Friday, August 27, 2004
Bush's "miscalculations" and images from Iraq...
The battle in Najaf may or may not be over after three of some of the most brutal weeks of fighting since the war began almost a year and a half ago now. I've no idea on what date the images above were taken but I received them a couple of days ago in an email entitled "US Photos that will never make the news" with a message "Since all they are publicizing are the horrible photos, I think it is appropriate to see the other side of things."
Frankly, I don't think the media has done a good enough job showing how terrible a toll this war has taken not only on the poeple of Iraq but also our troops. Most the imagery I've seen to date has either been sugarcoated or hasn't gone into enough depth showing what's happening in Iraq due to the media's concerns about the "sensitivity" of American viewers or efforts to avoid accusations that airing such imagery would be providing "aid and comfort" to the enemy or would sap the morale of the troops by whipping up anti-war sentiment within the public back home.
Granted, when the images of Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal were garishly splashed all over the media earlier this summer, they outraged all who saw them including many on the right who had strongly supported the war but now we've slipped back into the same old partisan bickering over... the Vietnam war?!
Sometime before the end of this year we will almost certainly hit the terrible toll of 1000 American troops killed in Iraq over this misguided foreign policy disaster. While I will continue to do everything I can to convince folks that Bush has messed up horrendously with his badly conceived and executed counter-terrorism and foreign policy strategies and needs to be voted out before he does any more damage, maybe posting these pictures will remind us or allow us to hold out hope that, in between all the missteps, some good is still being done in Iraq.
Meanwhile....
Bush Admits Iraq 'Miscalculations' in New York Times Interview: are we getting close to a full on, actual admission by Bush of mistakes made in the Iraq war? Don't hold your breath but here's some excerpts from that "Times Interview" to judge for yourself. (NB: archive readers, these links may be dead by time you read this.)
The ranks of the poor and those without health insurance grew in 2003 for the third straight year, the government reported on Thursday, in a sign of the lingering pain being caused by a long slump in the job markets. (full story from The New York Times)
But on a lighter note....
Bin Laden No Longer Knows Where He Is: The evildoer blames Mapquest for his confusion (MSNBC.com)
Or maybe not....
