What we're buying in Iraq

Captive archbishop's body found in Iraq
By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
13 March 2008
BAGHDAD - The body of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop was found in a shallow grave in northern Iraq on Thursday, two weeks after he was kidnapped by gunmen in one of the most dramatic attacks against the country's small Christian community.

Severed fingers reportedly sent to US
By RASHA MADKOUR, Associated Press Writer
13 March 2008
Severed fingers of five Western contractors were sent to the U.S. military in Iraq, giving the men's relatives hope that they are still alive, a brother of one of the missing men said.

At least 18 killed in Baghdad suicide car bomb
by Herve Bar, AFP
13 March 2008
BAGHDAD (AFP) - A bomber detonated his explosives-laden car in central Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 18 people, as Iraqi police and soldiers searched for another possible attacker who accompanied him.

US soldiers kill young girl in Iraq
By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Mar 13, 2008
BAGHDAD - U.S. soldiers fired a warning shot near a woman who "appeared to be signaling to someone" along a dangerous stretch of road north of Baghdad, but the bullet killed a young Iraqi girl, a military official said early Thursday.

Continuing to win hearts and minds.

Five years into this fiasco and we still don't control Baghdad outside the Green Zone.

Severed fingers???

Surge proponents will doubtless point to recent uptick in violence as the reason we need to stay. After all, the uptick coincided with the first small draw-down of troops - if we leave, they will argue, it will get worse. They may be right. So what?

Another way of looking at this is that, yes, recent uptick in violence is in response to threatened draw-down of troops... and the bad guys are doing what they think will keep us mired in Iraq forever! They want to cripple our economy, they want to cripple our military, they want us to be a pariah in the international community: the longer we stay, the longer the bad guys keep achieving their strategic war aims. (We have no strategic war aims, so it's really hard to say what it would take for us to "win".)

To quote W:

“... when it comes to our security, we really don't need anybody's permission.”

Every day it becomes more and more apparent that staying in Iraq does NOT contribute to our National Security. On the contrary, our country's security decreases with every day that we remain mired in Iraq. We're draining our treasury, borrowing from China, wrecking the military, and making new enemies by the hour.

We don't need anyone's permission to leave Iraq.

Stop the madness!