I write about the grim anniversary this weekend at Pajamas Media:

"...Being no stranger to crashing war protests, I can bet that if you held a poster bearing one of the infamous images of a man who fell and died at the base of a home’s steps clutching an infant whose mouth was frozen in a vain gasp for air, or the pile of bodies in traditional colorful clothing strewn across an otherwise verdant hill, most demonstrators would assume the grisly images are products of the American war machine. They wouldn’t like to hear that these murders were committed by the dictator we deposed.

On March 16, 1988, Iraqi warplanes bombed the Kurdish town of Halabja with chemical weapons including sarin and mustard gas, targeting civilians as part of the Anfal campaign to rid Iraq of its Kurds. Five thousand — three-quarters of them women and children — died from the chemical cocktail. Children trying to rush home fell in the street, while the insidious gasses claimed those who cowered in basements from what they thought was a traditional bombardment. Thousands were left with chemical burns, blindness, cancers, birth defects, etc.

The Halabja attack was, in Josef Mengele fashion, an experiment to determine which of the various chemical agents worked best on the population, where were the best strategic places to drop the poisonous canisters, where victims would fall and how many. 'These were field tests, an experiment on a town,' Iraqi defector Khidhir Hamza, the former director of Saddam’s nuclear-weapons program, told then-New Yorker reporter Jeffrey Goldberg in 2002. 'The doctors were given sheets with grids on them, and they had to answer questions such as "How far are the dead from the canisters?"'”

Read the whole thing!

Acknowledging Halabja, though, means acknowledging that ousting Saddam served a purpose -- and that the international community turned a blind eye (again) to genocide.

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 1:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you want to burst the enthusiasm of soldiers in Iraq, few words can do it like these two: Commo Blackout.

It means two very significant things, and, in the death-as-commodity environment of Baghdad that I knew in 2005, it was hard to judge which was worse. On the one hand, it meant all instant communication with the outside world was cut off. No Internet, no phones. Mail was delivered, but it took days any way.

The other thing it meant was that somebody was dead, or pretty close to it. Commo Blackout is the Army's way of keeping parents and spouses from being informed of a soldier's death by a passing comment in a grocery store, or via a reporter arriving at a door step ahead of the Notification Team.

There's a lot just about any Joe can complain about with regard to the Green Machine, but the dedication to supporting families is not really one of them. They honestly do the best they can, and inconveniencing troops for a couple of days so the most solemn ceremonies can be conducted as best possible is not even a question.

Of course, as soldiers, when you've survived another day, it's hard not to curse at prety much all involved when you walk to the phone trailer and find a scribbled note on the door, one that effectively says: "you're wife's just gonna have to wonder if you're alive, 'cause somebody else's is about to find out that her husband ain't."

I bring this up because an interesting trend has recently developed on my personal blog, Reasons to Believe. I've been posting a lot there lately, because over in the other Valley, my little town of Monrovia has been having a gang war in recent days. Certainly nothing akin to Baghdad, but enough to give me strange tickles, and make sure the personal protective systems for my family are in full working order, just like I would before a patrol in combat.

Anyway, while the traffic for my blog has spiked significantly, I've been getting a lot of referrals from Google, many of which are searches for those same two words. They all lead to this post: Things That Go Boom, Things That Do Not.

Now, two years seperated from the war zone, my heart sinks at that thought. Somewhere, somebody is getting the worst news possible. Somewhere not far away, someone else thinks she might. At some Army post in the south, or maybe Texas, a new bride who goes to bed worried each night hasn't heard from the love of her life for a week. Her nervous query has been met with a polite, stilted re-assurance from the head of the Family Readiness Group, "ah, don't worry, they're probably on a Commo Blackout." Knowing she already asks enough silly questions about the strange system in which she finds herself, she decides to figure that one out on her own.

My post, I assure you, supplies no solace.

I wonder if her silent world will awaken with a ring of the phone. Or, a knock at her door.

Posted by Robert C.J. Parry at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I want to defend the people who disposed of the CIA tapes showing us interrogating Al Qaeda suspects. I want to indict the people who did the both the taping and the torturing. I believe that torture is wrong. I believe that videotaping our agents torturing bad guys is just stupid. This is like celebrities taping sex acts and expecting them not to show up on the net. They will show up and at the very worst possible time.

So, just what were they thinking when they taped prisoners who were (I am confident in fact bad guys), undergoing “stress questioning?” I’m assuming it wasn’t for pornographic reasons—though that is possible. (Please see: Herr Doktor Kraft-Ebbing). Someone thought it might be a good idea to document the interrogations. Well, someone was wrong.

I am not shocked that we transgress. I am very shocked when we are stupid, cover up badly and hold no one accountable. There are times when we push the boundaries. Torture is not legal and should never be legal. But it happens. What should we do when it happens? We should count on the bravery and patriotism of our people, and they should own up and take the hit. They should tell the truth and go on trial. If it was important enough to make someone choose to break our laws, they should be subject to justice. With any luck, their peers will acquit them if the case was urgent enough.

