Worse? The decider WILL show you worse. Much worse.

Yes, it's both disturbing and clever. But should Dr. Noori's name be published on the Internet for all the world to see?

This is clever stuff. At the same time, it's a pretty stark reminder of just how unpopular we are in Iraq. Like so many things, it seems like an idea that might help us in the short term but will just end up making things even worse in the long term.

Maybe too clever by half. This is the Middle East, after all, where they have been playing these games longer than we have.

If the stories are true, then telling them endangers their subjects.

Whenever I hear an American explaining something about Iraq, I try to remind myself where he (or, occasionally, she) stands in the hierarchy of those who know what's really going on:

1. Leaders of the various factions
2. Active members of the various factions
3. Iraqis, including the kids
4. Non-Iraqis who are not members of the occupying forces
5. Members of the occupying forces

Every story we read about our misadventures in Iraq demonstrates that our on-the-ground intelligence is secondhand and often wrong. Any player who believes he's playing the Iraqis is being played.

Whereas, what happened to all those pallet loads of shrink wrapped Iraqi funds? $54B worth.

Guess the right answer and a duck will come down from the ceiling and give you a Medal of Freedom.

Kevin Drum wrote: At the same time, it's a pretty stark reminder of just how unpopular we are in Iraq.

Actually it's stark reminder of just how unpopular we are with Iraqi terrorists.

I should hope so! I would be disappointed in our policy if terrorists looked favorably upon the USA.

i'm glad the liberal media is finally paying attention to our success stories in iraq.

This seems like a tactically clever but strategically devastating approach: it deals with the immediate problem facing a particular friend, sure, but making insurgents think they aren't on the side of the Americans.

OTOH, people who have enough contact with the target to believe that they are "good guys" are going to distrust the Americans even more when the see people they think of as "good guys" raided.

And, of course, whatever value the tactic has is eroded when it becomes known. The first law about fake raids for propaganda purposes is you don't talk about fake raids for propaganda purposes.

So are the 51% of Iraqis who think attacks against occupation forces all terrorist?

Even assuming for the sake of the discussion that this worked like a charm up until, say, yesterday, it is ceasing to work even as we read. This blog has readers all over, even aside from every other path by which this is getting out. Next brilliant idea, please.

Guess the right answer and a duck will come down from the ceiling and give you a Medal of Freedom.

*Snort.*

If they invaded my country I would fight like hell, do a little dance when Bush and Cheney dropped through the floor, and then promptly resume blowing shit up. I would continue to do so until the last invader left my soil or the last breath left my body. Would I be a terrorist?

I heard a secondhand story that GIs try to avoid trouble with Iraqis by painting "Fuck Bush" on their vehicles in Arabic.

"Would I be a terrorist?"

That would depend entirely on whether you won or lost the war.

It's only clever if you keep it a secret.

It's not a secret if you and I know about it.

Carl Nyberg >"...painting "Fuck Bush" on their vehicles in Arabic."

Truth in advertising

"Squeezing off a few rounds of automatic weapons fire here in Baghdad is the equivalent of honking your horn in America." - Borzou Daragahi

"ex-liberal" wrote: Actually it's stark reminder of just how unpopular we are with Iraqi terrorists.

You still here, "ex-liberal"? And with the same old neocon bullshit, no less. Yuor sad attempts at spin in the midst of the implosion of the Republican Party is truly pathetic. Shame on you.

Invaders always leave, eventually.

great -- and now this story has been published far and wide and the brilliant idea will die along with the kidnapped to be iraqis.

Guess the right answer and a duck will come down from the ceiling and give you a Medal of Freedom.

*Snort.*
Posted by: Blue Girl, Red State (

*Quack*

The exception to "invaders always leave, eventually" would of course be the "new world" wheree guns, germs and steel - and horses - gave the invaders an insurmountable advantage.

"A lot of people there now think he's a bad guy," Capt. Cederman says. "It bought him a lot of street cred."

Damn, here I was thinking all you needed for street cred was some to wear some bling and to throw on some twenties on the escalade. Turns out you need to be thrown in the hole by the US Army too...

I endorse LAS above. I do hope businesses, names, towns, the number of days held, job functions, every piece of information that might identify anyone, has been fudged.

Yes, the "terrorists", mudwall jackson, do not want us there in Iraq, but they do not like Iraqis either.

Because more or less all of us go on calling it a WAR, we have it pretty well all ass-backwards.

We are an 'Occupying Power'; the WAR was over when Bush, correctly, declared "Mission Accomplished". ever since we have been unwanted Occupation Forces, something for which there is no institutional memory in the Pentagon nor at the bottom end.

Equally important in keeping peace is Hearts and Minds. We did nothing about showing we meant well, and in fact, by our arrogant military and adminisratrative (non)-actions, we showed we could not scare less about the Iraqi people.

