"The Surge Is Working, Damnit!"

Another big surprise from the Bush admin. Was it a surprise to them, as well, or a feature rather than a bug in the pathetic planning that led us to our current quagmire? 

From the southern port city of Basra to bustling Irbil in northern Iraq, Iraqi activists are trying to counter the rising influence of religious fundamentalists and tribal chieftains who have insisted that women wear the veil, prevented girls from receiving education and sanctioned killings of women accused of besmirching their family's honor. In their quest for stability in Iraq, U.S. officials have empowered tribal and religious leaders, Sunni and Shiite, who reject the secularism that Saddam Hussein once largely maintained. These leaders have imposed strict interpretations of Islam and enforced tribal codes that female activists say limit their freedom and encourage violence against them.

Islam's been fighting their version of The Hundred Years War for some 700 yrs. now. Is it any surprise that men willing to kill on the basis of an internal religious difference rigorously enforce the various laws & customs of their superstitious, patriarchal tribal cultures? 

We doubt that the neo-conservatives who "planned" the entire sordid mess gave thirty seconds of thought to any such repercussions. After all, they're big picture, macro-types. The survival of the nation is at stake! Human lives? Mere statistics, in that Stalinist way the neo-cons dig so much.