The List: Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies

Have you ever wondered about the more than four million Iraqis displaced by the war started by the U.S.? Where are they? Which countries are taking them in? What about those who have had to flee Iraq because their lives have been threatened for helping the US as translators, interpreters and drivers?

I’ve been aware of the mass misery of these displaced Iraqis, but now I’m going to learn more about these people as individuals, starting with those who have been put in harm’s way by allying themselves with the U.S. I’ve put The List: Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies icon on my desktop. I’ve also signed up for e-mail updates.

There’s a good description of The List in Juan Cole’s March 1 post, "On Mercy and Redress."

George Packer, who writes and blogs for the New Yorker, has been paying attention to the Iraqis whose lives are at risk because they helped the US. His March 26, 2007 article, "Betrayed - The Iraqis who trusted America the most," and his November 16, 2007 post, "One Refugee's Story," are both worth reading.

(logo of the The List from its website)

Deadliest July yet for U.S. troops. 23% Rise in Iraqi Deaths in July. How does that square with “A War We Might Just Win"?

Yesterday I posted about the July 30th New York Times op-ed, A War We Might Just Win, by Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, and Glenn Greenwald’s post exposing the hypocrisy of O’Hanlon as he presents himself as a consistent opponent of the war in Iraq. O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the liberal think tank, the Brookings Institution.

Glenn Greenwald is still hopping mad about the press’s unquestioning promoting of O’Hanlon and Pollack and their message of hope about the likelihood of success in Iraq. Please take a few minutes to read Greenwald’s July 31 post, A new low of mindlessness for our media - Returning to marvel once again at the deceitful Brookings Institution media spectacle.

My expert on Iraq is Juan Cole, (photo) who blogs at Informed Comment and at the group blog, Informed Comment Global Affairs. Posted this morning at Informed Comment: Deadliest July Yet for US Troops; 23% Rise in Iraqi Deaths in July. Also, according to Juan, June saw the highest number of over-all attacks since the war began.

Cole adds, “I saw Michael O'Hanlon of Brookings on CNN Sunday saying he thought that the violence was less now. (O'Hanlon and Ken Pollack also gave us that uh, optimistic, op-ed about 'a war we could win' in the NYT.) I'd be interested in knowing how he is measuring this supposed fall in violence. If it is the deadliest July ever for US troops in Iraq; if there is a 23% increase in Iraqi deaths over June; if there were more attacks in June than any time since April 2003-- how is that a decrease in violence? Somebody explain that to me.”

You might want to keep your eye on George Packer’s blog. On July 30, he posted that O’Hanlon and Pollack’s op-ed raised more questions than it answered. He promised to get back to us with the answers to these questions about their recent trip to Iraq:

“Who organized their schedule?

"How much time did they spend in each place they visited (Baghdad, Ramadi, Mosul, Tal Afar)?

"How many Iraqis did they speak with, and whom? Did they meet Iraqis without American officers present?

"What could and couldn’t they independently confirm from their briefings by military sources? For example, how do they know that, in Mosul and Tal Afar, ‘the Iraqis have stepped up to the plate. Reliable police officers man the checkpoints in the cities, while Iraqi Army troops cover the countryside’?”

"Finally, what do they mean when they declare at the end, “There is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008”? As of a few weeks ago, O’Hanlon advocated a partition of Iraq and Pollack was talking about containing the civil war within Iraq’s borders. Neither of them had much faith that the Administration’s strategy could succeed. Have they changed their minds? If so, what’s their political strategy for sustaining the surge into 2008?"

(photo of Juan Cole from Informed Comment)

George Packer, You're wrong! Blogging is (a big part of) the revolution

After blogging for three months, in April I posted Move Over, George Packer, confessing to my need to check numerous blogs each day. In the spring of 2004, Packer confessed to his addiction to reading blogs in his Mother Jones article, The revolution will not be blogged. Packer states, “To see beyond their own little world and get a sense of what's really going on, journalists and readers need to get out of their pajamas.” The point of Packer’s article is that bloggers will not create needed change. In April, I agreed with Packer.

However, now that I’ve been blogging for six months, I’ve changed my mind. In the process of blogging and reading blogs, especially those by unknown people all over the world who leave a comment to one of my posts, I see blogging as a large part of the “revolution.”

Why did I change my mind? Because I have found an incredible amount of energy and careful research and writing about important issues by countless unrecognized, unknown bloggers. This gives me hope. With hope, I get out of my pajamas and do my part as a citizen, always keeping in mind Rebecca Solnit’s wonderful March 14 article, Was I a good American in the time of George Bush?

I’ve referred readers to other blogs here (my ten top blogs, all visited by thousands of people each day); here and here (about my interesting friend, Tod Brilliant) and here. This last link will take you to two relatively unknown bloggers, Bonnie Allen, a friend, and Josh Rosenau, a graduate student at the University of Kansas in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. I found Josh’s site at one in the morning when I was researching for a post about the Endangered Species Act.

As an example of what unknown bloggers are writing about, I recommend Bonnie’s
Change a bulb, change everything, about CFLs (compact florescent lightbulbs). Whether or not your are in your pajamas, reading this post is likely to result in your making a greater effort to change a bulb and thereby change everything, i.e., a contribution to the revolution.

(photo – SunAgency.ca)

Betrayed

Please take some time to read Betrayed in the March 26, 2007 New Yorker by George Packer. It’s subtitled “The Iraqis who trusted America the most.” The title of the article and the photo of an interpreter wearing a mask to conceal his identity pretty much say it all. Yet this long article, full of details of the lives of several translators, is well worth reading.

(photo from article)