It was not our right to have become the world's bully and start this war in the first place. If this war truly was intended to free the people of Iraq, then it should have been started over a quarter of a century ago. If this was about saving Iraq for the emancipation of the people, not oil, then Saddam Hussein would be a long-forgotten name. Remember the shah, anyone?
The quote above is from Margaret Cho's I Have Chosen To Stay and Fight which came out in hardcover in 2005 (page 28, by the way). I started with the quote for a number of reasons not limited to the fact that Cho spoke out against the illegal war early on and yet White males rarely include her on their lists of "look who was right." (AlterPunk's only one example.) Another big reason is because although the Congress grasps they need to at least appear to be going through the motions, they still can't show the bravery Cho did in 2005. (Or 2004, or 2003, or 2002.)
Instead they want to con us. They want to trick us. The Democrats want credit for making a "show" of things. Right now the Democrats in the Senate are in the midst of their all-nighter but Carl Levin's already undercut his own party by revealing that nothing's really going to change. No surprise when you remember that Carl Levin pushed the lie, on the Sunday chat & chews, not all that long ago that to cut off funds for the illegal war (the supplemental finally voted on in May) would be leaving the troops stranded. It would not be. Dennis Kucinich has long had a plan for withdrawal. Lynn Woolsey has noted that there was money still in the budget to bring all US service members back home. The supplemental does not pay US service members. The supplemental goes to contractors who design more weapons (most of which -- we should probably be thankful -- rarely work but they continue to be funding despite that and despite huge cost overruns).
Carl Levin wants to play a shell game. He wants to say, "Look here, I'm working so hard to end the war." But there's nothing under the shell. It's all merely motion
. . . of going through the motions. The questions are how much longer the public will put up with it and how bad the bite back will be for Democrats who have done nothing with their 2006 election mandate to end this illegal war?
The Seattle-Post Intelligencer reports, "Well, maybe. But even Democrats admitted throughout the day that the exercise was designed as much to comfort their own frayed nerves over being boxed in than to swing Republican votes." How much to believe that or not is in debate since they also call WalkOn.org "an anti-war group." WalkOn, WalkOn.org. They aren't anti-war. As usual, they've decided to stage their LAUGHABLE candle-light vigils across the country. Get the idea someone at WalkOn saw The Player one too many times?
If there's anything we should all grasp by now, the same thing over and over doesn't change a thing. But there's Bully Boy doing the same thing over and over in Iraq and there's WalkOn doing yet another candle-light vigil. Neither could find a new idea -- forget plan -- if it leaped in front of them and said "Hello!"
"Just Another Day in Iraq" (Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunch):
Khanaquin, Diyala Province, Iraq.
The United States surge, the use of the American troop reinforcements to bring violence in Iraq under control, is bloodily failing across northern Iraq. That was proved again yesterday when a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives in Kirkuk killing at least 85 people and wounding a further 183.
The truck bomb blasted a 30ft-deep crater in a busy road full of small shops and booths near the ancient citadel of Kirkuk, setting fire to a bus in which the passengers burned to death and burying many others under the rubble. Dozens of cars were set ablaze and their blackened hulks littered the street. Some 25 of the wounded suffered critical injuries and may not live.
In Baghdad, at least 44 people were killed or found dead across the city, police said. They included the bullet-riddled bodies of 25 people, apparent victims of sectarian death squads.
The attack is the latest assault by Sunni insurgents on Kurds who claim Kirkuk as their future capital.
Adnan Sarhan, 30, lost both his eyes and had his back broken in the blast. He lay on the operating table as his anguished mother, Mahiya Qadir, sat nearby with her daughter-in-law. "Will I ever see my son alive again?" she asked.
Two more car bombs blew up later in Kirkuk but caused few casualties.
Things are not getting 'better' in Iraq and they will not. US forces on the ground continue to breed rage and hostility. You wouldn't want Iraq to occupy the United States, why do you think Iraqis should feel different? Maybe you think they are 'flattered' by the attention? Maybe you think they have an attitude of, "Oh, we are stupid and we are children, thank goodness the US is here to control us"?
Iraq is not the United States. It is not a state within the country. Iraqis deserve the right to self-determination. The puppet government has no legitimacy in the eyes of the people because of the fact that Nouri al-Maliki takes orders (from the US) or gets sidelined. Iraqis can still have a chance at creating their own government but only if the US withdraws. The longer the US stays, the more difficult it will be for democracy to take hold in Iraq when the withdrawal finally comes. What's happening today has been happening and continues to happen. There is no progress, just more of the same.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Tuesday, July 17, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces another death, mass funerals take place in Kirkuk while mass graves are dug in Baquba, hostage situations continue, Ehren Watada gets a non-binding court-martial date, Dems in the Senate get ready to play and more.
Starting with war resisters. Ehren Watada is the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. For months he attempted to work out an alternative privately (as the military said they wanted) offering to serve in Afghanistan or to resign his commission because he (rightly) sees the Iraq war as an illegal one and serving in it would lead him and those serving under him open to charges of war crimes. The military strung him along for months and, in June 2006, he went public with his refusal to deploy to Iraq. In February, Judge Toilet (John Head) created a kangaroo court-martial wherein Watada would not be allowed to explain why he refused to deploy but somehow it would add up to 'justice.' Despite the unlevel playing field, the prosecution's witnesses ended up making the point for Watada. On the day when the defense was supposed to present their side (Watada on the stand), Judge Toilet began playing dumb about a stipulation he had seen before it was agreed to, one he had seen after it was agreed to and one he himself had explained to the jury. He began asking the prosecution if they wanted a mistrial. They didn't pick up immediately that he was handing them a "do over" and initially declined. After increased prodding, they agreed. Judge Toilet ruled a mistrial over defense objection raising issues of double-jeopardy and whether Toilet was fit to serve on a future court-martial. Toilet scheduled the next court-martial for March but, proving his incompentence, he forgot he wasn't allowed to do that. The court-martial was to begin this month and it did not.
The Honolul Star Bulletin reports Judge Toilet (aka John Head) set a date for Ehren Watada's court-martial, October 9th. Matt Misterik (Tacoma's News Tribune) observes: "The October date, if it stands, would put Watada back in court at about the same time his Stryker brigade -- the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division -- is scheduled to return from Iraq after a 15-month deployment. The move does not come as a big surprise. Earlier this month, Watada's new attorneys tried to get military judge Lt. Col. John Head to disqualify himself from the case and also tried to invoke Watada's right not to be prosecuted twice for the same crime, known as double jeopardy.""If it stands" refers to the fact that the Court of Appeals has not ruled. They decided to allow Judge Toilet to rule before they weighed in on the Constitutional issue of double-jeopardy and whether or not Judge Toilet should remove himself from the case. This is what Kenneth Kagan, one of Watada's two civilian attorneys, discussed last Tuesday with Margaret Prescod on KPFK's Sojourner Truth. The only surprise with the date is that he handed it down this week, Judge Toilet was supposed to hand it down last week. Kagen explained that there were several levels of appeals (above Judge Toilet) and that he wouldn't be surprised if a court-martial took place (IF) that it didn't do so until next year. The October 9th start date is no more set in stone than the March one Judge Toilet attempted earlier or the July one he then attempted. Watada continues to report to Fort Hood and do his assigned tasks there.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
There is also growing awareness that US troops will be withdrawn from Iraq. As a result strategy sessions that might not have been reported even a year ago now are. Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks (Washington Post) report on one recent effort by the military to run possiblities on what will happen when the US withdraws (or withdraws at least 'combat forces') and find that the US military has recently concluded that Shi'ites would take Anbar, civil war would break out in the south and, in the north, the Kurds would maintain their presence creating an ethnic partitioning of Iraq (as favored by US Senator and 2008 presidential candidate Joe Biden). DeYoung and Ricks quote Gary Anderson (Marine Col. retired and in charge of this series of war games) declaring, "I honestly don't think it will be apocalyptic, . . . it will be ugly." De Young and Ricks also note the results of the war games are less dire than the predictions Bully Boy repeatedly makes to the public. Of the results of the war games and other possiblities, the reporters note that these are possiblities and not hard evidence of what will or will not happen.
What happend today, in Kirkuk, Al Jazeera reports, were "mass funerals" being held following yesterday's bombings that claimed the lives of at least 85 people. Mass graves are the reality in Baquba. Ahmed Ali (IPS) reports that with corpses turning up daily in the area, with the morgue handling "an average of four or five bodies everyday" while others merely abandoned "in rivers and farms," with the same electricity outtages plauging the area as the rest of the country and the US military having "ordered them to bury all bodies within three days" bodies are now being buried in mass graves. Baquba is in the Diyala Province which was also the location of an overnight slaughter so more mass gaves will be needed. AP reports the local police state Sunni assailants (some wearing official military garb) raided a village and killed at least 29 Shi'ites (at least four of whom were women). Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) observes those dead and wounded from the attacks included women and children and that the assailants were "wearing the Iraqi army uniform". CBS and AP report that at least 10 corpses were mutiliated.On yesterday's attack in Kirkuk, Stephanie Gaskell (San Francisco Chronicle) provides context, "By the end of the year, Kirkuk's population of almost 1 million is to vote on a referendum to decide whether to remain part of Iraq or join the autonomous Kurdish region. Most Kurds wish to be part of the Kurdish Regional Government, while most Arab residents (both Shiites and Sunnis) prefer to remain part of Iraq under a decentralized government."
Megan Greenwell (Washington Post) also observes the situation in Kirkuk noting, "The attacks this month are part of a pattern of increasing violence at a time of heightened tensions among ethnic Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen residents in the city and its environs. Former president Saddam Hussein sought to establish an Arab majority in Kirkuk, a center of Iraq's oil industry, but since his removal from power Kurds have worked to recapture control. Their efforts have angered Arab and Turkmen residents, who say they are being systematically driven out. The attacks also furthered fears that insurgents pushed out of Baghdad by the increased U.S. military presence in the capital are focusing their efforts on the country's north, which has far fewer troops." Which is how Bully Boy's non 'plan' (do the same thing year after year but add more US troops) does nothing but holds Iraqis and foreign forces hostage in an illegal war that was lost some time ago.
Turning to the subject of hostages. On February 6th of this year, Hannelore Krause and her son Sinan Krause were kidnapped (in Iraq) and in April a video was relased of the two calling for a withdrawal of all German troops from Afghanistan. Earlier this month Hannelore Krause was released, however, kidnappers still have her son. Reuters reports that she has "begged the Gernman government to support her efforts to free him". Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch is calling for the release of five hostages -- Iranian diplomats seized January 11th by US forces and who remain in US custody to this day. Human Rights Watch's Sarah Leah Whitson states, "The US says it is detaining the five Iranians because they are criminals, not diplomats. If they broke Iraqi law, they should be handed over to Iraqi courts for prosecution. The US should not hold them indefinitely without trial." On January 11th, the US military charged into the consular office Iran had Arbil and took diplomatic staff into custody. Though the move and the captivity has been protested by Iranians and the Kurdistan government, the US has continued to hold the diplomatic staff. Last month, news broke and the only term for the children is "hostages." Lara Logan (CBS News) reported on the Baghdad orphanage where 24 boys were "straved and neglected . . . some near death . . . left naked". The children were special needs children and some tried to spin the children being tied up, naked and starved as a means of 'protecting' them. Diana Mukkaled (Asharq Alawsat Newspaper) observed, "The children were undernourished and half-starved as they lay on the floor covered in dirt and grime, while two supervisors stood by them smiling. Also visible in the pictures were piles of food and clothing, which the children were deprived of, stored in the neighboring room. Yesterday, IRIN noted that approximately half the 4 million (internally and externally) displaced Iraqis are children. Just as the illegal war has created orphans, it also plays into the Baghdad orphanage scandal. IRIN spoke to a parent of one of the children in the orphanage as well as to parents of orphanges and the story boils down to the fact that the children have special needs, the families are displaced (some missing parents) and it was thought orphanages could provide stable care that the families cannot at this time due to the daily chaos and violence.Bombings?Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad bombing that wounded 3 police officer, a morning Baghdad car bombing claimed 4 lives (five more were wounded), an evening Baghdad car bombing claimed the lives of at least 20 (with 20 more wounded), a Baghdad mortar attack claimed 1 life (left three wounded) and a Baghdad bombing near a bus claimed 1 life (2 wounded). CBS and AP report, "A suicide driver detonated his vehicle Tuesday near an Iraqi army patrol in Zqyouna, a mostly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad, killing 10 people, including six civilians, police said. Police said 11 people, including seven civilians, were wounded" and that CBS News' Allen Pizzey counts "sucide attacks" thus far in the first six months of 2007 as having claimed the lives of "more than 4,000 Iraqi civilians".Shootings?Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports Dr. Rafi'a Alwan was shot dead in in Samarra.Corpses?Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 24 corpses discovered today in Iraq. Mohammed al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 25 corpses were discovered in Baghdad yesterday.Today, [PDF format warning] the US military announced: "A Marine assigned to Multi National Force - West died July 16 in a non-combat related incident in Al Anbar Province." The announcement brings the ICCC total for US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war to 3618 with 39 for the month.Parliament met today in Iraq and, Al Jazeera reports, the al-Sadr bloc "resumed participation" with all 32 members returning. In the US, the upper house of Congress prepares for an all nighter. This morning, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted that "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has theatened to keep the Senate in session around the clock today in response to Republican efforts to block Iraq withdrawal legislation. Reid said: 'If Republicans do not allow a vote on Levin/Reed today or tomorrow, we will work straight through the night on Tuesday. The American people deserve an open and honest debate on this war, and they deserve an up or down vote on this amendment to end it."Yesterday on the floor of the Senate, Reid spoke at length about this issue, opening with:After 52 months, America finds itself mired in one of the most tragic foreign policy blunders in our nation's history, with no end in sight. In my view, it will take years -- and, I fear, perhaps decades -- to finally close the book on the damage this war has caused our troops, our economy and our moral standing in the world. Reid also noted, "We don't have to mark time, waiting for the President to wake up one morning with a change of heart. We don't have to wait two more months for an arbitrary Septemeber deadline when it is so clear that a course change is required now. With our courage and our votes, we can rise above this tragic failure to deliver the new course that our brave troops -- and all Americans -- demand and deserve. We can do that today, by voting for the Levin/Reed amendment to the Defense Authorization Link."However, AP notes that the Levin-Reed measure does not translate as TROOPS HOME NOW and that "[u]nder the bill, an unspecified number of troops could remain behind to fight terrorists, protect U.S. assets and train Iraqi security forces." And speaking with Jay Newton-Small (Time magazine), Senator Carl Levin doesn't sound like anyone planning to end the illegal war with comments such as "Assuming everything worked out perfectly, that's the middle of next year, that's early next year, so that's something that we're focusing on." So what CBS and AP observe is a "rare, round-the-clock session Tuesday night through Wednesday morning" may be more of the same but done round the clock to give the appearence that someone in Congress is actually earning their pay check.
iraqehren watadakpfk
sojourner truthmargaret prescod
the washington postmegan greenwell
karen deyoungthomas e. ricks
democracy nowamy goodman
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
Dave Lindorff, Paul Craig Roberts
Funniest e-mail of last week did not come into me. It came in to The Common Ills. It was also two e-mails. A centrist had a freak fest over something C.I. wrote. Ava saw and replied. She noted that the public aspects were public and wouldn't be removed but if one line (a joke) bothered the whiner so much, she was sure C.I. would pull it. She wasn't nice to the whiner. She had no reason to be. He was calling C.I. all these names and just demanding this and that. So Ava reminded him that this wasn't the military and he couldn't give orders and really put the little whiner in his place. He wrote back again and this e-mail was even more hilarious. His mistake, he wrote, was to think he could have a civil conversation. Calling C.I. a coward (one of the few things I can note here because the rest is all gutter talk) and having a big whiney fit is how to have a civil conversation? (No, he wasn't Eric Alterman.) Ava read the second e-mail to us Saturday night and we were all laughing. Oh, the community will like this, I almost forgot this part, he thinks C.I. is "Gina." Gina is Gina of the gina & krista round-robin. It's a compliment because Gina is a very incredible person but he's still wrong. At any rate, he's gone from an angry centrist upset over a joke (and, let's be real, upset that C.I. gathered his public comments and responded to them) to the injured party and it all reminds me of the most pathetic Joan Crawford film.
Please read Ava and C.I.'s "TV: The Racial Bee," Ruth's "Ruth's Report,"
admire Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "You Are Staying" and read "Kat's Korner: Mavis Staples doesn't turn back" about Mavis Staples' wonderful new CD.
"Bill Moyers Puts Impeachment On the Media Table" (Dave Lindorff, Common Dreams):
Bill Moyers has put impeachment in the news, in the process shaming both the national media and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Congressional leadership.
In his Saturday program, Bill Moyers Journal, Moyers and guests John Nichols, the Nation's Washington correspondent and author of The Genius of Impeachment and Bruce Fein, a former attorney in the Ronald Reagan Department of Justice, made it clear that the Bush/Cheney administration has gravely threatened the Constitution and the survival of tripartite, divided government.
Moyers, feigning astonishment at the arguments of Nichols and Fein, asked if it might be justified for the Bush administration to grab special dictatorial powers in order to combat terrorism. His posited position was demolished by both Nichols and Fein.
Nichols explained that the Constitution was designed by the Founders to be a "fighting" document, capable of handling dangerous times. He noted that the Constitution actually provides for the temporary barring of habeas corpus (the right to have one's imprisonment brought before a court and adjudicated), but he said that this was something that a president had to do with the approval of Congress (not behind its back), and only if the Country was under attack, which is of course not the case right now.
Fein for his part noted that most of Bush's and Cheney's abuses of power and violations of the Constitution and the rule of law have been done not openly and in consultation with Congress, but in secret and in the dark of night. His secret monitoring of American's communications--phones, mail and internet for example--went on in for four years before it was exposed in an article in the New York Times. And the president has still not explained to anyone why he felt the need to break the law.
Fein and Nichols both blasted the current Democratic leadership of Congress for cowardice, lack of principle, and a basic failure to honor their oaths of office to uphold and defend the Constitution, in refusing to impeach the president. Fein said that in earlier administratiions, there were always at least a few members of Congress who were honorable enough to put country and the Constitution above party. "We don't have anyone like that in Congress now," he said.
