The not-good, the bad and the ugly

[flamin lib]

The National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq was released last week and you can read the unclassified version here: http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/20070202_release.pdf It’s only nine pages long and half of that is how to read it. It is not good news. The short version is; things are bad, we can’t make them better and they will get worse when we leave.

Last Friday the White House finally admitted that they have no evidence of active Iranian involvement in Iraq. They did it after the close of business in what has become known as the Friday news dump so it gets lost over the weekend. http://www.latimes.com/services/site/premium/access-registered.intercept Meanwhile the Iraqi Sunnis are saying that the Saudi’s have been supplying them with arms and cash. $25 million has been funneled to Sunni clerics for their militias. Among other things they have purchased Russian made Strela surface to air missiles. The Strela is very similar to the US made Stinger missiles provided to the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan that defeated the Russian helicopter fleet. The Shiites don’t have helicopters, so who ya’ think they plan to shoot at? http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-12-08-saudis-sunnis_x.htm
That little piece of news makes the downing of a Blackhawk helicopter a few weeks ago even more interesting. All thirteen of the Marines and crew aboard were killed. Investigators found a spent missile tube near the crash. So, while the WH can’t prove that Iran is supplying weapons to the Shiites, the Sunnis are telling us about Saudi aid and the Saudis aren’t denying it. The Shiites hate us because we won’t let them kill all the Sunnis and the Sunnis hate us because we set up a Shiite government. If anyone can tell me how we are going to “win” in this situation I’d like hear it. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070122/ts_nm/iraq_helicopter_dc

In other news, on Monday the Pentagon website showed the cumulative number of non-mortal casualties in Iraq/Afghanistan at 47,657. On Tuesday that number dropped to 31,493. What, did 16,000 troops suddenly get un-wounded? Nope, they changed the definition of casualty. Monday night it was decided that unless you are damaged badly enough to need medical air transport out of the country your injury doesn’t count. Isn’t that what this bunch always does when the numbers look bad; change the definition? Not enough wetlands? Count the water hazards on golf courses. Too many unemployed people? Go from Payroll survey to Household survey. Too many shot up soldiers? Change the definition of “shot up”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/us/02wounded.html?pagewanted=print

Finally this: The proposed military budget is $660,000,000,000. The Pentagon loses over $100, 000,000,000 every year and isn't interested in looking for it. I’ve got a great idea. Why not outsource the Air Force? The Russian defense budget is $11.2 Billion and the SU-37 fighter planes supplied to India out-flew the US made FA-18s in joint military exercises. The FA-18 costs $75 mil and the SU only $20 mil. Why not just buy from the Russians? There are two upsides to this: we’d save a bunch of money and we’d know that our airplanes were as good as anything the Russians have. Personally I’d like to see the Generals spending their personal money to buy equipment and our schools so rich they could lose 25% of their budgets and still function.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. as Darth Cheney heads to a fund-raiser at AEI

and again claims that Iran is causing all the problems in Iraq.