american soldiers

Debating The “Legality” Of Water Boarding

There should really be no debate, but in an effort to protect George Bush, Dick Cheney and the entire formal ~~cartel~~ administration, Republicans are making this a big debate. Here’s Newt trying his hand at the debate yesterday:

Actually there is no debate. We have said its illegal and the courts have also sided with us. American soldiers have been prosecuted for this practice and so has Japanese soldiers. This is a pure political game that risks destroying American values. That is a rather dire price to pay just to protect a bunch of people who didn’t care one bit about our Constitution.

Joe “The Plumber” Reporting

I was ignoring the story of the wingnut Pajamas Media sending Joe “the Plumber” to Israel to be some new “war correspondent”. Let’s face it – you can send anyone to a situation and get whatever spin you want out of it, and old Joe the ~~Plumber~~ Liar is no different.

But now that has changed. He had to open his mouth and make another one of his idiotic comments:

I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think journalists should be anywhere allowed war. I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what’s happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I think it’s asinine. You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you’d go to the theater and you’d see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for’em. Now everyone’s got an opinion and wants to downer–and down soldiers. You know, American soldiers or Israeli soldiers.

{[}]lt;strong>I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting. You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, “Well look at this atrocity,” well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.

War For Oil - Was It Worth It?

Yesterday John McCain told a townhall meeting this:

“My friends, I will have an energy policy which will eliminate our dependence on oil from Middle East that will then prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.”

Luckily we also got video of this major admission from the Republican nominee.

So if we went to Iraq to "fight for oil", then was it worth it? The war is going to cost us about a trillion dollars and we have lost over 4,000 American soldiers in this war. Now let's look at the price of gas from before the war to today:

(Click for larger size. Via GasBuddy)

Sure it was worth it; if you're Shell, Exxon or Dick Cheney.

Stalemate!

That's how a new report is characterizing the Iraq War:

Newly declassified statistics on the frequency of insurgent attacks in Iraq suggest that after major security gains last fall in the wake of an American troop increase, the conflict has drifted into at least a temporary stalemate, with levels of violence remaining constant from November 2007 through early 2008.

The new figures, presented Tuesday at a Senate hearing in Washington by David Walker, the top official at the Government Accountability Office, emerged a day after eight American soldiers - five in central Baghdad and three in Diyala Province - were killed in bomb attacks. And the trend appeared to continue Tuesday, as bombings and small arms attacks led to casualties among Iraqi civilians and security forces in or near at least seven cities.

So are we ready for a 100 year stalemate?

More From The Failing Surge

We are now into the 5th month since the "surge" started and it seems that every month is getting worse than that last. Here is the latest from that:

The US military surge in Iraq, designed to turn around the course of the war, appears to be failing as senior US officers admit they need yet more troops and new figures show a sharp increase in the victims of death squads in Baghdad.

In the first 11 days of this month, there have already been 234 bodies - men murdered by death squads - dumped around the capital, a dramatic rise from the 137 found in the same period of April. Improving security in Baghdad and reducing death-squad activity was described as one of the key aims of the US surge of 25,000 additional troops, the final units of whom are due to arrive next month.

To add further strain, we had the news of the three missing soldiers this weekend, which is taking up much needed manpower:

About 4,000 American ground troops, supported by surveillance aircraft, attack helicopters and spy satellites, swept towns and farmland south of Baghdad on Sunday, searching for three American soldiers who disappeared Saturday after their patrol was ambushed, military officials said.

I admin it must be a priority to find these soldiers, and I pray they do, but this also highlights just how strained our troops our. When we have to take 4,000 troops out to search for them, that is 4,000 troops not securing areas and trying to calm the violence. Certainly this much needed mission can't be helping with our already strained troop levels.

5 More Soldiers Killed

April has been a deadly month for our troops and this latest tally pushes the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq past 100:

Five U.S. troops were killed in separate attacks in the capital this weekend, including three in a single roadside bombing, the military said Monday, pushing the death toll past 100 in the deadliest month so far this year.

Both attacks occurred in eastern Baghdad, a predominantly Shiite area where American and Iraqi forces have stepped up their activities as part of a security crackdown that began on Feb. 14 to quell the sectarian violence.

In violence Monday, a suicide car bomber apparently targeting an Interior Ministry convoy struck an Iraqi checkpoint near a busy square in the predominantly Sunni area of Harthiyah in western Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 10, police said.

The bomber detonated his payload, causing part of the road to buckle, as he emerged from an underpass and was heading toward the checkpoint being manned by Interior Ministry commandos. Those killed included two commandos and two civilians.

Actually we have lost 103 soldiers this month, but let's not forget our coalition. When you add in the 12 U.K. soldiers and one Polish soldier all killed in Iraq this month, we get an average of 3.87 soldiers killed per day. The last time we had an average this high was in January 2005, when a helicopter crash killed 30 American soldiers. Total amount of U.S. soldiers killed in that month was 107.

