If only the US really meant to only liberate, then the war would be moral.

Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 8 2005 2:44 utc | 34

W/A Nod to Lupin – Mort Sahl on xAmerica.
Mort walks into Michael Caine’s London Restaurant.
Michael walks over. Welcomes him. Asks what he’s doing there.
Mort Sahl: Haven’t you heard. We’ve returned. The experiment failed….

Posted by: jj | Mar 8 2005 4:37 utc | 36

possum,
that is great song of Joni Mitchell´s. Downloaded it and listening to it right now. I hadn´t heard it before. It fits my mood.
So save those bottles of beaujelais and lets see how long it takes for that better and calmer future to arrive. Not to long I hope.

Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Mar 8 2005 7:41 utc | 38

“Les forces étrangères devront partir d’Irak aussi tôt que possible”, déclare le chef de l’Alliance chiite
Anglais

Posted by: Yankee go home | Mar 8 2005 8:27 utc | 40

Odysseus to Telemachus
My dear Telemachus,
the Trojan War
is over now; I don’t recall who won it.
The Greeks, no doubt, for only they would leave
so many dead so far from their own homeland.
But still, my homeward way has proved too long.
While we were wasting time there, old Poseidon,
it almost seems, stretched and extended space.
I don’t know where I am or what this place
can be. It would appear some filthy island
with bushes, buildings, and great grunting pigs,
a garden choked with weeds; some queen or other,
grass and huge stones…Telemachus, my son!
To a wanderer, the faces of all islands
resemble one another, and the mind
trips, numbering waves; eyes, sore with sea horizons,
run; and the flesh of water fills the ears.
I can’t remember how the war came out;
or even how old you are — I can’t remember.
Grow up, then, my Telemachus, grow strong.
Only the Gods know if we’ll see each other
again. You’ve long since ceased to be that babe
before whom I reined in the ploughing bullocks.
Had it not been for Palamedes’ trick
we two would still be living in one household.
But maybe he was right; away from me
you are quite safe from all Oedipal passions,
and your dreams, my Telemachus, are blameless
————————
Joseph Brodsky

Posted by: Urgh | Mar 8 2005 11:42 utc | 42

Riverbend.

The irony of the situation lay in the fact that Sgrena was probably safer with her abductors than she was with American troops. It didn’t come as a surprise to hear her car was fired at. Was it done on purpose? It’s hard to tell. I can’t think why they would want to execute Giuliana Sgrena and her entourage, but then on the other hand, I can’t think how it could have possibly happened that they managed to fire that many rounds at a car carrying Italian intelligence officers and a journalist (usually they save those rounds for Iraqi families in cars).

Posted by: beq | Mar 8 2005 15:46 utc | 44

thanks beq
Interference:
The U.S. and France beat on Syria to move its troops out of Lybia (Syria put them in after being asked by those countries to do so). The propaganda reason “free election in Lebanon without foreign troops” sounds just not right to me (didn´t we ever had free elections in Germany after 1945?)
Some 10,000 people in Lebanon have demonstrated for Syria to leave applauded by the U.S. and others. Now 500,000 pro-Syrian protestors attend Beirut show of force.
So what will the media argue now?

Posted by: b | Mar 8 2005 16:06 utc | 46

Well, if you’re the NYT, you report the pro-Syrian protests but then swiftly dismiss these huge demonstrations as a lost cause.

Posted by: slothrop | Mar 8 2005 18:07 utc | 48

I never thought I would live to love a Liberal but Sen. Byrd is becoming one of my contemporary heros. Senator Byrd is Correct to Equate Bush With Hitler

He is, imo, the only one in the US Senate that has been trying to accurately and consistently call a spade a spade, a black heart a black heart, and encroaching fascist tendencies an immediate threat to be dealt with immediately.
He is one of the most politically powerful opponents of the assault of empire upon both the world and ourselves. As an octogenarian he obviously doesn’t have a lot to loose personally from the perspective of a life most generously and servingly lived, so he is not too easily cowed by the ominous eventuality of those other few real “speak truth to power” patriots no longer with us.

Posted by: Juannie | Mar 8 2005 19:48 utc | 50

In the past we have discussed currencies and ways that you can gain exposure to a USD weakening trade. I believe you will find interesting the attached term sheet for the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) FX note we are launching. In summary, GS research expects the BRICs to experience strong growth relative to the rest of the world, and a currency appreciation will be an important instrument for fighting inflationary pressures in the respective economies. Our expectations of a removal of the CNY peg, would also significantly benefit this basket because an appreciation of the CNY would ease pressures off other currencies, hence making it more likely that the other BRIC’s would allow their currencies to appreciate further. The very attractive positive carry in Brazil contributes to the cheapening of the overall pricing of the basket. Additionally, the BRICs basket can be viewed as a broad play on the emerging currencies as it provides clients exposure to Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, and the US.

