Hold on, Man. We don't go anywhere with 'scary', 'spooky', 'haunted', or 'forbidden' in the title.

Ah, the old Vietnam war 'We would've won it if it wasn't for you meddling kids' defense.

Hardblogger Rick Francona argues that the politicians, specifically John Murtha, are about to tie the hands of our military with statutory limitations on how military funds are spent. He argues that this is the exact same sort of "betrayal" our troops experienced in Vietnam.

For example, for years we were not permitted to bomb North Vietnamese targets north of 20 degrees north latitude – even when the North Vietnamese Air Force built an airfield just north of the line.

Bombing our way to victory? Care to place money on which branch of the military Francona served in?

There are a ton of lessons to be learned by the Vietnam war, of course. Unfortunately Francona expresses none of them in his piece. He could have argued the importance of the Powell Doctrine, or of expressing skepticism towards politicians and wariness of jingoism. Instead he chose to argue a wives's tale. Worse; he chose to invoke that wives's tale in order to attack a straw man.

Everybody's acting like we can do anything and it don't matter what we do.

Mai Lai.

That's the first thing that popped into my head when I read this.

Murtha said combat stress prompted the Marines’ alleged rampage.

“It’s a very serious incident, unfortunately. It shows the tremendous pressure that these guys are under every day when they’re out in combat,” he said. “One man was killed with an [improvised explosive device] and after that they actually went into the houses and killed women and children.”

This is why war should not be glibly wished for nor engaged by leaders without the soberest of intentions and should always have clear objectives and timetables. Colin Powell understood this (or used to) in formenting the Powell Doctrine.

(Of course Powell had also helped to try and cover-up the Mai Lai massacre as a young army officer so his judgement may not be the best point of refererence.)

Cheesburger, Pepsi, Pepsi!

Having recently eaten at the Cafe du Iraq I thought I might share some of the standout items on the menu with my readers. (Okay, BOTH of you.)

Cheeseburger and Pepsi - The old standby. Two sesame-seed buns enveloping a meat patty and cheddar cheese in much the same way our troops are surrounded by a growing sectarian war.

Cold Turkey - Probably the best thing on a dodgy menu but virtually impossible to order.

Murtha Meatloaf - Made from hamburger, bread crumbs, onion and phased, strategic withdrawal and redeployment. A warning: if you order this you'll be mocked by the Chef as a "French Fry Eating Surrender Monkey."

Bill Kristol's MEGA Cheeseburger and Pepsi - Due to patron complaints that all they seemed to be able to order was the Cheeseburger/ Pepsi combo this was added to the menu. It's exactly the same as the regular Cheeseburger/ Pepsi, only BIGGER.

International Ghoulash - A great substitute for high-cholesterol American food. It's made from a variety of Middle-East dishes and a sprinkling of U.N. blueberries. The bad news is I'm fairly certain the Chef doesn't know how to make this.