Antiwar.com Blog

Brian Doherty posts on the Reason Hit & Run blog that the US troops in Iraq are barred from Russ Kick’s Memory Hole site.

Check out the first response by Kevin Carson:

Only makes sense. After all, they’re over there “fighting for our freedoms.” Stands to reason they can’t be allowed to read just anything they want–they might get the wrong ideas.

This is a war for freedom, that could last forever. Freedom is a luxury we can’t afford until it’s over.

Which reminds me of an insightful Medium Lobster post on Fafblog!:

Recently a few distressed voices in the wilderness have been raised in alarm at the newest, darkest, and most dangerous threat to America’s success in the war on terror: the media. Morton Kondracke recently pointed out that the media “is in danger of talking the United States into defeat in Iraq. And the results would be catastrophic.” He goes on to pin the West’s Iraq problems squarely where they belong: on the media’s fixation with the Abu Ghraib scandal. How astute, Mr Kondracke! For it was in fact the press’s obsession with military torture that allowed the the Shiite and Sunni insurgencies to claim whole cities from the American occupation.

But what to do about this pernicious enemy within? Analytical wunderkind and concerned lover of law Glenn Reynolds muses, “Freedom of the press, as it exists today (and didn’t exist, really, until the 1960s) is unlikely to survive if a majority — or even a large and angry minority — of Americans comes to conclude that the press is untrustworthy and unpatriotic.” Quite true, Professor Reynolds. And America will likely need that angry minority if we’re to inforce patriotism on our press, and end the nightmarish salvo of information and journalism that threatens to cripple the war effort. For this is not merely a war for freedom. Indeed, it is also a war against freedom – specifically, that freedom which seeks to destroy freedom…..(read the rest…)

So, everybody needs to stop worrying about freedom! We can always worry about freedom later after we’re done fighting for freedom, because too many freedoms are bad for the war for freedom.

Same as the Old Puppets…….

Any hopes that new faces would appear as the “interim government” died yesterday as the Puppet Council basically reshuffled itself and was reincarnated as the “interim government.” Apparently, the first order of business for the New Iraqi Prime Minister® involves assuring the people of Iraq that he’s still an American tool who intends to grant the American military’s fondest wish, a SOFA agreement and basing rights in Iraq.

The only comment so far from Iraqis outside the “Green Zone” hothouse:

Al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim who has sharply criticised U.S. policy in Iraq, will hold the largely symbolic post of president, while the more powerful position of prime minister goes to Allawi, a U.S.-backed Shiite Muslim with military and CIA connections.

Allawi, whose appointment was announced Friday, was chosen because he was considered the best candidate to cope with the deteriorating security situation.

As word of the appointment was announced, a car bomb blew up outside the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which is located just outside the green zone U.S. coalition headquarters in central Baghdad.

The Arab language television stations Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya quoted police as saying about 10 people were killed, but the information could not immediately be confirmed. Another blast, followed by gunfire, sent a mushroom cloud billowing into the air. Coalition aircraft could be heard flying over Baghdad.

---

UPDATE: High farce

---

UPDATE: Rock-solid proof that I’m right.

From the generally rotten weblog No Treason, an exceptional entry by John Lopez:

A Brief Note On The Terror War

If you think the greatest danger to your life is from Islamic radicals, then try this thought experiment:

Go burn a Koran on your front lawn. Then, go sit on your front lawn holding your shiny, new, unregistered machinegun.

Question: Who will come after you first, the jihadists, or your local police?

I want answers from Wayne LaPierre, Dave Kopel, and co.

If Chalabi is an Iranian spy and “on the outs” with the USGOVCPA, why is he in Najaf making peace deals?

CNN is reporting:

About 100 Iraqi police who arrived in Najaf over the past week to begin joint patrols with U.S.-led coalition forces on Sunday apparently deserted their posts, U.S. military officials said.

In the past few days, U.S. forces coordinated and trained with the Iraqi police to begin the patrols in the Shiite holy city that has been besieged by fighting between U.S. forces and the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

It is not clear why the police left the city, but their disappearance added to the skepticism at the U.S. military base in Najaf that a unilateral peace agreement announced three days ago by Shiite representatives would quell the ongoing violence.

100 “police” disappeared? And in Baghdad, not to be outdone by the Saudi hostage takers, a convoy of “westerners” was shot up and the “survivors” dragged away:

Gunmen attacked three civilian vehicles carrying foreigners in northwest Baghdad Sunday, killing two Westerners and seizing three others, witnesses and police at the scene said.

Two of the four-wheel-drive vehicles, of the type used by foreign contractors, employees of the U.S.-led administration and some media in Iraq, appeared to have collided after coming under fire on a main highway, and two bodies could be seen.

Locals and police said the attackers had dragged away three survivors of the attack. Their fate was unknown.

In one of the cars, a dark-colored sports utility vehicle, both front airbags had inflated and were stained red with blood. Bloodstains were also soaked into the back seat.

Nearby, a white four-wheel-drive vehicle had its front staved in by the force of the collision.

After the attack, locals set the two vehicles ablaze, and later shooting erupted between gunmen and police at the scene.

Meanwhile, Duhbya is playing with Saddam’s pistol:

A handgun that Saddam Hussein was clutching when U.S. forces captured him in a hole in Iraq last December is now kept by President Bush at the White House, Time magazine reported Sunday.
[…]
Bush shows Saddam’s gun to select visitors, telling them it is unloaded, both now and when Saddam was captured, Time reported.

“He really liked showing it off,” Time quoted a visitor who had seen the gun as saying. “He was really proud of it.”

Well, as long as Duhbya gets to show off his war trophies to his buddies in Washington, I guess all the death, violence and chaos is worth it.

Reading A1 critiqes NY Times omsbudsman Okrent’s comment on the notorious “Editor’s Note” non-apology for hyping disinformation about Saddam Hussein’s nonexistent WMD. An excerpt:

The word from Pastor Dan. Daniel Okrent’s rhetorical stance is always, “We journalists.” His job, as he seems to take it, is to offer the (perversely uncomprehending) masses a glimpse into the mysteries of the trade. Okrent writes as if the “public” part of public editor were a suggestion of taint: as if his chief concern was to make sure that nobody in the fraternity could mistake him for one of those hairy, gap-toothed outsiders.

Read the rest…..

Billmon has an interesting insight on the Okrent piece, which makes the “Editors Note” seem even more craven and self-serving than it did when I first read it. Check out his timeline.

Oh, and don’t miss this little nugget from Okrent: “While I’m on the subject: Readers were never told that Chalabi’s niece was hired in January 2003 to work in The Times’s Kuwait bureau. She remained there until May of that year.“