Ehren Watada doesn't have the power and clout of the freshest freshman senator or representative. Yet he had the courage to stand up and speak the truth. He knew he was up against the power of the military and faced rejection, prison and professional disgrace. But he stood up.
Neither Senate nor House is willing to stand, as Watada did, and speak the truth. Are members afraid of losing face, of losing their political futures and the perks that go with them, of offending any of the people who might give them money, or votes, or loyalty? Are they afraid of the people who elected them?
The above, noted by Molly, is from Sharon Murphy's "The courage to speak the truth" (The La Crosse Tribune). Molly thought the comparison of Ehren Watada taking a stand while Congress postured "really shows the lack of leadership and will in Congress."
I have no transitions in me this morning, so let's just note this is from Borzou Daragahi's "Insurgents strike U.S. outpost in Iraq: Two troops are killed and 17 wounded in an assault north of Baghdad" (Los Angeles Times):
Insurgents launched a fiery raid on a U.S. military outpost north of the Iraqi capital Monday, killing two U.S. troops and injuring 17 in a possible foreshadowing of attacks to come as a neighborhood-based Baghdad security plan takes shape.
Police and witnesses said insurgents thought to be Sunni Arabs used at least one suicide car bomber, mortar shells, rockets and small-arms fire in the attack in the agricultural town of Tarmiya.
Fighting sparked by the rare assault on a U.S. base lasted for hours and ended after U.S. fighter jets and ground reinforcements arrived.
And this is from Marc Santora's "Iraqi Militants Launch Attack on U.S. Outpost" (New York Times):
Insurgents have been able to shoot down more helicopters through coordinated assaults, captured documents suggest, and American and Iraqi military officials say they are concerned that militants are moving to areas where the American troop presence remains thin.
As the Iraqi government and the American military struggled to build public trust in the security forces, a Sunni woman publicly charged that she had been raped by members of the largely Shiite National Police, causing a furor.
The assault on the American outpost, situated in the heart of a town called Tarmiya, was unusual because militants had largely avoided direct assaults on heavily fortified American positions. A similar attack occurred last summer, when a suicide driver plowed a truck full of explosives into a military outpost near the town of Baghdadi, in Anbar Province, but that did not seem as coordinated as Monday’s assault.
Shortly before dawn, suicide bombers drove at least one and possibly as many as three cars laden with explosives into the outer perimeter of the outpost. Witnesses said there were two explosions then a brief pause before another bomber drove his vehicle into the building, a former police station.
Oh, that cure all crackdown. It was going to enforce peace in June, in August, in . . .
Here's the plan for today, return to normal schedule. Two entries this morning and the snapshot. I had intended to do a talking entry last night but I've got a nasty cold burning through my body. (Truly, burning through this morning. I've hopped in the shower three times since I started this entry just to cool down.) Thank you to Ruth for doing Ruth's Report last night (and for transferring everything over to the mirror site).
Julia notes this from the AP -- a state debated whether or not to honor Bono (for providing cover for the World Bank?) and in the end decided that squat, stocky, sell outs didn't deserve an honor:
Rep. Gil Herbel, a Republican, said he initially thought the resolution referred to Sonny Bono , the former singer, Republican congressman and husband of Cher . "When I saw the resolution, I was looking for Cher 's name in there," Herbel said.
Julia says that paragraph provided her with her laugh for the morning and that, "Cher rules!" (Yes, she does.)
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. Antonia Juhasz will be on Democracy Now! this morning discussing the Iraqi oil issue.
ehren watada
ruths report
borzou daragahi
sharon murphy
marc santora
the new york times
