We live in strange times

Times in which the Beltway Village conventional wisdom is willing to pretend that the US combat role in Iraq is over. As Juan Cole reports in 50 Dead, 128 wounded in Iraq Attacks Informed Comment 09/20/2010:

Although President Obama announced the formal end of US combat in Iraq for August 31, in fact US troops still pair with their Iraqi counterparts to carry active war-fighting, as at Fallujah last Wednesday. In Baqubah a week ago, the US provided helicopter gunship support to Iraqi army units fighting with Muslim extremists.

Meanwhile, Australian journalist Michael Ware says he has videotape of US soldiers committing a 'small war crime' by summarily killing an armed boy who was not an insurgent. The footage belongs to CNN, which declined to air it as 'too graphic.' Ware is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome after nearly a decade of covering the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. He is known for challenging then Republican presidential hopeful John McCain’s overly rosy view of Iraq security in 2007.

Tags: iraq war