Protect me from my friends...

...the saying goes, I can protect myself from my enemies.

In the midst of all the accusations of arms and other supplies coming into Iraq from Iran, one exhibit has been the Czech-made body armor found on killed or captured insurgents. According to the Sunday Herald (UK),

US Army and FBI investigators probing how the Czech flak jackets came into the hands of Iraqi insurgents compiled an impressive dossier, complete with the serial numbers of vests seized from radicals. Then they turned to Prague for help to uncover the Czech end of the presumed smuggling ring.

The Czech Republic's organized crime squad investigated and learned that the vests had been part of a

consignment of 6000 flak jackets had been manufactured by a Czech defence department-approved firm in Jevicko, northwest Moravia, and legally exported to Baghdad, [Pavla] Kopecka[, a spokeswoman for the Czech police headquarters,] said. ...

The stark and unpalatable truth facing the Americans is that Iraq's police force, infiltrated by Shia militias, death squads and al-Qaeda-linked radicals, must have handed over weapons and protective vests to insurgents.

This is only going to get worse. Someone, I don't recall who, recently noted that a central reason for the "improvements" in Anbar province is that the US has essentially switched sides and instead of seeing Sunni insurgents as the main enemy is now concerned with Shiite militias. It's become as clear as it can be short of a signed, handwritten confession that despite whatever they may say, the real goal of the (by comparison) saner members of the Executive Branch is no longer "winning," whatever that might mean in this context. The goal is not losing at least until they are safely out of the range of blame. And so the deaths will continue for no purpose other than political posturing.