If you're by a tv, tune in to '60 Minutes II' tonight. It will be airing photos of alleged abuse of Iraqi POW's by U.S. Troops:

U.S. military police stacked Iraqi prisoners in a human pyramid, and attached wires to one detainee to convince him he might be electrocuted, according to photographs obtained by CBS News which led to criminal charges against six American soldiers. CBS said the photos, to be shown Wednesday night on "60 Minutes II," were taken late last year at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, where American soldiers were holding hundreds of prisoners captured during the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

We wrote about the case against the GI's here.

[Ed. There have been so many hits on this post via Google that the comments have gotten out of hand. We are closing them, and will be deleting those that have used profanity or engaged in namecalling.]

Atrios sees it one way, Unfair Witness sees it another. The issue: The increasing number of soldiers whose injuries cause permanent brain damage, blindness and paralysis. Heads up: This is one seriously depressing topic.

Atrios:

I really hope Kerry gets out in front of this and proposes massive increases in VA funds. You can have my goddamn tax cut back. I'd rather pay out the money that way and get some quality care for these people than throw it into their change cups a few years from now.

Unfair Witness:

The real solution to this problem is to get those Americans out of Iraq, not to throw money at yet another government program. Besides, if you want the best of care for these broken people why would you send them to a shabby hospital system like the VA anyway? Why throw money at the VA when there are thousands of state of the art hospitals all over the US? Let them go to real doctors at real hospitals, not government facilities which are all run as efficiently as Amtrak. Better yet, bring them home before any more get hurt.

by TChris

President Bush doesn't think Americans should see the consequences of the war in Iraq, particularly the flag-draped coffins waiting to be flown back home. (TalkLeft has one photo here with links to the rest.) As Peabody award winner Bill Gallagher observes: "The truth is the president's torturer, and any image that challenges his arrogant fantasies must be stopped."

Truth will surely torture the President Friday night, when ABC's Nightline will devote its entire program to reading the names of the war dead while showing their photographs. The executive producer of the program hopes that this effort to honor the sacrifices our soldiers have made (as the President asked us all to do) will cause viewers to "take some time to reflect on the price that these men and women have paid in our names."

by TChris

Three members of a "top-secret unit detailed to search for weapons of mass destruction" in Bahgdad died in an explosion as they were raiding a house, apparently in search of chemical agents. Although our government will neither confirm nor deny the soldiers' mission, the UPI found "clear evidence" that they belonged to the Iraq Survey Group, "including credentials looted from the vehicles by local Iraqi youth." The military acknowledges that two of the dead are Americans; the third may be British, or his death (like the mission) may be classified information that the government won't confirm or deny.

Five other soldiers were wounded.

Their completely anonymous uniforms, lack of unit patches or rank indications, facial hair, personalized weaponry and radically modified military vehicles generally indicate membership in special operations units.

Skippy has a wrap-up of newspaper editorials praising the publication of the Dover photos.

by TChris

Two rockets struck a military base at Taji, north of Baghdad, killing five U.S. soldiers and wounding six more. Two more soldiers were killed near Basra. Violence has been escalating since Thursday.

Insurgents used suicide speed boats to attack an oil terminal. Other attacks killed police officers and civilians.

It was another bloody day elsewhere, with at least 40 killed and many more wounded. In one of the worst attacks, rocks and mortars killed at least 13 civilians in a crowded chicken market in the Shia slum of Sadr City in Baghdad.

April has been the deadliest month for U.S. soldiers; more than 100 have died so far.

Kevin at Political Animal says Chalabi may be on his way out.

At the top of the list of those likely to be jettisoned is Ahmed Chalabi, a Shiite politician who for years was a favorite of the Pentagon and the office of Vice President Cheney, and who was once expected to assume a powerful role after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, U.S. officials acknowledged.

Chalabi has increasingly alienated the Bush administration, including President Bush, in recent months, U.S. officials said. He generated anger in Washington yesterday when he said a new U.S. plan to allow some former officials of Hussein's ruling Baath Party and military to return to office is the equivalent of returning Nazis to power in Germany after World War II.

Josh Marshall has more. Twice, TChris has asked on Talkleft, Why Do We Pay Chalabi? . More on Chalabi and his role in the trial of Saddam here.

We're always asking, Where's Country Joe? Turns out, he and the band are on tour.

Now reconstituted with four of the legendary group's original five members, the new Country Joe Band has just begun to tour. When I saw them perform, midway through April, the music was as tightly effusive as ever, with poetic lyrics mostly brought to bear on two perennials: love and death.

A new development to celebrate is the rise of the Country Joe Band. While standing the test of time, music from the ensemble group resonates profoundly each day as young Americans in uniform do their best to survive in a faraway country: "And pound their feet into the sand of shores they've never seen / Delegates from the western land to join the death machine / And we send cards and letters."

They even have a new song, "Cakewalk to Baghdad" (evidently named after Richard Perle's characterization of how the war would go back in March, 2003.)

We think the Dreyfuss Report gets this right:

With Iraqi sovereignty only 10 weeks away, and nary a plan in sight, it's now clear that the kind of sovereignty Iraq will enjoy will approximate that of the U.S. Virgin Islands, i.e., nil. Yesterday Paul Wolfowitz, the neocon Pentagon deputy secretary and his mini-me, Marc Grossman from the State Department, made clear that the transitional Iraqi government will be virtually powerless. It will have no ability to make laws and won't be able to interfere with U.S. military actions in Iraq. U.S. commanders will control all Iraqi army, police and security officials. The biggest change is that Czar Paul Bremer will be replaced by Czar John Negroponte, whose title will be "ambassador."

Via Cursor.Org:

As Iraqi insurgents take their first American soldier prisoner, the U.S. military is said to have more than 20,000 Iraqis behind bars, with an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 at Abu Ghraib, dubbed "Guantanamo on steroids."

So many people have tried to access the Dover Photos at Memory Hole, that network difficulties have ensued. If you can't get through on their site, George Paine at Warblogging has set up a mirror site with the photos. George also explains what the "Dover Test" is, and why Bush has wanted to avoid it. About the photos themselves, George says:

Everyone must see these photographs. They must see and understand the cost of war. They must see and understand the rows upon rows of coffins, the salutes and the sadness. War is not a video game. Occupying a proud foreign nation is not a picnic. People die, and Americans must see and understand the reality of the conflict they have been led into.

At the time this article is written, 709 American servicemembers have lost their lives in Iraq — along with hundreds more foreign soldiers and civilians. Thousands upon thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives. Thousands more Americans have been wounded — many losing limbs. This is the cost of war.

A gallery of 361 photographs (Warblogging mirror) of war dead at Dover Air Force Base has been made available by the Memory Hole. Everyone should spend at least a few minutes browsing.

Check out the faces of the young men carrying this coffin. They are kids. Far too young for this kind of duty - far too young to either meet or greet death this way.

(Click here to enlarge)

by TChris

Bush administration supporters have been chanting a new mantra: "Iraq is not Vietnam. Iraq is not Vietnam." In the words of Molly Ivins: "It may not be Vietnam, but it's sure a quagmire."

Iraq may not be Vietnam, but the Vietnam Syndrome has returned.

At the height of his Gulf War triumph in 1991, President Bush Sr. impulsively and defiantly exulted, "By God We've kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all."

Now former President Bush's son has taken us back to the future, as government officials lie to the public in an effort to win support for a war. The Vietnam Syndrome is back with a vengeance.

As in Vietnam, the role of the U.S. in Iraq is dividing the country. The central question at this point: should we stay in Iraq (with or without broad international support) or should we leave? Howard Zinn's view: get out now.