Alexander Cockburn on the war on Iraq:

“At the heart of what is often touted as the mightiest empire in world history, it’s not a pretty sight at the start of July. After a few chipmunk squeaks from the White House a couple of weeks ago about there being somehow a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel in Iraq the news rolls in that it is as bad, if not worse, than ever.

“Bomb explosions in Baghdad wipe out scores of ordinary people in a single minute, the motive advertised — maybe truthfully — as sectarian hatred, between Shia and Sunni. The entire country, with the exception of the Kurdish provinces in the north, is transfixed with terror, as people flee neighborhoods because they are in the wrong religious faction.

“Come to a road block and you don’t know whether it’s a unit of Iraqi police, a unit of Iraqi killers disguised as police, a group of US soldiers intent on revenge on anyone because one of their buddies just got blown up by a roadside bomb.” READ THE REST.