Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Iraq: Worst TV show idea of the year

An Iraqi TV show punks people by pretending bombs are in their cars… ? Ugh. Makes my stomach turn. But maybe Iraqis are so sick of all this that somehow it becomes funny. (HT to CMcR) Meanwhile, the killing of an Iraqi general barely makes today’s newspaper. The Obama Administration certainly has read the mood ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
-/AFP/Getty Images
-/AFP/Getty Images
-/AFP/Getty Images

An Iraqi TV show punks people by pretending bombs are in their cars… ? Ugh. Makes my stomach turn. But maybe Iraqis are so sick of all this that somehow it becomes funny.

(HT to CMcR)

Meanwhile, the killing of an Iraqi general barely makes today’s newspaper. The Obama Administration certainly has read the mood of the American people well on Iraq: We don’t care if the war is over, just as long as you don’t tell us about it. Five gunmen attacked an American military convoy south of Baghdad. The troops were not "combat troops," so they used return fire to advise the attackers to die.

For those still keeping score, it has been six months since the Iraqi election. Ali al-Turaihi, an Iraqi government employee, ‘splains to Reuters that, "The crisis … will continue for a long time because the decisions are not in the hands of Iraqi politicians. The delay in government formation is a struggle of regional countries."

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

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