I love the excuse for the continued occupation of Iraq, that the Pentagon must first “train” the local army and police. Then, when they do the two-step, we’ll do the foxtrot, or something like that. Mesopotamia has had massive armies, I am sorry to say, for almost four thousand years. What is lacking is not training, but brainwashing: convincing teenagers that they should be willing to die for the occupier, to be good little Gunga Dins. Oh, and the “security” forces the US has armed turn out to be tribal and religious death squads. (Link via Antiwar.com)