Great find. Just one thing. According to Spencer Ackerman who requested and got from the military the criteria they use for identifying deaths that are considered the result of sectarian violence, you can find it at TPM Muckracker, the bit about whether someone was shot from the back or the front is not one of the criteria. Nor were the criteria totally off the wall, but there are legitimate questions about them. And they are different from criteria used by other observers.

To me, nothing says more about the idiotic, although nightmarish situation we face in Iraq than the concurrence of Petraeus’ testimony, the attacks on MoveOn, and now this entire Blackwater dustup, which illustrates that neither we nor the Iraqis have the power to reign in a private organization, doing terrible stuff in the name of the United States, making us new enemies everyday in the streets and on the roads of Iraq, and why? Because with even 160,000 plus troops there, we, the real we the people, represented by our military, the real one, not the rented one, can’t protect American civilian personnel in Iraq. Not that the rented one has been doing all that well.

Is anyone else struck by the similarities between the excuses offered for the behavior of those soldiers in Haditha, against whom most charges have been waved or whittled down by the military courts in which they were supposed to be being tried, and the defense of Blackwater, i.e., the rules of engagement are that if we feel the least bit threatened we’re allowed to kill anyone who is an Iraqi, or an Arab or a Muslim. But who cares what the other billion Muslims in the world think of us, it’s not as if this is a battle of ideas, or anyting like that - right?

In Iraq, what we see every month is the same; one baby step forward somewhere in Iraq, one great leap backward for humanity.

megasnap indeed, lb. wow. someone get this guy his own show on the teevee. of course, that won’t happen, but he blows the paid bobbleheads out of the water.

Leah, I remember reading the back-of-the-head thing on TPM, but heck, we don’t fact check the Op-Eds…

This is one of the best rants I’ve ever heard, and I agree with it all, 100% — though if farmer went on the radio, I’m sure he’d give this guy a run for his money…

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

please gawd, or any radio execs reading. pfft, there is so much fucking talent going unused these days, thanks to the governing philosophies of our “CEO” prezident. failing upwards for bobblehead trustifarians, while talent like that is unknown and unpaid, but fully in the open and undisputed here on the intertubes. sigh.

http://drupal.org/project/station

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan