Sunday, December 31, 2006

And the war drags on . . .




The total number of US troops who have died in Iraq since the start of the illegal war has now reached the 3,000 marker. Earlier today, the US military announced: "An improvised explosive device detonated near a Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol, killing one Soldier in a southeastern neighborhood of the Iraqi capital Dec. 30." Now Claudia Parsons (Reuters) reports:

U.S. troops began the New Year with news their 3,000th comrade had died since a 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in weeks but pitched them into a war that has riven Iraq and raised increasing alarm at home.
With Saddam's hanging on Saturday polarising the country, there is no sign that the sectarian bloodletting will slow.
The death toll milestone was reported on Sunday by the Web site,
http://icasualties.org/oif/. It listed the death of Specialist Dustin Donica on Dec. 28 together with a soldier killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Saturday, bringing the total to 3,000.

And Bill Trott (Reuters) notes:

U.S. peace groups pledged on Sunday to start the new year with protests and vigils to mark the death of the 3,000th U.S. soldier in Iraq and to press their call for an end to the war.
[. . .]
The American Friends Service Committee put out a call for anti-war activists to rally across the country on New Year's Day to mourn American and Iraqi casualties in the war. Group members in Dallas planned to ring a bell to mark the deaths in their demonstration in front of City Hall.
"We're not pretending to appropriately honor those who have died," said organizer Bill Betzen. "It's just impossible."
In Pittsburgh, peace activists were to gather at a military recruitment center on Monday to mark the 3,000 milestone.
"These occasions can be important and take on tangible meaning if they provide a chance for personal reflection or spur people to take action that alters the future," the Pittsburgh Organizing Group said on its Web site.
Another candlelight vigil was set for Tuesday near Philadelphia's City Hall with participants planning to read names of both U.S. military personnel and Iraqis killed.
Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization founded by prominent anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan after her son was killed in Iraq, is planning a rally in Washington on Jan. 3-4 to press for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, as well as the impeachment of President George W. Bush.
United for Peace and Justice will stage a march in Washington on Jan. 27 and urged supporters to arrange meetings with members of the new Congress on Jan. 29 so they can lobby for an end to the war.


Community members in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, you got a mention by Reuters. Billie notes Monday's ceremony from the American Friends Service Committee:

At 5:45 PM, Monday, January 1, 2007, we will begin gathering in front of Dallas City Hall, near the 3 flag poles. At 6:00 PM a five minute period of silence will begin with the tolling of a bell. The bell will be rung once every 10 seconds. Each ringing remembers another 100 of the soldiers lost. No signs, no talks, only silence and the tolling of the bell. Arrive in silence and leave in silence. This time is for them. We will not pretend this is an adequate memorial of their sacrifice.

There is also a ceremony planned on Tuesday. Billie says it's mid-day and she's not going to be able to take time off for that (she says it's a two hour ceremony beginning at noon).

On KPFA they're in the midst of their Rock en Rebelion special. KPFK is broadcasting a musical special as well. WBAI has music as well ("too busy making dough . . . Someday you'll have your fun when you're a millionaire") KPFT is broadcasting music as well. Not only that, KPFA didn't broadcast the evening news tonight. Let's be really clear that's f____ bull s___. Tomorrow if Amy Goodman and company broadcast the canned special with Noam Chomsky as planned on Democracy Now! that's f___ bull s___ as well.

KPFA had time on Friday evening to give thirty minutes of the news program over to the impending execution of Saddam Hussein. (Aaron Glantz hosted the discussion and did a good job.) But the 3,000 mark?

I'm sorry that doesn't cut for any news department -- broadcasting music. It doesn't matter that it's a damn holiday, you get off you ass and you go into the station. And some little whiner that's wants to kvetch that he or she tuned in for music? Too damn bad. And any programmer that wants to whine about the time put it to prepare a music special? Too damn bad. You get your ass down there, you get on the air and you do a program.

That's the reality.

It's as embarrassing as the New York Times' refusal to cover the deaths of US troops for most of the month. Holiday doesn't matter, you get off your ass, you do your damn job.

I have no sympathy on this issue.

I don't know about the other stations but KPFA had their canned music special ready before it aired. It's not even live. So you get your butts down to the studio, you pull that special off the air, and you do a program about the 3,000 mark.

Let's review the Pacifica mission statement:

(c) In radio broadcasting operations to encourage and provide outlets for the creative skills and energies of the community; to conduct classes and workshops in the writing and producing of drama; to establish awards and scholarships for creative writing; to offer performance facilities to amateur instrumentalists, choral groups, orchestral groups and music students; and to promote and aid other creative activities which will serve the cultural welfare of the community.
(d) In radio broadcasting operations to engage in any activity that shall contribute to a lasting understanding between nations and between the individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colors; to gather and disseminate information on the causes of conflict between any and all of such groups; and through any and all means compatible with the purposes of this corporation to promote the study of political and economic problems and of the causes of religious, philosophical and racial antagonisms.
(e) In radio broadcasting operations to promote the full distribution of public information; to obtain access to sources of news not commonly brought together in the same medium; and to employ such varied sources in the public presentation of accurate, objective, comprehensive news on all matters vitally affecting the community.


I'm not finding: "Air canned music specials when a milestone is passed." You're broadcasting 24 hours, seven days a week, you get on the air and you do the damn special.

I am very supportive of Pacifica but this is crap and there's no excuse for it in the world. You get on the air, you make the announcement, you do a program on it. Can't get guests at the last minute? I find that hard to believe but if so, you read the names, all 3,000.

NPR (live feed, national) has a discussion with John Conyers about Watergate (Debbie Eilliott, All Things Considered). Now they're discussing Somolia. Now NPR is discussing Saddam Hussein's execution. And that's it for Iraq. Now they're discussing films. What a load of crap. Repeating, what a load of crap. ("Enormous stars in them, Brad Pitt . . ." -- pretty much demonstrates NPR's priorities.)

Air America Radio is airing canned programming as well -- Laura Flanders best of to be followed by a Steve Earl show. It's not really a news network so I'm less concerned about that. Although Flanders is a best of, it applies more to today than anything NPR or Pacifica is offering. A guest just stated, "You're motivated to action because you feel, then you can act." Eliza Gilkyson was the speaker and she's now singing "we sleep so easy" while war goes on ("Down By The Riverside.") Which gives the indication that Flanders and company grasped, when picking highlights for the program, that Sunday could be the day the 3,000 mark was hit. Maybe they were just lucky, but her program is the only thing airing right now (that community members would be listening to) which demonstrated any grasp that war was raging.

Pacifica is supposed to be the peace network. There's no excuse for this canned programming. You either treat the milestone like it matters or you don't.

And I can't criticize the New York Times for their shoddy coverage and play dumb when it comes to independent media. That's not reality. It's one thing to make allowances for the fact that a Pacifica station isn't operating with the budget of the Times (or any NPR station) but it's another thing to just bite the tongue when they're not even trying and playing a pre-taped music special on KPFA is not doing your job when the 3,000 mark has been met.

If there was some concern that it was New Year's Eve so things needed to be "light," well things aren't "light" in Iraq and that's called reality. If there was concern that some people listening might be brought "down" by a special, too damn bad. You cover it. It's news and especially if you're Pacifica, you pull whatever programming you have on (live or canned) and you start broadcasting.

And Democracy Now!, if Amy Goodman wants to trot out that "Go where the silences are" again, then she needs to be addressing reality on Monday and not airing that canned special with Noam Chomsky (who they just did a canned special with on December 19th).

Reuters notes three car bombs in Baghdad with four Iraqis killed and eighteen wounded, a rocket attack in Baghdad the killed two children and wounded two adults (probably a family),
and twelve corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters also notes that the illegal war currently has 134,000 US troops deployed in Iraq, that 22,057 US troops have been wounded since the start of the illegal war and that the war has now dragged on for 3 years and 287 days.


