Further stuff

* "Out of the population of 26 million," Patrick Cockburn reports, "1.6 million Iraqis have fled the country and a further 1.5 million are displaced within Iraq, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees."

* E&P's Greg Mitchell describes "the most revealing little (eight-minute) video" he's seen thus far about "our country’s preposterous position in Iraq."

* "The reality of Iraq is quite different from Vietnam, more complex, and in its geopolitical implications, quite possibly much worse," avers Tony Karon. "The options reportedly being weighed by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group eschew both 'cut-and-run' and 'stay the course,' and instead seek formulae for damage-control under headings such as 'containment' and 'stabilization.' That terminology is instructive, because from a strategic perspective, Iraq is less like Vietnam and more like Chernobyl, a nuclear reactor in meltdown, whose fallout may be even more dangerous than the fires that burn at its core."

* Robert Dreyfuss offers informed speculation about what appears to be an emerging coup in Iraq.

* See Marc Lynch on some of the pitfalls of public diplomacy.

* Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother: "In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don’t be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity."

* Gazans -- still getting crushed into the ground by the US-Israeli-EU boot.

* When Israelis are killed by Palestinians, the media gets beset with grief and despair. When Palestinians are killed by Israelis, the media does what? Yawns? Seriously, I don't even think it does that.

* Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry explain "How Hezbollah defeated Israel" in a 3-part series for the Asia Times Online.

* Oh, and Israeli officials have admitted to using phosphorous weapons in their recent war on Lebanon. Maybe they were taking notes during the Americans' assault on Fallujah...

* Whoa. Who'd a thunk it. Electronic voting machines make American boasts about democracy look pretty hollow.

* Carla Binion offers her own take on the selling of the country down the river, via the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

* This is pretty comical, but by no means surprising: TIA lives, albeit with modifications. And here you thought Congress killed it off by pulling funding. How trusting of you.

* Bill McKibben: "It's true that the world is beginning slowly to awaken to the idea that global warming may be a real problem, and legislatures (though not ours) are starting to nibble at it. But very few understand with any real depth that a wave large enough to break civilization is forming, and that the only real question is whether we can do anything at all to weaken its force."