Quoted: The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, NO END IN SIGHT is a jaw-dropping, insider’s tale of wholesale incompetence, recklessness and venality. Based on over 200 hours of footage, the film provides a candid retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 by high ranking officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Ambassador Barbara Bodine (in charge of Baghdad during the Spring of 2003), Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and General Jay Garner (in charge of the occupation of Iraq through May 2003), as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers and prominent analysts. NO END IN SIGHT examines the manner in which the principal errors of U.S. policy - the use of insufficient troop levels, allowing the looting of Baghdad, the purging of professionals from the Iraqi government and the disbanding of the Iraqi military - largely created the insurgency and chaos that engulf Iraq today.

Quoted: Many private workers are returning home with combat-related mental health problems, but their problems often go ignored or are inadequately treated.

read this now. it's good. and depressing.

Quoted: s and the elite media alike are acting as if America's continuing presence in Iraq is predicated on national will, on an elaborate, tortured, tortuous decision-making process that will either extricate us from Iraq or establish a permanent footprint; that the final outcome is up to us. But what Lind, Larry C. Johnson, and Timothy Garton Ash perceive is that the groundwar dynamics have shifted into endgame gear, outracing the rhetorical cornmeal of a Lieberman or McCain and raising alarms that the political-media establishment is refusing to heed. What will it take for their hair to catch fire?

Quoted: It is, I believe, a positive development that The New York Times today has a front-page article documenting how active the debate is inside the Bush administration over whether to attack Iran. Perhaps the article will elevate the attention level paid to this very real and very dangerous possibility.

The essence of the article is this:
The debate has pitted Ms. Rice and her deputies, who appear to be winning so far, against the few remaining hawks inside the administration, especially those in Vice President Dick Cheney's office who, according to some people familiar with the discussions, are pressing for greater consideration of military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.

The body is either exposed to death or it is sold...

Quoted: As a group, prostitutes represent one of the most visible symptoms of an Iraqi refugee crisis that has exploded in Syria in recent months...

...Maria, a buxom young woman, climbed onto the stage and began an anguished-sounding ballad. “After Iraq I have no homeland,” she sang. “I’m ready to go crawling on my knees back to Iraq.” Four other women, all wearing variations on leopard print, gyrated on stage, swinging their hair in wild circles. The stage lights had been fitted with colored gel filters that lent the women’s skin a greenish cast....

a shocking correlation....*cough*....

Quoted: More than a third of US troops in Iraq condone torture in some circumstances, a US survey finds.

Quoted: Either a car bomb killed people or a car hit a roadside bomb, killing people.

Quoted: The charge, brought against a top commander at the main detention center in Baghdad, is rare and serious, with a maximum sentence of death.