Whaddya expect?

We do have lots of guys who are trying, and we do get some successes, but a successful Occupation would, by now, have a reverse proportion of 'trouble' against 'peace'.

The exception to "invaders always leave, eventually" would of course be the "new world" where guns, germs and steel - and horses - gave the invaders an insurmountable advantage.
Posted by: Blue Girl, Red State

yeah, that didn't work out so well for my Choushtta ancestors...

But, Dear Mr. Jefferson included it in the Declaration.

The failure of the British to promptly exterminate the 'savages' who were daring to defend their lives and lands.

I hope the folks who derided Kevin for posting this on his blog "for the world to see" recognize that it was originally in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL! Those radical right-wing Bush-pansies (okay, that's just the editorial page staff) just spilled the beans.

Blue Girl, Red State (aka Global Citizen) and MsNThrope

Sad, isn't it, or indicative, that this quite important posting is getting so little interest.

And there in the House, the gutted bill will get passed, perhaps! If only the prohibition about Iran were there................

Well, its good to know that after four years we're finally using the tactics that police in the US have used to give rides to their plainclothes / undercover officers for DECADES. Brilliant.

The first law about fake raids for propaganda purposes is you don't talk about fake raids for propaganda purposes.

That is what they want you to think.

So, once again the WSJ puts our soldiers in jeopardy by revealing successful tactics?

I'll hold by breath while the Rightwing noise machine gears up for their denunciations of the liberal rag....

I heard a secondhand story that GIs try to avoid trouble with Iraqis by painting "Fuck Bush" on their vehicles in Arabic.

I hear that the State Dept is passing out "I'm Canandian" buttons to every USAmerican overseas....

although of course they spelled Canadian correctly....

Hey, we're already fighting a fake War on Terror (TM). Why not fake raids to go along with it?

Hey, we're already fighting a fake War on Terror (TM). Why not fake raids to go along with it?
Posted by: Stefan

"This is an eternal war against terrorism. It’s like a war against dandruff. There’s no such thing as a war against terrorism. It’s idiotic. These are slogans. These are lies. It’s advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented and developed." - Gore Vidal

I hear that the State Dept is passing out "I'm Canandian" buttons to every USAmerican overseas....

Discreet maple-leaf pins used to work, but now that every red stater blocking the pedestrian traffic in foreign cities has started sporting one, not so much. Last fall, I watched a Frenchman ask some scared-of-his-own-shadow Yank what city in Canada he was from, and the guy couldn't come up with anything. Oooooeeeeee.

Discreet maple-leaf pins used to work, but now that every red stater blocking the pedestrian traffic in foreign cities has started sporting one, not so much. Last fall, I watched a Frenchman ask some scared-of-his-own-shadow Yank what city in Canada he was from, and the guy couldn't come up with anything. Oooooeeeeee.

My girlfriend is Canadian, and she's furious with these false flag operations. Seriously, we're making it dangerous to be a Canadian these days.

SS: I hear that the State Dept is passing out "I'm Canandian" buttons to every USAmerican overseas....

But the vast majority of the consular and diplomatic people who were in point of fact passed through, and escaped the aftermath of the fall of the Shah did so because of the courage of their Canadian 'friends'.

So. Maybe not so funny.

Posted by: Blue Girl, Red State (aka Global Citizen) wrote: If they invaded my country I would fight like hell, do a little dance when Bush and Cheney dropped through the floor, and then promptly resume blowing shit up. I would continue to do so until the last invader left my soil or the last breath left my body. Would I be a terrorist?

If BGRSakaGC had been a German Jew in a concentration camp in Germany, would she have fought like hell against the allied troops who invaded her country? Of course not. She would have known that the foreign invaders were saving her from a domestic government that was fascistic.

Similarly, an Iraqi who was freed from Saddam's fascistic rule is unlikely to fight like hell against the democratic government and its western allies, unless this Iraqi wants a new fascistic government take over Iraq.

I have a close relative that has lived less than a mile from the Peace Bridge her entire life. I was trundled off there from my fathers overseas billet about a month before all hell broke loose.

I still have pictures of the billboard that read "Thank You, Canada" on one side and "Merci, Canada" on the other.

My girlfriend is Canadian, and she's furious with these false flag operations. Seriously, we're making it dangerous to be a Canadian these days.

I know! Honest injun, I last did it in 1986 when we were bombing Libya and I was trying to be an incognito student in a very angry Rome.

SS: Honest injun,

Say what?

Oh, hell, I never even thought of that as a slur. Honest to Pete, it's never been described to me as such and I never made the connection. I do beg everyone's pardon most sincerely.

SS: See mailbox.

Shortstop, is that your real email?

