On PC Culture

This piece emerged out of a Facebook discussion of an article by Yasha Mounk at The Atlantic, the headline of which reads:

Americans Strongly Dislike PC Culture

Youth isn’t a good proxy for support of political correctness, and race isn’t either.

Oct 10, 2018

According to the report, 25 percent of Americans are traditional or devoted conservatives, and their views are far outside the American mainstream. Some 8 percent of Americans are progressive activists, and their views are even less typical. By contrast, the two-thirds of Americans who don’t belong to either extreme constitute an “exhausted majority.” Their members “share a sense of fatigue with our polarized national conversation, a willingness to be flexible in their political viewpoints, and a lack of voice in the national conversation.”

Most members of the “exhausted majority,” and then some, dislike political correctness. Among the general population, a full 80 percent believe that “political correctness is a problem in our country.” Even young people are uncomfortable with it, including 74 percent ages 24 to 29, and 79 percent under age 24. On this particular issue, the woke are in a clear minority across all ages.

The conversation began with a suggestion that the Left's focus on so-called "political correctness" was a decisive factor in turning people off to the Democrats, and that of course in some case, defending the marginalized is "virtue signalling."

The media has been trashing the term "political correctness" since the '90's. It's far from surprising that the term isn't popular. Hey if 75% of Americans want to go back to calling Asians "chinks" and "ching chongs," am I "virtue signalling" if I suggest that perhaps that isn't such a good thing? "Oh but we didn't mean it like THAT. That's not okay," they will say. But it's still the same PC culture they supposedly hate so much. There is broad agreement that SOME terms aren't ok; the devil is in where you draw the line! Like: "'Ching chongs' for Asians, no, of course not. But now I gotta use the term Latinx? What the?"

Yet t's the same basic premises. "Try not to offend people." "Call people what they want to be called." I have to imagine 75% of Americans recognize that using "the N-word" against African Americans is problematic, yet we apparently reject "PC culture" anyway. This speaks to the nebulousness of the term "PC," and the relentless media reaction against so-called PC culture. All sorts of people claim to be "against PC," but they would never dream of calling American Indians "red****s," nor calling black folks by the N word. Yet refusing to do so would apparently follow the same thought process that leads to the Horrible Terrible "PC Culture." If, as the article claims, 88% of Native Americans have a beef with nebulous "PC-culture," I guess that is what it is. Sure, whatever. When 88% of Native Americans think that the calling natives "red****s," or using "the N-word" is fine, I guess we could talk.

It's easy to make PC-culture into the bogeyman, like really easy, when the term is as ill-defined as it is in the article, and when the media has been bashing it the way it has for so. Fucking. Long.

Personally I try to err in the side of inclusivity, and calling folks what they actually want to be called. I don't use "the N-word" to refer to the African American people I see around me, because I have come to understand that they don't like being called that by white folks. And pissing people off is never a great idea.

The term "Latinx" is newer to me, in speaking of my Hispanic neighbors, colleagues, students etc. While I tend to defer to Hispanic right off the bat, if someone indicates to me that they PREFER TO BE CALLED Latinx, then Latinx it will be. I have a couple of gender non-binary friends who now want to be called "they," even when speaking just about them in the singular form. While I don't always get it right, if they want to be called they, who am I to tell them they shouldn't? It's just not that hard.

There is bad behavior, of course, with any issue as loaded with complex connections, like "identity." Sure, I reckon we should try avoid Outrage Appropriation, trying to speak FOR some group of which I'm not a member.

But at the end of the day, I don't hold PC culture responsible for the Trump Presidency, and I don't think that "people just relaxing and being cooler about things" is a path toward electoral victory. The Right Wing and its allies are responsible for the ascendance of Mr. Trump. It is not the paltry and powerless left's fault.

And this article kinda sounds like it's making EXCUSES for the psuedo-fascists in the GOP. "I mean yeah Trumpsters are pure evil, but it's really the Democratic left's fault." I mean we've all got our foibles, but when it's "ends democracy in favor of autocratic dictatorship," as the down side to one part of the equation, and "too sensitive," on the other, I'll go with the too-sensitive side every damned day, and I'll do it proudly.

