Monthly Archives: March 2017

Iraq

This week marks 14 years since the war in Iraq — Gulf War II — began. Julie Lenarz sums up many of my feelings on the matter (from her Facebook page):

It’s the 14th anniversary of the Iraq war and I see the usual “war criminals – lock them up” bullshit in my timeline from the same crowd that is still unable to accept that a political decision you happen to disagree with, no matter how profoundly, is not a crime. The UK conducted no less than five independent inquiries clearing the government of deliberately lying, so at this point it is really those that are still pretending otherwise for their own petty politics and out of a false sense of moral superiority that are bending the truth.

The only war criminal is dead and goes by the name of Saddam Hussein, a genocidal dictator responsible for the death of over two million people. Get some fucking perspective.

Yep. One hundred percent.

Jimmy Breslin

Jimmy Breslin died this week. Phrases like “end of an era” were used in his obituaries — certainly, he was one of the last old-school, crusty, Lou Grant-style journalists. I always enjoyed his writing. Two of his classic columns were written about the assassination of JFK: A Death in Emergency Room One and It’s an Honor. They were reprinted in ‘The Daily Beast’ for the 50th anniversary of JFK’s death and can be found here. They’re both touching and beautifully written (particularly It’s an Honor) – the kind of journalism that we don’t see much of anymore, unfortunately.