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Wonkette: "If You're Wondering What Victory in Iraq Looks Like..."

A link too good to pass up. For the world's saddest victory celebration (we handed Najaf to the Iraqis), see this Wonkette post. To be frank, the keyboardist -- who actually has a day's work -- looks more grateful than the stiff-as-a-board Iraqi politicians who have to clean up this mess.

Update: MoJo intern Celia Perry adds the following: The AP reports that during the ceremony commemorating the return of Najaf to local control, "a small group of [Iraqi] soldiers stepped forward with a live rabbit and tore it to pieces. The leader bit out the heart with a yell, then passed around the blood-soaked remains to his comrades, each of whom took a bite. The group also bit the heads off frogs, as some of those in the crowd held their noses from the stench." Later, police drove in shiny new vehicles around a track littered with fur and frog legs. Apparently, chewing on live animals is a traditional display of ferocity that was used by elite military units during Saddam Hussein’s regime. I guess old habits die hard.

Update II: Apparently the celebration was bigger than the picture at Wonkette would suggest. From the AP story mentioned above: "About 1,500 police officers, soldiers and security personnel staged a parade around an infield of stubby brown grass, in festivities complete with warriors on horseback."

Posted by Jonathan Stein on 12/21/06 at 10:48 AM | E-mail | Print | Digg | de.licio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Yahoo! MyWeb | StumbleUpon | Netscape | Google |