Mar. 05, 2007 - 19:14 MST

ME WONDER ?

Still musing on the conditions our troops are coping with. And if our big brass is figuring out how to accomplish much more than wasting lives and taxpayers money, among other things. An article in this morning's The Rocky Mountain News by Kirk Semple of The New York Times, puts a point on the pencil, I think -- quoted here in full:

IRAQIS HELD IN AGENCY OFFICES

Signs of torture raise questions about stability

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- "Iraqi forces and British troops stormed the offices of an Iraqi government intelligence agency in the southern city of Basra on Sunday, and British officials said they discovered about 30 prisoners, some showing signs of torture."

"The raid appeared to catch Iraq's central government by surprise and raised new questions about the rule of law in the Shiite-dominated south, where less than two weeks ago Britain announced plans for a significant reduction in force because of improved stability."

"News of the raid overshadowed the next stage of the intensified securioty plan in Baghdad, where more than 1,100 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers moved into Sadr City, a stronghold of Iraq's largets Shiite militia.. The soldiers met no resistance in what the Americans called the biggest test yet of the plan."

"Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki, who derives major support from Shiite political groups, condemned the raid in Basra. He said nothing about the evidence of torture."

"Meanwhile, the Democratic-led U.S. Senate is moving closer to rewriting the measure that paved the way for President Bush to invade Iraq nearly four years ago, a top Democratic lawmaker said Sunday, according to a Reuters news agency report."

"The move would not repeal the Senate's 2002 vote authorizing the war but instead would limit the mission of U.S. troops to focus on counterterrorism efforts, said Sen. Carl Levin chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee."

"It will not be combat in the middle of Baghdad. It will be a transition to a more limited mission of supporting the Baghdad army training and logistics," the Michigan Democrat told CBS Face The Nation. He added that the measure, expected to come up this week, would be binding."

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Makes me fall back in my chair, I just can't see how our country can do much of any peacemaking or peacekeeping thing in Iraq. Seems as if the population is busy trying to kill the foreigners and each other almost indiscriminately while taking what spoils they can at the same time.

An Iraqi government intelligence agency ? Could that be a sort of internal Abu Ghraib ? ?Intelligence? agency ? Torture ? Huh, are they copying what we did, or did we copy what was SOP in Iraq before we got there ?

I have been trying to drum up a bit of optimism all along, but each time my spirits rise I run into news like this.

So, in the end - - - will there ever be an end to it ? If so, who will be the overall loser ? All sides will have lost lives, money, infrastructure and all possiblities of respect for each other and themselves -- or so it looks to me.

Scaling back our military involvement into a training program makes me feel that our troops will be slaughtered even more in the time that is coming. Makes me puzzled, it does, makes ME WONDER? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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