Screw the Strategy--Just Exit!

We're going to train troops, and we are. We'll have 125,000 trained by the end of December.

-- aWol, from the second debate. Notice that he didn't say that the Iraqi army will have 125,000 troops by December; he only claimed that 125,000 would be trained. Desertion rates are reportedly around 50%, and Iraqi troops are dying by the dozen (something which seems to be a bragging point for Cheney and Rumsfeld). In fact, some 50 Iraqi troops were just found dead--executed--on a remote road in eastern Iraq:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The bodies of about 50 Iraqi soldiers were found on a remote road in eastern Iraq, apparently the victims of an ambush as they were heading home on leave, Iraqi authorities said Sunday.

Interior Ministry spokesman Adnan Abdul-Rahman said the victims were believed to have been killed about sundown Saturday on a road about 95 miles east of Baghdad near the Iranian border.

There were conflicting reports on the exact number of dead, whether they were members of the Iraqi army or the Iraqi National Guard and whether they were all killed execution-style.

Iraqi government spokeswoman Maha Malik quoted witnesses as saying insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at about two vehicles carrying the unarmed troops.

Gen. Walid al-Azzawi, commander of the Diyala provincial police, said the bodies were laid out in four rows each, with 12 bodies in each row.

"After inspection, we found out that they were shot after being ordered to lay down on the earth," he said.

The allies aren't going to save our butts in Iraq. Iraqi soldiers under coalition command certainly aren't going to save our butts. There is no exit strategy. Hence my new slogan: "Screw the strategy--just exit!"