Interesting evidence about the Baghdad market bombing.

Jed Babbin reports there's no impact crater:

We inventory such things, and one of ours didn't go there. All of those we launched, dropped, or fired are accounted for, and it's pretty clear that none hit the market.

* * *

The folks at No Such Agency apparently have a picture of the spot the bombing occurred, and there's one really telling piece of evidence. Or rather, there isn't. There's no crater in the ground. I didn't do very well in college physics, but I am pretty sure that a 500 or 1,000 pound bomb--far less a bigger one--which is falling at several hundred miles an hour, is gonna make a big hole in the ground when it hits, and a much bigger one when it explodes. The crater left by bombs of that size are usually at least ten feet deep and twenty or thirty feet across. In the Baghdad bombings, there are no craters.

I've also heard that both bombings were, remarkably enough, in Shia neighborhoods in Baghdad.

Grim reports related to our POWs.

Shallow grave with four mutilated bodies discovered near torture "hospital" now held by Marines.

At least one of the bodies of the four American soldiers discovered in a shallow grave was "brutalized and mutilated," Pentagon sources revealed yesterday.

The corpses were unearthed in the vicinity of the "hospital" at Nasiriyah where U.S. Marines found evidence that the Iraqis had operated a torture chamber.

Military officials are now investigating whether there is any connection between the hospital and the fate of at least 12 members of a U.S. Army mechanical unit that disappeared last Sunday.

* * *

"We're not sure who it is [in the graves] at this point," said Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

U.S. forensics experts and mortuary personnel are now trying to determine the identities of the dead soldiers. But officials fear the worst.

Inside the hospital, the shocked Marines found bloodied pieces of an American female soldier's uniform. Her name badge and American flag were missing.

Now, investigators believe that the hospital was a den of horror rather than healing and was used by the fanatical Feyidah militia as a staging area and headquarters. Inside, the leathernecks found one room that was equipped with a bed and a car battery, indicating that it was used to electrically torture prisoners.

The Iraqis are refusing to let the International Red Cross see the American POWs.

Jed Babbin at NRO connects the tragic dots:

The reason is almost certain. Many have been tortured and killed. We don't know if any are still alive.

Keep praying for them and their families.

Good News from...............France!

No, there isn't a radon problem here. Why do you ask?

A few pieces showing that the spirit of resistance is not quite dead in Petai--er, Chirac's France.

No, not all Frenchmen are in the bag. Novelist Pascal Bruckner, philosopher Andre Glucksman and filmmaker Romain Goupil published a letter in Le Monde supporting the overthrow of Hussein (the translation is a little spotty, but you get the idea).

Doctors Without Borders founder Bernard Kouchner, while generally speaking opposed to the war, supports the overthrow of Hussein.

Even a prominent member of Chirac's party, Alain Madelin, called for France to support the U.S. position on Iraq:

In a move that surprised many politicians, Alain Madelin, a former minister of industry and member of President Jacques Chirac's conservative party, challenged the prevailing mood in Paris by calling for support of Washington and its war plans.
In what appeared to be an answer to those members of the European Parliament who last week brandished placards saying, "No War," and "No war for oil," Mr. Madelin said:
"The United Nations has never distinguished itself by an ability to act. Our place today is at the side of the Americans to free the Iraqi people.
"Iraq's liberation would give the region hope for more freedom and prosperity," he added. "It would put pressure on authoritarian regimes, induce the Palestinians to abandon terrorism and open the way to a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian problem."

Finally, an example of cultural resistance, in the heart of Vichy Paris.

The spirit of the Maquis lives on.

[Thanks to Mark Cameron for the heads-up.]

Al Reutera gripes about media bias.

Irony...overload...must get...antidote..........

