VP Debate Reax

As indicated below, I was watching Yanks-Twinkies Game 1, though I did manage to catch some of the VP debate during commercials (which, the game being on Fox, were plentiful).

The best moment I saw (not necessarily the best moment overall) was when Cheney attacked Edwards' assertion that the US was bearing 90% of the coalition casualties in Iraq, pointing out that the figure ignores the contributions of free Iraqi forces, both police and national guardsmen, to the fight. If you factor in the Iraqis, he pointed out, Americans make up only 50% of casualties.

There's a kind of subtle racism, a kind of Orientalism, in the 90% figure. Iraqis aren't subjects, aren't independent actors working for the freedom and security of their country. They're objects, to be acted upon by white Westerners. Insurgents kill Iraqi police and national guardsmen by the hundreds, but that's just background noise. Third-worlders killing third-worlders, brown people killing brown people: so has it ever been, so shall it ever be. They don't count as allies.

But of course they are our allies, the most important kind we could have in Iraq. And the 90% figure denigrates them in the worst possible way.