We are the chemotherapy

It seems those night-vision goggles Rummy claimed Syria was sending to Iraq don’t actually exist either.

Onward Christian soldiers.

Saving Corporal Ryan: "The Iraqis are sick people and we are the chemotherapy," said Corporal Ryan Dupre. "I am starting to hate this country. Wait till I get hold of a friggin' Iraqi. No, I won't get hold of one. I'll just kill him."

Article on the US military’s introduction of free market capitalism to Iraq: gouging destitute Iraqis for water.

After three months, the CIA has given up its program of attempting to get Iraqi military and political leaders to defect, after getting exactly none of them to do so.

The US military has been taking out ads in Indian newspapers for workers for military bases in Kuwait. Applicants must speak English, be under 35, and not be a Muslim.

These stories are typical of ones in every British newspaper, of whatever political stripe, about the differences between British and American soldiers in their approaches to Iraqi civilians.

I mentioned Saturday that Robert Fisk had found the serial number of the missile that hit the Baghdad market. The number has been tracked back to Raytheon.

The US is still trying to find Iraqi WMD’s, like anyone in the world would believe anything “discovered” now. They have pissed off Hans Blix again by trying to hire some of his inspectors.

For a few days I’ve wanted to write something, but it just hasn’t jelled. I wanted to compare the assumption that Iraqis would be shocked and awed into, well, not just surrender, but actively welcoming the Americans, with those letters I keep reading in the NY Times, and interviews on tv, in which mothers of soldiers or POWs (it’s always the mothers, which suggests to me that they were prompted by someone in the Pentagon), saying that protesters should just shut up to honor their boys who volunteered to protect us from the Iraqi hordes and make the world safe for democracy.