These people steal immigrant children from their parents, and tell us we can't curb fossil fuel emissions because "too late, catastrophic climate change is a done deal anyway," but somehow it's really, seriously, if you just stare hard enough at this one thing, the Left's fault for giving us Trump. All those frothing racists in MAGA hats, and fatcat bankers in Wall Street and fucking Vladimir Putin were all just "incidental" to the whole thing?

And what is the UPSHOT here? I mean sure, I'm a hetero white dude, so I can't claim to always "get it" when people around me talk about micro-aggressions. But I can hear them out, and try to be mindful about it. EXAMPLE: I have a friend who attended Lakes of Fire last year, and was angry that some people felt it was fine to just touch her hair. As a WOC, that bothered her somewhat; not enough to call the cops, not enough to sue anyone, but it bothered her; perhaps a "micro-aggression," if you will. Is the suggestion here that she should just, ya know, shut up about it?

The Democratic Left has spent my entire adult life trying to "win over" conservatives and independents and others who may be "turned off," by the PC bogeyman. Do you think that if we just muzzled all the stuff about micro-aggression, and cultural appropriation etc., that somehow the MAGA people would start voting for Bernie Sanders? That's hogwash.

We have been chasing moderates since Michael Dukakis said: "Well I am not a liberal," in 1988. Perhaps we ought to try actually standing up for marginalized groups we all go around claiming we care so much about.

One more thing. PC culture works two ways, ya know. I mean, we don't call them "spooks, liars and torturers," we call them "the Intelligence Community." We don't call them "racist rednecks," we call them "Trump voters." We don't (anymore) call them "Bible thumping holy-rollers," we call them "Christian conservatives." We sure as shit don't, and never really did, call them "honkies and crackers," we call them whites. This shit works two ways. But only the PC culture from the left side is supposedly a problem. Go figure.

We're Overthinking Stuff . . . .

Can we please stop acting all "surprised" and saying "Well gee whiz, how come the Evangelicals support that amoral asshole sitting in the White House?" Are we JUST NOW figuring out that it has nothing to do with Christian Values? Next time I see yet another 3,000-word "think piece" about "Here's the special secret as to why the Christian Right supports someone who doesn't reflect their values," I'm gonna puke blood on my keyboard. Four words: "They lust for power." End of fucking analysis. How are people making money pretending to have "analyzed this troubling question"-? It's as simple as could be.

In these times . . . .

I don't know what it says about us as a nation that, while our political system craters into authoritarianism, we are concurrently in the golden age of fancy beer and excellent television shows. Similarly, there are more and more variegated flavors of Lays potato chips than ever there have been before. I make no judgments on anyone, and am probably at least as guilty as the next one. But some questions about our collective priorities are probably in the offing.

Finally, an apology about the tragitastrobacle in Iraq.

billmon nails it @ DailyKos.

Mea Culpa

Now that we’ve reached the 10th anniversary of the Iraq invasion, it seems only fit and proper that those of us who opposed the war from the very beginning explain how our errors in judgment led us to be so catastrophically wrong about America’s signature foreign policy achievement of the 21st century.

In particular, I think we should extend a heartfelt apology to the war’s supporters (not least, the many fine pundits at our nation’s leading opinion journals) for the pain and suffering we inflicted with our frequent attacks on their intelligence, humanity, and sanity—and, at times, I’m ashamed to admit, even their patriotism.

There is no question that America’s foreign policy and media elites are the real victims here. Surely no one can deny this . . . [There's more.]

Read it.

Darth Cheney to America, the World: Fuck all y'all!

Well, if you've had your eyes open at least twice or thrice in the last ten years, the following headline and lede should come as zero surprise to you:

Cheney: No regrets

By: CNN's Ashley Killough

(CNN) – When talking about his eight years as vice president, Dick Cheney said he had no regrets from his time working as former President George W. Bush's right-hand man.

"And I'm not inclined to make any mea culpas," Cheney told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview to air on the "Situation Room" Tuesday.

