August 12th, 2007
This is enough to break your heart…
Nine months old, underweight, malnourished, fatherless and half Sunni, half Shiite, she already had enough deadly handicaps growing up in Saydia, a battlefield suburb that has become one of the worst sectarian killing zones in Baghdad.
On July 25, a death squad shot her mother and uncle — each three times in the head — in their dilapidated half-finished squat. E.J.K.’s, in American military shorthand: extrajudicial killings.
[...]
Fatima is a Shiite name. (The Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatima married Ali, who Shiites believe should have led the Islamic world instead of the Sunni Caliphate.) But the widowed mother and uncle were Sunnis, and the baby had their surname, Jbouri.
Painful experience had already taught Major Yerkes that Sunnis would not be safe in the health care system because it is under the control of Shiites loyal to the Mahdi Army militia.
In the two months before Fatima’s discovery, the major had handed over three Sunni insurgents to Iraqi policemen for medical treatment, only for them to be killed on arrival at the hospital.
[...]
[Major Yerkes] was asked if he was content with Fatima’s happy ending.
“It’s not really happy yet, is it?” he said. “She is alive. We don’t know where she is going. Call me in a couple of months.”
May Fatima live long enough to see a peaceful Iraq one day.
August 8th, 2007
Via ThinkProgress.com…
Right-Winger Accuses Iraq Vet Of ‘Stabbing’ His ‘Fellow Men And Women In Uniform’ In The Back
During a debate on MSNBC’s Hardball this evening, retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Robert “Buzz” Patterson, a right-wing radio host, gratuitously attacked Iraq war veteran Jon Soltz, the chairman of VoteVets.org, exclaiming “I am so happy you’re not serving in Iraq right now, stabbing your fellow men and women in uniform like you do back in the states.”
Patterson claimed that Soltz didn’t know what he was talking about because he “didn’t get the memo” that “we’re fighting al Qaeda in Iraq.” “You know what, I don’t need the memo because I was in Iraq,” responded Soltz. “You read the newspaper, I was in Iraq. That’s the difference between you and I.”
Patterson muttered back that he had “been to Iraq too,” but Soltz laughed at his claim. “Are you talking about your rah-rah-sis-kum-bah cheerleader tours that the White House took you on or are you talking about as a soldier who took the country?”
Make sure to watch the video.
June 9th, 2007
Interesting tidbit via TalkingPointsMemo.com:
With Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Mullen replacing Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Wall Street Journal noticed an interesting trend among top military officials.
Adm. Mullen, like many of his four-star colleagues on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was skeptical of the decision to send additional U.S. troops into Iraq.
This comes on the heels of Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute’s admission that he, too, registered his opposition to the president’s surge policy.
And that came on the heels of Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressing his own opposition to the surge.
In other words, Bush will have a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a “war czar,” and a Pentagon chief — arguably the three most important war-related posts in Washington — filled by officials who are at least skeptical of the central strategy underlying the president’s Iraq policy.
Odd.
May 25th, 2007
Just one more illustration of the establishment media talking-heads confirming their status as total asses, via Booman Tribune:
Do me a favor and look at the roll call of the House vote on the Iraq supplemental. You should see the name Harman on this list of ‘Nays’. She’s right there between Hare and Hastings (FL) and it’s pretty clear that the House clerk recorded her vote as a ‘no’. Maybe that is some kind of clerical error, or maybe Jane has forgotten how to vote, but it seems to make a mockery of Smokin’ Joe Klein’s point here:
I was wrong, sadly, last week to say that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would vote for the Iraq supplemental bill. They voted against. As readers here know, I would have voted for the bill. Voting against it means you’re in favor of a precipitous departure from Iraq…
…Yesterday I spoke with Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-Ca.) just back from Iraq, who voted for the bill–as did a majority of Democrats who are not running for President. "Look, I would love to have cast a vote against Bush on this. We need a new strategy and I hope we can force one in September," she told me. "But I flew into Baghdad on a troop transport with 150 kids, heading into the field. To vote against this bill was to vote against giving them the equipment, the armor they need. I couldn’t do that."
April 25th, 2007
Just one more illustration of the huge brass-ones that Jon Stewart swings: Jon interviews the war candidate, John McCain — via CrooksandLiars.com.
McCain got very angry that Stewart called them out for using the “you’re not supporting the troops,” theme and was trying to filibuster the segment… He tried to use the troops as a wedge. Stewart got hot and fought back… McCain started to stutter. (rough transcript)
Stewart: All I’m saying is you cannot look a soldier in the eye and say questioning the president is less supportive to you than extending your tour for three months when you should be coming home to your family.
McCain: Every American…
Stewart: And that’s not fair to put on people that criticize…
McCain: Jon…
Stewart: And you know I love you and respect your service and would never question any of that—this is not about questioning the troops and their ability to fight and their ability to be supported. And that is what the administration does and that is almost criminal.
UPDATE: Video courtesy of Comedy Central.
