The following from the NY Times of this Sunday:

U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq to Battle Old Qaeda Allies

By JOHN F. BURNS and ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: June 11, 2007

BAGHDAD, June 10 — With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.

Fraught with risk? Does that mean that this “surge” thing is a dead horse? Must be, otherwise why all this desperation?

Are these people insane? Is there no one in the White House or the Pentagon who reads history? Is there no one who recalls who taught Saddam his trade? No one who remembers who instructed Osama and his crew how to wage war? Is there not one single politician who has the least bit of doubt of what the outcome of the above policy is going to be? Are we doomed to have our soldiers and marines massacred by our very own weapons and tactics? Does anyone in government have the capacity for abstract thought; who suspects that all the “battalions” we are supposed to have trained in Iraq to fight for freedom and democracy will, at the first opportunity, turn their weapons on the very people who trained them?

Readers of this column know by now that I doubt the sanity of George Bush and his honchos. I use the word sanity in its clinical sense. I believe he is certifiable. Of course, not being a mental health professional, I cannot testify to this fact with absolute certainly. It’s just a gut feeling, supported by the blatantly psychotic things he says and does. That, and the fact that he probably is suffering from a bit of brain damage from all his years of alcoholism and other self-abusive practices.

This past Friday, our boy was in Europe trying to soothe Vladimir Putin’s Jangled nerves about the anti-missile defense shield he, Bush, intends to build in Europe. The same Putin who’s eyes Bush looked into years ago, thereby examining his very soul, and pronouncing him a being of light. It now appears that if Bush goes ahead and builds the missile shield (the same shield, by the way, that has had not a SINGLE successful test) in Europe, the Archangel Vladimir has threatened to target Russia’s ICBM’s at the European countries who harbor them.

Can you say “Cold War?”

Not to worry though, last I heard, a deal was close to being struck whereby our untested and no doubt fabulously expensive and profitable (to various other folks, not me) missile defense system is to be based in some place of Putin’s choosing. Hold onto your wallets.

Yep, they’re all insane, every one of them. No doubt at all.

As a side note to these “talks,” it seems Bush had to miss an entire morning of meetings with some “stomach problems.”

Hmmm.

He’s back on the sauce again. Once more, and taking into consideration that his dad also pulled the same crap, puking on some Chinese dignitary while overseas, I have no empirical evidence for this accusation, but I have no doubt he is once again a certified drunk..

Hell, if I were Bush (and I well might be, for all YOU know) I’d certainly consider a return to the bottle…

Once again, thanks for your indulgence, and as always, I welcome any and all comments.