More reminders about why war sucks, especially a war that didn't need to happen:
With my own eyes I saw about fifteen civilians killed in two days. I've gone through enough wars to know that it's always dirty, that civilians are always the first victims. But the way it was happening here, it was insane.But don't worry, because now we realize that it's really Syria who's the problem, not Saddam. If we hadn't killed all these people in the first place, we never would have known that we'd get to blame someone else yet again for our own ineptitude towards capturing Osama. Does the body count have to be equal to or greater than September 11th in order for us to feel justified? Or do we just have to prove that our Gods are the best? Is Russia next on the list? The United States and Russia have done more to arm these regions/despots/wingnuts we're now soiling our spoilt god-blessed diapers over than Saddam Hussein ever did.
...
I drove away a girl who had had her humerus pierced by a bullet. Enrico was holding her in his arms. In the rear, the girl's father was protecting his young son, wounded in the torso and losing consciousness. The man spoke in gestures to the doctor at the back of the lines, pleading: "I don't understand, I was walking and holding my children's hands. Why didn't you shoot in the air? Or at least shoot me?"
[Laurent Van der Stockt, interviewed by Michael Guerrin for Le Monde, Translated for CounterPunch by Norman Madarasz]
How long before we have the Country Song "I can't even spell Syria, but let's bomb them anyway"?
Anyways, we're still seeking out our justification for the war and having a hard time finding it. I, like others, really wouldn't be surprised if something was eventually found - but for something so dangerous that we were so certain was there, why can't we find anything?
After days of intense digging and searching at least seven suspicious sites near Nassiriya, U.S. experts have found chemical warfare protective suits, but no chemical weapons.We still have a ways to go before this is all over and some stash of these things may be found, but it's certainly not looking to be the terrifying planet killers that we were constantly warned about. Don't you think a few more months of hard-lined inspections could have yielded the same results? Seriously - there are probably more chemical weapons just a few miles west of where I'm typing this than there are in Iraq (and yes - those weapons are being destroyed).
Chief Warrant Officer Alex Robinson, leading the U.S. search in the area, admitted on Thursday that his list of suspect sites in southern Iraq was "kind of drying up". [Croft, Adrien]