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ABU GHRAIB AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

In an earlier post I hypothesized that the elaborate pantomine of abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the leaking of photographs was intentional psychological warfare intended to demoralize the Islamist insurgents.

Today, a CBS report lends credence to my theory as to the non-spontaneous nature of the pictures. Moreover, the rate and number of American casualties in Iraq has dropped precipitously since the release of the photographs – although the halting of combat operations in Fallujah must account for some of this effect.

GOLDEN APPLES OR POKER CHIPS ?

I rarely blog about educational issues. I know them well and I think public education could stand a great deal of reform. That being said, I live in the bipartisanly corrupt and cash-strapped state of Illinois where the Tollway Authority, that by law should have gone out of existence years ago, rolls in billions but any program that does not promise big contracts to the construction industry is on the chopping block. Recently the “education governor” Rod Blagojevic, a creature of Chicago’s Democratic machine, decided to kill the nationally known Golden Apple Scholarship program.

The same day, a big push was announced by Mayor Daley for a casino for Chicago. One that will involve millions of public dollars going to subsidize immensely wealthy private gambling interests. Most likely, Daley will get his way or at worst the casino will be located in some Outfit connected, decaying, inner suburb like Rosemont or Cicero.

If only school children, prison guards, police and firemen rated as highly with Illinois politicians as the business associates of the Chicago mob.

SAFIRE STANDS BEHIND RUMSFELD

I think that makes two of us.

GEORGE WILL JUMPS THE SHARK

I have not been able to find an online version yet but conservative columnist George Will has apparently written a devastating attack on Donald Rumsfeld and – in the spirit of Paul on the road to Damascus- the entire Iraq policy. The money quote:

“So, forgive the lawyer’s language. But note what it betokens: a flinching from facts. Americans must not flinch from absorbing the photographs of what some Americans did in that prison. And they should not flinch from this fact: ¶

That pornography is, almost inevitably, part of what empire looks like. It does not always look like that, and does not only look like that. But empire is always about domination. Domination for self defense, perhaps. Domination for the good of the dominated, arguably. But domination. ¶

And some persons will be corrupted by dominating. That is why the leaders of empires must be watchful. Very watchful. ¶

Donald Rumsfeld is clearly shattered by the corruption he tardily comprehended.

I don’t disagree with Will’s revulsion regarding Abu Ghraib, simply his opportunism. Will radiates a palpable desire to return to his 1980’s role of king among conservative pundits by giving the administration a devastating shot while the nation’s will to pursue the war hangs in the balance. Pat Buchanan may have become an antisemitic crank but his longstanding opposition to the war is certainly pure of any taint of careerism.

If things in Iraq were going swimmingly we would see Will not in the role of critic of Bush but as his courtier.

Hat tip to Geitner for this gem.

UPDATE

The column is available today online.

CORDESMAN ” THE WAR IS LOST, CHALABI IS A “LOSER”, DON’T KILL SADR”

Noted military analyst made famous by his original Gulf War television appearances, Anthony Cordesman, is about to become Iraq’s version of Walter Cronkite after Tet. Cordesman has authored a report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies that deems the war in Iraq to be lost and warns against assassinating renegade Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

For the CSIS abstract of the report go here ( Adobe)

This will become the preferred strategy for the bipartisan foreign policy establishment – essentially an orderly retreat from both Iraq and from preemption doctrine – and the report will receive a big political push as it filters from the think tanks and seminars to the blogosphere to the mainstream media. Sadly, it is also probably something far more hawkish than we can expect from a Kerry administration