While the corporate media are dancing on Eliot Spitzer’s political grave, and the supposedly lefty blogs are inventing new and exciting sludge bombs to sling at the Democrat they love to demonize, McClatchy has this:
Eight U.S. service members were killed in two attacks today in Iraq, making it the deadliest day against the military this year, a senior American military official in Baghdad said. At least 11 Iraqis also were killed Monday in a surge of attacks throughout the country.
Five of the Americans died when a suicide bomber walked up to a foot patrol in Baghdad and self-detonated. The others died while on a patrol in Diyala province, the official said. He asked not to be identified as he isn’t an official spokesman.
The rash of attacks against a spectrum of targets raised new questions about whether the U.S. can draw down its presence from the current buildup to levels of about a year ago.
Does it really raise questions? Does anyone seriously believe there are plans to get out? A couple weeks ago, sixteen year old Iraqi blogger Sunshine put Bush’s disaster into a better perspective than I or any other American blogger could:
The new operation is about to start as you know, I feel like it’ll work this time, although not everyone think so, because the troops announced the operation before it starts ..
I still have hope, I don’t know why.. All the ex-operations failed, but there is a voice inside my heart telling me to be optimistic .I think about Iraq a lot, what happened and what’s going to happen. When I think about our future I wonder weather it’ll worth every thing we faced , Hopefully.
I open the curtain above my bed, look at the sky, and think…
If the troops will defeat the terrorists and we’ll have security, my relatives who live abroad will come to Iraq, and I’ll be able to see my aunt again, we’ll do whatever we want and wear what we like, without being afraid from terrorists .. I’ll feel more free to write about what I feel, and you’ll be able to see Sunshine, I won’t have to make voice interviews only ..
Oh god how much I miss planning to picnics and preparing for parties, I feel I am so close to live in safety, and see my relatives , neighbors , & friends who had to leave Iraq again.
Every bad thing we got through will be a memory only, we’ve been living in a war zone for four long years, full of sadness & fear. It was a bad experience and no one would love to go through that, but It’s out of my power, I can’t end the war, but we say “if you have lemon, make lemonade” there’s no bright side in the war, but in this four years I became stronger, and independent person, I believe in myself and I know nothing can stop me from moving forward, not even the war, nor terrorists when I have determination and faith ..
I realized how much I love Iraq, I didn’t know how much Iraq means to me, until I saw It destroyed.
Her optimism, even after having experienced so much disappointment and horror, should make any humane person ache. But the American media have more important things on which to focus. Because who cares about Iraqi civilians or American service personnel when there’s a sex scandal to be exploited?
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… in this country and very much has to do with how Bush and his minions have been able to spend so many years in Iraq doing nothing but destroying what was a sovereign nation that did not attack us.
It’s inherent in our media, the ability of corporations to consolidate and control media, a Republican Congress who gave the store away for too many years in too corrupt a fashion …
… and a public, I believe, who has had it with all that bullshit. The numbers coming out to vote give me an inkling of this.
Turk, if Sunshine can be optimistic and try to make lemonade out of lemons, perhaps we need to do that, too in our own way.
People are reading what folks like you are saying. I’ve read several posters just randomly who say they get ALL their news from the blogs now, from folks who are trusted to tell the truth.
There is an alternative now. And I believe folks will come to that alternative and want to know the truth.
Keep on writing. I’ll keep on reading. I’m not as cheerful as Sunshine, but I can do a pretty convincing impression! 🙂
Human interest stories only sell if they involve the guy or girl next door. The guy or girl in Iraq, not really. Not here anyway.
I am an animal lover. We breed championship show cats and raise them like family in every way.
I still wonder why more people cry at the story of a dog or cat that meets an early demise than they do over a good human being(s) meeting the same situation.
Perhaps it is the fact that the animal is purely innocent in our eyes.
Perhaps something was misintrepreted in the translation of what is innocent.
raises questions.
Who else was involved, please?
Who leaked the Spitzer tap, please?
Fuck Spitzer. But, please, let’s have the truth.
i am sooooooo tired of this shit. eliot is a hyprocrite. okay.
our whole political landscape is full of hypocrites. nothing new here, folks. leave this to hannity and tweety. the MSM and all the other lame brains. and i mean that literally.
but we can elevate the discussion, as your essay does. using our inane obsessions over things like eliotgate gives a humbling context against the soulful words of Sunshine. wow.
again, thank you for raising the bar. and keeping the truly important things in sight:::
if there is god, i hope he read this Sunshine…
until it’s leaked to the media by a political operative.
The U.S. needs to understand this and get over it.
Every human is weak.
the vultures of the Media. They love it as it takes the need for even politics to be covered. All the filth thats unfit to print. This will keep them going for a good month with out having to even spin the ‘surge’ as a success. If only the disgrace and shame reserved for the sex scandals of pols were directed to the real scandal, politicians who kill and oppress unlimited amounts of humans for nothing but their and their sponsors interests.
Sunshine is amazing. Iraq’s own little Anne Frank isn’t she? She’s touched my heart deeply and I thank you Turk!!
Thus keeping the news that Adm. William Fallon may loose his command of US Centcom because of his refusal to attack Iran.
And becomes more interested/shocked in who is torturing who or who is killing who instead of who is fucking who, this could be a heck of a country.
If