Quotes of the Morning: Success!

“Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday outlined a strategy for helping Iraqis clear out insurgents and build durable, national institutions as she sought to reassure jittery members of Congress about the path to peace in Iraq.
Rice said the United States will follow a model that was successful in Afghanistan.”
-Associated Press, October 19, 2005

“Ah yes.. Afghanistan, shining democratic beacon of hope. Our ‘good’ war.”
-Skippy

“Australian television on Wednesday broadcast footage of what it said was U.S. soldiers burning the corpses of two dead Taliban fighters with their bodies laid out facing Mecca and using the images in a propaganda campaign in southern Afghanistan.
The television report said U.S. soldiers burned the bodies for hygienic reasons but then a U.S. psychological operations unit broadcast a propaganda message on loudspeakers to Taliban fighters, taunting them to retrieve their dead and fight.
[…]
‘Attention Taliban you are cowardly dogs,’ read the first soldier, identified as psyops specialist Sgt. Jim Baker.
‘You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be.’"
-Reuters, October 19, 2005

“Ok, so our troops may be a little.. harsh.. (and I shouldn’t have to tell you by now that desecrating the corpses of enemy combatants is against the Geneva Conventions), but at least its working right? We’ve installed democracy in Iraq.”
-Skippy

“A former regional governor who oversaw the destruction of two massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the Taliban's reign was elected to the Afghan parliament last month, officials said Tuesday as results from two provinces were finalized.
[…]
Provisional results from the landmark elections have been published for several regions, but tallies from only four provinces have been finalized, including Samangan and nearby Kapisa province on Tuesday. Three former warlords still suspected of having ties to armed groups also were declared winners in those areas.
Human rights activists say many of the winning candidates are regional strongmen linked to armed groups, raising fears of more violence.
‘Many of the winners are linked to armed groups or drugs,’ said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, deputy director of the state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, referring to a booming trade in heroin and opium.
‘The number of elected lawmakers who are honest and interested in reform may be tiny compared to the regional strongmen who are only interested in themselves.’"
-Associated Press, October 18, 2005

“See? Sure the same people are in charge, but now they’re democratically elected Islamic extremists and armed thugs. That makes it all better. We can only hope to be as successful in Iraq.”
-Skippy