If you read only one gripping, short first-person essay trying to make sense of how America's last significant gains in a dumb war were reversed last week, make it "Tell Me Again, Why Did My Friends Die in Iraq?" by Paul Szoldra.

Bush-era U.S. diplomat, U.N. hater and Iraq war-lover John Bolton had a terrible trip to "Manila Philippines" last weekend, but if you can front him "($2,550.00 USD )," he'll totally get out of this fix.

This is an MRAP, a mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle. It didn't exist until well into the Iraq War, when we went to war with the Army we had, and that Army's Humvees didn't survive very well. We bought a lot of MRAPs. The Iraq War is over. Now, how many of these MRAPs can we put your police down for?

We know what's wrong with Veteran's Day. We know this country is crawling with jobless, homeless veterans of America's constant occupations and invasions. We know there aren't enough jobs for these people already burdened with so much, and no labor market demand for the "skill set" of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and existential dread. And yet they went out there and committed whatever insanity they were commanded to commit, in the name of America, even if it never mattered to 99% of Americans one way or the other. Instead of the usual Veteran's Day garbage of saying "uhh ... sorry" to those who suffered for empire, how about giving the veterans the only thing that can hold them together: a mission.

As many as 500 prisoners, most of them senior al-Qaeda members awaiting execution, reportedly escaped from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison last night during what Reuters is calling a "military-style assault to free them."

Ten years ago today, TV carried one of the most iconic, if stage-managed and misremembered, images of the invasion of Iraq: Moments before toppling the statue of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdos Square, several Marines used a United States flag to cover Saddam's face before prudently swapping it for an Iraqi standard.

Ten years ago today, somewhere south of Baghdad, the editor and columnist Michael Kelly became the first journalist to die in the invasion of Iraq. His Humvee, reportedly under fire, went off the road and rolled into a canal. And there, inside some two and a half tons of the world's finest military equipment, he drowned.

Veteran journalist Greg Mitchell is claiming an assigned piece he wrote for the Washington Post that outlined the failure of the media (including the Washington Post) in reporting on the lead-up to the Iraq War was killed by editors, who then ran a piece by Paul Farhi that defends their coverage instead.

More Iraq guilt: Andrew Sullivan says he got it wrong because he's a hothead who mistakes grudges for principles. Noted.

"I supported the Iraq War, and I'm sorry." Ezra Klein's apology is one of the less weaselly ones you'll find.

Ten years ago today, President George W. Bush announced the U.S. invasion of Iraq, to "disarm" the country, "free its people," and transform it into a "united, stable and free country."

Ten years ago next week, the United States invaded Iraq. The ensuing decade of war would destroy Iraq, kill hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers, and cost trillions of dollars. It was not worth it. Not even close. A new accounting from the Costs of War project at Brown University lays bare just how much blood and treasure ten years of the War in Iraq has cost. For example:

Six dozen Iraqis who were imprisoned by Americans at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere during the Iraq War sued a private U.S. contractor that provided employees to the prison. According to the NYT, "The plaintiffs complained of 'heinous acts' and torture at the hands of military and contractor personnel, including rape and sexual assault, beatings, forced nudity, humiliation and isolation." Not to worry, though—they are being fairly compensated for their discomfort.

"MUSLIM RAGE," screams Newsweek's new cover story about last week's violent anti-American protests. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the well-known anti-Islam activist, is here to tell "us" (The_West) how to "end it." And it's true, isn't it? All Muslims are constantly raging about everything. So to pay tribute to Ali's article — which describes the protesters as "the mainstream of contemporary Islam" — and the subtle, smart cover that accompanies it, we've collected 13 striking, powerful images of MUSLIM RAGE.

In an op-ed published today, Archbishop and Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu does not mince words in his condemnation of the Iraq War:

The U.S. of A, the greatest country on earth, has legally executed 27 people this year, and more than 1,300 since we resurrected the death penalty back in 1976. Mr. Presidential Candidates, what will YOUR administration do to ensure that the USA is not eclipsed by nations like Iraq and Gambia, who are trying to Even Greater Than Us, in a "killing their own citizens" sense?

Here's the headline splash — as of publishing time, still up — on Fox Sports' Olympic Wrestling page. That's Hamid Soryan, who won a gold medal for Iran in Greco-Roman wrestling. Baghdad is the capital of Iraq. Next time they might want to consult a map.

Gina Chon, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was forced to resign after emails were leaked showing that she was romantically involved with a Bush Administration official while covering the war in Iraq, defended herself today in an email sent to friends and colleagues.

The Wall Street Journal announced today that reporter Gina Chon, who was revealed by recently leaked emails to have slept with a National Security Council Iraq expert while covering that country, has resigned.

"You can't fuck the elephants while you're covering the circus" is an old journalistic maxim—often attributed to the Washington Post's Ben Bradlee the New York Times' Abe Rosenthal—delineating the boundaries of appropriate reporter-source relationships. Sleep with whomever you want, in other words, with the exception of the people you write about. If recently released email exchanges between the Wall Street Journal's Gina Chon and a former National Security Council official turn out to be as real as they seem, then it looks like Chon fucked a big ol' elephant.