"Iraqis basically ignore car bombs"

Slogger City summatorializes from behind the Great E-Wall of the Wall Street Jingo:

Carter Andress, CEO and principal owner of American-Iraqi Solutions Group, a company that builds bases for Iraqi Army and police units then supplies them, says in a Journal op-ed, "We are winning this war." Why? Because he doesn't see the fear in everyday people's faces, he says. (He also doesn't seem to see everyday people, based on his essay.) He says U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker is wrong to say the Iraqi people feel fear. He says the British have failed to uphold their responsibilities in the south, that Shi'ites in Sadr City don't want to fight Americans. He says he sees no civil war among his Arab and Kurdish security forces -- which may be because there's no real Arab-Kurdish violence in Iraq right now. He says Sunni and Shi'a Arabs have seen there is no alternative to American protection, so the Sunnis and Moqtada al-Sadr's people have returned to Parliament -- which is irrelevant as they haven't returned to the government. He conflates al Qaeda in Iraq with al Qaeda and makes the stunning statement that Iraqis basically ignore car bombs. They "mourn the dead and then go back to work." Ho, hum. This is a foul essay, ignoring many basic realities and focusing on a small sample of Iraqis -- those working for him, mainly. Also, does the fact that he gets a lucrative contract to supply Iraqi troops and police officers play into the fact that he's anxious to see the Americans stick around -- and keep paying him?

Now that is summatorializing with a vengeance, Mr. Bones! "This is a foul essay" indeed!

One is tempted to entertain the low unworthy suspicion that this may be an illustration of the proverb "Two of a trade will never agree." But God knows best.