Ah, that's better. You see: it's pro-America media bias that's the problem. Welcome to Bizarro World. This from the "news" service that doesn't use the term "terrorist" and says al Qaeda is "allegedly" behind the 9/11 attacks. Note that there apparently isn't a problem with al-Jazeera cheerleading for jihad, or circulating death porn for the Arab street:

I have confirmed that the Al-Jazeera tape, all twelve minutes of it, is merely an excerpt of the hour-long version being shown regularly in Egypt and elsewhere. The short version shows the interrogation of some U.S. soldiers and the defamed dead bodies of others. The longer version includes all that, plus the murders and later abuse and mutilation of the bodies. Apparently, the whole thing is out there on the internet.

Nah, no problem with that. Reporters wearing flags: that's the real atrocity!

Enjoy Mr. Spiegelman's alternate universe commentary. Just make sure you have a salt lick handy--a mere grain will not suffice.

Fr. Joseph Wilson has loosed the cannonade.

Against the peaceniks of the Diocese of Brooklyn:

Fr. Wilson received the following message today from an official of the Brooklyn diocese:

"Please include this in your Mass announcements this Sunday: "'Everyone is invited to a Mass for the Restoration of Peace at Holy Trinity Church on Tuesday at 5PM. Father Latona, the Pastor, will be Celebrant.'"

Well, that did it. Fr. Wilson, who has just had it with pious peacenikery in this time of great peril, sent out the following fax to all the parishes that had received the first:

"Faithful Sons and Daughters of the Church are invited to Saint Luke's Church on Monday evening, 7:15PM, for a Mass, Holy Hour and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament, imploring the intercession of our Lady of Lepanto for the safety of our armed forces. The Holy Rosary, which once turned back those who would destroy Christian civilization, will be prayed before Mass."

[Via Rod Dreher]

Good (!) News from Canada--Part II.

Premiers of Alberta and Ontario speak out in favor of the United States.

[As to the rest of the story, it appears that the Triple L loudmouth did indeed say "So did," and not "Screw." Given the article's description of his history of boob-like, vaguely anti-American comments, such confusion is understandable.]

Good (!) News from Canada--Part I.

Canadians plan large rallies in support of the United States over the next few weeks. The planners are more than a little cheesed with Chretien's government:

One of the group's unofficial slogans -- "the voice of the heretofore silent majority" -- means for Ms. Tabb "being able to give meat to that voice. I want to send a message to the current [Canadian] government that they are misrepresenting many people and to the U.S. government that Canadians are being misrepresented."

Ms. Tabb, who is married to a Canadian and a landed immigrant, said she just recently hung her U.S. flag at her home, and was wondering, only half-seriously, if she would soon find "eggs on my window."

That sort of tentativeness had no place at yesterday's meeting. As speaker after speaker said, "We're proud of our relationship with the United States."

Mr. Cooper said he was most embarrassed by the anti-American tone in the country. It's one thing, he said, for Canada to decide not to send troops to fight alongside Americans. "So send field hospitals then," he snapped. "Send medical aid. Send a message of support to our friends."

Bravo! And more importantly: thanks.

Why no mass uprisings?

The surprising answer is, in part, that we are actively discouraging them:

In recent months, the U.S. war planners have been discouraging the Iraqi population from any uprising and trying the keep the Iraqi opposition forces off the battlefield. At a summit in Ankara earlier this month, Zalmay Khalilzad, President Bush’s special envoy to the Iraqi opposition, firmly declared Washington’s “no uprisings” strategy to the Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni Iraqi opposition leaders. “The lesson Tommy Franks got from the Afghan campaign last year is that it is risky to work with indigenous groups. He does not want to do that again,” one insider told me. As the thinking goes, uprisings across the country would not just “complicate” the military planning, but turn off potential allies inside the regime by stressing the exiled Iraqi opposition’s role. That, in turn, might alienate both alienate the Sunni elite in Baghdad and Iraq’s military commanders who might switch sides as the operation unfolds.

So the United States is set to liberate Iraq without the participation of Iraqis? Precisely, it seems.

