The Maverick Tribe

"Every time a life is lost, we all lose.  We all have made a sacrifice, some more than others."

- former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, when asked what sacrifices the president has asked Americans to make for the Iraq War (other than to go shopping).

"I don't have his name in front of me."

- Ari Fleischer, 3 minutes earlier, when asked to identify the double amputee Iraq veteran whom Mr. Fleischer features in an upcoming television ad advocating for his new pro-war organization Freedom's Watch.

The full blood-curdling interview can be found here.  And the soldier's name is John Kriesel.

Of the many travesties of the Iraq War, which is the worst?  More American deaths there than those dying from the events of September 11th?  400 billion dollars and counting?  America's moral standing with the international community in tatters?  War profiteering?  Billions in expenditures unaccounted for?  The ascendent regional stature of Iran?  The Bush Administration's cynical manipulation of the facts?  The provocation of more terrorism to come?  The loss of faith in basic standards of competence and accountability for the U.S. Government?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no and no.  The worst travesty of the Iraq War is the effect it's had on the Iraqi people.  Something like 70,000 having died as a direct consequence and perhaps as many as 655,000 indirect deaths, with millions displaced from their homes.

 It takes the Onion to report what we should be hearing from the news media day and night.

My man Andrew Sullivan gets all oncological on neocon Bill Kristol.