October 26, 2006

• Enjoy!
• Here's the "house of hell" photographs with photographer's commentary. There are disturbing images, of course. I can just imagine what some of the Kilo company marines were thinking during some of McConnel's inspirational speeches if they truly were as cliché as the author suggests and if the soldiers were so disillusioned and full of angst. Has anyone suffered the abuses of motivational speakers as a teenager? I mistyped 'abuses' above as 'anuses.' I considered not fixing the mistake.
• Iraq will get a lot worse before it gets better.
• That story's so f*cked up, it's unbelievable.
• > Enjoy! it's a good piece - makes for very depressing reading, but it's well done.
• Thanks for the link, Wolly. It just ocurred to me that it'd be a great help if the insurgents drank heavily. Maybe we can get Budweiser to open up that market.
• "Beyond the Euphrates began for us the land of mirage and danger, the sands where one helplessly sank, and the roads which ended in nothing. The slightest reversal would have resulted in a jolt to our prestige giving rise to all kinds of catastrophe; the problem was not only to conquer but to conquer again and again, perpetually; our forces would be drained off in the attempt." Emperor Hadrian AD 117-138
• Alcohol is harām in Islam, Pete.
• If I knew how to link and post and copy and glue and all that computer stuff and knew his email address I'd send a copy to Bush. I tried to get my granddaughter to do it. She just rolled her eyes and gave me that pathetic, "There's no fool like an old fool look."
• Alcohol is harām in Islam, Pete. Yeah, I know. Lousy sober insurgents. Competently operating firearms.
• We're fucked? You're not Iraqi, are you? /Just thought it was strangely phrased...
• The author talks about "Rules of Engagement," his November 2006 V.F. article about the Haditha killings.
• Iraqi Kid Runs For Water
• US Tank crushes Iraqi civilian's car
• U.S. Troops Kill 5 Girls in Assault on Insurgents
• Henny penny, right?
• What About the Grunts? The Iraq Study Group talked to generals when it should have talked to corporals.
• Haditha Marine says would make same decision again
• Who won Iraq?
• Absolutely fascinating. I'd be very interested to hear what you guys think of this.
• Okay, but do I have to read it first?
• NYT: The Road Home. At last.
• Ralph, you're so optimistic. I'm just suspicious that there will be some "event" that will reinstate the draft and escalate overseas aggression. Mars knows, Bush is doing all he can to provoke one.
• The Erosion of a Murder Case Against Marines in the Killing of 24 Iraqi Civilians