The Fog of War Lifts – And It Ain’t Pretty

The Financial Times just hit the net with a story titled:
US Does U-turn over Sadr and Aims for Accord

“We have approached the stakeholders and asked them to give us numbers,” said Gen Dempsey, whose forces replaced Spanish and Latin American troops after Mr Sadr’s militia swept to control towns in southern Iraq last month.

Hey, wait-a-minnit! Isn’t this the guy we swore to get, dead or alive? The devil incarnate, scum of the earth, apprehend at all costs, no quarter given, we don’t negotiate with murderers and all that. Now it’s supposed to be ‘Sorry about that, old chap, our mistake, here, how much do you want for your trouble?’ How do we expect any of our friends (the few we have left), or even OUR OWN CITIZENS, let alone our enemies, to take us seriously or believe anything we say? How many more of these miscues and blunders are we supposed to put up with. If these guys were running my kids’ soccer team I’d have the league office pull their cards before the next game.

And what’s that about “asking them to give us numbers”! Sure sounds like we’re trying to buy them off.  Wonder what they’ll spend the money on? Probably videogames and Levi’s, thereby strengthening the US economy! Brilliant strategy!

Is this a hidden benefit of the new journalism and the amazing if incomplete transparency the internet has lent to public affairs, that it’s impossible to run a decent war anymore? As the fog of war lifts, the ugly entrails begin to stink in the light of day. What was the fog of war, after all, but a cowardly and shameful attempt by a bunch of corrupt old men to put one over on families being asked to bankroll their pathetic glory stories with hardearned cash and the lives of their kids?

from the Financial Times