Figuratively

In recent speeches justifying the invasion of Iraq, Bushies, like Condi in Blackburn, England yesterday, have added to the list of charges against Saddam Hussein that he subverted the UN sanctions on Iraq. What was he supposed to do?

Condi says that if you haven’t learned lessons from the past few years, “you’re really rather brain dead.” I wonder if she had anyone in mind? Then she proceeds to not so much learn from recent history as rewrite it, asserting that some people said the goal in Iraq shouldn’t be democracy, but to replace Saddam with another strong man, but that would have been, you know, wrong. Hey Condi, does the name Achmad Chalabi ring any bells? How ‘bout Iyad Allawi?

In what the news media have taken as the money quote, she admits to “thousands” of tactical errors in Iraq, but their strategic decision to invade was correct and virtuous and their hearts were pure, so that’s all right then. Also, she didn’t name any of the thousands of errors, and her spokesmodel Scott McCormack later explained that she just meant it “figuratively.”

She said that the US has “no desire to be the world’s jailer.” Good to know.

Bush, in Cancun, described Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose appearance at the summit in jungle-explorer garb so dismayed some Canadians in the comments section, as “a very open, straightforward fellow. If he’s got a problem, he’s willing to express it in a way that’s clear for all to understand.” I guess he doesn’t speak figuratively. Or polysyllabically.

Alabama state senator Hank Erwin says that because Alabama is “a family-friendly state,” he has introduced legislation to follow SD and ban all abortions, including in cases of incest (and rape), which is a little friendlier than most of like our families. The state senate’s judiciary committee earlier this week passed a bill defining causing the death of a fetus or embryo, from conception, as a homicide, except in cases of legal abortions.

In the middle of an article in the London Times about Britain secretly buying 20,000 Berettas for the Iraqi security forces without telling the Italian government, there’s this lonely sentence, without further explanation: “The [British Ministry of Defence] has admitted that it targeted members of a Shia militia to join the Iraqi Security Forces after Saddam’s overthrow.” More please.