They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.

-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)

Last Sunday, the American military fatality count in Iraq stood at 2969. Tonight? As noted before, 3,000. That's 31 since last Sunday. 111 for the month announced thus far.

And the war's going to keep dragging on until people start treating it seriously. That means the Times not doing their puff pieces on Tony Blair's stop-over in the heavily fortified Green Zone or undercounting the US dead. That means independent media getting off their butts and doing their job. Hint, canned programming when the 3,000 marks is passed is not doing your job.

Again, I support Pacifica but I'm not going to be a hypocrite and call out the Times day in and day out and then act like independent media's done their job. They haven't. For the most part, they haven't throught 2006. When they took their summer break from Iraq, Damien Cave and Paul von Zielbauer may have filed groaners from Iraq (they also filed some strong pieces, I'm sure) but they were covering it.

There aren't any excuses tonight. Not any valid ones. You do your job or you don't.

The above was posted earlier. Rebecca passed on (through Dona) that it would help her (she could link to it). In the time since, every one of the community sites has noted the 3,000 mark.
That's:

Rebecca's Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Cedric's Cedric's Big Mix;
Kat's Kat's Korner;
Betty's Thomas Friedman is a Great Man;
Mike's Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine's Like Maria Said Paz
Wally's The Daily Jot:
and Trina's Trina's Kitchen


In addition, Kat, Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and I wrote "The 3,000 mark has been reached" (The Third Estate Sunday Review). Remember:

United for Peace and Justice:

Another Grim Milestone -- 3,000 Deaths Too Many
More than 2,990 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. By the time you read this, the death toll may have reached 3,000. We must bear witness to this tragic milestone, even though many people are already beginning their celebrations of the new year. And when we do take action on this occasion, we must remind others that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, women and men have also died in this outrageous war and occupation. Our call to end this war and to bring all the troops home now must be heard in every corner of the country! The killing must stop. Click here for some suggested ways to bear witness.

Military Families Speak Out:

MILITARY FAMILIES MOURN 3,000TH TROOP DEATH, PARTICIPATE IN NATIONWIDE VIGILS AND CALL ON CONGRESS TO END THE IRAQ WAR Family Members of Fallen Soldiers and Families of Troops Currently Deployed in Iraq Available for Interview Dec 29, 06 On the eve of the 3,000th troop death, the next horrific milestone in the Iraq war, Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), an organization of over 3,100 military families opposed to the war in Iraq, calls on the 110th Congress to honor the fallen and prevent further deaths by taking action to end the Iraq war. read more »

CODEPINK:

3000 Deaths Too Many As Bush considers sending thousands of additional troops to Iraq to control the violence, our troop death toll nears the 3,000 mark. It is crucial that we commemorate this grim milestone in Bush's disastrous war by pressuring Congress to bring the troops home NOW, and to stop this insanity NOW! Click here for CODEPINK suggested actions you can take.

We'll close with Megan's highlight, Riverbend's "End of Another Year..." (Baghdad Burning):

A day in the life of the average Iraqi has been reduced to identifying corpses, avoiding car bombs and attempting to keep track of which family members have been detained, which ones have been exiled and which ones have been abducted.
2006 has been, decidedly, the worst year yet. No- really. The magnitude of this war and occupation is only now hitting the country full force. It's like having a big piece of hard, dry earth you are determined to break apart. You drive in the first stake in the form of an infrastructure damaged with missiles and the newest in arms technology, the first cracks begin to form. Several smaller stakes come in the form of politicians like Chalabi, Al Hakim, Talbani, Pachachi, Allawi and Maliki. The cracks slowly begin to multiply and stretch across the once solid piece of earth, reaching out towards its edges like so many skeletal hands. And you apply pressure. You surround it from all sides and push and pull. Slowly, but surely, it begins coming apart- a chip here, a chunk there.
That is Iraq right now. The Americans have done a fine job of working to break it apart. This last year has nearly everyone convinced that that was the plan right from the start. There were too many blunders for them to actually have been, simply, blunders. The 'mistakes' were too catastrophic. The people the Bush administration chose to support and promote were openly and publicly terrible- from the conman and embezzler Chalabi, to the terrorist Jaffari, to the militia man Maliki. The decisions, like disbanding the Iraqi army, abolishing the original constitution, and allowing militias to take over Iraqi security were too damaging to be anything but intentional.
The question now is, but why? I really have been asking myself that these last few days. What does America possibly gain by damaging Iraq to this extent? I'm certain only raving idiots still believe this war and occupation were about WMD or an actual fear of Saddam.
Al Qaeda? That's laughable. Bush has effectively created more terrorists in Iraq these last 4 years than Osama could have created in 10 different terrorist camps in the distant hills of Afghanistan. Our children now play games of 'sniper' and 'jihadi', pretending that one hit an American soldier between the eyes and this one overturned a Humvee.
This last year especially has been a turning point. Nearly every Iraqi has lost so much. So much. There's no way to describe the loss we've experienced with this war and occupation. There are no words to relay the feelings that come with the knowledge that daily almost 40 corpses are found in different states of decay and mutilation. There is no compensation for the dense, black cloud of fear that hangs over the head of every Iraqi. Fear of things so out of ones hands, it borders on the ridiculous- like whether your name is 'too Sunni' or 'too Shia'. Fear of the larger things- like the Americans in the tank, the police patrolling your area in black bandanas and green banners, and the Iraqi soldiers wearing black masks at the checkpoint.
Again, I can't help but ask myself why this was all done? What was the point of breaking Iraq so that it was beyond repair?


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.














The US military fatality count since the start of the illegal war now stands at 2,999

The New York Times this morning has to finish their show trial reporting by making it non-stop (it's called flooding the zone -- put on your high waters) all about the show execution.

We didn't cover the show trial, we're not interested in the for show execution. If someone does want to read the coverage (I did to see if there was anything that would justify linking -- and there wasn't), Sabrina Tavernise does write to her strengths today. (Meaning she's putting a human face on the event.) If it were an article on any other Iraq topic, we'd note it but (again) we didn't cover the show trial, we're not covering the show death.

About a third of the way into his article on the show death, John F. Burns does note US military fatalities. The others who have filed regularly and skipped them or only noted a portion of them should study his article.

That's the Times.

Turning to real news of today.

December was the deadliest month and, no, it's not over. The US military fatality count for the month has now risen to 110. Today, the US military announced: "An improvised explosive device detonated near a Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol, killing one Soldier in a southeastern neighborhood of the Iraqi capital Dec. 30." This death put the total number of US troops to die in Iraq since the start of Bully Boy's illegal war of choice at 2999 -- one away from the 3,000 milestone.

New content is up at The Third Estate Sunday Review:

Truest statement of the week
Editorial: The 3,000 mark looms
A Note to Our Readers
TV: Fall 2006 -- like so much bad sex
Life With Elmo . . . and Warren Bell
Let's Make Bad Film: Destroying Marilyn
Joke of 2007
10 2006 Songs That Made It For Us in 2006
10 Songs We Made Our Own In 2006
The Nation Stats
Joan Mellen lecture on JFK assasination 1-28-07
Highlights

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.




For The Third Estate Sunday Review and thank you to ___ who saw the earlier illustration and called to say, "Look at the number painted." Posted by Picasa

For The Third Estate Sunday Review. Posted by Picasa

For The Third Estate Sunday Review. Posted by Picasa

For The Third Estate Sunday Review. Posted by Picasa

This is for The Third Estate Sunday Review, but don't look for it this week. We don't have time to fix this feature (edit) so it will probably be used next week. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, December 30, 2006

NYT: In The Garden of Judith and Miller

Sabrina Tavernise learned nothing from the example of Judith Miller and is bound and determined to have herself crowned the new Judy.

With bylines attached to stories like "U.S. and Iraq Dispute Role of Iranians but Free Them" she will, no doubt, get her wish.

