“Not a shot was fired.” Ordinarily, I’d say that was a good thing, except in this case it’s how Time starts out its description of the big dog and pony show know as “Operation Swarmer.”

This “massive” military action, which was billed as a mission to stop these nasty old insurgents once and for all, managed to pick up “48 suspected insurgents, 17 of which had already been cleared and released.” OK, so 31. I wonder how many of these poor schlubs were just minding their own business, tending to the family sand farm in this area that “has long been suspected of being used as a base for insurgents operating in and around Samarra?”

“But contrary to what many many television networks erroneously reported, the operation was by no means the largest use of airpower since the start of the war. (“Air Assault” is a military term that refers specifically to transporting troops into an area.) In fact, there were no airstrikes and no leading insurgents were nabbed in an operation that some skeptical military analysts described as little more than a photo op. What’s more, there were no shots fired at all and the units had met no resistance, said the U.S. and Iraqi commanders.”

Well, frankly, I’m glad that no more of our people (and hopefull not too many Iraqi’s) were killed or wounded in this. But I’m not exactly sure what we’ve accomplished here. Was this photo-op supposed to make dubya look better? Was it suppose to make it all look worthwhile as the 3rd anniversary of Bush’s Folly rolls around? Or is this just another example of the incompetence of the Mayberry Machiavellis that are about to drag us into an even bigger catastrophe – a war with Iran?