Borowitz Report

By Andy Borowitz & r & & r & 'Operation Relentless Smear' Launched in Iraq & r & & r & & lt;span class= "dropcap " & I & lt;/span & n a bold change of strategy in the war in Iraq, President George W. Bush announced today that the United States had begun bombarding Iraqi insurgents with negative ads in the hopes of bringing the insurgency to its knees.





At a White House briefing today, spokesman Tony Snow said that the new military campaign, called Operation Relentless Smear, would focus on attacking the personal missteps and hypocrisies of key Iraqi insurgents on a 24-hour basis.





"This new strategy is playing to our strengths," Mr. Snow told reporters. "The insurgents are good at blowing things up and creating chaos, but no one is better than we are at creating negative ads."





According to Snow, Operation Relentless Smear will re-deploy thousands of negative ad producers, directors, and voiceover artists who were momentarily stranded at the conclusion of the recent U.S. midterm election campaign.





Masterminded by the White House's top political strategist, Karl Rove, the bombardment of negative ads began at midnight Wednesday, interrupting all local Iraqi programming with a nonstop diet of half-truths, corrosive accusations and character assassination.





By Thursday morning, there were already signs that Operation Relentless Smear was working, as Iraqi insurgents in such key cities as Baghdad and Tikrit appeared worn out by the onslaught of slickly produced attack ads.





"The air strikes and the curfews were one thing," said Hassan El-Medfaii, an insurgent who is based in Baghdad's Sadr City district. "But this is messing with my TV."





Elsewhere, U.S. Airways made an $8 billion bid for Delta, including $4 billion in cash and $4 billion in lost luggage.





& & For more fake news from award-winning humorist Andy Borowitz, check out the & lt;a href="http://www.borowitzreport.com" & Borowitz Report & lt;/a & & &