Tag Archives: Mookie

Has Bush shot himself in the foot?

One of Lyndon Johnson’s big mistakes in the Vietnam war was insisting on personally clearing every bombing mission and target beforehand. But even LBJ didn’t turn his troops over to the command of the South Vietnamese government. President Bush appears to have given the Iraqi government control of our troops in his new struggle for Baghdad, which may have doomed it from the start. The story, picked up by the likes of conservative blogger Hyscience, is in Salon, the Lefty digital newsmagazine that is not my favorite source of information. Maybe it’s bull. Sure hope so. But it fits right in with various tactical stupidities of the past four years, such as allowing the Shia thug Mookie Sadr to live, and playing catch-and-release with Iranian agents whose explosives were killing American troops. But, so far, the dumbest thing of all has been the continuation of two sanctuaries for the enemy’s recruitment and re-supply, in neighborhing Syria and Iran, almost exactly what happened in South Vietnam with North Vietnam and Cambodia. If somebody doesn’t wise up pretty soon we’re going to lose this thing.

Michael Yon: We need to kill Mookie

Army veteran and freelance Iraq embed Michael Yon emails Op-For with this surprising conclusion:

"At this point I would say we are probably actually losing the war, but I really think this can be turned around. Petraeus is just the man who can do it. He’s brilliant and is ready to slam those militias. We need to kill Sadr. We will lose a lot of people taking on the militias, but we should either take them on or pack up and go home. I vote for killing them."

Yon emailed me this on Christmas Day: "I hope we finally kill al Sadr," but asked me not to post it. Now that he’s lifted the embargo, so to speak, I no longer feel constrained. And certainly agree.

Yon’s latest dispatch from Mosul is, as always, worth a read

Mookie still in the saddle

Until we get rid of this punk in the black turban, there’ll be no victory parades. And right now, it appears his buds in the Iraqi government are still protecting his porky little butt. Or, as this troop asserts: "The Madhi army is sitting on the 50 yard line eating popcorn and watching us do their work."