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[Previous entry: "HAL-5 exoskeleton suit on display."] [Main Index] [Next entry: "When geeks have a missed connection."] 06/08/2005 Entry: "Newsweek's departing Baghdad bureau chief on the Iraq mess." Newsweek's departing Baghdad bureau chief on the Iraq mess. Worth reading. The four-square-mile Green Zone, the one place in Baghdad where foreigners are reasonably safe, could be a showcase of American values and abilities. Instead the American enclave is a trash-strewn wasteland of Mad Max-style fortifications. The traffic lights don't work because no one has bothered to fix them. The garbage rarely gets collected. Some of the worst ambassadors in U.S. history are the GIs at the Green Zone's checkpoints. They've repeatedly punched Iraqi ministers, accidentally shot at visiting dignitaries and behave (even on good days) with all the courtesy of nightclub bouncers—to Americans and Iraqis alike. Not that U.S. soldiers in Iraq have much to smile about. They're overworked, much ignored on the home front and widely despised in Iraq, with little to look forward to but the distant end of their tours—and in most cases, another tour soon to follow. Many are reservists who, when they get home, often face the wreckage of careers and family.Funny how the pro-war types are seldom pro-enlistment. Why don't we hear "I will go enlist" from these people instead of "freedom is on the march?" I guess those magnetic stickers and head-in-the-sand sayings sure beat serving in a war they claim to support.
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