“We were told that the coalition forces do not want to see any uprisings in major cities,” said a leading member of the exiled opposition group Iraqi National Congress who took part in the meetings in Ankara. INC has a vast network of informants in the southern areas of Iraq and in and around Baghdad, but its leadership, now based in northern Iraq, had no formal contact with CENTCOM until the fifth day of the war, when a CENTCOM liaison officer finally arrived at the group’s headquarters in the northern city of Suleimaniye.

Like the decision to leave Iraqi state TV on the air, this sure looks like a mistake. Hopefully, just like the decision to end IrTV's broadcast day, I hope it gets reversed soon. It makes no sense to adhere to this policy, especially when it's being turned against us by the Fedayeen.

Is "Just War" doctrine headed for a "developmental" tune-up?

As in developing into pacifism? If you listen to Archbishop Renato "America is Pharaoh" Martino, the answer is a disturbing "Yes." According to the WSJ's William McGurn:

Of far more concern, at least to papal admirers such as yours truly, is that the war statements appear to reflect not simply a disagreement over Iraq but a strain in John Paul's thinking that sits uncomfortably with 1,500 years of Catholic teaching on the legitimate use to force--a teaching, moreover, that asks not when authorities have the "right" to use force but when they have the obligation.

John Paul's unease over the state's use of force was perhaps first evident in his earlier treatment of the death penalty: that while it may be acceptable in principle, the state now has alternatives that make it all but impossible to justify in practice.

The linkage is not only mine. In recent interviews, Archbishop Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice, explicitly says that classic just-war teaching may now be headed the way of the death penalty. When the National Catholic Register asked the archbishop if he meant by this that "there is no such thing as a just war anymore," his answer was unequivocal: "Absolutely."
The pope has not gone this far. But neither has he repudiated the more fantastic claims by Vatican officials.

What's next? "Developments" regarding the [former] right/obligation to defense of self, family and others?

After all, there is no real logical distinction. It's at times like these I am haunted by the words of C.S. Lewis:

In this essay, “Christian Reunion” (Christian Reunion and Other Essays, ed. Walter Hooper, London: Collins, 1990 p.17 at p.19) Lewis stated that:

"The real reason why I cannot be in communion with you [Roman Catholics] is not my disagreement with this or that Roman doctrine, but that to accept your Church means, not to accept a given body of doctrine, but to accept in advance any doctrine your Church hereafter produces. It is like being asked to agree not only to what a man has said but also to what he is going to say."

[Link via Amy Welborn.]

Only female POW is Catholic.

Shoshana Johnson's mother says she made sure her daughter had her Rosary with her:

[Stone] Phillips: “You know her better than anyone. What do you think she’s doing to help her get through this?”
Eunice Johnson: “She is praying. She’s praying everyday and every time. And that’s gonna get her through. She’s asking God. I know... I know in my heart because she had a rosary with her. She forgot it. This was the day that she was being deployed. And she called me and she said, ‘I left my rosary, you know, on the dresser upstairs in my house.’ And I had to go back home and get it. So, I’m hoping that she has that rosary with her.”
Phillips: “Her faith is important—
Eunice Johnson: “Yes.”
Phillips: “— to her?”
Eunice Johnson: “Yes. And I know she’s praying... When it falls night time in Iraq I think of her in a little cell by herself and it’s dark, it’s black. And there’s no kind of communication so that’s where I know that she’s communicating with God.”

The Johnsons say they haven't told Shoshana's daughter that her mom has been captured.

Pray for all of our POWs and their families.

At the intersection of Woodward and Tikrit: Hussein and Detroit's Chaldeans.

I strongly recommend this excellent WSJ article from yesterday's first page about the complex but generally deteriorating relationship between Saddam and local Iraqi Catholics:

Sacred Heart Church on Seven Mile Road is the church Saddam Hussein built.

In 1980, Reverend Jacob Yasso flew to Baghdad and met with Mr. Hussein, who wanted to help Iraqi Christians who had come to America. That year, Mr. Hussein sent $1.5 million to cover the church's debt and build a social hall and day-care center.

