Thursday, April 23, 2009

I Hate The War

An angry visitor e-mails to demand a response to his e-mail that he has sent four times already (the same e-mail). When you do that, no one wants to read it and whomever comes across it just sends it into the trash can. I saw the one tonight where he's complaining about this being the fifth time he's made his point and asked his question.

His point is that I am distorting "General Raymond Odierno's words." It's General Ray Odierno. He declared he'd go by Ray when he was announced as top US commander in Iraq. As for distorting his words, I am accused of distorting what he said "on CBS News." That's what he said on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and the link has the video and the text. An excerpt was provided Saturday morning and in Monday's snapshot. I say Odierno says the US most likely will not be out of Mosul by the end of June. From Monday's snapshot:
Friday on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, Katie Couric spoke to the top US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno. She asked him about whether or not US forces would be out of all Iraqi cities by the end of June as the Status Of Forces Agreement 'mandates'. Odierno replied, "I believe we'll make that timeline in every city probably except for, probably, Mosul. There'll be a decision that will be made. We'll provide a joint assessment between Iraqis and the U.S. We'll provide that assessment to the Prime Minister Maliki who will make a final decision." That is consistent with his other comments on this topic. It is not, however, consistent with the pipe dreamers who honestly believe that the SOFA is somehow 'binding.'

I haven't distorted a thing. It's what he said and he said similar things to John King (CNN) and to Deborah Haynes (Times of London) and to many others. But the visitor insists, "Odierno is not saying any such thing! He KNOWS that the U.S. must be out and they will be out and that is what he has consistently said!!!!" In what alternate universe?

Note the following:

However, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno, told CNN on Wednesday that it's possible the Iraqi government may decide to allow boots on the ground in some urban areas past June.
Asked about the two volatile regions of Baquba and Mosul, north of Baghdad, Odierno said he believes troops will withdraw from Baquba, but noted that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will have to make a decision about Mosul, where al Qaeda in Iraq militants have been active.
"We'll see, you know, it's still two months away, so we'll have to see what progress we're able to make, but that will be a joint assessment between us and the Iraqis," Odierno said.



That's from Jomana Karadsheh and Cal Perry's "Bombings kill nearly 90 in Iraq" (CNN) and the 90 dead refers to the two big bombings in Iraq today (one in Baghdad, the other in Diyala Province). If you can't grasp what he's saying now, nothing anyone else is going to tell you will help you because your are intentionally refusing to hear what Odierno is repeatedly saying.

It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)

Last Thursday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4273. Tonight? 4276. That is one more than this afternoon's snapshot. Did M-NF make another announcement?

No.

They skipped it.

As repeatedly noted, M-NF is supposed to announce the death. The Department of Defense is supposed to provide the name of the dead. DoD should never be providing a name to a death that wasn't announced. M-NF even explained that (again) in their most recent announcement: "The names of the service members are announced through the U.S. Department of Defense Official Website at http://www.defenselink.mil/ . The announcements are made on the Web site no earlier than 24 hours after notification of the service member's primary next of kin. MND-B will not release any additional details prior to notification of next of kin and official release by the DoD."

And yet, somehow, they missed another one. DoD announced today: "The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Cpl. William C. Comstock, 21, of Van Buren, Ark., died April 22 as a result of a non-hostile incident in Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Supply Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 25, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
The incident is under investigation."

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