Neglected readings

I've been neglectful about updating the Readings list in the side bar. Here are two for your consideration.

Digby makes the argument--harder to deny every day--that the increasing lawlessness of the American occupation of Iraq, the torture, civilian massacres, the whole bit, is not a mistake on anyone's part: bin Laden hoped to egg the US in just this behavior, and Cheney and the neocons, far from considering the resulting PR blowback a small price to pay, actually consider it one of the advantages of their foreign policy:

Romans and conservatives are very big on "sending messages." They like to make examples of people; it's one of their favorite authoritarian tactics. And executing children sends a hell of a message, no doubt about it. No gloves anywhere to be seen in that operation. The "humiliating and degrading" treatment at Abu Ghraib, the torture at Bagram and Gitmo and god knows where else, the kidnapping and renditions, and yes, the massacre of civilians including children, is not a matter of incompetence or misunderstanding or the fog of war. It's the plan.

And Frank Rich adds up where this collaboration has gotten us:

The sunshine of last weekend, splendid as it was for a cookout, could not eradicate the dark reality that we keep sending our troops into a quagmire. At Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, the president read a poignant letter that First Lt. Mark Dooley, killed by a bomb last September in Ramadi, wrote to his parents. What Mr. Bush did not say was that now, nine months later, insurgents rule Ramadi. As he spoke at Arlington on Monday, the Pentagon was preparing to announce that 1,500 emergency reinforcements were being sent from Kuwait to Anbar province, home to Ramadi, Haditha and Falluja, to try to stanch the bleeding.

There is more than a little something wrong with this picture. The president reiterated his Plan for Victory in Iraq as recently as his appearance with Tony Blair on May 25: "As the Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down." He said then that the Iraqis were "taking more of the fight" and "more territory" and "more missions." The State Department concurred: Iraqi security forces are participating in "more than 80 percent of operations."

The result? Iraqi and American casualties are at the highest level they've been since 2004, "coalition of the willing" partners are bailing left and right, and Bush the Decider has decided to drop the whole mess in the lap of the next president.

Both pieces are in the sidebar now.