Well, it took another visit from Cheney to get the bottom to fall out of Iraq yet again. The man hasn’t lost his touch, to be sure. All kidding aside, it became a good deal more difficult this week for the administration, pro-war congresspeople, and the corporate media to act as though things are going swimmingly over there and that “life is returning to normal for ordinary Iraqis,” as John McCain suggested during his surprise (is there any other kind for prominent Americans?) visit. The escalation in violence was pretty strongly telegraphed by all the rhetoric about Iranian interference in the shape of arms and support for extremists (or “Al Qaeda”, as McCain bizarrely claimed on more than one occasion recently – you know you’re in trouble when Joe Lieberman has to step in to correct your reactionary fulminations). No doubt our trusty veep was giving Baghdad’s leaders a pep talk before they commenced their attack on what is likely the largest organized indigenous political force in the country – Al Sadr’s Mahdi Army, which had only just recently renewed its unilateral cease-fire.

No doubt the bombs are falling on Basra’s poorer quarters, though there are few reporters willing to take a close look (can’t blame them). Some stories were leaking out as of Thursday or so – casualty figures from area hospitals and some anecdotal stuff about how impossibly fucked up things are there right now. Basra and southern Iraq in general were floated as one of the relative success stories (i.e. it’s not on fire!) during the course of this disastrous war, but like all conventional wisdom on Operation Iraqi Freedom, this has proven less than reliable. The fact that Basra is run by militias is nothing new – Patrick Cockburn of the Independent has been reporting on that for some time. For christ’s sake, the whole country is run by one militia or another… it’s just that we don’t like this one, not because they’re religious zealots (so are our allies), but because they are nationalists who particularly want us out.

The al-Maliki government has issued ultimatums for surrender which has thus far been ignored, and as of this writing, the militias appear to control twice as much of Basra as do the government troops – this is probably based on U.S. military data, so it may be actually kind of rosy. Al-Maliki’s latest deadline for the Mahdi Army to disarm coincides with the day that General Petraeus and Ryan Crocker are slated to give their progress report to Congress. (Amazing coincidence.) Our military is muttering to the press that they are not heavily involved in this fight, but that they will not allow the Iraqi army to lose. There is no question that they are involved, to the extent that helicopter gunships and F-18s are bombing the living hell out of some of Baghdad’s and Basra’s most miserable slums. This is, frankly, an American fight, and no one should expect Iraqis to fight it for us. We have been antagonizing Al-Sadr since Bremer’s time, because he cannot be controlled. In this respect, we have been on the same page as Saddam – not surprising, since we appear to want what he wanted… a quiescent Iraq that we can happily pump oil out of.

So hang on to your helmets – we’ve got a ways to go on this one.

luv u,

jp

Incredibly, it’s been five years since the invasion of Iraq, and there are, as yet, no signs that this war/occupation will be coming to an end any time soon. The most incredible part is this: something like two-thirds of the American people want us out of Iraq, as do a large majority of the Iraqi people (not that anyone cares what they think – shut up and be grateful, damned foreigners!). And yet we’re obviously not bringing the troops home – quite the opposite. Congress is lukewarm on the idea of a change in policy, and the administration is just plain smug about their refusal to bring this disaster to a close. Confronted with the polling data, Cheney just smirked and said that it didn’t matter. We’ve even seen Bush going around opining that there’s something romantic about being dispatched to the Afghan frontier, and that he wish he were younger so he could do it himself (my ass!). Why aren’t these people run out of town on a rail? Why is it “politically risky” to advocate a timeline for withdrawal when it’s favored by 60% of the American public?

Are you waiting for an answer? I haven’t got one I can fit in this blog entry. Let’s just mark it down to the “Cokie Effect” – pop culture conventional wisdom. It was pretty much set in stone during the Reagan years that America is right, right, always right, never ever wrong. Any politician, journalist, or public intellectual who suggests otherwise is hung out to dry, accused of hating this country, despising our troops, etc. So the impetus is on pretending that we’ve never done anyone or anything wrong, that we walk around on tip-toe, that we make war with the best of intentions, and that we have consistently been a force for good in the world. That, of course, is a lie, but a very comforting one, and no one wants to rain on the parade. It’s not a ticket to popularity, as you might have guessed. Nevertheless, some are willing to stick their necks out.

That is what makes the Winter Soldier project so remarkable. Like its predecessor organization during the Vietnam war, these are individuals who were thrown into the abyss of war and are now driven to make their stories known to the rest of us – the vast majority of Americans who remain untouched by this unspeakably brutal experience. Not surprisingly, this project has received zero – I mean zero – coverage in the corporate media. Not a single word in my local newspaper, and from what I understand, no coverage at all in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, etc. These folks do not fit the paradigm – Cokie would not know what to do with them at all. We want to support the troops, but hell…. not if they tell the truth about the war!! So coverage has been limited to shows like Democracy Now! and the Web. On this grim fifth anniversary, I encourage you to listen to some of this testimony, to take a look back and remind yourself of what’s being done in our name and on our dime, and to support these brave soldiers who are doing more for American democracy than Rumsfeld could ever have dreamed possible.

Oh, and happy Easter, earth mother goddess.

luv u,

jp