Cheney had an instrumental role in the decision to send troops to Iraq nearly two years after 9/11. Widespread doubts emerged about the government's initial reason for going to war: suspicions that the country had links to terrorist cells and was harboring weapons of mass destruction.

When asked if the current fatality count of more than 4,000 troops in Iraq, coupled with the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the war, made it a worthy endeavor, Cheney said "yes." . . . .

The full blog post is available here.

Jesus Christ.

I wonder if this dingleberry ever sat down with the family of someone who died in Iraq. I rather doubt it.

Look, no one will ever confuse Darth Cheney for the self-reflective "I'm-my-own-worst-critic" type, but even by the standards of someone furiously digging up Satan himself from the deepest trenches of hell, this interview is an even further debasement of unimaginably repugnant proportions. As if to say, "Look what an irredeemable asshole I can be," this pus-filled boil on the taint of humanity gives Wolf Blitzer "the Full Cheney." By that, I mean we are brought into the most fetid, shit-strewn runnels in the deepest crevices of the offal-parts of human existence.

Note that even the uber-corporate toady, Wolf Blitzer (who was practically coming in his pants during the run-up to the War on Iraq, and who STILL MANAGED to fluff the Dark One as a kind of "vintage Cheney" during the write-up, as if that was something that anyone wanted to see) elicited the following remarks, possibly in a likely-to-fail effort to make "news" of the fact that:

"Hey, the former Veep's a real piece o' shit!"

I find it interesting that the headline on Blitzer's more personal blog, which is buried more quickly on CNN's web page, was less forgiving than the headline that was ultimatley frontpaged on the site.

Cheney refuses to admit any mistakes as vice president

For the who are strong of soul, here are a few choice bits of this nauseating interview. Have a mop and bucket ready. You're going to want to puke.

"He strongly defended his record on every single controversial issue I raised with him: the nearly $1 trillion TARP economic bailout package that the Bush administration pushed through Congress during its final weeks; the decision to invade Iraq even though Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11; the failure to kill Osama bin Laden when he was cornered in Tora Bora shortly after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan; and the failure to take any steps in the summer of 2001 when he and President George W. Bush were warned that al Qaeda was planning to attack Americans in the United States."

I'm gonna go hork now. Please give me a minute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Okay I'm back.

Can you handle some more?

I [Blitzer] pointed out to the former vice president that everyone makes mistakes, and there’s nothing wrong with admitting mistakes. We are, after all, only human. No one is perfect.

But he refused to budge. “I'm proud of the policies we put in place. I think they did the job we intended for them to do. And I'm not inclined to make any mea culpas,”"

You're allowed to both puke and have flaming diarrhea - simultaneously, if necessary - at this point. You're only human after all. Take your time. I'll wait . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . . . . . .

Here's some more:

"When I asked him if he had any regrets in Iraq, he said, “I think we made exactly the right decisions.”

Purge it people. Purge it now. It's finger down the throat time, and you know it.

The odd thing here is that, as much as I've wallowed in the shit-strewn sphincters of the discourse with this post, Darth Cheney himself, with his soft, snake-tongued voice and his beady little stare, is actually more offensive than the basest insults I can throw at the guy.

I've always said that I picture Darth Cheney as more of a psychopath than a sociopath, because supposedly sociopaths know that what they're doing is wrong and do it anyway, whereas psychopaths appear to have no awareness of such things, and no remorse. This nauseating interview, and the article to which it lead, only reinforces that belief.

Psychopath Dick Cheney probably sleeps perfectly soundly at night; whereas I suspect that occasionally some really stupid demons may keep George W. awake at night, even as monstrously moronic as they may be.

There was a time in my life when I considered a devil-may-care attitude that rebels against public opinion as worth emulating. I once considered it bold and trend-setting to say: "I don't care what people think." But as Cheney apparently makes crystal-clear in his new book, In My Time "not giving a shit about what all y'all think" ain't exactly what you're looking for in leadership skills for a democracy. Such a perspective may not be such a bad thing from a friend, collaborator, or fellow artist in some cases. But nah, it's not really what you're looking for at the highest levels of an elected leadership . . . they're pretty much supposed to care what giant swaths of the population thinks.

