America, the beautifquexisityxitytsiknvewxixlowd

The mainstream media in the U.S. has been so lapdoggy to the White House, and so Americans almost never see images of pain, death, and suffering in Iraq. So the photo accompanying this article on HuffingtonPost.com was sort of startling. It's not particularly graphic, but the look of pain in that man's face, and in the contortions of his body, is so striking. Imagine that — and worse — happening hundreds of times a day across Iraq. Imagine what would happen if Americans got to see such images — the jolly results of their awesome occupation — on front pages and on breakfast TV every day.

Still, when they talk about casualties down there — in discussions of whether the "coalition" troops should pull out — they talk almost exclusively about U.S. casualties. I can't recall the last time I saw an politician of either party seem particularly upset about Iraq deaths and casualties. Just about how "heroic" their troops are. Here's an AP wire story that didn't get picked up much by the mainstream media: about how beating Iraqis, even innocent ones, becomes routine for U.S. soldiers.

Just finished reading Interventions, by Noam Chomsky. It's a collection of brilliant, concise op-ed pieces that he's been writing since 9/11. While these pieces were frequently picked up by European news outlets, they almost never appeared in U.S. papers, and certainly not "papers of record." It's a whole other point of view that just doesn't get heard widely in the U.S. And there's nothing particularly radical about it: it's just common sense.

Over and out.