The Face of the Occupation

Empire Notes has been noted by others--I'm sure most of y'all (who I probably should thank by name) have heard of it. I'll add it to the roll along with LSUBlog as soon as I can. In the meantime, though, check out the site regularly, as it provides an extra voice in Iraq to counter the spin from the Warmongers and wrong-wingers (thanks to Needlenose for correcting my verbiage), which is reaching pulsar speed:

At the same time as their existence in Iraq provokes violence and as their brutal methods provoke violence, U.S. forces do nothing to provide security. Kidnappings of Iraqis for ransom are rife -- nobody ever investigates. Leading academics are being killed -- ditto. People are afraid to walk the streets after 9 or 10 -- nobody does anything about this. Women are far more constricted in getting around than they used to be. The list goes on and on. The U.S. military does nothing, absolutely nothing, about these security problems.

Anyone who swallows any of this propaganda about "providing security" should spend one day talking to people in Iraq.

The occupying army is REQUIRED, under all conventions regarding "civilized" warfare, to provide security for the general population. That's one big reason why the Army Brass requested roughly double the number of soldiers they eventually received. The nickel and diming of that decision has resulted in paying through the nose after the fact (see CostofWar.com). The Iraq war IN PRINCIPLE was bad, but the Bush team has compounded the disaster by being so inept.

And the next time some idiot accuses Kerry or anyone else of "undermining" the war effort, remind them of that salient point, along with the following: it was BUSH who bragged "bring 'em on," it was BUSH who callously joked about "winning the trifecta" in describing US History post 9/11, it was BUSH who lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction and then had the gall to JOKE about it, it was BUSH who said we would be greeted as liberators, and it was BUSH who was not only asleep at the wheel prior to the attacks on the US, but who couldn't be bothered to delay his Texas vacation to check up on things.

Criticism of Bush's record isn't unpatriotic. It is unpatriotic to follow blindly while the idiot leader urges us to leap off the bridge.