On George W. Bush’s National Guard documents, scroll down to page 17, and you’ll find something askew that the big boys refuse to touch. What I want to know is: has our commander-in-chief had his cholera shots???? During the summer of ’68, when he was shooting up yellow fever, typhoid, tetanus, and plague, why did he not opt for the cholera? Our greatest bio-terror threat may be struggling through a bag of pretzels at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue even as you read this.
Who was the 1,000th dead Iraqi?
I understand the sentiment and the political message behind demonstrations like this, but every time I see a news account about Americans mourning the “grim milestone” of over a thousand dead in the Iraq War-of-Choice, I can’t help but resent the fact that no Americans mourned the 1,000th or even the 10,000th Iraqi killed in the invasion. Americans never even knew when the 1,000th Iraqi was killed because as Tommy Franks famously said, “We don’t do body counts.”
Sunni and Shi`a and Kurds, oh my!
Oh, this is just wonderful.
Via Abu Aardvark, we read:
Two intense military insurgencies in Iraq, with the Sunnis and Shia, not enough for you? Do you agree that everyone wants to fight in Fallujah, but only real men want to go to Kirkuk? Do you think that if a spot of war is good for the soul, then even more must be even better? Do you think that the greater the violence, the more evidence that our policies are working? Then good news for you!
Al Hayat reports that Masoud Barzani, leader of the KDP, has chosen this calm and peaceful moment to re-open the question of the Kurdish identity of Kirkuk and has threatened to “wage a war to defend the Kurdish identity of the city.”
Kurdish Leader Ups The Ante Over Disputed Iraqi City
Iraq’s Kurds are ready to fight to preserve the identity of the ethnically-divided and oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, one of their historical leaders told AFP Thursday.
“Kirkuk is the heart of Kurdistan and we ready to wage a war in order to preserve its identity and to sacrifice ourselves for what Iraqi Kurds have already achieved,” said Massud Barzani.
Turning in His Grave
Max Borders, program director at the Institute for Humane Studies, has penned one of the most bizarre (and condescending) arguments for liberventionism I have ever seen. Jeffrey Tucker at the Mises Institute has put up a lengthy posthumous rebuttal from IHS founder F.A. Harper.
As someone who has spent a fair amount of time putting up promotional posters for IHS, I urge all libertarians and classical liberals to write the Institute for Humane Studies at ihs@gmu.edu and politely express their displeasure.
Al-Zawahri: US defeated
Speaking of Al Qaeda, Al Jazeera is playing a new Ayman Al-Zawahri video, in which he taunts the US:
Al-Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahri has forecast a US “defeat” in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a videotape aired on Aljazeera television.
“The American defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan has become just a question of time, God willing” he said in the tape telecast on Thursday.
“In the two countries, the Americans are between two fires: if they remain there they will bleed to death, and if they withdraw they will have lost everything.”
The Mujahidin are in a strong position in Afghanistan and have turned US plans in Iraq “head over heels”, al-Zawahri said.
Hiding
In Afghanistan, the Mujahidin have driven US forces to “hide in their trenches”, he said.
Al-Zawahri, the right-hand man of al-Qaida leader Usama bin Ladin, was seen wearing a white turban with a machine gun at his side in the videotape.
In the tape, shown two days before the third anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, he said, “east and south Afghanistan have become an open arena for the Mujahidin. The enemy is limited to the capitals.”
Defence
“The Americans are hiding in their trenches and refuse to come out to face the Mujahidin, as the Mujahidin shell them, fire on them and cut roads off around them,” he said. “Their defence is only to bomb by air.”
Bridges Baghdad; Vigils tonite
In addition to Ed Kihane’s Plea for the Abducted Iraqi and Italian Bridges to Baghdad aid workers, Voices in the Wilderness has posted a Bridges to Baghdad collection which includes a link to freeourfriends.blogspot which has a petition to sign and a statement of Support from Fallujah.
Meanwhile, hundreds of candlelight vigils are to be held across the country tonight (Thursday) to mourn the
1,000 U.S. SOLDIERS AND TENS OF THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS KILLED United for Peace and Justice indicates. Another sponsor, Win Without War, also mourns the unnecessary loss of 1,000 American lives and many thousands of Iraqi lives. The list of vigil sites is being maintained by MoveOn, click ahead to see if near you there’s a chance to honor the more than 1000 U.S. soldiers who have now been killed in Iraq.