James Glanz is the co-author but anyone who semi-paid attention the Miller dust up is quite aware that gender adds another element to the equaition. It's why the likes of Warren Hogue and Michael Gordon remain cyphers to most people but Judith Miller draws an image of stenographer who will stoop to any low for a 'scoop.'

That was one of the most important lessons about the Miller saga. Another one was that you don't make a fool of yourself after your 'scoop' turns to poop. But Tavernise and Glanz are determined to hang onto their 'scoop' about Iranian 'terrorists' in Iraq.

It blew up twice last week. But like Miller swearing she was "proved f**king right," the two show up in print today with a lot of whispers (and apparently pray no one reads the foreign press).

One of the chief points of nonsense appears to be that the two Iranians may not have been "diplomats." The article can't prove that they're not (doesn't try to, just offers whispers) but the reality is most "diplomats" (even U.S. ones) aren't diplomats. So if you can't back up the whispers, you're just wasting everyone's time.

They pan the official statement from the Iraqi government for fool's gold and note that it's a small slap at Iran -- actually, it's a message to all foreigners (and, yes, that includes the U.S.).
Though the reporters admit that no evidence of wrong doing about the two Iranians was "publicly presented," they're happy to offer you whispers.

Remember, the Green Zone is heavily fortified against reality and skepticism -- as the article demonstrates.

The scoop went poop and, though the Times is loathe to issue corrections (we're still all waiting for the review of Judith Miller's stories that was promised how many years ago?), the smart thing to do would have been to move on. Since it wasn't going to be corrected, pick up a new story to cover. But like Miller at the height of her "I was proved f**king right!" moment, Tavernise and Glanz lack the wisdom to let go.

Both writers have recieved praise here before (Glanz has done a better job charting the contractor stories than anyone at any outlet; Tavernise has the ability -- less and less used -- to put a human face on the war). But they're wrong in print today on the same story they've already covered (this is Glanz' second time, Tavernise's third) and there's really no excuse for it. The way it will work, if this continues, is Glanz will get the same pass the men who co-wrote articles with Miller did and Tavernise will become the lightning rod for the country. That's going to be up to her but with the Miller scandal still fresh in everyone's minds, no one can say she wasn't warned.

Just like the Times wasn't warned (within the paper and outside) that they needed to cover the US military fatalities. October is no longer the deadliest month this year for US troops, December is (and December's not over). By refusing to cover that, they have egg on their face. (And, again, they were warned.) When they did bother to print some fatalities, it was some -- not even all the fatalities announced the day prior by the US military. So Times readers may be confused if and when the paper decides to state the obvious, December was a deadly month for US troops.

As already noted this morning, the month's toll is now up to 109. Yesterday, the US military announced the death of three marines. Search for that in the paper. During Vietnam, the government lied on bodycounts, today it's the paper of record that fudges the bodycount. Not only is December now the deadliest month of 2006 for US troops, it's deadlier than any month in 2005 and you have to drop back to November 2004 to find a month that was more deadly. (And the total count since the start of the illegal war now stands at 2998.)

Today, the US military announced: "An improvised explosive device detonated near a Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol, killing one Soldier in a northwestern section of the Iraqi capital Dec. 29." They announced: "One Soldier assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division was killed as a result of enemy action Saturday while conducting combat operations in the Al Anbar Province." And they announced: "An improvised explosive device detonated near a Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol, killing one Soldier in a southwestern section of the Iraqi capital Dec. 29. "

And Iraqis? Reuters reports 5 dead and 8 wounded from a bombing in Tal Afar, 36 dead in the Hurriya section of Baghdad from three car bombs that also left at least 77 wounded, 2 dead and 8 wounded from a car bomb in the Mansour section of Baghdad, 1 dead and 4 wounded from a car bomb in the Saidiya section of Baghdad, 36 people dead and 58 wounded in Kufa from a car bomb, and four corpses discovered in Mahmudiya. Some of the wounded will most likely end up classified as dead in the coming days. But currently, that's 80 Iraqis killed today and four corpses discovered. (AP notes that 32 corpses were discovered in Iraq on Friday.)

I started late this morning because I've been under the weather all week and wanted to sleep in today. Betty did read her latest to me over the phone but the main reason I've moved so slowly today is an e-mail from someone who thinks being at a paper means getting a reply. I actually wrote a piece on that but have decided not to post it (for now). Responding, in the end, struck me as rewarding that sort of behavior that thinks you can throw you paper around and expect to cut ahead of everyone waiting for a reply. Martha, Shirley, Eli, Jess and Ava will be back to helping with the e-mails starting Tuesday. Until then, I'm navigating all accounts by myself so, if you're a member, please continue to be patient about replies.

The following community sites have updated since yesterday morning:

Rebecca's Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Cedric's Cedric's Big Mix;
Kat's Kat's Korner;
Betty's Thomas Friedman is a Great Man;
Mike's Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine's Like Maria Said Paz
Wally's The Daily Jot:
and Trina's Trina's Kitchen

Margaret Kimberley does not have a new column this week (they're retooling the site) but Carl notes Glen Ford's "Selected Predictions, 2007: Obama, Iraq, Impeachment and the CBC's Future" (Black Agenda Report):

On March 20, 2003, the day the U.S. invasion of Iraq began, I published an article in Black Commentator titled, "They Have Reached Too Far: Bush's Road Leads to Ruin for Himself and his Pirates":
"Bush's plan for world domination was doomed before the burning, blasting, thundering, screaming display. The Pirates have accelerated the processes of their own ruin....
"War is the great and terrible engine of history. Bush and his Pirates hope to employ that engine to harness Time and cheat the laws of political economy, to leapfrog over the contradictions of their parasitical existence into a new epoch of their own imagining.
"Instead, they have lunged into the abyss, from which no one will extricate them, for they will be hated much more than feared.
"In attempting to break humanity's will to resist, the Bush pirates have reached too far."
The entire, fantabulous edifice of U.S. "liberation" of Iraq crumbled beyond even corporate media rehabilitation in 2006 -- and with it, neo-con dreams of Iraq as a U.S. base camp for land and energy grabs throughout South and Central Asia. The Bush men and their comrades-in-defeat among the Democrats -- Barack Obama included -- now wail that their ungrateful Iraqi "allies" are holding up an American exit by bloodily consolidating the power they were never supposed to have achieved under the original American blueprint. As was written is 2003, "no one will extricate" the U.S. from Iraq, with our without a grace period. What’s an imperial aggressor to do?

Common sense says, leave now. But common sense is no match for American Manifest Destiny, and has never figured into Washington's Iraq adventure. For the purpose of predicting what the U.S. will do in 2007, we consult a dead Chinese thinker by the name of Mao, one of whose many sayings went: "All the reputedly powerful reactionaries are merely paper tigers. The reason is that they are divorced from the people."
Certainly, the Americans are "divorced" from the 60 percent of Iraqis who
want them dead. However, American armaments are anything but paper and, if Vietnamese (U.S. carpet bombing) and Iraqi (U.S. levels Fallujah) history is any guide, the American military may lash out like a cornered beast before leaving the scene. Maddened by their failure to defeat the Sunni-based resistance, the Americans now toy with the idea of cleansing "anti-American" Shi'ite cleric Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr's forces from Baghdad's Sadr City slum -- home to two million people – with the help of the Dawa and Sciri Shi'ite militias. In other words, U.S. strategists would impose a Shi'ite vs. Shi'ite civil war on top of a Shi'ite vs. Sunni civil war! (Not to mention the low-level Kurdish vs. Arab civil war on the periphery of supposedly "pro-American" Kurdistan, in northern Iraq.)
The American tiger may be insane, but Iraqi Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali Husaini Sistani is not. On Christmas weekend Sistani
vetoed American proposals to isolate co-religionist al-Sadr. It was Ayatollah Sistani who ushered in one-man, one-vote elections, against U.S. wishes, by threatening to bring a million Shi’ites into the streets, early in the occupation. He also brokered a cease-fire in al-Sadr’s series of revolts against the Americans. More than two years ago, the British commander in southern Iraq declared that, if Sistani told him to get out of the country, he'd have no choice but to leave.
Only Sistani can save American face -- what is left of it -- by ordering the U.S. out of Iraq. I predict that’s what will happen, sometime in 2007 -- and sooner rather than later.
However, we are not practitioners of mad tiger psychiatry, and therefore cannot predict what the crazed Bush men will do when told the game is up. Like the rest of the world, we shudder to contemplate the depths of imperial delusions -- the demons that burst forth with murderous fury when a superpower is confronted with defeat.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.