Cheney's book will be coming out soon and it looks like he's going to be crawling out from the lowest depths of Hell's sewer a lot in the next few weeks. If nothing else, it should give us all a healthy reminder of what happens when the rich and powerful are allowed to run amok in a self-aggrandizing binge of war, torture, and greed.

Here's hoping that Darth Cheney's re-emergence from his undisclosed location will remind Americans what the GOoPers are all about, as we sail toward the rough waters of the 2012 elections.

The Video

Well here it is. The check-your-illusions-at-the-door gut check of Bush's Glorious War on Iraq. Take a good look, America. Here is just one of our two terrific wars.

It's really got everything. The Hellish deeds themselves, including "lighting up" a van coming to recover the wounded from the first attack, which was on a bunch of casual-looking folks, one of whom may or may not have had weapons . . . or cameras. Then of course this version has the cover-up. The lie. Yep. This is "The Video." It's got it all summed up in one fell swoop; a tragitastrobacle par excellence, our disastrous War on Iraq.

Thank you Wikileaks.org. Your courage is a beacon of hope.

Petraeus calls for Gitmo to be closed

BWU-OH!

Gen. Petraeus: US violated Geneva Convention, the court of law could try terrorists: we made mistakes after 9/11: Close Gitmo

"Gen. Petraeus joined FOX News and Martha MacCallum today and gave a blockbuster interview, but probably not the one Fox expected. Once again, he called for the responsible closure of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. He also said that mistakes were made after 9/11 and that the Army Field Manual is all that we need to use to interrogate prisoners. In addition, he said that we have to have faith in our judicial system and we should try the Khalid Sheikh Muhammads in a court of law.

Martha tried to give him the ticking time bomb scenario to justify torture and he really didn't bite. He did say maybe an Executive Order could be appropriate, but that it really wasn't necessary. Petraeus repudiated pretty much most of what Limbaugh Republicans and the Rove/Newt/Cheney Party have been saying
(rush transcript)

MacCallum: Where do you think those people should go?

Gen. Petraeus: Well, it's not for a soldier to say. What I do support is what has been termed the responsible closure of Gitmo. Gitmo has caused us problems, there's no question about it. I oversee a region in which the existence of Gitmo has been used by the enemy against us. We have not been without missteps or mistakes in our activity since 9/11 and again Gitmo is a lingering reminder for the use of some in
that regard. "

The 'Cons aren't gonna like this. Petraeus strikes me as a careerist first and foremost. If the administration is pushing "de Surge" then by golly he's gonna be all for "de Surge." If the administration wants Gitmo closed then you can bet that Petraeus is going to be falling over himself pimping the necessity of closing Gitmo.

It may be for the wrong reasons, but it's nice to see Petraeus saying some of the right things.

The Parade of Horrors Continues

As if the nightmarish stories and sickening pictures we've heard and seen from Abu Ghraib thus far haven't been nauseating enough, it has now emerged that the long-rumored photographs depicting acts of sexual abuse and outright rape appear to be the real deal, and not just rumors.

From London's The Telegraph:

Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape'

Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged

"At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube. Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq."

I'd suggest that you read the whole article if you've got a strong stomach.

I can't say that any new revelations about prisoner abuse in Iraq are particularly surprising to me, although the thought of American forces raping Iraqi detainees in my name, with the aid of my tax dollars, is nauseating in the extreme. But given the recent controversy over whether or not to release the images - one in which President Obama did a complete 180 from his original stance, and decided to withhold the graphic photos - it's beyond dispiriting to be reminded of THIS particular element of the President's explanation:

“I want to emphasize that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.”

OK, if there's any truth to this article at all, then President Obama is a bald-faced liar. There is no conceivable way that images of rape and sexual abuse could be even theoretically described as "not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib."

Another stomach churning morning of existential nausea, here in America.

