"Last Throes?"

Ordinarily, when someone speaks of something in its "last throes," the phrase conjures up visions of a wounded animal, weak and mortally wounded but still capable of biting.

Such was the comforting image Vice President Richard "the Smirk" Cheney gave to the American people last Memorial Day. The Iraqi insurgency, he implied, was dying.

Reality paints a somewhat different picture.

"The top American commander in the Persian Gulf told Congress on Thursday that the Iraqi insurgency has not grown weaker over the past six months, despite a claim by Vice President Dick Cheney." - CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/06/23/rumsfeld.iraq.ap/index.html

That's General John Abizaid, the overall commander of US forces in Iraq, telling the Senate Armed Services Committee that the insurgency keeps getting a steady influx of new fighters, and that (plus reports of dwindling public support and a lot of incompetence on the part of the US Government and military hierarchy) prompted Senator Kennedy (D-Seagrams) to call for Donny the Jowl to resign.

Not a good day for Donny, it seems.

NBC last week carried a disturbing item about the insurgency - they're getting technically more polished in their attacks. Evidence revealed the use of shaped charges in IEDs that could shatter even an up-armored Humvee, and damage a Bradley or a tank. It's not really a surprise - think of all the foreigners coming into Iraq. Many are Saudis, beneficiaries of an excellent educational system and some having college degrees. A lot of those degrees are probably in technical fields such as engineering and chemistry.

Uh-oh.