Aligning With Saddam Hussein

Via TPM, this is perhaps the most twisted twist in the twisted wreckage of American foreign policy under the Bush administration. American soldiers, who were sent to Iraq to save us from the Evil Sunni Saddam, are now helping Saddam's former Sunni fighters in their fight against the militias and terrorists this war created.

How's that for a super-sized pretzel from hell?

Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, a leader of the Sunni Dulaimi tribe who works in Anbar and Baghdad, said many of the fighters in Amiriyah belong to the Islamic Army, which includes former officers from Saddam Hussein's military and is more secular than other insurgent groups. The fighters have been organized and encouraged by local imams.

"Let's be honest, the enemy now is not the Americans, for the time being," Suleiman said. "It's al-Qaida and the [Shiite] militias. Those are our enemies."

For the time being, American soldiers, many on the their third or fourth tour, are fighting alongside, and supplying weapons to, Sunnis militias in their fight against Shiites, Sunni soldiers who will, at some point (Who knows when?), everyone believes, turn those weapons on American soldiers.

Gosh darn it, I just love those yellow ribbons.