Mike usually covers impeachment but he's got a lot to do and we're trying to get done blogging early. So I said I'd grab it. I don't know of anyone in the community who doesn't support impeachment. I also don't know anyone I encounter in my daily life that doesn't think he should be impeached. It seems the only ones with doubts all got elected to Congress.
What does it take? Read Barbara Olshansky and Lindorff's book by the way, but what does it take to get impeached? Bully Boy's tossed rule of law into the waste basket with his secret detentions (and that's more than just Guantanamo) and his kidnapping of people from other countries. He's conducted illegal spying on American citizens. He's launched an illegal war -- and regime change is not a legitimate reason to go to war nor is to grab the oil. The illegal war was built on lies including his State of the Union Address in 2003. He refuses to comply with Congress. His administration is out of control. We could do this list forever.
So what does it take for Congress to get the impeachment ball rolling? It is their duty. They swear to uphold the Constitution. Impeachment is their duty.
If the above doesn't frighten you, the following might.
"Impeach Now" (Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch):
If the Bush administration wants to continue its wars in the Middle East and to entrench the "unitary executive" at home, it will have to conduct some false flag operations that will both frighten and anger the American people and make them accept Bush's declaration of "national emergency" and the return of the draft. Alternatively, the administration could simply allow any real terrorist plot to proceed without hindrance.
A series of staged or permitted attacks would be spun by the captive media as a vindication of the neoconsevatives' Islamophobic policy, the intention of which is to destroy all Middle Eastern governments that are not American puppet states. Success would give the US control over oil, but the main purpose is to eliminate any resistance to Israel's complete absorption of Palestine into Greater Israel.
Think about it. If another 9/11-type "security failure" were not in the works, why would Homeland Security czar Chertoff go to the trouble of convincing the Chicago Tribune that Americans have become complacent about terrorist threats and that he has "a gut feeling" that America will soon be hit hard?
Why would Republican warmonger Rick Santorum say on the Hugh Hewitt radio show that "between now and November, a lot of things are going to happen, and I believe that by this time next year, the American public's (sic) going to have a very different view of this war."
Throughout its existence the US government has staged incidents that the government then used in behalf of purposes that it could not otherwise have pursued. According to a number of writers, false flag operations have been routinely used by the Israeli state. During the Czarist era in Russia, the secret police would set off bombs in order to arrest those the secret police regarded as troublesome. Hitler was a dramatic orchestrator of false flag operations. False flag operations are a commonplace tool of governments.
Ask yourself: Would a government that has lied us into two wars and is working to lie us into an attack on Iran shrink from staging "terrorist" attacks in order to remove opposition to its agenda?
Only a diehard minority believes in the honesty and integrity of the Bush-Cheney administration and in the truthfulness of the corporate media.
Hitler, who never achieved majority support in a German election, used the Reichstag fire to fan hysteria and push through the Enabling Act, which made him dictator. Determined tyrants never require majority support in order to overthrow constitutional orders.
The American constitutional system is near to being overthrown. Are coming "terrorist" events of which Chertoff warns and Santorum promises the means for overthrowing our constitutional democracy?
There was an item on the news this past weekend about Ron Paul. He's a member of the House of Representatives -- Republican Party -- who is running in the Republican primary for their presidential nomination. Okay, click here to read about it. I figured if there was a write up, David Swanson's site would have it and it does. Ron Paul has said the US is in danger of a staged attack.
When even members of Congress are worrying about it, Nancy Pelosi, exactly why is impeachment off the table?
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Monday, July 16, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, bombings in Kirkuk results in mass fatalities, US military searches for war resisters, the US military announces another death, Iraqi children continue to suffer and more.
Starting with war resistance. James Burmeister is a war resister who went to Canada after serving in Iraq. He, his wife, Angelique, and their son, Cornell, now live in Ottawa. Mark Larabee (The Oregonian) reports on Burmeister and notes the "traps" were an issue -- setting out the fake carmera or other equipment so that someone would go for it and then shooting them for touching US property -- with James Burmeister declaring, "As soon as anyone would mess with it, you were supposed to lay waste to them. I completely disagreed with that tactic. I can't see how that's helping anyone whatsoever"; and on Iraq, "I though people needed to be free there. But when I went there it was all about captures and kills and it felt like we messed things up over there." For some reason, J.E. McNeil is quoted in the story and really doesn't know the first thing about the topic. I'll call out McNeil the same way I would a right winger. McNeil's area of expertise and area of interest is C.O.s and that's the topic McNeil should stick to. I find McNeil's remarks (and ingorance) damaging. It takes only a few seconds to say, "C.O.s is my focus. Have you considered calling the War Resisters Support Campaign?" A voice who does know something on the subject, Helen Burmeister, mother of James, whom Larabee reports is proud of her son and declares, "I don't support the war. I don't know anybody who supports what's going on in Iraq. . . . It took guts for him to do what he did."
Michelle Robidoux also knows about war resisters in Canada, she's with War Resisters Support Campaign and Ian Urbina (New York Times) spoke with her to get a sense of who was going to Canada and who was expressing interest in doing so. Robidoux "said in recent months the group has received calls that included two Army sergeants and a Navy chief petty officer." James Burmeister and his family have moved to Ottawa -- as did Ross Spears -- due to the fact that so many are already in Toronto. Laramee reports that the US military has "twice called her [Helen Burmeister] at work to tell her that her son was making a mistake and should turn himself in."
Last week, we noted the search of Lance Hering's parents' home. Hering may or may not be a war resister. What was known is that the US military called the police and maintained Herring (who has not been seen publicly since disappearing last year) was in his parents home. Christine Reid (Boulder Daily Camera) has reported more, "A Marine investigator said deserter Lance Hering posted on his MySpace page that he was staying at his parent's house in Boulder, sparking a search of the home earlier this week. . . . according to a police report released Thursday, a Marine investigator called Boulder authorities Tuesday to say he had come across what he thought was Hering's MySpace page, in which Hering indicated he had been staying with his parents. The investigator asked Boulder police to check out the Endicott Drive home after speaking with Elynne Hering and not being 'satisified by her response to his questions,' the report said."
Clearly Elynne Hering is under no obligation to answer questions from the US military, never having enlisted to begin with. But note clearly what happened. An investigator has spent time attempting to track Hering down. And then? Convinced he knows Hering is at his parents' home, he cross examines the mother on the phone and, not pleased with her responses, calls the police and requests the search. But we're all supposed to play dumb and pretend that the military doesn't actively seek out self-checkouts. Remember the popular lie? It's that the military has better things to do. Just like week, three idiots with the Yakima Herald-Republic not only put foward that lie again, they also said it was a good thing because the military has better things to do. To do that, you have to be stupid or willing to lie at this late date. Kyle Snyder returned from Canada in October in order to turn himself in only to be screwed over again and to self-checkout again. He then volunteered to help with reconstruction efforts in areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina before embarking on a West Coast speaking tour. With dates and appearances announced, a funny thing started happening -- the police started showing up at each stop after having been called by the US military about each stop. Snyder began "appearing" via phone and returned to Canada. The US doesn't actively seek out those who check out? In February, Snyder was preparing to get married when he was hauled out of his home, dragged away in handcuffs and in his boxers. He was released because it's not a crime in Canada to self-checkout of the US military. But who gave the orders? The US military. Or how about Winnie Ng who came forward approximately one month later to say that three men had just visited her home. The three men said they were Canadian police. They were looking for war resister Joshua Key. Winnie Ng shared that at least two of them were US and, she suspected, US military. Some made a point to step away from Ng or call her observations into question.
And certainly the Canadian's police denial that anyone had visited Ng's home helped cast doubts on her story. But Winne Ng told the truth. The Canadian police would finally have to admit that, yes, a police officer did go to Ng's home with two members of the US military (at the request of the US military). Winnie Ng was, as she stated from the start, visited by 3 men, one of whom was Canadian police, two of whom were US military. With the Canadian police having let the cat out of the bag, the US military quickly put forward the lie that the visit resulted from reading Key's book, The Deserter's Tale, and wanting to speak to him about some of the abuses he records in the book. That was a lie. The fact that they showed up at Ng's home demonstrates they didn't read the book. (Key's very clear in the book about where he lives now.) These incidents are big news in Canada. As they would be in the US if these actions were undertaken by another country. However, in the US only
Gregory Levey's "Northern exposure: American soldiers are fleeing the Iraq war for Canada -- and U.S. officials may be on their trail. North of the border is no longer the safe haven it was during the Vietnam era" (Salon) has addressed these actions. The Nation? Stop, you're making me laugh! The fact that some professional journalists may not know what has reported is no excuse for repeating the lie that the US military does not pursue self-checkouts, that they instead just enter names in a criminal data base and wash their hands of the matter. That is a lie. [For more reality, see The Third Estate Sunday Review's
"Editorial: They don't exist and no one's looking for them."]
Just as the search for them does happen, war resisters do exist. They are part of a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
Turning to Iraq, the puppet of the occupation made headlines and waves Saturday suggesting that it made no whatever to Nouri al-Maliki whether US troops remained in his country or not. Consider it The Fiddle-De-Dee Moment heard round the world. Bushra Juhi (AP) quoted the puppet saying: "We say in full confidence that we are able, God willing, to take the responsibility completely in running the security file if the international forces withdraw at any time they want." Much attention and a pushback have greeted al-Maliki's statements (made publicly at a press conference). Less attention has been given to those of his "close adviser" Hassan al-Suneid whom, Juhi reports, "sharply criticized the U.S. military saying it was committing human rights violations and embarrassing the Iraqi government through such tactics as building a wall around Baghdad's Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah and launching repeated raids on suspected Shiite militiamen in the capital's slum of Sadr City." Thomas Frank (USA Today) observes the pushback on al-Maliki's statements which includes, in the US, White House officials attempting to play the old game of, "I know what he said but what he really meant . . ." Of more interest may be Frank's report that Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta is also publicy attempting "to soften comments by al-Maliki". Atta's alleged boss? Nouri al-Maliki. For those who have forgotten, the walls Hassan al-Suneid was dencouning to the AP? al-Maliki announced that construction of the walls would cease and his announcement was not only ignored by the US military, it was mocked and ignored by the Iraqi army -- the same army he allegedly commands.
While al-Maliki has no power of the army, despite the Iraqi Constitution, AP reports that Peter Pace says the Joint Chiefs of Staff is considering "an even bigger troop buildup in Iraq" and quotes Pace declaring, "We're (doing) the kind of thinking that we need to do and be prepared for whatever it's going to look like wo months from now. That way, if we need to plus up or dome down" they are ready. It's amazing what they are ready for while at the same time claiming that withdrawal talk must wait until September. When September rolls around, they will no doubt offer additional 'reasons' why talk of withdrawal must be delayed.
As Simon Assaf (Great Britain's Socialist Worker) reported last week, David Petraues -- the general whose report in September everyone awaits -- has been stating publicly that the illegal war "will last over ten years".
That news won't go over well in the United States. On Sunday Ian Urbina (New York Times) took a look at US military families and the results probably didn't cheer the White House. April Ponce De Leon will soon deploy to Iraq where her husband is already stationed and she told Urbina, "He started telling me that he doesn't want me to go and do the things he has been doing. . . . He said that 'we have all decided that it's time for us to go home.' I said, 'You mean go home and rest?' And he said, 'I mean go home and not go back.' This is from someone who has been training for the past nine years to go to combat and who has spent his whole life wanting to be a marine. That's when I realized I couldn't support the war anymore, even though I will follow my orders."
With approximately 70% of Americans favoring withdrawal and turned against the illegal war, where is Congress? Massimo Calabresi (Time magazine) weighed in last week on the topic noting, "Americans would be forgiven for thinking there's a major debate underway in Washington over whether or not the U.S. should leave Iraq. . . . The impression being created by the debate in Washington is more about politics than anything else. For starters, Democrats are playing to their base: Though most Senate Democrats support a redeployment along the lines that Bush is describing" -- the military police and terrorist fighters options for US troops in Iraq -- "they are keen to give voters the impression that they are all for getting the U.S. out of Iraq. And they are, but not yet. . . . As for Republicans, they too are playing to core supporters." The Republicans? Randall Mikkelsen (Reuters) reported yesterday that Senator Richard Lugar (who's gotten a lot of press attention and praise for supposedly turning against the illegal war) is on board with Senator John Warner with a "plan for a troop drawdown or redeployment that could begin after Dec. 31. It does not mandate action but says the plan should be ready by Oct. 16" and that the US national security adviser (Stephen Hadley) made a point of pointing out "that Warner and Lugar did not call for a withdrawal deadline or schdule -- unlike some Democratic plans -- and they envisioned a U.S. involvement in Iraq for a 'considerable period of time . . . All they're simply saying is we need to think about now how we can transition to a new phase in Iraq when U.S. forces may have a different role."
Translation, the breakway Republic(an)s of Bully Boy War Hawk Land aren't calling for an end to the illegal war, they're just worried about the 2008 elections. In a blistery (and accurate) essay in the July 2007 issue of The Progressive ("Democratic Betrayal," pp. 8-10), Matthew Rothschild writes of "The May surrender by the Democrats" referring to the sell out or, better worded, the purchase of co-ownership of the illegal war by passing the supplemental and thereby guaranteeing the continuation of the illegal war:
The depressingly lopsided vote, 2801-142 in the House, and 80-14 in the Senate, showed the Democrats at their most cynical and spineless.
Spineless because they wouldn't face down the inevitable attack ads to come -- the spurious claim that Democrats who want to bring the troops home alive are somehow not supporting the troops.
Cynical because, when Bush came to shover, they let him get what he wanted. Democratic calculators like House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Representative Rahm Emanuel probably figure that if the war keeps going on, it will drag Republicans down to defeat in 2008. Hence, the war is good for Democrats -- even if it's killing 100 U.S. soldiers a month and wounding 700 or 800 more.
You cannot get lower than that.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was all too willing to give in to Bush.
"I'm a legislator, and I believe legislating is the art of compromise," he said a few weeks before the vote.
There may be issues to compromise on. A reckless war is not one of them. And there is no art in dissembling.
Rothschild's You Have No Rights: Stories of America In An Age of Repression (The New Press, $16.99) came out this month and Cindy Sheehan's pullquote states the book "is urgently needed to stem the tide of rising oppression in our once free country." Rothschild will be taking part in a West Coast book tour which begins today at 7:30 pm, Elliot Bay Books, 101 South Main Street, Seattle, Washington, 98104. Other dates include, July 17th, 7:30 pm Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110; July 18th, Wednesday, 7:00 pm, Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley; CA 94709, July 19th 7:30 pm, Annie Bloomis Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, Portland, OR 87219; August 14th 7:00 pm, San Luis Obispo Public Library, 995 Palm St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401; August 15th 7:00 pm, Borders Books, 900 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 and August 16th 7:00 pm, Book Soup, 8818 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
This week on Progressive Radio, Rothschild interviews Iraqi-American Sami Rasouli who has recently returned from Iraq where he was working setting up Muslim Peacemaker Teams which Rasouli has started up and currently has over 30 full time employees in Iraq.
Rasouli: What we see, the occupation divided the people of Iraq and is still working hard to divide the people and have the civil war a reality in Iraq to happen. But the leaders, whether they are leaders of tribe, tribal leaders, political leaders or religious leaders or ethnic leaders that I keep meeting with them as part of our work in Iraq. I see them with a big result to prevent the, something called civil war to take place.
Rothschild: And yet there's all this killing that we read about -- Shi'ites killing Sunnis with Sunnis killing Shi'ites.
Rasouli: That's not true, absolutely. It's provocative actions made by a third party and who is the third party? It's underground. There are many groups that incite the fight, violence in Iraq. The main group is the United States of America and its allies.
Rothschild: And what is the interest of the United States to incite this sectarian violence?
Rasouli: Well, let me tell, exactly four years ago when President George Bush, in May 1st 2004, [Rasouli corrected to] 2003, announced that major military combat was over and a big banner was behind him telling us that the mission was accomplished. Right after that announcement, actually the Iraqi military combat began by the Underground National Resistance Army who began attacking the US military forces . . . military bases and the highways or the choppers that keeps military overhead flying by 25 attacks a day. Right now, we see 155 attacks a day in Iraq. That means 7 attacks an hour, 1300 attacks a week. 5,500 attacks a month. If 10% of those attacks are lethal, imagine how great the losses that the US is burying and also how many Iraqis who are get killed in this so you have the US forces as the major forces that are provoking the violence in Iraq because the resistance is responding to the occupation and the occupation is a form of war. Now the third portion in Iraq that incites the violence in Iraq is the criminals -- home grown and the internationals -- that they looted the museums, stolen the artifacts, smuggled out of the country, go to the international Now the home grown ones who are doing their dirty work to steal for money like kidnapping for ransoms, attacking peaceful people for money. So that was a response to the, to orders set first when Mr. Bremer., Paul Bremer, took his post early 2003, after the attack. He called upon disbanding the army and also to call for the de-Baathification what were an open invitation for all criminals to appear in Iraq, take advantadge of the lawless country, broken country, borderless country. And the US is responsible and failed morally to protect Iraq and the people of Iraq.
And turning to some of today's violence . . .
Bombings?
