One of John McCain's strategies to win the election has been to play up the so-called "success" of the Surge, and Obama's opposition to it. In doing so, he has had to confirm that one of his many "gaffes" on Iraq was no mistake. But it's a mistake in a much more disastrous sense.

Juan Cole's powerful article reveals that the Myth of the Successful Surge is only that, a myth, subscribed to, logic and reason be damned, by John McCain in his bid to seal the neocon-numbed protoplasm imagined to be the "Republican electorate" and that all important fantasy "swing vote" (the "naaa, I dunno" crowd?). First off, is it really "success"?

An email from Obama on 3 June 2008 said, "This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past and bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face." But not on Middle East policy. Obama will repeat the tired old policy of Bush II, and every US president since Truman. Why is that? Because American political leaders are afraid of the Israel lobby. They become convinced that to win the so-called Jewish vote they must be more Zionist than the Israeli. Obama is no different, sadly. His speech to AIPAC on 4 June proved this. Read the whole thing at NPR

[Even though this diary is not funny, and thus has that in common with DKos 4/1 joke posts, it is NOT an April Fool's post.]

Normally, I find Christopher Hitchens to be a bloated, right wing apologist gas bag. But I have always admitted that he is kind of drunk-at-the-end-of-the-bar smart, and though I don't think he's a good writer, he is, well, glib.

Yesterday on Slate he issued a jeremiad saying that the truth behind Hillary's Bosnia sniper lies was much worse than the lies themselves. To shorten his turgid prose, he said that Bill wanted to rescue Bosnia from Serbian depredations shortly after his election, but that Hillary objected to an involvement there because she felt it would create a roadblock to her health care reform plans.

Today, March 30, is the 32nd Land Day observed by the Palestinian citizens of Israel and their allies around the world. It marks the day in 1976 when Israeli police killed six protesters in Northern Israel as part of an operation to seize private Palestinian land on the pretext of "security and settlement" needs.

You can read about Land Day here. This year's event are reported in Ha'aretz, the Israeli daily, here.

This history speaks for itself and I won't sully it with any of my purple prose. For those of you who are bored on frustrated with the controversial or complex elements of the anti-colonial struggle of those under Israeli rule, there's a great diary about the latest Gallup tracking poll here. Obama is up by ten points! Check it out.

Remember this:

President Bush laid down the standard of success when he announced the surge more than a year ago: "If we increase our support at this crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home."

Than yesterday we get this:

The Pentagon is projecting that when the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq ends in July there will be about 8,000 more troops on the ground than when it began in January 2007, a senior general said Monday.

Today is the day after what Kosovars hope will be their national day and Serious People fear will be the start of another Balkan war (even though the assumed protagonists show no sign of wanting one).  

Thank goodness the Serious People have already blundered -- the rest of the European continent has no history of amity with which it can lecture Balkans.  Yet most of its nations are in the NATO alliance and the European Union.  

May Spell Trouble

As Iraqis who fled their homes during the war begin to return, some are finding it safer to move into areas inhabited by other members of their sect, creating segregated communities of Shia and Sunni Muslims at ever-increasing rates.
The country has seen a drop in sectarian violence as a result, but some observers are concerned by the trend's other possible consequences.

This does not bode well for a countries citizens, that once lived in relative comfort in a mixed religious/tribal sectarian society, under the rule of a dictatorship once propped up by the west.

From the Radovan Karadzic Finishing School comes Huckabee's nuanced view of the Middle East:

When asked about a Palestinian state, Gov. Huckabee stated that he supports creating a Palestinian state, but believes that it should be formed outside of Israel. He named Egypt and Saudi Arabia as possible alternatives, noting that the Arabs have far more land than the Israelis and that it would only be fair for other Arab nations to give the Palestinians land for a state, rather than carving it out of the tiny Israeli state.

The Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project has been gathering testimonials, interviews, and data from villages all over northern Iraq where there is the most "democracy". Christopher Hitchens has led the growing chorus proclaiming the victory of Western ideals and democracy in the Kurdish-ruled north of Iraq, which is under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

But the ethnic cleansing goes on. Haven't had your heart broken yet today? Read on.

Those of us who served in 'Nam, or really any insurgent conflict, and anybody else who were paying attention understand the Government Propaganda used to make things look rosier than the reality on the ground.

