The reality on the ground

The Associated Press profiled a city of 30,000, now home to perhaps 3,000, in Iraq. Folks have tried to kill the mayor twice ... since May. The story offers some vivid examples of what can go wrong and what is going wrong. Ironically, the town's balanced religious mix made it a target for both sides. Saba'a al-Bour seems to be the Sarajevo of Iraq:

While sectarian fighting has been far bloodier elsewhere - nearly 100 people were slain in massacres and revenge attacks earlier this month in Balad, just to the north - U.S. commanders say Saba'a al-Bour made an especially inviting target because the tightly packed town is hemmed in by canals that make it hard for soldiers to pursue insurgents.

Thompson said he also believes the town's relatively harmonious sectarian mix attracted special attention from Sunni Arab insurgents, including those affiliated with al-Qaida in Iraq who have sought to spark all-out civil war between Sunnis and Shiites.

Fighting quickly created a "tit-for-tat scenario," with Shiites striking back at Sunnis for attacks on the town, Thompson said, sitting in the joint U.S.-Iraqi coordination center at the fortified police station.

The mayor offers a warm-and-fuzzy answer to the War on Terror: "God willing, the families will come back, the city will be like it was and the terrorism will end," he said. "We hope, we just hope."

Just how many terrorists where there before the invasion? The story doesn't address that point ...

Peace in the Middle East

If you're worried about Iraq, well, OK. At least we see signs of lasting peace in Israel, via CNN:

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in a bid for political survival, struck an alliance Monday with a hard-liner who has called for stripping Israeli Arabs of citizenship, executing lawmakers for talking to Hamas and bombing Palestinian population centers.

It's nice to know that rational considerations will never take a backseat to political expediency, isn't it?

Yep. Did we mention the Israelis are putting this guy in charge of "'strategic threats,' such as Iran's nuclear ambitions."? Nothing to worry about here:

At the height of fighting against Palestinians in 2002, Lieberman, then a Cabinet minister, called for the bombing of Palestinian gas stations, banks and commercial centers.

More recently, he advocated trading Israeli Arab towns for West Bank settlements -- in effect stripping Israeli Arabs of citizenship -- and called for the execution of Israeli Arab lawmakers who met with leaders of Hamas, which is running the Palestinian government. Such positions have drawn accusations of racism.

I'm not certain why meeting with Hamas is racist. Shouldn't they have gone the "traitor" route? Yeah. Anyway, those uppity A-Rabs are tearing themselves apart over the appointment of such a moderate:

Saeb Erekat, a confidant of the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, termed the development an internal Israeli affair.

"At the end of the day, what we hoped for is to have a partner in Israel who is willing to revive a meaningful peace process that will end this miserable situation between our two peoples," Erekat said.

What the hell is happening? Stop the world. I want to get off, at least to buy a six-pack.

Dark days

Forget the Iraq-Vietnam comparisons. Anyone else get worried when the blockade-North-Korea talk starts sounding like something out of the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Sorry for the long absence. I offer an eye-opening piece from the BBC and a Guardian photographer, who spend six weeks with the 101st Airborne in Iraq. Even where the photog doesn't quite know how things are supposed to work, he still gets the idea that counter-insurgency operations aren't supposed to look like this.

Sadly, they do.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/video/page/0,,1927660,00.html

Hail to the King

As MeTheSheeple has ranted before and before that, the current president's incredibly common use of "signing statement" has already eroded the three pillars of American democracy, wiping out checks and balances and leaving the president with unmatched power.

The Boston Globe reported yesterday that the non-partisan Congressional Research Service reached the same conclusions, saying the chief-king is trying to pursuade Congress and others "to the belief that the president in fact possesses expansive and exclusive powers upon which the other branches may not intrude." As the Globe's Charlie Savage reported:

Under most interpretations of the Constitution, the report said, some of the legal assertions in Bush's signing statements are dubious. For example, it said, the administration has suggested repeatedly that the president has exclusive authority over foreign affairs and has an absolute right to withhold information from Congress. Such assertions are ``generally unsupported by established legal principles," the report said.

In other words, say goodbye to a democratic republic.

Looks like it took the media a few days to catch up from the original notice by the Federation of American Scientists, which offers a direct PDF download to the report.

Wonder what can happen? Witness this AP story, which shows the tip of the iceberg:

WASHINGTON -
President Bush, again defying Congress, says he has the power to edit the
Homeland Security Department's reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists.

n the law Bush signed Wednesday, Congress stated no one but the privacy officer could alter, delay or prohibit the mandatory annual report on Homeland Security department activities that affect privacy, including complaints. ...

Bush's signing statement Wednesday challenges several other provisions in the Homeland Security spending bill.

Bush, for example, said he'd disregard a requirement that the director of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency must have at least five years experience and "demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security."

His rationale was that it "rules out a large portion of those persons best qualified by experience and knowledge to fill the office."

Yeah, you're doing a heckuva job, Bushie. Want to send another PR guy to singlehandedly monitor a major disaster scene?

Signs of death

Today, MeTheSheeple was out walking his dogs when he heard a loud, metallic noise. A beautiful bird of prey was seemingly losing his footing on a third-story piece of white aluminum guttering. He kept shifting and shifting, seemingly nearly falling off, leading MeTheSheeple to think for a moment that perhaps the bird* was hurt or injured. One of the dogs thought it was a great time to start barking at and threatening the raptor, which might have been a falcon. The little dog -- the lunch-sized one -- at least stayed quiet.

Anyway, the wounded deadly bird that couldn't keep his footing ... gracefully spread his wings and lifted off the guttering, with the dead squirrel slung underneath.

Sometimes, it seems, you can look at one thing and get an idea that's simply completely wrong. Someone else can look at the same thing and get an idea that's completely wrong, but in a different way.

Such a problem becomes all the more important when it's a matter of life and death. This is a parabel of more than a squirrel.

The U.S. military is looking at the debacle in Iraq and seeing disaster unless the course is radically changed. That interpretation depends on whether you believe the accounts of senior military leaders passed through a Republican who helped end the draft and the Vietnam War.

If you're a member of Congress, you might just believe that things are going so well that it's time to plan the victory parades. Heck, it's only three years since the mission was accomplished. So just because the military's destroying its equipment, wrecking its morale, unable to budget in the face of political demands ... why not take $20 million out of the defense budget to plan the victory parade? The Associated Press reports:

WASHINGTON // The military's top generals have warned Iraq is on the cusp of a civil war and that U.S. troops must remain in large numbers until at least next spring. But if the winds suddenly blow a different direction, Congress is ready to celebrate with a $20 million victory party.

Lawmakers included language in this year's defense spending bill, approved last week, allowing them to spend the money. The funds for "commemoration of success" in Iraq and Afghanistan were originally tucked into last year's defense measure, but went unspent amid an uptick in violence in both countries that forced the Pentagon to extend tours of duty for thousands of troops.

Stop the world! I want to get off.