Propheteers

So, in the Libyan fable it is told
That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
"With our own feathers, not by others' hand
Are we now smitten."

--Aeschylus, Fragment

Woo hoo witchy woman
She got the moon in her eye
--Witchy Woman, The Eagles

________

More divination on the part of our leadership. They may next be casting runes and reading entrails in the Pentagon.

In the same vein as Chertoff's recent gut feeling comment, Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, top U.S. training official, addressed the recent slowdown of U.S. efforts to train Iraqi forces ("Training of Iraqi Forces Slows.")

“I think it’s just temporary,” Pittard said. “We’re not seeing the kind of progress we’ve seen in the past. ... I think we’ll see it in the future.”

The progress is postulated on his crystal ball readings and carried upon the back of killed, maimed and wounded service members.

Ranger reckons that prediction must be a career-enhancing, ticket-punch moment.