If Stephen Colbert did not exist, we would have to invent him

If only because of news reports like this:

A purported al Qaeda document published by the U.S. military may or may not be authentic but its message that the Sunni Islamist guerrillas face problems in Iraq could reflect reality, security experts said on Tuesday.

The U.S. military published late on Monday what it said was a captured document that showed the militant group recognized it was weak and unpopular in Baghdad.

The document, an apparent review of the group's strategy in the capital where it has claimed some of postwar Iraq's bloodiest attacks, was seized with videos on April 16 near Yusufiya, just southeast of Baghdad, a U.S. statement said.

A translation of the undated, three-page document suggested al Qaeda was reviewing tactics in the city, currently focused on car bombs and other guerrilla tactics, and proposing improving its military capabilities to hold territory in any civil war.

Security experts reacted with caution and skepticism to its publication, noting a long-running public opinion battle between the United States and the Iraqi government it backs on the one side and Sunni Arab insurgents including al Qaeda on the other.

"I have a question mark to say the least," said Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi senior consultant of the Gulf Research Center based in Dubai. "Who wrote this, we don't know."

"It is true that they (al Qaeda in Iraq) have problems but why produce such a document to highlight the problems?" he said.

"Why admit all the weaknesses in a written document?"

The document was mentioned in a news briefing last week at which the U.S. military also aired what it said were outtakes from a video promoting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's best known leader in Iraq, that was posted on the Internet.

A spokesman mocked the Jordanian's competence with a gun and his choice of American sports shoes, seen in the unedited film.

"There is a strategy to ridicule al Qaeda and Zarqawi," said Magnus Ranstorp at the Swedish National Defense College. "It could also be part of a U.S. psychological campaign."

OUR government use psyops? Our government, led by Jesus H. Bush, who's on the side of the Big Alpha Male in the Sky Himself? Uh....yeah, they would.

So even if you want to dismiss psyops as tinfoil hat stuff, here we have a document, translated and published by the U.S. military, for which even THEY aren't vouching for its authenticity, and we're supposed to take this as proof that the insurgency is in its "last throes", as Darth Cheney has told us.

Uh-huh? RIIIIIGHT.

Skeptical? Moi? You betcha. But then, I AM a brainiac on the nerd patrol....a member of the factinista.

It isn't every day that we see such a fine example of truthiness from the Bush Administration.

Oh. Wait a minute. Yes it is.