One day's worth

From one day's morning paper:

1) U.S. mercenaries, oh excuse me,  contractors, have been withholding the passports of laborers "hired" at subsistence wages in Iraq, a technique often utilized by human traffickers. Lovely.

2) The military KNEW for nine months that Iraqi "security forces" killed two National Guard members but blamed "insurgents." The father of one of those soldiers, as well as Sen. Barbara Boxer, accused the military of suppressing the truth to shore up public support for the war.

3) Murder charges filed against 8 U.S. service personnel

4) Heavy firefight near the Green Zone: Iraq's government clamped a state of emergency on Baghdad and ordered everyone off the streets Friday after U.S. and Iraqi forces battled insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and rifles near the heavily fortified Green Zone. The military also announced the deaths of five more U.S. troops in a particularly violent week for American forces that included the discovery of the brutalized bodies of two soldiers. Twelve U.S. servicemembers have died or been found dead this week.

But--we're makin' progress. Turning points, you know. 

Dead and Buried

We are gathered here to finally lay to rest the idea of "American Exceptionalism." Christened in 1831 in an Alexis de Tocqueville quote, American Exceptionalism was a belief that the United States and its people were qualitatively different from and of course superior to other nations. AE had been in very ill health throughout much of his life, but finally succumbed to gross international lawlessness, torture, military adventurism, corporate greed, racism and many other causes.

No services are planned.

Word for the Day

Mistrial: A trial that becomes invalid because of basic prejudicial error in procedure; a trial that terminates without a verdict because of error, necessity, prejudicial misconduct, or a hung jury.

Lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi, a Sunni Arab who represented Saddam and his half brother Barzan Ibrahim, was abducted from his home Wednesday morning by men wearing police uniforms, his colleagues said. His body was found riddled with bullets on a street near the Shiite slum of Sadr City. Police provided a photo of al-Obeidi’s face, head and shoulders drenched in blood.

Moron of the Month

The award for June goes to "Al" for this brilliant comment in the online Chicago Tribune:

"So, let me get this straight: our involvement in the middle east is intended to DE-stabilize an unstable part of the world? That is beyond idiotic. Unless democracy spreads in the middle east, the 13th century will continue to flourish, eventually appearing on our very streetcorners and killing with impugnity anything that doesn't bow to Allah. Saying `this war is all about making money for Mr. Bush's corporate cronies' is ridiculous as well, since there's a very large hole in the ground in New York City that proves otherwise."

Amazing.

The Word for the Day

The word for today is:

OCCUPATION: The invasion, conquest, and control of a nation or territory by foreign armed forces.

Boys and girls, THAT is what is happening in Iraq. It isn't a "war," a contest with a foreseeable outcome and, more importantly, a winner and a loser. It is merely an occupation, a bloody, ugly occupation, that will someday come to a bitter and forgettable end.

BTW, thanks to all for the kind words--P

Someone help me here

One thing I've never understood is on what grounds our country (or others, for that matter) say to other countries, like, say, North Korea - "We can have all the ICBM's that we want, but you can't have any." I know Kim Jong Il is nuttier than a bucket of nuts, but as a sovereign nation (which, again, sovereignty means being sovereign), don't they get to decide if they want the same military capabilities that we have? Who are we, their dad?

Kudos

Kudos to I Drew This: