Iraq today

[Ace42X]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4881194.stm

[dave790]

cheers for that

[Ace42X]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4905770.stm

Another 60,000 people (and on the rise) who are obviously so much happier with Iraq now that it is "free".

[Echewta]

But what about all the good news? Like the school that they rebuilt but can't show you because if they did then that school would be marked and blown up probably. Aren't are soldiers still greeted as liberators or are they kept in "forts" so the death toll doesn't go up any higher and make the Commander in Chief look even worse? Hmmm. Biden is going to have his hands full in 2008.

[D_Raay]

It's obvious that American government at the highest level is now comprised entirely of world-class liars, yet no matter who lies and how often, the news media continues reporting what these government officials say, as if their word is credible. The nightly news is a quick summary of the lies of the day, unquestioned, and in lieu of an honest discussion of issues, the plainest of facts are treated as if they are matters of dispute.

Iraq, straight-faced liars tell us, is a happy place, and we only think it’s a hellhole because of lying journalists. Bush says this, and journalists report it without question.

Also, global warming is not happening. Calling for the troops to come home will sap their strength quicker than Samson’s haircut. Evolution is “just a theory.” God does hate homosexuals, 'cuz it's in the Bible. The economy is booming, because millionaires say it is. And Saddam Hussein did have weapons of mass destruction -- because Bush and Cheney said he did, and they’re good Christians.

For all intents and purposes, truth and ethics are on an extended holiday together, or gone forever. The Senate Ethics Committee has been all-but-officially shut down, and hasn't done any wrist-slapping at all, even as the news swirls daily with accounts of unethical Senators. The House Ethics Committee is almost as silent.

All the rules that US politics and government have played by, have
quietly disappeared. American politics and government is now, in
essence, a game with no rules -- or a game where the most powerful players write the rules as they go, and break any rules they don’t like, with utter impunity.

Absent any rules, nobody knows what's coming next ... except that it's going to be worse.