On the war fronts...

As each week passes while Iraqis continue being tortured and slaughtered and with more coalition soldiers giving their lives for a war based on so many inconceivable lies, the Iraqi political situation is moving at a snail's pace. And, in the face of mounting public dissent from more retired generals who blasted the Pentagon and the Bush administration on Monday (video) over the mismanagement of its war policies, the army is extending the deployment of 4,000 overworked troops while there is it's being reported that the National Guard has been asked to send more of its members to Iraq following the November election despite a lack of training time and the fact that many have already fulfilled their commitments to the force while brave war resisters like Lt. Ehren Watada are being hit as hard as possible by the US government.

Meanwhile, Bushco is busy blaming the internets again for the rise of extremism while denying the results of a leaked NIE that concluded the Iraq war is an extremely fertile breeding ground for terrorism. Dick Cheney popped out of his foxhole long enough to call the Democrats defeatists (yawn) and Bush's mouthpiece homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, was busily complaining to CNN's Wolf Blitzer that leaking classified documents like the NIE is dangerous (especially when that NIE doesn't jibe with the lies Bush has been telling about Iraq since that NIE was produced in April). And, all of this is happening while a new Taliban Republic is being created in Iraq. And did I mention that the Pentagon is being held hostage by the army's chief of staff who wants more money spent in Iraq?

To add insult to injury, Americans are apparently too timid to handle a Newsweek magazine cover about Losing Afghanistan. (That cover is obviously offensive to people waiting in grocery store lineups who'd rather look at Brangelina or anorexic models).

President Musharraf of Pakistan will apparently reveal in his upcoming book that the CIA paid his country several millions of dollars to turn over hundreds of al Qaeda suspects. He must have called Crimestoppers to collect the rewards since the US government is now denying that claim.

The Green Berets reputation has been tarnished by revelations that suspects in their custody in Afghanistan were tortured and killed and the head of Afghanistan's Womens Affairs was gunned down on Monday while that country has become 'Iraq on a slow burn'. Hamid Karzai, who got a pat on the head from Harper last week, told the Woodrow Wilson Centre for Scholars on Monday that American governments forgot about his country after the long war with the Soviet Union and failed to take action that may have stopped the 9/11 attacks. Karzai, Bush and Musharraf are scheduled to meet this week. I'd like to be a fly on that wall.

Just another day at war...