Yeah, I know, “Mission Accomplished!” and all that crap, but there’s no longer any denying Saddam Hussein is still alive and helping to create hell on earth for American troops sent to and remaining stationed in Iraq for no apparent reason than allowing America’s neoconservatives, Israel’s Likud Party, and Halliburton & Co. to cheer the “powerful projection of U.S. military force.”

Reuters reports today (I pulled this off AOL and I’m looking for a direct link.):

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, not seen since he was toppled in April, appeared to call on Iraqis to mount a jihad, or holy struggle, to oust occupying U.S. troops in an audiotape aired on Thursday.

A massive manhunt by U.S. troops has failed to find Saddam, but U.S. officials generally believe he is alive.

“The enemy wants to weaken Iraq and the only genuine solution is to resist the occupation through Jihad (holy struggle) so to inflict losses and evict the enemy from Iraq,” said the speaker on the tape broadcast by two Arabic language stations.

Listeners familiar with Saddam’s speeches said the voice and style of address sounded very like the former Iraqi leader. […]

The tape referred to recent events in Iraq, suggesting if the voice is indeed Saddam’s then he is still alive.

The speaker described as “baseless” U.S. and British allegations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the main justification for the war which [sic] overthrew Saddam.

And he attacked the formation of Iraq’s new U.S.-backed Governing Council, saying it could not serve the Iraqi people. […]

The speaker on the tape vowed that resistance against U.S. occupation would intensify.

“The foreign occupier occupied Iraq to weaken it and destroy its resources, that is why the only solution...is to resist the occupation to make the enemy fail.”

“I am confident that our people who rejected the occupation will resist them,” the voice said.

No, I’m not cheering on Saddam -- only someone like Frank Gaffney Jr. would think something like that -- I’m just wondering what the hell we’ve gotten ourselves into and how the hell, to say nothing of when, we’re going to get out of it.