Iraq
Our hopeless war debate, cont.
The only thing more frustrating than the debate between Congress and the White House on this war funding bill is the mainstream media’s complete ineptitude in reporting about it. Andrew Sullivan points us to this comprehensive post by Marty Lederman. The background: In budget request after budget request over the past few years, the President has failed to ask Congress
The Sadr legacy
Thousands have marched on Najaf at the urging of Moktada al-Sadr, to protest the American presence in Iraq: “The enemy that is occupying our country is now targeting the dignity of the Iraqi people,” said lawmaker Nassar al-Rubaie, head of Mr. Sadr’s bloc in parliament, as he marched, according to the A.P. “After four years of occupation, we have hundreds
Our hopeless war debate
Accompanying George Packer’s extraordinary piece in the print edition of last week’s New Yorker is a photo of an Iraqi man lying dead on a heap of trash, his hands tied behind his back with black cord. From the camera angle it isn’t clear whether the corpse still has a head. This chilling image encapsulates just about everything there is
Gassing Muslims
From Kirk Semple’s March 18 report on al-Qaeda suicide bombings in Ramadi and Amiriya — not the first incidents in which the bombs were spiked with chlorine gas: Insurgents began combining explosives with chlorine gas and other chemicals in January in an effort to sow more fear and havoc among civilians, military officials say. Some local officials blamed militants linked
Talking points
Important words here from Marc Cooper on the rhetorical battle in Congress over the Iraq war. Seems the Democrats are set to squander an un-squanderable political advantage, by legitimating the GOP’s “defunding the troops” claptrap and allowing the Bushies to own the terms of debate. Marc’s argument: The Dems should frame this in terms of refusing to provide “future funding
Atrocity of the day II
A follow-up to my Feb. 12 post. This is from Marc Santora’s latest NY Times roundup on the carnage in Iraq. I honestly thought I was having a bad day until I read it: A family of 13 was killed on the road leading to Falluja, about 12 miles northwest of Baghdad, because its members were from a tribe known
Atrocity of the day
I have not been able to comment on the mind-numbing slaughter taking place regularly in Iraq, but I thought this bit was worth preserving: In Diyala Province, where American and Iraqi troops have been fighting Sunni insurgents for control, gunmen publicly beheaded seven people, the police said. One group of suspected insurgents shot six people in the head in a
Iraq malaise PS
A quick response to the comment here, for clarity’s sake before the State of the Union Address: I’m sorry to say, but your comments here look like a watered down version of the Bush administration’s “blame the Iraqis” strategy. As I said in the post, the “blame the Iraqis” rhetoric is common among Dems and Repubs, pro-surge and anti-surge. What