Starting with the bombings that led to the most deaths. This morning ITV News (out of England) reported on the bombings in Kirkuk which included a truck bombing and one or more car bombing and claimed numberous lives (80 was ITV's estimate then, the total has risen, for the dead and 136 for the inured). Bushra Juhi (AP) reported that the violence "began around noon" with the truck bomb exploding near the Patrioc Union of Kurdistan headquarters (that political party is the one Jalal Talabani -- Iraq's president -- belongs to) with a car bombing following and apparently targeting a local market and destroying "five stalls and 10 cars". AFP notes the truck bombing followed by two car bombings, notes it is thought the car bombings were intended to target those arriving on the scene to provide aid and investigate the crime scene and quotes the Kirkuk chief of police (Barhan Habib Tayyib) stating that women and children made up the majority of the wounded. BBC reports, "More than 20 cars were destroyed, two buildings collapsed completely and a number of shops were also damaged. Dozens of bodies are said to be buried in the rubble and the death toll is expected to rise." CBS and AP offer that the bombings are "believed to be the deadliest attack in this northern city since the start of the war, police said" and that the truck bomb only created "a 30-foot-deep-crater". Alister Bull (Reuters) provides quotes from the victims such as Mahiya Qadir, a seventy-year-old woman, whose son was in surgery following the loss of both eyes and a broken back due to the explosion ("Will I ever see my son alive again?") and Kawa Ibrahim ("I was sat in my office and all I saw were the walls and roof collapsing on me." Molly Hennessy-Fiske (Los Angeles Times) quotes Cameran Mohammed who reveals, "I saw a large pillar of smoke and flames. There were bodies flying all over the place. It was apocalyptic." Jenny Booth (Times of London) reports, "In the aftermath of the explosion police cars could be seen driving through emptied streets using loudspeakers to call on people to donate blood. Residents thronged outside hospitals, asking about the fate of loved ones." The current total is 85 dead and 180 wounded.
Reuters notes a Baghdad car bombing killed 4 Iraqi police officers and 1 civilian (twenty more wounded), a bomb placed underneath a car killed 2 young women (sisters) who had left the car to go shopping, 5 Iraqi soldiers killed in a Baghdad roadside bombing, 1 dead from a Baghdad car bombing (three injured), 2 dead from a mortar attack in Baghdad (six more were injured) and a Kirkuk car bombing that claimed the life of 1 police officer (four more injured).
Shootings?
Reuters notes 2 Iraqi police officers were shot dead (a third wounded) in Falluja and a street cleaner was shot dead in Baghdad.
Corpses?
Reuters reports 3 corpses discovered in Yusufiya and 5 in Samarra. Today, the US military announced: "On July 15, a MNC-I Soldier died of a non-battle related cause in Diwaniyah."
The announcement brought the total number of US service members killed in the illegal war to 3616 (ICCC).
CBS and AP report, "The situation for Iraqi children is getting worse, and in some respects it was better before the war, a senior U.N. offiicial said Monday. 'Children today are much worse off than they were a year ago, and they certainly are worse off than they were three years ago,' said Dan Toole, director of emergency programs for the United Nations Children's Fund. He said Iraqis no longer have safe access to a government-funded food basket, established under Saddam Hussein to deal with international sanctions." In addition, IRIN reports "that the number of war orphans was rising because of the high civilian death toll. UNICEF is increasingly concerned that the number of vulnerable children in Iraq has outstripped the country's capacity to care for them." UNICEF has estimated that of the 4 million displaced Iraqis (internally and externally displaced) half are children.
Meanwhile Iraq's Parliament is on hold. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was forced out as Speaker and this remains an issue. CBS and AP report that al-Mashhadani's party, Iraqi Accordance Party is boycotting which may end if al-Mashhadani is returned to his post long enough to retire while al-Sadr's bloc was deciding whether or not to end their boycott until the mosque in Samarra (damaged in Feb. 2006 as well as a few months back) was repaired.
In the end, none of the above mattered. Parliament did not meet. "Very bizarrely," Jaime Tarabay (NPR) explained today, "they decided to cancel the session because there was no electricity in the assembly building" -- no lights, no air conditioning.
In other news, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted the air war in Iraq and the AP's figures that "the Air Force and Navy aircraft dropped five times as many bombs in the first six months of this year as it did the same period in 2006." Goodman also notes the Los Angeles Times finding "that nearly half of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops in Iraq have come from Saudi Arabia -- one of Washington's closest allies in the Middle East. Of the 19,000 prisoners being held by the U.S. in Iraq only 135 are foreign-born fighters and half of them are Saudi." Someone tell Michael Gordon. (Expect tears.)
The Los Angeles Times' Tony Perry reported Sunday on the testimony of Cpl. Saul H. Lopezromo in the case of Cpl. Trent D. Thomas who is among eight accused of killing an elderly man in Hamandiya whom they drug from his house at night and planted a weapon on. Lopezromo testified, "We were told to crank up the violence level" and explained, "We beat people, sir."
james burmeistermark larabee
the new york timesian urbina
gregory levey
ian urbina
matthew rothschild
Please read Ava and C.I.'s "TV: The Racial Bee," Ruth's "Ruth's Report,"
admire Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "You Are Staying" and read "Kat's Korner: Mavis Staples doesn't turn back" about Mavis Staples' wonderful new CD.
"Bill Moyers Puts Impeachment On the Media Table" (Dave Lindorff, Common Dreams):
Bill Moyers has put impeachment in the news, in the process shaming both the national media and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Congressional leadership.
In his Saturday program, Bill Moyers Journal, Moyers and guests John Nichols, the Nation's Washington correspondent and author of The Genius of Impeachment and Bruce Fein, a former attorney in the Ronald Reagan Department of Justice, made it clear that the Bush/Cheney administration has gravely threatened the Constitution and the survival of tripartite, divided government.
Moyers, feigning astonishment at the arguments of Nichols and Fein, asked if it might be justified for the Bush administration to grab special dictatorial powers in order to combat terrorism. His posited position was demolished by both Nichols and Fein.
Nichols explained that the Constitution was designed by the Founders to be a "fighting" document, capable of handling dangerous times. He noted that the Constitution actually provides for the temporary barring of habeas corpus (the right to have one's imprisonment brought before a court and adjudicated), but he said that this was something that a president had to do with the approval of Congress (not behind its back), and only if the Country was under attack, which is of course not the case right now.
Fein for his part noted that most of Bush's and Cheney's abuses of power and violations of the Constitution and the rule of law have been done not openly and in consultation with Congress, but in secret and in the dark of night. His secret monitoring of American's communications--phones, mail and internet for example--went on in for four years before it was exposed in an article in the New York Times. And the president has still not explained to anyone why he felt the need to break the law.
Fein and Nichols both blasted the current Democratic leadership of Congress for cowardice, lack of principle, and a basic failure to honor their oaths of office to uphold and defend the Constitution, in refusing to impeach the president. Fein said that in earlier administratiions, there were always at least a few members of Congress who were honorable enough to put country and the Constitution above party. "We don't have anyone like that in Congress now," he said.
Mike usually covers impeachment but he's got a lot to do and we're trying to get done blogging early. So I said I'd grab it. I don't know of anyone in the community who doesn't support impeachment. I also don't know anyone I encounter in my daily life that doesn't think he should be impeached. It seems the only ones with doubts all got elected to Congress.
What does it take? Read Barbara Olshansky and Lindorff's book by the way, but what does it take to get impeached? Bully Boy's tossed rule of law into the waste basket with his secret detentions (and that's more than just Guantanamo) and his kidnapping of people from other countries. He's conducted illegal spying on American citizens. He's launched an illegal war -- and regime change is not a legitimate reason to go to war nor is to grab the oil. The illegal war was built on lies including his State of the Union Address in 2003. He refuses to comply with Congress. His administration is out of control. We could do this list forever.
So what does it take for Congress to get the impeachment ball rolling? It is their duty. They swear to uphold the Constitution. Impeachment is their duty.
If the above doesn't frighten you, the following might.
"Impeach Now" (Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch):
If the Bush administration wants to continue its wars in the Middle East and to entrench the "unitary executive" at home, it will have to conduct some false flag operations that will both frighten and anger the American people and make them accept Bush's declaration of "national emergency" and the return of the draft. Alternatively, the administration could simply allow any real terrorist plot to proceed without hindrance.
A series of staged or permitted attacks would be spun by the captive media as a vindication of the neoconsevatives' Islamophobic policy, the intention of which is to destroy all Middle Eastern governments that are not American puppet states. Success would give the US control over oil, but the main purpose is to eliminate any resistance to Israel's complete absorption of Palestine into Greater Israel.
Think about it. If another 9/11-type "security failure" were not in the works, why would Homeland Security czar Chertoff go to the trouble of convincing the Chicago Tribune that Americans have become complacent about terrorist threats and that he has "a gut feeling" that America will soon be hit hard?
Why would Republican warmonger Rick Santorum say on the Hugh Hewitt radio show that "between now and November, a lot of things are going to happen, and I believe that by this time next year, the American public's (sic) going to have a very different view of this war."
Throughout its existence the US government has staged incidents that the government then used in behalf of purposes that it could not otherwise have pursued. According to a number of writers, false flag operations have been routinely used by the Israeli state. During the Czarist era in Russia, the secret police would set off bombs in order to arrest those the secret police regarded as troublesome. Hitler was a dramatic orchestrator of false flag operations. False flag operations are a commonplace tool of governments.
Ask yourself: Would a government that has lied us into two wars and is working to lie us into an attack on Iran shrink from staging "terrorist" attacks in order to remove opposition to its agenda?
Only a diehard minority believes in the honesty and integrity of the Bush-Cheney administration and in the truthfulness of the corporate media.
Hitler, who never achieved majority support in a German election, used the Reichstag fire to fan hysteria and push through the Enabling Act, which made him dictator. Determined tyrants never require majority support in order to overthrow constitutional orders.
The American constitutional system is near to being overthrown. Are coming "terrorist" events of which Chertoff warns and Santorum promises the means for overthrowing our constitutional democracy?
There was an item on the news this past weekend about Ron Paul. He's a member of the House of Representatives -- Republican Party -- who is running in the Republican primary for their presidential nomination. Okay, click here to read about it. I figured if there was a write up, David Swanson's site would have it and it does. Ron Paul has said the US is in danger of a staged attack.
When even members of Congress are worrying about it, Nancy Pelosi, exactly why is impeachment off the table?
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Monday, July 16, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, bombings in Kirkuk results in mass fatalities, US military searches for war resisters, the US military announces another death, Iraqi children continue to suffer and more.
Starting with war resistance. James Burmeister is a war resister who went to Canada after serving in Iraq. He, his wife, Angelique, and their son, Cornell, now live in Ottawa. Mark Larabee (The Oregonian) reports on Burmeister and notes the "traps" were an issue -- setting out the fake carmera or other equipment so that someone would go for it and then shooting them for touching US property -- with James Burmeister declaring, "As soon as anyone would mess with it, you were supposed to lay waste to them. I completely disagreed with that tactic. I can't see how that's helping anyone whatsoever"; and on Iraq, "I though people needed to be free there. But when I went there it was all about captures and kills and it felt like we messed things up over there." For some reason, J.E. McNeil is quoted in the story and really doesn't know the first thing about the topic. I'll call out McNeil the same way I would a right winger. McNeil's area of expertise and area of interest is C.O.s and that's the topic McNeil should stick to. I find McNeil's remarks (and ingorance) damaging. It takes only a few seconds to say, "C.O.s is my focus. Have you considered calling the War Resisters Support Campaign?" A voice who does know something on the subject, Helen Burmeister, mother of James, whom Larabee reports is proud of her son and declares, "I don't support the war. I don't know anybody who supports what's going on in Iraq. . . . It took guts for him to do what he did."
Michelle Robidoux also knows about war resisters in Canada, she's with War Resisters Support Campaign and Ian Urbina (New York Times) spoke with her to get a sense of who was going to Canada and who was expressing interest in doing so. Robidoux "said in recent months the group has received calls that included two Army sergeants and a Navy chief petty officer." James Burmeister and his family have moved to Ottawa -- as did Ross Spears -- due to the fact that so many are already in Toronto. Laramee reports that the US military has "twice called her [Helen Burmeister] at work to tell her that her son was making a mistake and should turn himself in."
Last week, we noted the search of Lance Hering's parents' home. Hering may or may not be a war resister. What was known is that the US military called the police and maintained Herring (who has not been seen publicly since disappearing last year) was in his parents home. Christine Reid (Boulder Daily Camera) has reported more, "A Marine investigator said deserter Lance Hering posted on his MySpace page that he was staying at his parent's house in Boulder, sparking a search of the home earlier this week. . . . according to a police report released Thursday, a Marine investigator called Boulder authorities Tuesday to say he had come across what he thought was Hering's MySpace page, in which Hering indicated he had been staying with his parents. The investigator asked Boulder police to check out the Endicott Drive home after speaking with Elynne Hering and not being 'satisified by her response to his questions,' the report said."
Clearly Elynne Hering is under no obligation to answer questions from the US military, never having enlisted to begin with. But note clearly what happened. An investigator has spent time attempting to track Hering down. And then? Convinced he knows Hering is at his parents' home, he cross examines the mother on the phone and, not pleased with her responses, calls the police and requests the search. But we're all supposed to play dumb and pretend that the military doesn't actively seek out self-checkouts. Remember the popular lie? It's that the military has better things to do. Just like week, three idiots with the Yakima Herald-Republic not only put foward that lie again, they also said it was a good thing because the military has better things to do. To do that, you have to be stupid or willing to lie at this late date. Kyle Snyder returned from Canada in October in order to turn himself in only to be screwed over again and to self-checkout again. He then volunteered to help with reconstruction efforts in areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina before embarking on a West Coast speaking tour. With dates and appearances announced, a funny thing started happening -- the police started showing up at each stop after having been called by the US military about each stop. Snyder began "appearing" via phone and returned to Canada. The US doesn't actively seek out those who check out? In February, Snyder was preparing to get married when he was hauled out of his home, dragged away in handcuffs and in his boxers. He was released because it's not a crime in Canada to self-checkout of the US military. But who gave the orders? The US military. Or how about Winnie Ng who came forward approximately one month later to say that three men had just visited her home. The three men said they were Canadian police. They were looking for war resister Joshua Key. Winnie Ng shared that at least two of them were US and, she suspected, US military. Some made a point to step away from Ng or call her observations into question.
And certainly the Canadian's police denial that anyone had visited Ng's home helped cast doubts on her story. But Winne Ng told the truth. The Canadian police would finally have to admit that, yes, a police officer did go to Ng's home with two members of the US military (at the request of the US military). Winnie Ng was, as she stated from the start, visited by 3 men, one of whom was Canadian police, two of whom were US military. With the Canadian police having let the cat out of the bag, the US military quickly put forward the lie that the visit resulted from reading Key's book, The Deserter's Tale, and wanting to speak to him about some of the abuses he records in the book. That was a lie. The fact that they showed up at Ng's home demonstrates they didn't read the book. (Key's very clear in the book about where he lives now.) These incidents are big news in Canada. As they would be in the US if these actions were undertaken by another country. However, in the US only
Gregory Levey's "Northern exposure: American soldiers are fleeing the Iraq war for Canada -- and U.S. officials may be on their trail. North of the border is no longer the safe haven it was during the Vietnam era" (Salon) has addressed these actions. The Nation? Stop, you're making me laugh! The fact that some professional journalists may not know what has reported is no excuse for repeating the lie that the US military does not pursue self-checkouts, that they instead just enter names in a criminal data base and wash their hands of the matter. That is a lie. [For more reality, see The Third Estate Sunday Review's
"Editorial: They don't exist and no one's looking for them."]
Just as the search for them does happen, war resisters do exist. They are part of a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
Turning to Iraq, the puppet of the occupation made headlines and waves Saturday suggesting that it made no whatever to Nouri al-Maliki whether US troops remained in his country or not. Consider it The Fiddle-De-Dee Moment heard round the world. Bushra Juhi (AP) quoted the puppet saying: "We say in full confidence that we are able, God willing, to take the responsibility completely in running the security file if the international forces withdraw at any time they want." Much attention and a pushback have greeted al-Maliki's statements (made publicly at a press conference). Less attention has been given to those of his "close adviser" Hassan al-Suneid whom, Juhi reports, "sharply criticized the U.S. military saying it was committing human rights violations and embarrassing the Iraqi government through such tactics as building a wall around Baghdad's Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah and launching repeated raids on suspected Shiite militiamen in the capital's slum of Sadr City." Thomas Frank (USA Today) observes the pushback on al-Maliki's statements which includes, in the US, White House officials attempting to play the old game of, "I know what he said but what he really meant . . ." Of more interest may be Frank's report that Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta is also publicy attempting "to soften comments by al-Maliki". Atta's alleged boss? Nouri al-Maliki. For those who have forgotten, the walls Hassan al-Suneid was dencouning to the AP? al-Maliki announced that construction of the walls would cease and his announcement was not only ignored by the US military, it was mocked and ignored by the Iraqi army -- the same army he allegedly commands.
While al-Maliki has no power of the army, despite the Iraqi Constitution, AP reports that Peter Pace says the Joint Chiefs of Staff is considering "an even bigger troop buildup in Iraq" and quotes Pace declaring, "We're (doing) the kind of thinking that we need to do and be prepared for whatever it's going to look like wo months from now. That way, if we need to plus up or dome down" they are ready. It's amazing what they are ready for while at the same time claiming that withdrawal talk must wait until September. When September rolls around, they will no doubt offer additional 'reasons' why talk of withdrawal must be delayed.
As Simon Assaf (Great Britain's Socialist Worker) reported last week, David Petraues -- the general whose report in September everyone awaits -- has been stating publicly that the illegal war "will last over ten years".
That news won't go over well in the United States. On Sunday Ian Urbina (New York Times) took a look at US military families and the results probably didn't cheer the White House. April Ponce De Leon will soon deploy to Iraq where her husband is already stationed and she told Urbina, "He started telling me that he doesn't want me to go and do the things he has been doing. . . . He said that 'we have all decided that it's time for us to go home.' I said, 'You mean go home and rest?' And he said, 'I mean go home and not go back.' This is from someone who has been training for the past nine years to go to combat and who has spent his whole life wanting to be a marine. That's when I realized I couldn't support the war anymore, even though I will follow my orders."
