Following the announcement of Bush's ill-advised "surge" of troops in Iraq, here are some excerpts from a book I've been reading, What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It, assembled by Trish Wood.

I think this is a book that everyone with an interest in the Iraq War should read, but particularly those pro-war "dead-enders" like Fred Kagan who seem to treat this War like a video game and who feel themselves morally superior to the "libs" for only they have the drive and the winning ideology, while those who speak out against the war or report the "bad news" honestly simply "want America to lose" and "don't support the troops". We all support the troops, and reading this book will help us to better understand the scope of what they went through, and what they are still dealing with. If you don't yet oppose the war and seek a swift end to this misadventure, you will learn about the unnecessary death and disaster due to poor planning and even evil orders from on top, as in Abu Ghraib.

As I mentioned in my first diary here, I used to spend a lot of time at LGF, a war-blog for people who believe that all liberals are plotting to destroy America in league with radical "Islamofascists" who are the #1 threat facing the planet today.

I decided to visit LGF last night with half a mind to "stir up the hornet's nest" and perhaps defend dKos from the charge that we're all America-hating traitors. This story had just been posted:

The Protocols of the Daily Kos
One of the more malevolent “diary” posts at Daily Kos that I have seen: Daily Kos: Iran Has A Right To Attack Israel. (Hat tip: marsl.)

Yes, that’s right. A long diatribe/pseudo-logical “thought exercise” that makes the case for Iran to launch a preemptive attack on both Israel and the United States, out of “respect for the basic moral principle of universality.”

Concluding with a quote from Noam Chomsky.

In the footage from the reporter who caught up to Ted Haggard and his family this morning, I noticed that his wife Gayle, sitting in the passenger seat, seemed utterly shell-shocked about the news. I suspect that she had an idyllic image of her husband which now lays shattered, an image bound up in their shared religious beliefs.

I have read several articles discussing the misogynistic aspect of his kind of evangelism (like this story about a flock in Seattle), where their interpretation of the Bible compels them to believe that the wife must always submit to the husband, as the husband submits to Jesus. This doesn't come from Jesus, but from something Paul wrote in Ephesians. Scripture and commentary on the flip.

The Drug War is completely fucked up. Illegal recreational drugs are more readily available and less expensive than they've ever been, in my lifetime anyway (I'm 29). I'll give you two examples, on the flip. See also this awesome diary by Yoss called Losing Afghanistan to the War on Drugs.

I posted a comment tonight about the "flag-draped coffin" controversy that I thought sufficiently interesting to recycle into my first diary entry. I will write more about my journey from warblogs like LGF to dKos in a future diary.

I've been thinking this evening about some of the comments I read at Glenn Greenwald's blog and elsewhere about the fascist tendencies of the right-wing blogosphere. Before discovering that there is reasoned discussion to be had at the Daily Kos, I unfortunately spent a large part of 2003-2004 reading warblogs like Little Green Footballs and thinking that Islamic extremism was the biggest enemy we all faced. I realize now that the propagandists of the pro-war faction (neocons and fellow travelers) had preyed on my basest emotions, those of fear and loathing of the unknown other.