Saturday, September 10, 2005

Deconstructing Iraq

We're running out of money to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure. Law enforcement in many parts of the country has taken the form of tribal militias and death squads. In order to induce American soldiers to re-enlist to cover the shortfall in recruitment, the Army is increasing re-enlistment bonuses again, offering many thousands of dollars to each person who re-ups, especially in hard-to-fill capacities. In addition to the ongoing violence, the "economic plan" instituted unilaterally by Tribune Bremer during the occupation is ill-suited to bring prosperity to Iraq in the future, and Iraq's constitutional process has produced a document of dubious quality, fraught with ambiguities and unresolved issues, certain to trigger continued rebellion even if it's voted for by the requisite numbers in the requisite number of provinces in Iraq.

Quagmire is too refined a word for it.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Bush's brain

At last--but, alas too late--the explanation for Bush's lack of intellect.

Media, where are you?

Here are ten of the most underreported stories of the year, with sources cited. The days of Watergate-style investigative reporting by MSM is over. In its place--what? Insurrection?

Stay tuned

It seems that the squabbling over the wording of the draft of the "Iraqi constitution" isn't over. Apparently there's still some question over the wording of Iraq's arab relationship or something, and the UN printers won't start printing the draft until at least Sunday, because it needs to have the assembly (which has never voted on it) certify the text. That will give the millions of Iraqis less than a month to read, comprehend and debate the constitution before the October 15 referendum--whereas in our democracy we take more than a year to consider whom to elect as our president.

You can't get there from here

Not to Baghdad, that's for sure. The airport's been closed because the British security company that Bremer hired to guard the place hasn't been paid.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Almost, but not quite

Stories like this, of innocent civilians being held by the US military even though they've been cleared of any wrongdoing, is enough (almost) to cause me don my lawyer robes again and fight the bastards in the courtroom. Almost enough.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Fascism watch revisited

Many posts ago I started a fascism watch on this blog, but in my comings and goings I haven't followed up. Too much vacation and moving and such, so many incidents to report, so little time. But here's a classic, showing the merger of the U.S. military with politics of the Bush administration, which is doing its best to characterize its occupation of Iraq with its "war on terror." Note in Centom's news release that the "terrorist attack" was directed at a military target, no civilians were harmed, not even as "collateral damage." If that makes the insurgents terrorists, what then are we?

Monday, September 05, 2005

Take heart, oh ye of little faith!

Rasmussen Reports, a conservative poll that publishes its results daily, shows Bush's job-approval number (45%) near his lowest ever, and of greatest significance shows the "strongly disapprove" percentage at 41.

What the hell is this?

Zarqawi's forces have a flag--a black flag--and they'e flying it over a city in Western Iraq? They're burning video stores and womens' beauty parlors--enforcing fundamentalist Muslim dictates--and openly occupying the area?

And Bush says we're making military, political and social progress in Iraq?