Tragistastrobaculous

Via MSNBC

U.S. service member kills 4 fellow troops in Iraq

NBC: ‘Stressed out’ soldier kills self after attack at Baghdad’s Camp Liberty

BAGHDAD - A U.S. service member opened fire on fellow members of the military, killing four and wounding several others, at the main U.S. base in Baghdad, officials told NBC News on Monday.

NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reported the assailant took his own life after the violent outburst. The attacker was described as a "stressed out" U.S. soldier.

The military said in a statement that the shooting occurred about 2 p.m. at Camp Liberty near Baghdad International Airport."

More disastrous news from Iraq.

Who dat with the what now?!?

Oh riiiiiiight!!

That whole tragitastrobacle. Dag, with all big news about Manny Ramirez, weh-heck I'd plum forgotten about all that mess!

Outrageous.

TV News Winds Down Operations on Iraq War

By BRIAN STELTER - New York Times

"Quietly, as the United States presidential election and its aftermath have dominated the news, America’s three broadcast network news divisions have stopped sending full-time correspondents to Iraq.

“The war has gone on longer than a lot of news organizations’ ability or appetite to cover it,” said Jane Arraf, a former Baghdad bureau chief for CNN who has remained in Iraq as a contract reporter for The Christian Science Monitor.

Joseph Angotti, a former vice president of NBC News, said he could not recall any other time when all three major broadcast networks lacked correspondents in an active war zone that involved United States forces."

I can just see our corps of pseudo-journalists in the disaster that is the USofA's traditional media, rolling their eyes now, and drooping their shoulders, saying: "Ugh, you know . . . the thing about this tragitastrobacle in Iraq is that it just keeps going on, and on, and on . . . people are bored by it, we in the news media are bored by it. There's nothing to cover in Iraq anymore . . . it's just bombing, death, blood, no solution, endless occupation, no political progress . . . year after year after year." If the US's involvement in World War II had lasted this long, they probably would have stopped covering that too. And hey, I understand where they're coming from. Just because there's 140,000 US troops stationed in Iraq, ongoing violence, and probably over a million dead, doesn't mean that the traditional corporate media has some responsibility to keep covering it. It's old news. We've all got tragitastrobacle-fatigue.

However can we end this feeling of being bored by death, destruction, and occupation? Whatever can we do?

More good news from "over there ' . . . .

Since I'm focusing on good news today, I'd like to talk a little abo-HOLY FUCK WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED IN KIRKUK?

Iraq restaurant bomb kills scores of people attending Arab-Kurdish talks

The Guardian

"The death toll from a suicide bomb attack on a restaurant in northern Iraq where Kurdish officials were meeting with Arab tribal leaders today has risen to 55, police said.

The explosion happened in the Abdullah restaurant, about six miles (10km) north of the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk during Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday.

A guard at the entrance said the blast happened moments after a man parked his car and walked inside. Sarhad Qadir, a police brigadier general, said 120 people were wounded and that the dead included five women and three children. The death toll made it one of the worst attacks in Iraq recent months."

Another bloodbath in Iraq . . . this time in a city that had been relatively stable - the northern Kurdish town of Kirkuk. Kirkuk is the nerve center of Iraq's oil industry, as most of the oil production takes place in the northern, Kurdish area. The traditional media in America has simply grown bored with covering all the blood-letting going on in our tragistastro-baculous tragitastrobacle in Iraq. But don't forget . . . we're post-"Surge to Victory" now, things are supposedly just way way better. Media reports seem to agree that violence is down. But most honest analysts agree that the cause of this is probably because Iraq is now thoroughly ghettoized into ethnic enclaves, so that the warring parties can't get at each other . . . I mean, except when they can. Another major factor in the reduction of violence has been that the US DoD has been essentially paying local warlords not to fight . . . but you won't hear that in the traditional media either.

Nope. As far as most of the US media is concerned, the Surge worked, the war is going hunky-dory, and the tragitastrobacle in Iraq has turned into a bed of rose petals and satin . . . except when it hasn't.

