Some Random Thoughts RE: "The War On Terror"

Suicide bombers killed 35 people today in Iraq. This comes a day after Bush gave a speech on his "Plan for Victory" -- that's what all the signs said anyway.

Well, at least the signs didn't say "Mission Accomplished."

Bush has been really pushing the "stay the course" theme lately. ABC News had a piece last night which address an issue that BushCo raised the other day with regard to media coverage, namely, that the U.S. media do not cover any of the good things that are happening in Iraq. ABC's response was that it is often hard to travel around the country looking for the good stuff given that something like 85 journalist have been killed there since the war started three years ago and many more have been injured, including ABC News' own co-anchor.

Then ABC went down a partial list of the "positive" stories it has covered recently. One of them was a piece on how television comedy is returning to Iraq now that Saddam is out of power. But while the ABC news crew was filming this piece, the actors on an upcoming comedy show were informed that their producer has just been assassinated by gunmen. Anyway, I thought it was an excellent piece in that it demonstrated that the situation over there is complex and good news is often accompanied by bad news.

Take this story, for example:

Emboldened a day after a successful jailbreak, insurgents laid siege to another prison Wednesday. This time, U.S. troops and a special Iraqi unit thwarted the pre-dawn attack south of Baghdad, overwhelming the gunmen and capturing 50 of them, police said.

Although the raid failed, the insurgents' ability to put together such large and well-armed bands of fighters underlined concerns about the ability of Iraqi police and military to take over the fight from U.S. troops. Sixty militants participated in the assault, which attempted to free more jailed Sunni insurgents, police said.

Although there is some great news to be found here -- clearly our intelligence gathering in the region has improved immensely -- the fact that the insurgents are able to amount such an attack should give everyone some pause, particular given that this raid came a day after 100 Sunni gunmen freed 33 prisoners from a jail, police station and courthouse in a town northeast of Baghdad.

But this is certainly a positive story:

U.S. and British troops Thursday freed three Christian peace activists in rural Iraq without firing a shot, ending a four-month hostage drama in which an American among the group was shot to death and dumped on a Baghdad street.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the U.S. military spokesman, said the hostages were being held by a “kidnapping cell,” and the operation to free the captives was based on information from a man captured by U.S. forces only three hours earlier.

Both of the above-referenced stories were widely reported in the American Media, so I just don't think Bush's complaint of media bias with regard to Iraq is well-taken. Indeed, I have a feeling that the Iraq situation is far worse than is generally known.

And speaking of Christians in war zones, get a load of this:

An Afghan who has renounced his Islamic faith for Christianity faces the death penalty under Afghan law in a throwback to the brutal Taleban regime.

Abdul Rahman, 41, is being prosecuted for an "attack on Islam", for which the punishment under Afghanistan's draft constitution, is death by hanging.

The charge comes as Britain prepares to send 3,300 nominally Christian paratroopers to stabilise the troubled south of the country.

Mr Rahman converted to Christianity over 14 years ago, but his situation was bought to the attention of the authorities after he tried to gain custody of his daughters who had been living with their grandparents. His parents then denounced him as a convert and on arrest he was found to be carrying a Bible.

And I thought American custody battles were vitriolic.

Sure, I supported the War in Afghanistan, but it sounds like that draft constitution might need another draft or two. I heard on the radio last night that Rahman might avoid the death penalty because the court may determine that he is insane. I just love the irony of that.