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'm will follow orders.
Nancy Lessin of Military Families Speak Out notes that more military wives on bases are joining MFSO. Urbina notes that falling support for the illegal war among the families of the US military and the trouble the army has had (two months in a row) meeting recruiting goals. Give Urbina strong credit for two things specifically. He mentions Iraq Veterans Against the War (rare for the Times which stood alone among the big papers in not covering Adam Kokesh, Liam Madden or Cloy Richards) and he mentions War Resisters Support Campaign (Michelle Robidoux says that "in recent months the group has received calls that included two Army sergeants and a Navy chief petty officer"). For those who've forgotten, in the overly praised article The Nation's so damn proud of, they couldn't contact War Resisters Support Campaign or mention a war resister in Canada. (Or use the term "war resister.") Granted, it's not difficult for anyone to top The Nation these days, but give Urbina credit for doing what "the leading weekly of the left" wouldn't. (Not couldn't, wouldn't.)
Richard A. Oppel Jr.'s "Iraq Chief Says His Forces Are Able to Secure Country" (A4) notes puppet Nouri al-Maliki's statement and notes that it's the first statement since the "assessment" was issued. (Jim Rutenberg notes problems with the "assessment" but didn't Nancy A. Youssef do that last week? Yes, she did. Rutenberg follows Times' tradition by including official statement -- and actually does a good job charting the shift ground under them.) Oppel informs that 21 corpses were discovered Saturday in Baghdad, he notes the deaths of 2 US service members, the Wednesday death (only announced yesterday) of a Reuters' translator (and he notes the Friday death of the Times' Khalid W. Hassan and that two Reuters journalists were killed Thursday). I'm not in the mood for the James Baker Circle Jerk. I'll read that article later today (after I've had some sleep). If there's anything you see of note, e-mail and we'll include it in "And the war drags on . . ." this evening/night.
The new content at The Third Estate Sunday Review:
Truest statement of the week
A Note to Our Readers
Editorial: They don't exist and no one's looking f...
TV: The Racial Bee
A do nothing week for Congress' do nothing Dems
The Other Censorship (done by The Nation)
Mailbag
Horse racing or Iraq? Which wins out at The Natio...
Story shared
See, that's NBC
Things to do, Things to follow closely
Highlights
So what else is going on today? Kat's review goes up after this. (Album cover needs to be inserted and the upload on Flickr is taking forever.) Isaiah goes up right after that. Ruth has a report. There were computer problems last night (when it was intended to go up) necessitating that we all upgrade our security yet again. It almost went up this morning; however, she's dealing with an issue that's had some developments. She can add that to it of I'll do a link in her report (which ever she prefers). It will post this evening.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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ian urbina
richard a. oppel jr.
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