One of the most blatant is "The Body Count". Used to show success, in 'enemy kills', and used to show success in the citizens feelings security because of actions by an occupying force or a puppet government.

Real Honesty is not a popular tool of propaganda!

Newsweek and the New York Times are carrying articles about the returning Iraqi's to Baghdad, looking deeper into the reasons why, reasons anyone paying real attention already understand.

The news mounts; Assyrian homes are found empty. Kurdification progresses; money earmarked for our survival may be rerouted to the Kurdistan Regional Government. Assyrian woman are forced into lives of prostitution to feed their children; half a million, or more, refugees clog Jordan and Syria, treated as refuse. (If you are not weak-hearted, I suggest reading Nuri Kino’s amazing report, By God: Six Days in Amman.) We are not Burmese monks or Pakistani lawyers. We are just an ancient people, divided by our church leaders, dying in Diaspora.
The voices that sang some of the first songs in human history will soon be silenced forever, while the world yawns.

I have that uneasy feeling again. They're up to no good.

Kurds Are More Pro-American than Americans! Glenn Reynolds' sock-puppet Michael Totten won himself a big slot over at the White House News Network by spewing an astonishing collection of lies about America's puppet state in Iraq.

'The only Kurd terrorists are based in Iran' warbles little Mikey. And don't all these ethnically pure Kurdish policemen seem remarkably well-groomed and  turned out. Neatness counts when ensuring that only those with the right ethnic credentials have the right to vote.

There's just one problem with little Mikey's hymn to Kurd authoritarianism. It's pure crap. The most dangerous Kurdish terrorists are based in American controlled northern Iraq. PKK terrorists just killed a bunch more Turkish troops and the Turkish government is ready to go ballistic.

Columbus Day is celebrated because he discovered North America with it's five million Native Americans in 1492.  Four hundred years later there were 250 thousand left, a decrease in population of 95 percent.  This happened in part because of forced relocation like the Cherokee and Choctaw Trail of Tears. This is ethnic cleansing and genocide.

The Times  (you may need to register) tells us that Halo is one of the primo youth recruiting tools of churches these days.  Getting old people to come to church based on their fear of death seems to work pretty well.  But apparently getting young people in to talk about some guy with a Halo on only works if that guy is armed to the teeth in a digitally-rendered 3D environment.

This is the kind of cheap cultural opportunism I often see religious leaders engaging in.  Any cultural fad will do.  Christian Rock, video games, anything at all.  Racism and misogyny will do as well, if they're what the kids are into.

I have to wonder if the actual subject matter of religion is interesting to anyone at all in a modern society, unless it's been grafted onto one of our modern obsessions.  In this case, the obsession is with "blowing people up."

Spiegel Online has a powerful and terrifying interview with legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, the man who won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking the story of the My Lai massacre and cover-up, and more recently broke the story about the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison. The interview covers a lot of ground, so let's just look at some key parts, and then you must go read it!

By L. C. Johnson (bio/blog)

So where are we headed in Iraq?  The fawning over General Petraeus by the most of the politicians and the media was so sickeningly sweet that diabetics were in danger of a coma.  Petraeus was relatively low key and pulled off the pretense that his remarks were crafted without the input or coordination of the White House.  

The earnest school boy mien of Petraeus defused MoveOn.org's clumsy attempt at painting the General as a traitor.  But the error of MoveOn does not mean that Petraeus is a reincarnation of General Douglas MacArthur, at least militarily.  Many would agree that, in terms of ego, he shares common bonds with MacArthur, but in terms of his actual record the hype does not match the actual performance.  Brent Budowsky's piece published on this blog last week presents chapter and verse on Petraeus' so-called illustrious career.

But Petraeus is the side show.  Where are we headed in Iraq and how do we get out?  Pat Lang weighs in with the following:

A Dem Presidential victory in 2008 means all US troops are leaving Iraq and coming home. Right? Wrong.

If, as Joe Biden suggests, Iraq is no longer a country why does the US need an embassy for a nation that does not exist?

If all the Presidential candidates vow to leave enough troops in Iraq to prevent genocide and ethnic cleansing; and the Kurds and Shia have both been past victims of ethnic cleansing, how many troops will a Dem President be forced to leave in Iraq?

Remember how President Stupid doesn't like to be bothered with facts?

We've got the same problem right here, right now.