HERE WE GO AGAIN

I don't pride myself on being a political pundit by any stretch of the imagination. I prefer to live in my fictional, poetic world as much as possible. But every now and then, like a turtle, I poke my head out of my shell and then, seeing that little has changed, pull it back inside where I know it's safe.


AP Report

Insurgents are increasingly using roadside bombs detonated by remote control to attack American forces in Iraq, with an American soldier and his Iraqi translator dying in northern Baghdad in the latest explosion.

As part of an effort to lower the U.S. profile in Iraq, the new U.S. commander in the region announced plans to establish an Iraqi militia to help patrol the country.

.....Gen. John Abizaid, on his first visit to Iraq since taking over at U.S. Central Command, said Monday that he would create an Iraqi civil defense force of nearly 7,000 men to patrol with the U.S. military. It would consist of eight battalions, each with about 850 armed Iraqi militiamen.

Commanders said the militia was an effort to lower the profile of American forces.

"An Iraqi militia will be a localized effort to assist local governors in running their areas. It will assist coalition forces on an as-needed basis to put an Iraqi face on things," U.S. Marines' Lt. Gen. James T. Conway said in Hillah, south of Baghdad.

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who was in the northern city of Mosul on Monday, met with American forces and warned Iraqis that the United States would not be able to solve all the country's economic troubles.

"Some people think that because we're the United States we can fix things right away. We can't," Wolfowitz said.

Pardon me if I'm wrong but isn't this how the whole mess with Osama got started?

Training people to kill people who kill people because killing people is downright wrong.

Right.

Be Well. Be Love(d). Pray for Peace.
---A.