Foreign Fighters Wed in Iraq?

A late night wedding or a safe house for foreign fighters in Iraq?

The details are covered in all the news outlets and all over the blogosphere right now, so I have nothing new to add in that department. I do want to emphasize something I've been posting in comments at various blogs, especially over at Counterspin Central.

Distilled, it goes something like this: Abu Ghraib has destroyed any credibility we may have retained in the Middle East.

The upshot? Regardless of what really happened at 3:00am in the far desert of Iraq, the destruction of a safe house or the massacre of a wedding party, whatever BushCo. says about it has no currency with the Middle East press or the public. In fact it may have less currency here in the US as well as we've already seen the lengths the administration will go to make the issue of prisoner abuse go away.

Cover-up, denial, keeping the ICRC from unannounced inspections, and now trying to foist the whole thing off on a handful of low-ranking soldiers; this has all been disastrous to our attempts to show our best face in the region. Dissembling is too mild for what's gone on over abu Ghraib, the lies and the deception are spread widely throughout the upper echelons of the military and throughout BushCo. Now this. Where are the gun-camera tapes from the helicopters involved in this? Where are the Tactical Operation Center logs that would probably show the activity taking place just prior to and during the operation? Where are the pilots involved?

Not that these things need to be served up on a plate for every incident like this, but if they exist and the are exculpatory, why not use them? Why the dismissive denials when our credibility is so diminished? It can only make the Iraqis and the rest of the region suspicious. And we've certainly not given them any reason lately to not suspect something's amiss.