Dubya is still in charge

Carl Levin sounded GREAT yesterday at his press conference that I watched on CSPAN, reassuring me in the sanity of one man in power. Until he got to the line at the very end where he slightly stumbled ... it had to do with the idea that the Iraqis should be GRATEFUL that we have provided such an opportunity for them by invading their country.
AUGHHH!

Yeah, Carl, you'd be grateful for disease-carrying water, dead families, ruined infrastructure, jobs vanished, sectarian violence, DUI in the dust, civil war, exploding markets, exploding roads, exploding homes, overflowing morgues, notes on the door in the middle of the night, professionals who can get out leaving as fast as they can, overwhelming fear, met by propaganda on one side and religious fundamentalism on the other. I'd like to see you live with sporadic electricity for years, Carl.
Grateful.

I wish somewhere in that press conference Carl could have said something like... we understand the inestimable horror we have wrought on the citizens of an innocent nation, and ask their forgiveness, and understand that our names have been erased from the Book of Life until we have made this travesty right.

Today a report from NPR said "People in Baghdad are afraid to leave their homes because of the death squads."
Death squads.
I'd SURE be grateful for death squads.
Are Death Squads reminiscent of "The El Salvador Option?"

From the AP:
The abductions were the most brazen attack yet on Iraqi academics, who have often been targeted by insurgents. Recent weeks have seen a university dean and prominent Sunni geologist murdered, bringing the death toll among educators to at least 155 since the war began.
Thousands of professors and researchers have fled to neighboring countries to escape the lawlessness and sectarian strife, robbing the country of its brain trust.
The academics apparently were singled out for their relatively high public stature, vulnerability and known views on controversial issues in a climate of deepening Islamic fundamentalism.
Ali al-Adib, a Shiite lawmaker, said there was little question Tuesday's incident was a mass kidnapping and demanded that U.S. troops be held responsible for the security lapse.
"The detention of 150 people from a government institution without informing the higher education minister ... means this is an abduction operation," al-Adib said.
"There is a political goal behind this grave action," he said.
A spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq said American troops were ready to help in the hunt for the kidnappers.
"If the reports are true, than this is a terrible crime and we will support all efforts by the Iraqi government to bring these criminals to justice," Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said.
The abductions came just hours after a U.S. assault on the northwest Baghdad Shiite district of Shula that drew strong condemnation from al-Adib and other Shiite members of parliament. Shula is a stronghold of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, sponsor of one of Iraq's most powerful and feared militias, the Mahdi Army.
It also came a day after Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, confronted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki over how Iraqi forces would halt the raging violence.
In other violence Tuesday, police and medical workers said at least 20 Iraqis were killed in clashes in the western city of Ramadi, where U.S. ground troops and warplanes have conducted a series of operations over recent days targeting Sunni insurgents. U.S. forces had no immediate comment.