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By Walter Laqueur
$35
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U.S. Army / Sgt. Edwin M. Bridges
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In a recently released memo, U.S. Army Col. Timothy R. Reese, a senior adviser to the Iraqi military’s Baghdad command, argued that despite some of the glaring deficiencies that hinder Baghdad’s forces—see issues of management, corruption and political pressure—Iraqi troops are competent enough to contain the insurgent violence raging on in their country and that it is high time “for the U.S. to declare victory and go home.”
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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By Stanley Kutler — Public figures understandably fuss over their reputations and how they will be remembered. Recent news brought to mind two prominent figures of their moment: Colin Powell and Robert McNamara.
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Wikimedia Commons / www.af.mil
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An GQ expose reveals Donald Rumsfeld’s alarming penchant for melding scripture and foreign policy during his time as secretary of defense in the Bush administration. The report also discloses how disliked Rummy was by his peers. “There was exasperation,” one former Bush aide said.“How much more are we going to have to endure? Why are we keeping this guy?”
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As new information leaks out on the Bush administration’s torture program and as Dick Cheney pumps up his role as the poster child for waterboarding, we can slowly start connecting the dots on the previous administration’s criminal practices. Rachel Maddow and guest author Jane Mayer break down the shaky legal justifications behind the invasion of Iraq and the use of waterboarding—a method now known to produce false confessions—to try to force detainees to reveal a link between al-Qaida and Iraq.
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Flickr.com / Kevin Burkett
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The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a $91.3 billion supplemental measure to finance the Iraqi and Afghan wars. An additional $80 million has been set aside to support the shutting down of Gitmo, $50 million of which is contingent on the Pentagon coming up with a plan on relocating prisoners. Another $900 million has been allocated to aid Pakistan in its battle against the Taliban.
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AP photo / Charles Dharapak
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By Chris Hedges — The Obama brand is about being happy consumers. We are entertained. We feel hopeful. We like our president. We believe he is like us. But like all branded products spun out from the manipulative world of corporate advertising, we are being duped into doing and supporting a lot of things that are not in our interest.
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Uh, so we’re not completely sure what to make of this trailer for the Japanese animated series “Cat Shit One” (?!), which features a specialized squad of mercenary sniper rabbits duking it out in the desert with turban-clad camels. Don’t be fooled by the cute-and-fluffy tail action—these bunnies are killing machines.
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politicsandfunk.com
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If there was any question as to how Rush Limbaugh is positioning himself vis-à-vis the new administration, that was obliterated by his performance Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, where he once again made it clear that he’s not wishing President Obama well.
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AP photo / Darin McGregor, Pool
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Despite the fact that he’s looking at a trillion-plus deficit for 2009 as he settles into his second month as president, Barack Obama has plans to cut the annual deficit by half by the time his first term ends.
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AP photo / Evan Vucci
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Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi, who quickly became renowned throughout the world after chucking his shoes at President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last December, took the stand in court Thursday to defend his memorable act as a gesture of self-expression, on behalf of both himself and “the Iraqi people.”
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livableworld.org
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The anti-Iraq war organization Council for a Livable World has announced its support for the recently completed U.S.-Iraq security agreement. The group’s news release urges support for the resolution, which it believes is “the best way for the United States to leave Iraq promptly and responsibly.”
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AP photo / Evan Vucci
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During a campaign stop in Pueblo, Colo., on Saturday, Barack Obama used the news that Vice President Dick Cheney had endorsed John McCain for president to further link McCain and the Bush administration. In retaliation, McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds attempted to link Obama with Cheney. Hot potato!
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If you haven’t seen Charles Ferguson’s buzzed-about 2007 documentary, “No End in Sight,” and you wanted to, you’re in luck: You can now watch the film on YouTube in its entirety. Thanks, Mr. Ferguson!
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flickr.com/mindfrieze
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By Chalmers Johnson — There has been much moaning, air-sucking and outrage about the U.S. government’s $700-billion bailout deal, but in fact we dole out similar amounts of money every year in the form of payoffs to the armed services, the military-industrial complex, and powerful senators and representatives allied with the Pentagon.
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By Robert Fisk — I’m not sure of this, but I think—I suspect and feel—that the Great War, the war of 1914-1918, is beginning to dominate our lives even more than the terrible and infinitely more costly conflict of 1939-1945. The Second World War may haunt our lives. The First World War, it seems to me, imprisons us all.
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AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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By Robert Scheer — The world according to John McCain is one in which America is triumphant at home and abroad thanks to the Bush legacy, rolling to victory internationally and mastering its domestic economic problems. If daily news would seem to deny such a rosy scenario, then that only shows skeptics lack the courage that sustained McCain as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
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music.aol.com
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Is this the same Toby Keith who unleashed the cheese-slathered anthem, “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” (complete with fluffy golden retriever puppies and rippling flags in the video version), on the general public in 2002? Mr. “We’ll-Put-A-Boot-Up-Your-Ass”?
