News from your DOD

U.S. and Iraqi security forces will go after any rogue band or group that preys on innocent Iraqi citizens, a senior U.S. officer said in Baghdad today.

"That is something that we're not going to tolerate," Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, told reporters in Iraq's capital city.

-- American Forces Information Service

To simplify command and control, Caldwell IV didn't add, the U.S. forces will be chasing down the Iraqi security forces, while the Iraqi security forces will target the U.S. military. Rogue Sunni and Shiite militias seem to be doing an adequate job of targeting each other already.

Terrorist Attacks Kill Iraqi Civilians

Terrorists fired four mortar rounds at an open field in the northern Baghdad district of Khadimiyah on July 7, killing four Iraqis and wounding 38 children. Iraqi children frequently use the field as a playground, officials said.

A terrorist spokesperson said that the casualties were "regrettable collateral damage." "Unfortunately, this type of thing happens in war," said Ahmed al-Caldwellah IV. "But this is a fight that must be won, and we will stay the course. We will not cut and run, as some would suggest we do."

And then there's this: Rumsfeld says Taliban will be defeated. He heads the world's largest ever military, and nearly five years after going to war with a rag-tag bunch of ninth-century warriors armed with Nissan pickups and AK-47, he has the unmitigated gall not only to claim that he can beat them, but not to commit hari-kari as well. He also is begging Europe to put a stop to Afghanistan's heroin trade, something only the Taliban has ever been able to curb. Rummy knows exactly what the "militants" don't want:

Rumsfeld said militants "don't want to see a country like Afghanistan have a successful democracy. They won't succeed."

It's amazing these liars still get away with this nonsense about democracy, especially now that the US has effectively vetoed the somewhat-democratically-elected governments in both Iraq (Jafari) and Palestine (Hamas).

And it wouldn't be Rummy without some Rummy-speak:

Rumsfeld, who arrived unannounced in the Afghan capital, also said regional cooperation with Afghanistan's neighbors to stop Taliban and al-Qaida movements entering this country "has been helpful, but it has not reduced cross-border" activity.

Um--what would unhelpful look like?