I Do Not Want To Hear It

The next Republican (or Democrat) that starts spouting crap about how we're 'making progress' in Iraq or how things are 'getting better' or that we're 'turning a corner' I (preemptively) call bullshit.

From the USAToday:

U.S. Embassy: Wear flak jackets, helmets

BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. Embassy has ordered its staff to wear flak jackets and helmets while outdoors or in unprotected buildings following an increase in mortar and rocket attacks against the heavily protected Green Zone.

The order, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, was issued last week after four Asian contract workers were killed during a barrage into the Green Zone, a 3.5-square mile area along the west bank of the Tigris River in the center of Baghdad. The area contains the U.S. and British embassies and many key Iraqi government offices.

U.S. government employees who work outside of a "hardened structure" such as the current embassy building or travel "a substantial distance outdoors" must wear "personal protective equipment," meaning flak jackets and helmets, the order said.

That's right. Things have gotten so good that our embassy employees now need to wear a flack jacket and a helmet to go outside and smoke the cigarette that their bomb and mortar frayed nerves must so desperately need.

War in Iraq Baghdad Embassy Flack Jackets