Very disturbing videos from wikileaks: They engaged several Reuters photographers, claiming the cameras were weapons, giggling the whole time. Then, when a van came to pick up the wounded, they claimed they were going for weapons and got permission to shoot the people picking up victims. Fog of war, bitches. Fog of war.
Foreign Affairs
I’d Like To See a Debate About This
I’m an idiot who can’t read datelines.
Someone Had To Lie
There is no other explanation that I can think of: NATO acknowledged Sunday that its troops killed five Afghans in a botched nighttime raid in February — after initially saying the civilians may have been victims of an “honor killing.” Even though civilian casualties at the hands of NATO troops have fallen off in recent …
Mistakes Were Made
Some interesting news: The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it sued the Houston-based military contractor KBR Inc (KBR.N) for alleged false claims act violations over improper costs for private security in Iraq. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleged that KBR knowingly included impermissible costs for private armed security in billings …
An Update On History’s Greatest Monster
I wonder what the evil and vile Jimmy Carter is up to: A global campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease is tantalizingly close to success. The parasitic infection, caused by a worm that can grow three feet long before it emerges from a patient’s body, now affects just a few thousand people per year. Almost …
Meanwhile, In Iraq
Might have to put John McCain in a flak vest and march him through a market with an armed guard again: At least four Sunni Muslim candidates who appear to have won parliamentary seats on the winning ticket of secular leader Ayad Allawi have become targets of investigation by security forces reporting to the narrowly …
Hold Tight, It’s Just Beginning
Beijing has a new solution to their huge, stinking garbage dumps: hosing them down with high-pressure deodorant spray guns. With millions more people now able to afford Starbucks, McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and other elements of a western, throwaway lifestyle, the landfill sites and illegal tips that ring the capital are close to overflowing. We …