(Originally posted to Iraq at EraBlog on Fri, 21 Mar 2003 08:04:55 GMT)

Peter Turnley is a pho­to­jour­nal­ist who covered the first Gulf War. The Unseen Gulf War is his collection of previously un­pub­lished photos from that war. The photos present no political viewpoint, but what they do "represent is a part of a more accurate picture of what really does happen in war". Warning: there are a number of graphic images of corpses.

(Originally posted to Iraq at EraBlog on Tue, 18 Mar 2003 06:41:46 GMT)

Almost, but not quite, at war with Iraq. Saddam has forty-eight hours to quit Iraq and avert war, but no-one expects him to do that. Feh.

I would feel slightly better about the new war if Bush had managed to forge a broad-based coalition. Instead, in their heavy­hand­ed way, Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Perle have managed to piss off most of the world.

Paul Glastris has a good article in Slate about how Bush repeatedly botched the op­por­tu­ni­ties to get the UN and NATO on board, in contrast with Clinton in Kosovo and his own father for the first …continue.

(Originally posted to Iraq at EraBlog on Mon, 17 Mar 2003 06:59:33 GMT)

MoveOn.org organized a rolling wave of can­dle­light vigils across the world today, held at 7pm local time on Sunday, March 16th. Emma and I joined three of our friends at the vigil at the Seattle Central Community College, at Broadway and Pike. I estimate that there were 300-400 people there, and probably thousands more at the other vigils in the Seattle area.

It looks certain that Bush will declare war on Iraq in the next day or two. I'm still against the war. I would very much like to see Saddam gone (the poor bloody Iraqis never deserved …continue.

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Fri, 21 Feb 2003 08:15:16 GMT)

Michael Savage is a radical right-wing talk-radio host and author, far more obnxoxious than Rush Limbaugh. MSNBC has just signed him to a weekly TV show. FAIR has issued an action alert about this. Read Ben Fritz in Salon, or michael­sav­age­sucks.com.

Here's the letter that I just sent to MSNBC:

From: George V. Reilly

To: feedback@msnbc.com ; Erik.Sorenson@msnbc.com

Cc: fair@fair.org

Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 12:07 AM

Subject: I object …continue.

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Thu, 20 Feb 2003 08:06:19 GMT)

Along with perhaps 30 million others, Emma and I took part in a peace rally on Saturday. We were delayed finishing up our signs, so we failed to meet up with our friends before the Seattle rally, although we did run into another friend as the march set off.

There were an estimated 20,000 people at the Seattle rally, according to the Seattle P-I. I would have thought more. It took eighty minutes from the first marchers setting out to the last of the marchers getting a few blocks away from the Seattle Center.

The night before the rally, I found a …continue.

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Fri, 14 Feb 2003 18:47:36 GMT)

As part of the wave of peace rallies moving across the world today and tomorrow, there will be a Seattle Rally. Gather at the Seattle Center's In­ter­na­tion­al Fountain at 11:30am, rally at noon, march at 1pm to the Federal Building and the INS Detention Center.

Emma and I will be meeting several others at the Japanese Temple Bell near the Pacific Northwest Ballet at 11:30am

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Fri, 14 Feb 2003 22:46:43 GMT)

Hans Blix presented his latest report to the UN this morning. No surprises. Saddam is not being par­tic­u­lar­ly co­op­er­a­tive, there are some "proscribed" missiles, but they've found no evidence that Iraq is hiding prohibited weapons. All the players held fast to their positions.

Colin Powell hammered home the point that if Saddam had nothing to hide, the Iraqi scientists would be lining up to be in­ter­viewed by UN inspectors. True, but that's still not a case for going to war.

In today's New York Times, a new poll shows most want war delay. 59% of Americans favor giving …continue.

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Fri, 14 Feb 2003 19:15:16 GMT)

I've been meaning to rant about this for a while now, but haven't found the time yet.

Last Friday, the Center for Public Integrity announced that it had obtained a secret draft of Patriot Act II. Previously, it had been kept in almost complete secrecy, only being shown to Dennis Hastert and Dick Cheney.

The Domestic Security En­hance­ment Act of 2003 (full text) is outrageous. Secret arrests, eaves­drop­ping without court orders, delaying no­ti­fi­ca­tion to targets of in­ves­ti­ga­tions for up to three months, secret subpoenas, crippling the Freedom of In­for­ma­tion Act, deporting American citizens, huge new powers for the FBI, and more.

Obviously, we …continue.

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Sun, 09 Feb 2003 08:30:52 GMT)

Earlier today, I posted some reactions to Powell's visit to the UN, including my own. Since then, I've come across some in­ter­est­ing links.

Powell's Evidence Looking Shaky describes several serious short­com­ings: the aluminum tubes, "the fine paper that the United Kingdom dis­trib­uted" (pla­gia­rized), and a supposed al-Qaida camp in Northern Iraq.

The LA Times has Iraq Opens Suspicious Sites to Eyes of Media.

In a lighter note, Neal Pollack makes fun of live coverage of the Powell address.

I fear that Bush has painted himself into a corner. He can't afford to back down now without losing face. That means …continue.

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Sun, 09 Feb 2003 01:08:16 GMT)

Colin Powell went to the UN and made a case that Saddam has not disarmed and that he continues to act in defiance of the UN. Not too surprising, since that's what Blix has said. If Saddam had nothing to hide, he would have cooperated with the UNMOVIC inspectors.

What Powell did not show is why Saddam's defiance warrants going to war.

Some doubt the veracity of Powell's case, citing the ease of forging evidence. This is the same ad­min­is­tra­tion that gave us the Pentagon's Office of Strategic In­for­ma­tion aka the dis­in­for­ma­tion unit. I'll give them the benefit of …continue.