With approximately 70% of Americans favoring withdrawal and turned against the illegal war, where is Congress? Massimo Calabresi (Time magazine) weighed in last week on the topic noting, "Americans would be forgiven for thinking there's a major debate underway in Washington over whether or not the U.S. should leave Iraq. . . . The impression being created by the debate in Washington is more about politics than anything else. For starters, Democrats are playing to their base: Though most Senate Democrats support a redeployment along the lines that Bush is describing" -- the military police and terrorist fighters options for US troops in Iraq -- "they are keen to give voters the impression that they are all for getting the U.S. out of Iraq. And they are, but not yet. . . . As for Republicans, they too are playing to core supporters." The Republicans? Randall Mikkelsen (Reuters) reported yesterday that Senator Richard Lugar (who's gotten a lot of press attention and praise for supposedly turning against the illegal war) is on board with Senator John Warner with a "plan for a troop drawdown or redeployment that could begin after Dec. 31. It does not mandate action but says the plan should be ready by Oct. 16" and that the US national security adviser (Stephen Hadley) made a point of pointing out "that Warner and Lugar did not call for a withdrawal deadline or schdule -- unlike some Democratic plans -- and they envisioned a U.S. involvement in Iraq for a 'considerable period of time . . . All they're simply saying is we need to think about now how we can transition to a new phase in Iraq when U.S. forces may have a different role."
Translation, the breakway Republic(an)s of Bully Boy War Hawk Land aren't calling for an end to the illegal war, they're just worried about the 2008 elections. In a blistery (and accurate) essay in the July 2007 issue of The Progressive ("Democratic Betrayal," pp. 8-10), Matthew Rothschild writes of "The May surrender by the Democrats" referring to the sell out or, better worded, the purchase of co-ownership of the illegal war by passing the supplemental and thereby guaranteeing the continuation of the illegal war:
The depressingly lopsided vote, 2801-142 in the House, and 80-14 in the Senate, showed the Democrats at their most cynical and spineless.
Spineless because they wouldn't face down the inevitable attack ads to come -- the spurious claim that Democrats who want to bring the troops home alive are somehow not supporting the troops.
Cynical because, when Bush came to shover, they let him get what he wanted. Democratic calculators like House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Representative Rahm Emanuel probably figure that if the war keeps going on, it will drag Republicans down to defeat in 2008. Hence, the war is good for Democrats -- even if it's killing 100 U.S. soldiers a month and wounding 700 or 800 more.
You cannot get lower than that.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was all too willing to give in to Bush.
"I'm a legislator, and I believe legislating is the art of compromise," he said a few weeks before the vote.
There may be issues to compromise on. A reckless war is not one of them. And there is no art in dissembling.
Rothschild's You Have No Rights: Stories of America In An Age of Repression (The New Press, $16.99) came out this month and Cindy Sheehan's pullquote states the book "is urgently needed to stem the tide of rising oppression in our once free country." Rothschild will be taking part in a West Coast book tour which begins today at 7:30 pm, Elliot Bay Books, 101 South Main Street, Seattle, Washington, 98104. Other dates include, July 17th, 7:30 pm Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110; July 18th, Wednesday, 7:00 pm, Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley; CA 94709, July 19th 7:30 pm, Annie Bloomis Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, Portland, OR 87219; August 14th 7:00 pm, San Luis Obispo Public Library, 995 Palm St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401; August 15th 7:00 pm, Borders Books, 900 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 and August 16th 7:00 pm, Book Soup, 8818 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
This week on Progressive Radio, Rothschild interviews Iraqi-American Sami Rasouli who has recently returned from Iraq where he was working setting up Muslim Peacemaker Teams which Rasouli has started up and currently has over 30 full time employees in Iraq.
Rasouli: What we see, the occupation divided the people of Iraq and is still working hard to divide the people and have the civil war a reality in Iraq to happen. But the leaders, whether they are leaders of tribe, tribal leaders, political leaders or religious leaders or ethnic leaders that I keep meeting with them as part of our work in Iraq. I see them with a big result to prevent the, something called civil war to take place.
Rothschild: And yet there's all this killing that we read about -- Shi'ites killing Sunnis with Sunnis killing Shi'ites.
Rasouli: That's not true, absolutely. It's provocative actions made by a third party and who is the third party? It's underground. There are many groups that incite the fight, violence in Iraq. The main group is the United States of America and its allies.
Rothschild: And what is the interest of the United States to incite this sectarian violence?
Rasouli: Well, let me tell, exactly four years ago when President George Bush, in May 1st 2004, [Rasouli corrected to] 2003, announced that major military combat was over and a big banner was behind him telling us that the mission was accomplished. Right after that announcement, actually the Iraqi military combat began by the Underground National Resistance Army who began attacking the US military forces . . . military bases and the highways or the choppers that keeps military overhead flying by 25 attacks a day. Right now, we see 155 attacks a day in Iraq. That means 7 attacks an hour, 1300 attacks a week. 5,500 attacks a month. If 10% of those attacks are lethal, imagine how great the losses that the US is burying and also how many Iraqis who are get killed in this so you have the US forces as the major forces that are provoking the violence in Iraq because the resistance is responding to the occupation and the occupation is a form of war. Now the third portion in Iraq that incites the violence in Iraq is the criminals -- home grown and the internationals -- that they looted the museums, stolen the artifacts, smuggled out of the country, go to the international Now the home grown ones who are doing their dirty work to steal for money like kidnapping for ransoms, attacking peaceful people for money. So that was a response to the, to orders set first when Mr. Bremer., Paul Bremer, took his post early 2003, after the attack. He called upon disbanding the army and also to call for the de-Baathification what were an open invitation for all criminals to appear in Iraq, take advantadge of the lawless country, broken country, borderless country. And the US is responsible and failed morally to protect Iraq and the people of Iraq.
And turning to some of today's violence . . .
Bombings?
Starting with the bombings that led to the most deaths. This morning ITV News (out of England) reported on the bombings in Kirkuk which included a truck bombing and one or more car bombing and claimed numberous lives (80 was ITV's estimate then, the total has risen, for the dead and 136 for the inured). Bushra Juhi (AP) reported that the violence "began around noon" with the truck bomb exploding near the Patrioc Union of Kurdistan headquarters (that political party is the one Jalal Talabani -- Iraq's president -- belongs to) with a car bombing following and apparently targeting a local market and destroying "five stalls and 10 cars". AFP notes the truck bombing followed by two car bombings, notes it is thought the car bombings were intended to target those arriving on the scene to provide aid and investigate the crime scene and quotes the Kirkuk chief of police (Barhan Habib Tayyib) stating that women and children made up the majority of the wounded. BBC reports, "More than 20 cars were destroyed, two buildings collapsed completely and a number of shops were also damaged. Dozens of bodies are said to be buried in the rubble and the death toll is expected to rise." CBS and AP offer that the bombings are "believed to be the deadliest attack in this northern city since the start of the war, police said" and that the truck bomb only created "a 30-foot-deep-crater". Alister Bull (Reuters) provides quotes from the victims such as Mahiya Qadir, a seventy-year-old woman, whose son was in surgery following the loss of both eyes and a broken back due to the explosion ("Will I ever see my son alive again?") and Kawa Ibrahim ("I was sat in my office and all I saw were the walls and roof collapsing on me." Molly Hennessy-Fiske (Los Angeles Times) quotes Cameran Mohammed who reveals, "I saw a large pillar of smoke and flames. There were bodies flying all over the place. It was apocalyptic." Jenny Booth (Times of London) reports, "In the aftermath of the explosion police cars could be seen driving through emptied streets using loudspeakers to call on people to donate blood. Residents thronged outside hospitals, asking about the fate of loved ones." The current total is 85 dead and 180 wounded.
Reuters notes a Baghdad car bombing killed 4 Iraqi police officers and 1 civilian (twenty more wounded), a bomb placed underneath a car killed 2 young women (sisters) who had left the car to go shopping, 5 Iraqi soldiers killed in a Baghdad roadside bombing, 1 dead from a Baghdad car bombing (three injured), 2 dead from a mortar attack in Baghdad (six more were injured) and a Kirkuk car bombing that claimed the life of 1 police officer (four more injured).
Shootings?
Reuters notes 2 Iraqi police officers were shot dead (a third wounded) in Falluja and a street cleaner was shot dead in Baghdad.
Corpses?
Reuters reports 3 corpses discovered in Yusufiya and 5 in Samarra. Today, the US military announced: "On July 15, a MNC-I Soldier died of a non-battle related cause in Diwaniyah."
The announcement brought the total number of US service members killed in the illegal war to 3616 (ICCC).
CBS and AP report, "The situation for Iraqi children is getting worse, and in some respects it was better before the war, a senior U.N. offiicial said Monday. 'Children today are much worse off than they were a year ago, and they certainly are worse off than they were three years ago,' said Dan Toole, director of emergency programs for the United Nations Children's Fund. He said Iraqis no longer have safe access to a government-funded food basket, established under Saddam Hussein to deal with international sanctions." In addition, IRIN reports "that the number of war orphans was rising because of the high civilian death toll. UNICEF is increasingly concerned that the number of vulnerable children in Iraq has outstripped the country's capacity to care for them." UNICEF has estimated that of the 4 million displaced Iraqis (internally and externally displaced) half are children.
Meanwhile Iraq's Parliament is on hold. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was forced out as Speaker and this remains an issue. CBS and AP report that al-Mashhadani's party, Iraqi Accordance Party is boycotting which may end if al-Mashhadani is returned to his post long enough to retire while al-Sadr's bloc was deciding whether or not to end their boycott until the mosque in Samarra (damaged in Feb. 2006 as well as a few months back) was repaired.
In the end, none of the above mattered. Parliament did not meet. "Very bizarrely," Jaime Tarabay (NPR) explained today, "they decided to cancel the session because there was no electricity in the assembly building" -- no lights, no air conditioning.
In other news, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted the air war in Iraq and the AP's figures that "the Air Force and Navy aircraft dropped five times as many bombs in the first six months of this year as it did the same period in 2006." Goodman also notes the Los Angeles Times finding "that nearly half of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops in Iraq have come from Saudi Arabia -- one of Washington's closest allies in the Middle East. Of the 19,000 prisoners being held by the U.S. in Iraq only 135 are foreign-born fighters and half of them are Saudi." Someone tell Michael Gordon. (Expect tears.)
The Los Angeles Times' Tony Perry reported Sunday on the testimony of Cpl. Saul H. Lopezromo in the case of Cpl. Trent D. Thomas who is among eight accused of killing an elderly man in Hamandiya whom they drug from his house at night and planted a weapon on. Lopezromo testified, "We were told to crank up the violence level" and explained, "We beat people, sir."
james burmeistermark larabee
the new york timesian urbina
gregory levey
ian urbina
matthew rothschild
Friday, July 13, 2007
Hillary Clinton and John Edwards plot
It's vacation time for all of us and Mike and I decided to do a flashback to the early days when we pulled headlines from Democracy Now! and weighed in.
"Clinton, Edwards Plot Excluding Candidates From Debates" (Democracy Now!)
In campaign news, Senator Hillary Clinton and former Senator John Edwards have been caught discussing an apparent plan to exclude other Democratic candidates from future debates. On Thursday, Edwards and Clinton were speaking privately after an NAACP Presidential Forum in Detroit. Unaware their microphones were still on, Edwards is overheard saying: “We should try to have a more serious and a smaller group." Clinton agreed, responding: "We've got to cut the number...They're not serious." Clinton also indicated the two had discussed the plan before, telling Edwards "we've got to get back to it." In response, Ohio congressmember and Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich said: "No matter how important or influential they perceive themselves to be, [candidates] do not have and should not have the power to determine who is allowed to speak to the American public and who is not. Imperial candidates are as repugnant to the American people and to our Democracy as an imperial President."
Okay, I can actually help Hillary Clinton and John Edwards out here. They want to avoid 'trivializing debates' then the answer's really clear: Stop participating. Just let America see that you allegedly want to be president but aren't willing to debate your fellow Democrats. That should really help you sky rocket on the polls. Or maybe just crash and burn.
The League of Women Voters used to be in charge of the presidential debates. The two parties found a way to run them out and that's why we get these closed presidential debates that do not feature all the candidates, just the Democrat and the Republican. So leave it to Hill & Edwards (two lawyers, they should be a law firm) to figure out that it's time to rig the last chance people (in their own party) have a chance to air their views.
It really is telling and they no doubt can't stand that Mike Gravel points out the obvious: they both voted for the illegal war. Edwards has apologized for the vote but how sincere is it with this sort of behavior? Most importantly, what does this say about how either would conduct themselves as president? "I don't like what people are saying, make them go away!" Isn't one of our country's biggest problems currently that someone like that occupies the White House?
"Witnesses: U.S. Chopper Kills Iraqi Civilians, Journalist" (Democracy Now!):
In news from Iraq, at least sixteen people were killed Thursday in clashes between U.S. troops and Shiite militias in Baghdad. The dead included a photographer for the Reuters news agency and his driver. They apparently came under fire from a U.S. helicopter.
Unidentified witness: "The U.S. soldiers randomly fired on cars and children, even journalists were not safe. Over here was a Reuters crew."
Residents say the remaining dead were civilians, including at least two children. An Agence France Press journalist who interviewed witnesses on the scene said the helicopter appeared to indiscriminately fire on any gathering of people in the area.
We all missed Democracy Now! today. We were working on the immigration issue, doing vacation things and, in C.I. and Ava's case, speaking. So we got back here and are all getting ready to go back out. C.I. came up with the suggestion that Mike and I do our posts as we did in the early days. So we were looking at them all together, the headlines, and C.I. saw one and had to do another snapshot (or version of it) to include that.
On the above item, the US military refuses to admit what has happened. They insist it was a 'combat situation.' It wasn't and you've got two Reuters journalists dead, eyewitnesses, the photo of the car the reporters were in, and so much more. What happened was people gathered as the photos were being taken. Someone either decided that any gathering of Iraqis was a threat or, for 'fun,' decided that they'd 'take out' some Iraqis. The US military needs to get honest real quick about what happened.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Friday, July 13, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, another journalist is annouced dead in Iraq -- the 3rd in the last 48 hours, Matthew Rothschild addresses the theft of Iraqi oil law, and more.
Starting with war resistance. The Progressive's Hidden History Of The United States (available in calander form) notes that on this day in 1863, "Draft riots began in New York City, leaving 1,000 dead over four days." Ehren Watada is the first commissioned officer to public refuse deployment to Iraq. Currently, he is waiting while the appeals process determines whether he will have to face a second court-martial and, if so, whether Judge Toilet (aka John Head) will be allowed to preside over it again. While this goes on, people continue to demonstrate their support for Watada. Last Friday, we noted a rally held in San Francisco in support of Watada. Ryan Baladad (Asian Week) informs, "Members from the various groups, including Aisan Pacific Islanders Resist and the Watada Support Committee, took turns speaking in support of the Japanese lieutenant. Supporters held signs that read, 'Refuse Illegal War,' 'Bush lied, People Died' and showed photos of Watada in uniform. Malcolm Yeung of the Asian Law Caucus called the Army's actions 'frankly reprehensible' and said the case 'chills free speech'." Baladad closes with this statement from Rev. Norman Fong (Chinatown Presbyterian Church), "There shouldn't be another trial; they messed up the first time. We're proud of Lt. Watada."
Meanwhile, who is Steve Yoczik? The War Resisters Support Campaign explains, "Steve arrived in Toronto on November 25th, 2006. He trained in communications at Fort Gordon, Georgia. After a few months there, he began to realize that the decision he'd made to join the Army was a serious mistake and that trading 4 years of his life for the opportunity to have college paid for was not an agreeable enough trade. Also after seeing pictures of wounded or killed Iraqi civilians (and combatants) as well as stories from soldiers that had been to Iraq and Afghanistan, he knew without a doubt that he did not want to be involved in the war. Halfway through training, the 'job' he'd been signed on for was cancelled, and 'joblees' people in this particular war zone go on patrols and kick in doors, so Stephen prepared a last-ditch effort to come to Canada, as all other attempts to leave the Army 'legitimately' were exhausted. Since arriving in Toronto, Steve has adjusted fairly weel, and is being careful in the decisions he makes in life now, as his Army expereience has taught him that signatures hold a lot of power . . ."
Yoczik is part of a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
Yesterday, Bully Boy went on and on, desperately attempting to stretch the definition of progress in yet another attempt to fool the American people. How bad did the spin and lies get? Kenneth R. Bazinet (New York Daily News) informs, "Even the White House was concerned Bush overstepped with his upbeat war talk, sending spokesman Tony Snow out to talk to the cable news outlets to clarify the President's remarks. 'The President isn't saying we're winning. He says we're in a fight. He says we cannot afford not to win,' Snow told Fox News." Tony Snow need not worry, reality will always Fact Check the Bully Boy upside his face. How are things with the Iraqi Parliament? Joshua Partlow and Sudarsan Raghavan (Washington Post) reports, "Iraqi politicians on Thursday struck a more pessimistic tone about Iraq than did the White House assessment, and said the deadlock between warring Sunni and Shiite factions makes major political progress unlikely in coming months." Well, as least those Iraqi troops are coming along nicely, right? Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) informs, "Despite stepped-up training, the readiness of the Iraqi military to operate independently of U.S. forces has decreased since President Bush's new strategy was launched in January, according to the White House progress report released yesterday." And try to find out the hard figures on this from the Pentagon, as DeYoung did, and be informed that's "classified information." Classified, apparently, on the grounds that Bully Boy is an incompetent.
And on the January 20th attack in Karbala that killed 1 US soldier immediately, wounded three and saw four kidnapped (all of whom would later turn up dead), Gregg Zoroya (USA Today) reveals the army's internal investigation has found:
•Iraqi police suddenly vanished from the government compound before the shooting started.•Attackers, evidently briefed on how U.S. forces would defend themselves, bottled up more than three dozen soldiers in a barracks and headquarters complex using a combination of smoke and fragment grenades and satchel charges to blow up Humvees.•Gunmen knew exactly where to find and abduct U.S. officers.•Iraqi vendors operating a PX and barbershop went home early.•A back gate was left unlocked and unguarded.Investigators recommended several changes to toughen defensive positions, including the installation of closed-circuit cameras to provide better early warnings, "duress devices" that can allow overrun outposts to signal headquarters, and requirements that any arriving convoy provide identification.
Now how do you suppose that got left out of Bully Boy's attempt to sell the continuation of the illegal war? In more reality the Bully Boy Never Told You, Robert Burns (AP via Los Angeles Times) reports that yesterday's White House progress report "strongly implies that the administration believes its military strategy will take many more months to meet its goals." And really driving home the lack of progress in Iraq, Mike Drummond and Hussein Khalifa (McClatchy Newspapers) tell the story of Nawal Na'eem Karim whose 18-month-child has learned to cry "Talaq inanan! Talaq inana!" ("Bullets here! Bullets here!"). Needless to say, the mother tells the reporters she just wants the US to leave. Of course, Bully Boy would probably get that dopey grin on his face (as when a woman explained she had to work two jobs) and say, "That's wonderful."