December is the deadliest month of the year for US troops in Iraq

With the count now reaching 109 for the month of December, it has become the month with the largest number of US troop fatalities in Iraq. The total number of US troops who have died in Iraq since the start of the illegal war now stands at 2998, two away from the 3,000 mark.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Iraq snapshot

Friday, December 29, 2006. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, Decemeber is now the deadliest month this year for US troops, Ehren Watada finally appears in print in The Nation, is Sabrina Tavernise angling to be the new joke of the New York Times, and the US military reveals how little heart and compassion they have as they move to court-martial a soldier suffering from PTSD -- one they did nothing to help.

Starting with fatality news. Today the US military announced: "Three Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died Thursday from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province." Watch for the New York Times to ignore that or Little Man Marcs to report "One marine died" if the pattern this month holds true. The Times can't say they weren't warned when they decided to ignore fatalities and minimize the few that they covered but readers of the paper who depend on it to provide reality (no chuckles) may end up shocked when they discover that today December became the deadliest month for US troops. The three deaths up the total for the month to 107. Prior to this announcement, October had been the deadliest month with 106.

Some outlets report 105 and that has to do with the fact that the US military tends to hold the deaths a bit, and has the since the start of the war, waiting for those first of the month look back press accounts to be published and then noting a death or two afterwards. 106 is the number ICCC uses, 106 is the one we'll go with here. 107 is now the total number of US troops who have died in Iraq this month. The total number of US troops who have died since the start of the illegal war stands at 2996 -- four shy of the 3,000 mark.

US troops have not been the only military fatalities and England's Ministry of Defense notes:
"It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that a UK serviceman was killed yesterday, Thursday 28 December 2006, in Basrah, southern Iraq. The soldier, from 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, was taking part in a routine patrol in Basra City when the Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle he was travelling in was targeted by a roadside bomb. He was very seriously injured and airlifted to the Field Hospital at Shaibah Logistics Base, but unfortunately died later as a result of his injuries." That death brought the total number of British troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war to 127.

Turning to the issue of war resistance and starting with The Nation magazine. On page 14 of the January 8/15 2007 issue (a double issue) Marc Cooper has an article entitled "Lt. Ehren Watad: Resister." The Nation makes the article availble online to subscribrs only for whatever reasons but seems unaware that they've published it for all (subscribers and non-subscribers) on Yahoo -- click here. Cooper describes Ehren Watada as "the lighning rod case of resistance" (Watada is the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq); and notes the speech he gave in August at the Veterans for Peace conference in Seattle (click here for text at CounterPunch and here at Truthout which offers both text and video of the speech) where Watada declared, "The idea is this: that to stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fighting it."; and notes that, in January, "a 'Citizen's Hearing on the Legality of U.S. Actions in Iraq,' featuring Daniel Ellsberg and Princeton professor emeritus Richard Falk will be convened in Tacoma, Washinginton, in support of Watada".

January 4th is the date scheduled for the military's pre-trial hearing and Feb. 5th is when the court-martial is scheduled to begin. The US military is attempting to force journalists to testify at the pre-trial hearing (see yesterday's snapshot).

Watada is part of a movement of resistance within the military that includes Kyle Snyder, Darrell Anderson, Ricky Clousing (who was released from the military brig on Satuday) Mark Wilkerson, Agustin Aguayo, Joshua Key, Ivan Brobeck, Camilo Meija, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Patrick Hart, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight 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, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Appeal for Redress is collecting signatures of active duty service members calling on Congress to bring the troops home -- the petition will be delivered to Congress next month.

Resistance takes many forms in the peace movement. As noted in yesterday's snapshot, Cindy Sheehan was arrested in Crawford, Texas outside Bully Boy's ranchette along with four other activists. Sheehan called the action a "peace surge" to combat Bully Boy's notions of escalating the number of US troops in Iraq. The AP reports that Sheehan's attorney Robert Gottlieb believes the arrest will have no impact on the conditional verdict the judge issued this month in Manhattan. The Smoking Gun reports that, were Sheehan convicted, the maximum sentence is six months in prison and the maximum fine is $2,000.

In another mother for peace news, Theresa Hogue (Corvallis Gazette-Times) reported last week on Michelle Darr, a mother of six, who was arrested December 12th for attempting to get US Senator Gordon Smith to sign the Declaration of Peace (her third arrest this year for attempting to lobby Smith, she was arrested twice in September) and will face a tril in January. Darr told Hogue, "What they (her children) see me doing is as important as what they don't see me doing. If Im not using my voice and efforts in the cause of the common good, how can I expect them to take initiative when the need arises? I don’t want them to ever think oppression and genocide are acceptable, or that war is a way to solve problems."

Along with courageous acts of resistance like Sheehan's and Darr's, demonstrations will take part around the United States to note the 3,000 mark for US fatalities in Iraq. United for Peace and Justice notes:

Another Grim Milestone -- 3,000 Deaths Too Many
More than 2,990 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. By the time you read this, the death toll may have reached 3,000. We must bear witness to this tragic milestone, even though many people are already beginning their celebrations of the new year. And when we do take action on this occasion, we must remind others that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, women and men have also died in this outrageous war and occupation. Our call to end this war and to bring all the troops home now must be heard in every corner of the country! The killing must stop. Click here for some suggested ways to bear witness.

Military Families Speak Out notes:

MILITARY FAMILIES MOURN 3,000TH TROOP DEATH, PARTICIPATE IN NATIONWIDE VIGILS AND CALL ON CONGRESS TO END THE IRAQ WAR Family Members of Fallen Soldiers and Families of Troops Currently Deployed in Iraq Available for Interview Dec 29, 06 On the eve of the 3,000th troop death, the next horrific milestone in the Iraq war, Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), an organization of over 3,100 military families opposed to the war in Iraq, calls on the 110th Congress to honor the fallen and prevent further deaths by taking action to end the Iraq war. read more »

CODEPINK notes:

3000 Deaths Too Many As Bush considers sending thousands of additional troops to Iraq to control the violence, our troop death toll nears the 3,000 mark. It is crucial that we commemorate this grim milestone in Bush's disastrous war by pressuring Congress to bring the troops home NOW, and to stop this insanity NOW! Click here for CODEPINK suggested actions you can take.

Also refer to World Can't Wait's Protests & Vigils Planned the Day After the Number of US Troops Killed in Iraq Reaches 3,000

As the press continues to note that Bully Boy is seriously considering escalating the number of US troops on the ground in Iraq, Warren P. Strobel and Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) note: "Two attempts last summer to stabilize Baghdad by sending in more troops failed. The increased U.S. presence led to a brief drop in violence, but as soon as the troops left the neighborhoods where they'd deployed, the violence skyrocketed." That was the crackdown that cracked up and accomplished nothing. It began in June and by August, the US military was noting that, in July, attacks on US forces were up (double the January amount) and bombing attacks on civilians were up 10%. And last week Ann Scott Tyson (Washington Post) reported on the US Pentagon's findings "that the violence in Iraq soared this fall to its highest level on record" and this during the continued increase of US troops in Iraq. But like a greedy tele-evangilist, Bully Boy can just cry out, "Send more! Send more!"


