Gates Signals Endless War in Afghanistan

Canada should consider extension of Afghanistan mission,
Gates suggests

From CBC.ca:

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates hinted on Thursday that Canada should extend its military mission in Afghanistan past the 2011 scheduled end date.

Gates, who arrived at Canada's main base in Kandahar on Thursday, was asked by a reporter whether Canada should continue its mission

"The countries that have partnered with the United States and Afghanistan here in [regional command] south have made an extraordinary commitment and proportionately none have worked harder or sacrificed more than the Canadians," said Gates, who arrived at Canada's main base in Kandahar on Thursday.

"They have been outstanding partners for us and all I can tell you is has been the case for a very long time, the longer we can have Canadian soldiers as our partners the better it is."

Canada has been a coalition partner in the occupation of Afghanistan since 2001. I think the original idea of going in there was to catch Osama Bin Laden, but mission creep has turned the project into something else entirely. OBL is now in Pakistan if he even exists. One other thing - almost as soon as we got there an American pilot high on speed killed four Canadian soldiers by dropping a bomb on them. Then the US pulled a large number of troops out of Afghanistan and redeployed them to Iraq, making the remaining allied troops' mission much much more difficult.

Most Canadians have no idea why we're even in Afghanistan anymore, and anybody who's looked at the mission would conclude that we've been played by our trigger-happy imperialist southern neighbours. Like Iraq there doesn't seem to be any exit strategy, nor even any conditions defined under which the mission (if, without objectives, you can even use that word anymore) can be concluded.

I think it's fair to ask a few questions. First off I'd like to ask General Gates - if this 'mission' should be extended, why? And for how long exactly? By 2011 we'll have been there for a full decade, with little or nothing to show for it other than the fact that we've driven the Al Qaeda training camps further up into the mountains on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. On the downside we've provided ready-made propaganda to the other side so that those camps will be full of eager new recruits far into the foreseeable future. Heckuva job if you ask me.

I have questions for Canada's leaders too. Whoever they may turn out to be. Do we really want to be perceived by the rest of the world as being the lapdogs of American imperialist ambitions? This strikes me as being an extension not only of the war, but of the long french kiss that Stephen Harper has been applying to George W. Bush's ass for his entire term in office. By the end of January Bush will be gone, and Harper may have left the Prime Minister's Office as well. Is this a legacy we want to keep alive?

I wish I had questions about Barack Obama's intentions in Afghanistan. Sadly, he's made himself clear on that score.

CBC's David Common said Gates comments should not be considered a formal request, but that they are significant because the defence secretary is staying on in that role under Barack Obama's administration. As well, the president-elect has said getting more troops to Afghanistan is a priority.

Gates also told reporters that the Pentagon will move three brigades into Afghanistan by next summer,. the most specific he's been on when he'd begin meeting the requests of ground commanders asking for 20,000 troops.

The extra troops are expected to be deployed to Kabul to secure the capital before moving to Kandahar, considered the epicentre of violence and where most of the 2,500 Canadian soldiers in the region are based.

Should this request ever be formalized, I'm hoping Canada has the good sense to answer, "HELL, NO!!" And I say that as someone who initially supported the idea of going into Afghanistan, ousting the Taliban and pursuing the perpetrators of 9-11. Turns out that like everything else Bush the Lesser has done in the last eight years, the Afghanistan mission was a boondoggle based on a lie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE: Here's a news story from today's New York Times that adds another compelling reason to get the hell out of Afghanistan ASAP.

U.S. Forces Kill 6 Afghan Police Officers by Mistake

KABUL, Afghanistan

United States forces killed six Afghan police officers and one civilian on Wednesday during an assault on the hide-out of a suspected Taliban commander, the authorities said, in what an American military spokesman called a “tragic case of mistaken identity.” Thirteen Afghan officers were also wounded in the episode.

A statement issued jointly by the American and the Afghan military commands said a contingent of police officers fired on United States forces after the Americans had successfully overrun the hide-out, killing the suspected Taliban commander and detaining another man. The Americans had already entered the hide-out, a building in Qalat, the capital of the southern province of Zabul, when they came under attack by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades from a compound nearby.

Multiple attempts to deter the engagement were unsuccessful. The Americans, concerned about women and children hiding in the building they had taken, returned fire using small arms and aircraft. After the firefight, the Americans discovered they had been shooting at Afghan police officers. But the deputy police chief of Qalat said the police officers had been in a police station when they came under American fire, which destroyed the station.

Friendly Fire = the most tragic of all oxymorons. This kind of stuff stops happening the day we leave.

TAGS: Endless War, Orwellian Nightmare, Coalition of the Gormless

The Surge to Nowhere

The goal of the architects of the surge was to extend the life-sucking occupation in Iraq beyond the Presidency of George W. Bush. In an op-ed called "The Surge to Nowhere", International Relations Professor Andrew Bacevich takes apart the rhetoric of the surge.

From The Washington Post:

As the fifth anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom nears, the fabulists are again trying to weave their own version of the war. The latest myth is that the "surge" is working.

In President Bush's pithy formulation, the United States is now "kicking ass" in Iraq. The gallant Gen. David Petraeus, having been given the right tools, has performed miracles, redeeming a situation that once appeared hopeless. Sen. John McCain has gone so far as to declare that "we are winning in Iraq." While few others express themselves quite so categorically, McCain's remark captures the essence of the emerging story line: Events have (yet again) reached a turning point. There, at the far end of the tunnel, light flickers. Despite the hand-wringing of the defeatists and naysayers, victory beckons.

