If we steadfastly refuse to look…

…maybe all our problems will magically vanish.


File this under “How to bury your lead.” For you journalism students out there, this is how you combine your knowledge of psychology and “A Purloined Letter” to hide a story in plain sight.

So since this should actually be two different stories, lets treat them as such, shall we?

First, the actual headline from the actual WaPa today highlighting the tragedy de jour: Swap out the numbers, and isn’t this the exact same headline you and I have been reading virtually every single fucking day since President Fredo turned the crew and flight deck of the USS Lincoln into his own, private Busby Berkeley Musical Cavalcade to tell us all that the “Mission” was “Accomplished”?

Isn’t this the very same tragic top of the hour report you and I hear every stinking morning when we’re getting in the shower?

More often than not it’s hyphenated to make mention of our own troops that have gotten blown in half that day, and sometimes there are more mass murders by noon so that the evening roundup of the fake news involves some gruesome arithmetic, but every day for what is now over two years we have seen this same headline. And have watched lies being toweled on top of yet another layer of reeking lies to explain why every single person in this administration including the guy who operates the President’s radio-controlled underpants should not be on trial for war crimes right this minute.

How many of the most vocal backers of this criminally insane adventure let their eyes just glide right over it?

How many of them – of your own neighbors and colleagues -- are hunkered down in terror in their own heads, dreading the day they will be called to judgment by God or history or popular opinion. Who can’t bear to look at one more headline the shows yet again what complete knaves and assholes they were for following this President right off the cliff.

So they skip right on past this…

Suicide Bombers Kill 31 in Iraq
By Saad Sarhan, Khalid Saffar and Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign ServiceMonday, May 30, 2005; 12:35 PM

BAGHDAD, May 30 -- Three suicide bombers strapped with explosives detonated themselves Monday morning amid a crowd of police commandos in the city of Hilla, southeast of Baghdad, killing 31 people and wounding 108, according to Dr. Muhammed Hadi of the Hilla hospital.

The attack targeted about 1,000 police commandos who were gathered for the second consecutive day to protest a decision by the governor of Babil province to disband their units.
The first blast sent the crowd into a frenzy, forcing many to seek shelter in the nearby Babil Health Directorate building, where the other two bombers were waiting. The second and third blasts, triggered simultaneously, shook the building moments later.
The attacks came during a month of sustained violence by insurgents, who have killed more than 700 people across Iraq since the announcement of the country's new government at the end of April. The explosions in Hilla left the streets soaked in blood and strewn with body parts.
Iraqi Police Brig. Gen. Qais Hamza vowed that U.S. and Iraqi forces, who quickly sealed off the area, would soon launch a major operation in the to root out insurgents.
"We will take revenge," he said.
…

And never even notice that a whole other, much more strategically ruinous story starts here, in paragraph six. So since these are two entirely different stories, let's make up an appropriate headline for the story that got orphaned. How about:

US Finds Shooting Itself in Foot Not Enough; Decides of MOAB Itself Right in the Ass.

And here is the rest of the WaPo story:

…
Meanwhile, in Baghdad, U.S.-led coalition forces arrested the head of one of the country's largest Sunni Muslim political parties, storming his home before dawn and taking him into custody, along with three of his sons, some guests and some of his guards.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, which boycotted Iraq's January elections but which has recently been negotiating with Iraq's government about increasing Sunni participation in the political process, held a midday news conference to denounce the raid on the home of its leader, Mohsen Abdul Hamid.

In a statement released Monday afternoon by the coalition forces press office said the arrests had been a mistake. "Mr. Hamid is being returned to his home," the statement said. "Coalition forces regret any inconvenience and acknowledge Mr. Hamid's cooperation in resolving this matter."

The troops "broke down doors and mishandled its occupants and stole some articles," said Tariq Hashimi, the party's secretary general. "Dr. Abdul Hamid was mistreated in a very bad way, which indicates the savagery of the occupation forces."
…

Abdul Hamid is only different because he’s famous; this sort of shit goes on in Iraq every single day, but its cobblers and electricians that are getting treated like crack whores in their own homes so it doesn’t make the papers.

I mean, how many different ways have we now come up with to tell the Muslim world, “Fuck you sand niggers!”

We put 20-year-olds in this impossible bind of either kicking the shit out of everyone that spooks them or ending up in the amputee ward at Walter Reed. If they’re lucky. And then we elect a cabal Neocons and off-the-scale crazy Fundies who make is crystal clear that in their dark hearts they believe the only good ay-rab a dead ay-rab anyway.

So who the hell can be surprised if we accidentally, “arrested the head of one of the country's largest Sunni Muslim political parties.” Fucked up his house? Arrested his kids and his guests? Shit, at this point I’m shocked that we didn’t puke on his wife, wipe our asses with his good linen, and then shoot his dog and key his car on the way out.

We are already loathed by everyone not on our direct payroll, and propbaly by way more than half the people who are. We’ve dug ourselves a mile-deep hole in the “winning of hearts and minds” game, then have methodically filled it with plundered Iraqi oil, and are now carelessly, drunkenly flicking matches around.

Can anyone else see what the fuck is wrong with this picture?