The always-surprising Harper's Weekly email starts off with bad news about Iraq:
In Hillah, Iraq, a man promising work lured day-laborers
into a minivan, then blew it up, killing 22 people. "The
ground was covered with the remains of people and
blood," said a laborer, "and survivors ran in all
directions." Thirty people were killed in attacks in Mosul,
Baquba, and Baghdad, four American security contractors
and an Austrian were kidnapped in Basra, and a deputy
health minister was kidnapped in Baghdad. "Where is the
government?" yelled a woman in Mashtal, after multiple
bombs killed 11 civilians. "Women and children were
killed. God is great, God is great." Senator John McCain
said that American troops in Iraq were "fighting and
dying for a failed policy"; Henry Kissinger said that he
didn't believe a military victory in Iraq is possible; and
Army Specialist James Barker admitted that he had raped
a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and helped murder her family
in March 2006. Tony Blair told Al Jazeera that western
intervention in Iraq had been "pretty much of a disaster."