Meanwhile . . . "over there" IV

Car bomb kills 2 U.S. soldiers in Iraq; other bombs kill 20

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Bombings across Iraq on Thursday claimed the lives of at least 22 people, including U.S. soldiers, tribal leaders, and an Iraqi government official, according to Iraqi officials. The deadliest strike was in the city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, when two suicide bombers simultaneously rammed oil tankers into two Iraqi police posts, damaging a nearby school and killing at least 15 people, an Interior Ministry official said.

The twin strikes destroyed six houses and a police station, and left at least 147 other people wounded, he said. Part of the school collapsed from the blast, leaving many trapped in the rubble.

Both civilians and police were among the casualties from the strike, which happened shortly after noon. The official initially said schoolchildren were among the casualties, but it was not clear if they were among those killed or wounded.

More tragedy for the Iraqi people. We cannot possibly get out of this disaster soon enough. Every day I wake up and realize W is still our President, I want to throw up.

Thank you, President Bush. Thank you for showing me the true meaning of tragitastrobacle, in all its bloody gore and entrails.

Victory in the War on Iraq!!!

More great news from Surge-ofied paradise of Iraq - a nation that is surely just as sovereign as a sovereign state can be.

Official: Female bomber was disabled; vest ignited by remote

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The female bomber who killed five people just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone on Monday was mentally disabled and her explosives vest was triggered by remote control, an official said.

Baghdad Operations Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta said the strike is the latest example of insurgents' using mentally disabled female bombers to launch attacks.

The most prominent example of the tactic was the deployment of mentally disabled female bombers last February at Baghdad pet markets, attacks that killed 99 people.

Monday's bombing -- one of a string of blasts in the capital that killed a total of 19 people -- occurred outside one of the main entrances to the Green Zone, an Interior Ministry official said. Along with two Iraqi soldiers and three civilians who died, 12 other people were wounded."

Let's see, a string of blasts that killed 19 people. Hmmm . . . .

. . . Oh yeah!

This must be that victory they were telling us about, that corner we were about to turn. You remember it, right? It's the one we've been about to turn since around the spring of 2004, during the dewy morning of the War on Iraq . . . you remember . . . back when everyone loved President Bush. Man, that was years ago.

Anyway, now that Surge worked so perfectly, and what with The Other War (Afghanistan) kinda . . . you know . . . uhh, flarin up a little here and there lately, we can safely assume that the Victory is super-duper here now and double plus awesome! After all, the Traditional Media doesn't report Iraq being a problem nowadays. And didn't they sign that triple double super awesome Security of Forces Agreement?

It's all comin together folks. Just a few more dozen barrels of blood, and Victory is ours-having! The New American Century is arriving!!!

Meanwhile, "over there" . . . III

Iraqi throng protests agreement on U.S. forces

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqis outraged by a proposed security pact between Iraq and the United States staged an angry but peaceful protest against the deal Friday.

Thousands of people -- most of whom are backers of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- streamed into Baghdad's Firdous Square waving Iraqi flags, hoisting posters with portraits of the cleric and carrying signs scorning the agreement . . .

. . . The Sadrists have long been in the forefront of opposition to the deal, and others -- such as Sunni Arabs and secularists -- have expressed reservations and opposition to the pact.

The Sadrists oppose having any agreement with the United States and want U.S. forces to leave immediately. They have been protesting the security agreement for months in Baghdad's Sadr City, where the cleric has strong support."

I wonder . . . should any stray Republican's, or Iraq War supporter's eyes happen to stray across my little blog . . . I wonder if this tells you anything thing.

1) The powerful Iraqi Cabinet comes up with a deal that has US troops getting (mostly) out within 18 months.

2) Bush agrees to a timeline for withdrawal, even though he's staked his entire foreign policy upon a "no timelines" talking point.

3) Huge masses of the Iraqi people take the streets, insisting that this deal isn't getting US troops out QUICKLY enough.

Does this tell you anything about how the actual people of Iraq - I mean those we haven't murdered - feel? Does this tell you ANYTHING at all?

I mean let's see . . . huge majorities of the Iraqi people what the USofA out of Iraq. And a majority of the American people want the USofA out of Iraq. I mean, is there something I'm missing here?

