Needless to say, it can be gruesome. Over at The Reaction, Heraclitus takes a look. See here.

The new political realitiy — the Democrats are dominant in Congress but not completely in control — was underscored by the fate of the highly-touted non-partisan nonbinding resolution debate on Iraq. Because in the end The Big Debate became The Nonexistant Debate. Questions: (1)Does this mean back to the drawing board for some kind of resolution that can bring together Senators from both parties...

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Fort Lewis this week will become ground zero for the peace movement. Activists have called for a national day of action today, when the court-martial of 28-year-old 1st Lt. Ehren Watada begins. In the past year, Watada has become a lightning rod for the anti-war movement as the only known U.S. military officer to publicly refuse to be sent to Iraq. Peace groups and such celebrity...

Sunday was quieter than Saturday (with the horrendous suicide bombing that killed over 130 people), the death toll less, but the violence continued: “Four people were killed and 20 wounded Sunday when a car bomb exploded near a bus station in the town of Khalis, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of Baquba.” In Baghdad…, gunmen, bombs and mortar attacks killed 14 people and injured 46...

Bipartisanship can work, sometimes. From today’s WaPo … Democratic and Republican opponents of President Bush’s troop-buildup plan joined forces last night behind the nonbinding resolution with the broadest bipartisan backing: a Republican measure from Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) announced the shift, hoping to unite a large majority of the...

Visit the Carnival of the Liberated.

In a long-ago interview with David Broder on “Meet the Press,” then presidential-hopeful and budding-eccentric Ross Perot was challenged to provide details of a proposal he had made to trim government healthcare costs. In response, Perot argued that Broder had ambushed him, unfairly asking a question for which he (Perot) was not prepared. But Broder kept at it, to prove a point (namely, that Perot...

UN Ambassador has made some comments that will likely raise eyebrows in the Bush administration, and not just because of his still-weird facial hair: Former U.S. envoy to the United Nations John Bolton said in an interview published in France that the United States has “no strategic interest” in a united Iraq. Bolton, who resigned last month from his temporary appointment as U.N. ambassador, also...

The Coffeespy ponders the big issue: While I am definitely a supporter of what we are doing in Iraq, and would have been even without the arguments of WMD and terrorist links, it’s important for those defending the actions over there to remember the human cost. We pay lip service to it all the time. But I think it’s our personal responsibility to have personal knowledge of the price we have paid...

Kirk Editorial Cartoon from The Toledo Blade:

The prosecution in the trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby featured a prominent witness yesterday to bolster its case: former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who testified with immunity protection: Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer testified yesterday that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby divulged Valerie Plame’s identity to him in July 2003, three days earlier than...

From CagleCartoons:

A front-page article in the The Washington Post on Friday on the prospects of a presidential run by Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska got right to the point: “His Republican colleagues regard him warily.” “The White House barely speaks to him.” “He is reviled by his party’s conservative base.” Those are, in my view, three unassailable reasons to like him. If they don’t...

New York Senator Hillary Clinton, the favorite in the (early) polls to gobble up the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination, has taken “responsibility” for her vote for the war — yet another step in trying to satisfy those in her party who continue to clamor for her to express regret for her earlier vote. But will it be enough? New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton blamed President Bush on...

The latest Newsweek poll shows something you don’t usually see: a President’s poll rating go DOWN right after their State Of The Union address: President George W. Bush concluded his annual State of the Union address this week with the words “the State of our Union is strong … our cause in the world is right … and tonight that cause goes on.â€? Maybe so, but the state of the...

While Americans vigorously debate Iraq War policy, it’s too easy to forget the individual sacrifices, acts of bravery and actions that make a difference. The real “decision maker” is the military person in the field who has to make life-death decisions each day. Lest we forget, here’s a story from the Minneapolis Star Tribune: Members of the Minnesota National Guard rescued three victims...

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, talking to Senators about the Bush administration “surge” in Iraq. ‘’There is no strategy. This is a ping-pong game with American lives. These young men and women that we put in Anbar province, in Iraq, in Baghdad are not beans. They’re real lives. And we better be damn sure we know what we’re doing – all of us – before we put...

The International Criminal Court (ICC), world’s first permanent war-crimes tribunal, is proving more robust than expected; even skeptical America is softening its line, says The Economist. The ICC (not to be confused with the World Court, also in The Hague), aged only four-and-a-half, “is proving a lustier infant than many predicted. Its prosecutors have delved deeply into horrible wars in Congo,...

I really want to see the President’s surge strategy accomplish in Iraq what every other effort has not. I really want to believe my former-Marine nephew, and his friends who are still in the Armed Services, when they say we need to be there and be there in force. I really want to. But it’s difficult to do so when I read AP reports like this one, wherein the President … (a) demands that his...

The Woodward book and other reports suggest it but here is MORE proof that we have a government that makes policy by positive self-affirmation.

Or do they?

The indispensible site Watching America has a must-read translation of an article from the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al-Riyadh that warns of an impending American conflict with Iran..and outlines how it’ll begin. Some key excerpts 4 U: It is our perception that America – which is up to its ears in Iraq – has come to realize its mistakes in dissolving the former Iraqi army and security forces,...