The same should be the case with taping these interrogations and then disposing of the tapes. I’d send the idiot who called for the tapes to be made to jail for gross incompetence. The people who disposed of the tapes however could be heroes. Had these tapes come out—and as with sex tapes, you have to count on it—they would have been played 24/7 on Al Jazeera and Al Arabia. And if you believe our standing is low in the Arab and Muslim World today, please know that there is still a great distance we could and would fall.

The cover up attempt however is wrong on so many levels. We cannot have a system of law and justice when our agencies and branches of government lie to each other—and lie under oath. If you want to know why there are conspiracy theories regarding nearly everything we do, it is because we chip away at our own credibility. The damage is mostly self-inflicted. The CIA does not get to lie to the 9-11 Commission. They do not get to swear that no tapes exist when tapes do exist. A patriot might order the destruction of the tapes and stand up and justify the act. But we cannot have a government of liars who continue to harm our us by evading and avoiding their patriotic duty to serve the interests of our nation.

The great question is not if we are perfect. We are not. The question is if we can violate our laws with absolute impunity or if we believe in and practice accountability? The elephant ate my homework evasion should not be allowed to stand.

Posted by Jonathan Dobrer at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So when Murtha says the "surge is working," we should all cheer -- this is a hopeful sign. But not, according to The Politico, in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office:

But Pelosi, who is scheduled to speak to a Democratic National Committee event in Virginia on Friday, will surely face tough questions from reporters regarding Murtha's statement on the surge.

"This could be a real headache for us," said one top House Democratic aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Pelosi is going to be furious."

What would she be furious about? That our troops are making some headway? That Murtha spoke plainly about what he saw in Iraq? That this could theoretically undermine a strong Democratic 2008 campaign issue?

Let's hope these are only the words of some young political hack, and not a reflection of what the Speaker really thinks. But it's not a good sign that Murtha has gone on to issue a clarification (read: flip-flop) on his remarks ...

Posted by Chris Weinkopf at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If Turkey invades, which that trigger-happy tank and others poised along the Iraqi border may do soon. From the Guardian:

"Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came under intense pressure last night to order an invasion of northern Iraq following the deadliest attacks for over a decade on the Turkish military and civilians by separatist Kurdish guerrillas.

Mr Erdogan, who has resisted demands from the Turkish armed forces for the past six months for a green light to cross the border into Iraqi Kurdistan, where the guerrillas are based, called an emergency meeting of national security chiefs to ponder their options in the crisis, a session that some said was tantamount to a war council.

A Turkish incursion is fiercely opposed by Washington since it would immensely complicate the US campaign in Iraq and destabilise the only part of Iraq that functions, the Kurdish-controlled north."

Understatement of the year! Thing is, the Turkish military tends to get its own way, like with, ahem, four coups since 1960. Erdogan's under enough pressure from the military as it is, as the avowed defenders of Turkish secularism call him out on any moves perceived as a slide toward an Islamist state.

Messy, messy, messier...

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As of Sept. 25, 2007, the Department of Defense has these figures for Americans slain in a war where the goal is acceptable levels of chaos.

U.S. Deaths Confirmed By The DoD -- 3800

Reported U.S. Deaths Pending DoD Confirmation -- 1

Total -- 3801

Posted by Mike Tetreault at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I ask this -- and answer it -- in my column today, after Al-Jazeera asked me to analyze the Petraeus brouhaha and beyond for an Arabic-speaking audience. These audiences have a pretty long attention span, so you can go into an issue deeper than just offering a few quick sound bites. Some of my thoughts:

"But all in all, my answer is simple, something that people around the world can relate to: It's all about the votes. It's about being 14 months out from the next presidential election.

And unfortunately, the welfare of Iraqis, the prevention of genocide and the ominous interference of Iran are not going to be key topics of concern among those flinging volleys.

It's about the Democratic Party capitalizing on dissatisfaction with the war, and the Republican Party trying to steal some thunder from the Dems' issue du jour when debating measured troop cutbacks. It's not just about Sen. Hillary Clinton accusing Petraeus of a 'willing suspension of disbelief,' but Clinton making the accusation as would-be supporters of the White House hopeful watch their televisions at home."

Honestly, what's been ringing in my head lately, though, is something Osama bin Laden said back around when the War on Terror officially began:

"In the end, the audience may be wondering about Americans' will to fight, and I would confess that, given the discourse lately, I've had similar fears, especially when reflecting upon the unified war effort of my grandparents' generation.

The network could then replay an October 2001 interview with Al-Jazeera in which bin Laden said, 'We experienced the Americans through our brothers who went into combat against them in Somalia, for example. ... There was a huge aura over America - the United States - that terrified people even before they entered combat. ... America exited dragging its tails in failure, defeat, and ruin, caring for nothing. ... America left faster than anyone expected. ... We pray to God to give us his support and to make America ever more reluctant.'

Viewers on Arab-language TV might remember that interview, and nowadays wonder if the terror leader was being prophetic."

Read the whole thing!

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)