Bombings?

CNN reports a bomber "waited near the house of Sheik Kadhim Hameed Qassim" in northern Bagdad and then detonated the bomb "when the clearic, his security and family members arrived after Friday prayers" leaving the Shi'ite cleric dead and also killing "his brother and severn others" and leaving 15 wounded.


Shootings?

Reuters reports two police officers were shot dead in Jurf al-Sakhar and seven more wounded.
AFP reports a police officer and "a bystander" were shot dead in Hindiya while, in Mussayib, a police officer was shot dead and five more wounded. KUNA reports four Iraqi soldiers were shot dead "southwest of Kirkuk" and a fifth Iraqi soldier was injured while, in nothern Iraq, "two employees who . . . worked for the Petroleum State Company" were shot dead.

Corpses?

KUNA reports that the corpse of a kidnapped police officer was discovered in Kirkuk.

Meanwhile, AFP reports on the increasing demise of communal baths in Baghdad from violence and financial costs: "In its glory days when Iraq was one of the most developed Arab countries in the Middle East, the hammam used to employ 16 people. Today only four permanent staff remains on the payroll as massive inflation takes hold." and quotes the owner of the bathhouse explaining, "The electricity is often down. Gas for heating has become too expensive. We pay 20,000 dinars ($14) for a bottle compared to 1,000 just two or three years ago. How do you expect me to carry on? There are days when it costs me more to open than doing nothing. I love my profession but it's disappearing."

In I-Schilled-for-the-U.S.-military-and-all-I-got-was-a-red-face news, Sabrina Tavernise's 'scoop' in the New York Times had holes blown through it earlier this week and has now fallen apart completely. The US military announced (to her and James Glanz of the New York Times) that they had been holding Iranian 'terrorists' and 'insurgents' since the 12th of December. In the latest development to rip the story of Iranian 'terrorists' to shreds, the BBC reports that the two diplomats who were held by US forces but in the country of Iraq at the invitation of Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, were released. On the detention of the two diplomats, AFP quotes the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Hasan Kazemi Qomi, stating: "Fortunately with the effort exerted by the Iraqi officials, the US forces who firstly denied their arrest were obliged to admit it and under pressure from the Iraqi government to release them. The arrest of these diplomats was carried out contrary to international laws and the Geneva convention."

In the US, the AP reports: "Sgt. Edward W. Shaffer, 24, of Mont Alto, died Wednesday afternoon at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas" after being injured in November 13th bombing in Ramadi and quotes his grandfather, Edward Shaffer, stating that "All they could do was try to keep him comfortable. They couldn't do any more for him." 24 year-old Shaffer is among many troops who die from physical injuries recieved in Iraq but, due to dying after they are shipped out of Iraq, do not get included in the official body count.

Another war related death not included in the count is covered by Megan Greenwell (Washington Post), 29-year-old James E. Dean, who had served in Afghanistan and recently recieved orders to deploy to Iraq, barricaded himself in his father's house on Christmas day, and was killed in an exchange with police officers.

Yesterday, NPR's Daniel Zwerdling reported that the US army's crappy record on addressing PTSD within the ranks just got worse: the army is moving to court-martial Tyler Jennings who suffers from PTSD and was diagnosed with "Crying spells... hopelessness... helplessness... worthlessness" five months ago and received no assistance.

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ehren watada





Other Items

How stupid is Little Man Marcs (Marc Santora) or how stupid does he think readers are? Today he writes another one of the New York Times' undercounts -- in so many ways. But let's just focus on US fatalities for the start. From Little Man Marcs' "A Suspect in the Killings of 2 Americans Is Captured in Iraq:"

Four Americans were killed in attacks on Wednesday, bringing the total number of Americans killed in December to 100, according to The Associated Press and making this one of the deadliest months for the military in the past three years.

There were five US troops announced dead by the US military yesterday, not four. You can check yesterday's snapshot or Nancy Trejos' "5 U.S. Troops Added To Death Toll in Iraq:
December's Number Steadily Edging Toward Highest Monthly Tally of '06
" (Washington Post) today. Yes, four of them were killed on Wednesday, the fifth was killed on Thursday -- all deaths were announced by the US military on Thursday and should have been reported by the Times in today's paper. But Santora's proven the last two weeks that he can take five or six deaths and turn them into three in print repeatedly. This isn't an oversight with him, this is a continued pattern.

And as usual with the Times this month (as they attempt to sell the war yet again), they don't open with the reality, they bury it in the midst of an article. Santora's bad article wants to tell you that US forces may have (MAY HAVE) captured one of the people behind the deaths of US soldiers Kristian Menchaca, Thomas L. Tucker, and David J. Babineau in June. One of the parents of the three soldiers is quoted and we'll note her reaction:

Meg Tucker, Private Tucker’s mother, struggled to hold back tears when told the news about the capture. "I'm glad that they caught him if indeed they did, but it doesn’t bring my son back," she said. "We have just gone through the holidays. It has been really tough. We miss him very much. We still get cards and letters from all over the United States, and we appreciate that very much."

Now let's deal with the reality Little Man Marcs can't. The three were not accused of a crime or thought to have taken part in one. There is no indication of that. But they were abducted (Babineau was killed during the attempted abduction, the other two were abducted, tortured and killed) in response to what James P. Barker did to Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and her family. (Four others are accused, Barker has confessed to his part in the war crimes.) Justin Watt came forward in June with the rumors and remarks he was hearing about what five US soldiers had done (gang raped and killed Abeer, killed her parents, killed her five-year-old sister and attempted to set Abeer's corpse on fire to destroy the evidence).

The three slaughtered in June were innocents who got targeted because Barker (who is no longer "alleged" -- having confessed in court) did to Abeer and her family and for what the four other suspects are alleged to have done.

As the Telegraph of London noted September 7th of this year (Akeel Hussein and Colin Freeman's "Two dead soldiers, eight more to go, vow avengers of Iraqi girl's rape"):

The American soldiers accused of raping an Iraqi girl and then murdering her and her family may have provoked an insurgent revenge plot in which two of their comrades were abducted and beheaded last month, it has been claimed.
Pte Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Pte Thomas Tucker, 25, were snatched from a checkpoint near the town of Yusufiyah on June 16 in what was thought at the time to be random terrorist retaliation for the killing of the al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an American air strike two days earlier.

Now, however, residents of the neighbouring town of Mahmoudiyah have told The Sunday Telegraph that their kidnap was carried out to avenge the attack on a local girl Abeer Qassim Hamza, 15, and her family. They claim that insurgents have vowed to kidnap and kill another eight American troops to exact a 10-to-one revenge for the rape and murder of the girl.

The New York Times was never interested in Abeer, they couldn't even name her when the Article 32 hearing took place into her rape and murder -- they (Robert F. Worth and Carolyn Marshall) could present the defense's 'novel' argument (one that was "not a defense known to the law" according to one military law expert) before even the defense could present it in court, but they couldn't tell you about Abeer. So Little Man Marcs continues the paper's long tradition of rendering Abeer invisible today. He wants to tell you about the June killings but not tell you why they happened. It's a funny sort of reporting.

We'll note this section from Trejos:

On Thursday, one soldier died and another was wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near their patrol north of Baghdad, the military said. A day before, the soldiers had been involved in the capture of four suspected insurgents believed to have planted a rocket on a main road, according to the military.
On Wednesday, a roadside bomb detonated near a patrol southwest of the capital. Two soldiers were killed and one was wounded, the military said. The unit had detained five suspected insurgents the week before after watching them place a bomb in a road.


Polly notes this from the BBC:

A British soldier has been killed by a roadside bomb in Basra, southern Iraq, according to the Ministry of Defence.
The soldier, from the 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, was killed while taking part in a routine patrol in Basra City.
The Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle which he was travelling in was targeted by a roadside bomb.


That brings the total number of British troops killed in the Iraq war to 127. The total number of US troops killed in the illegal war is 2992 currently.

