They used me as a way to symbolise all this stuff. It's wrong." -- Jessica Lynch, on the Pentagon's misinformation about her rescue (BBC)

*

It hurt in a way that people would make up stories that they had no truth about. They did not know whether I did that or not. Only I would have been able to know that, because the other four people on my vehicle aren't here to tell that story. So I would have been the only one able to say, 'Yeah, I went down shooting.' But I didn't. I did not....
--Jessica Lynch on ABC

*

Iraqometer's first graphic, the one listing the number of days since a member of the coalition forces was killed, doesn't have to be updated often. The answer is invariably zero.

"The U.S. death toll in Iraq has surpassed the number of American soldiers killed during the first three years of the Vietnam War". (truthout.org) 17 soldiers died today in a two-helicopter collision (washington post).

Mounting casualties in Iraq have prompted the Bush administration to speed up plans to turn over authority to Iraqi leaders and technically end the occupation by next summer. However, there are no proposals for U.S. troops to abandon Iraq, even when an Iraqi government is in place.

William Rivers Pitt compares the attacks at the beginning of Ramadan to the Tet Offensive of Vietnam. (truthout.org)

*

Just after the invasion, 43 per cent saw the U.S.-led Allies as 'liberating forces.' A poll earlier this month showed that 15 per cent now see the Americans as liberators. Iraqis who see them as occupiers have risen from 46 per cent to 67 per cent.
--Cockburn in The Independent

*

The war is making life difficult within the U.S. Iraq war spending is increasing the largest federal budget deficit in U.S. history. (BBC) Corruption appears rife: the Center for Public Integrity reports that

More than 70 American companies and individuals have won up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two years... [which had] donated more money to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush - a little over $500,000 - than to any other politician over the last dozen years... Nearly 60 percent of the companies had employees or board members who either served in or had close ties to the executive branch for Republican and Democratic administrations, for members of Congress of both parties, or at the highest levels of the military.

We are losing the very civil liberties that our leaders are sworn to defend.

President Bush is claiming the unilateral right to do that to any American citizen he believes is an "enemy combatant." Those are the magic words. If the President alone decides that those two words accurately describe someone, then that person can be immediately locked up and held incommunicado for as long as the President wants, with no court having the right to determine whether the facts actually justify his imprisonment.

Now if the President makes a mistake, or is given faulty information by somebody working for him, and locks up the wrong person, then it’s almost impossible for that person to prove his innocence - because he can’t talk to a lawyer or his family or anyone else and he doesn’t even have the right to know what specific crime he is accused of committing. So a constitutional right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we used to think of in an old-fashioned way as "inalienable" can now be instantly stripped from any American by the President with no meaningful review by any other branch of government.
--Al Gore speaking on Freedom and Security (moveon.org)

Abroad, Bush is so unpopular, that his security people want to shut down central London so Bush can avoid protesters. (BBC video)

This is an interesting time historically, but not a very happy one.

The occupation of Iraq keeps taking such dramatic turns for the worse, it’s hard to even think about without wanting to cry. As of late October, more troops have died during the occupation than during major combat -- it’s only gotten worse since. (washingtonpost.com)

The people of Iraq are falling into a deep despair, fearing they have no future. (Washingtonpost.com)

Attacks on U.S. forces escalated, culminating in large-target attacks such as downing a Chinook helicopter, killing 16 soldiers and injuring 20 more. (sfgate.com) A black hawk helicopter went down next, and attacks on the US are occurring all over Iraq. (BBC) ”In October, 33 U.S. soldiers were killed in hostile fire, double the number killed in September.” (truthout.org)

85,000 additional troops are being called up to staff the occupation, without any overt changes in the failed logic of the plan. (sfgate.com)

Meanwhile, on the home front, our democracy is crumbling under the weight of the war. The US is abducting suspected terror suspects and taking them to allies who torture them for information (Washingtonpost.com), such as the Canadian whose abduction so upset Canada that our neighbor to the north issued a travel advisory AGAINST VISITING THE U.S. at that time. This may be part of a plan for the U.S. to use torture more often. (the Nation)

It is being widely reported that Iraq tried to make numerous attempts to prevent war by offering various deals to intermediaries to the US Government, which were rebuffed. (Washingtonpost.com) As the New York Times observes, “Administration supporters were fond of saying at the time that there were things Bush officials knew but could not share with the public. Little did we imagine that among those things was an offer that might have provided a way to avoid the war.” (truthout.org)

Long serving, loyal military officers are being persecuted for airing “liberal views”. (theitem.com) Some of our own

Administration’s officials, meanwhile, are denying that they ever claimed the Iraqis would welcome us, even though their earlier comments were transcribed (starbanner.com).

Truth is just one of many casualties of this war. If this is the cost, then we must ask ourselves if it is the terrorists, or merely the opportunists in our own government, who have already won.