November 2004 holds the record as deadliest month for American soldiers - 137.

So is this the progress we were supposed to see? Boehner's 90 days are well over now. So John - is the surge working? I will ask that more directly a little later.

Just That One Bombing A Day

Here is one bombing for today Laura:

U.S. and Iraqi forces staged raids in Baghdad's main Shiite militant stronghold Tuesday as part of politically sensitive forays into areas loyal to the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Southwest of the capital, three American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb. Meanwhile, police said a car bomb exploded near a park in central Ramadi, killing 18 people; most of the victims were children.

Oh yeah - and just for that one other bombing today. The military just said 3 soldier were killed today in a roadside bomb. Gee - that sounds like 2 bombs again today. Must be nice to so easily dismiss life in an attempt to spread right wing talking points.

The Pentagon's Disgrace To Those Who Gave The Ultimate Sacrifice.

Looks like much hasn't changed at the Pentagon. We find out the military lied yet again about the deaths of some of our soldiers:

Four American soldiers were abducted during a sophisticated sneak attack last week in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, the U.S. military confirmed Friday. It said three were shot to death and a fourth was mortally wounded with a gunshot to the head when they were found in a neighboring province, far from the compound where they were captured.

Two of the four were handcuffed together in the back seat of an SUV near the southern Iraqi town of Mahawil. A third dead soldier was on the ground nearby. The fourth soldier died on the way to the hospital, the military said in a statement issued late Friday that confirmed details reported by The Associated Press earlier.

On Jan. 20, the day of the raid on a security meeting in Karbala, the military said five soldiers were killed repelling the attack.

So the Pentgaon said they were killed repelling the attack, but they were actually abducted and then killed. I guess the mess they created with the death of Pat Tillman didn't teach them a damn thing.

But why did they not say what really happened? Well considering the time frame, this would have put a dark cloud over the SOTU and possibly urged more Republicans to side with Democrats on blocking the surge. In other words - they dishonored their deaths to protect the chimp. This is a disgrace and if I were the family of any of these soldiers you can bet your ass I would be on every news station yelling for Bush to answer to this.

Note to the Media - Oversight is not Payback!

Last night during Anderson Cooper, I finally had it. I heard the following statement for the millionth time yesterday and blew up:

Will the Democrats start investigations to get back at Republicans?

Since when is oversight, as provided by the Constitution, some sort of “payback”? This is the new meme the so-called “liberal” media is using. They are already making it sound like any investigations the Democrats launch will be strictly for payback purposes.

This is not just insulting to the Democrats, but also to the very process of our democracy. During the 90’s, the media never coined the 50+ investigations into Clinton as “payback”. Now it is?

The Iraq war has gone on longer than World War 2. To make matters even worse, the Iraq war has seen less oversight than any other war in the history of our country. Don’t the 3,000 American soldiers and countless Iraqi’s who have lost their lives in this war deserve some serious attention from our Congress? This attention should have been given time and time again, but the Republicans refused to do so. The American people realized this gross negligence by one branch of our government, and voted to change that branch. If the Democrats don’t investigate, then they will be as guilty as the Republicans of ignoring their constitutional duty.

We hear constantly of some sort of “liberal bias” in our media. Well this new meme proves that “liberal bias” is nothing more than a myth. The media has been in Iraq and reporting how horrible it is, yet they want to make it sound like some sort of high-school game of “payback” if the Democrats do about the only thing they really can – hold investigations?

3,000

The number of soldiers now sacrificed for this bullshit illegal war Bush got us into. Of course he "mourns" the death. Yeah - I bet he will still need lots more time to figure out what to do. It has taken him more time to figure out a way to fix his mess then it did for him to decide and send 3,000 American soldiers to their death.

Because It's Hard Work Presidenting!

So the families of the nearly 3,000 lost soldiers and rest of the American and Iraqi people need to understand that:

President Bush worked nearly three hours at his Texas ranch on Thursday to design a new U.S. policy in Iraq, then emerged to say that he and his advisers need more time to craft the plan he'll announce in the new year.

Burdened by low approval ratings on his handling of the war, the president is under mounting pressure to come up with a new blueprint for U.S. involvement in Iraq where the execution of Saddam Hussein — perhaps as early as this weekend — could incite further violence.

"We've got more consultation to do until I talk to the country about the plan," Bush said, appearing outside an office building at his ranch.

(emphasis mine)

Well everyone should be happy with Bush. He put in 3 hours yesterday to try and figure out this mess he got us into - this mess that has cost us almost 3,000 American soldiers and nearly 1/2 a trillion dollars (not to even mention the costs to the Iraqi people). I guess we should just give him all the time he needs. Hell - take all of 2007 and 2008 if you want Mr. President. God forbid that this country gets 3 hours of your time.

