Covering Bombs, Heat, and other articles

While we wax nostalgic for the good ole days when Nigerians dealt with spam and not bombs, I thought to pass along to you links to important articles that have appeared in the last few days. One of them is by Glenn Greenwald in Salon about the press coverage of airstrikes in (where else?) Afghanistan and Pakistan. He says,

Each time the U.S. bombs a new location in the Muslim world, the same pattern emerges.  First, officials from the U.S. or allied governments run to their favorite media outlet to claim -- anonymously -- that some big, bad, notorious, "top" Al Qaeda leader "may have been" or "likely was" killed in the strike, and this constitutes a "stinging" or "devastating" blow against the Terrorist group.

 Then he says:

  As a result, and by design, there is never any debate or discussion over the propriety or wisdom of these strikes.  After all, what sane, rational, Serious person would possibly question a bombing raid or missile strike that "likely" killed a murderous, top Al Qaeda fighter and struck a "devastating blow" to that group's operationg abilities? 

He ends with this:

The whole process is blatantly designed not to convey what happened, but to obscure what happened and to prevent any discussion of its consequences.

 To read the whole thing, you may go here. Then I'd like to direct you to a thoughtful essayist Rebecca Solnit's prognostications about the Copenhagen climate "talk" and the Terminator.

I hope you all had a great and rewarding Ashura.