Rob over at Lawyers, Guns and Money is a little skeptical of the latest Iraq offensive:

. . . I’m wondering whether the planning and execution of this operation reveals some frustration in the Army with the Surge. The very first thing that a counter-insurgency expert will tell you is that sweeps don’t work; the insurgents always manage to escape, and there’s no way to cover all of the exits. . . .

Now, maybe this offensive will achieve what no other counter-insurgency offensive has achieved (barring perhaps some minor local successes), and actually trap the 500 or so fighters that look like everyone else amid a civilian population that hasn’t fled. . . .

Part of the point of the Surge was to allow the possibility for traditional counter-insurgency operations, in which insurgents were forced to launch their own offensives against American forces, and consequently be destroyed. This was, given the trivial size of the Surge compared to what Petraeus own counter-insurgency manual demanded, a forlorn hope. That the US has apparently returned to pointless and destructive sweep operations may be a recognition of that within the command structure. . .

Excellent points, all of them. As Rob points out, from the beginning, the surge plan made little sense; the number of forces committed was but a fraction of those deemed necessary for a successful counter-insurgency, by General Petraeus’s own book.

However, I think Rob overlooks the possibility that the offensive, like so many other actions in Iraq, is intended more for domestic consumption than to effect any long-reaching change in Iraq. The surge is widely perceived to be failing in the absence of any concrete steps by the Iraqi government to move political reconciliation forward, and administration has already put forward the argument that a September evaluation of the surge plan’s success, or lack thereof, is premature.

The instinctual Bush response to failure is the photo op. Press conferences with the troops, sleeves rolled up, complimenting Brownie, the trucks rolling into New Orleans days after the crisis peaked.

The offensive may not, as Rob points out, bring about any concrete results in Iraq. But it does provide gun camera footage, and skirmishes with insurgents provides a body count which the Bush administration to point to as “success” or a “victory.” We’ve already liberated Falluja 3 or 4 times, so we need a new venue.

Dubbed a catchy “Operation Ripper,” the Pentagon announces that the latest action in Baqubah targets targeting al Qaeda:

“The end state is to destroy the al-Qaeda influences in this province and eliminate their threat against the people,” according to Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, deputy commanding officer of the 25th Infantry Division. “That is the number one, bottom-line, upfront, in-your-face task and purpose.”

It thus meshes nicely with the Bush administration’s clinging to al Qaeda as a justification for our continued presence in Iraq although, paradoxically, our failed occupation is what allowed al Qaeda entry into the country, and to a large degree enables its continued presence.

Although Petraeus is highly regarded by many military experts, and was widely praised in Tom Rick’s Fiasco as one of the few generals who understood counterinsurgency, he isn’t adverse to providing cover to the Bushites on their failures in Iraq. Recall this Bush press conference from 2005, which I quoted a yesterday:

We also have General Petraeus with us, who has served incredibly well in Iraq. His job was to help U.S. forces and coalition forces train the Iraqis so they can take the fight to the enemy. He briefed me, and will be briefing the country at the Pentagon here a little later on, about the strong progress that we’re making;

So whatever other qualities and qualifications Petraeus brings to the job, he has proven only too willing in the past to participate in Bush press offensives, in addition to his military duties.

And Bush has shown no compunction in using and eroding the credibility of gifted military men to launch and perpetuate his Iraq fiasco. Just as Colin Powell.

… or as my friend Eve Golden quipped, “The Sailor Who Fell with Grace from the Roof:”

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Police on Wednesday were investigating how a naked couple fell 50 feet from the roof of a downtown office building to their deaths. The bodies were found on the road by a passing cabdriver around 5 a.m. Wednesday. Clothing was discovered on the roof, leading authorities to suspect the man and woman, in their early 20s, may have been having sex. Their identities were not released. “It’s too early to rule out anything,” Columbia police Sgt. Florence McCants said, but McCants said a preliminary investigation didn’t show any sign of foul play.

An old clip of an angry former Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda talking to his players about Steve Garvey.

