Another update from my friend Paul, working as a journalist in Baghdad, this time on an unfortunate collision between the Sci-Fi Channel and reality: —————– Today two suicide bombers walked into a police commando recruitment center and blew themselves up, killing 35 recruiting hopefuls. The night before I watched a TV show where a young […]
Category: War
Baghdad Update: Just a Phase
Here’s another email from my friend Paul, who’s working as a journalist covering Iraq’s descent into civil war. In this message, he describes the hard life of a photographer in Iraq, and reports a downright Rumsefeldian analogy: “We had our militia phase, maybe the rest of the Iraq will get over its own.” It’s a […]
Baghdad Update: Media Culpa
For those who are new to the blog (which is a lot of people…), a good friend of mine (best man at my wedding) is a journalist based in Cairo, who does regular shifts as a wire service stringer in Baghdad. He sends occasional email updates about what’s going on over there, and I repost […]
The Torture Bill
John Scalzi saves me some typing: I’m proud to be an American, but I’m tired of being ashamed of my government. I’m tired of having to count the seconds until this bilious waste of a president is shoved out the door in January of 2009. I’m tired of hoping that some members of the president’s […]
What Might’ve Been
Since everybody else left of Limbaugh is linking it, I might as well throw in a pointer to the Fox interview with Bill Clinton, where he lights into Chris Wallace for asking him about Osama bin Laden: CLINTON: What did I do? What did I do? I worked hard to try to kill him. I […]
Baghdad Update: Rust and Paint
Senior Middle East Correspondant Paul Schemm checks in with another email update from Baghdad, this time describing a visit to a tank graveyard. ———————– It was a graveyard. That was the only way to describe it. The place where old war machines came to die. Row upon row of massive sand-colored metal tanks, their huge […]
Hair Gel and an iPod
As the “binary liquid explosive” plot sounds a little implausible, and the usual lack of, you know, hard evidence regarding the plot begins to become clear, the question has to be asked: what was really up with the terror plot that has banned an entire phase of matter? Wondermark has the answer. (Register link via […]
When Opportunity Knocks Your House Down
Via Making Light, Aasif Mandvi on The Daily Show delivers a blistering yet deadpan assessment of American Middle East policy to date. I deeply resent living in a world where the only worthwhile political commentary comes from a comedy show.
Baghdad Update: There Is No Normal
Another update from Official Middle East Correspondant Paul Schemm, working as a journalist in Baghdad. These arrive at irregular intervals, but I figure they’re worth reposting when I get them, in case people want a view-from-the-ground perspective. One officer described it to me as the “new face of violence in Baghdad is senseless indirect fire.” […]