Patrick Cockburn in Kirkuk adds frightening context to the mainstream media reports on Tuesday’s execution of Saddam’s VP, Taha Yassin Ramadan, at the leftist website CounterPunch. We’ve been following Cockburn for awhile, and consider his reports essential for understanding Iraq. Mainstream media often does a great job reporting Iraq, but it spent too many years giving the Bush administration the benefit of doubt. Now it’s playing catch up. The longterm critics who’ve been following the war for years matter now more than ever, whether you agree with their politics or not.