Mr. Big Fat Backside, a k a Karl Rove, and the Bullshitter-in-Chief are still shitting us. But of course you’d never know that from this morning’s lead editorial in The Wall Street Journal. It rails against Congressman Jack Murtha, who wants an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
The editorial also claims, “President Bush’s surprise visit to Baghdad did a lot to assure Iraqis about U.S. resolve.” And it concludes, “The U.S. has sacrificed too much already in Iraq to withdraw just when victory once again looks possible.”
WSJ editorial writers apparently don’t read their own paper. They must’ve missed Greg Jaffe’s front-paged disaster report, “A Camp Divided,” which ran on Saturday. It explains a lot of things, including why the Bullshitter and Mr. Big Fat Backside are spinning pipedreams. Jaffe’s lede was a grabber:
Camp Taji, Iraq
This sprawling military base is divided down the middle by massive concrete barriers, a snaking fence and rifle-toting guards. On one side, about 10,000 U.S. Army soldiers live in air-conditioned trailers. There’s a movie theater, a swimming pool, a Taco Bell, and a post exchange the size of a Wal-Mart, stocked with everything from deodorant to DVD players.
On the other side are a similar number of Iraqi soldiers whose success will determine when U.S. troops can go home. The Iraqi troops live in fetid barracks built by the British in the 1920s, ration the fuel they use to run their lights and sometimes eat spoiled food that makes them sick.
“The only soldiers who pass regularly between the two worlds are about 130 U.S. Army advisers, who live, train and work with the Iraqis,” Jaffe writes. Then comes his nut graf:
For many of these advisers, the past six months have been a disorienting experience, putting them at odds with their fellow U.S. soldiers and eroding their confidence in the U.S. government’s ability to build an Iraqi force that can stabilize this increasingly violent country.
This is followed by Lt. Col. Charles Payne’s flat-out claim that U.S. troops on the American side of the base “treat the Iraqis with utter scorn and contempt. The Iraqis may not be sophisticated, but they aren’t stupid. They see it.”
Payne, a 25-year Army veteran, commanded about 50 advisers until last month when he was dismissed from his job, Jaffe reports, for getting in the base commander’s way. Payne’s take, in the commander’s opinion, is “totally ridiculous.” How so? Well, Payne and the advisers have “gone native.”
Gone native. Where have we heard that before? Ah yes. Famous last words of the British raj.
“Though the divide here at Camp Taji is extreme, it reflects a growing friction throughout this war-torn country,” Jaffe notes. His devastating report is posted behind a subscripton wall. But thanks to my staff of thousands, you can read it online when you click this link or the map. It will be available — free — for the next few days, even for WSJ editorial writers.
