Crisis In Iraq

The current turmoil and bloodshed in Iraq makes this the most critical time for the future of the country – and for the Middle East – since the military invasion of a year ago. It is also the time of deepest division between Americans since the war, as reflected in our posts:

New ‘hero’ symbolizes inequality
My interest in the Tillman story is largely about what lurks beneath the surface.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 26, 2004 12:38 PM

Terror as a Marketing Tool
I know it’s my patriotic duty to be scared, terrified, and terrorized — because my President constantly reminds me.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 24, 2004 07:13 PM

Shock! Horror! People Have Died In Iraq…Believe It Or Not
I’ll admit i’m not exactly a big supporter of what Bush and Blair are doing, but that’s no excuse to leach off of the casualties of the war in Iraq.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 24, 2004 06:29 PM

Draft Dodging During Sweeps Week
What I’m about to suggest will sound radical even to the most zealous patriots, but here goes anyway.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 24, 2004 05:08 PM

Ralph Nader In The USA Today
I love this guy!
Posted in Blogcritics on April 24, 2004 12:56 AM

Bitch badly needs a whackin’
He’s alive why? This guy, and any self-identified followers need to be taken out with extreme prejudice. If what al-Sadr’s doing won’t get you squished like a bug, then it’s pretty much open season to screw with Americans at will.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 23, 2004 07:28 PM

June 30 in Iraq: not leaving, not sovereignty
There seems to be a general sense in this country that on July 1 the Iraqis will be in control of their destiny, the deaths and killing will stop, the troops will start coming home and everything will be…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 23, 2004 03:47 PM

Pat Tillman Killed in Action
Pat Tillman was killed in action in Afghanistan in a fire fight. Tillman used to play for the Arizona Cardinals and he turned down about 3.5 million dollars from an NFL contract to serve his country. I don’t have anything…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 23, 2004 11:37 AM

Unchecked, Unbalanced
It’s so easy to forget, it bears repeating: Taking Iraq was never about terrorism, never about American security, 9/11, al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, or the disruption of future terrorist plots against America.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 22, 2004 04:35 PM

Best of Bush
“[T]he best way to find these terrorists who hide in holes is to get people coming forth to describe the location of the hole, is to give clues and data.”-George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2003 “See, free nations…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 21, 2004 09:56 PM

Keeping Count in Iraq
“April is the cruelest month…” –T.S. Eliot. “We don’t do body counts.” –Gen. Tommy Franks
Posted in Blogcritics on April 21, 2004 02:41 AM

Armageddon Out of Here: An Exit Strategy for Iraq
An elephant, under attack by fire ants, hazards only a few stings to its mouth and anus, but if, in its thrashing, it trips on a rock, the weight of its own fall will kill it.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 20, 2004 04:47 PM

Doonesbury gets serious
Funny thing: I saw the tail end of a news crawl that was something about a cartoon character losing a leg in Iraq, and I knew. In all of cartoonland, it occured to me in a flash that there was one obvious candidate: BD in Doonesbury.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 20, 2004 05:31 AM

A Warning
Uri Avnery – founder and editor of the first independent weekly in Israel, former Knesset member, activist – has some words on the Iraqi situation: The following passage may look familiar: ‎ ‎ “On the fourth day of the 1982…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 17, 2004 06:34 PM

“U.S. and Iraq One Year Later: Right to Get In? Wrong to Get Out?”
Certainly the central topic of our time, and with this group debating the fur is sure to fly. Go Hitch! KCRW TO AIR FESTIVAL OF BOOKS DEBATE: “U.S. and Iraq One Year Later: Right to Get In? Wrong to Get…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 16, 2004 03:37 PM

What If No Iraq War?
Bush declines to invade Iraq. Weapons inspectors are never allowed in. In November 2004, John Kerry wins a close election. Always the internationalist, new President John F. Kerry, seeking to make nice with Russia and France (after all those years…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 16, 2004 01:09 AM

The Song, Not the Singer: Bush On the War
Let’s forget Bush for a moment. George W. Bush is a very odd vessel for what is the most important message of our time: that there are implacable forces in the world that hate us, our way of life, our…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 14, 2004 09:22 AM

The Naked President
Iraq isn’t Vietnam, it’s Israel.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 14, 2004 01:45 AM

Popular Culture: Important Pieces of Home
David Fiore has an interesting post about popular culture being our best tool for “conquering” the Middle East. Today the NY Times has a great stroy on what our forces take with them to the far reaches of the globe:…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 13, 2004 04:10 PM

Future News
What if…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 13, 2004 01:16 AM

What would U.S. Grant Say About Iraq Today?
Probably something like this: “The whole public are tired out with these annual outbreaks in the Middle East”. If you ask me, people are wasting their time with all of these Iraq-‘Nam comparisons. The proper analogy for Bush’s plan to…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 12, 2004 12:06 PM