Meanwhile, Congressional Dems try to put one over on the public -- again, and it's the same shell game. From Democracy Now! today:
House Iraq Pullout Bill Leaves Thousands of Troops BehindThe House has approved a measure that would begin withdrawing combat troops from Iraq within the next three months. The final vote was two hundred twenty-three to two-hundred and one, mostly along party lines. Before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged lawmakers to vote "yes."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "Let us pass this bill and those that will follow in the coming weeks and provide the new direction on Iraq that the American people demand and that is so urgently needed. I urge a 'yes' vote on the Skelton bill."Ohio Congressmember Dennis Kucinich was the lone anti-war Democrat to vote against the bill. The measure would remove most combat troops by April of next year but still leave tens of thousands soldiers behind.
As Amy Goodman noted above "leaves tens of thousands soldiers behind." And that's provided Bully Boy doesn't reclassify the ones that would be set to leave. Pushing the non-existant link between 9-11 and Iraq is a thread he picked up again yesterday. He could follow the Pelosi measure (if it passed) and reclassify "combat troops" as troops who will be fighting terrorists ("al Qaeda!") and none have to leave. He could also declare that the illegal war is over and that 160,000 US troops need to remain to maintain "police operations" which would mean no troops leave. It's the con game they pulled in March, credit Goodman with telling it straight and not sugar coating it.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice remakes Mariah Carey's "Love Takes Time" with new words resulting in "War Takes Time." (CBS & AP, text and video).
In a crimes and violence update, Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) updates her bank robbery story from yesterday with the information that the bank is revising the figures for the stolen money to "282 million Iraqi diners, equal to about $225,000 and $366,00 American dollars." In some of today's violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a mortar attacks in Baquba claimed 2 lives and left fifteen wounded and a Baquba bombing that claimed 1 life. Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) notes that the Green Zone was "slammed" with mortars today, killing 2 Iraqi soldiers and that "U.S. civilian government employees have been required in the last few dyas to wear body armor and helmets because of the rising threat of rocket and mortar attacks. Reuters notes that 2 children died in Samawa from a roadside bombing, 1 Iraqi soldier died from a Baghdad roadside bombing and 1 police officer died from a Mosul roadside bombing.
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports five police officers were shot dead in Baghdad, 3 Iraqi civilians were shot dead by the US military (in what appears to be -- me speaking not Hammoudi -- indiscriminate firing) and "Gunmen killed an Iraqi journalist working for New York Times newspaper near Al Saidiyah fuel station south of Baghdad around 9:00 am." John Holusha (New York Times) observes that Hassan joined the paper in 2003 (fall) and that he was the second Times' reporter for the paper to die in Iraq and notes: "Mr. Hassan was shot in the Saidiya district of south central Baghdad while driving to work under circumstances that remain unclear, Mr. [John F.] Burns said. He had called the bureau earlier and said his normal route to the office had been block by a security checkpoint." Executive editor Bill Keller states, "Khalid was part of a large, sometimes unsung, community of Iraqi news gatherers, translators and support staff, who take enormous risks every day to help us comprehend their country's struggle and torment. Without them, America's understanding of what is happening on the ground in Iraq would be much, much poorer. To The Times, Khalid was family, and his death is heartbreaking." Khalid Hassan's death brings to three the number of reporters killed in Baghdad in the last 48 hours. Yesterday, we noted the deaths of Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh, two journalists with Reuters. Today, Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) reports that in addition to eyewitnesses quoted in the early reports yesterday, Ahmad Sahib, with AFP, arrived on the scene shortly afterwards and he states, "They had arrived, got out of the car and started taking pictures, and people gathered. It looked like the American helicopters were firing against any gathering in the area, because when I got out of my car and started taking pictures, people gathered and an American helicopter fired a few rounds, but they hit the houses nearby and we ran for cover."
Corpses?
Reuters reports 3 corpses discovered today in Sawayra. And Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) noted that 28 corpses were discovered in Baghdad Thursday.
Turning to the theft of Iraqi oil, Nancy Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) notes, "Earlier this month, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki announced unanimous Cabinet approval of a draft hydrocarbon law. But on Wednesday, Kurdish politicians said they opposed the latest version of the law. The draft law hasn't been published." Steve Kretzmann (Oil for Change) observes, "We have heard conflicting reports, although it seems clear that the annexes are gone. There was an arabic version published two days ago in a Baghdad daily, however we've heard that there has been at least one change since then." AVAAZ.ORG has an online petition entitled "Support Iraqi Oil Sovereignty."
At Inside Iraq (McClatchy Newspapers), a journalist shares a surreal experience, "The Electricity Minister and the Oil Minister, both being questioned in the Parliament as to the electricity and fuel situation in the country. They were fighting the 'good' fight, back to back, with their sabers flashing. Fact after distorted face spilled forth from their tongues. The Oil Minister, high browed, blue blooded, married to a bluer blood still -- all leaning east, said he hadn't enough power and fuel to work the refineries -- butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. The Electricity Minister, a man of the masses; an excellent technician, worked his way up through the ranks, said he hadn't enough fuel to work the electricity power stations. Wasn't there something strange here -- was it a distortion in my dream?? A Catch 22 situation if ever there was one!!" Hussain al-Shahristani is the Oil Minister (since May of last year) and prior to that post he was the deputy speaker in the National Assembly. Last week, on KPFT's Progressive Forum (Thursdays, 7:00 pm Central), host Wally James discussed the theft of the Iraqi oil with Matthew Rothschild (The Progressive).
Matthew Rothschild: It's amazing that with all that's been going on Iraq with maybes 600,000 Iraqis killed, 3600 US soldiers killed and 2600 US soldiers wounded, that the one thing the Bush administration really cares about is privatizing Iraq's oil. You know, they told us, over and over again, before this war started those of us that were talking about this war being for oil, that we were conspiracy people, but look, low and behold, the first thing that the army did when it got to Iraq was protect the oil fields, the second thing it did was protect the Oil Ministry and now the last thing it's doing is making sure that before all hell breaks further loose that they're going to get something on the books in Iraq that allows Exxon-Mobile and other US corporations to go in there and get their share of the oil there and expatriate the profits from that oil at a much greater degree than oil companies can do in that part of the world. I mean this is a huge sell out of Iraq's sovereign resource and there are, there have been strikes already by Iraqi oil workers and al-Sadr right now is aligning with the Sunnis to oppose this so there's all sorts of domestic opposition over there but this is the one thing that the Bush administration wanted al-Maliki to rail through if he could, railroad it through, he'd be back in the good graces of the Bush administration, back in the good graces of Exxon-Mobile.
Wally James: Well from the beginning you had Bush saying, you know, this is not about oil, we're not trying to get control of the oil. And, you know, but under the surface you have this going on and at the same time the US media just isn't reporting on it. They talk about how this is going to be a good thing if this goes through, how it's going to make for sure that the oil is divided up evenly in Iraq.
Matthew Rothschild: It is almost impossible, you're absolutely right here, Wally, and I think it's a really good point absolutely impossible to read the mainstream media and figure out what's going on with this Iraq oil behind the scenes. It's not about, or simply not just about, the equal sharing of the oil revenues. It's largely about the privatization of the oil industry in Iraq and allowing US and other foreign oil companies in to grab the oil. That's what's going on but you might get that in about paragraph eleven or paragraph fifteen and it won't explain really the benefits that are going to acrue to Exxon-Mobile and the other giants. And it certainly won't tell you that the Iraq oil workers were striking for a week in Basra over this. I mean, this has been one of the worst bits of coverage by the mainstream media in Iraq since what? The cover up or the funneling of propaganda about Weapons of Mass Destruction Prior to the war courtesy of Judith Miller and the New York Times.
Wally James asked Rothschild about the idea that Congressional Democrats might be refusing to impeach because they want Bully Boy around for the 2008 elections (as an issue to run against) and wondered if that was at least part of the reason Congress does nothing to end the illegal war, "they need him around in '08 to beat up" and the Iraq war? Rothschild responded: "Well this is kind of pragmatic politics at its worst, it seems to me. Because I think the same thing happened with the Iraq war vote. They want the Iraq war to go on so they can go against Bush and the Iraq war in 2008. But look at how callous that is. They want a hundred more US soldiers to die every month and 500, 600 to be wounded and what, you know, a couple of thousand Iraqis to die every month just because it's politically expedient and it might help them win the White House? I mean, come on, talk about immorality if that's what they're doing that's disgraceful on the war issue." Next addressed was the issue of impeachment which Rothschild's supported, publicly in his writing, since at least early 2006 and we'll use that as an opportunity to note that Bill Moyers Journal (begins airing on PBS in most markets today -- check local listings and you can also read, listen or watch online) will explore the topic of impeachment and, among the guests is John Nichols.
Back to Rothschild, he has a new book out entitled You Have No Rights: Stories of America In An Age of Repression (The New Press, list price $16.99) and he's doing stops across the country to promote the book:
Matthew Rothschild reading and signing YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS
Seattle, WA: 7/16 at 7:00PM San Francisco, CA: 7/17 at 7:30PM Berkeley, CA: 7/18 at 7:00PM Portland, OR: 7/19 at 7:30PMMadison, WI: 7/26 at 7:00PM San Luis Obispo, CA: 8/14 at 7:00PM Santa Barbara, CA:8/15 at 7:00PM Los Angeles, CA: 8/16 at 7:00PM Baraboo, WI: 9/8 all day
ehren watada
mcclatchy newspapers
the new york timesalissa j. rubin
iraq
matthew rothschild
gregg zoroyathe washington postjoshua partlowsudarsan raghavan
bill moyers journal
"Clinton, Edwards Plot Excluding Candidates From Debates" (Democracy Now!)
In campaign news, Senator Hillary Clinton and former Senator John Edwards have been caught discussing an apparent plan to exclude other Democratic candidates from future debates. On Thursday, Edwards and Clinton were speaking privately after an NAACP Presidential Forum in Detroit. Unaware their microphones were still on, Edwards is overheard saying: “We should try to have a more serious and a smaller group." Clinton agreed, responding: "We've got to cut the number...They're not serious." Clinton also indicated the two had discussed the plan before, telling Edwards "we've got to get back to it." In response, Ohio congressmember and Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich said: "No matter how important or influential they perceive themselves to be, [candidates] do not have and should not have the power to determine who is allowed to speak to the American public and who is not. Imperial candidates are as repugnant to the American people and to our Democracy as an imperial President."
Okay, I can actually help Hillary Clinton and John Edwards out here. They want to avoid 'trivializing debates' then the answer's really clear: Stop participating. Just let America see that you allegedly want to be president but aren't willing to debate your fellow Democrats. That should really help you sky rocket on the polls. Or maybe just crash and burn.
The League of Women Voters used to be in charge of the presidential debates. The two parties found a way to run them out and that's why we get these closed presidential debates that do not feature all the candidates, just the Democrat and the Republican. So leave it to Hill & Edwards (two lawyers, they should be a law firm) to figure out that it's time to rig the last chance people (in their own party) have a chance to air their views.
It really is telling and they no doubt can't stand that Mike Gravel points out the obvious: they both voted for the illegal war. Edwards has apologized for the vote but how sincere is it with this sort of behavior? Most importantly, what does this say about how either would conduct themselves as president? "I don't like what people are saying, make them go away!" Isn't one of our country's biggest problems currently that someone like that occupies the White House?
"Witnesses: U.S. Chopper Kills Iraqi Civilians, Journalist" (Democracy Now!):
In news from Iraq, at least sixteen people were killed Thursday in clashes between U.S. troops and Shiite militias in Baghdad. The dead included a photographer for the Reuters news agency and his driver. They apparently came under fire from a U.S. helicopter.
Unidentified witness: "The U.S. soldiers randomly fired on cars and children, even journalists were not safe. Over here was a Reuters crew."
Residents say the remaining dead were civilians, including at least two children. An Agence France Press journalist who interviewed witnesses on the scene said the helicopter appeared to indiscriminately fire on any gathering of people in the area.
We all missed Democracy Now! today. We were working on the immigration issue, doing vacation things and, in C.I. and Ava's case, speaking. So we got back here and are all getting ready to go back out. C.I. came up with the suggestion that Mike and I do our posts as we did in the early days. So we were looking at them all together, the headlines, and C.I. saw one and had to do another snapshot (or version of it) to include that.
On the above item, the US military refuses to admit what has happened. They insist it was a 'combat situation.' It wasn't and you've got two Reuters journalists dead, eyewitnesses, the photo of the car the reporters were in, and so much more. What happened was people gathered as the photos were being taken. Someone either decided that any gathering of Iraqis was a threat or, for 'fun,' decided that they'd 'take out' some Iraqis. The US military needs to get honest real quick about what happened.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Friday, July 13, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, another journalist is annouced dead in Iraq -- the 3rd in the last 48 hours, Matthew Rothschild addresses the theft of Iraqi oil law, and more.
Starting with war resistance. The Progressive's Hidden History Of The United States (available in calander form) notes that on this day in 1863, "Draft riots began in New York City, leaving 1,000 dead over four days." Ehren Watada is the first commissioned officer to public refuse deployment to Iraq. Currently, he is waiting while the appeals process determines whether he will have to face a second court-martial and, if so, whether Judge Toilet (aka John Head) will be allowed to preside over it again. While this goes on, people continue to demonstrate their support for Watada. Last Friday, we noted a rally held in San Francisco in support of Watada. Ryan Baladad (Asian Week) informs, "Members from the various groups, including Aisan Pacific Islanders Resist and the Watada Support Committee, took turns speaking in support of the Japanese lieutenant. Supporters held signs that read, 'Refuse Illegal War,' 'Bush lied, People Died' and showed photos of Watada in uniform. Malcolm Yeung of the Asian Law Caucus called the Army's actions 'frankly reprehensible' and said the case 'chills free speech'." Baladad closes with this statement from Rev. Norman Fong (Chinatown Presbyterian Church), "There shouldn't be another trial; they messed up the first time. We're proud of Lt. Watada."
Meanwhile, who is Steve Yoczik? The War Resisters Support Campaign explains, "Steve arrived in Toronto on November 25th, 2006. He trained in communications at Fort Gordon, Georgia. After a few months there, he began to realize that the decision he'd made to join the Army was a serious mistake and that trading 4 years of his life for the opportunity to have college paid for was not an agreeable enough trade. Also after seeing pictures of wounded or killed Iraqi civilians (and combatants) as well as stories from soldiers that had been to Iraq and Afghanistan, he knew without a doubt that he did not want to be involved in the war. Halfway through training, the 'job' he'd been signed on for was cancelled, and 'joblees' people in this particular war zone go on patrols and kick in doors, so Stephen prepared a last-ditch effort to come to Canada, as all other attempts to leave the Army 'legitimately' were exhausted. Since arriving in Toronto, Steve has adjusted fairly weel, and is being careful in the decisions he makes in life now, as his Army expereience has taught him that signatures hold a lot of power . . ."
Yoczik is part of a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
Yesterday, Bully Boy went on and on, desperately attempting to stretch the definition of progress in yet another attempt to fool the American people. How bad did the spin and lies get? Kenneth R. Bazinet (New York Daily News) informs, "Even the White House was concerned Bush overstepped with his upbeat war talk, sending spokesman Tony Snow out to talk to the cable news outlets to clarify the President's remarks. 'The President isn't saying we're winning. He says we're in a fight. He says we cannot afford not to win,' Snow told Fox News." Tony Snow need not worry, reality will always Fact Check the Bully Boy upside his face. How are things with the Iraqi Parliament? Joshua Partlow and Sudarsan Raghavan (Washington Post) reports, "Iraqi politicians on Thursday struck a more pessimistic tone about Iraq than did the White House assessment, and said the deadlock between warring Sunni and Shiite factions makes major political progress unlikely in coming months." Well, as least those Iraqi troops are coming along nicely, right? Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) informs, "Despite stepped-up training, the readiness of the Iraqi military to operate independently of U.S. forces has decreased since President Bush's new strategy was launched in January, according to the White House progress report released yesterday." And try to find out the hard figures on this from the Pentagon, as DeYoung did, and be informed that's "classified information." Classified, apparently, on the grounds that Bully Boy is an incompetent.
And on the January 20th attack in Karbala that killed 1 US soldier immediately, wounded three and saw four kidnapped (all of whom would later turn up dead), Gregg Zoroya (USA Today) reveals the army's internal investigation has found:
•Iraqi police suddenly vanished from the government compound before the shooting started.•Attackers, evidently briefed on how U.S. forces would defend themselves, bottled up more than three dozen soldiers in a barracks and headquarters complex using a combination of smoke and fragment grenades and satchel charges to blow up Humvees.•Gunmen knew exactly where to find and abduct U.S. officers.•Iraqi vendors operating a PX and barbershop went home early.•A back gate was left unlocked and unguarded.Investigators recommended several changes to toughen defensive positions, including the installation of closed-circuit cameras to provide better early warnings, "duress devices" that can allow overrun outposts to signal headquarters, and requirements that any arriving convoy provide identification.
Now how do you suppose that got left out of Bully Boy's attempt to sell the continuation of the illegal war? In more reality the Bully Boy Never Told You, Robert Burns (AP via Los Angeles Times) reports that yesterday's White House progress report "strongly implies that the administration believes its military strategy will take many more months to meet its goals." And really driving home the lack of progress in Iraq, Mike Drummond and Hussein Khalifa (McClatchy Newspapers) tell the story of Nawal Na'eem Karim whose 18-month-child has learned to cry "Talaq inanan! Talaq inana!" ("Bullets here! Bullets here!"). Needless to say, the mother tells the reporters she just wants the US to leave. Of course, Bully Boy would probably get that dopey grin on his face (as when a woman explained she had to work two jobs) and say, "That's wonderful."