Wonder how popular US GI's were in post WWII Germany and Japan. Are we still in those countries?

Wonder how popular US GI's were in post WWII Germany and Japan.

The absence of occupation-phase combat fatalities suggest they were considerably less unpopular than US GI's are in Iraq.

The absence of occupation-phase combat fatalities suggest they were considerably less unpopular than US GI's are in Iraq.

It might have also help that all the Axis ammo dumps had been depleted, instead of looted....

I'm guessing I look sufficiently 'honest'. For an 'Injun' anyway.

The absence of occupation-phase combat fatalities suggest they were considerably less unpopular than US GI's are in Iraq.

Just to head the wingnuts off at the pass, the total number of Occupation combat fatalities in both Germany and Japan? Zero. Zero as in not one single solitary American soldier killed by insurgent or resistance activity in several years.

"Like so many things, it seems like an idea that might help us in the short term but will just end up making things even worse in the long term." - Drum

You mean we're actually helping re-build something in Iraq? But wouldn't that mean less money for the evil Bush?

The Democrats have a bill that's coming due very soon. The lunatic fringe is EXPECTING to be out of Iraq with Bush impeached in fairly short order, and they are not a patient bunch. It will be fun to watch Pelosi and Reid and Co. appease their "base" in the months to come, especially considering the 96-2 thumping last week.

"Even assuming for the sake of the discussion that this worked like a charm up until, say, yesterday, it is ceasing to work even as we read. This blog has readers all over, even aside from every other path by which this is getting out. Next brilliant idea, pleas..(Ken D)"

That's just what I was thinking!

I was starting to believe that Military Intelligence was an oxymoron, but my faith is restored. It reads like a twisted movie plot.

Jay >"...But wouldn't that mean less money for the evil Bush?..."

Uhhh, no.

At least not until the Rev. Moon`s operations are shut down.

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw

That excerpt reads like something out of a Joseph Heller novel.

As catherineD already said: "...if it's a secret." Don't let me hear from the armed forces having information leaked by journalists endangering operations, unless they cynically mean only US soldiers, when they've decided to use the Wall Street Journal as a conduit for some "looking good" articles that presumably put at risk those they sought to protect. Even if they changed the names and the places, the suspicion has been raised.

Forget it. They're safe. Of course no Iraqis read the WSJ.

Right.

Just a distraction.

Be reminded that Hamudi al-Sadun just confessed under torture to causing the Great Chicago Fire!

That excerpt reads like something out of a Joseph Heller novel.

Yes, it's from his latest work:

"Iraq: Clusterfuck-22."

"The Americans took to executing fake raids on Iraqis who were working with them in order to defuse any suspicions that they were complicit with the occupiers. Before long, before being raided by the Americans was seen as a de facto sign of complicity."

It appears that some of these beneficiaries of false raids will be in a better position to be a moderate voice in Iraq, which might help solve the unity problem in their country. Of course it will be bad press for the Americans, but one way or the other our troops will be ending the occupation, (if not leaving the country) in the reasonably near future. It would be worth the gamble if---

---some DUFUS had not printed it in the Wall Street Journal. It not only made these people targets, but others who may be under suspicion. Now who is the dumb ass that leaked THAT covert operation? Whoever it is should be tried & imprisoned. There would be no doubt about blowing the cover on this one.

So, some guy in Iraq gets $300k to renovate a building to use for a textile school.

Why can't victims of Katrina get similar start up funds to rebuild their homes and businesses?

For an account of the desperate plight of Iraqis who have worked with Americans, see "Betrayed The Iraqis who trusted America the most" by George Packer in the current New Yorker.

We need more Officers like this , who use common sense to solve problems.i speak from experience as a military advisor in VietNam.

Jim P

We need more Officers like this , who use common sense to solve problems.I speak from experience as a military advisor in VietNam.

Jim P

This is clever stuff. At the same time, it's a pretty stark reminder of just how unpopular we are in Iraq.

I think Benjamin Franklin said it best: Fish and visitors smell after 3 days and we've been there how many years?

---some DUFUS had not printed it in the Wall Street Journal. It not only made these people targets, but others who may be under suspicion. Now who is the dumb ass that leaked THAT covert operation? Whoever it is should be tried & imprisoned. There would be no doubt about blowing the cover on this one.

Umm, if you'd read the article you'd realize that the people responsible for the story seem to be the US military themselves, in a pathetic effort to spin some good press for themselves. You may have noticed that the US Army Captain who came up with the idea, Capt. Dan Cederman, is quoted throughout the article -- -- "I thought, 'Why don't we just raid the place?' " Capt. Cederman recalls.

If he didn't want to make this public why did he explain it all in such loving detail to a reporter? So if you want to try and imprison the doofus who leaked this, by all means go after Captain Dan Cederman.