Category Archives: Iraq

We Need More of This

Posted on October 30, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

I don't endorse every word of this, but I like the spirit of it.

Davis Fleetwood, STUDENTS: A CHALLENGE FOR YOU:

Yes, we need lots more of this.

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Icelandic Army of One Heads Home from Iraq

Posted on October 1, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

It seems that Iceland was one of the countries counted in the 'coalition of the willing' in Iraq — even though it had exactly one soldier on the ground, a press aide. And now, the coalition is down one member because he's going home.

Comedian Andy Cobb has done a video to commemorate this event:

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Spanish ‘Downing Street Papers’

Posted on September 26, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

They're calling the scoop by El Pais the Spanish Downing Street Memo.

Just as with the UK version, the leaked Spanish transcript of a talk between GWB and Spanish PM Aznar in February 2003 shows Bush planning to invade privately while publicly denying it. This time he's saying,

Saddam Husein will not change and will keep on playing games. The time has come to get rid of him. That's the way it is. For my part, I will try, from now on, to use the most subtle rhetoric possible, while we seek approval of the resolution

In other words, as if you didn't know, the invasion decision was taken well before the authorizing resolution.

But, come on people, were there really many folks who thought Bush had sent basically the whole US Army to sit on Iraq's borders just to bring them home again?

No, the issue now is if they ever get to come home.

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Rats

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

In 14 Spy Squirrels In Iranian Custody we learn that Iranian authorities have recently arrested more than a dozen squirrels for espionage. Unfortunately, this has no connection with the other piece of Middle-East bait-related news, U.S. Aims To Lure Insurgents With 'Bait': Snipers Describe Classified Program.

From the second story:

A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of “bait,” such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.

From the first story:

“In recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran's borders,” state-sponsored news agency IRNA reported. “The squirrels were carrying spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services.”

One story is horrific — our tax money is now being used to shoot civilians who bend over to investigate shiny stuff on the street — and the other story is just weird. The article is silent as to what sort of bait was used to catch the squirrels.

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Priorities

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

The Democrats (and a some Republicans) want to increase funding for medical care for poor children. The specter of healthy poor children cased by the expenditure of tax money has so terrified GW Bush that it has turned him into a born-again fiscal tightwad, or so his stennographers would have it. (Actually, for some strange reason the stenography is silent on the subject of the children…)

The debate is pretty simple: how many kids to insure in the federal scheme, with the understanding that as the number grows, the program reaches up into the working poor and even if funded to Democratic levels, substantially above the poverty line.

The Speaker's office has more on the issue, along with a nice chart comparing the cost of this program to a few weeks of the Iraq occupation. (They call it a war.)

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Political Dysfunction on a Cosmic Scale

Posted on September 12, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

alicublog writes:

It is worth noting that today's session was mainly about a plan for withdrawal from an occupation which is disapproved by citizens of the occupying country as well as those of the occupied country. But neither the Democratic leadership nor the Republican Administration perceive a political benefit to themselves from a quick exit. So they talk about timetables and drawdown and leave it to their operatives to spin the analysis to their advantage.

I found my way there because Kevin Drum says it's one of the funniest blogs and I wanted a laugh.

Myself, I think you need a pretty bleak sense of humor to find this funny.

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