I was just watching some shit about the weapons buyback program going on in Iraq. Basically, its one of these things where the government hands out money to anybody who turns in weapons to them. The theory is that its supposed to offer people an economic incentive as an alternative to violence. In theory, that makes a certain sense. But what is really happening, according to that news report, is that people are trading in smaller and less dangerous weapons, and the most violent mortars and other things are still being used aggressively.

So essentially, what is happening, is we are giving the resistance fighters the opportunity to sell us their old, broken, worn out weapons. Then they can just take the money we gave them, and re-invest it in newer, more powerful arms which are more appropriate to the types of fights they are engaging in. It’s really a brilliant way to keep the fighting going on, in my opinion.