Iraq Closes Al Jazeera Office

Here's the story.

It was obvious this was coming. Iraqi PM Allawi had threatened to do this before unless al Jazeera "played ball" with the administration line.

But it's wrong. It just helps confirm for the Iraqis, the Arab world, and the rest of the world that America is an empire, that we try to control the truth through the media, and that Allawi is simply our puppet.

We went into Iraq beating the drum of freedom, and freedom is really quite the last thing we have given them. I don't think our leaders ever meant to offer freedom; it was just a good spin.

But I think many Americans believed our government, that we were "rescuing" Iraqis from the grip of Saddam. It sounded noble.

I wish I could have believed it.

There's the rub. I take no enjoyment in feeling my government is run by people who are careless with the truth and the lives of our soldiers and Iraq's - and Afghanistan's and other countries - civilians, that their agenda is not that of the American people.