What good is this story? Seriously - what do we do with the knowledge of these war crimes?

As a foreign (Australian) observer, it seems to me that Abu Ghraib - and indeed the entire Iraq War, and the whole bogus GWOT, and the insanely criminal Bush administration, and the US public's inability or lack of inclination to do much of anything about any of them - is symptomatic of a much broader social illness which the USA suffers today.

Even if those responsible never face justice, the story of all these horrors should be repeated over and over and over again, until everyone in the USA understands just what happened and why it was so wrong. Then you need to start dismantling your whole over-sized military industry, and giving your kids a better education, and cutting back on all the Hollywood violence these same kids are exposed to.

Germany and Japan today are peaceful, educated nations because their citizens learned from the mistakes of WWII (OK, the Japanese are still working a few issues out). They are also prosperous without relying on a war machine to generate jobs and profits. Take heed.

Posted at June 25, 2008 12:55 AM in response to Opening thoughts and questions

Somebody might wanna call all the editors of the papers who published these letters, or examine the letter-writers history of publication.

I know I can't get all my letters criticizing the Bush cabal's criminal antics published!

Posted at June 17, 2008 10:13 PM in response to Searching For The True Source Of A Bogus Story

The White House's "why didn't he resign" rebuttal of McClellan is pretty lame. It was widely known for some time that McClellan wanted out of the job. He stayed on until Josh Bolten arrived with a clean broom.

Posted at May 28, 2008 6:40 PM in response to Today's Must Read

Yeah, but Dana is hot so nobody cares.

That right there tells you a lot about the state of US society, doesn't it?

And isn't it ironic that an administration in permanent campaign mode ends us so totally despised? Oh, but they have successfully raped the US taxpayer for 8 long years, so what does it matter now.

They are all sociopaths, the whole lot of them, most especially Bush who "convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment" and has engaged in "self-deception" to justify his political ends.

Posted at May 28, 2008 4:02 PM in response to Today's Must Read

Petraeus's comment suggests that he knows some religious nutcases in the Bush administration who see the invasion of Iraq as part of an undeclared Christian Crusade, and in that sense some people ARE seeking "the Holy Grail in Iraq".

Google the words "Bush" and "Rapture" if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Posted at April 9, 2008 7:18 PM in response to Petraeus: "We're Not after The Holy Grail in Iraq"

So what about all that talk about blogs taking over from newspapers, etc? Lots of folks don't have a newspaper plonking on their breakfast table nowadays because they start their day with sites like TPM instead!

Of course I agree that the big newspapers and TV stations can have a much more profound affect, but it's been 5 years now and they still haven't even properly apologized for their roles in triggering this mess! So maybe it's a little idealistic to expect them to do something useful now.

Meanwhile, people keep on dying...

Posted at March 19, 2008 11:38 PM in response to Hundreds of flags .... 3,982 Americans dead

mcboo,

I'm not suggesting the "gratuitous running of grisly war images ... for the mere shock value" either.

I'm talking about DOING SOMETHING to bring about real CHANGE.

Understand how the media cycle works: McCain and Bush get their fluffy B.S. announcements in the news every day because lazy journos and editors just regurgitate it like bird vomit. That's how they got their phoney cherry-picked WMD intelligence through the media lens and into people's minds in the first place.

Graphic images of the US war dead will shake the tree, make ordinary people sit up straight in their chairs, and force a public debate on issues Bush & Co would rather people don't think about.

Posted at March 19, 2008 10:17 PM in response to Hundreds of flags .... 3,982 Americans dead

I have done a quick google search for some photos and posted them here. There are far more graphic images here. These photos obviously exist - it's time the "respectable" and "established" US media outlets dared to run them. Josh????

Posted at March 19, 2008 8:36 PM in response to Hundreds of flags .... 3,982 Americans dead

YES! It's time the US media started to ignore Bush's ban on coffins and bodybags, wounded and dead soldiers.

The US media is fully complicit in the lies that lead to this war, and it's time they went out on a limb to make up for their mistakes.

Bring on the photos of the dead "heroes". Bring on the rows and rows of flag-draped coffins. Bring on the video of young men screaming in agony as they die slow painful deaths "for their country". Bring on the lawsuits as Bush & Co try to stop the media from showing the People what is really going on over there.

Remember the outrage when those two US contractors' bodies were shown strung up on a bridge in Falluja? If the people of the USA can get an un-sanitized glimpse of what is really going on today, it could have a similarly jarring effect.

I urge readers to contact their local media organisations and challenge them to defy Bush's ban.

I urge soldiers in the field to take photos and video, and pass them on to the media. Send 'em to TPM and let Josh Marshall lead the way! What say ye, Josh?

If Josh won't publish the pics, there are hundreds of bloggers like myself who will.

Posted at March 19, 2008 8:00 PM in response to Hundreds of flags .... 3,982 Americans dead

Um, Kristol writes for the New York Times, his sources are flakey and he doesn't double-check his facts? And he still has a job? Are we allowed to ask WHY?

Posted at March 17, 2008 7:20 PM in response to Newsmax's Kessler Scrubs Reference To His Obama Factual Blunder From His Wiki Page