glorious, ain't it?

As Chris Floyd calls him, the most decorated General who's never won a war has another victory for the advocates of the Long War:

BAQUBA, Iraq — Members of United States-allied Awakening Councils have quit or been dismissed from their positions in significant numbers in recent months, prey to an intensive recruitment campaign by the Sunni insurgency, according to government officials, current and former members of the Awakening and insurgents.

Although there are no firm figures, security and political officials say hundreds of the well-disciplined fighters — many of whom have gained extensive knowledge about the American military — appear to have rejoined Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Beyond that, officials say that even many of the Awakening fighters still on the Iraqi government payroll, possibly thousands of them, covertly aid the insurgency...

Now one thing that's only been mentioned in The New York Pravda is that "the end of combat operations" in Iraq has only been possible because we've pulled out of the cities and consolidated our troops and mercenaries around the oilfields. That, and we've been paying the Sunni a lot of cash to stay off our backs.

Looks like the price of "peace" just went up, and the Pentagon paymasters don't have the spare change budgeted for it yet.

But be of good cheer for the war machine. After all, as Petraeus Caesar told the One, "You have to recognize also that I don't think you win this war. I think you keep fighting ... You have to stay after it. This is the kind of fight we're in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids' lives."

You know it's all about the Glory of the Struggle for these guys, and, of course, the money in their pockets, for the rest of their lives.