September 2003

September 29, 2003

Judy Miller Watch

This piece by Douglas Jehl should prompt the Times to publish a Jayson Blair-ish correction/apology/mea culpa for the complete and utter bullshit Judith Miller wrote about Iraq for the past year.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Partial Poll Data

Walter Pincus takes a closer look at a couple of recent polls cited by pro-war folk and administration officials, and finds that Iraqis' love of occupation isn't what it's cracked up to be.

The Unbuilding of Iraq

Newsweek has an excellent anaylsis of the bungled occupation, with lots of juicy quotes and an inside-the-ropes look at the State vs. Defense Department battle. Highly recommended.

Just doing the news roundup here ... Time also has a story about "what went wrong." And a much better cover:

Tricky Dick Trickier than the Original?

But behind the scenes, the Atta meeting remained tantalizing to Cheney and his staff. Libby -- along with deputy national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, a longtime Cheney associate -- began pushing to include the Atta claim in Powell's appearance before the U.N. Security Council a week after the State of the Union speech. Powell's presentation was aimed at convincing the world of Iraq's ties to terrorists and its pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

On Jan. 25, with a stack of notebooks at his side, color-coded with the sources for the information, Libby laid out the potential case against Iraq to a packed White House situation room. "We read [their proposal to include Atta] and some of us said, 'Wow! Here we go again,' " said one official who helped draft the speech. "You write it. You take it out, and then it comes back again."

September 24, 2003

The Week of Living Dangerously

Poor Karim Kadim. Last Thursday the AP photographer's car was shot up and he dodged three 50-caliber machine gun rounds. Yesterday he and his equally unlucky driver were detained and made to stand for three hours in 110 degree heat.

What's the over-under before the US finally takes this guy out? The book says 14 days.

September 17, 2003

WTF?

We have seen that when we have an incident in the conduct of our operations, when we killed an innocent civilian, based on their ethic, their values, their culture, they would seek revenge.

-- Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez

Of course, revenge is never part of white, Christian cultures.

September 15, 2003

Delayed Retraction

Yesterday on Meet the Press Dick Cheney said he "misspoke" in his March 16, 2003 MTP appearance when he claimed Saddam Hussein had "reconstituted nuclear weapons." Better late than never, I suppose, but why did it take him 6 months?

September 12, 2003

That's Our Report For Tonight

If anyone caught Nightline last night, about 1/2 of the show was about the ongoing guerrilla war and pre-Taliban vibe going on in Afghanistan ... something written about here a couple of days ago.

Anyhow, Koppel closed the show with a bit I found especially true and poignant:

It's a tough call. When roughly 3,000 people -- most of them Americans, but people from all over the world -- are killed in four synchronized acts of terrorism on one bloody day, attention must be paid. The survivors, the mourners, deserve to know that millions of us grieve with them.

And yet.

By repeatedly emphasizing our sense of national loss, we also give satisfaction and encouragement to the architects of the next atrocity. When, early on, President Bush spoke about bringing Osama bin Laden to justice "Dead or Alive," it raised his visibility to that of an international superstar.

Terrorism is a strategy of the weak. To the degree that we magnify the importance of a terrorist leader, or emphasize the impact of a terrorist act, or tamper with our own civil liberties, we endow our enemies with the very qualities they lack.

We can grieve silently. We can hunt our enemies down without bravado. They will only have the power to undermine our values if we grant it to them.

We Have A Winner

The winner of last week's caption contest is Steve. Steve, if you're out there, drop me a line and I'll arrange for some RE or dack.com swag to be sent your way.

"George, we're going to make your Yale hazing look like your National Guard Duty."

September 10, 2003

Operation Enduring Guerrilla War

Completely lost in the hubub over W's $87b request is the proposed expenditure for Operation Enduring Freedom. As you may recall, this was the war in Afghanistan the US won almost two years ago.

Yesterday the Financial Times reported an $11b chunk of the $87b is slated for continuing operations in Afghanistan. (A much smaller amount -- $800m -- is for reconstruction.)

Given that there are only about 11,000 US troops in Afghanistan, simple math says it costs $1m per soldier for a year's worth of deployment, which seems godawfully expensive. It's not like we're launching $2m missiles at mud huts anymore ... at least not yet. All I can figure is the warlords are price gouging. Bastards.

September 08, 2003

Abandon All Hope

In case you missed it over the weekend:

Nearing the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, seven in 10 Americans continue to believe that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had a role in the attacks, even though the Bush administration and congressional investigators say they have no evidence of this.

Part of the 70% is 32-year-old teacher (a teacher for chrissakes!) Kim Morrison:

From what we've heard from the media, it seems like what they feel is that Saddam and the whole al Qaeda thing are connected.

Juan Cole sums things up nicely today:

Although eccentric billionnaire reactionaries like Rupert Murdoch and Richard Mellon Scaife have managed to bamboozle 69% of Americans into believing that Saddam had something to do with September 11, he did not. And any informed person knows he did not.

September 05, 2003

What Is He Saying?

Best entry receives a RE t-shirt (when they go into production).

September 04, 2003

End Run 'Round Rummy

While Dexter Filkins is writing about jogging in Baghdad, the Washington Post continues to kick the Times' ass with yet another great scoop.

In what was billed as a routine session, Powell told Bush that they had to go to the United Nations with a resolution seeking a U.N.-sanctioned military force in Iraq -- something the administration had resisted for nearly five months. Powell, whose department had long favored such an action, informed the commander in chief that the military brass supported the State Department's position despite resistance by the Pentagon's civilian leadership. Bush and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, whose office had been slow to embrace the U.N. resolution, quickly agreed, according to administration officials who described the episode.

Perhaps the beginning of the end for Rumsfeld?

UPDATE: Powell calls WaPo article "total fiction".

September 03, 2003

Down-Home Comix Presents...

The Merry Antics Of Cowboy George & Uncle Osama!

Once...
"Osama bin Laden is a prime suspect and the people who house him, encourage him, provide food, comfort or money, are on notice. I want justice. And there is an old poster out West. As I recall it said: 'Wanted, Dead or Alive.'"

Then...
"We don’t know where he is. And frankly, it's not about him."

And...
"We don't know when, where, what."

But...
"His priority is to use biological weapons. ... Osama's next step will be unbelievable."

So...
We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when
But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day

Now, wasn't that funny?

September 02, 2003

Non-Walking Wounded

Yet another scoop by the Post.

Although Central Command keeps a running total of the wounded, it releases the number only when asked -- making the combat injuries of U.S. troops in Iraq one of the untold stories of the war.

With no fanfare and almost no public notice, giant C-17 transport jets arrive virtually every night at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, on medical evacuation missions. Since the war began, more than 6,000 service members have been flown back to the United States. The number includes the 1,124 wounded in action, 301 who received non-hostile injuries in vehicle accidents and other mishaps, and thousands who became physically or mentally ill.