Condoleezza Rice: No Regrets That False Reports Of WMD Led To Iraq War

Staff Sgt. Eric Alva On USMC Gen. Amos

Michael Luongo Returns To Baghdad

This week Gay City News launches a four-part series from Michael Luongo in which he examines "what changed and what didn't" since he last investigated gay life in Iraq in 2007. Here's an excerpt from the first installment:

This visit would be full of stark contrasts. It was as if there were two different Baghdads — at least. I would interview men from Sadr City, one of the poorest, most dangerous districts, who talked about friends killed by sprays of bullets in drive-by shootings, their gathering places firebombed, their names posted on lists, others raped and disappeared by militia-infested police squadrons at checkpoints. I would see a hospital where the bodies of gay men had been dumped, their anuses closed shut from a heavy glue used to torture them. I would visit a safe house, chatting with gay men and transgender Iraqis who hid for safety, yet at the same time were welcoming and life-affirming, teaching me gay Arabic slang and joking about sex with gay Saddam-look-alikes.

And I would meet other men from different parts of Baghdad, young, fashionable, masculine, with far less to fear, who did in fact cruise along the colorful banks of the Tigris on Abu Nuwaz Street and spend their evenings at fashionable cafés popular among gays in West Baghdad, flirting with men they met through the website Manjam as they sat back in comfortable seats visible from the street. I would grow to fall in love with a newly vibrant Baghdad. Not that I didn’t still have much to fear as a visiting gay journalist — from conversations that could be tapped to entrapment, spies, and the bullets of panicked Iraqi soldiers.

Read the entire first installment.

The Iraq War May Be Over, But Don't Forget The Lies That Got Us There

Watch every minute of this.

FLASHBACK: 2005 Mehlmann Cartoon

Ken Mehlman even tried to shift the blame for the invasion of Iraq.

Obama Announces End Of Combat Operations In Iraq As Of August 31st

Today President Obama announced that combat operations in Iraq will cease on August 31st, with a transitional occupation force to remain for another year.

“As a candidate for President, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end. Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy for Iraq and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. And I made it clear that by August 31, 2010 America’s combat mission in Iraq would end. That is exactly what we are doing—as promised, and on schedule.” The president says that by the end of the month more than 90,000 troops will have come home from Iraq since he took office. “As agreed to with the Iraqi government, we will maintain a transitional force until we remove all our troops from Iraq by the end of next year,” Obama said of the 50,000 transitional force that will remain, “During this period, our forces will have a focused mission—supporting and training Iraqi forces, partnering with Iraqis in counterterrorism missions, and protecting our civilian and military efforts.”

Meanwhile the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan continues to increase.

IRAQ: Army Orders Soldier To Remove Anti-Gay Facebook Video

A U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq is being investigated for posted a Facebook video in which he mocks two young Iraqi boys, asking if they are little "faggots" who are good at gay sex and whether they will grow up to be terrorists. Army officials have ordered the solider to remove the video from his page, but it has already been widely copied elsewhere.

The soldier, Spc. Robert A. Rodriguez, posted the video with the title “future gay terrorist” with the description, “i got bored in iraq…so i kept myself entertained!” The person on the video (it’s unclear it is Spc. Rodriguez, although the description certainly makes it sound like it is) asks whether the two young boys are gay, using a gay slur, and if they engage in a sex act. Next, he asks, “You gonna grow up to be a terrorist?” while the boys give a thumbs up, presumably not understanding the question. One soldier who WRAL played the video to called it “stupidity and boredom” and the army’s official response so far is that the video is “disgraceful” and the matter is “currently under investigation.”

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) Introduces The "War Is Making You Poor Act"

Rep. Alan Grayson proposes a bill that:

* Limits the amount of funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
* Eliminates the federal income tax on the first $35,000 of every American’s income ($70,000 for married couples)
* Cuts the Federal deficit by $15.9 billion

The bill requires the president to fund the wars from the $549 billion budget for defense spending in FY 2011. “There is no longer any need to go beyond the exorbitant base defense budget," Grayson said. "It is not necessary. Enough is enough."

Not a chance in hell of passing, but at least somebody is screaming about war spending. Watch this.