You would think, since the Democratic sweep of congress was largely seen as a negative reaction to the Iraq debacle, those prosecuting the war would see reason for a change in strategy. You'd be wrong, of course.
For instance, U.S. troops raided the city of Najaf and took out Sahib al-Amiri, an aide to Muqtada al-Sadr. This, at least, is the story according to a spokesman for the Iraqi government, that laughably ineffective puppet regime maintained by the Bushinistas. If anybody would have reason to tow the party line and do whatever the U.S. says, it'd be these guys.
Problem is, the U.S. military insists the raid on Najaf was planned and carried out entirely by Iraqi forces. Oh, sure, there might have been a few American "advisors" along, but hey, trust us, this was an Iraqi show all the way.
What we have here is a failure to communicate.
Someone's not getting their story straight. It's hard to imagine why the Iraqi government official would go out of his way to make his own forces look ineffective, unless he's fearful of reprisal. And as for the American military, this is the sort of thing they used to crow about, another terrorist neutralized, mission accomplished, that sort of thing. Why back off now?
Meanwhile, according to The New York Times, Our Beloved President, whatever his public rhetoric, continues to act in private as though everything is going a-okay in Iraq, and in The Washington Post, Democrat-turned independent-turned Republican dupe Joe Lieberman not only calls for more troops being sent to Iraq, but actually links Iraq to 9/11! Holy crap! Even Bush stopped using that one.
Lieberman's not alone, unfortunately. When the new congress comes to session next week, expect to see lots of backsliding and desperate rationalizing. Just don't expect things to change.
