Morning Roundup — Are we losing Daily Show, Colbert at midnight?
The year really DID seem to go by fast …
One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.
Headlines after the jump:
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The US: winning hearts and minds, one sniper bullet at a time
From today’s Washington Post, more Iraqi deaths linked to private mercenary firm Blackwater:
BAGHDAD — Last Feb. 7, a sniper employed by Blackwater USA, the private security company, opened fire from the roof of the Iraqi Justice Ministry. The bullet tore through the head of a 23-year-old guard for the state-funded Iraqi Media Network, who was standing on a balcony across an open traffic circle. Another guard rushed to his colleague’s side and was fatally shot in the neck. A third guard was found dead more than an hour later on the same balcony.
Eight people who responded to the shootings — including media network and Justice Ministry guards and an Iraqi army commander — and five network officials in the compound said none of the slain guards had fired on the Justice Ministry, where a U.S. diplomat was in a meeting. An Iraqi police report described the shootings as “an act of terrorism” and said Blackwater “caused the incident.” The media network concluded that the guards were killed “without any provocation.”
Of course, a cursory investigation by the firm and US officials found that the private soldier acted within the rules of engagement.
Just more evidence of how this president is frittering away the United States’ once-lofty standing in the world. I was born at the start of the ’60s; the first memory I have is watching JFK’s funeral on television. I grew up in a time of both social change (the unfulfilled promise of the Sixties) and economic prosperity, of unbridled hope. So blame me for feeling like the US was still ascending today.
But now it’s clear that we have jumped the shark.
So, what are we going to do about it?
