Over at Winds of Change my favorite member of the WoC crew has decided to drop the pseudonym and let us know that Armed Liberal is Marc Danziger. He’s the new C.O.O. of Spirit of America, a charity that’s working to make life better for Iraqis and in doing so portray America in a more favorable light. I’ve said before that the current conflict is all about perceptions. Spirit of America is on track to make us all safer by making it harder for the enemy to recruit. I believe that efforts like this will have a greater effect in the long run than any purely military operation (which is not to suggest that military operations are unneccessary in the short term). Check out the site and see if you can help out.

Andrew Sullivan points out that Susan Sontag is vying for one of his Susan Sontag awards:

…the cover story in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine is a Susan Sontag essay. Yes, she’s going to write about Abu Ghraib. And – yes! – the headline is: “The Photographs Are Us.”

Fine, Susan. I’ll consider the possibility that “the photographs are us” when you and other people in the intelligentsia and media will admit that people like this are you.

At least for those who, for partisan political purposes, are hoping for bad news in Iraq. It’s a roundup of all of the good things that are happening there, that aren’t being prominently reported.

The conventional wisdom is that we lost the battle of Fallujah, by pulling back and letting a former Ba’athist general take over. In that context, reader Mike Puckett points out this very encouraging news.

With this kind of good news, combined with the bringing to heel of Al-Sadr, it’s easy to see why the quagmirists in the media want to keep the focus on Abu Ghraib.

The conventional wisdom is that we lost the battle of Fallujah, by pulling back and letting a former Ba’athist general take over. In that context, reader Mike Puckett points out this very encouraging news.

With this kind of good news, combined with the bringing to heel of Al-Sadr, it’s easy to see why the quagmirists in the media want to keep the focus on Abu Ghraib.

The conventional wisdom is that we lost the battle of Fallujah, by pulling back and letting a former Ba’athist general take over. In that context, reader Mike Puckett points out this very encouraging news.

With this kind of good news, combined with the bringing to heel of Al-Sadr, it’s easy to see why the quagmirists in the media want to keep the focus on Abu Ghraib.

Mohammed at Iraq The Model has an encouraging story of a trip to the southern part of Iraq:

The point behind all these pictures and stories I mentioned is that the people started to speak out and express their feelings and here we

I’ve had several people find their way to this site today with searches on variants of “Berg Decapitation Beheading Video etc.”

Not a single one came searching for information on Abu Ghraib.

Those stupid people. They won’t let their betters tell them what’s news.

[Update at 4:30 PM PDT]

Here’s a weird one–“Arab locust beheading”

[Update on Friday afternoon]

Brian Linse disagrees.

In a sense he makes my point. There probably are many people looking for this item merely for the dubious pleasure of watching a snuff film, but the fact remains that demand for it is relatively high because the same news outlets that couldn’t wait to show us pornography that reflected badly on the administration remain unwilling to show something that might arouse “the American street.”

I’ve had several people find their way to this site today with searches on variants of “Berg Decapitation Beheading Video etc.”

Not a single one came searching for information on Abu Ghraib.

Those stupid people. They won’t let their betters tell them what’s news.

[Update at 4:30 PM PDT]

Here’s a weird one–“Arab locust beheading”

[Update on Friday afternoon]

Brian Linse disagrees.

In a sense he makes my point. There probably are many people looking for this item merely for the dubious pleasure of watching a snuff film, but the fact remains that demand for it is relatively high because the same news outlets that couldn’t wait to show us pornography that reflected badly on the administration remain unwilling to show something that might arouse “the American street.”

I’ve had several people find their way to this site today with searches on variants of “Berg Decapitation Beheading Video etc.”

Not a single one came searching for information on Abu Ghraib.

Those stupid people. They won’t let their betters tell them what’s news.

[Update at 4:30 PM PDT]

Here’s a weird one–“Arab locust beheading”

[Update on Friday afternoon]

Brian Linse disagrees.

In a sense he makes my point. There probably are many people looking for this item merely for the dubious pleasure of watching a snuff film, but the fact remains that demand for it is relatively high because the same news outlets that couldn’t wait to show us pornography that reflected badly on the administration remain unwilling to show something that might arouse “the American street.”