Most of the time we look at Iraq from a political point of view but there are other ways that our occupation can be viewed.  One such way  is to look at Iraq from a systems point of view.  What is a systems approach?  It is step by step approach for reaching a defined goal.  The steps are interrelated with the output for one step providing the input for the next step.  Most systems approach models have the following components -  Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation.  Under a systems approach there is constant assessment of the effectiveness in reaching the goal and a mechanism for making adjustments (feedback).

Funny Times has a cool feature where they let you create your own cartoons (go to Cartoon Playground).  Here is one I created called How To Dig A Hole In Iraq.

Alexei Barrionuevo has this profile of Lula in Sunday's New York Times. There are some things with which I agree, especially this:

Good opinion piece from the NYT yesterday... for the most part. They start off so well it's tempting to go with them all the way...

In Search of a Congress
NYT, Friday 21 September 2007

If you were one of the Americans waiting for Congress, under Democratic control, to show leadership on the war in Iraq, the message from the Senate is clear: "Nevermind." The same goes for those waiting for lawmakers to fix the damage done to civil liberties by six years of President Bush and a rubber-stamp Republican Congress.

Jerry Weller, Republican Congressman from Illinois and son-in-law of an accused criminal against humanity, Efrain Rios Montt has decided to pack it in. He says he wants to spend more time with his family [ed. note: Can't any retiring politician come up with a less cliched excuse?].

Cross-posted at the Great Orange Satan

I'm talking to you, wingnuts, for caring more about a stupid newspaper ad (and yes it was stupid) than you do about the well-being of US soldiers.

I'm also talking to more than a few people in the progressive blogosphere.

Why?  

Because you're talking about the wrong vote today.

There was a vote today that was important and had direct relevance to ending the Iraq war.

But, if one paid attention to the blogosphere's self-interested whining, one would think that the big news was the Moveon vote.

The vote you SHOULD be talking about described below.

[cross-posted from Lotus - Surviving a Dark Time]

Everybody, it seems, is talking about the incident at the University of Florida when a student named Andrew Meyer who was aggressively questioning speaker John Kerry was arrested and tasered.

About half of the focus has been on the student and about half on the cops with some room left over to sneer at Kerry for what more than one called "sonorously droning on" as the incident unfolded. Dealing with those in reverse order and so getting to my real concern last (wait for it), I first want to offer a mild defense of John Kerry.

There are a number of news accounts of the incident, but they tend to start at different points and so some things get lost. One is that when Meyer first went to the mike - and apparently he did push to the head of the line - he vocally complained that members of the audience did not have enough time to question Kerry, which may well have been true: After Kerry spoke for 45 minutes, there was a time of, if you will, official questions from one person, leaving the audience no more than 25 minutes for Q&A. At that point, campus police went to remove Meyer but Kerry intervened, saying he should be allowed his question. He answered a question from across the hall and then went back to Meyer.

Why any Democrat would want to confirm him is beyond me.

Set aside the whole "we're better off with no AG, because that way they can do less damage" argument.  That argument has a lot of force, and I like it a lot, but it's better set down for a later time.

No, the best reason to not confirm Mukasey is that he is the first member of the Giuliani cabinet.

Huh?

(originally posted at The Motley Patriot and cross-posted at the Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus)

How does a man, or woman, betray their country?  How does a person justify watching other people die for lies?  What purpose can be called "noble" that it cannot be named outright, instead, lies are necessary in order to carry out that cause?  America's involvement in Vietnam did not start with the "shock and awe" of invasion and it did not begin with the American public being fed lies by our President; that came later.  

Sgt Mora and Sgt Gray were two of the authors of the op-ed highly critical of the war in Iraq that ran in the New York Times "The War As We Saw It".  They were both killed in Iraq recently.  

I generally believe - as the son of one immigrant and the spouse of another - that anyone who wants to come here and make a better life for themselves is welcome here. I also believe that nothing occurs in a vacuum; where there are results, there must be causes. If people are risking everything for the slim opportunity to do what amounts to scut work here in the US, then their options in their own country must be severely limited.

TPM  reports that the Kurd's in Iraq have signed an oil agreement:

Texas' Hunt Oil Co. and Kurdistan's regional government said Saturday they've signed a production-sharing contract for petroleum exploration in northern Iraq, the first such deal since the Kurds passed their own oil and gas law in August.

Hunt has ties to the Bush administration:

"In October 2001 and again in January 2006, Mr. Hunt was appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in Washington, D.C."

Welcome to the Bush administration's Middle East oil gambit...