[skipping]

In only one respect has the surge achieved undeniable success: It has ensured that U.S. troops won't be coming home anytime soon. This was one of the main points of the exercise in the first place. As AEI military analyst Thomas Donnelly has acknowledged with admirable candor, "part of the purpose of the surge was to redefine the Washington narrative," thereby deflecting calls for a complete withdrawal of U.S. combat forces.

(more)

In May of last year Bacevich's son, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army also named Andrew, was killed by a suicide bomber while serving in Iraq. He was 27, and one of 3,921 members of the U.S. military killed since the invasion.

TAGS: Iraq OCCUPATION, Escalation, Troop Levels, Rhetoric

The Iraq News

A Plea to Iowa Voters, al-Sadr Seeks Reconciliation, Suicide Bombings on the Rise, More

Iowa, Iowa, Iowa.

Even I am totally psyched that tonight we officially begin the long task of voting in Chimpy McFlightsuit's successor. The hysteria has reached such a fever pitch, that over the last few months it has completely eclipsed media coverage of Iraq.

The violence is not over. The gains made by the escalation are attributable to temporary, unsustainable conditions and in fact, the trends in violence, such as suicide bombings, are up.

Here's some Iraq News:

• 3,905 gone.
• McClatcthy Newspapers blog Inside Iraq issues the following plea to voters in Iowa: "On the occasion of starting the first stage of American Election (Iowa caucus), and in the name of Iraqi people I would like to adjure the American people to think of Iraqi people and remember all the mistakes that happened in Iraq before directing toward the election boxes. Please choose who has the ability to correct these mistakes." [More]
• Sometime this month or next month, the ticking clock on Muqtada al-Sadr's promise of a cease fire will expire and the ridiculous mirage of success being projected at the American people by the media could very well go with it if al-Sadr doesn't see what he considers political progress (h/t Russ). On Saturday, al-Sadr called for reconciliation between his followers and Iraqi security forces in the holy city of Karbala, which is an auspicious development. NPR reports on al-Sadr's break from the fighting--he's been studying to become an ayatollah.
• In the most recent of a string of attacks, yesterday, in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, a suicide bomber jumped onto a car driven by Iraqi security forces and detonated himself.
• The Iraq government may release 5,000 prisoners, but not terrorists... oh, or homosexuals. Some democracy we're building over there. Apparently it's not going so well for the Christians either.
  
• Iraqi deaths were up 26% in 2007.
  
• When the President pocket vetoed the Defense Authorization Bill (despite Senate being in session) he took a fair bit of change out of the troops pockets. The Iraqi government thanks him though.

Sadly, there's much more news where that came from. It never ends.

TAGS: Iraq OCCUPATION, Muqtada al-Sadr, George W. Bush

Lies, Damned Lies, and Dead Lies

Bush Lie Dispenser, originally uploaded by azrainman.

The Bush administration has presented you and me with some spectacularly false information. Consider this mini list of "untruths"...

• Saddam Hussein and Iraq were linked to the terrorist acts on 9/11/2001.
• Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
• The military conflict would be short (5 days, 5 weeks, maybe 5 months).
• The mission was accomplished.
• The war would pay for itself.

The complete list is so much longer. (That's 7 good Bush Lie links, not including Crooks and Liars, which tracks the whole crooked lot of them.) Most recently, there are these last two matters of Bush botched record keeping:

• The reported number of brain injuries linked to the conflict in Iraq.
• The number of US Iraq war/occupation deaths.
  

The number of brain injuries inflicted on US personnel affects the ultimate long term cost of the war and occupation, something I have been fretting over for a while now, and I'm not alone. Thus, the injury and cost untruths are intertwined.

The last item in the list is blood curdling, at least for me. In a recent edition of CounterPunch, Mike Whitney asserted that, "The Pentagon has been concealing the true number of American casualties in the Iraq War. The real number exceeds 15,000 and CBS News can prove it."

Whitney tells the tale of CBS's Investigative Unit and its experience obtaining misinformation from the Department of Defense (DOD). Whitney's article reveals that CBS submitted a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to the DOD for a story on military suicide. After a 4 month wait, CBS received a DOD document indicating, "that between 1995 and 2007-- there were 2,200 suicides among 'active duty' soldiers."

Trusting the DOD about as much as I do and realizing the DOD was only answering part of their question, CBS went on to collect veteran suicide data from 45 states and learned that in 2005 alone there were 120 suicides each week for a total of 6,256 suicides among those who had served in just that one year.

Active and retired military personnel, mostly young veterans between the ages of 20 to 24, are returning from combat and killing themselves in record numbers. We can assume that "multiple-tours of duty" in a war-zone have precipitated a mental health crisis of which the public is entirely unaware and which the Pentagon is in total denial.

Adding these 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to the 3,865 combat casualties "officially" reported by the DOD yields a sum of 10,121 military deaths. Furthermore, even a conservative "low-ball" estimate of 2004 and 2006 suicide figures indicates that US military casualties from the Iraq war and ongoing occupation now exceed 15,000.

That's right; 15,000 dead US servicemen and women in a war that--as yet--has no legal or moral justification.

CBS interviewed the head of mental health at the Department of Veteran Affairs, Dr. Ira Katz, who attempted to minimize the suicide increase, but Whitney doesn't seem to buy it.

Maybe Katz is right...Maybe it's perfectly normal for young men and women to return from combat, sink into inconsolable depression, and kill themselves at greater rates than they were dying on the battlefield. Maybe it's normal for the Pentagon to abandon them as soon as soon they return from their mission so they can blow their brains out or hang themselves with a garden hose in their basement. Maybe it's normal for politicians to keep funding wholesale slaughter while they brush aside the casualties they have produced by their callousness and lack of courage. Maybe it is normal for the president to persist with the same, bland lies that perpetuate the occupation and continue to kill scores of young soldiers who put themselves in harm's-way for their country.

