There's a new anti-Kerry group out there, led by Nixon operative John O'Neill.  They're called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and if you start hearing about them and want to read a satisfying dissection of their agenda, then read Joe Conason.

9:59:12 AM    comment []

"However, a certain grim logic suggests a turn for the better may be coming this summer. "

Rereading this sentence, which I referred to a couple of days ago when writing about Safire's latest, I find myself increasingly sickened by the head-in-the-sand, everything-will-turn-out-in-the-end, we're-on-the-right-side-of-this, we-just-really-love-freedom crowd.  This faux optimism is not just unjustified, it's misleading and dangerous. 

----The Taguba Report, describing the abuse that coalition troops levied upon Iraqi POW's, lays out a ton of unbelievable things, particularly these atrocities (which I just cut and pasted from Andrew Sullivan):

6.  (S) I find that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included the following acts:
a.  (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;
b.  (S) Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;
c.  (S) Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing;
d.  (S) Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time;
e.  (S) Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear;
f.   (S) Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped;
g.  (S) Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;
h.  (S) Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;
i.   (S) Writing “I am a Rapest”  (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked;
j.   (S) Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female Soldier pose for a picture;
k.  (S) A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;
l.   (S) Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;
m. (S) Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.

Truly, I don't know what to say.

It's great that Bush is apparently going to appear on Arab TV to talk about this, but I'll reserve judgement until I hear what he has to say.  But this is the right move, and I hope he doesn't blow it.  Because there's just no getting around it:  this is the worst thing that's happened from the perspective of US-Arab relations in a long, long time.  Don't blow it, Dubya.

-----This article in Salon pretty well lays out the case for Chalabi being one of the more reprehensible characters around.  You may have heard that Chalabi has apparently been passing sensitive information to the Iran government.  You may have known that he's a convicted embezzler in Jordan.  You may have been aware of his personal policy of self-promotion at the expense of...well....anything.  But have you really taken in that this guy was in many ways the architect of the US invasion of Iraq?

--Even conservatives are starting to go after Bush on Iraq, because the Administration has no idea it's doing.  When you've lost George Will, you're screwed.  Look at this quote from Will:

This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and, having thought, to have second thoughts.

Here's the thing.  Can anyone even make a rational argument that the Bush Administration has not absolutely screwed thing up in Iraq?  Most conservatives seem to have moved on to bashing Kerry--I haven't read a defense of the Bush handling of Iraq in a very long time.  There's still plenty of theoretical defenses of the war as the right thing, a lot of waxing on about how bad Saddam was.  Fine.  But has anyone made any defense of Bush's handling of Iraq?  Anywhere?  Somewhere, I'm sure it exists, but it's not mainstream by any stretch.  Why?  Because it is literally impossible to objectively defend the handling of Iraq.

9:57:49 AM    comment []