Death is Iraq’s commander-in-chief

Check out Jane Stillwater’s blog. She is reporting from Iraq, giving a point of view you will not hear on CNN or ABC.

What everyone here in Baghdad is really talking about is DEATH. Death is everywhere here. It permeates the very air we breathe. It seeps into our conversations and into our dreams -- which explains why, since I have arrived in this country, I almost never sleep.
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But I know what the next question I should ask after that one should be. “How can the supposedly-idealistic United Nations, the supposedly-democratic United States, the supposedly-civilized European Union or even Russia or China allow a country to exist with Death as its commander-in-chief?“ They overthrew Saddam here. They should overthrow Death too. But they won't. Instead, Death has been given permanent membership on the UN Security Council. Death is now a member of the G-8.

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This is the first reporting I have read from Iraq that seems honest to me. All the main-stream media reports from Iraq seem to be trying to present the situation in Iraq as if continuing to wage war was a perfectly reasonable option that sober and serious people could reasonably choose as the best foreign policy option. It is like reading a weird merger of George Orwell’s 1984 with Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The current situation in Iraq is something that only a lunatic would choose. Hundreds of people are dying every week. Our dead are being flown home in flag-draped coffins which the news media are not allowed show. Politicians are saying if we stop the war bad things could happen, as if the current situation was not so bad. Those politicians should go over to Iraq and talk to the people Jan Stillwater has been talking to.