Another Day in the Life of Empire. posted by Richard Seymour

Good news for all those who have been hoping for a civil war in Iraq to justify continued occupation: the Kurdish leadership has been ethnically cleansing Arabs and Turkomen from northern areas of Iraq - including Kirkuk, which is 50% Arab and Turkoman. This situation has "greatly exacerbated tensions along purely ethnic lines".

Life isn't getting any easier for the residents of al-Qaim who are continuing to flee or die, or both, as the city comes under renewed attacks from violent outlaws loyal to suspected Empire-leader George W. Bush. In a chilling video address, a man believed to be Bush vowed that the violence in Iraq would escalate. Iraqis have said they will not be cowed by these men of violence.

In the United States, a Professor has been reported to the FBI for "hating America". The FBI presumably have all the time in the world for this shit since they solved that anthrax mystery.

And, finally, via Iraq Occupation & Resistance Report, this charming tale of workers from Asia being exploited by US multinationals in Iraq:

Numerous former American contractors returning home say they were shocked at conditions faced by this mostly invisible, but indispensable army of low-paid workers. TCNs [“third country nationals”] frequently sleep in crowded trailers and wait outside in line in 100 degree plus heat to eat “slop.” Many are said to lack adequate medical care and put in hard labor seven days a week, 10 hours or more a day, for little or no overtime pay. Few receive proper workplace safety equipment or adequate protection from incoming mortars and rockets. When frequent gunfire, rockets and mortar shell from the ongoing conflict hits the sprawling military camps, American contractors slip on helmets and bulletproof vests, but TCNs are frequently shielded only by the shirts on their backs and the flimsy trailers they sleep in....
While the exact number of TCNs working in Iraq is uncertain, a rough estimate can be gleaned from Halliburton’s own numbers, which indicate that TCNs make up 35,000 of KBR’s 48,000 workers in Iraq employed under sweeping contract for military support. Known as the Logistics Civilian Augmentation Program (LOGCAP), this contract – by far the largest in Iraq -- is now approaching the $15 billion mark. Citing security concerns, however, the Houston-headquartered company and several other major contractors declined to release detailed figures on the workforce that is estimated to be 100,000 or more.

All of which brings to mind the magic and wit of Thomas L. Friedman, genocidal columnist for the New York Times:

The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies to flourish is called the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. - New York Times Magazine, March 28, 1999