Iraq

...the neocons had to betray it? Granted, Rolling Stone also published crap by RFK, Jr. But there are some public-domain facts to back up the Rolling Stone article's claim that several neocons tried to prevent a detente with Iran by leaking classified information to Israel (including several indictments). From the Rolling Stone: At the far end of that room, on the morning of February 12th, 2003, a small group of eavesdroppers were listening intently for evidence of a treacherous crime. At the very moment that American forces were massing for an invasion of Iraq, there were indications…
Apparently, the Iraqis have moved to "Plan B", which is the dissolution of the Iraqi state. From the Independent: The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, meets Tony Blair in London today as violence in Iraq reaches a new crescendo and senior Iraqi officials say the break up of the country is inevitable. A car bomb in a market in the Shia stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad yesterday killed 34 people and wounded a further 60 and was followed by a second bomb in the same area two hours later that left a further eight dead. Another car bomb outside a court house in Kirkuk killed a further 20…
Former enthusiastic neocon supporters running for cover heroically deploying towards a rearward area. Perhaps it's just human nature, but I've always disliked Johnny-Come-Latelys. It's never made sense to me how those of us who figured out that the Iraq War was going to become a pandimensional clusterfuck (and didn't require special intel or brilliant intellect to do so) are still denigrated and not taken seriously, while those who got it wrong and now admit their mistake are still considered 'serious' thinkers. And not in the sense of 'seriously stupid.' Billmon nails exactly what I…
From the old digs comes this post about how catastrophically wrong self-proclaimed 'experts' were on Iraq. I will freely admit I'm no expert on the Middle East. Infectious disease. Yes. Evolutionary biology. Yes. The Middle East. Not exactly. While I speak a smattering of Arabic, can converse in Hebrew, and have actually been to that region--which sadly, makes more of an 'expert' than many of the right-wing bloviators--I hold no illusions about expertise (in part, because I am an expert in a couple of limited areas and know what expertise actually entails). It's always terrified me how…
One of the implicit assumptions regarding Iraq and the whole militarization of U.S. society is that the bellicose neocons are manly, and those of us who opposed invading the wrong country the Iraq War were wimpy or 'girly'. This is one of the oldest tricks in the facist playbook: the 'feminization' of your opponent. So when Chris Matthews says this, I'm starting to think the wheel really has turned: We've killed 50,000 Iraqi's in a war that was supposed to be a two-day wonder. When are we going to notice that the neocons don't know what they're talking about. They're not looking at this…
Erik Svane says that the media is not reporting the good poll news from Iraq: Indeed, one reason that "the global image of America has slipped," that "pessimism about the future of Iraq was widespread," and that "Iraq is sapping good will to the United States" may be that they see so few polls from Iraq. As it happens, polls from Iraq -- both Western and Iraqi -- do exist. To mention only four (that are quoted in my book on anti-Americanism in France and Europe, La Bannière Étalée): in March 2004, a BBC poll found that 56% of Iraqis said life was better than before the war (only 17%…
While I'm not the world's biggest fan of George Lakoff, he has published two posts that are worth reading. The first, co-authored by Lakoff, Marc Ettlinger, and Sam Ferguson, argues that the "Bush is incompetent" theme is a losing strategy (coturnix has additional commentary on this post): The mantra of incompetence has been an unfortunate one. The incompetence frame assumes that there was a sound plan, and that the trouble has been in the execution. It turns public debate into a referendum on Bush's management capabilities, and deflects a critique of the impact of his guiding philosophy. It…
I've never liked most war movies because I think they glamorize warfare, even if they are 'realistic.' That's why I've referred to them as "war porn." Most deaths are horrifying in their randomness: a few inches to the left or right and someone lives instead of dying. And most of the deaths are not 'heroic' in a Mel Gibson-Braveheart sort of way. Dexter Filkins reminds us of this in a NY Times article today: A soldier was dead, and it was time for him to go home. The doors to the little morgue swung open, and six soldiers stepped outside carrying a long black bag zippered at the top.…
In August of last year we wrote a post, Festering wounds of Iraq. It was about an antibiotic resistant organism, Acinetobacter baumannii, proving very troublesome in wound infections in soldiers. A. baumannii resides in the soil and is a problem world-wide, not just an Iraqi problem. But it is also a problem specifically related to the war in Iraq. Wound infections with this organism are more likely to occur at the time of injury under battle conditions or to be acquired in emergency treatment settings. Preventing this infection in stateside hospitals has also been a challenge. Without the…
I'll readily admit that I'm as partisan as anyone. But am I the only progressive liberal blogger who has a problem with the other 'progressive' bloggers who are going batshit crazy over the Iraqi government's offer of amnesty for insurgents who have not killed Iraqis (i.e., they have only killed Americans)? After all, we're the ones who have pointed repeatedly out that the American presence is the problem. Doesn't that imply that the insurgency is, in part, a resistance movement against an occupying power? I'm willing to punch as hard as the next guy when it comes to politics, but I draw…
The US House of Representatives just did what it does best: spend money according to the most life-denying priorities one can imagine, turning human values upside down. Surprise. The House bill (which must be reconciled with a more generous but equally egregious Senate version) vomits up $94.5 billion, more than two thirds of which is to finance two wars that have already sent over a third of a trillion dollars down the hopper. The vote was 351 - 67 with minimal debate. This bill is in addition to a $427 billion defense spending bill that has another $50 billion for the Iraq mistake. The…
In February I linked to a detailed report in IEEE Spectrum that explained how billions of dollars had been wasted and electricity production in Iraq at 3,600 megawatts was still less than it was before the war. Glenn Reynolds felt that the report was "sort of good news". Now Reynolds reports more good news: The latest Brookings Institution data from Iraq look good. I wonder why these numbers don't get more attention? He links to Bill Crawford, who writes: Electrical output is almost at the pre-war level of 3,958 megawatts. April's production was 3,600 megawatts. In May of 2003,…
In May, last year I summarized the good news about Iraqi reconstruction: Due to lack of maintenance, electricity production fell from 9000 MW in 1991 to 4400 MW before the war. Since then, there have been many announcements of improved generating capacity and production has fallen further to 3560 MW. Since then, things haven't improved much, Brookings' Iraq index says that electricity production in January 2006 was 3600 MW. What's gone wrong? Let's look at an example. Arthur Chrenkoff's Good news from Iraq, part 32 has this: The army engineers will soon be adding a lot of electricity…