"Violence on the Teevee Screens"


I guess some of the insurgents took Shrub at his word and decided to put a stop to it:

Gunmen, some dressed in police uniforms, stormed the offices of a new satellite television station today and killed 11 employees, some of whom were asleep in the building at the time of the raid after working late in preparation for the station’s planned launch on Saturday, employees and witnesses said.

It was the second attack on an Iraqi television station this month and the single most deadly attack against the Iraqi media since the 2003 invasion.

The story concludes with a sad, grim, single sentence:

An American soldier assigned to the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, was killed “as a result of enemy action” today in Kirkuk Province, the military reported. Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack.

Which reminds me (and I see Wolcott posted a link too). William Lind dares to suggest what "the free press" is too timid to. While they cringe and quiver, he writes:

At least 32 American troops have been killed in Iraq this month. Approximately 300 have been wounded. The "battle for Baghdad" is going nowhere. A Marine friend just back from Ramadi said to me, "It didn't get any better while I was there, and it's not going to get better." Virtually everyone in Washington, except the people in the White House, knows that is true for all of Iraq.

Actually, I think the White House knows it too. Why then does it insist on "staying the course" at a casualty rate of more than one thousand Americans per month? The answer is breathtaking in its cynicism: so the retreat from Iraq happens on the next President's watch. That is why we still fight.

Yep, it's now all about George. Anyone who thinks that is too low, too mean, too despicable even for this bunch does not understand the meaning of the adjective "Rovian." Would they let thousands more young Americans get killed or wounded just so George W. does not have to face the consequences of his own folly? In a heartbeat.

Without trying to be flippant, that lends a whole new meaning to the phrase "how do you ask someone to be the last to die for a mistake?"