I was reading my Winston-Salem Journal this morning when I came across Cal Thomas’s op-ed piece titled "Morale Slippage in Iraq".  To be blunt this piece of horse dookey is something I’d expect from my middle-school kids.

The entire piece is about the supposed decline in morale among insurgents in Iraq, and it is based entirely on:

…documents authored by an al-Qaida operative and seized by U.S. soldiers during an April 16 raid in the Yusufiyah area (12 miles south of Baghdad) offer hope to the American side that success may be closer than we think.

The author’s name is not known, but his conclusion about the lack of progress by the insurgent-terrorists is revealing.

So let me get this straight; in a nationally syndicated column you’re going to predicate your entire argument that the insurgents are getting bummed out and we need to stay the course (i.e. ignore the ignorant pessimists calling for us to withdraw) on a document by an unknown author?  For all we know it could have been written by a lovelorn jihadist who’s figured out he misses his girlfriend.

Look at it from the other direction: what would you think of the intellect of someone who based their assessment of the enemy’s outlook on the writings of 18 year old Private Joe Smith from Boise, ID who’s pissed off that he’s frying his butt of in Iraq and happens to think that President Bush is an idiot and that his officers are a bunch of idiots and no one knows what they’re doing  You’d laugh your butt off.

Thomas goes on to list some specifics from the captured writings like:

The documents reveal "The Mujahidin do not have any stored weapons and ammunition in their possession in Baghdad" and that there are as few as 30 or 40 insurgents in some areas compared to "tens of thousands of the enemy troops."

"The only power the Mujahidin have," says the al-Qaida operative, "is what they have already demonstrated." That consists of sniper fire, "planting booby traps among the citizens and hiding among them in hope that the explosions will injure an American or members of the government."

Since the source is unknown how the heck are we supposed to know if this turkey even knows what he’s talking about.  Again it could be some kid who’s reporting what he’s heard through the grapevine.  And of course there’s also the possiblity that this is disinformation but Thomas never considers that.

I’ve never been a fan of Thomas, but as time goes by I’m beginning to wonder if he really can be as obtuse as his writing suggests.  Sadly, I think so.