Posted by: conchita | Mar 9 2005 2:31 utc | 52

whooops! – must learn to proof more often before posting. what i meant to say as an intro to my earlier post at 9:31 was – for those discussing BRICs a week or so ago,i thought it might be interesting to see how an investment manager at goldman sachs recently pitched them to a client. and for those wondering, no, the client did not bite. here it is again, and hopefully it will make more sense that i posted it:
In the past we have discussed currencies and ways that you can gain exposure to a USD weakening trade. I believe you will find interesting the attached term sheet for the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) FX note we are launching. In summary, GS research expects the BRICs to experience strong growth relative to the rest of the world, and a currency appreciation will be an important instrument for fighting inflationary pressures in the respective economies. Our expectations of a removal of the CNY peg, would also significantly benefit this basket because an appreciation of the CNY would ease pressures off other currencies, hence making it more likely that the other BRIC’s would allow their currencies to appreciate further. The very attractive positive carry in Brazil contributes to the cheapening of the overall pricing of the basket. Additionally, the BRICs basket can be viewed as a broad play on the emerging currencies as it provides clients exposure to Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, and the US.

Posted by: conchita | Mar 9 2005 4:04 utc | 54

White House Cuts Entire Chapter from Economic Report

The National Security Council (NSC) had an entire chapter on Iraq’s economy deleted from the “Economic Report of the President” simply because it would interfere with the positive tone of the rest of the report. The report is produced annually by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), a supposedly independent advisory entity. The unprecedented move is yet another example of the Bush administration’s willingness to manipulate expert and scientific information for political reasons.
…
The missing chapter addresses the development of the Iraqi banking system, financial markets and other economic institutions. Apparently, the chapter portrayed Iraq’s economic emergence positively and it was believed that this would clash with current military difficulties in Iraq, and therefore would undermine the administration’s credibility. The White House has downplayed the deleted chapter, explaining that it did not belong in a report on the American economy. Given that the CEA produces the “Economic Report of the President” every year, one would expect that the CEA understands best the appropriate material to cover.
…

Posted by: Fran | Mar 9 2005 8:56 utc | 56

And oh God, then there’s this secret weapon

Posted by: anna missed | Mar 9 2005 9:33 utc | 58

Please disregard the above link, in checking if the link worked, I noticed,at the bottom, that it was not a US helecopter, funny how you can get so accustomed to absurdity.

Posted by: anna missed | Mar 9 2005 10:37 utc | 60

alabama
The disgruntled “evangelical” professor appeared on O’Reilly. It’s interesting and predictable how this professor is used as an emblem of presumably “status quo” “leftist” intolerance at the university. “Patriotism” and “God” and other godterms are under seige by “whacko” leftists. O’Reilly: The masternarratives may not survive! Help!
Scrutiny of scholarship is important among scholars, but unless it’s science, all of that scholarship is just “opinions.” Even good peer-reviewed social research (like the Lancet study on Iraqi casualties) are easily demoted in the mediatized public sphere as so many opinions. Gone are the good old days of influential research and the influence of the public intellectual.

Posted by: slothrop | Mar 9 2005 17:12 utc | 62

Why don’t they listen to us? Speaking to the Working Class

Posted by: Anguished armchair revolutionary | Mar 9 2005 17:26 utc | 64

Lind More Newspeak

One of the classic signs of ideology at work is the redefinition of words to empty them of their meaning. An article by Greg Jaffe in the February 16 Wall Street Journal, “New Factor in Iraq: Irregular Brigades Fill Security Void,” describes the rapid spread of militias in that unhappy place, which is probably now more accurately called Mesopotamia. The story is based largely on the work of one U.S. Marine Corps officer, Major Chris Wales, in tracking the new militias. But it also quotes Major Wales as saying, “We don’t call them militias. Militias are … illegal.”
…
Like the American destruction of Fallujah and the recent Iraqi elections, the rise and spread of Shiite militias devoted to fighting Sunni insurgents puts ever-greater pressure on Iraq’s Sunnis to cast their lot with the insurgency. Shiite militias in particular leave them little choice; who else but the insurgents will protect them from Shiite militiamen? The situation in Germany during the Thirty Years’ War may be an analogy: though many tried, few German princes could avoid casting their lots either with the Protestants or with the Catholics. Neutrality meant you became the victim of both.

Posted by: b | Mar 9 2005 17:41 utc | 66

As for class-consciousness, this was linked by atrios today, demonstrating even in the congenitally fetishized conscience of the average “Freeper” something like political consciousness is fleetingly possible.
Maybe the blog will save us, and, oh, the tendential overaccumulation of capital motivating elites to act transparently against workers.