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MTV has become quite the changeling, now resembling not in the least the network that debuted in the early 1980s. Recently, the cable mainstay announced it will start airing political advertisements, and Team McCain seems to be first out the gates with this “Both Ways Barack” attack ad.
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AP photo / Ziv Koren, Pool
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By Robert Scheer — Barack Obama is betraying his promise of change and is in danger of becoming just another political hack. Yes, just like former maverick John McCain, who has refashioned himself as a mindless rubber stamp for the most inane policies of the miserably failed Bush administration.
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Sen. Barack Obama was careful to praise U.S. troops in Iraq during Tuesday’s speech outlining his foreign policy strategies, while declaring that Iraq has been a costly distraction for America. “This war distracts us from every threat that we face and so many opportunities we could seize,” he said, before laying out his five goals “essential to making America safer.”
Posted on Jul 16, 2008
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independent.co.uk
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By Robert Fisk — Three bodies lie beside a Baghdad street on a blindingly hot day. The one on the right is dressed in a white shirt and bright green trousers, his hands tied behind his back. Two others on the left lie shoeless, both dressed in check shirts, dumped—how easily we use that word of Baghdad’s corpses—on a yard of dirt and bags of garbage. They, too, of course, are now garbage.
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Actor John Cusack is ramping up his political presence during this election cycle with his film “War, Inc.” and now this advertisement from MoveOn.org, in which he points out how George W. Bush and John McCain are remarkably similar in some pretty fundamental ways, regardless of McCain’s recent bids to distance himself from the outgoing president.
Posted on Jun 17, 2008
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AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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If ever there was required reading, this article by Sherry Ricchiardi in the American Journalism Review would be it. News coverage about the Iraq war, whether measured in column inches or broadcast minutes, by American news outlets is becoming a mere blip on the proverbial radar, even as lives and resources are still lost every day.
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“Democracy Now!” host Amy Goodman sat down with Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer on Friday to discuss his new book, “The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America.” Watch as Scheer explains the metaphor behind the title, how the U.S. government spends more on defense than the rest of the world combined, and how some key players in Washington took 9/11 as a “license to steal.”
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defectiveyeti.com
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As former White House press secretary Scott McClellan continues to catch major flak from Bush loyalists for “snitching” on Dubya and select presidential sidekicks in his new memoir, another erstwhile Bush aide, Mike Turk, has come out in support of McClellan’s fightin’ words in an interview with The Huffington Post.
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democracynow.org
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Truthdig tips its hat this week to former Army Sgt. Adrienne Kinne, who has defied her one-time higher-ups by speaking out about how military officials knew that a target list in April 2003 contained the name of Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel, which was shelled by a U.S. tank on April 8 even though embedded reporters were staying there. Two journalists were killed in the attack; one of them even filmed his own death.
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Is some of what we now consider common knowledge about the run-up to the Iraq war wrong—for example, that we were deceived about the U.S.‘s reasons for invading Iraq? Former Pentagon official Douglas Feith, who has been harshly criticized for his involvement in that process, thinks so—and he has a new book to make his point. Here he faces Jon Stewart and his “Daily Show” audience to talk about it all.
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AP photo / Gerald Herbert, file
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By Bill Boyarsky — We are letting religious fanaticism dominate the presidential campaign. The candidates have brought it on themselves with tedious references to their churchgoing piety. Now we’re all paying for it. Who cares what their preachers say?
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Here’s a scenario George W. Bush surely didn’t foresee as he assumed the country’s highest office years ago: One day he’d be sharing prime-time screen time with Howie Mandel’s soul patch, a phalanx of prancy models and a decorated war veteran, joking about hosting “a $3 trillion ‘Deal or No Deal.’ ”
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AP photo / Susan Walsh
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Gen. David Petraeus dug in his heels during a Senate hearing Tuesday, refusing to give specifics about additional U.S. troop withdrawal plans after July, recommending a “pause” instead and taking heat from congressional opponents like Carl Levin and Hillary Clinton in the process. Meanwhile, John McCain spoke of “real hope and optimism” for Iraq’s future.
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AP photo / Nabil al-Jurani
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OK, John McCain, still “fine” with the U.S. staying in Iraq for another 100 years? And as for the Democratic presidential hopefuls, how does the whole troop withdrawal scenario change in light of the outbreak of heavy fighting in Basra this week? These are just a couple of the questions that couldn’t be more timely—or pressing—on the campaign trail this weekend.
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AP photo / Karim Kadim
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By Patrick Cockburn — A new civil war may be looming in Iraq as American-backed Iraqi government forces battle Shiite militiamen for control of Basra and parts of Baghdad.