If you want to know my personal opinion (which is consistent with what some officials in a position to know have claimed), the Bush administration has not misled; it has not misinformed; it has not been mistaken. It has lied. They are crooks. They are liars. They are war criminals. And they provided incomplete information about the number of military suicides with the intent to mislead, as they have on every other matter.

To say that the "official" information provided by the Bush administration cannot be trusted is an understatement. And heaven knows, I wouldn't want to be accused of that. I'm just trying to figure out which one of them will blame the soldier suicide surge on the Democrats.

And by the way, it's not normal. You know what else isn't normal? Taking it lying down.

Take lying down~ to hear or yield without protest, contradiction, or resistance: I refuse to take such outrageous lies lying down.

Agitate. Find a way.

TAGS: Iraq, Casualties, Suicide, Bush, Lies, Brain Injury, War, Occupation

Still Fortunate After All These Wars

Do you want to know what I think about the U.S. military asking wounded soldiers to return the signing bonus incentive the military had offered them to get them to sign up for military service in the first place?

This is what I think...

More videos here, here, and here.

Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, they're red, white and blue.
And when the band plays hail to the chief,
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, lord,

It ain't me, it aint me, I ain't no senators son, son.
It ain't me, it aint me; I ain't no fortunate one, no,

Yeah!
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, don't they help themselves, oh.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes,

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no millionaires son, no.
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no.

Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war, lord,
And when you ask them, how much should we give?
Ooh, they only answer more! more! more! yoh,

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no military son, son.
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, one.

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no no no,
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son, no no no.

~Fortunate Son, CCR

Roy Zimmerman has similar thoughts...

TAGS: Roy Zimmerman, CCR, Fortunate Son, Signing Bonuses, Bush

The Iraq News

'Limited' Accountability, Displaced Iraqis Ignored, Embassy Construction Update, Forget Poland, More

The war in Iraq was illegal. There was and still is gruesome carnage on a massive scale. Now it's an occupation, not a war. There's also a lot of fighting that looks like war, but, despite the air raids, bombed houses and buildings, missing limbs, mass graves and melted faces, it's really an occupation. It will end when we want it to. There can be no winners.

Currently the U.S. military death toll from the war that's over and the ongoing, current, happening now OCCUPATION stands at:



Here's the Iraq news:

• Harry Reid actually said this: "We're going to continue to do the right thing for the American people by having limited accountability for the president and not a blank check." Thanks for that limited accountability, Harry! Give 'em limited Hell! Hopefully the number of Democratic senators who vote for you next time you stand for majority leader is very limited, like zero would be good.
• 4.2 million displaced Iraqis are going ignored by the United States, Britain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia plans to close it's border with Iraq by building a $2 billion fence.
• The justice department is investigating why the budget for the biggest US embassy building in the world leaped from a staggering $592m to a brain-blistering $736m. The state department has no idea when it would be finished. Here's the answer--it'll be finished when we run out of money to funnel into it.
• Cliff Schecter is an observant dude. Here's what he noticed about the British withdrawal from Basra: "Hmmm. Britain leaves, and there's a 90% drop in violence. What in the world could that mean? What can we learn? There must be a lesson in there somewhere. There must." Cliff also noticed that Poland, a country we were once warned not to forget, has decided to forget about helping us in Iraq.
• Some people do not know when to shut up.
• It's been two years since Rep. John Murtha called for redeployment. He wrote about it yesterday on Huffington Post.

It's not going to stop.

VIDEO: The show Inside Iraq looks back on their one year of covering the war and OCCUPATION torn nation. (part two here)


TAGS: Iraq OCCUPATION, Tony Blair, Harry Reid, Saudi Arabia

What Happened to the Postwar Dream?

"We have this wonderful capacity in America to Hitlerize people. We had Hitler, and since Hitler we've had about 20 of them. Khrushchev and Mao and of course Stalin, and for a little while Gadhafi was our Hitler. And now we have this guy Ahmadinejad. The reality is, he's not nearly as powerful inside the country as we like to think he is. The Revolutionary Guards have direct control over the missile program and if there is a weapons program, they would be the ones running it. Not Ahmadinejad."--Seymour Hersh in an interview published Friday with Der Spiegel.

The march to war in Iran continues unabated. Well, actually according to Sy Hersh, the original rationale behind the march to war in Iran was completely abated--to the point of being abandoned. Nevertheless, the administration has a new rationale because no one was going to buy the WMD bait and switch again.

So are we supposed to buy into the shifting rationales for war approach again?

Is this a game?

Hersh thinks the White House thinks so.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Where does this feeling of urgency that the US has with Iran come from?

Hersh: Pressure from the White House. That's just their game.

How does one play the game?

Well, since Les Enrages.Org houses the prestigious Pink Floyd University, let's consult with the cannon.

From "Have a Cigar":

And did we tell you the name of the game, boy/We call it riding the gravy train.

Today the conductor of the 'war-with-Iran' gravy train is John Bolton.

But why do we keep following leaders down this road? A similar question was posed by Professor Roger Waters directly to Margaret Thatcher on my favorite Pink Floyd album The Final Cut on the song "The Postwar Dream":

Should we shout/should we scream/what happened to the postwar dream?
oh maggie, maggie what have we done?

