This sad story is just one of thousands that resulted from the war in Iraq.

While most of us will file this under "old news," this story nonetheless reminds us of one of the many important issues at stake when it comes time to vote in November: how long the misguided mission in Iraq will be allowed to continue.

In a report long delayed by partisan squabbling, the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday accused President Bush and Vice President Cheney of taking the country to war in Iraq by exaggerating evidence of links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda in the emotional aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Here's the report (pdf).

1st Lt. Andrew Grayson was acquitted yesterday by a military juy on charges he covered up information from the Haditha killings.

He was accused of telling a sergeant to delete photographs of the dead from a digital camera and laptop computer.

Grayson, of Springboro, Ohio, was acquitted of two counts of making false official statements, two counts of trying to fraudulently separate from service and one count of attempt to deceive by making false statements. He would have faced as many as 20 years in prison if convicted of all counts.

Grayson was the first to go to trial. Other trials will follow. [More...]

The Supreme Court established a rule in 1950 that became known as the Feres Doctrine:

The United States is not liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries to members of the armed forces sustained while on active duty and not on furlough and resulting from the negligence of others in the armed forces.

Whatever merit the Feres Doctrine might have when applied to ordinary negligence claims, there is little reason to exempt military doctors from the same malpractice standards that permit civilian patients to recover compensation when a physician's careless acts or omissions cause harm or death.

Motivated by the death of Carmelo Rodriguez, whose skin cancer was misdiagnosed as a wart and left untreated, Rep. Maurice Hinchey will introduce a bill to permit those who serve to bring claims against the military for medical malpractice. (more ...)

An update on U.S. efforts to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis:

The commander of United States troops in Baghdad asked local leaders and tribal sheiks this weekend for their forgiveness after the discovery that a soldier had used a Koran for target practice at a shooting range.

The Pentagon is building a shiny new prison complex in Afghanistan, where it believes prisoners will be held "for years to come." The initial cost: $60 million.

Until now, the Bush administration had signaled that it intended to scale back American involvement in detention operations in Afghanistan. It had planned to transfer a large majority of the prisoners to Afghan custody, in an American-financed, high-security prison outside Kabul to be guarded by Afghan soldiers.

But American officials now concede that the new Afghan-run prison cannot absorb all the Afghans now detained by the United States, much less the waves of new prisoners from the escalating fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

More....

Barack Obama was right and courageous to oppose the Iraq Debacle in 2002. No one should ever try and diminish that. What he did once he became a Senator, well that is a different story. But his 2002 speech struck the right chord with me. The estimable Susie Madrak cites a NYTimes article where some are quoted as taking issue with one passage of the speech:

By Big Tent Democrat

The NYTimes reports:

Senator John McCain of Arizona, poised to become the Republican Party presidential nominee, argued against what he described as “reckless and irresponsible” calls for rapid withdrawal from Iraq, and said a premature departure of American troops would be “a failure of moral and political leadership.” . . . [H]e said that with the addition of five extra combat brigades last year, “this improved security environment has led to a new opportunity.” Today, Mr. McCain said, “it is possible to talk with real hope and optimism about the future of Iraq and the outcome of our efforts there.”

More . . .

On this 5th anniversary of the vote to authorize an invasion of Iraq, who is the candidate most likely to get us out? As the Clinton campaign suggests in this video, Barack Obama has been anything but clear and consistent.

I'd put it another way. Obama, even today, wants to focus on who did what five years ago. That is so not the issue and so last year. Voters want to know who has the best plan for an exit and who is best going to be able to execute that plan.

Here's Hillary's plan. Here are 34 Admirals and Generals explaining why Hillary is better equipped to be commander in chief and why her plan to exit Iraq is both the best and most achievable: [More...]

Lynndie England, the poster woman for the torture at Abu Ghraib, finished her three year jail sentence a year ago after serving 1 1/2 years. (It wasn't easy time.) She's just given a long interview to the German magazine, Der Stern, which has an English version up.

The headline: Rumsfeld knew.

[England] tells the magazine that when her unit arrived at the prison outside Baghdad in September, the prisoners were already naked, were forced to wear women's underwear, and were being put in stress positions. "The company that we relieved was doing the exact same stuff," she is quoted as saying. "We just took over from them."

I wonder if he also knew non-medical personnel were performing amputations at Abu Ghraib?

By Big Tent Democrat

Via Matt Yglesias, Spencer Ackerman reports how successful Bush has been at exporting our "values" in Iraq:

Then at the end, as people are milling about and chatting on their way out the door, one of the [American Provincial Reconstruction Team] officials tells [an Iraqi] judge how important it is to stand up against terrorism and promote equality and fairness before an impartial system of law. The judge nods at the platitude. "Tell me," he says through a translator, "is it true that in America, Bush can fire prosecutors he doesn't like?"

While John McCain happily imagines US troops in Iraq through the next century, the Iraq Defense Minister is more optimistic, we'll be there through 2018:

The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.

I think this might be an issue in the coming election.