Meanwhile, Congressional Dems try to put one over on the public -- again, and it's the same shell game. From Democracy Now! today:
House Iraq Pullout Bill Leaves Thousands of Troops BehindThe House has approved a measure that would begin withdrawing combat troops from Iraq within the next three months. The final vote was two hundred twenty-three to two-hundred and one, mostly along party lines. Before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged lawmakers to vote "yes."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "Let us pass this bill and those that will follow in the coming weeks and provide the new direction on Iraq that the American people demand and that is so urgently needed. I urge a 'yes' vote on the Skelton bill."Ohio Congressmember Dennis Kucinich was the lone anti-war Democrat to vote against the bill. The measure would remove most combat troops by April of next year but still leave tens of thousands soldiers behind.
As Amy Goodman noted above "leaves tens of thousands soldiers behind." And that's provided Bully Boy doesn't reclassify the ones that would be set to leave. Pushing the non-existant link between 9-11 and Iraq is a thread he picked up again yesterday. He could follow the Pelosi measure (if it passed) and reclassify "combat troops" as troops who will be fighting terrorists ("al Qaeda!") and none have to leave. He could also declare that the illegal war is over and that 160,000 US troops need to remain to maintain "police operations" which would mean no troops leave. It's the con game they pulled in March, credit Goodman with telling it straight and not sugar coating it.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State and Anger Condi Rice remakes Mariah Carey's "Love Takes Time" with new words resulting in "War Takes Time." (CBS & AP, text and video).
In a crimes and violence update, Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) updates her bank robbery story from yesterday with the information that the bank is revising the figures for the stolen money to "282 million Iraqi diners, equal to about $225,000 and $366,00 American dollars." In some of today's violence . . .
Bombings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a mortar attacks in Baquba claimed 2 lives and left fifteen wounded and a Baquba bombing that claimed 1 life. Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) notes that the Green Zone was "slammed" with mortars today, killing 2 Iraqi soldiers and that "U.S. civilian government employees have been required in the last few dyas to wear body armor and helmets because of the rising threat of rocket and mortar attacks. Reuters notes that 2 children died in Samawa from a roadside bombing, 1 Iraqi soldier died from a Baghdad roadside bombing and 1 police officer died from a Mosul roadside bombing.
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports five police officers were shot dead in Baghdad, 3 Iraqi civilians were shot dead by the US military (in what appears to be -- me speaking not Hammoudi -- indiscriminate firing) and "Gunmen killed an Iraqi journalist working for New York Times newspaper near Al Saidiyah fuel station south of Baghdad around 9:00 am." John Holusha (New York Times) observes that Hassan joined the paper in 2003 (fall) and that he was the second Times' reporter for the paper to die in Iraq and notes: "Mr. Hassan was shot in the Saidiya district of south central Baghdad while driving to work under circumstances that remain unclear, Mr. [John F.] Burns said. He had called the bureau earlier and said his normal route to the office had been block by a security checkpoint." Executive editor Bill Keller states, "Khalid was part of a large, sometimes unsung, community of Iraqi news gatherers, translators and support staff, who take enormous risks every day to help us comprehend their country's struggle and torment. Without them, America's understanding of what is happening on the ground in Iraq would be much, much poorer. To The Times, Khalid was family, and his death is heartbreaking." Khalid Hassan's death brings to three the number of reporters killed in Baghdad in the last 48 hours. Yesterday, we noted the deaths of Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh, two journalists with Reuters. Today, Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) reports that in addition to eyewitnesses quoted in the early reports yesterday, Ahmad Sahib, with AFP, arrived on the scene shortly afterwards and he states, "They had arrived, got out of the car and started taking pictures, and people gathered. It looked like the American helicopters were firing against any gathering in the area, because when I got out of my car and started taking pictures, people gathered and an American helicopter fired a few rounds, but they hit the houses nearby and we ran for cover."
Corpses?
Reuters reports 3 corpses discovered today in Sawayra. And Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) noted that 28 corpses were discovered in Baghdad Thursday.
Turning to the theft of Iraqi oil, Nancy Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) notes, "Earlier this month, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki announced unanimous Cabinet approval of a draft hydrocarbon law. But on Wednesday, Kurdish politicians said they opposed the latest version of the law. The draft law hasn't been published." Steve Kretzmann (Oil for Change) observes, "We have heard conflicting reports, although it seems clear that the annexes are gone. There was an arabic version published two days ago in a Baghdad daily, however we've heard that there has been at least one change since then." AVAAZ.ORG has an online petition entitled "Support Iraqi Oil Sovereignty."
At Inside Iraq (McClatchy Newspapers), a journalist shares a surreal experience, "The Electricity Minister and the Oil Minister, both being questioned in the Parliament as to the electricity and fuel situation in the country. They were fighting the 'good' fight, back to back, with their sabers flashing. Fact after distorted face spilled forth from their tongues. The Oil Minister, high browed, blue blooded, married to a bluer blood still -- all leaning east, said he hadn't enough power and fuel to work the refineries -- butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. The Electricity Minister, a man of the masses; an excellent technician, worked his way up through the ranks, said he hadn't enough fuel to work the electricity power stations. Wasn't there something strange here -- was it a distortion in my dream?? A Catch 22 situation if ever there was one!!" Hussain al-Shahristani is the Oil Minister (since May of last year) and prior to that post he was the deputy speaker in the National Assembly. Last week, on KPFT's Progressive Forum (Thursdays, 7:00 pm Central), host Wally James discussed the theft of the Iraqi oil with Matthew Rothschild (The Progressive).
Matthew Rothschild: It's amazing that with all that's been going on Iraq with maybes 600,000 Iraqis killed, 3600 US soldiers killed and 2600 US soldiers wounded, that the one thing the Bush administration really cares about is privatizing Iraq's oil. You know, they told us, over and over again, before this war started those of us that were talking about this war being for oil, that we were conspiracy people, but look, low and behold, the first thing that the army did when it got to Iraq was protect the oil fields, the second thing it did was protect the Oil Ministry and now the last thing it's doing is making sure that before all hell breaks further loose that they're going to get something on the books in Iraq that allows Exxon-Mobile and other US corporations to go in there and get their share of the oil there and expatriate the profits from that oil at a much greater degree than oil companies can do in that part of the world. I mean this is a huge sell out of Iraq's sovereign resource and there are, there have been strikes already by Iraqi oil workers and al-Sadr right now is aligning with the Sunnis to oppose this so there's all sorts of domestic opposition over there but this is the one thing that the Bush administration wanted al-Maliki to rail through if he could, railroad it through, he'd be back in the good graces of the Bush administration, back in the good graces of Exxon-Mobile.
Wally James: Well from the beginning you had Bush saying, you know, this is not about oil, we're not trying to get control of the oil. And, you know, but under the surface you have this going on and at the same time the US media just isn't reporting on it. They talk about how this is going to be a good thing if this goes through, how it's going to make for sure that the oil is divided up evenly in Iraq.
Matthew Rothschild: It is almost impossible, you're absolutely right here, Wally, and I think it's a really good point absolutely impossible to read the mainstream media and figure out what's going on with this Iraq oil behind the scenes. It's not about, or simply not just about, the equal sharing of the oil revenues. It's largely about the privatization of the oil industry in Iraq and allowing US and other foreign oil companies in to grab the oil. That's what's going on but you might get that in about paragraph eleven or paragraph fifteen and it won't explain really the benefits that are going to acrue to Exxon-Mobile and the other giants. And it certainly won't tell you that the Iraq oil workers were striking for a week in Basra over this. I mean, this has been one of the worst bits of coverage by the mainstream media in Iraq since what? The cover up or the funneling of propaganda about Weapons of Mass Destruction Prior to the war courtesy of Judith Miller and the New York Times.
Wally James asked Rothschild about the idea that Congressional Democrats might be refusing to impeach because they want Bully Boy around for the 2008 elections (as an issue to run against) and wondered if that was at least part of the reason Congress does nothing to end the illegal war, "they need him around in '08 to beat up" and the Iraq war? Rothschild responded: "Well this is kind of pragmatic politics at its worst, it seems to me. Because I think the same thing happened with the Iraq war vote. They want the Iraq war to go on so they can go against Bush and the Iraq war in 2008. But look at how callous that is. They want a hundred more US soldiers to die every month and 500, 600 to be wounded and what, you know, a couple of thousand Iraqis to die every month just because it's politically expedient and it might help them win the White House? I mean, come on, talk about immorality if that's what they're doing that's disgraceful on the war issue." Next addressed was the issue of impeachment which Rothschild's supported, publicly in his writing, since at least early 2006 and we'll use that as an opportunity to note that Bill Moyers Journal (begins airing on PBS in most markets today -- check local listings and you can also read, listen or watch online) will explore the topic of impeachment and, among the guests is John Nichols.
Back to Rothschild, he has a new book out entitled You Have No Rights: Stories of America In An Age of Repression (The New Press, list price $16.99) and he's doing stops across the country to promote the book:
Matthew Rothschild reading and signing YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS
Seattle, WA: 7/16 at 7:00PM San Francisco, CA: 7/17 at 7:30PM Berkeley, CA: 7/18 at 7:00PM Portland, OR: 7/19 at 7:30PMMadison, WI: 7/26 at 7:00PM San Luis Obispo, CA: 8/14 at 7:00PM Santa Barbara, CA:8/15 at 7:00PM Los Angeles, CA: 8/16 at 7:00PM Baraboo, WI: 9/8 all day
ehren watada
mcclatchy newspapers
the new york timesalissa j. rubin
iraq
matthew rothschild
gregg zoroyathe washington postjoshua partlowsudarsan raghavan
bill moyers journal
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Rupert Cornwell, Edward Epstein, Olga Bonfiglio
Watching the Bully Boy today, I realized I'd only seen one other person so determined to believe a destructive fantasy, Richard Nixon. Bully Boy is twice as dangerous as Richard Nixon because back then we had Democrats who weren't afraid to call him out. Forget about impeachment for a moment, the Democrats back then had a spine and weren't so enthralled with corporate monies and selling out the people. They also knew a bit or two about the Constitution.
"Bush finds no way out of Iraq as approval ratings plunge" (Rupert Cornwell, Independent of London):
On the ground in Iraq, George Bush's war may long ago have sunk into an unwinnable morass. But the second week of July 2007 is set to go down as the moment when he started to lose control of Iraq policy-making at home as well.
The beleaguered, hugely unpopular President made yet another defence of his troop "surge" yesterday. At a public appearance in Ohio, he insisted that troop levels in Iraq "will be decided by our commanders on the ground, not by political figures in Washington DC". He conceded: "I fully understand that this is a difficult war. It's hard on the American people. But I will once again explain the consequences of failure to the American people."
As he spoke, Congress was preparing to vote on a host of mainly Democratic amendments on a $650bn (£320bn) Pentagon funding bill. All of them would to some degree curtail Mr Bush's authority. Now, as Republican defections multiply, for the first time some of them may succeed.
[. . .]
The administration contends that the report is a mere snapshot of the situation before the just completed US troop increase has had time to show results. For critics, however, the bleak findings merely confirm that US soldiers are trapped where they do not belong, in the middle of a civil war in all but name.
Every time I hear Tony Snow on TV call the report on Iraq a "snapshot," I have to grin. I liked how The Nation writer on Democracy Now! today called her report a "snapshot" and then quickly corrected herself. The Iraq snapshot? Gee, doesn't it all sound so familiar. (No one coins a phrase like you know who.) I suppose I should say something clever like "The one who controls the language controls the debate." By the way, no offense to that writer on the program today, but The Nation should never have had her co-write the story. C.I. will be addressing that tonight. It was a big mistake and has nothing to do with her writing abilities. But it was a huge mistake. Huge.
Of course, her co-writer is Chris Hedges. He really needs to stick to issue of the occupied territories and ignore Iraq because he's a whisker away from being the left's Judith Miller. I have not forgotten, nor has anyone in this community, that he pushed the lie that Iraq was connected to 9-11. Did so in print at the New York Times, did so on PBS. The Mother Jones article gave him a pass but others aren't so kind.
In more you must be kidding news . . .
"House Democrats try Iraq withrawl legislation again" (Edward Epstein, San Francisco Chronicle):
House Democrats took another whack today at forcing the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, but like their previous efforts, this one has almost no chance of becoming law.
Only four Republicans joined 219 Democrats in the 223-201 vote to pass legislation calling for the withdrawal of most of the 160,000 troops in Iraq to begin within 120 days of enactment. The legislation requires that the only troops to remain by April 2008 would be those needed to chase down elements of the terrorist group al Qaeda, defend the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and train Iraqi forces.
The legislation sponsored by Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., is similar to a Senate proposal by Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Jack Reed, D-R.I. Both proposals face a tough fight to gain the necessary 60 votes in the Senate, but the White House said Thursday that if either ever reached his desk, President Bush would veto it.
The "only troops" to remain are the ones defending the fortress that is known as the US Embassy? That is a joke. Add in the ones who would stay "to chase down elements of the terrorist group al Qaeda" because, in case you missed it, the White House blames everything that happens in Iraq on al Qaeda. That legislation is a joke and it's not going to end the illegal war. But watch and see how many will call this nonsense out because it won't be many. This is not an exit strategy, this is non-stop continuation of the illegal war and shame on anyone who accepts it as anything other than trickery. If you buy into that hoax, you deserve what you get.
"Peace Pilgrims" (Olga Bonfiglio, Common Dreams):
It was truly inspiring to hear that Ashley Casale, 19, and Michael Israel, 18, decided to walk 3,000 miles across the country for peace. They began their journey on May 21 in San Francisco and plan to end up in Washington, D.C. on September 11. Such a commitment to the cause of peace is unusual and admirable!
The two teenagers have been discouraged, however, by the negative reception they have received by some people and by the lack of participation by those who support the peace movement.
Actually, their reaction seems to be universal for peace activists across the country who put much time and energy into standing for peace only to be ignored by the media and dismissed by the now-miniscule number of Bush-supporters. What is even more baffling is that they are thanked and congratulated by the 70 percent of those who want the United States to end the war in Iraq-but who do nothing about it.
Perhaps we need to look at our peace activism in a different way.
On January 1, 1953, a 44-year-old woman began a journey that would amount to her walking 25,000 miles over the next 28 years of her life.
Her first walk began in Pasadena, California, at the head of the Rose Bowl Parade so that she would be seen. She then set out to deliver two petitions to President Eisenhower: one to end the Korean War and one to establish a Department of Peace. The third petition she delivered to the United Nations: a request to disarm the world and redirect the funds for arms to funds for human need. She went by the name of Peace Pilgrim.
Peace Pilgrim was distressed over the world at that time so she prayed and contemplated what she could do about it. The nuclear age had begun, the Korean War was on, and Senator Joe McCarthy was out hunting communists.
The five-foot-two woman wore a blue tunic, the color of peace, with white letters that read "Peace Pilgrim." She carried no money, made no plans, and sometimes slept in haystacks, drain pipes, or barns. Sometimes she didn't eat.
There will always be those who take big, brave stands and they can inspire others to take similar stands, smaller stands or to shoot for something higher. I understand the writer's frustration but I think the more attention the two teenagers receive, the more it will spark things in others.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Thursday, July 12, 2007. Chaos and violence, the American military kills two workers for Reuters in Iraq, Bully Boy lies again to sell the war (again), the US military announces another death in Iraq, the Showboat Express Derails!, and more.
Starting with war resistance. Mark and Louise Zwick (Houston Catholic Worker via Spero News) report on the beatification of Franz Jagerstatter (October 27, 2007) by the Catholic Church. Jagerstatter became a war resister when drafted into the Nazi army who "believed that he could not be a soldier in an unjust war sponsored by a government determined on imperialist expansionsim and slaughter of innocents, presenting itself as a substitute for religion which saw and treated his Church as the enemy." The Zwicks tie Jagerstatter's stance then to those resisting today and note the case of Camilo Mejia in detail and conclude, "Martha's concern as she had heard about this soldier's conscientious objection was that her young son not be put in such a situation. She knew that at present there is no military draft, but that poor Hispanic youth in the United States are recruited early into ROTC Army training with the promise of assistance later with college tuition. Martha vowed to never allow her son to participate in ROTC. This may not be easy to achieve. High schools in lower-income neighborhood which serve Mexican Americans and immigrant youth are saturated with the ROTC presence. The local public school for 6th to 8th graders has ROTC as one of the electives. When one student who stayed at Casa Juan Digo transferred in during the middle of the year, the student was placed in ROTC simply because the classes of all other electives were filled. The irony is that the children of the undocumented, despised by many simply for being undocumented, are being sent to fight U.S. wars in foreign lands." Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today of Mejia, "He was the first US soldier court-martialed for desertion, was ultimately sentenced to a year in jail." In May, Camilo Mejia's Road from Ar Ramaid: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia (The New Press) was released allowing him to tell his story of what he observed in Iraq and how it changed him. To the issue the Zwick's raise, Mejia was not a US citizen. In fact, the military was supposed to release him because he had completed his eight-year contract and Senator Ben Nelson had caused noise on this issue (thanks to the concerns Camilo's mother raised with him). The military's response was ridiculous ("We're not discharging fat people, are we?") and desperate (shoving off papers for citizenship -- which Camilo was not interested in). While on leave in the US, Mejia attempted to figure out how to get the US military to comply with their own regulations. First, he was told he would have to return to Iraq in order to be discharged, then he was told no discharge was happening regardless and finally he was ordered to board the plane back to Iraq. Instead, Mejia went underground, refusing to continue fighting in an illegal war. At the start of the illegal war, Stephen Funk refused to go to Iraq -- a very important and brave stand. Mejia is the first known member of the military to serve in Iraq and refuse to return. Again, he tells his story in Road from Ar Ramaid: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia (list price $24.99) including his court-martial and what he felt and thought upon being sentenced.
The first commissioned officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq is Ehren Watada. Speaking with E. Ethelbert Miller (Foreign Policy in Focus), David Mura (poet, playwright, critic, performance artist and soon to be novelist -- Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire) notes the No-No Boys of WWII (Japanese-American males who bravely refused to serve while their relatives and peers were interned for the 'crime' of race) and states, "I feel that the current case of Lat. Ehren K. Watada, who refused to go to Iraq because he believes it is an illegal and unjust war, ought to be seen against the backdrop of this history. His position as a soldier and his actions of civil protest, reflect the legacy both of the 442nd and of the No-No Boys."
