It looks like we are starting to use Israeli tactics in Iraq. That's all we need — to turn Iraq into a giant West Bank. They have no water, no electricity, and now we are going to remove their houses too. Tell me again how life for the Iraqis is better now that Saddam is gone.

A U.S. Army digger destroys one of several houses in the Iraqi town of Ramadi, some 90 km (55 miles) west of the capital Baghdad June 3, 2003. Soldiers said that U.S. forces stationed nearby came under attack from these houses and it was decided to remove them.
[more]

  thanks to Magpie

Unprovoked murder? The culture clash in Iraq and the growing resistance

Dogs and women.

In the end, it all comes down to simple things, simple rules.

Among them are don't bring dogs into Iraqi homes, or disrespect their women. The Americans and British have been accused of doing both and people are dying behind it.

Even the rumor of searching through women's underwear sent 300 armed men into the streets in an Iraqi town. It may play at 10 Downing Street to call that unprovoked, but to Iraqis, it was a gross insult and provocation.
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"Beleaguered" Americans and a FUBAR Iraq

It's been interesting seeing the news media come around the clusterfuck called "Iraq". Note the last paragraph of this CBS News story:

Power grid sabotage could end up causing a cholera epidemic — the last thing the beleaguered Americans need.

"Beleaguered". It's definitely an accurate adjective.

Mass sabotage has brought the nation's critical infrastructure to a grinding halt, while repair crews are assassinated if they attempt to repair the damage.

Meanwhile, as tempers flare in the festering heat (check out Baghdad's 10-day forecast), our soldiers die.
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Trudy Rubin | Bush never made serious postwar plans

Whoever was responsible at top levels in the Pentagon for postwar planning should be fired.

But then no one would be fired. Three weeks in Iraq makes very clear that no one in the Bush administration made serious postwar plans before the start of the Iraq war.

That lack of foresight is largely responsible for the huge occupation problems the Bush team now faces - as Iraqi anger mounts over lack of security, electricity, water, sewage and jobs. Unless the Bush administration invests many more resources into its Iraq venture, soon, it could lose the peace.
[more]

  thanks to Eschaton

Experts Question Depth of Victory
Attacks Indicate Baath Party Is Not Cowed

The wave of more sophisticated attacks on U.S. troops and civilian occupation forces in Iraq is raising new worries among military experts that the 21-day war that ended in April was an incomplete victory that defeated Saddam Hussein's military but not his Baath political party.
[more]

  thanks to The Agonist

Hell starts now

Winning the war was easy. Winning the peace will be a nightmare. The war on Iraq was "officially" over on May 1. But almost two months later, British Premier Tony Blair has been forced to admit that the security situation in Iraq is "serious". He missed the point though: there's no "security" (for Westerners) because of the widespread hostility of the Iraqi population towards the Anglo-American occupiers. And for most Iraqis, the occupiers are indistinguishable.
[more]

  thanks to Magpie