Last Friday night, 450 parishioners gathered at Sacred Heart for a service. They prayed for Mr. Hussein's overthrow. They also prayed for a miracle -- that loved ones who disappeared in Iraq during the dictator's reign would be found alive after the war.

Father Yasso says more than half of the parish's 1,200 families have missing loved ones in Iraq. The 70-year-old Iraqi-born priest says he decided Mr. Hussein was "evil" in the years following his meeting with the ruler, as newcomers to his church told their stories about the regime. "I shook his hand in 1980," he says. "Now, he is the devil."

* * *

Detroit's Iraqi community, the largest in the U.S., is made up mostly of Chaldean Roman Catholics, who began arriving here a century ago. Chaldeans, a non-Arab ethnic group who speak Aramaic, constitute about 5% of Iraq's population. About 15,000 Detroit Iraqis are Shiite Muslims, members of Iraq's majority religious group. Most of these Shiites fled Iraq in recent years to escape persecution from Mr. Hussein, who leads the secular Baath Party but is a member of the Sunni Muslim minority. Starting in about 1982, the U.S. viewed Mr. Hussein, then fighting a war with Iran, as a strategic partner. U.S. efforts to maintain relations with him continued until he invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Until recently, many of Detroit's Chaldeans and Muslims feared speaking out against Mr. Hussein, frightened of reprisals against their relatives in Iraq. Now, emboldened by the war, they're more vocal. Several Iraqi-American groups say they plan to seek a full accounting of their missing loved ones after the war. They envision open trials, input from U.S. law groups and Internet databases cataloging the missing. They're also debating whether lower-level officials in Iraq should be held accountable for the disappearances they oversaw.

* * *

As Iraqis here become more outspoken, some simmering tensions within the community are surfacing. Members of the Iraqi Democratic Union of America, a longtime anti-Hussein group of Chaldeans based in suburban Detroit, say several thousand local Iraqis have supported the dictator over the years. If those people are invited to help in reconstruction, the Democratic Union and other activists say they will protest. Still, Nabil Roumayah, an officer in the group, says he is forgiving of church leaders who took Mr. Hussein's money early in his regime, "when not a lot of people saw through Saddam."

Those who knew of the regime's tyranny often kept quiet. Souad Mansour, 52, says she was scared to mention publicly that her brother and sister disappeared two decades ago. Family members in Iraq, she says, "always told me, 'Don't open your mouth in America, because they'll kill us.' " Now, the former Kmart clerk clutches black-and-white photos of her missing siblings, Tamader and Khalid, and speaks of her brother's sharp intelligence and her sister's green eyes.

Tamader was abducted from her engineering job in 1979 after she criticized the regime. Khalid, a college student who Ms. Mansour says had compared Mr. Hussein with Adolf Hitler, disappeared a year later. Ms. Mansour believes that if her siblings weren't killed early on, they were murdered in recent years to ease prison overpopulation.

Rumors about the missing are common in Detroit's Iraqi community, with some members saying the people who've disappeared may emerge as bargaining chips by Mr. Hussein's regime. For many people, the uncertainty over loved ones can be debilitating. Among Detroit's Iraqi Shiite refugees, many of whom were tortured themselves, "a sizable number are suffering from extreme emotional depression," says Hassan Jaber of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services.

Father Yasso often counsels refugees who are new to Sacred Heart. He says a mother and daughter-in-law told him they had asked to see their loved one in an Iraqi jail. A few hours later, authorities knocked on their door. "You asked to see your son? Here is your son," the mother was told. The man had been chopped into seven pieces. Another body part was given to the wife. "Here is your husband."

If, for some reason, you needed any further reason to pray for our Iraqi brothers and sisters, you now have it.

To end on a "stranger than fiction" note, ABC-7 here reported last night that Saddam's charitable endeavors amongst local Chaldeans earned him the key to the City of Detroit from then-Mayor Coleman Young (scroll down to click on the story, which requires RealPlayer to access).