More U.S. failure in Iraq.

We're doing the math on the logic of this particular story. We think it comes down to further proof of U.S. hubris, indifference, and negligence in Iraq.

Am I the only one who noticed that Gen. Petraeus did not tell Congress during his testimony on the Hill what he was going to do to prevent the machine-gun-the-kids-playing-soccer tactics of the "insurgents" in Iraq? He looked those Congressperson right in the eye and didn’t' say a word.

Crimanentlies, guys! What better proof do you want that our military strategy in Iraq is failing?

As Selim, his wife and brother, walked past, two cars pulled up. Four or five men in tracksuits got out and opened their car boots. They pulled out belt-fed BKC machineguns, a weapon known in Iraq as "the harvester" for its ability to kill lots of people quickly.

"We heard the shooting of the machineguns. It was so loud and continuous we thought they were targeting us," said the 28-year-old Shia, his eyes red and brimming with pain.

But they were not the targets.

"I started looking, and they are shooting the kids," he said. "Eight of the kids already fell on the ground. The guys kept shooting, they just wanted to make sure everyone was dead."

An interesting cultural or psychological aspect of this incident is that, instead of going after the killers, the adult shias and sunnis who live in the neighborhood started to shoot it out with each other.

I guess the killers have a different sheet of music they can work off that's simply beyond the ability of Westerners to comprehend. They seemed to be after this particular result and to be able to predict it. They played those people against each other like a mighty Wurlitzer.

But, it a failure of U.S. policy. Bottom line.

Right?

"I saw boys murdered — then their parents got guns to kill each other." By James Hider, Times Online, 3/26/07 <-- Clarity & Resolve, 3/26/07.