Tit for Tat
We have a friend serving in the Iraq AO (Area of Operations), working there as an advisor on behalf of the U.S. Government. We have just gotten an email from him and we wanted to share it with you:
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
". . .BTW, Election Day went magnificently, without one violent incident in our AO.... We removed combat forces from Combat Outpost XXXX, due to the remarkable stabilization of security in the area. There are some XXX and XXX police-type elements left. There will be a XXXXXX at some point. Combat elements and XXXXX withdrew to COP XXXX......Due at least in part to XXXXX..... have lagged behind XXXXXX in investigating and forwarding Terrorism cases, referring only XXXX cases in the last year. Despite these conditions, met with XXXXXX, in the to attempt to obtain a warrant for the arrest of Bashir the Black, who was identified, through XXXXX, as the mastermind behind a flurry of XXXXX. XXXXX refused to issue a warrant, for various reasons, citing the Iraqi Code of Criminal Procedure."
Well now, how should we have replied to this informative report, too informative apparently for the censor?
We did our best and here is what we emailed back to him:
"Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
"Those presently in the middle East AO may not be aware of the challenges facing us here in the Middle West AO and other portions of the XXXXXX XXXXXX. We are now living under a government led by XXXXXX XXXXX, an individual with no administrative experience and a tyrannical disposition, as evidenced by the XXXX-wing dream world (nightmare) that he inhabits and his taste for cruelty (shared by House Speaker XXXXXX and Majority Leader XXXX)-cruelty being defined as taking pleasure in the discomforture of those with whom one disagrees.
"Since the new XXXXXXXXX refuses to negotiate with the XXXXXXXXXXX party, all the promises by XXXXX for post partisanship have evaporated. There were four columnists writing yesterday in the XXX XXXX XXXXX, which describes itself as the newspaper of record, harshly criticicising XXXXX. It is beginning to look like a long 46 months. One can only hope that the XXXXXXXXXXX will come up with a viable candidate in the next two years. XXXXXX X XXXX is beginning to look better and better in retrospect as the weeks roll by. There has been no violence reported anywhere in the XXXXXX XXXXX despite growing dissatisfaction; and it actually appears that XXXXXXXX politicians are beginning to distance themselves from XXXXX who is increasingly appearing to be not very American at all.
"We would write more, but if we did, we would have to express ourselves more elliptically and you know we prefer plain speech. 