Unwinnable Iraq
Proof that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and no plans of harming the US or any other country.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 10, 2004 02:53 AM

Iraq Today: Fight or Flight?
The right-wingers are advising ruthlessness in Iraq, and claiming that “we are militarily superior in every way.” But that claim is a big “So What?” as far as trying to reduce the threat from Radical Islamists (RI’s) is concerned….
Posted in Blogcritics on April 9, 2004 06:45 PM

On Sadr
We looked at the situation in Fallujah and the necessity of operating from a position of strength here. Now, who is Moqtada Al Sadr and what is he trying to do? Jeffrey White of the Washington Institute for Near East…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 9, 2004 12:32 PM

From a Position of Strength
The current struggle in Iraq proves that we can only successfully work from a position of strength. Due to our weak response to terror prior to 9/11, our enemies concluded that we are decadent and weak, care only for our…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 9, 2004 10:31 AM

Happy Anniversary, Iraqis!
It’s been a year since the statue of Saddam Hussein fell in the center of Baghdad. A few things to ponder on this, the 1st Anniversary of the MISSION ACCOMPLISHED by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their cabal of oil-hungry Neo-cons
Posted in Blogcritics on April 9, 2004 10:23 AM

Politics: Iraqi militants kidnap foreigners
The Japanese received a chilling threat from the hostage takers.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 9, 2004 07:50 AM

A New Plan For Iraq
We do what American CEOs do when their companies start sliding toward an economic implosion: We simply resign. Leave it for somebody else to clean up. Let ’em dangle… or eat cake. Isn’t that sort of the entire political and philosophical attitude of the Bush Administration anyway?
Posted in Blogcritics on April 8, 2004 05:07 PM

Tax Revolt
Perhaps when the last dime of the unpaid corporate taxes are paid, Americans could resume paying their personal taxes. That would be a way to insure the return of American troops.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 8, 2004 04:15 PM

Iraq/Vietnam – GWB/LBJ
Bush — who missed out on the Vietnam war because he was busy protecting the border of Texas and Alabama (?) from Communist invasions, wouldn’t know it from direct experience — but his war in Iraq is starting to have a few similarities to Vietnam.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 8, 2004 12:29 PM

Moqtada al-Sadr has to go
This dirtbag cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has to go. There’s no two ways about it.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 8, 2004 01:36 AM

Holy Shi-ite
As America’s future unfolds on the streets of Fallujah and now of Najab, I think it’s time we STOP, children, what’s that sound, everybody look what’s goin down. These street gatherings are not quite yielding up the long-promised rose petals,…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 7, 2004 09:10 PM

Senatory John Kerry Calls Moqtada al-Sadr A “Legitimate Voice”
Newsmax.com reports that, during an NPR radio interview this morning, Senator Kerry called al-Sadr a “legitimate voice.” Huh?!!
Posted in Blogcritics on April 7, 2004 02:01 PM

India’s Vietnam, Decades of Timidity and Presidential Acts
Sri Lanka, 1987. India sent peacekeepers to its neighbour in 1987 but withdrew them in 1989 after losing 1,200 soldiers. This was to battle the Tamil Tiger rebel group. To this day, the group persists, seeking not to join the…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 6, 2004 09:47 PM

With the Marines in Fallujah
Marines – valuing civilian safety over their own, even though many of those same civilians want them dead – fight for Fallujah. Washington Post reporter Pamela Constable is there with the First Marine Expeditionary Force: U.S. Marines have established control…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 6, 2004 01:02 PM

Can We Compare Vietnam & Iraq? YES!
Iraq is not a Vietnam for President Bush. It was, however, for President Clinton.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 6, 2004 12:14 PM

History Repeats
George Santayana had it all wrong, simply learning history won’t necessarily protect you from repeating it, and here we are, in the midst of one of the biggest religious wars in the history of man.
Posted in Blogcritics on April 6, 2004 11:06 AM

It Begins…
The Strike On Fallujah
Posted in Blogcritics on April 6, 2004 01:44 AM

F!@k Fallujah and F!@K IRAQ
WARNING:VERY GRAPHIC PHOTOS. IF YOU HAVE A SENSITIVE NATURE OR ARE EASILY OFFENDED DO NOT READ THIS POST!
Posted in Blogcritics on April 5, 2004 09:20 PM

Today In Iraq
It has been hard not to notice the deafening silence here on Blogcritics regarding the barbarity in Fallujah last week. I know in my case I was stunned and disgusted, and any particular comment I might have had would have…
Posted in Blogcritics on April 5, 2004 06:20 PM

Not in the Charitable Mood
Should we send school supplies to the boys who are taught to hate us? Should we send supplies to the boys whose religious leaders will tell them it’s okay to kill us, but that they shouldn’t mutilate us after we’re dead, because everyone knows that’s just wrong?
Posted in Blogcritics on April 5, 2004 08:50 AM