death takes it easy in baghdad
In Orange County for the weekend, I encountered the hapless Register, which unsurprisingly focused on the development-spurred fires of the last few weeks. Like many of the California dailies the bulk of the content comes from the AP and other sources; the sports, entertainment and city hall stuff comes from the local reporters. Pretty much like the San Francisco Comical, but with unread conservatives in charge of the opinion pages.
Knowing this makes me somewhat less angry about the paper in general; it is not, at least, quite as reactionary and freakish as the San Diego Tribune. But maybe I just need to have a look at the Tribune again.
Anyway, 18 pages into the paper I finally encountered something to do with subjects other than hollywood productions, the wildfires, and the corrupt sheriff’s department: the “Nation & World” section of the paper (four pages, not counting the full-page ads).
Every story is from the AP, so I should direct my ire there I suppose, but at the least I would expect the story about Bush beating the war drum to somehow make it to the front page, ahead of say, “Seinfeld on his new movie and enduring TV series”.
I am not quite so grim in my views that I expect us to go to war with Iran; the Turks are more of a problem at this point, massing their troops on the northern Iraqi border. But I do remain grim in my views of Iraq, and cannot for the life of me find a silver lining anywhere. Neither, apparently, can the AP as they stretch to report something not awful from the hell we have created:
Five corpses were found in the capital [on Thursday] - a low figure compared with the scores found every day several months ago.
The title of the article was Death takes it easier in Iraq.
I disagree. After the Nazis murdered all of the Jews in Warsaw, it would be insane to suggest that things had quieted down because there were fewer shootings. Same in Baghdad: there are just fewer people to kill. The “insurgency” has met with wild success, and we are hanging on with our fingernails, with the help of murderous, hired goons.