Greetings, Gentle Reader.  We are coming up on the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In the Christian Science Monitor online today, there's an excellent interview piece showing what the members of a Baghdad family think and feel about the disaster that is enveloping their society.  You can read it at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20060317/ts_csm/omethboubx 

Admittedly, the family does not have access to all the information we have; so some might argue that their resentments are unfounded.  The writer tries to use this to apologize for the U.S.'s shoddy performance in restoring power in Iraq (it's now at a 3-year low, less available than when Saddam was still in power under the sanctions).

The writer's attempt to excuse the U.S. performance is based on how many billions we have spent on restoring power.  Given the revelations on how much of this spending has been wasted by (a) lack of security (we build it/the insurgents blow it up; we repair it/the insurgents blow it up again, and so on); and (b) contractor fraud,* I don't find our performance defensible.

*Revealed just this week:  A KBR contractor overcharged the Pentagon $1.4M for "war premiums" on air deliveries; KBR internal report reveals the company failed to purify water used by U.S. troops based in Ramadi, which it has collected payment for since 2003.  KBR water purification units were delivered to site but never assembled, and makeshift Army purification units used instead; troops used contaminated water from the Euphrates, assuming it was safe.  The inside whistleblower who revealed the presence of viruses and bacteria in troops' water was repeatedly told to "shut up and go along" [or else] and eventually fired when he would not.  Meanwhile, our tax dollars have been paying for services not delivered, while our troops have been needlessly exposed to disease and infection.

This parallels the performance of Bechtel (another neocon favorite) which has collected tens of millions for services not performed, restoring potable water to Iraqi civilians.

In other news: Yesterday was the anniversary of Rachel Corrie's killing in Rafah, Palestine.  I joined the demonstration at Westlake yesterday, commemorating that event.  It was attended by a dozen folks in Palestinian "mourner" masks and holding large blow-ups of Rachel facing off with the bulldozer in her last moments of life, and a small crowd holding "tombstone" shaped signs with the numbers of killed in the Palestinian conflict. I read words of Rachel Corrie and Daniel, an Israeli military intelligence officer who corresponded electronically with her, and spoke of desertions, suicides, and refusal to follow orders in the IDF because of concern over illegal orders to harass, kill, expropriate, & torture civilians.  Others read other excerpts from her writings.  Ch. 4 was there and some indymedia folks (see Links, below). It was at evening rush hour and a lot of passing cars honked their support. There was quite a strong pro-Rachel article in the P-I yesterday. Predictably, there was a firestorm of angry letters on the (I thought) balanced review of the play Daughter Courage in the same rag by Regina Hackett, P-I arts critic. According to the indignant letter-writers, she was "backing trailer trash defending raghead terrorists" and so forth. Obviously none of these JDL types had read any of Rachel's writings or they would have known how scrupulous she was not to demonize either "side" in the Palestinian-Israeli dispute -- though it was quite clear where she stood:  on the side of Justice.

I'm afraid many more of us who stand our ground will meet a similar fate, before all this is settled. At least we can take courage from knowing that our brave forebears stand with us (if only in spirit) when we take our stand. Remember Thomas Jefferson, who said "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, if necessary by drenching its roots in blood." While this writer cannot condone the unnecessary shedding of blood, it is unlikely that the neo-con vampires who are putting the bite on America will surrender power willingly.

Read Rachel's Powerful Words:

http://www.rachelswords.org/resources/rachels-emails/

View Pictures of the Demonstration:

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4564.shtml

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/263366_rachel17.html