Today, June 20th, is National Vanilla Milkshake Day.
And my first visit to the periodontist is at 11am. Bring on the nitrous. Maybe the news will even seem funny after that, but I doubt it. I’m sure I’ll head over to City Bakery in a nitrous haze in search of iced chocolate.

The ads for this must have cost a fortune, as they are bulging out of almost every magazine I have. I’d rather stick my finger down my throat any day than pay to take a diet pill that does this:

Icky side effects

But it also can result in what the manufacturer describes as diarrhea, uncontrollable bowel movements and gas with an oily discharge. “It’s probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work,” the drug’s Web site says. The drug maker’s literature and Web site say side effects can be minimized with a low-fat, reduced-calorie diet.

I hope they put them near the Depends. Y’know, just thinking of side effects like that makes me nauseous.

First President Bush, from October 2005:

We also have General Petraeus with us, who has served incredibly well in Iraq. His job was to help U.S. forces and coalition forces train the Iraqis so they can take the fight to the enemy. He briefed me, and will be briefing the country at the Pentagon here a little later on, about the strong progress that we’re making; that we’ve recruited a lot of folks, but we’ve got more than just recruitment going on. We’ve got a quality control program in place to make sure that the troops we train are capable of taking the fight to the enemy. Over 30 percent of the Iraqi troops are in the lead on these offensive operations. We’ve got troops embedded with them and it’s important for the training mission.

But, nevertheless, the Iraqis are showing more and more capability to take the fight to the enemy. And that’s how we’re going to succeed in helping democracy become established in Iraq. I’ve told the American people all along our troops will stay there as long as necessary. We’ll do the job, we’ll train these folks, and as they become more capable, we will be able to bring folks home with the honor they’ve earned.

And we’re seeing progress on the ground. And we’re also seeing political progress on the ground. The constitution has been written; folks will have a chance to vote it up or down here this month. And then there will be elections, if the constitution is approved, for a permanent government.

So on the one hand, we’re making progress when it comes to training Iraqis to take the fight to the enemy, we’re bringing the enemy to justice, we’re on the offense. On the other hand, democracy is moving forward in a part of the world that is so desperate for democracy and so desperate for freedom.

Now Reality, from today’s fishwrap:

Iraq now ranks as the world’s second most unstable country, ahead of war-ravaged or poverty-stricken nations such as Somalia, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Congo, Afghanistan, Haiti and North Korea, according to the 2007 Failed States Index, issued yesterday by the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine.

Despite billions of dollars in foreign aid and the presence of more than 150,000 U.S. troops, Iraq has declined steadily over the past three years, according to the index. It ranked fourth last year, but its score dropped in almost all of the 12 political, economic, security and social indicators on which the index is based.

“The report tells us that Iraq is sinking fast,” said Fund for Peace President Pauline Baker. “We believe it’s reached the point of no return. We have recommended — based on studies done every six months since the U.S. invasion — that the administration face up to the reality that the only choices for Iraq are how and how violently it will break up.”

More ugly Reality:

A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque Tuesday in central Baghdad, killing 78 people and wounding more than 200, even as about 10,000 U.S. soldiers northeast of the capital used heavily armored Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles to battle their way into an al-Qaida sanctuary.

The troops, under cover of attack helicopters, killed at least 22 insurgents in the offensive, the U.S. military said.

The thunderous explosion at the Khulani mosque in the capital’s busy commercial area of Sinak sent smoke billowing over concrete buildings, nearly a week after a bombing brought down the twin minarets of a revered Shiite shrine in the northern city of Samarra and two days after officials lifted a curfew aimed at preventing retaliatory violence from that attack.

Gunfire erupted after the blast, which police said occurred in a parking lot near the mosque, causing the outer wall and a building just inside it to crumble.

Police and hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution, said at least 78 people were killed and 218 were wounded, adding that the toll could rise as bodies were pulled from the debris.

Now we’re being told that next September is too early for General Petraeus to tell whether sufficient “progress” is being made in Iraq with the current deployment.

Heckuva job, Bushie.

First rate dumbfuckery from Cohen today.

