Today in Iraq

The bloghost at Today in Iraq puts together the most comprehensive collection of stories about the war that I have found. Anyone with a PC and access to the Web could probably do the same thing, but this site has dedicated itself to that single mundane task since the start of the war. The sheer volume of stories is breathtaking. A relative lack of comment becomes a silence that speaks louder than any words as a bewildering juxtaposition of horrid news is piled in a fetid mess for all to see.

I don't often read this blog because it is more than I want to see. For a long time they published a daily string of "Bring 'em on" items, but I didn't see any reference to that misbegotten phrase this time. It's possible that since the president expressed regret at having used that line they have stopped using it. It makes no difference because the impact of the stories is still just as powerful. And there seems to be no shortage of current spin language to make the same point. Today's quote, for example, is

“You know, I hear people say, well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box.” – George W. Bush, August 7, 2006

That was just a couple of days ago. And that is followed by about twenty-five screens of copy/paste content that comes across as utterly incongruent with the president's words. With the Israeli conflict with Hezbollah taking headlines, and the Connecticut Senate race being chewed to death by pundits, it is important to remember that there is still a war going on inIraq.

Whether or not it qualifies as a "civil" war is strictly academic. That distinction is as moot to the dead as whether or not they died civilian or combatant. And comments about whether or not one "supports the troops" are just as empty. I am sick to death of reading about "left" this and "right" that in some blind attempt to spin the fact that ordinary people are dying and they don't really understand why.