Winning Hearts And Minds

If I were working for the W, Rove and Co, I'd be just about ready to toss in the towel for winning the hearts and minds of the American people, but that's the least of their worries. If we are to prevail in Iraq, they are going to have to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Trouble is, that ain't going to happen.

Have a look:

The camouflaged American soldiers, weary from hours of struggling to talk with Iraqis during a patrol in eastern Baghdad, laughed with relief after an Iraqi army major's wife met them at her door. The soldiers had no interpreter. She had a master's degree in English translation.

"Do you want to work for the Americans?" asked U.S. Army Lt. Anthony Slamar, 26. "Do you want a job as a translator?"

The woman stepped back into her darkened doorway.

"With you? No. Not with you. Do I want to die?" she said. "I am afraid of you, I'm sorry."

If our GIs can't get the wife of an Iraqi Major with a Master's Degree in English Translation to help them, we are SO screwed. She is supposed to be on our side, no? No doubt, she is holding out for a lucrative contract with the US Government at 10 to 100 times what they would pay her as a civilian employee. Even then, the job is not worth getting killed over, now is it?

This is a symptom of the larger problem caused by the illegal and illegitimate invasion of Iraq perpetrated by the W, Rove and Co. Any chance the bumbling idiots in the W, Rove and Co will be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity after they are out in 2009? Don't hold your breath.