Here's some insights from Rolling Stone's review of The Final Cut:

The Final Cut began as a modest expansion upon the soundtrack of the film version of The Wall, with a few new songs added and its release scheduled for the latter half of 1982... Around the same time, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, irked by the unseemly antics of an Argentine despot, dispatched British troops halfway around the world to fight and die for the Falkland Islands... Out of the jumbled obsessions of the original Wall album, he fastened on one primal and unifying obsession: the death of his father in the battle of Anzio in 1944. Thus, on The Final Cut, a child's inability to accept the loss of the father he never knew has become the grown man's refusal to accept the death politics that decimate each succeeding generation and threaten ever more clearly with each passing year to ultimately extinguish us all.

The album is dedicated to the memory of the long-lost Eric Fletcher Waters, and in one of its most memorable moments, his now-middle-aged son bitterly envisions a "Fletcher Memorial Home for incurable tyrants and kings," one and all welcome, be they pompous butchers in comic-opera uniforms or smug statesmen in expensive suits. He presents a ghastly processional: "... please welcome Reagan and Haig/Mr. Begin and friend, Mrs. Thatcher and Paisley/Mr. Brezhnev and party.... And," he coos, "now adding color, a group of anonymous Latin American meat packing glitterati." With these "colonial wasters of life and limb" duly assembled, Waters inquires, with ominous delicacy: "Is everyone in?/Are you having a nice time?/Now the final solution can be applied."

Waters realizes that all the Neanderthals will never be blown away. What concerns him more is the inexplicable extent of fighting in the world when there seems so little left to defend. In "The Gunners Dream," a dying airman hopes to the end that his death will be in the service of "the postwar dream," for which the album stands as a requiem–the hope for a society that offers "a place to stay/enough to eat," where "no one ever disappears ... and maniacs don't blow holes in bandsmen by remote control." But Waters, looking around him more than thirty-five years after the war's end, can only ask: "Is it for this that daddy died?"

(more)

Genration after generation the Thatchers and Boltons of the world order more Eric Fletcher Waterses off to die. Sure World War II was about Nazis and the Iraq War (and Iran Provocation) is about oil and contracts and petro-dollars. This is a major regression. The postwar dream was that the world could find a way to avoid annihilation even when war is defensive and easily justified. Our leaders are about to piss on the postwar dream over a war that's easy to avoid and difficult to justify.

Hersh is right. It's just games to them.

And by the way something, Jenna Bush, that is why we can't leave your dad alone. Not until his kind leaves the likes of Roger Waters's dad alone.

VIDEO: Pink Floyd - Postwar Dream

TAGS: Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, Iran, Seymour Hersh

Can We Stay

Until We're Finished Robbing You?

The Iraqi prime minister finally came out and said it. We can go. They even backed away from that comment which means they really meant it. Iraqis want us to just go. Of course we're not going anywhere until our corporations achieve all of their benchmarks.

Here's a list.

Jack all of Iraq's oil.

It's only one benchmark really. Stubborn Iraqis just don't want to let multinational companies take their lifeblood.

While they're wrangling the corporations we handed out no-bid deals to are perfectly content to suck the American defense budget dry, but when the benchmark is met, they will walk as if all they were ever doing is serving our national defense needs.


Here's an example of the intermittent fleecing: Halliburton is building our massive Vatican-sized embassy in Iraq. Some observers of the war have claim the size and expense of the embassy is proof that the U.S. plans to maintain a presence in Iraq forever. I'm not so sure. The embassy may be huge and expensive, but it's also a poorly constructed piece of crap. If we walk we won't be walking away from anything but a bad investment. You'd think that was Halliburton's plan in the first place. All that matters to them is that it's expensive.

TAGS: Oil, Iraq War, Halliburton.

Sheehan to Run Against Pelosi

..If Impeachment Stays Off the Table

If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn't initiate, or allow another Representative to initiate impeachment proceedings by July 23, Cindy Sheehan will run against Pelosi for her House seat in the 2008 election.

Is this political extortion? Nah, not really. If anything, it's an aggressive move designed to launch a campaign Sheehan probably wants anyway. Who can blame her? Pelosi and Reid have been shamefully timid in their attempts to stop the war since gaining the majority. Though a clear majority wants Cheney impeached, Dennis Kucinich's impeachment bill remains stalled.

It's way past time that Democrats in the leadership start paying a price for their weakness.

Of course, the two party system allows the Democrats' leaders to get away with alienating the voters that gave them their mandate, because Republicans are simply not an option. Losing Pelosi, and setting an example for what happens to those who don't represent the people vigilantly in the wake of an obvious imperative from the voters, in favor of a clear, bold voice like Sheehan sounds like an upgrade to me.

Not like Pelosi didn't have her chance. Maybe when this plays out the Democrats will get smart and elevate Dennis Kucinich or Tim Ryan to the position of Speaker and we can see what it's like to have some real leadership that won't let lying war criminals walk all over them.

TAGS: Impeachment, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Cindy Sheehan

Crossposted at Ice Station Tango.

The Iraq News

War Extremely Costly, Domenici Turns on Bush Iraq Policy, Iraq Like 1776, More

The Fourth of July has passed, meaning half of 2007 is gone. Time is flying by and the Congress we elected to end the war keeps not ending the war.

So, here's yet another edition of the Iraq News:

• As of Friday, July 6, 2007, the U.S. military death toll in Iraq stood at 3,598.
• The Iraq War might pay for itself as we were told going into it, but not in our lifetimes.
• Endangered GOP Senator Pete Domenici on Thursday proposed we bring home most troops by next March. Domenici happens to be up to his eyeballs in the U.S. Attorneys purge and a recent poll shows his popularity cratering. Nevertheless, this is clearly a welcome sign that finally the will of the people might be sinking in. You know who it didn't sink in very well with? Rick Santorum.
• If it wasn't for that meddling Superman, Australia would belong to Lex Luthor right now. And while they would be subjected to rule by a ruthless super genius, which is unfortunate, at least their foreign policy would make some modicum of sense.
• Bush is still a dumbass.
• IraqSlogger has a profile of Iraq's utterly messed up political scene.

