Link dump

Blogger's been acting funny the last two days, going down for maintenance a number of times. I've since lost two attempts at make-up posts, which has pissed me off royally.

For the sake of time, below is an even-hastier-than-usual link dump. With the World Cup on the horizon, I wanted (needed) to get this stuff off my plate.

Alas, much of my free time will be devoted to catching some footy over the next month, which will probably leave me less time for blogging.

I will try to post regularly, but I'm just giving you a heads up. We all have our vices. Soccer is one of my major ones.

In any case, here's the linkage:

* If you've caught Zarqawi fever, head over to antiwar.com for some good reading on the topic. In particular, check out these three articles from the Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly, and Foreign Policy. Long story, short: Zarqawi is not nearly as important as Bushists would have you believe. He was purposefully built up as a terror mastermind, via a now public psy-ops campaign, to shore up certain narratives the Bush administration wanted to promote about Iraq, Al Qaeda, and the "war on terror." He wasn't a nice dude, but to suggest he was anything like a "leader" of the insurgency is absurd. Bob Parry fills in the story from here pretty well.

* Insurgent attacks in Iraq are at their highest levels, according to Pentagon tabulations. Also, May was the deadliest month in Baghdad since the beginning of the war, with nearly 1,400 bodies turning up at the city morgue. Over the last five months, the total is around 6,000. Lastly, displacement figures in Iraq have ballooned to 180k.

* Damn camera. Neil MacKay breaks down the Haditha "incident." Meanwhile, Justin Raimondo probes the "meaning" of the massacre and Robert Fisk wonders if it is "just the tip of the mass grave." Plus: "Multiply Haditha By Thousands."

* While Haditha's been in the spotlight of late, the Pentagon has "self-exonerated" its soldiers for the March killings in Ishaqi. Rather convenient, eh?

* Iraq is now officially the deadliest modern conflict in history for journalists.

* Channeling Anthony Arnove, David Swanson puts forth a compelling case for getting out of Iraq now.

* "The world wonders if Iraq is on the brink of civil war, while Iraqis fear calling it one, knowing the fate such a description would portend," observes Nir Rosen in the Washington Post. "In truth, the civil war started long before Samarra and long before the first uprisings. It started when U.S. troops arrived in Baghdad. It began when Sunnis discovered what they had lost, and Shiites learned what they had gained. And the worst is yet to come."

* Craig Unger: "The War They Wanted, The Lies They Needed."

* Following the "day that changed Afghanistan" and the ensuing riots, Ahmed Rashid looks at the state of Karzai's kingdom and, in a separate essay, turns his attention to the comeback of the Taliban.

* Jim Lobe has a reaction to the somewhat surprising decision by the US to engage Iran in talks. Lobe cautions, however, "that the internal battle over Iran policy between administration hardliners and the 'realists' centred at the State Department remains unresolved, even if the latter appear to have scored an important victory."

* Gary Leupp says "the Office of Special Plans has been reincarnated as the Office of Iranian Affairs." I wonder what this could mean...

* So much for Democracy. I sure miss those days when people were crowing about an "Arab spring." Damn Iraq war. Plus: "Is political Islam on the march?"

* As Palestinians are being impaled on the horns of a dilemma, Israel's throwing up yet another settlement in the West Bank. See also: "What Does Olmert Want?"

* What does Olmert's "convergence" plan mean? In short, apartheid - "the establishment of a permanent, institutionalized regime of Israeli domination over Palestinians based on separation between Jews and Arabs. Within 6-9 months, according to Olmert's timeline. Olmert may believe that Jews can succeed where Afrikaners failed, but history teaches us that in the end injustice is unsustainable. And convergence/realignment is nothing if not manifest injustice."

* Abu Mazen's playing with fire by undercutting Hamas, says Ali Abunimah.

* How powerful is the Israel lobby? Just ask Juan Cole. He might have some insight into this now burning question.

* Go figure. Backing warlords didn't quite work out in Somalia.

* The situation in Darfur looks pretty grim, reports Jim Lobe.

* Is Latin America really moving to the left? James Petras investigates.

* Boost national security or spread some pork around? The answer was obvious for our heroes in Washington.

* Another terror attack in the US? Time to dust off that futures market.

* What's this about the US coddling Nazis? That's going to be a hard one to explain to the kiddies.

* AIDS, 25 years on.

* As yet more studies link global warming to growing hurricane strength, new research from Cal-Berkeley suggests global temperatures could rise substantially higher this century than the conventional estimates, potentially as much as 14 degrees Fahrenheit. (!)

* Whither the black college student? Not at UCLA, obviously.

* The state -- still getting behind white folk, after all these years. The rest of the population? Eh, not so important.

* Thom Hartmann introduces RFK Jr.'s Rolling Stone article on the theft of the 2004 election.

* Alternative fuels will save us! Umm, think again.

* Witness the Couricization of news, an excellent counterpart to the disappearance of certain bad news.