Things That Happened This Weekend

Afghanistan- you know, the original war we lost focus on- managed to top Iraq in the headlines as the long-growing tensions there have exploded into the open. A traffic accident involving a U.S. military truck caused rioting and anger directed at the U.S. occupying forces. After the U.S. truck crashed into traffic in Kabul, killing several, "rioters stoned the U.S. convoy involved in the accident then headed to the center of town, ransacking offices of international aid groups and searching for foreigners in a display of rising resentment over civilian deaths in the war against insurgents." Reports also indicate that U.S. and Afghan troops may have fired on the rioting crowds. The U.S.-backed government has been working to quiet the violence. What was most newsworthy about this incident was how it exposed the strong anti-U.S. anger among Afghans after five and a half years of occupation.

Perhaps if we had caught bin Laden and really cleaned up the Taliban in 2001/2002 as we were supposed to, we wouldn't have had to hang around this long. Exit strategies are so 20th century.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, two members of a CBS news crew were killed and a reporter in critical condition. They were killed by a car bomb explosion while doing a report about U.S. troops in Iraq on Memorial Day. The AP report also notes that "an American soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were also killed in the same blast and six American soldiers were injured." A horrible tragedy. This is exactly the type of scenario CBS foreign correspondent Lara Logan described in March when she responded to the Bush administration's criticisms that reporters don't report the 'good news' in Iraq by noting that anytime a journalist leaves the secure, militarized areas, they are likely to be kidnapped or murdered. A violent reminder of that reality this weekend. Of course, if you can't find any good news, why not make your own? In related news, Rep. Murtha states that the fallout from the Haditha massacre could undermine our efforts in Iraq even more than the Abu Ghraib abuses. He raised the question of whether there was an effort to initially cover up the incident. Finally, dozens of Iraqis were killed this weekend in a wave of bombings across the country.

All of this is why Sen. Hagel stated yesterday that "I think you could make a pretty strong case that things are worse off in the Middle East today than they were three years ago."

Moving on to Iran, despite initial reports in April that Tony Blair would refuse to offer military support to a U.S. strike on Iran, the Prime Minister appears to be backing down from that. A British press reports states that, according to the Washington Post, "Blair caved in to White House pressure by sharpening language on Iran and softening it on global warming in a speech he delivered Friday at Georgetown University". Not an encouraging report. Meanwhile, European diplomats report that " Iran appears to have slowed its drive to produce nuclear fuel... [possibly] to lower the temperature of its standoff with the West over its nuclear program, and perhaps to create an opening for Washington to join the negotiations directly". Hardliners in the Bush administration refuse to compromise on their stance and remain skeptical of these reports. Here we go again.

In non-Middle East news, President Bush used the holiday weekend to sign into law a bill keeping protestors and demonstrators away from military funerals. The bill was mostly passed because of the increasing number of demonstrations by the far-right, homophobic Westboro Baptist Church at military funerals with signs like "God hates fags", implying the soldiers were killed by God because of the U.S. tolerance toward gays. I've seen some express first amendment concern over the law, but it sounds perfectly fine to me. Some things are sacred- military funerals definitely so.

In depressing political news, Sen. Kerry takes on the Swift Boat liars... two years too late.

Finally, an earthquake in Indonesia has killed over 5,000 people.