Meanwhile...

... back in Iraq.

A question: Is 56 dead bystanders an acceptable price to pay for one rather dubious hit on a "known terrorist"?

Earlier this week, U.S. forces killed 56 civilians with three airstrikes, and thought it was worth crowing about—because a man with the not especially unique name of Abu Islam was among the women and children and innocent bystanders who got in the way of the "precision" bombs.

Al-jazeera recounts a U.S. statement—"At approximately 0220 GMT, two bombs were dropped on a second house in Husayba, occupied by Abu Islam, a known terrorist." Al-jazeera adds an important qualifier missing from the official statement: "Abu Islam is an alias used by several fighters."

The L.A. Times reports this interesting detail: "Residents set the death toll for the bombings at 56, and said U.S. warplanes also attacked rescuers attempting to extract survivors from the debris."

Antiwar sentiment is growning here, and that is of course a positive, but one has to wonder about the lack of reaction to an atrocity of this magnitude—a neglect that was apparent even before Katrina pushed this story off the front pages.