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When the Marines decided to set up a recruiting office in Berkeley, they didn’t realize what they were up against. Or maybe they did. Either way, “Daily Show” correspondent (and former Marine) Rob Riggle confronts his deep-seated hippie rage to get the story.
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AP photo / Sgt. Armando Monroig, U.S. Army
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Americans serving in Iraq will have to wait until the next president takes office before they can expect any substantial changes in troop numbers, if Bush follows the latest recommended plan from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
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AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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By Robert Scheer — That idiotic “what, me worry?” look just never leaves the man’s visage. Once again there was our president, presiding over disasters in part of his making and totally on his watch, grinning with an aplomb that suggested a serious disconnect between his worldview and existing reality.
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AP photo / Richard Drew
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By Robert Scheer — Tell me again: Why should we get all worked up over the revelation that the New York governor paid for sex? Will it bring back to life the eight U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq that same day in a war that makes no sense and has cost this nation trillions in future debt?
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In one of the deadliest strikes in months, five U.S. soldiers were fatally injured by a suicide bomber Monday as they patrolled Baghdad’s Mansour district. Three other soldiers and an Iraqi translator were wounded in the blast but survived, according to the BBC.
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AP photo / Carolyn Kaster, file
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By Bill Boyarsky — I’m afraid Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are giving the game away to John McCain on the most important matter facing the country, the Iraq war. I hate to sound like one of those middle-aged jock-loving MSNBC pundits, but as I sit here on the sidelines I want to scream, “Quit playing defense.”
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AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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By Aaron Glantz — More than any other candidate for president, John McCain should know that peace talks can be stronger and smarter than bombs, that withdrawing American soldiers can be the best way to achieve stability, and that the best way to protect American troops is to bring them home from the war zone.
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On Tuesday, the Iraqi Cabinet expressed extreme displeasure over the incursion of Turkish troops into the Kurdish northern region of Iraq and called for a halt to Turkish interference, which Cabinet officials called a “violation of Iraqi sovereignty.” Also on Tuesday, an apparent suicide attack on a bus headed toward Syria from Mosul in northern Iraq killed nine people, according to The New York Times.
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flickr.com
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By Robert Scheer — Whadda you mean “we,” Mr. TV Pundit? When you say “we” are doing better in Iraq or, even more absurd, that “we” were right to invade that country in the first place, are you putting Joe Blow American in the same bag as the top officers of Exxon, which made $40.6 billion in profit last year?
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flapsblog.com
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he’s considering delaying this summer’s planned reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq in order to look into how the drawdown would impact security, an approach also supported by Gen. David Petraeus.
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AP photo / Charles Dharapak
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By Robert Scheer — What can you get for a trillion bucks? Or make that $1.6 trillion, if you take the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as tallied by the majority staff of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee. Or is it the $3.5-trillion figure cited by Paul, whose concern about the true cost of this war for ordinary Americans shames the leading Democrats?
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boston.com
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It’s difficult to fully comprehend the total price tag of the Iraq war, but Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has made some staggering calculations, coming up with a whopping $3.5 trillion—including “hidden costs” such as interest on the money we’re borrowing, and long-term health care for vets.
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File this one under “Good Uses of Journalistic Resources”: The Associated Press marshaled its fact-checking talents and expertise to dissect President Bush’s speech on Thursday, issuing corrections to some of Bush’s claims in this handy point-by-point analysis.
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AP Photo / Charlie Niebergall
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By Bill Boyarsky — If a Democrat wins the next presidential election, she or he will have to tackle battles abroad—and, no less significantly, at home. Boyarsky predicts that, after ending the Iraq war, a Democratic president would “immediately be confronted with domestic issues that have no Democratic consensus, issues in which debate is charged with deep feelings about national, ethnic and racial identity.”
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By Eugene Robinson — Last week, George W. Bush invited nine conservative pundits to the White House for what amounted to a pep talk, with the president providing all the pep. Many of the columnists have described his demeanor as incongruously sunny, but some of the accounts are downright scary. Could the whole world be out of touch, or is it just him?
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By Andy Borowitz — In the public’s frustration with the Iraq war Borowitz finds satire, reporting that George W. Bush has proposed enlisting the Transformers to help move things along.
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AP Photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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By Robert Scheer — In 1795, James Madison wrote of war’s far-reaching and corrosive effect on public liberty. He could well have been warning us about our own King George, just the sort of imperial president that Madison and other founders of our nation feared most.
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Fox comedy show MadTV, in a skit built on the common American mispronunciation of a certain occupied country’s name, effectively skewers the Bush administration’s faulty foreign policy—and especially its intransigence in the face of popular opposition to it—via this phony Steve Jobs presentation of the new “iRack.”
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Marching in Chicago: Resisting Rahm Emanuel’s Neoliberal Savagery
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