This Reeks of Desperation

Putz, via J.D. Johannes, gives us the old standby -- the Grateful Iraqi. It works like this: When lots of people get killed, the Grateful Iraqi (man, woman, child -- it doesn't matter) is wheeled in to tell us, the Americans, how virtuous we are and what a darn noble thing we're doing by destroying their country.

This one says

Thank you for being here. Thank you. You are a reporter? Tell America how much we appreciate Marines. Tell the people thank you and that we want the Marines, the Army here to help us. ...Tell America that the Iraqi Army is growing. We are getting stronger. Tell them thank you.

How uplifting!

However, our beloved, savvy InstaPutz readers see the problem with using a lone Iraqi to cheerlead the war; it's just as easy to find one who, um, thinks we suck. Por exemplo:

The government is talking about the security plan but dozens of people are dying every day. No one is protecting us. ... The Americans say they are here to protect the Iraqi people but they are doing nothing.

The point, o' course, is that using The Grateful Iraqi -- and other single-source assertions -- as a crutch is a terribly lazy to argue a point.