I have to tell you, Ambassador Crocker is one of the most profoundly boring human beings ever invented. At one point I actually fell off my chair listening to him, and I was entirely sober at the time.
Some of the senators were brilliant, though, Biden and Feingold especially, and Voinovich, who is a Repub, came close to tears at one point. I mean, he's thinking bankruptcy in the U.S. rather than the general good of humanity, but we take what we can get, eh?
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