Potpourri

Once again, Coach Gibbs has shown that the game has passed him by. Yesterday’s debacle marks at least the 4th time this season that the head coach has blown it, costing the Skins a win. This post by the Washington Post Blog is incredibly telling. As sad as it is, it’s time for Joe to step aside and let someone else take over. This looks like a 10 win team on paper but in all likelihood, we’ll be extremely lucky to win another game this year.

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Saw “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” last night. If you like Will Ferrel Movies, run, do not walk, and buy the DVD. Utterly brilliant. I laughed my ass off. I need to watch it another time as there is a secondary level to the comedy that I may have missed. Funniest movie I’ve seen all year. Hands down.

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“Click” on the other hand was just good enough to make me long for the days in which Adam Sandler movies didn’t actually have a point. In other words, it was ok. Interesting but sorta stupid. And not funny enough to watch a second time.

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I watched a bit of A Night in the Museum with Ben Stiller. Let’s just say that this is Stiller’s Jumanji (and even had Robin Williams too!). That means, good effects, fundamentally stupid movie. Stiller worked hard to make it funny but it wasn’t enough. Initially I had to choose between Talladega Nights and continuing to watch this one. The fact that I was actively looking for other options made my decision for me.

(And yeah, the wife’s out of the country…)

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Surge This.

The media are falling all over themselves with the drop in US fatalities, suggesting that this proves the “surge” is working in Iraq. I alluded to the risk of looking at casualties as a measure of success previously and now that we have brain trusts like CNN’s John Roberts “grilling” Dems on the morning show (with the Dems, predictably, barely fighting back), it seems my fear has come true. But let’s try to set the record straight.

The surge was never about US casualties. In fact, the opposite could be true. The surge likely caused the increase in US casualties (more troops = more targets). No, the ENTIRE point of the surge was to create peaceful conditions (or space) so that political reconciliation could flourish, legislation could be passed, etc. NONE of the political or cultural benchmarks have been reached. Not one. And, on top of that, the US, as part of the surge, has armed militias who, shall we say, have questionable allegiances.

Now, the surge may very well work. I’ll concede that as a possibility (albeit one I find unlikely). But, at the risk of talking out my ass, here’s another theory.

The insurgents are not stupid. In fact, you could say, they’re a hell of a lot smarter than the people on our side leading the war. They have used violence not just for military gains, but also (or moreso) to score political (PR) points. There’s nothing new about that. The Palestinian movement has been conducting that particular orchestra for decades now (with the famous quote, paraphrased, “If I had your planes, I’d drop bombs. But I don’t, so I throw rocks.”)

Given that backstory and the ever increasing likelihood that the next president will be a Democrat and that that Democrat will see a US withdrawal in the first 12 months of the term, then why would insurgents risk fighting US badasses when they could wait about 16 months (rearming along the way) for a time in which they would have free reign against a weak and corrupt Iraqi military? Wouldn’t that be an effective strategy? Doesn’t history bear that out? Didn’t the English vastly underestimate the colonists, merely believing that the uprising could be put down with troops, all the while ignoring the unique political and cultural factors ongoing in the country? Don’t the insurgents see the US as a colonial power?

Maybe they’re not thinking that far ahead. But then again, given recent history in the Middle East, does my theory really seem that far off base?

I’m just sayin…