And Pru notes, "The New York Times story has imploded on them." She's referring to the fluff Sabrina Tavernise was pushing hard and Pru steers us to the BBC as well for this:

US forces in Iraq have released two Iranian diplomats detained in a raid in Baghdad last week, the Iranian state-run news agency says.
The diplomats were handed over to the Iranian embassy in the city on Friday, the IRNA agency said.
The Iranians were among a number of people held during the raid on suspected insurgents.
US officials, who announced earlier this week they were holding the men, have made no comment on their release.
'Iraqi government pressure'
The Iranian diplomats were in Iraq at the invitation of Iraq's president as part of an agreement to improve security between the two countries, according to Iranian officials.
"The American forces admitted, despite their initial denial, they had detained Iranian diplomats and pressure from the Iraqi government for their release fortunately bore results," said Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi.


For chuckles, you can read Tavernise and James Glanz' December 25th story and for loud belly laughs you can read Tavernise's December 27th report that should be entitled, "YES, IT'S TRUE! I SWEAR ON MY REPUTATION IT IS!" written as the cover story was falling apart and Tavernise was bound and determined to hang on to her scoop -- reality be damned. Surveying 2002 and 2003, Tavernise should be well aware that a woman caught spinning gets bashed and a man generally gets a pass (the real lessons of Judith Miller) so she might want to be a bit more careful before rushing US military fed 'scoops' into print next time.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.





NYT: "Crisis in Housing Adds to Miseries of Iraq Mayhem" (Michael Luo)

Along with its many other desperate problems, Iraq is in the midst of a housing crisis that is worsening by the day.
It began right after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, when many landlords took advantage of the removal of his economic controls and raised rents substantially, forcing out thousands of families who took shelter in abandoned government buildings and military bases. As the chaos in Iraq grew and the ranks of the jobless swelled, even more Iraqis migrated to squalid squatter encampments. Still others constructed crude shantytowns on empty plots where conditions were even worse.
Now, after more than 10 months of brutal sectarian reprisals, many more Iraqis have fled their neighborhoods, only to wind up often in places that are just as wretched in other ways. While 1.8 million Iraqis are living outside the country, 1.6 million more have been displaced within Iraq since the war began. Since February, about 50,000 per month have moved within the country.
Shelter is their most pressing need, aid organizations say. Some have been able to occupy homes left by members of the opposing sect or group; others have not been so fortunate. The longer the violence persists, the more Iraqis are running out of money and options.
Shatha Talib, 30, her husband and five children, are among about a thousand struggling Iraqi families that have taken up residence in the bombed-out remains of the former Iraqi Air Defense headquarters and air force club in the center of Baghdad. "Nobody should live in such a place," she said. "But we don’t have any other option."
With many families in such encampments or worse, and many others doubled or tripled up in friends' or relatives' homes, the deputy housing minister, Istabraq al-Shouk, puts the shortage at two million dwellings across Iraq.


The above is from Michael Luo's "Crisis in Housing Adds to Miseries of Iraq Mayhem" in this morning's New York Times. It's the article read -- in a week when it's been hard to say that about anything the paper of little record has offered -- but it's by Luo so that demands a qualifier: Read it print or use the link, but do not attempt to hunt it down at the website later today.

For those confused, in one of the more shameful events of 2006 at the paper, when Luo wrote a very straightforward, very strong news article, the reward for that from New York (after complaints came in -- and no, not readers complaints, the Times doesn't give a damn about the average reader) was to allow a New York based writer to rewrite the piece and water it down -- a piece about Iraq was rewritten by a writer who wasn't in Iraq, didn't know what he was writing about, and Luo's original piece 'disappeared' from the website's "Middle East" listing. (See the snapshot for October 17th.)

So read it in print or use the link, but don't be surprised, if mid-day, you have trouble finding it but can find some watered down version of it by John O'Neil at the website.

The removal of the economic controls didn't just happen, that was part of the US government's attempts to 'shock the system' that Naomi Klein covered in "Baghdad Year Zero" (Harper's magazine). The attacks on the subsidy programs were also a part of that as the US government tried to destabilize the economic system.

The encampments are noted and they include people who once resided in, among other places, Falluja which was slaughtered in November of 2004 and has never been made hospitable again -- though there are six check points, with biometric devices, all around the city. Depleted uranium and white phosphorus were among the weapons used on the city. In the immediate aftermath, though Dexy Filkins couldn't tell readers this, corpses were left in the streets and dogs fed on them. The majority of the people who once lived in the city, those lucky enough to depart before the slaughter (remember that young boys attempting to leave as the slaughter was about to begin were forced back into the city by US forces) have been in encampments ever since. Giuliana Sgrena (Italian journalist) was visiting one such encampment when she was kidnapped. From her book Friendly Fire [pp. 34-35]:

Picture a city of more than 250,000 residents at the gates of Baghdad, on the road to Jordan. This position allowed the Fallujans to develop thriving construction and commercial transportation industries. Thanks to these floursing activities, the city was expanding, with neighborhoods full of new homes and wide, dusty boulevards. This city was almost razed to the ground in the attack of November 2004. According to official Iraqi government sources, 36,955 houses were hit, 3,600 demolished, 2,000 burned, 21,000 occupied. As for the stores and business: 1,800 were completely destroyed, 8,400 were damaged, 250 factories were burned. In addition to these damages, according to Doctor Hafid al Dulaimi, head of the Commission for Compensation of Falluja Citizens, 60 daycare centers and schools were hit and 65 mosques and religious sites were damaged. As if this were not enough, the bombing created environmental problems: among other effects, the city's drinking water was contaminated by sewage. Damages calculated by another member of the commission amount to $600 million but then premier Iyad Allawi recognized only 20 percent, and as of June of last year [2005], had only allocated funds to cover 10 percent. According to Mohammed Hadeed, a Falluja doctor, at least 31,000 city residents are still waiting to be compensated.

Slaughter in November 2004, 2 years and one month later and still residents live in encampments (think tents -- think of it as tent city). 'Democracy' at the end of a gun barrel or 'liberation' via a bomb. Dexy's rah-rah reporting shouldn't have won an award not just because it was laughable and had no relation to reality, but also because it missed capturing this moment for what it was, the end of all hopes for winning hearts and minds. The innocents shot at check points, the nightime house raids, all the daily humiliations would continue to feed into the anger of the slaughter of Falluja.

A similar plan was intended for Ramadi in Al-Anbar province this summer but the so-called crackdown in the capital necessitated pulling US forces in June and after. Which is why the escalation promises more troops not only in Baghdad but also in Ramadi -- what can't be 'won' will be destroyed and that's the reality of the illegal war.

On that point, we'll note David S. Cloud and Jeff Zeleny's "Bush Considers Up to 20,000 More Troops for Iraq:"

The Bush administration is considering an increase in troop levels in Iraq of 17,000 to 20,000, which would be accomplished in part by delaying the departure of two Marine regiments now deployed in Anbar Province, Pentagon officials said Thursday.
The option was among those discussed in Crawford, Tex., on Thursday as President Bush met there with his national security team, and it has emerged as a likely course as he considers a strategy shift in Iraq, the officials said.
Most of the additional troops would probably be employed in and around Baghdad, the officials said.
With the continuing high levels of violence there, senior officials increasingly say additional American forces will be needed as soon as possible to clear neighborhoods and to conduct other combat operations to regain control of the capital, rather than primarily to train Iraqi forces.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.






Thursday, December 28, 2006

And the war drags on . . .

