I've got a story that was reported (obscurely) goes back to February or so ... One guy showed up in awful tattered clothes, and the Americans were ignoring him, but he seemed to be persistent so they brought him in. the Americans at the recruiting station asked him why he wasnt dressed decently. He replied that he was injured in a bomb blast that took place at the recruiting station several days prior, but he still wanted to join the ICDC. And he had no other change of clothes.
Everything I needed to know about the chronic-naysayer element here on FR was demonstrated earlier today when a cast of the usual suspects showed up to portray the al-Sadr retreat from An Najaf as a Coalition defeat. It was another display of Administration weakness in their cynical, disingenuous world view.
These people aren't conducting themselves with integrity here in my opinion. They're b.s. artists looking to demoralize the forum members and create a facade of dissension to outside observers. It pisses me off they play games with real world events that have life or death stakes attatched. I have a sense the onslaught is going to get worse as the Summer proceeds toward election day. It's frustrating to have the one sanctuary I've found from the propaganda machine be poisoned by divisive jerks. The gloom and doom merchants had a defensable position mid-April - early May when events were indeed appearing to be spiralling out of control. That reality no longer exists, the situation is revealing itself to be increasingly optimistic. Folks who refuse to acknowledge victories when they occur are harboring unsavory agendas.