Iraq

Lesson: Forget about trust, just be sure to verify.  It's too bad that most journalists didn't.  And of course, some are still intentionally choosing to misrepresent.

The New York Times recently celebrated the 2000-death "milestone" (or is that "millstone"?) in Iraq.  The photo they used to present the story was of one Colonel Starr, who left a letter on his laptop intended to be found in the event of his death.  They quoted from his letter.  Unfortunately, they didn't quote all of it.  I present, below, a more complete citation (the bold text was not included by the NYTimes):

Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I?m writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I?m pushing my chances. I don?t regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it?s not to me. I?m here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark.

I can't take credit for this story; Michelle Malkin and Patterico are both way, way ahead of me.  But I can't let this man's last words go unnoticed, either.

A U.S. senator is calling for the arrest of war correspondent Peter Arnett on a charge of treason in the wake of controversial comments the veteran reporter made to Iraqi television.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said that at least initially, the United States and Britain have "to play the leading role" in postwar Iraq.

Four Western journalists spoke for the first time publicly on Wednesday about their incarceration in the Baghdad government's most notorious prison.

With American forces beginning their assault on Baghdad, their commanders would do well to take a close look at the hard-learned lessons of Israel's experience with urban combat. Operation Defensive Shield, the Israeli antiterrorist strike last spring, generated plenty of controversy, but it also supplies a good model for military tactics. After a series of Palestinian suicide bombings, the Israel Defense Forces entered several densely populated West Bank cities, including Nablus and Jenin. Within just a week, Israel gained control of each of them.

When American troops from the 101st Airborne Division marched into Najaf on Wednesday, they were greeted by urgent requests for water.

The seizing of a bridge across the Euphrates cleared the Third Infantry Division's last geographic obstacle to Baghdad.

One of the most important moves so far in the war was the American effort to stop the Republican Guard from entering Baghdad.

The Bush administration has intensified a campaign to sow doubts about whether President Saddam Hussein is still alive and in control.

U.S. Army and Marine forces closed to within 20 miles of Baghdad after crippling two divisions of the Iraqi Republican Guard.

Will President George W. Bush allow Iraqi troops to come to America, enjoy better welfare and health-care benefits than our own soldiers, and endanger national security? It has happened before.

The assault on the Saddam International Airport placed American troops about 10 miles from the heart of Baghdad.

The U.S. strategy at this point is to maintain the military momentum and the psychological pressure on Saddam Hussein.

American marines advanced to the Baghdad city limits today, meeting scant resistance, and stopped at the brink of entry, awaiting orders.

Iraqi civilians streamed out of Baghdad and its surrounding cities as American marines approached the capital.

Marines report that about 2,500 Republican Guards surrender.

U.S. troops on Friday found thousands of boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote, unidentified liquid and Arabic documents on how to engage in chemical warfare, U.S. military officials said. Forces made the discovery at an industrial site south of Baghdad. Reuters reported that they also found a second site containing vials of unidentified liquid and white powder. A U.S. officer said the site was close to the other plant, at the Latifiyah industrial complex, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, where soldiers had found the other vials and manuals.

The Arab press, while predominantly in opposition to the allied attack on Iraq, is neither monolithic nor uniformly anti-American.

The paramount question is not whether we will win this war, but whether we can persuade ordinary Iraqis to accept our victory.

The language of Iraqi politics has been so degraded that it provides no framework for opposition, let alone an alternative regime.

The way toward the outskirts of Baghdad proved easier than expected, raising hopes that the endgame in the Iraqi conflict may be close at hand.

It was a picture of Arab grief and rage. A teenage boy glared from the rubble of a bombed building as a veiled woman wept over the body of a relative. In fact, it was two pictures: one from the American-led war in Iraq and the other from the Palestinian territories, blended into one image this week on the Web site of the popular Saudi daily newspaper Al Watan. The meaning would be clear to any Arab reader: what is happening in Iraq is part of one continuous brutal assault by America and its allies on defenseless Arabs, wherever they are.

Wars cost money. The president wants "$62.409 billion for military activities in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom." That amount is part of the so-called "Wartime Supplemental" bill that is being hastily put together so that it can be voted on tomorrow afternoon.

But the total funds in the bill have already risen to $74.7 billion. With every passing hour, it seems that some new spending that bilks taxpayers and has nothing to do with the war is being added.

To read the Arab press is to think that the entire Arab world is enraged with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and to some extent that's true. But here's what you don't read: underneath the rage, there is also a grudging, skeptical curiosity ? a curiosity about whether the Americans will actually do what they claim and build a new, more liberal Iraq.