Highlights

Sorry for the extended break. I'm trying to get things back up and running here. To start, some highlights from recent months:

* When it comes to the long-awaited ISG report, you should settle on a descriptive euphemism quickly, since it looks to be set for the memory hole. The most relevant options: "damage control," "managing failure," or "defeat with honor." The report, incidentally, was preempted by neocons -- no doubt to make way for the real ISG, whose "findings" we'll be treated to next week.

* As a foil to the ISG report and the "surge" promoters, Nir Rosen offers: "There is no solution. We’ve destroyed Iraq and we’ve destroyed the region, and Americans need to know this. This isn’t Rwanda where we can just sit back and watch the Hutus and Tutsis kill each other, and be like wow this is terrible should we do something? We destroyed Iraq. There was no civil war in Iraq until we got there. And there was no civil war in Iraq, until we took certain steps to pit Sunnis against Shias. And now it is just too late. But, we need to know we are responsible for what’s happening in Iraq today. I don't think Americans are aware of this. We've managed to make Saddam Hussein look good even to Shias at this point. And what we’ve managed to do is not only destabilize Iraq, but destabilize Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran. This is going to spread for decades, the region won’t recover from this, I think for decades. And Americans are responsible."

* As ever, violence in Iraq trends upward. Attacks on US troops spiked in November, the last month with publicly available figures, at nearly 1,000 per week. By the end of the year, the total death toll for US troops pushed past 3,000. Iraqi deaths in December also hit their highest monthly total, according to a Reuters tally.

* In an interesting aside, the AP reports that, according to the ISG report, "U.S. military and intelligence officials have systematically underreported the violence in Iraq in order to suit the Bush administration's policy goals." In the one example cited, by more than a factor of 10.

* Iraqis: Go away, Americans. (A cry, of course, that falls on deaf ears.)

* If the beloved troops don't support the war, and we of course support the troops...aww, crap. What does that mean?

* For the first time, a real blueprint for peace in Iraq. At least that's what Patrick Cockburn thinks.

* As Sheldon Rampton takes a second glance at the Lancet survey of Iraq mortality, the ~650k dead are finally given voice in Congress. Anyone listening?

* Gregory Elich: "It is impossible to avoid concluding that the trial of Saddam Hussein was little more than a case of selective justice, meant to provide post-justification for an invasion that was itself a grave violation of international law. Saddam Hussein's crimes were real enough, but those acts would never have brought him to trial had he continued to operate within the parameters sketched for him by the West. The trail of Saddam Hussein is hailed as a triumph of justice, despite the fact that it was initiated and guided by an occupying power. Yet one wonders. Who will judge the Western powers that stand in judgment?"

* Oh, and what moron thought it'd be a good idea to execute Hussein during Eid? Martyrdom, ahoy.

* If the US withdraws from Iraq, there will be a bloodbath. Right? Nonsense, says Gareth Porter. In a related article, Porter asks: who are the Americans fighting in Iraq, precisely?

* If you can stomach it, here are some more details regarding the November 2005 Haditha massacre.

* Juan Cole offers his Top Ten Myths about Iraq 2006.

* What with the US smashing up Iraq in recent years, it's easy to forget that victims elsewhere are still dealing with the consequences of previous US invasions. See, for example, Vietnam's ongoing struggle with the effects of Agent Orange.

* Pesky Seymour Hersh continues reporting on the "stovepiping" of intelligence, this time concerning Iran.

* Why did Russia and China vote to sanction Iran? asks Jorge Hirsch. Oh, and this is sure to fall down the memory hole, too: Iran may need nuclear power.

* Stephen Gowans peers behind Tehran's Holocaust Conference.

* Speaking frankly about Israel and Palestine? C'mon, Jimmy, you know that's not allowed in the US.

* "The question," Chris Hedges avers in response to the controversy sparked by Carter's new book, "is not whether Israel practices apartheid. Apartheid is a fond dream for most Palestinians. The awful question is rather will Israel be able to unleash a policy so draconian and cruel that it will obliterate a community that has lived on this land for centuries. There are other, far more loaded words for what is happening to the Palestinians. One shudders to repeat them." See also: "Indeed there is Apartheid in Israel" and "Does It Matter What You Call It?"

* Jonathan Cook explains why the Palestinian leadership doesn't -- and shouldn't -- recognize Israel's "right to exist." In a subsequent essay, Cook wonders whether the provoking of civil war in the Middle East is a US/Israeli aim.

* "Here's the Israel lobby at work...just as Israelis are being told it's safe to leave the bomb shelters, New Yorkers are being encouraged to enter theirs." Plus: The other Israel lobby?

* The Automated Targeting System, mail snooping, martial law provisions...such is life in the national insecurity state.

* Man, I can't wait for when Jose Padilla sues the shit out of the US government. Alas, his case is practically guaranteed to be thrown out due to "national security" implications...

* The eventual release of Gitmo detainees is pretty telling, says Dave Lindorf.

* The U.S. Has a History of Using Torture? Gasp! But what about those bad apples?

* "A record 7 million people — or one in every 32 American adults — were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year," reports the AP. Related: "Locking Up Surplus Labor."

* No clash of civilizations, says UN report. Aww. How are we going to rationalize Western intervention now?

* Goodbye, Ms. Kirkpatrick, Mr. Pinochet, and Mr. Friedman. Sadly, you won't be missed much.

* Goodbye to you, too, Mr. Ford, our "greatest President." (Not forgetting East Timor, of course.)

* Global warming is killing off species faster than previously thought, according to a new review of climate research.

* The End of the West as We Know It? Anatol Lieven observes: "The question now facing us is whether global capitalism and Western democracy can...make the limited economic adjustments necessary to keep global warming within bounds that will allow us to preserve our system in a recognizable form; or whether our system is so dependent on unlimited consumption that it is by its nature incapable of demanding even small sacrifices from its present elites and populations."

* Sunny optimism from Gaia theorist James Lovelock: "We are not all doomed. An awful lot of people will die, but I don't see the species dying out."

* Here's the US income scorecard, 1979-2004. Class warfare sure tastes yummy. Related, on a global scale: 2%:50% vs. 50%:1%.

* See Paul Krugman on "The Great Wealth Transfer" and "A Healthy New Year."

* That Mike Davis is a prescient fellow. Make way for a planet of slums, according to a new UN report.

* Hopeful Signs For Global Justice? They're there. You have to look south.

* Check out Project Censored's Top 25 Censored Stories from last year.

* More exhibits (A & B) to add to the Hall of Fame of Right Wing Blogger Idiocy.

* Liberal bloggers on the take? Shocking.

* I heard you, Malachi.

* Did the CIA kill Bobby Kennedy?

* Ramzy Baroud reflects on the prospects for Al Jazeera English, which launched in November to American ignorance.

* Counterpunch has collated a series of articles that aim to debunk 9/11 "myths."

* Here's a good interview with the radical author/historian Paul Street from Democratic Left Infoasis.