Now if we could just get them to stand up and keep their uniforms on

Remember when our Master and Deciderer said this:

Our strategy can be summed up this way: As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down….

Well, as hard as it's been to get the Iraqis to stand up, apparently it's harder still to keep them stood up -- and in their uniforms.

BAGHDAD — The graduation of nearly 1,000 new Iraqi army soldiers in restive Anbar province took a disorderly turn Sunday when dozens of the men declared that they would refuse to serve outside their home areas, according to U.S. and Iraqi military authorities.

The graduation ceremony at Camp Habbaniyah, a base about 45 miles west of Baghdad, had been going well. The 978 soldiers, most of them Sunni Muslims, had just finished nearly five weeks of military training and were parading before a review stand to the sounds of martial music. They took an oath of service while U.S. and Iraqi officials delivered speeches hailing the event as an important step toward the formation of a national army.

Then some soldiers started tearing their clothes off to demonstrate their rage.

The protest was triggered by an announcement that the new soldiers, all residents of Anbar province -- widely considered the heartland of Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgent movement -- would be required to serve outside their hometowns and outside the province as well. [emph added]

Just imagine the tasteful jokes about this going around the National Guard units stationed in Iraq….


UPDATE Crooks and Liars has the video of the uniform strip-a-thon here.