And in Iraq, a US service member has publicly refused to continue fighting in the illegal war. Eric Ruder (Socialist Worker) notes, "Army Spc. Eleonai 'Eli' Israel was stationed at Camp Victory in Baghdad when he told his commanding officers June 19 that he would no longer participate in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq. 'We are now violating the people of this country in ways that we would never accept on our own soil,' said Eli."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
So today Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) did what they usually do but tried to credit The Nation for finally doing something four years and four months after the illegal war started. Good manners must have prevented Gonzalez and Goodman from pointing out the obvious -- they've been doing -- for years -- what the overly praised article half-assed does today. The lengthy, weak ass article by The Nation will be addressed this evening ("And the war drags on . . ."). Today, it allowed the centrist (Democratic Party cheerleader and sometime video spokesperson) to get on Democracy Now! and the utter more than fifty lines more (check the transcript) than Garett Reppenhagen who actually is worth listening to. Reppenhagen: "So the contrast is very real, and the division, once you're there and you're being told to give these people democracy and they're shooting at you and trying to kill you, it creates a lot of tension, and the American soldiers begin to hate the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people hate the American soldiers. And the bottom line is, we're not seen as peacekeepers. US forces in Iraq are no longer seen as peacekeepers by the Iraqi people and most of the Muslim world. We're seen as occupiers and invaders, and that undermines our ability to keep the peace there, it undermines our ability to do our jobs, and it undermines our national security here at home. So right now it's a very complex situation, and the animosity is growing. And there's no cure other than removing ourselves from Iraq." From the broadcast:
SGT. DUSTIN FLATT: Yes. The innocent deaths happened at different times, different places and different occasions. Convoys were commonplace. The only incident I have firsthand knowledge of was a convoy that was actually not our convoy. It was a convoy had just driven by us. And an Iraqi vehicle with a mother, three daughters and an older teenage son who was driving the car were following a convoy too close. It got too close, and they shot into the car. It was a warning shot, and it ended up killing the mother. And they actually pulled the car over, or the son pulled the car over right next to us, and we just happened to be near a hospital in Mosul at the time. And the mother was obviously dead, and the children were just crying and asking if they could actually get into the hospital.
AMY GOODMAN: So the mother was dead. The three little girls, what happened?
SGT. DUSTIN FLATT: Right. The three little girls, we just -- we took them and just -- the last time I saw them they were on the side of the road just crying. They had no idea what had just happened. And it was funny -- it was with another unit -- it was a unit actually that we were attached to in Mosul, and on the back of their last Humvee in the convoy, they had a sign that read, "Stay back 100 meters." And after that, we took our interpreter, our Iraqi interpreter, up to the sign to see how far away he could read it, and he had to be within about thirty or forty feet before he could read it.
[. . .]
STAFF SGT. TIMOTHY JOHN WESTPHAL: The terror that I saw on the patriarch's face, like I said, that really was the turning point for me. I imagined in my mind what he must have been thinking, understanding that he had lived under Saddam's brutal regime for many years, worried about -- you know, hearing stories about Iraqis being carried away in the middle of the night by the Iraqi secret service and so forth, to see all those lights, all those soldiers with guns, all the uniform things that we wear, as far as the helmet, the night vision goggles, very intimidating, very terrifying for the man. He screamed a very guttural cry that I can still hear it every day. You know, it was just the most awful, horrible sound I've ever heard in my life. He was so terrified and so afraid for his family. And I thought of my family at that time, and I thought to myself, boy, if I was the patriarch of a family, if soldiers came from another country, came in and did this to my family, I would be an insurgent, too.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And you say that that was a turning point for you. In what way?
STAFF SGT. TIMOTHY JOHN WESTPHAL: It was a turning point for me in the sense that -- you know, prior to going into Iraq, both Dustin and myself, we talked about this many times in the days leading up to the war. We came into Iraq after the initial invasion, so we had a chance to see a little bit of the buildup to the war, as well as the actual invasion piece. And several of us, including Dustin and myself, were very much opposed to the Iraq war. However, we chose to go, number one, out of a sense of loyalty to each other and our unit; second, because we were hoping as leaders, as combat leaders, leaders of soldiers, we would be able to influence those young men to make good decisions and not do things like kill indiscriminately or let their emotions get into their decision-making abilities. So that's why we chose to go. And again, because this is our profession, we were very proud of what we were doing, even though we opposed the mission itself, are proud to serve with our brothers and to be a part of something like that.
However, that night -- and that was about halfway through my yearlong tour -- that night I really admitted to myself -- and it was a very hard thing to do, but I admitted to myself that America is not the good guy in this thing. And, you know, if you factor in that you have these young men who most of them are high-school-educated -- some have a bit of college, some do have college degrees -- but the education level, for the most part, is high school graduates only.
Reppenhagen is the chair of the board of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Dustin Flatt and Timothy John Westphal are also with IVAW. (The other guest? He's with Mommy's Pantyhose.)
Listen, watch or read today's Democracy Now! segment (nearly 50 minutes are devoted to the topic). Skip the nonsense of The Nation (it will be addressed tonight).
Staying on IVAW, Adam Kokesh's site carries the message that Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.'s kangaroo hearing has been delayed from this month to August with Yearwood noting, "It has been incredible to hear that so many of you have made plans to come support me as I challenge the Air Force's attempt to discredit me and our work for peace. My request for a delay has been granted so I may better prepare my case and raise funds for my legal defense. We will publish the new date as soon as it is determined and along with our plans for action." The kangaroo hearing is supposed to address the laughable allegation that Rev. Yearwood's actions have been "clearly inconsistent with the interest of national security" when, in fact, his work since being discharged (discharged from service, he's currently in the IRR which needs no discharge) has been on ending the illegal war including Make Hip Hop Not War.
War, war and more war, endless war, is all the Bully Boy understands which is why the White House released [PDF warning] "Initial Benchmark Assessment Report" today. And though it won't rival the latest Harry Potter, it certainly belongs on the fiction list. David S. Cloud and John F. Burns (New York Times) explained this morning that the report would "qualify some verdicts by saying that even when the political performance of the Iraqi government has been unsatisfactory, it is too early to make final judgements" and that this qualification "will enable it [the White House] to present a more optimistic assessment than if it had provided the pass-fail judgement sought by Congress." Which may be a nice way of noting that, unlike Bully Boy's No Child Left Behind, there is no standardized testing, no standardized grading and no deadlines. The system that's good enough for his attack on America's public schools is not to be utilized when addressing his illegal war of choice.
CBS and AP report that the Bully Boy declared today, "I believe we can succed in Iraq and I know we must." We? But it's probably an improvement on his verbal equivalent of painting a bulls eye on the back of every US service member a few years back with the taunt of "Bring it on." William Douglas (McClatchy Newspapers) notes that the fudged/qualified report reveals "only eight of 18 benchmarks" can be stretched enough to indicate even some progress. Douglas also notes that Bully Boy sees the Initial Assessment as an ink blot which can be interpreted in any way depending upon where you're coming from -- proof positive that we've got a Stoner in the White House? 2008 presidential candidate and Senator Joe Biden peels off the best one liner of the day, "This progress report is like the guy's who's falling from a 100-story building and says halfway down that everything's fine." Karen DeYoung and Peter Baker (Washington Post) update their article in this morning's paper on the report and note that the White House sees "some positive movement in eight of the 18 congressional benchmarks" while, at the same time, dispatching Stephen Hadly (US National security advisor) and Condi Rice (US Secretary of State and Anger) to Congress to role play House Minority Whip for both houses apparently. CNN's Ed Henry (text and video) observes, "The president is pleading for more patience. He's not really oferring a new prescription to deal with the violence on the ground in Iraq. Instead he's urging lawmakers to give him until September to see if the current troop increase will work -- but a growing number of his fellow Republicans are telling him time is running out and they want a course change sooner than September." Which is a nice way of putting. Patience was when he asked for it (over and over, every year of the illegal war). The report he's pushing is more half-truths and outright lies which, if you think back to how the illegal war was sold, isn't at all surprising. Bully Boy has come full circle: Lied to get his war, must lie to keep it. And what's with this "Congressional benchmarks"? Paul Richter (Los Angeles Times) rightly notes: "The Bush administration's decision to set benchmarks . . . When they began publicizing the benchmarks a year ago, addministration officials . . . President Bush turned to benchmarks amid intensifying criticism from Congress and plummeting public support. Benchmarks offered a way to counter congressional demands for timetables and to dampen the midterm election rage that ultimately cost his party control of Congress." The administration, stealing from the James Baker Circle Jerk, grabbed the imposed (upon Iraqis) benchmarks and ran with them. They own them now.
As if the region hasn't suffered enough, Nico Hines (Times of London) reports that Rice and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will visit it next month and notes several laughable statements by the Bully Boy. "I don't think Congress ought to be running the war. The idea of telling our military how to conduct operations, for example, or how to deal with troop strength, I don't think it makes sense today, nor do I think it's a good precedent for the future." Well, he is uneducated. But the Congress is not attempting to run the illegal war (though with Bully Boy's lack of leadership, someone might need to step in) it is demonstrating the civilian control. The war is over and someone needs to be adult enough to pull the plug. (That may or may not be Congress at this point.) He then went on to insist that troops should not leave just "because pollsters say it'll be good politics" -- this from the man who conducted the roll out (in August! 2002) for the war to make electoral hay in the 2002 mid-terms.
In the real world, Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that 429 Iraqis have been "killed or wounded . . . at checkpoints or near patrols and convoys during the past year" and that warning shots accound for "more than" one death per day. Also in the real world, over 3600 US service members have died in Iraq. CBS and AP note that the illegal war "is costing the United States an estimated $10 billion a month." With Jonathan S. Landay, Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) notes that the conclusions "of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies" in a new report (Global Security Assessment, delivered by the National Intelligence Council to Congress) which found, among other things, that "Even if the bloodletting can be contained, Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders will be 'hard pressed' to reach lasting political reconciliation". Amazingly, while ignoring every thing else that can be spun, the White House refuses to take credit for the big bank robbery Wednesday night. Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) reported on the heist that made off with "$282 million from the Dar Es Salaam bank" which was kept not in the Iraq currency but "in American dollars . . . It was unclear why the bank had that much money on hand in dollars, or how the robbers managed to move such a large amount without being detected." Surely there's some way that can be spun into a success? Bully Boy could declare it not just the biggest heist in Iraq, but among the biggest in the world and, noting Donald the Rumsfled's "Freedom is untidy and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things" (a White House motto?), could declare the heist as a sure sign of progress.
Nancy A. Youssef also looks at the 18 benchmarks to offer an independent analysis and it's not pretty -- benchmark 16 is among the ones that can't be stretched to show even some desire for progress ("Ensuring that the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature are protected") leading Youssef to conclude: "The Iraqi government has done nothing on this benchmark."
In some of today's violence in Iraq . . .
Bombings?
Reuters reports that Namir Noor-Eldeen (22-year-old photographer) and Saeed Chmagh (40-year-old driver and camera assistant) were killed "in what police saidw as American military action and witnesses described as a helicopter attack" -- the victis of what is euphemistically dubbed "random American bombardment" in Baghdad. Reporters Without Borders notes that over "60 media workers" were killed in Iraq during 2006 alone. Reuters notes Karim Shindakh stating that, while Noor-Eldeen was taking photographs, "The aircraft began striking randomly and people were wounded. A Kia (minivan) arrived to take them away. They hit the Kia and killed . . . the two journalists" and that 6 "Reuters employees [have been] killed in Iraq" since the start of the illegal war. Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) notes that the 2 died along with 17 others and that of the 19 dead the US optimisticallly states nine were most likely gunmen/militants/resistance, etc. Accepting that inflated (and non-verifable) claim means that 10 innocent Iraqis died. Also dying today, Reuters reports, were 7 Iraqis attending a wedding when a bomber "detonated a suicide vest" in Tal Afar outside the party wounding four. Reuters also notes that five Iraqis were killed in Diwaniya from a US air strike, a Mosul car bombing that wounded 2 police officers, a Mosul car bombing that claimed 2 lives (10 more people wounded) and a police officer injured in Falluja by a bicycle bomb. Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 4 dead from missiles launched by US helicopters in Samara.
Shootings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a police officer shot dead in Baghdad
AFP reports a family four was shot dead in Karbala (with two more wounded).
Corpses?
Today, the US military announced: "A Task Force Marne Soldier was killed in an attack east of Baghdad." The announcement brought the ICCC total to 32 US service members killed in Iraq this month and 3611 since the start of the illegal war. APF's count is 3612 dead since the start of the illegal war. Reuters' count is 3611 since the start of the illegal war.
In England, Fran Yeoman (Times of London) reports that Andrew Walker (Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coronor) has ruled that the March 2003 death of British soldier Stephen Allbutt was a "completely avoidable tragedy" and instead pointed to person in charge at the time Walker was shot by British troops noting, "The center of this tragedy represents a serious failing and it will fall to others to question the fitness of this officer to hold command". That would be Lt. Col. Lindsay MacDuff whose resignation Debbie Allbutt (wife of the deceased) has called for.
Finally, in US campaign news, "VOTE INSANE! VOTE JOHN MCCAIN!" -- his mind, like his campaign, had come undone. Yesterday, Senator Crazy had a hissy fit in the Senate cloakroom (someone must have run off with his Dora the Explorer rain slicker) and began screaming about Iraq, Vietnam and Cambodia -- sounding even crazier than many feared. Cedric and Wally provided humorous takes yesterday, Mike noted it, and Elaine, noting Cambodia, lays it out on why McCain's unfit for office. The John McCain Showboat Express Doesn't Stop Here Anymore.
iraq
camilo mejia
iraq veterans against the war
adam kokesh
democracy now
amy goodman
juan gonzalez
karen deyoungthe washington postpeter bakerthe new york timesalissa j. rubin
mcclatchy newspapers
like maria said paz
the daily jotcedrics big mixmikey likes it
"Bush finds no way out of Iraq as approval ratings plunge" (Rupert Cornwell, Independent of London):
On the ground in Iraq, George Bush's war may long ago have sunk into an unwinnable morass. But the second week of July 2007 is set to go down as the moment when he started to lose control of Iraq policy-making at home as well.
The beleaguered, hugely unpopular President made yet another defence of his troop "surge" yesterday. At a public appearance in Ohio, he insisted that troop levels in Iraq "will be decided by our commanders on the ground, not by political figures in Washington DC". He conceded: "I fully understand that this is a difficult war. It's hard on the American people. But I will once again explain the consequences of failure to the American people."
As he spoke, Congress was preparing to vote on a host of mainly Democratic amendments on a $650bn (£320bn) Pentagon funding bill. All of them would to some degree curtail Mr Bush's authority. Now, as Republican defections multiply, for the first time some of them may succeed.
[. . .]
The administration contends that the report is a mere snapshot of the situation before the just completed US troop increase has had time to show results. For critics, however, the bleak findings merely confirm that US soldiers are trapped where they do not belong, in the middle of a civil war in all but name.
Every time I hear Tony Snow on TV call the report on Iraq a "snapshot," I have to grin. I liked how The Nation writer on Democracy Now! today called her report a "snapshot" and then quickly corrected herself. The Iraq snapshot? Gee, doesn't it all sound so familiar. (No one coins a phrase like you know who.) I suppose I should say something clever like "The one who controls the language controls the debate." By the way, no offense to that writer on the program today, but The Nation should never have had her co-write the story. C.I. will be addressing that tonight. It was a big mistake and has nothing to do with her writing abilities. But it was a huge mistake. Huge.
Of course, her co-writer is Chris Hedges. He really needs to stick to issue of the occupied territories and ignore Iraq because he's a whisker away from being the left's Judith Miller. I have not forgotten, nor has anyone in this community, that he pushed the lie that Iraq was connected to 9-11. Did so in print at the New York Times, did so on PBS. The Mother Jones article gave him a pass but others aren't so kind.
In more you must be kidding news . . .
"House Democrats try Iraq withrawl legislation again" (Edward Epstein, San Francisco Chronicle):
House Democrats took another whack today at forcing the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, but like their previous efforts, this one has almost no chance of becoming law.
Only four Republicans joined 219 Democrats in the 223-201 vote to pass legislation calling for the withdrawal of most of the 160,000 troops in Iraq to begin within 120 days of enactment. The legislation requires that the only troops to remain by April 2008 would be those needed to chase down elements of the terrorist group al Qaeda, defend the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and train Iraqi forces.
The legislation sponsored by Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., is similar to a Senate proposal by Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Jack Reed, D-R.I. Both proposals face a tough fight to gain the necessary 60 votes in the Senate, but the White House said Thursday that if either ever reached his desk, President Bush would veto it.
The "only troops" to remain are the ones defending the fortress that is known as the US Embassy? That is a joke. Add in the ones who would stay "to chase down elements of the terrorist group al Qaeda" because, in case you missed it, the White House blames everything that happens in Iraq on al Qaeda. That legislation is a joke and it's not going to end the illegal war. But watch and see how many will call this nonsense out because it won't be many. This is not an exit strategy, this is non-stop continuation of the illegal war and shame on anyone who accepts it as anything other than trickery. If you buy into that hoax, you deserve what you get.
"Peace Pilgrims" (Olga Bonfiglio, Common Dreams):
It was truly inspiring to hear that Ashley Casale, 19, and Michael Israel, 18, decided to walk 3,000 miles across the country for peace. They began their journey on May 21 in San Francisco and plan to end up in Washington, D.C. on September 11. Such a commitment to the cause of peace is unusual and admirable!
The two teenagers have been discouraged, however, by the negative reception they have received by some people and by the lack of participation by those who support the peace movement.
Actually, their reaction seems to be universal for peace activists across the country who put much time and energy into standing for peace only to be ignored by the media and dismissed by the now-miniscule number of Bush-supporters. What is even more baffling is that they are thanked and congratulated by the 70 percent of those who want the United States to end the war in Iraq-but who do nothing about it.
Perhaps we need to look at our peace activism in a different way.