Lest we forget . . . .

More carnage in Iraq. Apparently things seem to be un-surge-itizing a bit. That's okay, I'm sure our Wrong Wing dead-enders will tell us any moment that Victory is right around the corner. Now if they'll just tell us what the hell a Victory in Iraq is.

Bombings across Iraq kill dozens

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Militants in three Iraqi cities set off deadly explosions Monday, killing at least 39 people, government officials said.

At least 32 people were killed in a triple bombing in Baghdad, and five were killed in a suicide attack in Baquba believed to have been launched by a teenage girl. In Samarra, two police officers died in a roadside bombing.

The Baghdad attack began around 8 a.m. in the northeastern part of the city when a bomb inside a parked car exploded in a marketplace in the Kasrah section of the Adhamiya neighborhood, an Interior Ministry official said.

Soon after, a second car bomb went off. When a crowd gathered around the exploded cars, a bomber wearing an explosives-laden vest detonated in their midst, the official said."

I guess we'll know a Victory time when they see it, eh?

With all the excitement and joy that's taken place in America over the last week, it's easy to forget that Bush's tragic, catastrophic debacle in Iraq is still taking human lives, and a lot of them. Let's hope that President-elect Obama comes through with his most important campaign promise, and ends this tragitastrobacle in Iraq. It would be great for America, great for Iraq, great for the world, and (incidentally) great for our nosediving economy.

Our country has gone mad in Iraq

U.S. segregates violent Iraqi prisoners in crates

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military is segregating violent Iraqi prisoners in wooden crates that in some cases are not much bigger than the prisoners.

The U.S. released three photos, including this one, of crates used to hold detainees for up to 12 hours.

Three grainy black-and-white photos show the rudimentary structures of wood and mesh. Some of the boxes are as small as 3 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet tall, according to military officials, although they did not release a picture of a box that size.
The average Iraqi male is 5 feet 6 inches tall, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health. That leaves little room for a prisoner to move once put in the detention box."

Unbefuckinglievable. We have become all that we should despise.

Just when you think this disaster in Iraq cannot become any more nauseating, and any more horrific, and any more destructive to the collective humanity of Americans, and human beings at large, a headline like this one pops out.

Treating people this way defies my ability to come up with angry words. What can mere words say about putting human beings in boxes 3' x 3' x 6'? I don't know.

Our military, and our leaders, have gone absolutely mad. Undoubtedly, tragitastrobaculously mad.

How the Surge Worked

Suicide bombers kill dozens of Iraqi recruits

From The International Herald Tribune

BAGHDAD: Two suicide bombers posing as army recruits struck an Iraqi base just east of Baquba on Tuesday morning, killing at least 35 Iraqi recruits and wounding 63, according to the Iraqi police and medical officials in Diyala Province.

The attack came as Iraqi troops prepared for what their commanders predict will be a challenging fight to try to reclaim large areas of Diyala that remain sanctuaries for Salafist jihadist fighters and other anti-government guerrillas.

The bombers, wearing belts packed with explosives, waded into a crowd of more than 200 recruits just after 8 a.m. and detonated about 30 seconds apart in front of the headquarters of an Iraqi brigade where the recruits had gathered. The attack happened at the Saad military base, which is about six kilometers, or four miles, east of Baquba, the provincial capital."

Once again, we are shown how incredibly wonderfully the Escalation Surge in Iraq has worked. While we are being told that the so-called Surge has been such a wonderful success, the truth is that much of Iraq is still a complete disaster, and that much of the area that has been (relatively) pacified can credit its (relative) stability more to a successful campaign of ethnic cleansing than to any US military strategy. Meanwhile, while the Pentagon tells us that Surge is over, we still have 15,000 more troops in Iraq than when this wonderfully awesome Surge started. As DebinMD at DailyKos correctly notes, the Up-is-Down, Rovian New World Order doublespeak continues unabated.

If there weren't so many dead and severely maimed people left in the wake of this massive tragitastrobacle, one might think that reason and logic were the biggest losses of this horrific War on Iraq. Sadly, anything resembling collective sanity in the USofA is just another corpse that can be found in the blood-drenched streets of Baghdad.

