Idiocy in Iraq

If you had any doubts as to America's descent into imperial hubris, a couple of recent stories in the Washington Post should help you change your mind.

It appears that the US Army is running a sniper operation in Iraq in which items that can be used to make IEDs (improvised explosive devices) are left lying around where people can find them. Then, as soon as someone picks up the material, they are shot by snipers. That's right -- picking up a piece of scrap metal is grounds for "termination with extreme prejudice", as they say in the movies.

You may be asking what the big deal is. Well, for one, how the fuck can they tell that the people picking up the materials are TERRORISTS? As the fine folks over at Orbat.com (http://orbat.com/site/news.html) pointed out on September 26th, "Poor people will pick up anything to check if it is useable (sic) or can be sold/exchanged." Since the American invasion gave the Iraqi economy a shit-kicking from which it has yet to recover, there are probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who might look upon wires and usable scrap as a windfall.

If this is how the US Army wins the hearts and minds of the Iraqis, we will be lucky if the entire nation does not become terrorists.