“The Scooter Libby Prosecution was just like a Stalin show trial, except that Stalin was against the prosecution, and the guy was prosecuted for doing Stalin’s dirty work.”

Greenwald deconstructs Cohen’s blathering here.

i have to remember to use that one! Boldfacing all mine.

After days of dodging questions, Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo acknowledged Monday that his wife was driving his city-owned SUV with a suspended license when it was damaged in a 2004 accident and later repaired at taxpayer expense.

Now I know what you’re all thinking - Paris still doesn’t have a cellmate, does she? These two seem like they could really get along … purses, laissez-faire attitudes to what constitutes “accident” … but wait!

By allowing his wife, Michelle, to drive his city vehicle — something he said he had permitted on other occasions — Delgadillo may have violated rules that govern the use of city-owned vehicles. Although city workers are generally prohibited from allowing family members to drive city cars for personal uses, it is unclear whether the rules apply to elected officials, a Delgadillo spokesman said.

At the time of the accident involving the Yukon, Delgadillo acknowledged that his wife’s driver’s license had been suspended because she lacked proof of insurance. That suspension occurred after Michelle Delgadillo, who was driving their personal car, left the scene of a separate accident earlier that year.

Delgadillo said his wife did not exchange information with the other motorist because she believed that no damage had occurred. However, since she was uninsured at the time, she had no information to exchange. The other driver, however, filed an accident report, which resulted in Michelle Delgadillo’s license suspension.

For more than two years, she drove without a valid license but did not realize it, the city attorney said, until she tried to get a new one after her purse had been stolen. She was an uninsured motorist for about two years, while the city attorney was uninsured for a little more than one year, a spokesman said. (Delgadillo was covered when driving the city vehicle because the city is self-insured. But that protection did not apply to the family car.)

Actually, I’m liking the idea more and more, because I think Paris should kick her ass!

The attention on Delgadillo’s wife followed statements that he made in the Paris Hilton case. Delgadillo had told the judge that Hilton should spend more time in jail for driving with a suspended license and violating her probation on alcohol-related reckless driving charges. Later that same day, Delgadillo acknowledged in response to inquiries from reporters that his wife had been ticketed for failing to obey a right-turn-only sign while driving her personal car with a suspended license in 2005.

Even before the couple married, Michelle Delgadillo had a troubled driving record. In a complaint filed in 1998, Michelle Namen, not yet married to Delgadillo, drove with a suspended driver’s license and without proof of insurance.

When she failed to appear for arraignment in September 1998, a bench warrant was issued in the amount of $2,000, court records show. It was not clear from the court files whether the $2,000 had been paid and the warrant canceled.

The Simple Life: LA City Atty version.

In a typically illucid column by Pantload in today’s LA Times all about how Ay-rabs aren’t fit to govern themselves:

For many supporters of the Bush Doctrine, Iraqis have to want democracy, because if they don’t, what’s the point of having a freedom agenda? But what if these are just beloved Western fictions? We see a well-lighted path to the good life: democracy, tolerance, rule of law, markets. But what if the Arab world just isn’t interested in our path? As a believer in the freedom agenda, that’s what scares me most.

Or what if you just can’t plant democracies by invading a country, bombing the shit out of it, erasing all its institutions, and then appointing a bunch of inexperienced, unknowledgable and incompetent interns from the Heritage Foundation to run the country you occupy while well-connected contractors profiteer the hell out of the situation and keep 60% or more of the population unemployed?

when pigs fly

trojan + phil joanou = genius, but cbs and fox won’t air it.

Fox and CBS declined to comment on why they had refused the ad, but in a written response to Trojan, Fox said that it rejected the spot because, “Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.” CBS wrote that, while it understood and appreciated the humor of the spot, “we do not find it appropriate for our network even with late-night-only restrictions.”

From the NYT:

“We always find it funny that you can use sex to sell jewelry and cars, but you can’t use sex to sell condoms,” said Carol Carrozza, vice president of marketing for Ansell Healthcare, which makes LifeStyles condoms. “When you’re marketing condoms, something even remotely suggestive gets an overly analytical eye when it’s going before networks’ review boards.”