Friday, November 04, 2011

Another US service member dies in Iraq

The Associated Press reports that another US service member has died in Iraq with the military providing "no further details" other than that the death occurred yesterday. Imagine for a moment if the illusion of candidate Barack Obama had become President Barack Obama. The Iraq War might have ended in 16 months or less. Instead, it's dragged on and, in fact, it's ongoing beyond December 31st. And to the Tom Haydens of the country who rush to Barack's defense with a lot of spin and even more lies it should probably be noted that the occupied people are the onell make the pronouncement that the occupation ends.

Not a foreigner.

I know that's hard for the Cult of St. Barack because they've spent nearly three years now in blind worship of a government servant after eight years of non-stop attacks on the previous office holder -- attacks which apparently were nothing more than disagreements over personalities. (This is demonstrated by the strong desire to look the other way at every opportunity instead of calling Barack out when he does the exact same thing as Bully Boy Bush did -- or when he does even worse.)

It's not a surprise that Tom hayden who cheered the raining of bombs on the Palestinian people would yet again assume that an imperial power (the US, in this case) had the last and final (and only) say in determining for Iraqis what 'withdrawal' was and was not. It's that sort of Bwana behavior that has come to be the hallmark in the ever conservative life of Tom Hayden.

In other caught-with-their-pants-down news, Nouri's government doesn't like it when they're called out for failing to live up to their public promise of providing neighboring states (Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) with vast sums of money for the vast number of Iraqi refugees who sought sanctuary. Dar Addustour reports that Jordanian officials have been informed that the Ministry of Displacement and Migration is sending a delegation and a check this month that will provide for 4,000 Iraqi families in Jordan.

Wow. A delegation with a check. Your mind may be reeling. If so, take a breath. The check will give each of the 4,000 families . . . four dollars.

Please understand that embarrassing amount is per family, not per family member.

Some might suggest that the trip's not worth it, but how do you put a price tag on the hilarity that ensues from government cheapness?

In an apparently separate event than the one at the top, Aswat al-Iraq reports, "A US patrol was attacked by a bomb, but no casualties were reported, security sources said today."

At The Huffington Post, Robert Koehler offers a critique of the way the New York Times (Steven Lee Myers and Thom Shanker) covered the news that the US will keep troops in Kuwait:

And war could follow more than one trajectory. If there's a "security collapse" in Iraq, our troops in Kuwait could quickly redeploy to the country we've already destroyed. But those same troops could also respond to "a military confrontation with Iran."
Perhaps the most telling quote in the Times story was from Bahrain's foreign minister, Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa. With the United States out of Iraq, a regional alliance is necessary because, he said, "Now the game is different."
Yeah, well...
The only thing wrong with this comment is that this isn't a game: not our eight and a half years in Iraq, our decade in Afghanistan or our possible invasion of Iran. Innocent people have died and will continue to die in horrific numbers, toxins will spread, lives will be destroyed. The consequences cannot be contained. They are bleeding now and will continue to bleed into the future. But the Times story affects no awareness of this; it has the depth of a gamer review.




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