The worst environmental practices of the Saddam dictatorship (themselves a result of sanctions) are being revived under US occupation in Iraq's oil industry. Thank goodness this report by James Glanz made the front page of the New York Times yesterday (online at Kurdish Aspect). But will it make any difference? In its inimitably annoying way, the Times buried some of the most salient facts deep in the story, or left them out completely. We have added emphasis and annotation.

The Think Progress blog notes this disturbing confluence of news stories:

The New York Times reports [June 11] that the Bush administration is making plans to keep tens of thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely:

Mr. Bush on Friday made clear that the American commitment to the country will be long-term. Officials say the administration has begun to look at the costs of maintaining a force of roughly 50,000 troops there for years to come, roughly the size of the American presence maintained in the Philippines and Korea for decades after those conflicts.

Here is a pretty good indication that the US is losing control of the client state it has set up in Iraq—which, in turn, is afraid of losing control of Iraq. And, since Maliki and his gang are more loyal to Tehran than Washington, this means the invasion of Iran can't be far behind... From The Jurist, June 2:

From the Mumbai Mirror, June 2 (link added):

Baghdad: A pregnant woman was shot dead at a US checkpoint in Iraq while on her way to give birth, officials said on Thursday, sparking further controversy amid a furor over an alleged marines shooting rampage.

President of the Iraqi Freedom Congress

by Bill Weinberg

From the Iraqi Freedom Congress, May 14:

During his visit to the United States to deliver workshops and seminars and meet with the leaders of the anti war movement, Samir Adil, president of the Iraqi Freedom Congress (IFC) met coincidently with Richard Perle (The former Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee in the US, whose role [is] known as the war on Iraq engineer and the closest advisor to Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush) in a press conference in Washington.

This sort of thing has become so common in Iraq that it rarely makes headlines any more. But this one inconveniently happened just as a break has been announced in the deadlock over forming a new government. This obvious escalation contradicts Bush's facile claim that the US "strategy is working." On the contrary, the war is spreading. From Bloomberg, May 9:

Received by e-mail from UK Pledge of Resistance:

SUPPORT MALCOLM KENDALL SMITH
Yesterday, Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Flight Lieutenant with the RAF was jailed for 8 months for refusing to go to Iraq on the grounds that the war was illegal.