Antiwar.com Blog

Today’s dedication ceremony and reenactment in Balaclava, Ukraine, in honor of the valiant charge by British cavalry during the Crimean War brings to mind once again Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s stirring poem of heroic duty. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” has immortalized the consequences of a mistaken command on a battlefield; a “blunder,” as Tennyson puts it. How this poem thrilled me as a child before I was aware of the true nature of war, how the horsemen of the Light Brigade bravely charged the enemy cannons even though they knew they had been given a suicidal order by mistake.

Who will be the poet to immortalize our brave troops in Iraq? They too are charging into harm’s way based on a huge mistake, a momumental blunder; a war based on erroneous data and out-and-out lies, a war which should never have been started. No one questions the courage of our troops, and a proud nation salutes their sense of duty. But again, will there be a great poet to immortalize their sacrifice, or will they be silently forgotten to history as an uncomfortable reminder of a great mistake in judgment?

Read the poem, and think of our troops over in Iraq:
The Charge of the Light Brigade

In light of today’s horrendous news that 380 tons (760,000 pounds) of high explosives seem to have been “mislaid” in the aftermath of the war in 2003, I was reminded of a blog entry I posted in January 2004 which dealt with a similar theft, only then it was about radioactive waste and its devastating effect on one small Iraqi villiage. The cause was the same, failure to secure dangerous materials. Of course, great care was taken at that same time by the military to secure the buildings of the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

Here is Dahr Jamail’s original story “Who Will Give Us Back Our Health”

Here’s the big story for tomorrow.

Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq

Josh Marshall

Michael Froomkin.

Obsidian Wings:

Since this was an IAEA site, its location, and what was there, was known to us before we invaded. What, exactly, were our troops doing that was more important than making sure terrorists didn’t make off with 350 tons of very high explosives that can be used either to trigger a nuclear weapon or to kill our troops? I honestly can’t think of any way at all that we could have let this happen. If it had been one guy sneaking in and making off with a document, maybe, but I would have thought that it would be impossible for people using heavy equipment to make off with 350 tons of stuff had we been making any serious effort to secure this site. So why didn’t we? What could we possibly have been thinking?
[…]
Just asking.

via Chris at Explananda

Steve Gilliard wrote what struck me as the most insightful take on the execution of almost 50 “cadets” or whatever they’re called in Orwellian-Iraqi – semi-“trained” Iraqi National Guards today:

They were betrayed by a member of that unit.

There is simply no other way 50 soldiers are massacred like this.

How many guerillas showed up to do this? A hundred? Or did the unit turn on each other? Something really bad happened here, something which screams total and complete lack of operational security. This was no accident and it was not happenstance.

Whoever waited for these men, waited with the full knowledge that they were coming and prepared to send a rather stark, brutal message.

Not only that soldiers are not safe, but that we can find you and kill you anywhere you go.

This kind of thing requires precise timing and serious force, enough to kill them in a fire fight. This may be the single most stunning guerilla attack of the war, and a real demonstration of strength. These were armed soldiers, trained soldiers and they walked into an ambush and were murdered. Yet, they were so trapped, they couldn’t resist and were shot. How does that happen to soldiers?

Stunning.

“It appears that they were ambushed by a large, well-organized force with good intelligence,” the source said.

Duh.

UPDATE: Spies suspected in Iraq police massacre

Duh.

A few days ago I posted a blog entry about a 70-year-old reservist called up for Iraq duty.

I recorded the segment from the evening news on KNTV (NBC in San Jose, California) and then transcribed the information into my blog entry. I received many emails from people asking if it was a joke or a hoax, and I assured them that the story was accurate.

Now I am informed by Mark Flaa that he played quite a joke on his father-in-law, 70-year-old reservist Ted Wallace.

Wallace contacted the TV station and gave them his story before his son-in-law could tell him he had played an elaborate joke on him. Flaa found out his father-in-law didn’t get the joke when he saw the news report himself.

No one I know has found this particularly funny.

I personally apologize for having helped to spread this disinformation.

Today, on the Weekend Interview Show, Scott Horton will be talking to the brilliant Alexander Cockburn, publisher of the great lefty newsletter CounterPunch. Cockburn has received high praise from the none other than the Frumster, (that’s a much better link than the one to his dreary homepage, believe me)who called Cockburn an “anti-American of the far Left”.
I made a mental note many years ago, it reads “Read anything by anyone whom David Frum considers “anti-American”. This note has served me well ever since.
The second hour of the show will be devoted to heroic whistleblowers. Sibel Edmonds will be among the guests.
The show will run from 4PM to 6PM ET. It can be heard live on the internet.