Harper's Weekly email newsletter

The always-surprising Harper's Weekly email starts off with bad news about Iraq:

In Hillah, Iraq, a man promising work lured day-laborers into a minivan, then blew it up, killing 22 people. "The ground was covered with the remains of people and blood," said a laborer, "and survivors ran in all directions." Thirty people were killed in attacks in Mosul, Baquba, and Baghdad, four American security contractors and an Austrian were kidnapped in Basra, and a deputy health minister was kidnapped in Baghdad. "Where is the government?" yelled a woman in Mashtal, after multiple bombs killed 11 civilians. "Women and children were killed. God is great, God is great." Senator John McCain said that American troops in Iraq were "fighting and dying for a failed policy"; Henry Kissinger said that he didn't believe a military victory in Iraq is possible; and Army Specialist James Barker admitted that he had raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and helped murder her family in March 2006. Tony Blair told Al Jazeera that western intervention in Iraq had been "pretty much of a disaster."

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