Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow is on tour promoting her new book, Standing up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times. Amy co-authored this book was with her brother David Goodman. I had the opportunity to hear Amy speak last week while she was in St. Louis.

Amy’s asked a simple question: “What would happen if we freely published the images from Iraq for one week in our mainstream newspapers?” I agree with that the outcome is quite predictable. There would be a public outcry, the politicians would finally “get it,” the American occupation of Iraq would quickly wind down. Unfortunately, we don’t have a mainstream news media that has the guts to publish those photos, certainly not in prominent places. It’s surreal that the public is not being kept up to date on the results of a project on which such vast amounts of money are being spent. Instead of seeing everyday photos of what’s on the street, we hear specious claims that everything is going well.

You know, if everything were going that well, let’s have a big parade right through the middle of Baghdad (not the Green Zone). George Bush should lead that parade, to celebrate how well we’ve stabilized Iraq. After this big celebration winds through the main streets and Americans see how well things are going, perhaps we’ll have a national consensus about whether the United States is intellectually and morally qualified to attempt to improve Iranian culture and politics.

The first chapter …