Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

I'm gonna go fiddle with rockets some more I think, but in the short term I'll mention a few quick news stories. I think I can only think of a small handful of friends that have recently lived through any kind of serious warfare as a civilian — this story (more) is worth reading to get an idea of what the experience is like.

On the other hands, living in Iraq also means that there's a chance that no matter what you do, you might get killed by American troops just for being in the wrong place (your home) at the wrong time (when children were protesting outside a school that they wanted to return to) — as you know, at the “Fallujah Massacre” as it's now being called, the US troops simply opened fire on the entire crowd, spraying bullets at random, killing and wounding about fifty people (more, more), not just in the crowd of protestors, but also in surrounding homes.

Other that that, there's still no evidence that Iraq has any WMDs (more), the US continues to slash its own civil rights by now imposing permanent gag orders on any trials related to the war on terror (more), and the British continue to complain about having to work with butcherous and callous US troops, describing them in rather harsh terms (more):

He counts his unit's kills meticulously, each one a tick in black pen on his khaki helmet ... Perched in the turret of his tank, just behind the barrel that is hand-painted with intimidating war cries such as "kill 'em all" or "I'm a motherfucking warrior", he talks only to those Iraqis with the temerity to approach: he feels vulnerable without a 60-ton Abrams girding his loins. It is impossible to read anything in his eyes because they are always obscured by mirrored sunglasses.

Every Iraqi is a potential troublemaker, a possible target. If one fails to stop at his checkpoint, his response will be to open fire. If more than 50 gather to chant anti-American slogans, he will likely flood the street with soldiers. If he so much as suspects that the crowd has weapons he may well consider a full-scale counter-attack.

His President insists that he was never a member of an invading force, that he was a liberator and is now a peacekeeper. Yet much of the time he is loathed, despised and spat upon by those Iraqis for whose freedom he fought. He and his comrades are among the most hated men in the Iraqi capital.

Not that lying is a surprise when it comes to the US government (more), but this is an interesting turn of events: the courts knowingly used false evidence to convict Timothy McVeigh, and Ashcroft personally intervened to keep the defense from finding out about it and personally ensured that the execution went ahead even knowing that the trial had not been conducted legally (more, more, more). Now, I'm not saying McVeigh isn't guilty — but I am saying that it's fucking terrifying when a government is willing to execute its citizens using fraudulent trials.

What did you do to celebrate loyalty day? (more). Seriously, Bush just named May 1st “Loyalty Day” for all Americans, and will be instituting a series of re-education programs ensuring that all citizens blindly love the flag. I'm not even kidding. Note the URL. It's whitehouse.gov. Not .org.

Iraq continues to be more hellish than it ever was under Saddam thanks to the unprovoked attack by the US empire… A radical Islamic state is almost certain (since they are the “democratic majority”), chaos reigns, and calls for suicide attacks on the US grow daily (more, more, more, more, more, more). And as the case for WMDs disintegrates and it is clear that the US had no legal authority whatsoever to invade, the mainstream media has begun scrubbing its websites and archives of any stories that could damage Bush's credibility (more)…

Cheney's corporations, who have, among other villanies, contracted mercenary work to alleged terrorist nations in spite of sanctions, continue not only to help rule the US, but also to reap enormous profits (more)… And Exxxon just posted a quarterly profit of $7,040,000,000 (more), the largest in its history. CEO salaries in the “defense” sector almost doubled in the last year (for comparison, the average CEO salary only went up 6%), making the average defense CEO's pay almost six hundred times the pay of an army private (more) — not that massive pay inequity in the US is unusual (more).

I'm sure that most of you have seen this at this point, but check out what Jay Garner (the retired US general in charge of Iraq right now) said when asked how Americans should feel about what they've done in Iraq (more):

We ought to be beating our chests every day. We ought to look in a mirror and get proud and stick out our chests and suck in our bellies and say: 'Damn, we're Americans!'

You might think I'm making it up, but he really did say that (more). I have real trouble believing that a statement that arrogant and foolish would go over even with the lowest common denominator, but even if it works in America, that's really not the kind of thing that American generals in Iraq ought to be saying if they care about international opinion, let alone revved up suicide bombers.

That said, if shows like The Daily Show are any indication, the more literate parts of the US are very aware of the lies and horrors that are being perpetrated in their name. After all — look at how Bush is rebranding himself as the “military President” (more, more), even though he's at best a drunk cowardly draft-dodger (more) and most definitely a dude with pants on fire (more)… but don't worry, according to the WSWS, “Bush promises unending war in Iraq and internationally” (more).

Finally, I've mentioned this story before, but I want people to be very aware of it: the White House continues to block access to 9/11 documents. We already know about shoddy work, blocked investigations, collusion with Halliburton and Raytheon, and so on… so what is left to be hidden? (more).