Nation-Building You Can Trust

As a concession to the Iraqi government, the United States is poised to yank US contractor's immunity from Iraqi prosecution. This has some of the country's 180,000 (!) contractors fretting that they'll fall under Iraq's laws:

"Having worked for two years and two months in Iraq, I can tell you without a doubt, I would in no way work if I fell under Iraqi Law," a deputy sheriff who trains Iraqi police said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. "Are you kidding? You wouldn’t be able to get but the most desperate people to work if they fell under their ridiculous laws."

Like almost all contractors working in Iraq, he is not allowed to do media interviews without approval from his company, so he asked that his name not be used.

Other contractors expressed similar concerns about the Iraqi legal system.

"I would immediately have to consider my options concerning leaving this country," another Department of Defense contractor said. "They, the Iraqis, cannot rule themselves and now they want to try and rule contractors."

But The Surge is working, right? Free, democratic society and all that?

At the end of the day, though, the Iraq legal system is what it is. If contractors can't abide by that, they need to come home. It's not politically tenable to have 180,000 foreigners operating in Iraq with immunity from all local laws.

When Alternet Goes Wrong

Alternet often has good, fact-filled, thoughtful pieces on a variety of issues. This ad hominem hit piece against the eloquent Christopher Hitchens isn't one of them. Disagree with Hitchens all you want (I do often) - but bring facts to the battle, not schoolyard taunts.

On the other hand, it does make me regret that I missed a local screening The Trials of Henry Kissinger, Alex Gibney's new doc based on the book by Hitch. Gibneys is the director of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Taxi to the Dark Side, not to mention the upcoming flick Gonzo, about Hunter S. Thompson.

Iraqis Don't Sign Deal with Oil Companies

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani says that the companies wanted a cut of Iraqi oil, while the Iraqis want to pay them solely on a time and materials (consultancy) basis.

Expect the Iraqis to come under incredible pressure from the Bush administration to ink the existing agreement - or at least a "modified" version of the existing agreement that gives these five major players (Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total) what they want. British Petroleum (formerly the Anglo-American Oil Company) once toppled the Premier of Iran to get a share of that country's oil.

But, of course, we didn't go to war for the oil. To even imply that would be obscene!

Um...

"Roughly Two Minutes of Coverage, Per Network, Per Week" (UPDATED)

That's what the major news networks believe the Iraq war warrants. Pepe Escobar from The Real News has more:


If you were led to believe by this paucity that nothing happened today, check out Juan Cole's read-ups and become disabused. For daily updates, join the Iraq Front News list.

UPDATE: The YouTube vid contains a snippet of CBS Foreign Affairs Chief Correspondent Lara Logan on The Daily Show, where she denounced American networks' crappy war coverage. As part of its continuing crusade to garner more hits by dishing gossip, Huffington Post has decided to run a story on Logan's personal life. I'm not linking to it. HuffPo is now gone from my feed reader. So much for providing an "alternative" to the mainstream media.

This is a protest, not a moral judgment. Those of you who know me know that I've covered celeb trash and gossip before. I don't any longer. I'd love to see HuffPo follow suit.

William James: American Traitor

For months, Rev. Jeremiah Wright was cursed as an anti-American traitor for pronouncing "god DAMN America!" for its treatment of African-Americans. With his words, Rev. Wright entered a proud heritage. In his excellent book Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, Stephen Kinzer discusses the United States' grisly war against Filipino rebels, during which our troops killed innocents and tortured POWs. As blogger Velvel noted two years ago, news of these atrocities sparked a backlash among American intellectuals:

There was a backlash for a while against some of this, at least among some of our prominent citizens. Noted anti imperialist “Mark Twain, whom some think is still our greatest writer, suggested that the time had come to redesign the American flag with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and crossbones.” (Kinzer, p.54.) The great philosopher, William James, “said that Americans were guilty of ‘murdering another culture’ and concluded one of his speeches by declaring ‘God damn the U.S. for its vile conduct in the Philippines!’” (Kinzer, p.54.)

I wonder if any prominent politician felt the need to "dissociate" themselves from one of America's most innovative philosophers.

Rev. Wright has his flaws, and hsi thinking in many respects is bogged down by shadowy conspiracy theories unsupported by evidence. Some of his ideas ought to be rejected. The idea that America is stained by its treatment of minorities is not one of them. As James shows, the emotion Rev. Wright expressed wasn't even unique. Good citizens hold their governments and their cultures accountable.

You can read more excerpts from this chapter, "Bound for Goo-Goo Land", on Third World Traveler. I'll be highlighting more amazing excerpts as the week wears on. Kinzer provides a damning historical context that our so-called press never saw fit to highlight in the run-up to the Iraq occupation.

Put Scott McClellan in...THE COMFY CHAIR!

Which is just what we did last night, according to the Seattle Times. McClellan's promotional talk at Town Hall was reportedly well received by a "forgiving" audience.

I'm all for forgiveness. We all make mistakes, even gigantic ones. McClellan has promised that he'll dedicate an unspecified "portion" of his profits to a fund for Iraq veterans. That will be the true test of his change of heart: will he donate the vast majority of his book loot, or live the high life off of blood money? Will he dedicate himself over the next several years to undoing the damage done by the Bush administration? Redemption has to be earned, and in my opinion, McClellan is still doin' time on the chain gang.