The Committee to Protect Journalists recently released its 2006 report on threats to journalists. Iraq is by far the deadliest place for the fourth year in a row, with 32 journalists killed this year. Sad to say, the violence follows a trend that started with the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
When you step off the elevator at the Reuters news offices in Washington, D.C., you see a large book sitting on a wooden stand. Each entry describes a Reuters journalist killed in the line of duty. Such as Taras Protsyuk. The veteran Ukrainian cameraman was killed on April 8, 2003, the day before the U.S. seized Baghdad. Protsyuk was on the balcony of the Palestine Hotel when a U.S. tank positioned itself on the al-Jumhuriyah bridge and, as people watched in horror, unleashed a round into the side of the building. The hotel was known for housing hundreds of unembedded reporters. Protsyuk was killed instantly. Jose Couso, a cameraman for the Spanish network Telecinco, was filming from the balcony below. He was also killed.
The difference between the responses by the mainstream media in the United States versus Europe was stunning. While in this country there was hardly a peep of protest, Spanish journalists engaged in a one-day strike. From the elite journalists down to the technicians, they laid down their cables, cameras and pens. They refused to record the words of then-Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who joined British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush in supporting the war. When Aznar came into parliament, they piled their equipment at the front of the room and turned their backs on him. Photographers refused to take his picture and instead held up a photo of their slain colleague. At a news conference in Madrid with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Spanish reporters walked out in protest. Later, hundreds of journalists, camera people and technicians marched on the U.S. embassy in Madrid, chanting "Murderer, murderer."
About four hours before the U.S. military opened fire on the Palestine Hotel, a U.S. warplane strafed Al-Jazeera's Baghdad office. Reporter Tareq Ayyoub was on the roof. He died almost instantly.
When interviewed after his death, Ayyoub's wife, Dima, said: "Hate breeds hate. The United States said they were doing this to rout out terrorism. Who is engaged in terrorism now?" This summer, she sued the U.S. government.
The family of Jose Couso has also taken action. They know the names of the three U.S. servicemen who fired on the Palestine Hotel. On Dec. 5, 2006, the Spanish Supreme Court said the men could be tried in Spanish courts, opening the possibility for indictments against the U.S. soldiers.


The above, noted by Lonnie, is from Amy Goodman's "Shooting the Messenger is a War Crime" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). For those wanting more on the subject, you can read Amy Goodman and her brother David Goodman's Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, And The People Who Fight Back and you can also check out the documentaries The Control Room and Danny Schechter's WMD. All sides suffering in the illegal war includes the unembedded journalists trying to get the truth out -- too often prevented by the US military (putting it mildly) while some outlets choose to embed their reporters with the military. And the outcry? Muted, tapped down, clamped down. Always, don't speak the truth too loudly.

And certainly don't note the changing reasons for going into an illegal war or the changing reasons for staying in one. On that topic, Susan notes Gareth Porter's "Bush Iraq Policy Murky on the Real Enemy" (IPS):

This year saw the emergence of a sectarian civil war in Iraq and much more open Sunni-Shiite conflict in the Middle East. Sunni regimes in the region expressed acute anxiety both about the possibility of the Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq spreading to their own countries and about the growth of Iranian influence.
In that setting, the most striking thing about the George W. Bush administration's policy in 2006 has been its inability to identify the primary enemy in Iraq.
Is it al Qaeda in Iraq? Bush often implies that they are the real enemy, suggesting that the U.S. must fight the enemy in Iraq so it doesn't have to fight them at home. Is it the armed Sunni resistance groups, who were the original target of a U.S. counterinsurgency war that is now an all but officially admitted failure?
Or is it the Mahdi army of Moqtada al Sadr, which has been implicated in large-scale killings of Sunnis in the Baghdad area and which is aligned with Iran in the conflict between Washington and Tehran?
And what about the Badr organisation, which is known to be responsible for mass kidnapping, torture and what many now call ethnic cleansing of Sunnis from predominantly Shiite neighbourhoods in Baghdad?
Is Iraq really about the global war on terror, the alleged threat from Iran, the danger emanating from sectarian war, or simply the administration's desire to claim success against the resistance to the occupation itself? The Bush administration has not been able to issue a clear policy statement on that question.
The original source of the administration's confusion over its primary enemy in Iraq was the decision to sell the counterinsurgency war in Iraq to the U.S. public in 2004-2005 as a struggle between a nascent democratic state and anti-democratic forces in the country.

There's never been a plan (other than dominance -- didn't work out too well, now did it) and the realities are there for anyone who wants to notice.

They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.

-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)

Last Thursday, the number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 2959. Tonight? 2991. Thirty-two. We should repeat that for the New York Times which hasn't given a damn about reporting the deaths this week (or last), thirty-two deaths since last Thursday. Nine away from the 3,000 mark. And for the month of December (still winding down)? 102. The second deadliest month of the year for US troops in Iraq, not that the New York Times bothers to report that. Four more deaths would tie it with the deadliest and leave the Times in a difficult position of explaining to observant readers, after the fact, how that ended up happening with practically no attention from the paper of record.

When you want to sell the war, you hide the deaths. Bully Boy did that, barred photographs of the coffins returning. Now the Times does something similar by erasing their coverage of the deaths. Can't sell escalation of troops as an 'answer' if you note the reality of the deaths. So the Times . . . just doesn't note reality.

You can find reality in Nolanda's highlight, Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily's "More Troops but Less Control in Iraq" (IPS):

More U.S. troops are expected to be deployed in Iraq in the New Year. Despite obvious rethinking, there is no decision on withdrawal of occupation forces.
The presence of troops may be raised just for their own protection. According to a Pentagon report, U.S. and Iraqi forces are facing close to 1,000 attacks a week now. U.S. forces comprise more than 90 percent of the "coalition of the willing" in Iraq.
According to the White House, 49 countries joined that coalition at the time of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. That number has shrunk to 32, after countries like Italy and Canada withdrew troops this year.
Britain is expected to withdraw its 7,500 troops next year, after pulling out 1,300 earlier this year.
Whatever the numbers, the vital question is whether U.S. troops will continue to do next year what they have been doing this year.
Under the increasing number of attacks and the escalating chaos, it has apparently become U.S. military policy to bulldoze or bomb houses whenever attacks are launched on their patrols. This is particularly the case in places like Fallujah, Samarra, Siniya, Ramadi and other Sunni dominated areas. Sectarian conflict has roared between Shias and Sunnis, who follow different beliefs within Islam.
This year has shown how the U.S. military is dealing with sectarian violence. While it carried out collective punishment in cities like Fallujah and Ramadi, it has ignored Shia death squads. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki leads a Shia-dominated government.

And we'll close with Billie's highlight. In case anyone missed it (see the snapshot), Cindy Sheehan continues to call and be active for peace and was arrested for doing just that in Crawford, Texas today. A nation of, even just a state of, Cindy Sheehan's and the illegal war would be over. Here's Sheehan's "Banana Republics" (BuzzFlash):


One of the talking heads on one of the cable news shows (does it matter which?) said that it was a "great thing for America" that Gerald Ford pardoned the crooked war criminal, Richard Nixon. He said that we don't make public spectacles out of trying our presidents in criminal courts. After all, we are not a "banana republic."
No, the United States of America is not a "banana republic" Mr. Talking Head, but since Nixon got away with his blatant crimes and every President since Nixon has skated away from office after having committed overt and covert crimes, we have on our hands, here, a situation that I am forced now to call: "Bloody George."
Bloody George struts around in a cloud of denial with his fake cowboy swagger, breaking our nation's laws and international laws as if he were immune from life's woes and above any law. What Mr. Talking Head was pointing out to us in his ridiculous commentary was that presidents are above the law that they swear to uphold. Presidents of other countries who are found guilty of murdering 148 people are not apparently above the law -- Bloody George plays banana republic justice in other countries while countenancing none of the same here in the U.S. of A.
Bloody George definitely has a valid reason for believing that he is above the law, because no president in our history has had to pay for any crimes that they have committed. Wars keep occurring because the ones who entangle our citizens in these bloodbaths for profit leave their office and go on to lead comfortably splendid lives surrounded by people who love them.
Tens of thousands of young people who had plans for their futures and loving families who wanted them around until they were 93 (at least) were sentenced to early graves by politicians who receive no sentences for their earthy transgressions. We who have had to bury our children, instead of them burying us in the natural way, will be doing penance for the rest of our lives in a purgatory of pain and regret for the sins of others. How can we prevent such profound grief in the future?
The 110th Congress which will be sworn in shortly has a unique opportunity to reverse this cycle of un-repented and un-punished violence. Bloody George and Dastardly Dick not only deserve to be impeached, removed from office and tried for their malevolent crimes against humanity, but these steps in the sane direction of justice and peace are essential to true justice and true peace.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

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and the war drags on






Iraq snapshot

Thursday, December 28, 2006. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq with 41 corpses discovered just in the capital, Bully Boy continues to string along the world as he hints at a 'new' 'plan,' the 3,000 mark for US troops killed in Iraq hovers ever closer, Cindy Sheehan continues speaking out and is arrested in Crawford, Texas, and US war resister Ricky Clousing speaks about his decision to stand up against the war and the 73 days he spent in military prison.

