I gotta quit reading.....

I simply gotta quit reading about all of the good things that we are doing in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, for instance the headlines scream about the gloomy reports on Iraq:

The core conflict in Iraq has changed from a battle against insurgents to an increasingly bloody fight between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims, creating conditions that could lead to civil war, the Pentagon said in a report on Friday.

The congressionally mandated report provided a sober assessment of Iraq over the past three months, saying overall attacks rose 24 percent to 792 per week -- highest of the war -- and daily Iraqi casualties soared 51 percent to nearly 120.

The rest of the story which has been picked up by multiple papers can be found here.

In Afghanistan the reports are equally bad:

The U.S.-backed strategy to fight Afghanistan's massive drug trade has been unsuccessful in stemming opium cultivation, which is expected to hit record levels this year, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.

"It's bad news and we need to improve it," said Thomas Schweich, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for international narcotics. "But we don't feel it's a hopeless situation, and we don't think the overall strategy is the wrong strategy."

The rest of the story can be found here.

And then there is the obvious fact that we still haven't caught the guy who claimed responsibility for 9/11....you all remember Osama...er what's his name again? Oh yes...

Five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the most publicized manhunt in history has drawn a blank. The CIA has dismantled its unit dedicated to finding the al-Qaida chiefs. And the American military's once-singular focus is diffused by the need for reconstruction and a growing fight against the Taliban, the resurgent Afghan Islamic movement that once hosted bin Laden.

American soldiers climbing through the forested mountains of Afghanistan's Kunar province — where in the 1980s bin Laden fought in the U.S.-backed jihad against the Soviets — still hope to catch or kill him. But they say bolstering the Afghan government is their primary mission now, amid the worst upsurge in Taliban attacks in five years.

"It is like chasing ghosts up there," said Sgt. George Williams, 37, of Watertown, N.Y., part of the Army's 10th Mountain Division pushing into untamed territory along the border with Pakistan. "Osama bin Laden is always going to be a target of ours as long as he is out there, but there are other missions: to rebuild Afghanistan and attack the militants still here."

The rest of that story can be found here.

Hmmmm and the President says I am confused about this mess? I think that is the only true thing I heard from the press reports from his speech yesterday.

Just what course are we to be staying? Civil war in Iraq? A War on Drugs complicated by a resurgence of Taleban violence? Hunting for the guy we were going to get "dead or alive" following 9/11?

What "victory" are we looking for, here Mr. President? For what noble cause have the sons and daughters of people I call friends died or been maimed for? Why is my kid sitting on some damn rock in the middle of nowhere counting down the days till a bullet or a bomb catchs up with him?

I don't know a whole lot about military affairs...and I am certainly no politician. However I can recognize a clusterf**k as well as the next guy.

Want a legacy....buy another baseball team and win the World Series. That, at least, doesn't kill people. Want to help your friends win the midterm elections...well I am not sure that is possible - all of the big business money in the world isn't going to cover up this mess. There is no electoral college in Congressional races...and Tom DeLay isn't around any more to hack for you.

Better yet, do the frogmarch out of the White House on your own...and take a flight to the Hague - turn yourself in and face up to what you have done: to your own country and to theirs. That would be accountability and require integrity, I know. Tough to take. But the unpatriotic wimps who tried to tell you fighting an idea was simply bad policy are going to have some cleaning up to do: First in the Congress....and then in the White House.

We are pissed off, motivated and ready. Bring em on, Mr. President.