How confidend are me of our Iraq Army allies?

I only heard it once. Perhaps White House spinmasters successfully intervened to delete the item from subsequent reports. It was a description of an event during Vice President Cheney’s brief Baghdad sojourn. Troops of the new Iraq Army were allowed to demonstrate their skills for the Vice President. The reporter noted, in a routine voice, that of course the troops were not permitted to carry arms. Their demonstration was conducted as if they had been carrying arms..

If I were a member of Vice President Cheney’s security detail I would have imposed the same restriction, though I think I might have skipped the demonstration. Iraq citizens are a proud people. They are – now – supposed to be living in a sovereign nation. I wonder how those soldiers felt when their were required to surrender their arms to their American “allies” and then parade before the Vice President.

What came to mind was a scene in the powerful film, The Last Emperor. The Chinese puppet emperor of Manchuoko (Manchuria) had visited Tokyo where he was feted by the Emperor Hirohito, a young man of roughly comparable age. But when he returned, the soldiers of his palace guard had all been disarmed by the Japanese..