Look Who's "Harmful" Now Posted by Heather Hurlburt

Is there no end to the list of Americans whose concerns -- heck, whose rights -- can be tagged as somehow "harmful to the war on terror?"

OK, that was a rhetorical question.  But the latest entrant in this shameful category -- as all the leading Democratic candidates have come out for ending "don't ask don't tell" -- is last week's letter from Under Secretary of Defense* David Chu to Senator Ron Wyden, in which Chu asserts:

A national debate on changing Title 10, United States Code, Section 654, with the accompanying divisiveness and turbulence across our country, will compound the burden of the war.

Ummm, crummy care for wounded veterans, weakening of the VA, a mushy economy, terrible public diplomacy... those things compound the burden of the war.

*Thanks to alert reader and frequent commenter Zathras for catching my earlier mistake.

Fall Guys and Fantasies Posted by Rosa Brooks

The fallout from the Lubby conviction just keeps on, uh, falling. The right wants Libby pardoned because a) it just ain't fair to be convicted of perjury etc. when there was (they claim) no underlying crime, and b) it just ain't fair anyway, because he was just following orders from the Prince of Darkness. Meanwhile, the ladies and gentlemen of the press continue to beat their breasts over the alleged threat to journalistic integrity posed by Fitzgerald's (SHOCKING! UNTHINKABLE! EVIL!) subpoenas to journalists.

Could we inject a little reality here? All of these claims and concerns are somewhere between baseless and just stupid, not to mention hypocritical, whiny, etc.

The Libby verdict & Carnage in Iraq Posted by Rosa Brooks

So Scooter Libby has been convicted on four out of the five charges against him (relating to obstruction of justice, making false statements to the FBI, and perjury). As prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald put it to the jury on Feb. 21, "There is a cloud over the vice-president.... there is a cloud over the White House."

True enough. But as the media plays up the inside-the-beltway drama element of all this (who lied to whom/is Libby the fall guy/will he be pardoned/will Fitzgerald run for office blah blah blah), let's not forget that the lies told by Scooter Libby had a very specific purpose: preventing the American public from understanding the truth about the pre-war intelligence on Iraq, and persuading Congress and the public to support the rush to war. It was those lies that brought us here and here.

Posted by Arsenal Guard

Who knows what's going on in Iraq? Perhaps not even the journalists.

Posted by The Editors

What do Vernon Jordan and Rudy Giuliani have in common? Apparently, Congress believes they will be able to provide “fresh eyes” with regards to the war in Iraq. Along with Co-Chairs, James A. Baker and Lee Hamilton, the congressionally chartered U.S. Institute for Peace and three non-partisan think tanks have launched the “Iraq Study Group”.