AUDIO: Republican Senator Lamar Alexander signed on to the Baker-Hamilton amendment, which includes a date-certain for withdraw.
VIDEO: From 2003--Janeane Garofalo promises Bill O'Reilly that she'll apologize to President Bush when the Iraq War is a huge success.


Crossposted at Ice Station Tango.

TAGS: Iraq War, Pete Domenici, Rick Santorum, Australia

Defense Spending Is the Biggest Threat to National Security

UPDATE: Military Industrial Complex totally out of control, pays contractors to destroy multi-million dollar jets.

Bill Clinton pointed out something that's been bothering me since the 1980s. Missile Defense is a crock of shit. There, I said it. This terse statement may even lure a troll from a fake think tank over to this blog with a link to some garbage study. Whatever.

No one in power has the will to question these people. Credit to Bubba. He did open his mouth, and I don't know what the hell got into him. Hillary must be livid about it. Can't you hear the pundits now? "She's weak on defense! She's weak on defense! Bubba said the missile shield is a massive waste of money! They want us all to die!"

Weak on defense? It's impossible to be weak on defense in America. We spend more than the rest of the world. What we spend it on is often useless scams like missile defense or enough nukes to blow up the world a gazillion times. That kind of redundant spending is how you go out of business quickly.

Even the ice cream man knows this.



Recently John Murtha took a stab at private contractors in Iraq.

We got 126,000 contractors over there, some of them making more than the secretary of defense. How in the hell do you justify that?

Murtha was criticised for making the point that so many well compensated, non-military personnel in Iraq might just hurt the morale of the troops who keep getting their tours extended. It hurts the morale of citizens at home who were told the war would last "six days, six weeks, I doubt six months" and would pay for itself with Iraqi oil and wait until you see those cheap gas prices. Instead we see inflated contracts going suspiciously to companies that don't have to bid on them.

A congressional report released this week by Henry Waxman's committee called "More Dollars, Less Sense: Worsening Contracting Trends Under the Bush Administration," revealed that 50.2 percent of Iraq contracts awarded fell short of "full and open competition" to the tune of $206.9 billion. Taxpayers spent $103 billion on contractors in 2006, a 43 percent increase from 2005.

A contractor named Michael Hardiman wrote an op-ed criticizing Murtha. His article is all over the internet as if it's convincing in anyway.

Hardiman makes several astounding claims in his article.

By hiring contractors, the government can bring on experts in their fields, from personal security to linguistics to crop irrigation, without incurring three major long term costs of permanent government employees: pension, medical coverage and job security. When the job is done, the contractors are gone.

So, you contractors don't provide benefits for your employees who are risking their lives--916 contractor deaths since reconstruction began--and that you pass those savings along to the tax payers. Could you maybe help the taxpayers out a little more by bidding before you sign the contracts at the price you just made up. The price that covers your massive overhead. What does your CEO make? What benefits does he or she get?

The role of security contractors in Iraq has been to take the pressure off of our soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen by taking on defensive and protective responsibilities. This has reduced the need for ever longer deployments which keep our troops away from their families, and has saved the taxpayers money.

The length and frequency of deployments is at a breaking point. How can you even consider using that as a positive in your insane little argument?

The military industrial complex has it's foot on the throat of the American middle class and on the throats of billions of other poor people around the world. The redistribution of wealth upward continues and again, they're using fear, and if that doesn't shut you up, they'll frustrate you with endless spin. What these robbers fail to recognize is that soon all the wealth of America will be stolen--shipped off to Halliburton headquarters in Dubai or wherever crooks stash their booty. Then the shell is all that's left lacking anything to protect.

VIDEO: The Pentagon's New Map. (Part 2)


Crossposted at Ice Station Tango

TAGS: Defense Spending, John Murtha, Missile Defense, Bill Clinton

The Iraq News

Embassy to Cost $1 Billion in 2007, Pentagon Likely to Lower Troop Levels in Spring '08, ISG Reunion, Troops to Walk, More

Neocons fancied post-Saddam Iraq as a Democracy petri dish. Iraqi society, they imagined, could be made in the image of our democracy.... or at least the neocons' warped version of our democracy.

How's that working out for you, neocons?

Things are so bad in Iraq that the approval of both Congress and President Bush have hit all time lows. It's so bad that some believe that maybe America should go into the petri dish and the American system of governance should be revised or even reset with an Article V Constitutional Convention.

With that in mind, here's The Iraq News:

• U.S. Military deaths now total 3,547.
• Our massive city-state embassy in Iraq will cost American tax payers over a billion dollars this year. Not very much of that money will be going to Arabic speaking employees.
  
• Looks like the troop levels in Iraq will be reduced in Spring, that way we'll all forget about the war by the time we vote in November.
• The House voted overwhelmingly to bring back the Iraq Study group. No word on whether Rudy Giuliani will be invited this time around. I'm thinking... not likely.
• Veterans often cited in their memoirs endless walking as one of the great horrors of the Vietnam War experience. Now, soldiers in Iraq will get the desert version of that experience. According to Friday's LA Times, the commander of day-to-day military operations, urges Iraqi and American troops to 'get out and walk.' The logic behind the decision appears sound, though clearly this choice is an example of the lesser of two evils.
• Fascinating article from The Independent on Tony Blair's religious beliefs and the resignation of three Catholics during the early stages of the Iraq War. Blair will soon visit the new Pope. He's still the New Pope to me. By the way something, Blair's likely to convert to Catholicism soon.
• You pro-war types plan to support this troop?
• Much work remains on passing a law to distribute oil revenues in Iraq, but some progress was made today as a tentative agreement was reached.

