Progress Report
Sanctioning Syria for supporting terrorism is a long overdue step but nearly inexplicable given the current state of affairs in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the administration has up until recently very effectively distanced itself from the day-to-day actions against the population there by subcontracting the war, in the end their ethical chickens have come home to roost. Bush II opted out of the International Criminal Court, which now appears to have been a prescient step. Perhaps it was part of the pre-September 11 invasion planning in the first place. In whose interest was the overthrow of Saddam Hussein? Oil prices are rising, probably in part because the U.S. is too busy trying and failing to establish order to get the production infrastructure running properly (not to mention that the insurgents are performing some effective acts of sabotage). The Rummy and the Dummy have screwed up, but they’re unlikely to ever have to pay for what they’ve done.

Sociological Aside 1: If we keep in mind that our military has been increasingly marginalized from the rest of American society over the last 30 years and that it has been for at least that long a hidden form of welfare and thus a refuge for already marginalized segments of the population, we can begin to see the root of the Abu Ghraib torture. Our society needs serious attention, and the evidence is the numbers of armed forces members who are people having joined up because their lives would otherwise have taken them to prison as criminals.

Sociological Aside 2: Meanwhile, the insurgency increases its barbarism, throwing off any pretence of civilization prior to the Bronze Age.