More stuff

Yes, still busy. Here's an update.

* More than 1/3 of the soldiers being trained by the US to join the new Iraqi army have quit. Pauline Jelinek of the AP reports that this development "holds considerable symbolism because Bush administration officials have placed great importance on handing to Iraqis some of the duties performed by the 130,000 Americans occupying the country."

* Seymour Hersh details the US military's creation of Vietnam-like assassination squads to hunt down "Baathist remnants" in Iraq. In this article for the New Yorker, he elaborates on the activities of Task Force 121 and the growing collaboration between American and Israeli military personnel, which the Pentagon is now denying.

* Worthy vs. unworthy victims: Iraq's Health Ministry and the Coalition Provisional Authority have ordered a halt to the counting of civilians killed during the American invasion. Meanwhile, the death toll from the Hussein regime continues to be copiously documented (as it should be). But, as the Iraqi Governing Council looks to set up a war crimes tribunal, Peter Phillips bitterly observes that "the US government's interest in addressing mass graves and war crimes extends only to our opponents and that we tolerate such inhuman behavior among those who support our political agendas."

* "After listening to all the promises about democracy and lectures on civil rights," Tod Robberson reports from Baghdad, "Iraqis increasingly are telling their American occupiers that it's time to put up or shut up." Plus: Democracy or hypocrisy?

* Thousands of Iraqis have participated in demonstrations against "terrorism and sabotage" in varying cities around their country. Some pictures here, here, and here. Juan Cole provides some context.

* Jim Lobe writes that "conflicting and contradictory policies reflect the absence of a coherent underlying strategy" for the Bush administration in Iraq.

* Someone please tell the US military that transporting Israeli tactics to the Arab world will not work.

* The Guardian has a special report on the privatisation of war.

* 15 children have been killed in two separate assaults by the US military in Afghanistan over the past week.

* What has gone so badly wrong in Afghanistan? ask Conor Foley and Mark Lattimer.

* Bradley Burston breaks down the varying proposals for peace between Israelis and Palestinians in Ha'aretz.

* In order to pull back from the brink of apocalypse, Robert Jay Lifton says the United States needs to step off the "superpower treadmill."

* The WHO estimates that global warming killed 150,000 people in 2000 and, if current trends continue, the death toll will likely double within the next 30 years.

* "The world is running out of fresh water," write Tony Clarke and Maude Barlow. "By the year 2025, there will be 2.6 billion more people on Earth than there are today. As many as two-thirds of those people will be living in conditions of serious water shortage, and one-third will be living with absolute water scarcity."

* The recently passed Medicare reform bill is "an object lesson in the putrefaction of democracy in the US," according to David Walsh.

* There's been a bunch of recent e-voting developments. Drop by Black Box Notes for a rundown.

* From Cursor: "A day after Rep. Dennis Kucinich lambasted Ted Koppel for asking why, given his low poll numbers, he was still in the presidential race, ABC pulled three 'off-air producers' from the campaigns of Kucinich, Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun. 'Obviously, ABC is retaliating for my challenge to Ted Koppel,' said Kucinich. 'They have proven my point, which is the media, and now specifically ABC, is now trying to set the agenda for this election.'" FAIR has more on ABC's narrowing of the field.

* Dick Cheney and his entourage went on a hunting expedition this past week. Actually, it was more like a staged slaughter.