A.LOEWENSTEIN ONLINE NEWSLETTER

• Rupert says Iraq war is bloody wonderful
• Iraqis do exist in the thoughts of Times journalist
• Blair incapable of seeing Iraqi blood on his hands, feet and head
• Too many facts about Islam will just be confusing
• MSM can barely focus on Iraqis for too long
• Obama hearts Bush over Iraq and group hugs all around
• The normality of radical and racist Jews in the bosom of the state

Rupert says Iraq war is bloody wonderful  01 Sep 2010 Our favourite Murdoch war booster, Greg Sheridan, in today’s Australian: Iraq is starting to look as though it may turn out to be a great, historic American success.

Iraqis do exist in the thoughts of Times journalist 01 Sep 2010 Here’s that rare thing; a Western reporter, New York Times‘ James Glanz, writing about working with Iraqis in the war-torn country and the ultimate price many have paid. A beautifully moving piece of work: On my last afternoon in Iraq, in December 2008, I drove to a graveyard in Baghdad to have a conversation with Khalid Hassan, who had been dead for over a year. All I could do when I got there was kneel in the dust and say, over and over, “I’m sorry.” Sorry that a 23-year-old who worked in the Times Baghdad bureau’s newsroom was killed, brutally and pointlessly, on his way to work; sorry that I had not found a way to anticipate that horror and move him to a safer neighborhood after a bomb had destroyed his apartment and injured his sister a few months earlier; sorry that someone whose bravery and maturity I saw blossoming would never have a chance to grow up. Death anywhere cuts short a conversation, prevents you from saying the words you wanted to say or realize later that you needed to say or should have said. Khalid must have literally skidded to a stop, as the murderers first fired automatic rifles into his beat-up Kia and then came back to shoot him in the head and neck after he survived the initial volley. He died next to a gas station after sending a final text message from the cellphone he was never without: “I’m O.K., Mom.” That would be another conversation without a sequel.

Blair incapable of seeing Iraqi blood on his hands, feet and head  01 Sep 2010 Before the nauseating amount of information about Tony Blair’s memoir hits the media – oooh Tony, you are so brave, so many wars to your name – here’s the New Statesman brilliantly debunking the book’s section on Iraq.

Too many facts about Islam will just be confusing  31 Aug 2010 Helpful tips for bigots, hardcore Zionists and Christian fundamentalists: Local man Scott Gentries told reporters Wednesday that his deliberately limited grasp of Islamic history and culture was still more than sufficient to shape his views of the entire Muslim world. Gentries, 48, said he had absolutely no interest in exposing himself to further knowledge of Islamic civilization or putting his sweeping opinions into a broader context of any kind, and confirmed he was “perfectly happy” to make a handful of emotionally charged words the basis of his mistrust toward all members of the world’s second-largest religion. “I learned all that really matters about the Muslim faith on 9/11,” Gentries said in reference to the terrorist attacks on the United States undertaken by 19 of Islam’s approximately 1.6 billion practitioners. “What more do I need to know to stigmatize Muslims everywhere as inherently violent radicals?” “And now they want to build a mosque at Ground Zero,” continued Gentries, eliminating any distinction between the 9/11 hijackers and Muslims in general. “No, I won’t examine the accuracy of that statement, but yes, I will allow myself to be outraged by it and use it as evidence of these people’s universal callousness toward Americans who lost loved ones when the Twin Towers fell.” “Even though I am not one of those people,” he added.

MSM can barely focus on Iraqis for too long 31 Aug 2010 So America is “leaving” Iraq. Fat chance but for the briefest of moments in the mainstream media Iraqis are asked what they think of the development. Here, here and here. OK, that’s enough. Back to normal programming (aka American generals and embedded Western journalists in the Green Zone).

Obama hearts Bush over Iraq and group hugs all around  31 Aug 2010 If it wasn’t clear enough how similar Barack Obama is to George W. Bush in terms of prosecuting the “war on terror”, Obama’s speech today about the “end” of the Iraq war takes the cake:

The normality of radical and racist Jews in the bosom of the state 31 Aug 2010 Max Blumenthal reports on a gathering of religious Jews in Jerusalem and reveals yet again how mainstream these extreme views are; killing of innocents, killing Arabs and Palestinians and receiving backing from the Netanyahu government: