No Exit Strategy (thenation.com, 08/01/05) reviews two books from institutional 'insiders' about the way the Iraq war and subsequent occupation were mismanaged. What is refreshing about the review is that it asks the question: who is the US to believe it had the right to manage or mismanage the fate of other nations without their people's consent?

It is a relief to read that the entire project of an invasion/occupation/forced puppet government is fundamentally flawed, NOT merely the way it was carried out.

Update on the World Tribunal On Iraq: The World Speaks on Iraq (thenation.com, 8/01/05 issue):

The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) held its culminating session in Istanbul June 24-27, the last and most elaborate of sixteen condemnations of the Iraq War held worldwide in the past two years, in Barcelona, Tokyo, Brussels, Seoul, New York, London, Mumbai and other cities....

The WTI expresses the opposition of global civil society to the Iraq War, a project perhaps best described as a form of 'moral
globalization.'"

I like that. Moral globalization. If people can't organize to hold bully governments accountable, who can? What could be more democratic?

This is a good article on the session.

There's more at worldtribunal.org, including excerpts of speeches given. This is from Arundhati Roy's opening statements at the Istanbul session, which you must read in their entirety.

The Jury of Conscience at this tribunal is not here to deliver a simple verdict of guilty or not guilty against the United States and its allies. We are here to examine a vast spectrum of evidence about the motivations and consequences of the U.S. invasion and occupation, evidence that has been deliberately marginalized or suppressed. Every aspect of the war will be examined - its legality, the role of international institutions and major corporations in the occupation, the role of the media, the impact of weapons such as depleted uranium munitions, napalm, and cluster bombs, the use of and legitimation of torture, the ecological impacts of the war, the responsibility of Arab governments, the impact of Iraq's occupation on Palestine, and the history of U.S. and British military interventions in Iraq. This tribunal is an attempt to correct the record. To document the history of the war not from the point of view of the victors but of the temporarily - and I repeat the word temporarily - vanquished.

I am eager to read her closing statements, which are not posted with the others, but which are surely spectacular: Roy has a crystal clear way of phrasing things that can just knock the wind out of you, and I look forward to reading her remarks.

Book. One of the Washington Post writers has a new book out. Excerpts are posted at Book: 'Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War' (washingtonpost.com, 8/29/05).

The book focuses on the lives of an ordinary family, headed by a widow. As with most wars, the consequences fall heavily on those who have the fewest resources, and female-headed families appear to bear the brunt of society's problems around the world. Excerpts from an initially-optimistic daughter's diary provide an insider's view.

Occasionally, there are odd comments about how delusional this family was to think that their government would stand: that doesn't really take into account the media environment that all repressive governments manage to maintain.

Excerpt from the later, more pessimistic sections:

"I regret that I went to the elections and voted," Karima said seven months later, as she sat with Amal and her sisters over breakfast. "What did we elect? Nothing."

"If we voted or didn't vote, it's still the same thing," said Fatima, her oldest daughter and most pessimistic. "If the Americans want to do something, they'll do it."

Being the evil we deplore, Part II: Colorado lawmaker: U.S. could "take out" Mecca (msnbc.com, 7/18/05) reveals that Representative Tancredo was asked about appropriate responses to terror. He gave this inappropriate response:

"Well, what if you said something like - if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites," Tancredo answered.

"You're talking about bombing Mecca," Campbell said.

"Yeah," Tancredo responded.

The congressman later said he was "just throwing out some ideas" and that an "ultimate threat" might have to be met with an "ultimate response."

So if the Oklahoma City bombers had been Christian, he would have attacked Rome? I don't think so.

Bonus awkwardness points: Tancredo still isn't sure why there was a fuss about these remarks.

Some of us LIKE to be the evil we deplore, Part I. While the US has been struggling to assure the world that it's people are fundamentally good after an illegal war based on lies, and after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, there are folks who think that goodness is a misplaced value. These folks apparently include a few famous commentators. Eric Zorn's Notebook: PAUL HARVEY: AH, GENOICDE AND SLAVERY, NOW THAT'S A GOOD DAY! (6/24/05) (which I found through fair.org) quotes cranky commentator Paul Harvey, who thinks we worry too much about our national image, and recalls the good ol' days:

Once upon a time, we elbowed our way onto and into this continent by giving small pox infected blankets to native Americans.

Yes, that was biological warfare!

And we used every other weapon we could get our hands on to grab this land from whomever. And we grew prosperous.

And, yes, we greased the skids with the sweat of slaves.

And so it goes with most nation states, which, feeling guilty about their savage pasts, eventually civilize themselves out of business and wind up invaded, and ultimately dominated by the lean, hungry and up and coming who are not made of sugar candy.

So, basically, he thinks that was the way to go, but that we're too NICE now.

Because Abu Ghraib and bombing Baghdad was all about "nice."

I wonder what Mr. Harvey is putting on his cereal in the morning.

Sheehan Glad Bush Didn't Meet With Her (washingtonpost.com, 8/30/05):

"I look back on it, and I am very, very, very grateful he did not meet with me, because we have sparked and galvanized the peace movement," Sheehan told The Associated Press. "If he'd met with me, then I would have gone home, and it would have ended there."

Hurricane Cindy. I haven't written about Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, who became a nationwide peace celebrity by camping outside Bush's Texas ranch, and refusing to leave until either the end of August, or until he spoke with her.

Bush continued his ranch vacation, and didn't speak to her.

BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | In search of an Iraq exit strategy (news.bbc.co.uk, 8/27/05) describes the shift in American politics and opinion polls that has resulted in a bereaved mother being the symbol of a movement to withdraw troops from Iraq.

What's funny to me is that there have been many, many other bereaved mothers who joined the pro-peace side early on. They did not become media darlings. Why not? Because the media perceived the country as heading toward war, and didn't want to interrupt that momentum with dissidents. Not even millions of dissidents worldwide, but certainly not a few mourning mothers.

Timing is a funny thing.