VIDEO: Parliament is running out of chances to bang on Tony Blair and his ridiculous foreign policy.
VIDEO: Based on this trailer, War Made Easy looks like a combination of The Power of Nightmares and Why We Fight, two of the finest documentaries of the Iraq War era.


Crossposted at Ice Station Tango.

TAGS: Tony Blair, Iraq, War Made Easy, Iraq Study Group

The Iraq News

Congress Doesn't End War, Iraq Near Collapse, Embassy Not big Enough, Snow on the War Czar, Prince Harry Out, Harry's Butler In? More

Another vote to end the war tanked big time despite the support of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (she flopped around a bit). G-Spot Magazine, which is where I go for all my heavy duty news, in light of the government's unwillingness to carry out the will of the people, quoted the great Emma Goldman, "If voting made a difference, it would be illegal."

Here's The Iraq News:

• A British think tank reveals... this Iraq thing, eh, it may not work out.
• The Death Star is not yet fully operational.
• According to the Iranian foreign minister the U.S. and Iraq will soon hold talks on security in Iraq.
• Tony Snow tried to explain what the War Czar does, and failed miserably.
• Prince Harry's not going to Iraq in light of "specific threats". You mean it could have been dangerous!!??!!. Well, good on you Prince Harry for almost serving. I'm almost impressed by your courage. Almost. I can't tell if this is like the British version of the Onion or something, but this story claims they're sending the butler. If that's true, then these people are crazier than we thought and it's a good thing we staged that insurgency against them back in the day. His former butler did call the "deployment" a publicity stunt.
• The new French President just named a pro-Iraq War commie Foreign Minister. What the fuck is going on in that country?
• Cindy Sheehan writes, "Street Heat".
• David Swanson writes, "How to Spot a Peace Candidate".

VIDEO: The full documentary, Iraq for Sale.


Crossposted at IST.

TAGS: Iraq for Sale, Nicolas Sarkozy, Tony Snow, War Czar

The Iraq News

Republican Lawmakers Pay Bush Visit, Iraqi Lawmakers Want us Out, Bush Assures Saudis, Propaganda Plan Months Before Attack, Cheney in Iraq, Big Oil, Much More...

The Iraq War is toast. It's just a matter of packaging the long goodbye. In a monumental 77 minute meeting yesterday at the White House (Think Progress has Tim Russert's riveting report), the President was told frankly to his stupid face by Republican law makers that they may soon pull the plug themselves. Though Bush allegedly recognized their concerns and the need to end the conflict, he has stated elsewhere that he intends to veto Congress's second attempt at a spending bill.

UPDATE: Crooks and Liars--Olbermann's segment on the meeting at the White House.

Here's The Iraq News:

• Yesterday, 144 Iraqi lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal.
• Did President Bush promise the Saudis that we would not leave Iraq while he's President? Raw Story points to quotes in this article by Washington Post writer David Ignatius. Good to know he lies to them too. By the way something, this Ignatius guy has a lot of range. Of the fired U.S. attorneys, he's giving Alberto Gonzales the biggest headache in the media and I think Tom Cruise played him in a movie once. I can handle the truth and the truth is, David Ignatius, you the man.
• Also from Raw Story--The administration had a propaganda plan for the Iraq War two months before Shock and Awe.
• The people we're allegedly fighting for have a parliament that wants to take a couple months off, which every American from Nancy Pelosi to Dick Cheney finds unacceptable. Now their Speaker has suggested that Cheney (visiting Baghdad, don't ya know) butt out and go try to "control Nancy Pelosi". Okay dick, not Cheney, the Iraqi Speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, I know you're frustrated, but going on vacation is a titanically bad move. How 'bout this suggestion I'm stealing from The Young Turks, why don't we just pull out all of our troops until you assholes decide to show up.
• We're not likely to be leaving without the oil. If Bush seems to have any resolve left, it's because the Iraqi lawmakers have yet to pass a law that would essentially land Iraq's oil in Big Oil's pockets. The bill that will do that is on it's way to the soon to be vacationing Iraqi Parliament.
• Robert Gates foresees a shift in strategy following the surge assessment in September from General Petreaus.
• Petreaus seems to be playing games on when he knew about a report on soldiers' ethics. We gotta trust this guy?
• U.S. Deathtoll: 3,380.
• Polling.

VIDEO: Dick Cheney is spending some time in Iraq pushing around the media and almost getting blowed up during the last throes of his Vice Presidency (via Crooks and Liars).
VIDEO: Here's former Commander General of the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq Gen. John Batiste (Ret.) slowly and clearly explaining that the President has enormously effed this whole war up and the Congress needs to get us out. So strongly does Batiste feel about this, that this man ended his service after 2 and a half years in charge of the the 1st Infantry Division so he would be able to speak out. Listen.


ART BY: Carlos Latuff.

TAGS: John Batiste, Iraq War, Withdrawal, Dick Cheney

The Iraq News

Four Years Since Mission Accomplished, Bush to Veto Spending Bill, Bloody April, Blair Out Soon, Harry In Soon, Biden, More

Today is the fourth anniversary of George W. Bush's declaration of the end of major military operations in Iraq wearing the flight suit in front of that despicable banner that said, "Mission Accomplished".