On January 1, 1953, a 44-year-old woman began a journey that would amount to her walking 25,000 miles over the next 28 years of her life.
Her first walk began in Pasadena, California, at the head of the Rose Bowl Parade so that she would be seen. She then set out to deliver two petitions to President Eisenhower: one to end the Korean War and one to establish a Department of Peace. The third petition she delivered to the United Nations: a request to disarm the world and redirect the funds for arms to funds for human need. She went by the name of Peace Pilgrim.
Peace Pilgrim was distressed over the world at that time so she prayed and contemplated what she could do about it. The nuclear age had begun, the Korean War was on, and Senator Joe McCarthy was out hunting communists.
The five-foot-two woman wore a blue tunic, the color of peace, with white letters that read "Peace Pilgrim." She carried no money, made no plans, and sometimes slept in haystacks, drain pipes, or barns. Sometimes she didn't eat.
There will always be those who take big, brave stands and they can inspire others to take similar stands, smaller stands or to shoot for something higher. I understand the writer's frustration but I think the more attention the two teenagers receive, the more it will spark things in others.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Thursday, July 12, 2007. Chaos and violence, the American military kills two workers for Reuters in Iraq, Bully Boy lies again to sell the war (again), the US military announces another death in Iraq, the Showboat Express Derails!, and more.
Starting with war resistance. Mark and Louise Zwick (Houston Catholic Worker via Spero News) report on the beatification of Franz Jagerstatter (October 27, 2007) by the Catholic Church. Jagerstatter became a war resister when drafted into the Nazi army who "believed that he could not be a soldier in an unjust war sponsored by a government determined on imperialist expansionsim and slaughter of innocents, presenting itself as a substitute for religion which saw and treated his Church as the enemy." The Zwicks tie Jagerstatter's stance then to those resisting today and note the case of Camilo Mejia in detail and conclude, "Martha's concern as she had heard about this soldier's conscientious objection was that her young son not be put in such a situation. She knew that at present there is no military draft, but that poor Hispanic youth in the United States are recruited early into ROTC Army training with the promise of assistance later with college tuition. Martha vowed to never allow her son to participate in ROTC. This may not be easy to achieve. High schools in lower-income neighborhood which serve Mexican Americans and immigrant youth are saturated with the ROTC presence. The local public school for 6th to 8th graders has ROTC as one of the electives. When one student who stayed at Casa Juan Digo transferred in during the middle of the year, the student was placed in ROTC simply because the classes of all other electives were filled. The irony is that the children of the undocumented, despised by many simply for being undocumented, are being sent to fight U.S. wars in foreign lands." Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today of Mejia, "He was the first US soldier court-martialed for desertion, was ultimately sentenced to a year in jail." In May, Camilo Mejia's Road from Ar Ramaid: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia (The New Press) was released allowing him to tell his story of what he observed in Iraq and how it changed him. To the issue the Zwick's raise, Mejia was not a US citizen. In fact, the military was supposed to release him because he had completed his eight-year contract and Senator Ben Nelson had caused noise on this issue (thanks to the concerns Camilo's mother raised with him). The military's response was ridiculous ("We're not discharging fat people, are we?") and desperate (shoving off papers for citizenship -- which Camilo was not interested in). While on leave in the US, Mejia attempted to figure out how to get the US military to comply with their own regulations. First, he was told he would have to return to Iraq in order to be discharged, then he was told no discharge was happening regardless and finally he was ordered to board the plane back to Iraq. Instead, Mejia went underground, refusing to continue fighting in an illegal war. At the start of the illegal war, Stephen Funk refused to go to Iraq -- a very important and brave stand. Mejia is the first known member of the military to serve in Iraq and refuse to return. Again, he tells his story in Road from Ar Ramaid: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia (list price $24.99) including his court-martial and what he felt and thought upon being sentenced.
The first commissioned officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq is Ehren Watada. Speaking with E. Ethelbert Miller (Foreign Policy in Focus), David Mura (poet, playwright, critic, performance artist and soon to be novelist -- Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire) notes the No-No Boys of WWII (Japanese-American males who bravely refused to serve while their relatives and peers were interned for the 'crime' of race) and states, "I feel that the current case of Lat. Ehren K. Watada, who refused to go to Iraq because he believes it is an illegal and unjust war, ought to be seen against the backdrop of this history. His position as a soldier and his actions of civil protest, reflect the legacy both of the 442nd and of the No-No Boys."
And in Iraq, a US service member has publicly refused to continue fighting in the illegal war. Eric Ruder (Socialist Worker) notes, "Army Spc. Eleonai 'Eli' Israel was stationed at Camp Victory in Baghdad when he told his commanding officers June 19 that he would no longer participate in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq. 'We are now violating the people of this country in ways that we would never accept on our own soil,' said Eli."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
So today Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) did what they usually do but tried to credit The Nation for finally doing something four years and four months after the illegal war started. Good manners must have prevented Gonzalez and Goodman from pointing out the obvious -- they've been doing -- for years -- what the overly praised article half-assed does today. The lengthy, weak ass article by The Nation will be addressed this evening ("And the war drags on . . ."). Today, it allowed the centrist (Democratic Party cheerleader and sometime video spokesperson) to get on Democracy Now! and the utter more than fifty lines more (check the transcript) than Garett Reppenhagen who actually is worth listening to. Reppenhagen: "So the contrast is very real, and the division, once you're there and you're being told to give these people democracy and they're shooting at you and trying to kill you, it creates a lot of tension, and the American soldiers begin to hate the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people hate the American soldiers. And the bottom line is, we're not seen as peacekeepers. US forces in Iraq are no longer seen as peacekeepers by the Iraqi people and most of the Muslim world. We're seen as occupiers and invaders, and that undermines our ability to keep the peace there, it undermines our ability to do our jobs, and it undermines our national security here at home. So right now it's a very complex situation, and the animosity is growing. And there's no cure other than removing ourselves from Iraq." From the broadcast:
SGT. DUSTIN FLATT: Yes. The innocent deaths happened at different times, different places and different occasions. Convoys were commonplace. The only incident I have firsthand knowledge of was a convoy that was actually not our convoy. It was a convoy had just driven by us. And an Iraqi vehicle with a mother, three daughters and an older teenage son who was driving the car were following a convoy too close. It got too close, and they shot into the car. It was a warning shot, and it ended up killing the mother. And they actually pulled the car over, or the son pulled the car over right next to us, and we just happened to be near a hospital in Mosul at the time. And the mother was obviously dead, and the children were just crying and asking if they could actually get into the hospital.
AMY GOODMAN: So the mother was dead. The three little girls, what happened?
SGT. DUSTIN FLATT: Right. The three little girls, we just -- we took them and just -- the last time I saw them they were on the side of the road just crying. They had no idea what had just happened. And it was funny -- it was with another unit -- it was a unit actually that we were attached to in Mosul, and on the back of their last Humvee in the convoy, they had a sign that read, "Stay back 100 meters." And after that, we took our interpreter, our Iraqi interpreter, up to the sign to see how far away he could read it, and he had to be within about thirty or forty feet before he could read it.
[. . .]
STAFF SGT. TIMOTHY JOHN WESTPHAL: The terror that I saw on the patriarch's face, like I said, that really was the turning point for me. I imagined in my mind what he must have been thinking, understanding that he had lived under Saddam's brutal regime for many years, worried about -- you know, hearing stories about Iraqis being carried away in the middle of the night by the Iraqi secret service and so forth, to see all those lights, all those soldiers with guns, all the uniform things that we wear, as far as the helmet, the night vision goggles, very intimidating, very terrifying for the man. He screamed a very guttural cry that I can still hear it every day. You know, it was just the most awful, horrible sound I've ever heard in my life. He was so terrified and so afraid for his family. And I thought of my family at that time, and I thought to myself, boy, if I was the patriarch of a family, if soldiers came from another country, came in and did this to my family, I would be an insurgent, too.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And you say that that was a turning point for you. In what way?
STAFF SGT. TIMOTHY JOHN WESTPHAL: It was a turning point for me in the sense that -- you know, prior to going into Iraq, both Dustin and myself, we talked about this many times in the days leading up to the war. We came into Iraq after the initial invasion, so we had a chance to see a little bit of the buildup to the war, as well as the actual invasion piece. And several of us, including Dustin and myself, were very much opposed to the Iraq war. However, we chose to go, number one, out of a sense of loyalty to each other and our unit; second, because we were hoping as leaders, as combat leaders, leaders of soldiers, we would be able to influence those young men to make good decisions and not do things like kill indiscriminately or let their emotions get into their decision-making abilities. So that's why we chose to go. And again, because this is our profession, we were very proud of what we were doing, even though we opposed the mission itself, are proud to serve with our brothers and to be a part of something like that.
However, that night -- and that was about halfway through my yearlong tour -- that night I really admitted to myself -- and it was a very hard thing to do, but I admitted to myself that America is not the good guy in this thing. And, you know, if you factor in that you have these young men who most of them are high-school-educated -- some have a bit of college, some do have college degrees -- but the education level, for the most part, is high school graduates only.
Reppenhagen is the chair of the board of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Dustin Flatt and Timothy John Westphal are also with IVAW. (The other guest? He's with Mommy's Pantyhose.)
Listen, watch or read today's Democracy Now! segment (nearly 50 minutes are devoted to the topic). Skip the nonsense of The Nation (it will be addressed tonight).
Staying on IVAW, Adam Kokesh's site carries the message that Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.'s kangaroo hearing has been delayed from this month to August with Yearwood noting, "It has been incredible to hear that so many of you have made plans to come support me as I challenge the Air Force's attempt to discredit me and our work for peace. My request for a delay has been granted so I may better prepare my case and raise funds for my legal defense. We will publish the new date as soon as it is determined and along with our plans for action." The kangaroo hearing is supposed to address the laughable allegation that Rev. Yearwood's actions have been "clearly inconsistent with the interest of national security" when, in fact, his work since being discharged (discharged from service, he's currently in the IRR which needs no discharge) has been on ending the illegal war including Make Hip Hop Not War.
War, war and more war, endless war, is all the Bully Boy understands which is why the White House released [PDF warning] "Initial Benchmark Assessment Report" today. And though it won't rival the latest Harry Potter, it certainly belongs on the fiction list. David S. Cloud and John F. Burns (New York Times) explained this morning that the report would "qualify some verdicts by saying that even when the political performance of the Iraqi government has been unsatisfactory, it is too early to make final judgements" and that this qualification "will enable it [the White House] to present a more optimistic assessment than if it had provided the pass-fail judgement sought by Congress." Which may be a nice way of noting that, unlike Bully Boy's No Child Left Behind, there is no standardized testing, no standardized grading and no deadlines. The system that's good enough for his attack on America's public schools is not to be utilized when addressing his illegal war of choice.
CBS and AP report that the Bully Boy declared today, "I believe we can succed in Iraq and I know we must." We? But it's probably an improvement on his verbal equivalent of painting a bulls eye on the back of every US service member a few years back with the taunt of "Bring it on." William Douglas (McClatchy Newspapers) notes that the fudged/qualified report reveals "only eight of 18 benchmarks" can be stretched enough to indicate even some progress. Douglas also notes that Bully Boy sees the Initial Assessment as an ink blot which can be interpreted in any way depending upon where you're coming from -- proof positive that we've got a Stoner in the White House? 2008 presidential candidate and Senator Joe Biden peels off the best one liner of the day, "This progress report is like the guy's who's falling from a 100-story building and says halfway down that everything's fine." Karen DeYoung and Peter Baker (Washington Post) update their article in this morning's paper on the report and note that the White House sees "some positive movement in eight of the 18 congressional benchmarks" while, at the same time, dispatching Stephen Hadly (US National security advisor) and Condi Rice (US Secretary of State and Anger) to Congress to role play House Minority Whip for both houses apparently. CNN's Ed Henry (text and video) observes, "The president is pleading for more patience. He's not really oferring a new prescription to deal with the violence on the ground in Iraq. Instead he's urging lawmakers to give him until September to see if the current troop increase will work -- but a growing number of his fellow Republicans are telling him time is running out and they want a course change sooner than September." Which is a nice way of putting. Patience was when he asked for it (over and over, every year of the illegal war). The report he's pushing is more half-truths and outright lies which, if you think back to how the illegal war was sold, isn't at all surprising. Bully Boy has come full circle: Lied to get his war, must lie to keep it. And what's with this "Congressional benchmarks"? Paul Richter (Los Angeles Times) rightly notes: "The Bush administration's decision to set benchmarks . . . When they began publicizing the benchmarks a year ago, addministration officials . . . President Bush turned to benchmarks amid intensifying criticism from Congress and plummeting public support. Benchmarks offered a way to counter congressional demands for timetables and to dampen the midterm election rage that ultimately cost his party control of Congress." The administration, stealing from the James Baker Circle Jerk, grabbed the imposed (upon Iraqis) benchmarks and ran with them. They own them now.
As if the region hasn't suffered enough, Nico Hines (Times of London) reports that Rice and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will visit it next month and notes several laughable statements by the Bully Boy. "I don't think Congress ought to be running the war. The idea of telling our military how to conduct operations, for example, or how to deal with troop strength, I don't think it makes sense today, nor do I think it's a good precedent for the future." Well, he is uneducated. But the Congress is not attempting to run the illegal war (though with Bully Boy's lack of leadership, someone might need to step in) it is demonstrating the civilian control. The war is over and someone needs to be adult enough to pull the plug. (That may or may not be Congress at this point.) He then went on to insist that troops should not leave just "because pollsters say it'll be good politics" -- this from the man who conducted the roll out (in August! 2002) for the war to make electoral hay in the 2002 mid-terms.
In the real world, Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that 429 Iraqis have been "killed or wounded . . . at checkpoints or near patrols and convoys during the past year" and that warning shots accound for "more than" one death per day. Also in the real world, over 3600 US service members have died in Iraq. CBS and AP note that the illegal war "is costing the United States an estimated $10 billion a month." With Jonathan S. Landay, Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) notes that the conclusions "of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies" in a new report (Global Security Assessment, delivered by the National Intelligence Council to Congress) which found, among other things, that "Even if the bloodletting can be contained, Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders will be 'hard pressed' to reach lasting political reconciliation". Amazingly, while ignoring every thing else that can be spun, the White House refuses to take credit for the big bank robbery Wednesday night. Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) reported on the heist that made off with "$282 million from the Dar Es Salaam bank" which was kept not in the Iraq currency but "in American dollars . . . It was unclear why the bank had that much money on hand in dollars, or how the robbers managed to move such a large amount without being detected." Surely there's some way that can be spun into a success? Bully Boy could declare it not just the biggest heist in Iraq, but among the biggest in the world and, noting Donald the Rumsfled's "Freedom is untidy and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things" (a White House motto?), could declare the heist as a sure sign of progress.
Nancy A. Youssef also looks at the 18 benchmarks to offer an independent analysis and it's not pretty -- benchmark 16 is among the ones that can't be stretched to show even some desire for progress ("Ensuring that the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature are protected") leading Youssef to conclude: "The Iraqi government has done nothing on this benchmark."
In some of today's violence in Iraq . . .
Bombings?
Reuters reports that Namir Noor-Eldeen (22-year-old photographer) and Saeed Chmagh (40-year-old driver and camera assistant) were killed "in what police saidw as American military action and witnesses described as a helicopter attack" -- the victis of what is euphemistically dubbed "random American bombardment" in Baghdad. Reporters Without Borders notes that over "60 media workers" were killed in Iraq during 2006 alone. Reuters notes Karim Shindakh stating that, while Noor-Eldeen was taking photographs, "The aircraft began striking randomly and people were wounded. A Kia (minivan) arrived to take them away. They hit the Kia and killed . . . the two journalists" and that 6 "Reuters employees [have been] killed in Iraq" since the start of the illegal war. Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) notes that the 2 died along with 17 others and that of the 19 dead the US optimisticallly states nine were most likely gunmen/militants/resistance, etc. Accepting that inflated (and non-verifable) claim means that 10 innocent Iraqis died. Also dying today, Reuters reports, were 7 Iraqis attending a wedding when a bomber "detonated a suicide vest" in Tal Afar outside the party wounding four. Reuters also notes that five Iraqis were killed in Diwaniya from a US air strike, a Mosul car bombing that wounded 2 police officers, a Mosul car bombing that claimed 2 lives (10 more people wounded) and a police officer injured in Falluja by a bicycle bomb. Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 4 dead from missiles launched by US helicopters in Samara.
Shootings?
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a police officer shot dead in Baghdad
AFP reports a family four was shot dead in Karbala (with two more wounded).
Corpses?
Today, the US military announced: "A Task Force Marne Soldier was killed in an attack east of Baghdad." The announcement brought the ICCC total to 32 US service members killed in Iraq this month and 3611 since the start of the illegal war. APF's count is 3612 dead since the start of the illegal war. Reuters' count is 3611 since the start of the illegal war.
In England, Fran Yeoman (Times of London) reports that Andrew Walker (Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coronor) has ruled that the March 2003 death of British soldier Stephen Allbutt was a "completely avoidable tragedy" and instead pointed to person in charge at the time Walker was shot by British troops noting, "The center of this tragedy represents a serious failing and it will fall to others to question the fitness of this officer to hold command". That would be Lt. Col. Lindsay MacDuff whose resignation Debbie Allbutt (wife of the deceased) has called for.
Finally, in US campaign news, "VOTE INSANE! VOTE JOHN MCCAIN!" -- his mind, like his campaign, had come undone. Yesterday, Senator Crazy had a hissy fit in the Senate cloakroom (someone must have run off with his Dora the Explorer rain slicker) and began screaming about Iraq, Vietnam and Cambodia -- sounding even crazier than many feared. Cedric and Wally provided humorous takes yesterday, Mike noted it, and Elaine, noting Cambodia, lays it out on why McCain's unfit for office. The John McCain Showboat Express Doesn't Stop Here Anymore.
iraq
camilo mejia
iraq veterans against the war
adam kokesh
democracy now
amy goodman
juan gonzalez
karen deyoungthe washington postpeter bakerthe new york timesalissa j. rubin
mcclatchy newspapers
like maria said paz
the daily jotcedrics big mixmikey likes it
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)