the faster they go

the behinder they get

bring our men and women home. they don't deserve to be in harm's way they're not defending our freedoms. they're helping (though no choice of their own) to line the pockets of some good old white boys.

thousands of our men and women ripped to shreds. tens of thousands of THEIR men, women and children ripped to shreds. no end in sight. we're tossing money over there like it's being printed on a photocopier.

this MUST stop now

Mahdi Army, Not Al-Qaeda, is Enemy No. 1 in Western Baghdad


By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD -- The lights were on in Baghdad. Something was wrong.
Two platoons were creeping through the southwestern neighborhood of al-Amil well past midnight last week. Headlights snapped off, night vision lenses lowered into place, they maneuvered their Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles down narrow streets, angling for surprise. As they approached the suspected homes of the militia leaders they were hunting, their cover of darkness disappeared, fluorescent bulbs on the houses and street lights casting a glow on their vehicles. At 3 in the morning in a city notoriously hard up for power, these blocks were strangely bright.............

.............West Rashid confounds the prevailing narrative from top U.S. military officials that the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq is the city's most formidable and disruptive force. While there are signs that the group has been active in the area, over the past several months, the Mahdi Army has transformed the composition of the district's neighborhoods by ruthlessly killing and driving out Sunnis and denying basic services to residents who remain. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, described the area as "one of the three or four most challenging areas in all of Baghdad."................