Iraq War

Washington memoirs are all about settling scores. Karl Rove’s “Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight” takes that tradition to new and self-parodying heights. To read Rove’s recollections of George W. Bush’s White House is to believe that, for eight years, men of “courage and moral clarity” governed the United States and were beset by critics who refused to give them any credit. On page after page, Rove names the naysayers and picks apart their claims. He’s most at ease — his delight jumps right off of the page — when he’s able to recount times he shoved the criticisms back in their faces.

DENVER– A complex bill apparently intended to strengthen animal protections in Colorado inspired contradictory interpretations and sparked a storm of protest this week. Sponsored by self-proclaimed cowboy and animal lover, Walsh Democratic Representative Wes McKinley, the bill sought mostly to set up new animal control rules and stiffen requirements for animal control personnel. Although detractors agreed with many of the bill’s provisions, they said in remaking some of the rules, particularly those concerning impounding homeless dogs, the bill would end up in steep and unnecessary increases in euthanasia. A push to amend the bill failed. HB 1124 (pdf) was put down on a second reading in the House Friday afternoon.

Last spring, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Iraq got a makeover,replacing the scandal-plagued Blackwater private security company with a firm named Triple Canopy. The new $1 billion contract cemented Triple Canopy’s status as the pre-eminent provider of private security services in Iraq, with its heavily armed employees appearing side by side with senior State Department diplomats.

But the company’s rise to prominence followed a long, often chaotic route, marked by questionable weapons deals, government bungling and a criminal investigation that was ultimately closed without charges being filed, according to newly released investigative files.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall vowed Thursday to “hold [Army Secretary-nominee John McHugh] to his commitment” to make sure soldiers receive the best mental health treatment available after questioning the New York congressman at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Add this news to the numerous reasons oil exploration and production are down on the Western Slope. From Slate.com’s The Big Money:

“A welcome-back party for Big Oil” is how the Wall Street Journal today sums up the Iraqi government plan to open up its oil fields to the highest bidders after three decades of tight control under Saddam Hussein. Starting next week, the Iraqi government will begin auctioning off contracts to foreign countries, opening up a market with 115 billion barrels in “proven reserves.” “If all goes according to plan in the first round, foreign oil companies will move in to help Iraq revive production at six developed fields that have suffered from years of war and neglect,” the newspaper writes.

Talk about strange bedfellows. Tuesday night, liberal Democrat Jared Polis joined Colorado’s two Republicans — U.S. Reps. Mike Coffman and Doug Lamborn — voting against the $106 billion Iraq-Afghanistan war funding bill, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives on a 226-202 vote with strong Democratic support. The remainder of the state’s House members, all four Democrats, voted for the bill.

Army Reserve Colonel and Littleton Democrat Joe Rice announced today that he will be deployed to Iraq this month — his fourth tour to the war-torn region to train Iraqi security forces.

The New York Times and Sunday morning political talk shows are contorting themselves into linguistically-torturous positions in a feeble attempt to avoid using the word “torture” to describe the immoral and criminal techniques employed at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and CIA black sites against suspected al Qaeda-linked prisoners.

Now, Foreign Policy magazine has produced the euphemism-free “ultimate guide to the Bush Administration’s journey to the dark side.”

Tonight’s episode of Democracy Now! discusses the “unprecedented number of deaths” — both suicides and homicides — at Fort Carson in Colorado following an Army report that record numbers of soldiers took their own lives last year.

Newly arrived Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) asks a question close to my heart: How can Defense Secretary Bob Gates institutionalize the counterinsurgency lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan?