What we left behind in Iraq: a situation just as bad as everyone feared. Dexter Filkins writes in the New Yorker that sectarian violence has intensified, that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has become increasingly authoritarian and that Iraqis are growing every more concerned about the country’s future. Filkins describes the scene as he interviews Maliki in his office:
“As Maliki spoke, a low-pitched rumble shook his office. Our tea glasses rattled. It was a car bomb — a few hundred yards from the fortified compound where Maliki lives. It was one of eight explosions that struck Baghdad that day, leaving thirty-four people dead. For a moment, everyone sat in silence. Then Maliki turned to an aide. ‘Go see what that was,’ he said.”
Andrew Cohen writes about the Frontline documentary on solitary confinement and how solitary confinement hurts the rest of us. Via the Atlantic.
Hurricane Carter, the boxer who was wrongly convicted of murder and who became a symbol of racial injustice, dies at 76. Via the New York Times.
If Democrats want to hold the Senate in November, they have to solve their midterm problem – overcoming low turnout from their base. Dan Balz looks at the math. Via the Washington Post.
If Republicans want to win the Senate in the Senate in November, they have to figure out how to at least win a truce in the so-called war on women. Via the Wall Street Journal.
None of it will matter if Obama’s good news on Obamacare doesn’t reach the voters. Via Al Hunt at Bloomberg.
[ Photo of Iraqi child by the US Army. ]
What did you want to prove with your actions in Iraq? Can you imagine how many civilians suffered because of you? There are not only terrorists, normal ordinary people also live there. Stop this war!