Iraq War news

Marigolds2 has pointed out a video series that the Guardian is running on the Iraq War that's also being broadcast on ITV News. It doesn't offer embedding. But it's worth checking out:

Baghdad: City of walls 03/17/08

Baghdad's killing fields 03/18/08

Tom Hayden is observing the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq in part by writing on Pressuring the Democrats on Peace: A Commentary on the Fifth Anniversary of the War Huffington Post 03/18/08. This is important. I attended a town hall meeting my local Congresswoman, Barbara Lee, held this past weekend in Oakland. She talked about the Progressive Caucus' new proposal for withdrawing American troops and mercenaries ("security contractors") from Iraq. One of the things she said was that the "street heat" from the antiwar movement seems to have decreased somewhat recently.

Let's hope that can be quickly reversed. Even politicians who want to do the right thing need constituents demanding that they do the right thing. That's how democracy works.

Hayden notes that both Clinton and Obama, though committed to some kind of withdrawal from Iraq, have both left themselves wiggle room to cave in to the national security establishment after being elected and prolong the war. This would be a very bad thing. He observes:

Any possibility of ending the war this year is long over. The panic that gripped the national security elites last year that peace sentiment might end the war in 2008 is safely past. [The hawkish Democratic-leaning think tank, the Center for a New American Security, fretted last fall that "if no bipartisan consensus is reached before the Democratic and Republican primaries, the next president will likely be elected principally on a "get out of Iraq now" platform."...]

But he points to two key possibilities for the peace movement this year:

We can count on two developments, however. A spirited, well-funded educational campaign linking Iraq to the economic recession will be waged between now and November. And like it or not, the November election will be interpreted either as a voter mandate for peace or for the status quo. That offers the opportunity for an anti-war campaign linked to the economy and oil issues, while de-linked from devotion to any single presidential candidate.

Dave Neiwert gives a good rundown on some of the antiwar activity visible at the Take Back America Conference which he has been attending in Being responsible 03/18/08.

And William Arkin reminds us that anyone would be foolish to hope that Maverick McCain will suddenly become a pragmatist who realizes we need to get out of Iraq pronto once he's elected President (McCain's Iraq Dilemma Early Warning blog 03/17/08):

McCain is stuck on the notion that the United States can make Iraq whole, that all we need to do is defeat "al Qaeda" or some other external force. He is also stuck on a view of Iraq and the war that is deeply flawed.

On his current trip, McCain is once again demonstrating his visceral connection to the war and the American military. Almost a year ago, McCain traipsed around a Baghdad market (okay, maybe not "traipsed," because he was traveling inside of cordon of the U.S. military), decrying that the American people were not getting the "full picture" of progress. Later McCain had to back off of his optimistic statement.

McCain's trip is not a "campaign event" and he is not accompanied by a press entourage, but there is no question that we are previewing the 2008 elections. As bad as the American economy is, the Iraq war is ultimately going to determine who the next president will be. And McCain believes in continued American intervention and the military mission.

Tags: dave neiwert, iraq war, mccain, tom hayden, william arkin