Desperate Martians Now Wooing Venusians

EUROPE and the world have witnessed over the last few days the unfolding of a diplomatic offensive that is designed to convince Europeans, "to put Iraq behind them." The effort is, in fact, geared to persuade not only Europeans but also the world that with the recent elections in Iraq, there is a new game that must be played, and the name of that game is democracy. The reality is that the old game of domination and occupation continues, and the US is not winning. The triumphalism that accompanied George W. Bush’s tour of "Old Europe," with his brand new Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, at his side, was a public relations effort to counter the reality of the spread of a wide and deep resistance in Iraq. There is not only the military resistance that we witness day-to-day on television. There is also a political resistance that is broader than the military resistance. There is, as well, massive civil resistance, which encompasses not only trade union opposition but all those acts ordinary citizens engage in day-to-day to deny legitimacy to the occupation that James C. Scott calls the "weapons of the weak."

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Tomgram: Schwartz on Why the Military Is Failing in Iraq

In fact, in the week when the American death toll crept over another grim mark almost without notice and, just this Friday, four American soldiers were reported killed in Anbar Province and a fifth in a vehicle accident, oil and gas pipelines also went up in the northern part of Iraq; politicians dithered and negotiated and argued over a future Iraqi government that may have little power and less ability to rule the country; while, as a BBC headline had it, "Iraq insurgents seize initiative"; one of the most devastating car bombs of the war hit a gathering of potential police recruits in Hilla; a judge, his son, and a trade unionist were among the assassinated; suicide bombers hit the Ministry of the Interior; numerous Iraqi policemen and army troops as well as recruits and potential recruits were slaughtered; more roadside bombs killed American soldiers; uncounted civilians died; America's detention centers in the country, themselves incubators for insurgents, were reported to be bursting with prisoners; the contested oil city of Kirkuk grew yet more combustible, given Kurdish demands, Shiite desires, and Turkish threats ("Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has said that ‘in case of fighting in Kirkuk, Turkey cannot remain a spectator'); and in a bizarre twist which caught something of the madness of the situation (though it is also a commonplace for Iraqis), as the week ended, a kidnapped Italian journalist, freed by her captors, and in a car driving towards Camp Victory at Baghdad International Airport to return home, was wounded and an Italian intelligence officer with her killed by quick-to-shoot American troops, potentially tossing Italian politics and a close Bush ally in the "coalition of the willing," Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, into turmoil; and finally, an NPR journalist, Deborah Amos, threw up her hands and declared that, between escalating dangers and American military control over reporting, the state of Iraq was essentially an unreportable story for American journalists. "When you read a news report, look at the second line. More and more you will find it reads: ‘according to the U.S. military' or ‘according to officials.'" She added, "You can no longer just rely on your news du jour, whether it's NPR or the New York Times," and went on to describe NPR's offices in Iraq in this way: "She said most NPR reporters are holed up in a compound on a hilltop that resembles a base for a Colombian drug lord. The guarded compound has a vault that journalists can step into if ‘they' come to get them." Under the circumstances, it might be reasonable to ask exactly whose future in Iraq was, in General Myers phrase, "absolutely bleak." Certainly, Iraq's was. And yet, amid that bleakness, the American military effort barrels on, as Michael Schwartz explains below, based on a strategic theory of the Iraqi insurgency which is only likely to lead to further failure, more chaos, more slaughter, and an ever stronger insurgency. When you've read Schwartz, check out the striking collection of quotes that acts as a perfect illustration for his piece at Ari Berman's Daily Outrage blog at the Nation magazine on-line.

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The recruiter and your kid

What amazes me is how the Army makes no connection between the mistreatment of Guardmen and Reservists and enlistment. Look, let's not be naive, some of these kids can't wait for a chance to kill as many sand niggers as possible and prove how macho they are, but most are looking for a path forward, and Dr. Whitehurst's mealy-mouth, if well-intentioned advice, isn't going to work. But you need to offer a clear alternative to military service, not just killing is a bad, bad thing. They don't think that is the case, or if they did, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Any bitch of a teacher that thinks one dies honorably for their country needs a weekend at Walter Reed. Because these kids aren't dying, they're getting brain trauma. 90 percent of the wounded live, the highest ratio in military history. We are creating a generation of cripples.

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'I just want to survive and go home with all my body parts'
Fears of soldiers on patrol in Mosul as US military death toll in Iraq tops 1,500

The city was quiet but the soldiers sitting and swaying inside the Stryker were animated by their favourite debate: was it better to be five metres or 20 metres from an explosion? The front gunner belonged to the 20-metre school, figuring the greater distance reduced your chances of losing limbs to the blast. The two rear gunners scoffed and said that would increase the odds of being hit by shrapnel, which fanned upwards and outwards. Five months of patrolling Mosul had furnished evidence for both views and the discussion was as well-worn as the Stryker's tyres. Sergeant David Phillips, 23, sighed and patted his flak jacket. "I just want to stay alive and go home with all my body parts." He spoke for 150,000 American soldiers in Iraq. Yesterday the number of US military deaths since the March 2003 invasion crept over 1,500.

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America's China Gambit: Why Showing our Limits in Iraq Has Hurt Us

A few weeks ago, I happened to be included at a dinner at the home of the Deputy Chief of Mission of the Singapore Embassy, Susan Sim, who invited a small handful of people together to toast a mutual friend. One of the other guests was a senior Pentagon official who covers East Asia & Pacific Affairs. I told him that it seemed to me that the distraction of Iraq was harming American interests in several ways. First, America had shown the world its limits -- financially and militarily -- with the Iraq invasion and occupation. The consequences of this are enormous as it erodes the confidence that allies have in our ability to stand with them in times of crisis and incentivizes the world's bad actors to maximize their objectives during a time when the American response will be more bluster than bite. Secondly, the Iraq conflict has distracted America from many other important foreign policy questions. American leadership seems invisible in global trade policy today. The White House also seems to have informally kicked USTR out of the Cabinet -- with the White House statement that all cabinet level appointments had now been concluded, implying cryptically that USTR and the Environmental Protection Agency were now demoted departments.

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  thanks to 'Just World News' by Helena Cobban