Posted by: slothrop | Mar 9 2005 17:58 utc | 68

Ahmed Chalabi nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Posted by: Alfred | Mar 9 2005 18:30 utc | 70

slothrop, my thoughts were of an enterprise admittedly far more modest than the hopeless task of chilling out an O’Reilly (only a harrassment case could do that): for me it’s a matter of holding one’s ground within the university sphere–maintaining solid criteria for appointment and retention, that sort of thing.

Posted by: alabama | Mar 9 2005 18:42 utc | 72

When does abuse become torture, when does journalism become enemy activity

Posted by: anna missed | Mar 9 2005 19:27 utc | 74

Concerning b’s post above on Saddam’s capture, I remember reading at the time that he had in fact been captured a while earlier by a tribal chief who had a feud with one of Saddam’s sons and subsequently sold to the Americans, who drugged him, put him in that hole and staged the whole capture operation. It sounded credible to me, not only because Saddam appeared to be drugged out of his mind, but also because nobody with an ounce of sanity would bury himself alive inside a tiny hole whose cover could only be lifted with outside help.

Posted by: pedro | Mar 10 2005 2:39 utc | 76

American ‘contractor’ killed in Iraq
Take a look at his C.V. and then at his ‘job’. Any guesses what his real work was?

Posted by: Nugget | Mar 10 2005 6:09 utc | 78

A remarkable blog, if it can really be called a blog: The Man Who Ate Dictionaries.

Posted by: pedro | Mar 10 2005 6:59 utc | 80

An aide to Planning Minister Mehdi al-Hafedh said on Thursday that foreign security guards, not assassins, opened fire on him in Baghdad on Wednesday.
Hafedh, a key figure in efforts to rebuild the country, escaped injury as he was driving to the house of former foreign minister Adnan Pachachi, but two of his guards were killed and one was wounded.
Police initially said the shooting had been an attempt to assassinate the minister. They later said it appeared to have been a mistake by foreign security guards.
“I don’t know why they attacked. An investigation is just starting,” a Planning Ministry official said.

Posted by: Ooops! | Mar 10 2005 9:42 utc | 82

Der Spiegel: MIDDLE EASTERN ATTITUDES – The United States Is “Agressive, Morally Decadent and Racist”

end of the Cold War resulted in a dozen countries embracing democracy and the values of the West. But that, suggests a new study on Middle Eastern public opinion released by the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan in February, is not likely to happen this time. The countries and bodies surveyed — Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian Authority — suggest that the so-called “Arab Street” doesn’t see the existence of an over-arching conflict of values between the West and the Middle East at all. Rather, the tensions are seen almost completely as a result of United States and British foreign policies in the region.
Viewing the US as aggressive and racist
The survey, which specifically concentrated on attitudes toward the US, the United Kingdom and France, painted a bleak picture. The words most associated with the US and the UK were “racist,” “aggressive,” “morally decadent” and “imperialistic” among other uncomplimentary concepts. France was less harshly judged. It’s not all bad, however. Western societies are seen as bastions of liberalism, individual liberty and technical progress, yet they are plagued by social problems. The countries surveyed see themselves as having a stronger adherence to tradition and to family.
It is in the area of foreign policy, however, where most of the disgust with Western countries seems to lie — and where it becomes apparent that the Middle East has a much more nuanced view of the West than many occidental commentators would have one believe. Indeed, anger is directed squarely toward the US (a country that many feel is steered by a “Zionist lobby”) and the UK. Over 70 percent in the countries surveyed, with the exception of Lebanon, felt that the US and the UK attempt to dominate countries through the offer of foreign aid and fewer than two in 10 Egyptians, Syrians and Palestinians see the US as supporting democracy in the region. The US was also seen as a major violator of human rights. France, on the other hand, a country which steered clear of the Iraq war and which is lauded for its respectful dealings with the Middle East, came out smelling like roses.

Posted by: Fran | Mar 10 2005 15:24 utc | 84

beq, maybe by the time Dubya is done, he can blog by drawing pictures and coloring them, maybe it can even be done by numbers.

Posted by: Fran | Mar 10 2005 16:03 utc | 86

Well, reading the first entries way back makes me think it’s a bit fishy, to say the less. The guy got clever with time and it’s quite better now, but that still looks fishy, like the post about Syria and Lebanon, which sounds too neo-connish for my taste.
Not that I’m the only one to doubt its genuineness.
It’s decently written and quite thought-out, and that’s clearly someone with way too much time on his hands. And a wingnut, to boot.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Mar 10 2005 16:21 utc | 88