The only way to lose this fight is to quit

Hugh Thompson, Jr. has died. He met the enemy, and it was us.

The Pentagon admits to having hit the wrong house in Baiji (on which I posted Tuesday night). But while I’ve re-read yesterday’s CNN story reporting this several times, I can’t figure out if they just bombed the wrong house, or if the strafing (over 100 cannon rounds) also targeted the wrong house. Bad writing by CNN or fuzzy info by the Pentagon, I dunno. I’ve waited before posting anything because I assumed someone other than CNN would be covering the story of the US bombing the wrong house and killing an entire family, but, well, not so much. Also, 4 days later and apparently no one has yet checked to see if that was really an IED those guys were planting.

Dick Cheney tells the troops forced to listen to him at Fort Leavenworth, “Every American serving in this war can be absolutely certain that the people of our country do not support a policy of passivity, resignation, or defeatism in the face of terror.” You’ll note that passivity, resignation and defeatism are not, in fact, policies, they are states of mind, as is terror. Clearly, the Bushies have now left the real world entirely, and are fighting The War on Terror (TWAT) not in Iraq but completely within the confines of their own skulls. Says Cheney, “The only way to lose this fight is to quit” (which, he adds, is not an option); that’s only the case if the fight is taking place entirely within your own mind. I wonder how the troops who actually have to fight this war and be shot at and blown up feel being told that victory is really just a matter of the Power of Positive Thinking.