by Ronald Brownstein

Los Angeles Times

12/27/04

Millions of Americans probably learned about last week's horrific attack on U.S. troops in Mosul while wrapping Christmas presents or stuffing packages into the SUV after a last-minute shopping blitz at the mall. That jarring juxtaposition may be the perfect symbol for the Iraq war. This grueling, grinding conflict is skittering through American life like a tornado that tears one house to the ground in every neighborhood, while leaving all those around it unscratched.

For the military personnel on the front lines -- and their families and friends -- the war is exacting bitter costs. For all other Americans, even for the officials whose decisions sent the troops into battle and shaped the conditions under which they are fighting and dying, the war is imposing no discernible consequences...

http://tinyurl.com/6nprg


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Phillip Carter and Owen West

Slate

12/27/04

Generational contrasts are implicit today when casualties in Iraq are referred to as light, either on their own or in comparison to Vietnam. The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, for example, last July downplayed the intensity of the Iraq war on this basis, arguing that 'it would take over 73 years for US forces to incur the level of combat deaths suffered in the Vietnam war.' But a comparative analysis of U.S. casualty statistics from Iraq tells a different story...

http://www.slate.com/id/2111432/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Sheila Samples

LewRockwell.Com

12/28/04

The price we are paying for national greed and lust for power is too high. American service members are not a ghostly, faceless mass of 'troops.' They are flesh-and-blood individuals; our sons, daughters, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews. They are America's children -- her present, her future. Those troops I have known -- artillerymen, engineers, infantrymen -- are dedicated to their mission. They will do as they are told. They are proud of their country, will go to great lengths to protect it and, if necessary, are willing to die for its freedom. Unfortunately, more of them every day are called upon to do so. Although the media steadfastly refuses to acknowledge it, 1,331 US troops have been slaughtered in Iraq. Tonight, 16 families will bow their heads and pray for the safety of their children, not knowing they are already dead...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/samples1.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17630

Christopher Hedges on Generation Kill by Evan Wright:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399151931/lewrockwell/
and The Fall of Baghdad by Jon Lee Anderson:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594200343/lewrockwell/


Informant: Lew Rockwell

What Foreigners Don't Like

The federal empire, despite its elections. Article by Charley Reese:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese147.html

by Mustafa Malik

Boston Globe

12/23/04

A tiger killed a fawn and began munching on it, according to a popular Bangladeshi folk tale. A hungry bear jumped on the tiger to snatch the carcass away. The two fought until both lay mortally wounded, unable to move. A fox, which was watching the fight from a bush, scampered to the dead fawn and feasted to its heart's content.

The United States overthrew Saddam Hussein only to be overwhelmed by a Sunni Arab insurgency. But Sunni Arabs, being a minority, can't come to power through the Jan. 30 elections. This is why most of them are boycotting the vote. ... Now Arab commentators are saying that America is fighting 'Iran's war...

http://tinyurl.com/6kqfu


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp