Quote of the year........… so far, but this will be tough to beat (h/t Jules Crittenden):

“If you talk to these sheiks, they’ll tell you that they’re in no hurry to see the Americans leave al-Anbar.

“One thing Sheikh Sattar keeps saying is he wants al-Anbar to be like Germany and Japan and South Korea were after their respective wars, with a long-term American presence helping … put them back together,” MacFarland said. “The negative example he cites is Vietnam. He says, yeah, so, Vietnam beat the Americans, and what did it get them? You know, 30 years later, they’re still living in poverty.”

— Col. Sean B. MacFarland, 1st BCT, 1st AD

Smart sheikh.