The Illustrated Daily Scribble

I read The Scribble everyday. It's probably the Best there is and what it does, often breaking NEW news into a wider read story. amazing feat for a cartoon. Friday's toon revealed a few tidbits. It seems that one screw up after another in Iraq and back home has left Bush more than a little shell shocked. He's been hurt that the war he thought was delivered to him wasn't the war he got, and he's paying the price for letting others do his homework for him. Evidently the relationship with Dick Cheney has gotten icy, with the VP taken out of t he loop on national security issues.

On top of that, His Mamma's mad that the people playing wet nurse to her boy did him wrong. the first mamma is eveidently on the warpath. it seems she's upset with the VP, Andy Card, and others over the public distaste for and mistrust of her son. She felt that many in the administration lead him astray. Of course this is par for the course with her son: no need for him to take responsiblity for his own actions, right?

Finally, this AMAZING little piece was evidently below the radar last week. Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced in a press conference that U.S. soldiers were to report instances of Prisoner abuse by Iraqis, but Rummy emphasized that they weren't actually obligated to STOP the torture they saw. He was IMMEDIATELY contradicted by a US General who felt (evidently more than Rummy) that U.S. soldiers have a moral obligation to stop such business from happening in the first place.

GEN. PACE: It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene to stop it...

SEC. RUMSFELD: But I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it.

GEN. PACE: If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it.

[The transcript does not indicate what kind of expression Sec. Rumsfeld wore upon learning that American soldiers witnessing abuse by Iraqis have to do more than file a report or dial 911 or send an alarmed email or make a mental note to do something later, or whatever it was that Rumsfeld had in mind. But the backtalk must have put the Secretary's knickers in a knot, because soon he went into a classic Rummy Rant.]

SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, forget the press then. Anybody. We have an orientation that tends to make us think that everything is our responsibility and that we should be doing this. It is the Iraqis’ country, 28 million of them. They are perfectly capable of running that country. They're not going to run it the way you would or I would or the way we do here in this country, but they're going to run it. And to suggest that every single thing that needs to be done in this country -- "Oh, the infrastructure's imperfectly protected; the Americans should do that, you don't have enough people to do that." Nonsense. We shouldn't have enough people to do that. It's the Iraqis' infrastructure. They're the ones who are going to suffer if the infrastructure isn't protected. "The borders can't be protected." Well, we can't protect our own border.

Q: You make the point that --

SEC. RUMSFELD: Just a minute. Just a minute. Just a minute.

Our problem is that any time something needs to be done, we have a feeling we should rush in and fill the vacuum and do it ourselves. You know what happens when you do that? First of all, you can't do it, because it's not our country, it's their country. And the second thing that happens is they don't develop the skills and the ability and the equipment and the orientation and the habit patterns of doing it for themselves. They have to do it for themselves. There isn't an Iraqi that comes into this country and visits with me that doesn't say that. They know that. They know that they're the ones that are going to have to grab that country. And it's time.

Q: There's still a lot of training wheels on those bicycles.

SEC. RUMSFELD: Sure there are.

Q: And you always talk about that holding the bike. But, I mean, there -- it doesn't seem like the numbers --

SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, I think we've been passing over bases, we've been passing over real estate, we've been turning over responsibilities. I mean, what else can you do? Nothing happens at the same time in one fell swoop. This is hard stuff for them! It isn't going to be perfect. But by golly, the people who have been denigrating the Iraqi security forces are flat wrong! They've been wrong from the beginning!

[We are pleased to report that Gen. Pace did not turn to him and say, "Sir, you're living in a dreamworld."]

And there is the difference between a dignified, moral soldier and a would be war planning schemer without the real character . I encourage you to read the links above. all are good and most are pretty short.