Quote Of The Day: Excuses And Consolations

by matttbastard

Buried with the motives and causes of our humanitarian wars, lies an elaborate system of excuses and consolations. We give ourselves the right to conduct wars of choice, with destructive effects on others out of all proportion to the risk to ourselves, because we know we are not the sort of people who enjoy wars. So, too, we may reserve the right to torture when torture is really necessary, just because we are not the sort of people who torture. By contrast, the enemy must be fought by tremendous and disproportionate means precisely because the enemy are the sort of people who do torture. Hunted back to its hiding place, this train of thought would perhaps disclose the premise that it is better to be killed by Americans than it is to be killed by other people.

– David Bromwich, The Torture Compromise of 2007

h/t War in Context

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A Few Items Worth Your Attention On This Snowy Sunday Morn

by matttbastard

Is much too chilly and inhospitable today in my neck of the woods to even think about venturing into the not-so-great outdoors. So, in lieu of going to church (snicker) or, more realistically, a greasy spoon for hangover mitigation, here are several worthy distractions that can be enjoyed from the comforts of home:

• My Bread & Roses homegrrl Alison put up a post the other day re: the ongoing Vietnamization of Afghanistan that is definitely worth a read, as is this article by Dahr Jamail on “tactical perception management“.
• Tangentially related, Rummy is back with an op-ed (read: infomercial) in today’s WaPo that shows he (stubbornly) still hearts institutional transformation and teh propaganda.
• Finally, check out The Century of the Self, Adam Curtis’ 4 part BBC4 documentary on the Freudian origins of public relations:

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Still Getting Better All The Time

by matttbastard

The recent surge in positive news emanating from Iraq continues – Damian Cave reports that crime, graft and unemployment are running rampant in Baghdad:

Some American officials estimate that as much as a third of what they spend on Iraqi contracts and grants ends up unaccounted for or stolen, with a portion going to Shiite or Sunni militias. In addition, Iraq’s top anticorruption official estimated this fall — before resigning and fleeing the country after 31 of his agency’s employees were killed over a three-year period — that $18 billion in Iraqi government money had been lost to various stealing schemes since 2004.

The collective filching undermines Iraq’s ability to provide essential services, a key to sustaining recent security gains, according to American military commanders. It also sows a corrosive distrust of democracy and hinders reconciliation as entrenched groups in the Shiite-led government resist reforms that would cut into reliable cash flows.

In interviews across Baghdad, though, Iraqis said the widespread thieving affected them at least as powerfully on an emotional and moral level. The Koran is very clear on stealing: “God does not love the corrupters,” one verse says. And for average Iraqis, those ashamed of the looting that took place immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the current era of anything-goes is particularly crushing because almost no one can avoid its taint.

Ah, the undeniable virtues of messy freedom never fail to warm even a dirty hippie’s cold, callous heart– simply miraculous!

Related: Even more good news ( well, sort of, but not really…) Clearly the undeniable progress in Mesopotamia means there’s no good reason why we shouldn’t…er, stay the course, right?

Right?

Update: When it rains, it pours:

Baghdad is facing a ‘catastrophe’ with cases of cholera rising sharply in the past three weeks to more than 100, strengthening fears that poor sanitation and the imminent rainy season could create an epidemic.

The disease – spread by bacteria in contaminated water, which can result in rapid dehydration and death – threatens to blunt growing optimism in the Iraqi capital after a recent downturn in violence. Two boys in an orphanage have died and six other children were diagnosed with the disease, according to the Iraqi government. ‘We have a catastrophe in Baghdad,’ an official said.

JJ is curious:

Wasn’t Halliburton paid billions a few years ago to rebuild the destroyed water system in Iraq so that Iraqis could at least have the most basic of needs, clean water?

Hey, don’t be a Negative Nellie, JJ.  From all accounts it sounds like infrastructure reconstruction is still going swimmingly.  Halliburton (and its subsidiaries) worked damn hard to do the job right, as per usual.

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