It appears that recent events in Najaf, where conflicting reports say that U.S. and Iraqi security forces killed hundreds of "terrorists" (but can't agree on which "terrorists" got killed), may have been a case of American forces being duped into taking sides in an internectine conflict.
I like the conclusion best of all, because I think it summarizes the whole bloody mess over there right now:
Hint for the U.S.: There are no "bad guys" and "good guys" in Iraq. Everyone has dirty hands. It makes no sense for you, nor is it going to improve anything in Iraq, to side with one bad guy against another, just because you're so confused that you can't differentiate between friend and foe. Just please remember that. The trick is to reach a settlement where all the "bad guys" are satisified and agree to behave as "good guys" again. Otherwise, just forget about it.
But... but... that requires thinking in those fuzzy shades of grey! Oh my head, my poor aching head, I need some herring ASAP because, like, it's un-AMERICAN to think that gosh, you know, not everything is black and white, good and evil, liberal and conservative, left side black vs. right side black....
-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
It's easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys. The good guys always wear white hats, while the bad guys always wear black hats.
ReplyDeleteWhat? You mean they don't wear hats? Well, that's the problem then. Maybe Shrub (err, Bush, whatever) just needs to decree that everyone in Iraq wears the appropriately coloured hat. ;-)
Dave
In Afghanistan, the way the Taliban and Northern Alliance could tell each other apart was that the Taliban wore white turbans, while the Northern Alliance wore black turbans.
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean that we backed the bad guys? Oh my poor aching head! Forgive me, for I must depart to drown my sorrows in tins of kippered herring (sob!).
- Badtux the Confused Penguin