Hussein, Iraq's evil dictator, used to drag people out of their homes late in the night, and hold them in one of his prisons without charging them or letting their families know what has become of them.

The United States, Iraq's aspiring liberator, is now dragging people out of their homes late in the night, and holding them in one of Saddam Hussein's prisons without charging them or letting their families know what has become of them. (SF Gate) No, really. This is supposed to be a recipe for success and appreciation. From the same article:

According to rights groups, none of several thousand detainees being held at 18 U.S. military jails throughout Iraq has been allowed to see a lawyer or meet with relatives, and none has yet been charged with a crime or brought to trial. They have essentially fallen into a black hole.

In their infinite wisdom, US forces even detained the President of Iraq's Red Crescent Society (the sibling organization of our Red Cross) for several hours, tied him up, and refused to provide him with water.

The U.S. is also trying to set up its own court system to try whoever it wants to try for whatever crimes it feels like charging, dishing out whatever punishments it feels like dishing. To make things look legitimate.

Don't we MAKE FUN of countries that pull this kind of joke on people?

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Iraqis accuse American troops of hysteria in their violent efforts to find Hussein and his supporters.(BBC) (This article also notes that an Al-Jazeera reporter was captured and his tape confiscated after he filmed U.S. troops shooting at a civilian vehicle, but he has now been released -- without his videotape.)

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Task Force 20 raided a villa in the belief, it is reported, that perhaps Saddam's youngest son Ali or even the former president himself was sheltering there. They found nothing and made no arrests, but troops guarding the scene shot and killed five people.

(From the BBC)

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Interesting quote of the moment from an editorial from truthout.org:

Well, if we're going to talk about aiding the enemy: By cooking intelligence to promote a war that wasn't urgent, the administration has squandered our military strength. This provides a lot of aid and comfort to Osama bin Laden - who really did attack America - and Kim Jong Il - who really is building nukes.

I do find it interesting that many people who claimed to be concerned for the safety of those of us in the U.S. have NO PROBLEM with the idea of unguarded nuclear facilities being looted in Iraq, no problem with the idea that our intelligence reports to the president are either wildly inaccurate or wildly misused, no problem with the idea that weapons the administration claims exists are nowhere to be found, yet no one seems to be looking for them... Though there's no point in looking for weapons you KNOW don't exist... Which means...

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There's lots more great stuff to read at truthout.org, as always.

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Not to bring up our LAST wildly unsucessful attempt at saving a country from it's wicked rulers and then improving the citizens' lives, but things still aren't going well in Afghanistan. (Washington Post) In fact, Taliban 'guerrillas' are "roaming around freely" in public quite a bit, and threatening people in ways that undermine the country's stability. (truthout.org)

Wouldn't it be nice to get some practice at helping a country and leaving people much better off before we try it again elsewhere?

The feeding frenzy over the Defense Department's ill-conceived notion of letting people invest in terrorism futures was pretty entertaining today. (SF Gate). The idea of gambling against and for various unpleasant events happening, and using the investment patterns to predict or prevent terrorism, was too much even for Republicans, whose very harsh comments got heavy play today.

The afternoon economics shows didn't seem too surprised by the idea, having already decided that the stock market's wisdom is a great thing. However, one consultant did voice the idea that, even if you believe that wise investors can give a good indication of when terrorism would occur, the fact that the Pentagon would be using that information to prevent terrorism would keep investors from making any money... And I kept waiting for the punch line. And waiting. And waiting.

No, Poindexter is not enough of a punch line on his own.