What better day to stomp the life out of any hope of ending the war anytime soon?

Here's the Iraq News:

• A lot of people seem to want Bush out of a job these days. I mean what's a $500 billion genocide between friends?
• Tony Blair will announce his plans to resign soon because, well, they hate him now, as Helen Mirren said they would in The Queen (good movie). Today he said, "Within the next few weeks, I won't be prime minister of this country. In all probability, a Scot will become prime minister of the United Kingdom." The Scot in question is Gordon Brown. The one not sitting in Bush's lap.
• Prince Harry is on his way to serve in Iraq, something that didn't do Tony Blair any favors politically. Maybe the paparazzi will go too and we can get some nice war pictures in Us Weekly or wherever those pictures go.
• Al Qaeda in Iraq leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has been killed in a firefight. Or not.
• Terror up 91 percent in Iraq.
• As of Monday, 3,351 American forces have died in Iraq. April was especially bloody. It was the fifth straight month with more than 80 American forces killed.
• For the second day in a row, mortar shells hit the green zone today.
• Iraq has lots of oil. Lots and lots.

VIDEO: Mission Accomplished! Not!
VIDEO: Former CIA officer Ray McGovern dropped quite the bombshell on Tucker Carlson's show. McGovern pins the Niger forgeries on Dick Cheney and a "cottage industry of former intelligence agents that did a rather amateurish job" (via Crooks and Liars).
VIDEO: The Iraqi Parliament is about to recess for two months. Wait, what!

VIDEO: Joe Biden on Bush veto--"We're going to shove it down his throat".


Crossposted at IST.

TAGS: Iraq War, Tony Blair, Mission Accomplished, Joe Biden

The Iraq News

Reid Says New Bill Will Bring Troops Home by October, Krugman Calls Bush Standoff With Congress Hostage Situation, Bush Gets Veto Pen Ready, Blair, Moyers, Obama, More

Harry Reid is actually kind of giving people hell lately. Nice. He went further, in fact than any prominent Democrat by saying that the war in Iraq is lost. He's now saying that Bush and that Congress will pass legislation bringing the troops home by October.

Here's the rest of the Iraq News:

• Sunday was not a good day in Iraq. But remember, the surge is working... NOT.
• I love it when a blog runs an entire article that you could only get by subscribing, like Paul Krugman's editorials (or Maureen Dowd, Bob Herbert, Frank Rich, etc.), for example. Love that kind of thing. Anyway, here's Krugman explaining how the confrontation between Bush and Congress over war funding is a hostage situation.
• Meanwhile Bush (33%) threw a dog-and-pony show with Gen. Petraeus this morning in preparation for his big veto of the war funding bill.
• Bill Kristol and David Broder are trying. They really are. Bill, David, listen up, not only is the war in Iraq lost, but your war on reality is lost. Give it up and the Revolutionary Council on War Time Propaganda will go easier on you.
• The locals are not fond of the "Great Wall of Adhamiyah".
• They really love that Tony Blair over in Great Britain, eh?

VIDEO: Bill Moyer spoke to Bill Maher on Real Time about the selling of the Iraq War via the COM*. Moyer's show airs Wednesday night on PBS.
*You should know what COM means.
VIDEO: The BBC covers the carnage in Baghdad.
VIDEO: The evolution of Obama's Iraq war position.


TAGS: Harry Reid, Iraq War, Barack Obama, Bill Moyers

How Did This Whole War Thing Get Started Again?

Last week, Democratic Representative David Obey of Wisconsin kicked the living shit out of the Washington Post for helping to lead the march to war in Iraq.



Then today come the news that the Pentagon officially shot down the connection between Iraq and al-Qaida.

From AFP:

Interrogations of Saddam Hussein and seized documents confirmed the former Iraqi regime had no links with Al-Qaida, a Pentagon report said Friday, contradicting the US case for the 2003 invasion.

A two-page resume of the report was published in February, but on Friday the Pentagon declassified the whole 120-page document.

(more)

Cheney quacked indignantly in response.

From AP:

Vice President Dick Cheney repeated his assertions of al-Qaida links to Saddam Hussein's Iraq on Thursday as the Defense Department released a report citing more evidence that the prewar government did not cooperate with the terrorist group.

Cheney contended that al-Qaida was operating in Iraq before the March 2003 invasion led by U.S. forces and that terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was leading the Iraqi branch of al-Qaida. Others in al-Qaida planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

(more)

Why does the Pentagon hate America?

The Young Turks immediately kicked Cheney in the chest and screamed, "This is Sparta!"


Bush's response to all this was, "What part of I don't give a fuck what anyone else says don't you people get?" Then he added 12,000 more troops to the surge.


BYU isn't down with the whole thing. Especially Cheney.

Crossposted at Ice Station Tango and AlliedRadio.Net.

TAGS: Iraq War, Dick Cheney, Escalation, al-Qaida

The Iraq News

Senate Passes Deadline, Bush to Veto, Saudi King Blasts
Occupation, Murtha, Murphy, McCain is Nuts, More

The Senate passed a non-binding call for troops to begin leaving Iraq in 120-days. Bush immediately burned rubber over to a podium at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association where he vowed to eat the yellow-liver of every Democrat in Congress. Seriously, this speech sucked. We need an intervention.

While Congress works on that, you can fuel your white hot rage with another sad installment of...

