Via The Man in the Grey Turtleneck, Fortune:

Unknown attackers have blown up part of an Iraqi pipeline that pumps crude oil from Kirkuk oil fields to the Turkish export terminal, Ceyhan, a senior Iraqi oil official and a shipping agent said Wednesday.

The official said the pipeline blast was “catastrophic” as it caused huge quantities of crude oil to spill into the Tigris River.

It isn’t known yet how long it will take the Iraqi authorities to repair the damaged pipeline.

Well, “catastrophic” for whom?  Read more 

That’s the word that jumped out at me from the responses to a Pew Poll, via Froomkin:

And Pew once again asked an open-ended question, asking respondents for the word that best describes the situation in Iraq these days.

The most frequently volunteered expressions were mess, bad, terrible, sad, horrible, disaster, hopeless, chaos, confused, disappointing, bring troops home, disgusting, tragic and unfortunate.

Bingo. We’ve got that right.

Now we need to make one more connection:  Read more 

Courage, it is said, is not the absence of fear. It is acting in spite of the fear.

Yes I’m scared. There’s good reason to be. Even if I don’t see them, there are snipers on the roof across the street and several drones on the way. But I insist on truth. I’m gonna fill in some of the blanks here, and I pray you’ll look The Beast right in the eye.

The United States government has not formally declared war in over fifty years. The US Constitution confines that responsibility to the Congress. President Bush ignores that (because he prides himself on his ignorance), but screw him, y’know?

And Vice President Cheney, over the past week, has snarled his snarl in support of the President like the rabid bulldog that his truly is. Screw him, too, y’know? I realized that I, nearly sixty and weighing only a hundred-fifty pounds, could take the SOB on and knock him silly in a fair fight. Leave the shot gun home, Dick. You’re a damn coward, slinking around in your “undisclosed locations.” Come out, come out, wherever you are. You do scare me, but you don’t intimidate me. You’re out there snarling these days because more and more of the truth is seeping though the cracks and it looks like your game may be lost, the jig may be up, and your and Doubleduh’s position may be overrun before 2008. I think these days you’re more scared than we are.

OK, citizen, turn off “24” or “The Unit” or whatever the hell you’re watching with the Miller Lite in your fist, and give me just a few minutes. Treat this like a commercial … I know you can do it. It might sting a little bit, because “the truth will set you free, but first it’ll drive you crazy.” You can take it, right? You’re not a coward, right? …

More at P!

This is part of the P! series on “Waging Peace”. Part 6 will explore the forces of peace available and building in the US and around the globe.

Part 1 is here; Part 2 is here; Part 3 is here; Part 4 is
here.  Read more