General Advises.... Keep Paying

Casualties of a civil war.... "Violence Kills 16 in Iraq's Sadr City." (WaPo)

"Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen clashed Wednesday in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, where attacks killed 16 people".... seven of the victims in Sadr City, including three children, died when projectiles slammed into a house in the sprawling slum stronghold of the Mahdi army militia. Twenty seven people were wounded.

"A mortar shell crashed into a nearby residential area in the district, killing seven people and wounding 36 others..... At least 12 American service members have died in Iraq since Sunday, and the shelling of the Green Zone has become almost a daily occurrence."

Wednesday.... "tribesmen who broke with al Qaeda and now work with the Americans have assassinated at least six freed prisoners in Haditha." These tribesmen are paid by the United States to form "awakening councils.... a key element of the U.S. strategy to pacify Sunni areas."

Meanwhile.... Army Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Senate and House committees on Wednesday and Thursday on the progress of the Iraq war "surge", calling security in Iraq "significantly better.... but still fragile and reversible." (WaPo)

Arguing to continue in Iraq without withdrawing forces that would jeopardize the "progress" of the past year, Petraeus said, "We've got to continue. We have our teeth into the jugular, and we need to keep it there."

What the White House, and their message-bearer general, fail to comprehend... or can't admit because of the political fallout.... is that Iraq has it's teeth in the lifeblood of our depleted and overextended military and the jugular of our hemorrhaging economy.

We can't "win" their civil war. Staying really means we just keep paying.

McCain: Repeat After Joe Slowly....

Where is Joe Lieberman?.... calling Joe Lieberman.... bring your McCain flash cards!

Today in the hearing with General David Petraeus on the Iraq war, John McCain.... trying to sound very solemn and probing.... asked the General: "Do you still view al Qaeda in Iraq as a major threat?"

The General replied: "It is still a major threat, though it is certainly not as major a threat as it was say 15 months ago."

And McCain responded: "CERTAINLY NOT AN OBSCURE SECT OF THE SHIITES OVERALL?"

Of course, every second-grader knows that the al Qaeda are rabidly Sunni.

A moment later Lieberman's whispered lessons seemed to kick in and McCain mumbled: "Or Sunnis or anybody else."

But the mindset was there. In cement. Those rascally al Qaeda "sect of Shiites."