Antiwar.com Blog

Three more US soldiers were killed today in Iraq, bringing this week’s total for US and British troops killed in Iraq to 18.

The US military’s total losses since the March 2003 invasion now total 2,662, according to Pentagon figures.

That’s the oh-so-maverick Bill Maher on George W. Bush. Maher went on to say that the reason W. takes the correct – i.e., 100-percent Likud – positions on Israel is “because he’s a crazy evangelical Christian.”

My God man! What the hell has happened to this country?

We at Antiwar.com do not make this stuff up:

From the Boston Globe:

“Maine National Guard members in Iraq and Afghanistan are never far from the thoughts of their loved ones.

But now, thanks to a popular family-support program, they’re even closer.

Welcome to the “Flat Daddy” and “Flat Mommy” phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.

The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the dentist, and even are brought to confession, according to their significant others on the home front.”

Via Brad at Wendy McElroy’s blog

I think the last story we reported said that Lebanon’s reconstruction cost would be around $2.5 billion — a number I thought was far too conservative. A 12-story building in my neighborhood would cost at least $20 million to build, if not more. It can’t be less than a quarter as much to build the same thing in Lebanon. Considering many thousands of buildings were totally flattened or damaged beyond repair, not to mention bridges, highways, the airport, hospitals — and I could go on — the cost had to be way higher. I see today in an article which is otherwise lower news, this paragraph:

The cost to rebuild Lebanon is at least $7 billion. More than 130,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in the short war. Unemployment has doubled, to 20%.

$7 billion still seems pretty low, but I guess we’ll only know once it’s done. With unemployment doubled, domestic sources of funding will be harder to dig up. It’s frustrating to realize that all I can do is wish them well, even as my money helped destroy their lives.

Buried deep in the story about the capture of the No. 2 of al-Qaeda in Iraq, we find out that with the death of 4 US troops in Iraq, “the total number of Americans killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts [is] above the number of Americans and foreign nationals killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.” How many more have to die?

Flipping through Details magazine at 1:00am on Friday night. No, it’s okay, I just got back from the Lyric Diner with friends, and we might go out to play yet. Meanwhile, I note a few disturbing trends and bits of info as I flip through these glossy pages — specifically, the fashion industry, having long ago (mercifully) abandoned heroin-chic, seems to have replaced it this season with war chic.

A Marithé et François Girbaud ad paints a confusing and unsettling scene of people in vaguely soldierly clothing and dog tags screaming and reaching for what must be a fallen comrade. All are covered in filth and black goo amid a stark field of dirt; black smoke from distant explosions rises in the distance.

And pulling no punches, Dolce and Gabbana, whose ads usually ooze not-always-benign homoeroticism, has a two-page spread of men in bomber jackets in a room full of Roman military artifacts; a woman in a Marie Antoinette wig, gigantic leather jackboots, and nothing else; and another schlub on the ground, shirt open, forehead sporting a bloody bullet hole. No mistaking the theme here.

An ad for Isaia is much less objectionable, but still gets an honorable mention for its fascism chic — an aesthetic I actually find appealing divorced from its perceived political associations. It’s all sharp angles, thin lines, svelte bodies and fine-featured Milanese faces. Don’t forget the leather gloves. Images of Hitler manhandling Eva Braun in the bunker waft through my mind.

I would stop far short of saying this is a big trend — the vast majority of these fashion ads are still people in luxurious settings enjoying life and smiling. But the war theme is notable. They could just as easily be the thoughtless gratuitous use of martial imagery as they could be high-brow political protest. But war is certainly filtering into popular culture in more than just the expected areas, regardless of the message behind these ads.

Details, like Newsweek, has a page of interesting stats and quotes. A couple of appropriate picks to round off this post:

“We’ve got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad. That’s a problem.” — Dept. of Defense “gang detective” Scott Barfield, on the increasing number of neo-Nazis in the US military.

and

One million dollars: amount the Federal government plans to pay St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio to find loopholes in the Freedom of Information Act.

Have a great night.