The Iraq News

Fifth Anniversary Edition

Ten shy of four thousand members of the American military have lost their lives in Iraq. The first 3,990 of those did not have to die and the ten more that will soon die and bring this total to a mindblowing 4,000 do not have to die either. The ones that will likely die on the way to 5,000 and beyond do not have to die. The untolled masses of Iraqis that will be killed, do not need to be. All it would take to end this is a few words spoken into a telephone by George W. Bush. Just a few words. But, instead, the words we hear from him are "it was worth it".

The democratic majority in Congress ruthlessly squandered the opportunity to defund the OCCUPATION, so now, Congress can only end it with the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. These things sound impossible. They are not. They can happen right now. Today. It's a matter of will. Waiting another year is obviously a tragic mistake.

We continue to be told that a we just need to hold out for political reconciliation. It's never going to happen. Never was that more obvious than yesterday at a national reconciliation convention in Iraq that was boycotted by some of the most important political players in the country.

Here's the Iraq News:

• A lot of Americans like John McCain. Somehow, they fail to grasp that he's a complete hack who does not understand Iraq at all. On his radio show today Brian Leher spoke about the subject.
• Several Democratic congressional candidates have laid out an impressive plan that will end US involvement in Iraq and then tie up some loose ends like restoration of our image in the world and supplying humanitarian relief. The pledge also would restore the constitution, bolster the military and advance energy independence (more at America Blog).
• Today Dick Cheney is fishing off the coast of Iran. That's not symbolism--symbolically Cheney has been fishing off the coast of Iran since 2004. He's literally fishing off the coast of Iran. No word on whether he accidentally hooked Harry Whittington with an errant cast.
• Speaking of Cheney, he doesn't care what two-thirds of the American people think about Iraq, and he's not shy about it.
• Wikileaks has become an invaluable resource. Just browsing today I found two military "Lessons Learned" reports. One from operations in Mosul between 22 September - 19 October 2004involving the Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The other from the "notorious" (report's language) Stryker Brigade Combat Team "Operation Arrowhead Bizzard" in Samarra, Iraq, 2004. Now all I gotta do is read them.
• Police arrested more than 40 protesters in San Fransisco today.
• Dennis Kucinich recorded a video statement about Iraq.
• Iraq coverage has dipped to a horrendous 3% of all news stories in February. I'm guilty of this too. Looking back at my own posts, it's almost all campaign all the time. It's a disease.
• Question Girl at Blue herald 2.0 looks at some of the things on which we could have spent the money we poured into Iraq. Free gas for everyone for 1.2 years? No thanks! Nearly 3,000 high schools? No. Dlindorff at Democrats.Com weighs in with more on the cost of OCCUPATION. For even more on the costs, because there's a lot of costs to go around, CBS looks at fraud and waste in Iraq.
• Al Jazeera spoke to Hans Blix about the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Part one here. Part two here.
• Adam Tanner, writing on Common Dreams, looks at the diplomats that walked away.
• The tireless Scott Horner took a brief break from hammering Karl Rove over Don Siegelman (maybe he was multitasking) to talk to Aram Roston about his book about Ahmad Chalabi, one of the primary instigators of the Iraq invasion.

TAGS: Iraq, Dick Cheney, Protest, Antiwar