...The Iraq News:

• Retired General and West Point professor Barry McCaffrey writes about Iraq, "The population is in despair." Maybe if they all killed themselves from grief democracy would flower there as our president predicted.
• Shiite militants and police went on a vengeful killing spree against Sunnis in Tal Afar, killing 60 residents.
• A member of the Iraqi Parliament has said that an attempt on Muqtada al-Sadr’s life failed and the U.S. was involved in the plot. If by involved you mean "they did it" then yes.
• Even the Saudis are turning on Bush. The King of Saudi Arabia blasted the illegal occupation of Iraq today at the Arab summit in Riyadh.
• Chris Weigant writes, "After Bush Vetoes the Iraq Bill, Then What?"
• Attaturk writes, "The Surge--How it Works".
• As of yesterday the American death count in Iraq--3,242.

VIDEO: Bob Geiger has the video of John Murtha and Patrick Murphy's floor speeches from last week.
VIDEO: John McCain tells Wolf Blitzer that there are sections of Baghdad that are perfectly safe for walking around in. Sure. Why don't you lead the way and we'll follow close behind, Senator.
VIDEO: Baghdad correspondant Michael Ware thinks John McCain is smoking some really good shit (Crooks and Liars).
VIDEO: CNN--Bush on Iraq, Then and Now.


Crossposted at Ice Station Tango.

TAGS: Iraq War, George W. Bush, Withdrawal, John McCain

The Iraq News

Boxer on Troop Love, Cheney at AIPAC, Walter Reed Fallout, Pentagon Admits "Elements" of Civil War, More

Senator Barbara Boxer called on the Republicans to "love the troops" in her speech introducing the failed measure to remove troops from Iraq. Among other things, Boxer said:

[W]hen you love the troops, you don't send them back into combat with post-traumatic stress and a bottle of antidepressants. You don't do it. Tragically, we know this is happening.

Of course, Dick Cheney's despicable display at the AIPAC conference earlier this week shows that the GOP has no plans to stop trying to con the public into believing that the opposition party is the one who is against the troops, while the stark truth pours out of the rat's nest that is our veteran's health care system. It goes way beyond Walter Reed.

Here's some more Iraq News:

• The Pentagon finally admits that "elements" of a civil war exist in Iraq. Elements? Elements! You stupid twits! Why is it that we have these stupid, drawn out semantic arguments that always result in the administration eventually conceding the point months or even years later? Next year they'll blame the democrats for allowing the civil war to happen.
• The Japanese people no longer care to support the War in Iraq.
• The Senate shot down a proposal to end the war in one year.
• Are we headed for a trillion dollar defense budget? Give you fifty guesses.
• Taylor Marsh believes that Hillary Clinton's latest stance on Iraq is her actual belief about the war.

AUDIO: Minnesota Public Radio broadcast, "Beyond Walter Reed".
VIDEO: BBC reports on the Brits own veterans' health care issues.
VIDEO: Joe Biden gives a scathing speech on the floor of the Senate. Biden's plan to end the war works for me, yet the make believe Bush policy continues.
VIDEO: Joe Scarborough talks to Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), about failures in the veteran care system.
VIDEO: Trailer for the film The Prisoner, or, How I Planned To Kill Tony Blair.


Crossposted at Ice Station Tango.

TAGS: Iraq War, Walter Reed, Dick Cheney, Health Care

The Iraq News

Bush to Veto Withdrawal, Patraeus Wants More Troops,
U.S. to Talk to Syria and Iran, Rove, More...

photo from IraqSlogger

President Bush says that if the Congress voted for a withdrawal, he would simply veto it.

From AFP:

US President George W. Bush would veto legislation, crafted by Democrats, calling for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by late 2008, the White House said Thursday.

"Obviously, the administration would vehemently oppose and ultimately veto any legislation that looks like what was described today," senior Bush adviser Dan Bartlett told reporters as the president traveled to Brazil.

Earlier, Democrats directly challenged Bush on the strategy for the war, outlining a plan to pull US troops out by late 2008 or much sooner if progress is not made in the violence-wracked country.

(more)

Nancy Pelosi, when asked for comment, said, "I say to my colleagues never confine your best work, your hopes, your dreams, the aspiration of the American people to what will be signed by George W. Bush because that is too limiting a factor."

While Nancy works hard to maintain that positive, can-do attitude, let's take a puke at...

...The Iraq News:

• Unindicted co-conspirator Karl Rove thinks that some day we'll all really dig on pre-emptive war. You know, the way he does. When the day comes that everyone in the United States has to get a nose-picking, brain dead, son of a marginal-at-best former President, we'll see the upside of pre-emptive war (you know, genocide by war plane).
• On Thursday, Commander of U.S. troops General Petraeus told journalists that what he needs to succeed in Iraq is a couple thousand more troops. Oh, and it's gonna take a while, so eat a Snickers bar or something.
• Odd that General Petraeus didn't mention that our army is stretched to the breaking point. But keep those troops coming. Surge! Surge! Surge!
• If you can't stop the war, stick some progressive legislation in the spending bills. Why the hell not, eh?
• The Bush administration is open to talks with Syria and Iran on stabilizing Iraq. Sounds good doesn't it? We'll keep our eyes peeled for when Iraq starts stabilizing. By the way something, Iran won the Iraq War.
• According to the Chairman of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity says corruption in Iraq is now worse than it was during Saddam Hussein's regime. We should bring that Saddam guy back. Whatever happened to him, anyway? By the way something, things were a lot better for women under Saddam too. Just mention that in passing.
  

VIDEO: Petraeus on BBC.
VIDEO: Peter Jennings on the forgeries that led to the outing of Valerie Plame. More on that (from me) here. This video (blurry) is from June 2003.


Crossposted at Ice Station Tango

TAGS: Iraq War, George W. Bush, Iran, Karl Rove