Starting with peace news. "I feel like I chose the path that was meant for me." That's Ricky Clousing speaking to Steve Maynard (Washington's The News Tribune) about his decision to say no to the illegal war. Maynard interviewed Clousing in his mother and step-father's home in Washington and the 73 days he spent in a military brig after his court-martial, his plans for the future (long range, college -- "I've always wanted to be a teacher") and his decision to say "no" to the illegal war: "I don't regret my decision to go AWOL in any way. I served my country better by saying 'no' to being in uniform."

Reflecting on the year, Mark Schneider (The Palestine Chronicle) finds reasons for hope in a number of things including war resisters like Clousing:

Closer to home, cheers of love out to the thousands of U.S. soldiers who have gone AWOL instead of violating their conscience to involve themselves in the U.S. genocide of Iraq. Many have rightly fled to Canada, some have faced court-martial and years in prison in the U.S. The first officer to refuse orders is Lt. Ehren Watada, whose mom, Carolyn Ho, this month has been on a speaking tour talking about parents have a duty to prevent their children from participating in illegal wars.
For years I've had this dream of getting hundreds of U.S. moms and dads taking flights into Amman and Baghdad and then dramatically going to find and retrieve (yanking them by their ears?) their soldier-children. What shame that would bring the U.S.! Cindy Sheehan and Fernando Suarez del Solar are vestiges of such a drama.
During a speech at the August, 2006 Veterans for Peace convention in Seattle, Watada cracked emotion stating, "to stop an illegal and unjust war, soldiers can choose to stop fighting it."
The most powerful element of the anti-war movement against U.S. genocide in Vietnam were the returning Vets, resisters and deserters who used their privileged positions to take radical positions and action. Though I have a separate post with a quick run-down of the best movies I saw this year, this is a good segue to
Sir No Sir, a new film documentary (that has been released for rental), about those Vietnam Vets who resisted. In their promotional material, the filmmakers, thank them, have made the obvious links between then and now go to their website and click on the "Punk Ass Crusade" link).
This film will leave you teared up and inspired.


And, if you're in the Phoenix area, you can see Sir! No Sir! this Saturday. Mike Millard (The Phoenix News) reports that David Zeiger's documentary will be shown at the First Annual Peace on Earth Event in Jamaica Plain at 6:00 pm (85 Seaverns St.) and will be followed by a discussion with Halsey Bernard who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and Joe Bangert who served in Vietnam. The event is co-sponsored by Military Families Speak Out and People United for Peace with a two dollar admission fee.

Meanwhile, David Swanson (AfterDowningStreet) reports that the US military continues to attempt to force reporters to be witnesses for the prosecution in the January 4th pre-trial hearing of US war resister Ehren Watada (to be followed by his Feb. 5th court-martial) and quotes independent journalists Sarah Olson ("It's my job to report the news, not to participate in a government prosecution. Testifying against my source would turn the press into an investigative tool of the government and chill dissenting voices in the United States.") and Dahr Jamail ("I don't believe that reporters should be put in the position of having to participate in a prosecution. This is particularly poignant in this case, where journalists would be used to build a case against free speech for military personnel.").

Clousing and Watada are part of a movement of resistance within the military that includes Kyle Snyder, Darrell Anderson, Mark Wilkerson, Agustin Aguayo, Joshua Key, Ivan Brobeck, Camilo Meija, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Patrick Hart, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight 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, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Appeal for Redress is collecting signatures of active duty service members calling on Congress to bring the troops home -- the petition will be delivered to Congress next month.

War resistance and the peace movement are the only things that will end the illegal war. This morning, the US military announced: "An improvised explosive device detonated near a dismounted Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol, killing two Soldiers southwest of the Iraqi capital Dec. 27. " And the US military announced: "An improvised explosive device detonated near a Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol, killing one Soldier in an eastern section of the Iraqi capital Dec. 27." Since then, the US military has announced: "One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 was killed in action while conducting combat operations in the Al Anbar Province December 27." And they have announced: "An improvised explosive device detonated near a dismounted Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol, killing one Soldier north of the Iraqi capital Dec. 28." The total number of US military deaths in Iraq for the month of December thus far now stands at 102 -- only four less than the month with the highest count this year (October, with 106). The death brings the total number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war to 2991 -- nine short of 3,000. [AFP notes: "medical advances mean the number is a lot lower than would have been expected." Which also means a rise in the number of seriously injured.]

Carey Gillam (Reuters) reports that "some 140 demonstrations in 37 states are planned to mark the 3,000th U.S. military death in Iraq, a milestone that is likely only days away" and quotes Military Families Speak Out's Nancy Lessin: "This horrific and tragic milestone allows us to remind this country of the daily unending human toll of a war that didn't have to happen."
As the 3,000 mark edges ever closer, Bully Boy continues to contemplate escalation as a 'new' 'plan' to 'win' the unwinnable war and says he is making "good progress" (he grades on a curve).
CNN reports that Cindy Sheehan has once again stood up to the Bully Boy and his war machine and been arrested in Crawford, Texas (along with four other activists) for doing so. On the possible escalation, AP reports: "Many of the American soldiers trying to quell sectarian killings in Baghdad don't appear to be looking for reinforcements. They say a surge in troop levels some people are calling for is a bad idea."

Bombings?

CNN reports two people dead and 19 wounded from a car bomb in Mosul that apparently targeted "an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Mosul". The Canadian Press reports
a bombing in Baghdad this morning using two bombs ("opposite a park in the South Gate area") that claimed 9 lives and left 43 more wounded, 12 more killed and 26 wounded by a bombing "near al-Sha'ab stadium in Eastern Baghdad" and a bombing in western Baghdad that killed two people and left four more wounded. Meanwhile Reuters notes a roadside bomb in Hawija that left 3 police officers wounded.

Shootings?

Reuters reports one police officer shot dead in Kirkuk and another wounded, two Iraqi soldiers shot dead in Tikrit and another wounded and a police officer shot dead in Baquba with two more wounded.

Corpses?

Reuters notes 49 corpses discovered in Baghdad and three in Mosul.

On Cindy Sheehan's arrest, AP notes that she and four others "lay or sat" on a road near Bully Boy's ranchette in Crawford, TX for 20 minutes before they were arrested and that they were part of a "peace surge" to refute Bully Boy's talk of an escalation in the number of US troops in Iraq. (The 3,5000 who will go to Kuwait in January will be used as a reserve to deploy as needed.) Waco's KWTX reports: " The five were taken to the Crawford Police Department and a van was dispatched to transport them to the McLennan County Jail. They were charged with obstructing a highway or other passageway, which is a Class B misdemeanor. The protesters told a News Ten crew as they were led into the police department they didn’t know why they had been taken into custody. In the video KWTX posts, Cindy Sheehan states, "They should have arrested George Bush, not us."


ricky clousing
ehren watada