UPDATED - ColdType

EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
the former regime of Saddam Hussein, as well as
various criminal elements, are known to move
through the area . . . please do not leave your
homes during this time. During all hours, please
approach Coalition military positions with
extreme caution . . . ’
“So now – with neither electricity nor running
water – the millions of Iraqis here are ordered to
stay in their homes from dusk to dawn. Lockdown.
It’s a form of imprisonment. In their own
country. Written by the command of the 1st U.S.
Marine Division, it’s a curfew in all but name.”●
APRIL 23: NOW THE RESISTANCE
AND POLITICAL TURMOIL
YOU can’t help thinking that someone of selfimportance
and consequence in some safe room
in the bowels of Washington power was
watching Nic Robertson’s CNN report this morning
“LIVE FROM KARBALA” and having a
twinge of second thoughts about what liberation
has wrought. As thousands of the Shia faithful
flagellated themselves for Allah while denouncing
the United States occupation of their country,
some in the Bush brigade must be waxing just a
bit nostalgic for the bad old days of Saddam Hussein,
the demon we loved to demonize.
“He,” you can hear them mutter, “at least kept
the Sharia crowd in check; he was a strong man
we could do business with. He opted for a
civil state, not a religious one. He was such a useful
bad guy to rail against.”
But, for better or worse, they no longer have
Saddam to kick around. As the good poet once
said, when the center doesn’t hold, things fall
214
apart. And it will take more than the hapless
General Jay Garner to put Humpty Dumpty back
together again. The New York Times is leading
with this tale of woes today as well with several
stories such as, “As Baghdad Awaits Aid, Feeling
Grows Against U.S. Islamic passions suppressed
under Saddam Hussein escalated in Karbala. In
Baghdad, Iraqis awaited material help from the
U.S.” And then there is: “Iranian-trained agents
have crossed into Iraq and are working to
advance Iranian interests, according to U.S. officials.”
Reporting on the WMDs
CYNTHIA COTTS notes how some media outlets
have handled the WMD issue in this week’s Village
Voice. She writes: “Since the war
began, the military and its media have trumpeted
one WMD discovery after another that
turned out to be a dud. Searches of ‘sensitive
sites’ have turned up gas masks, protective suits,
antidotes, manuals, white powder, barrels of
chemicals, and a cache of mystery shells but no
smoking gun. The military types who could not
wait another week for UN inspectors to do their
job are now saying their own WMD search will
take weeks, maybe months.
“This is all so peculiar it calls for a heightened
level of skepticism. But after weeks of false
alarms, some major media outlets have fallen
into the habit of reporting the absence of news.
Last week, CNN began a WMD report with the
words ‘No smoking gun yet,’ and the headline on
a recent New York Times story read, ‘U.S.
Inspectors Find No Forbidden Weapons at Iraqi
Arms Plant.’ On Monday, the Times reported
that an unnamed scientist who claims to have