Lost in Translation

From Timshel, here's a link to Brian Thevenot's latest in the online Pic. In much the same vein, Steve Gilliard has a post of his own, with a link to Salon (requires subscription or watching an ad). Short version: if you're an Iraqi translating for US forces, you stand a damn good chance of being targeted by insurgents.

Of course, even if you aren't a translator, it's hard to escape the conclusion that, to paraphrase a line from Casablanca, human life is cheap. More than twenty people were killed in separate bombings today, (Juan Cole says over fifty)even as Rummy slunk in and out of the country on an unannounced visit (security concerns prevented a more celebratory attitude)...

The Donald apparently felt a little generous, handing a twice wounded soldier (who still has nine more months in-country) a small coin before wishing him good luck. Easy for him to say, eh?

Meanwhile, results from the "election" are being held up--something tells me that despite the weirdness of the process, the results look bad for the US--and then there's the ongoing, well, I was going to say joke, but pathetic tragedy might be better--the pathetic tragedy of watching Rummy once again spew, well, bullshit, as he pulls out the threadbare promise that everything will be just peachy once the Iraqi "security forces" are properly trained and on the ground...

I can't even laff at that anymore. Rummy might as well be hoping for the Great Pumpkin to arrive.

Finally, Patrick Cockburn has a good article reprinted in Counterpunch that underscores my point about human life is cheap in Iraq--it's entitled "In Baghdad, It's Easy to Get Killed."

Some success...