My new blog
Left-wing highlighting of the most relevant recent news stories.Sunday, May 16, 2004
Confidential to Colin Powell: Always more dignified to make real amends yourself than to demand them from others.
The New York Times looks for something positive about the current situation in Iraq. Even by their own standards, "defined realistically as an absence of civil war, a gradually improving economy, and slowly declining rates of political and criminal violence" the info they give in the form of a chart is quite unimpressive. Most notably, in terms of 'slowly declining rates of political... violence', the US casualty rate for April was four times that of December or August. As for the economy, the unemployment rate remains a staggering 45%. The number of Iraqis who want the US to leave has jumped. Oil production and electricity have not yet returned to pre-war levels (telephones are at higher levels than pre-war). 6% of Iraqi soldiers (in terms of the goal) and 19% of police have been trained. Interestingly, 90% of 'other security' have been trained--I'm guessing that's people who are given a gun and told to guard a refinery. Also 'Iraqi noncombatant fatalities' (is that Timespeak for civilians?) were way up last month--can't be a good sign. Interesting to ask why these Brookings Institution types feel so obligated to put a positive spin on this debacle.
I'm back. The semester's over, and I at last have time to share my views of the world with random passers-by.
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