A little Iraq reading

If you now support, or at any time in the past have supported, the war in Iraq ... pray we don't kill Muqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand Shiite cleric who's been stirring up trouble for the U.S. occupation. Link goes to Middle East expert and history professor Juan Cole, who explains why.

Actually, whether you support or oppose the war, cross your fingers this doesn't happen. The worse the situation gets there, the more obvious Bush's incompetence as Commander in Chief becomes ... but it's not right that soldiers have to die for Americans to realize this, and every new death (47 so far this month) is nothing more or less than a horror, political calculus be damned.