Will someone please tell me what other job in the world you can cost your employers that much money and screw up so bad, then expect gratitude for working a whole 3 hours after the fuck-up has gone on for almost 4 years? Seriously - they don't even try to fake it anymore. He waited for the Iraqi study group to come out and then decided that he didn't like that plan and wanted something else. Why didn't he start way before that? Oh yeah - Bush doesn't believe in planning (see Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, etc., etc., etc.)

The Definition of Entrenched

Hits Baghdad:

Iraqi security forces will dig trenches around Baghdad and set up checkpoints along all roads leading into the city to reduce some of the violence plaguing the capital, the Interior Ministry said Friday.

To help halt that bloodshed, more U.S. troops have been shifted to Baghdad from the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, a senior U.S. commander said.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Marine was killed Friday in Anbar province, and an American soldier was killed Thursday evening by a roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad, the military said. Five American soldiers died Thursday, making it an especially bloody day for U.S. forces.

A U.S. soldier is missing from a suicide bombing 30 miles west of Baghdad that killed two of those soldiers, U.S. military officials said.

The soldier "has been reported as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown," the military said, without elaborating.

Neither U.S. military officials in Iraq nor in Washington would say whether they believed the soldier had been abducted or whether he may have been killed in the attack, and his remains had not been recovered.

An Iraqi civilian was killed and five others were wounded when a gunman on top of an abandoned building opened fire in a Sunni Arab neighborhood in central Baghdad, said police Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali.

But look at the good side. Iraq has now progressed to the dark ages and are employing moats as a line of defense. Way to go Bush!

The Media's ADD Is Shining Through

John Mark Karr, Katrina, new hurricanes, Tom Cruise, and now Warren Jeffs. Wow with all that going on in the world, it is no wonder why little stories like this get buried:

Police found more than two dozen bodies across the capital Tuesday and the government said 73 people had died in fighting in the south as violence surged despite promising signs that a U.S. crackdown is curbing sectarian killings in Baghdad.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said three American soldiers and one marine were killed the day before: two in combat in Anbar province and two from non-hostile causes. A fourth soldier died on Tuesday in Baghdad. At least 13 American service members have died in Iraq since Sunday, according to the U.S. command.

The latest violence both inside and outside the capital occurred despite U.S. and Iraqi officials' claims that a new operation in the capital has lowered Sunni-Shiite killings there, which had risen in June and July.

(emphasis mine)

Now why would the media cover anything like that?

Signs Of The Bad Times In Iraq

Things in Iraq are getting really bad. The LA Times has an article today saying that the civil war is "all but declared", and we now get a Republican Representative, who has been a supporter of the war, saying it is time to get out:

Congressman Gil Gutknecht found the situation in Iraq more bleak than he anticipated during a weekend visit to the war zone, and said a partial withdrawal of some American troops might be wise.

Gutknecht, a strong supporter of the war since it began in March of 2003, told reporters in a telephone conference call Tuesday that American forces appear to have no operational control of much of Baghdad.

“The condition there is worse than I expected,” he said. “... I have to be perfectly candid: Baghdad is a serious problem.”

The 1st District Republican said he was deeply impressed by the professionalism of American soldiers and gained hope from the more stabile situation in the Kurdish-dominated northern region of Iraq.

But he said the next six weeks could be critical in determining whether stability can eventually come to the rest of the country, and he believes removing some American troops is necessary to send the Iraqi government a message that it can’t rely so heavily on the American military much longer.

His assessment of the problems facing Iraq and the potential value of removing some American troops comes one month after Gutknecht was widely quoted during a debate in the House about the war.

We Don't Stop Terrorism - We Create It

With Bush out on a new "PR" push, we are learning more about how bad things really are in Iraq:

A mob of gunmen went on a brazen daytime rampage through a predominantly Sunni Arab district of western Baghdad on Sunday, pulling people from their cars and homes and killing them in what officials and residents called a spasm of revenge by Shiite militias for the bombing of a Shiite mosque on Saturday. Hours later, two car bombs exploded beside a Shiite mosque in another Baghdad neighborhood in a deadly act of what appeared to be retaliation.

While Baghdad has been ravaged by Sunni-Shiite bloodletting in recent months, even by recent standards the violence here on Sunday was frightening, delivered with impunity by gun-wielding vigilantes on the street. In the culture of revenge that has seized Iraq, residents all over the city braced for an escalation in the cycle of retributive mayhem between the Shiites and Sunnis that has threatened to expand into civil war.

The violence coincided with an announcement by American military officials that they had formally accused four more American soldiers of rape and murder, and a fifth soldier of "dereliction of duty" for failing to report the crimes, in connection with the deaths of a teenage Iraqi girl and three members of her family.

And once more charges get announced in other deaths, the violence will continue to grow.

What is amazing is how the mainstream media continued to just call the victim a "young girl". No one seemed to ever mention just "how young" this poor girl was. I had heard about it on Air America, but the big three in network news seemed to overlook this small detail. Here is a picture of the passport of this young girl: