Congratu-fucking-lations

"One-third of us are dying,
one-third of us are fleeing
and one-third of us will be widows"

Again, I dispair at our collective inability to universally realize what a gigantic crime we have enabled, allowed, and/or perpetrated (pick your modifier) in Iraq -- generations will curse us for it. Despite the fact that I opposed the war, and have consistently opposed its execution, I still feel and share in the collective guilt. It is a stain upon the United States. Such is what we have done...here is Pulitizer Prize winning reporter Anthony Shadid having arived back in Baghdad:

It had been almost a year since I was in the Iraqi capital, where I worked as a reporter in the days of Saddam Hussein, the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and the occupation, guerrilla war and religious resurgence that followed. On my return, it was difficult to grasp how atomized and violent the 1,250-year-old city has become. Even on the worst days, I had always found Baghdad's most redeeming quality to be its resilience, a tenacious refusal among people I met over three years to surrender to the chaos unleashed when the Americans arrived. That resilience is gone, overwhelmed by civil war, anarchy or whatever term could possibly fit. Baghdad now is convulsed by hatred, paralyzed by suspicion; fear has forced many to leave. Carnage its rhythm and despair its mantra, the capital, it seems, no longer embraces life.

"A city of ghosts," a friend told me, her tone almost funereal.