Our Military is Napalming Iraqi Children

WARNING: THE LINK CONTAINED IN THIS DIARY HAS SOME EXTREMELY DISTURBING, GRAPHIC PHOTOS OF THE RESULTS OF OUR MILITARY'S NAPALMING OF IRAQI CITIZENS, SPECIFICALLY CHILDREN

U.S. MILITARY KILLS JUDGE'S FAMILY WITH NAPALM

From the Axis of Logic

(Warning: extremely disturbing images)
June 10, 2008

In another round of American crimes against the people of Iraq, the information about to be provided, will show the extent of the American lawless hysteria and its total disregard for human lives. And will also show the criminal complicity of those who took the Americans as military and political allies and as friends and who provide to them their services -- all conducted in the Green Zone.

On the eve of Wenesday 11.7.2007, heavy fighting broke out in the Sheikh Fathi center in the Zanjilia district from unknown armed men. American helicopter planes rushed and some of these unknown armed men fired at the planes.

The americans responded by using forbidden weapons [i.e. napalm] and bombed the house of a Taha Al-Janbil, a Judge. All those who were in the house were immediately killed.

I wouldn't dare post the images contained in this horrifying link, but I think it behooves US citizens to take a good long look at the very real results of our tragitastrobacle in Iraq. The War on Iraq is not some abstraction going on "over there," which we can forget about as we go about our daily lives. It is an extremely murderous campaign of violence and dominance, and non-combatants and CHILDREN are being killed every single day. Personally, I get excited when the Chicago White Sox have a winning streak, but looking at what our military is perpetrating in my name literally shamed me. How can I possibly be excited about a god-damned baseball team when THIS is what our government considers "foreign policy?"

I thought the use of napalm was considered out-of-bounds in today's military, but perhaps I was wrong. The idea that anyone woul drop napalm on a private residence in Iraq, with MY TAX DOLLARS, is just absolutely stomach-turning. Try as we might to end this disaster, any one of us who pays taxes is at least partially complicit in this tragedy.

WE MUST END THIS WAR AND IT CANNOT POSSIBLY HAPPEN TOO SOON.

Contact your Representatives and DEMAND IMPEACHMENT!

Meanwhile, "over there" . . . II

Officials: Sadr City battles killed hundreds in April

"BAGHDAD, Iraq CNN) -- The fighting that erupted in Baghdad's Sadr City last month has killed 925 people and wounded 2,605, a top government official said Wednesday.

Most of the casualties consist of civilians and "criminal elements attacked by us," said Tahseen al-Sheikhly, a spokesman for the Baghdad security crackdown called Operation Enforcing the Law.

Civilians are being caught in the crossfire because militants "use the population to cover themselves," al-Sheikhly said."

On the anniversary of the single greatest propaganda fuck-up in American history, no doubt the sons-of-bitches in the RepubliCon party will point to this carnage as proof that "the Surge is working." While the media attempts to do voodoo reanimation tricks over Hillary's campaign in a ploy for more interesting coverage and damage to the American left, Iraqi citizens and US soldiers are killed or horribly injured.

The surge has worked, indeed.

Meanwhile, "over there" . . .

Bombings kill at least 60 in Iraq

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Bombings Tuesday killed at least 60 people in Baghdad and in two major provincial capitals in Iraq.

The deadliest attack happened in the Diyala province capital of Baquba when a car bomb detonated outside a crowded restaurant, killing 40 people and wounding 75, according to sources on the scene, an Interior Ministry official and the U.S. military.

The attack happened near the courthouse and other government offices in Baquba, a medical source and a resident told CNN. Women and children are among the dead."

Oh yeah, there's a tragitastrobacle going on! The traditional media seems to have forgotten about it. After all, the electric joltings-par-reanimation of Hillary's corpse of a campaign really is enthralling news. Nevermind, let's just go back to the next fabricated tempest-in-a-teapot between Obama & Hillary.

And they tell us the "surge" has worked?

Liars.