Thursday, April 12, 2007

And the war drags on . . .

I met the aunt of number 3291 today. I was sitting in seat 11E and a flight attendant gave me a note from a woman in seat 33C: "My nephew was killed in Iraq yesterday. I would like to meet you."
Seat belt light or not, I headed back toward the rear of the airplane. We held each other and she said: "What can I do? My brother was in the Army and he initially supported the effort. Yesterday, he made a sign with a picture of his son saying: ‘Murdered by George Bush.'" I prayed for the Universe to give the families strength yesterday as I do every day our soldiers are killed, as I pray for the Iraqis and their families who are also murdered unnecessarily. I don't often get to meet the people I pray for in such a timely manner.
Four of our brave and abused troops were killed in King George's escalation of the conflict in Iraq. Ten over the Easter weekend while George was hiding out at his ranch in Crawford. George Bush and his bloody gang of war-bandits have caused so much pain and heartache in the world without so much as a blink of the eye. Number 3291's aunt recounted how she heard her sister "screaming for her son" on the other end of the phone. Number 3291's family is just beginning to realize the true meaning of broken heart and betrayals.
Number 3291 has a name: Brian. The only thing I know for sure about Brian was that he was in the army, he was probably blown up by an IED (which could have been avoided with an IED detector in his vehicle), and he has a loving aunt named Sheryl. His family lives in North Carolina and that's where his body will be returning to under the cover of darkness to hide the shame of the Bush Regime.
Brian will never be a number to his family or friends. To the few people in this country who still incredibly support this horror and this war, Brian's sacrifice will be noted as "freedom isn't free," or "he volunteered." To the anti-war movement, Brian will be commemorated in a candlelight vigil when the 4,000th troop is killed in Iraq. To the man sitting next to me in seat 11D, Brian is a non-entity because he: has no opinion on the occupation one way or the other because he has no "time to worry about it." Trust me though, that's all Brian's mom did for the entire time he was in Iraq and there are 160,000 moms who lie awake at night worried about their children and Iraqi moms who never know when the last "I love you" is the last one forever.

The above, noted by Billie, is from Cindy Sheehan's "Number 3291" (BuzzFlash). Sheehan knows what's at stake, obviously, she lost her son Casey in Bully Boy's illegal war. So it's not just a death when she hears one announced (the US military has announced today, read further down). She knows it's ripping apart a family, a circle of friends, it's ending a life that should have had many, many days left. And why? Because Bully Boy wanted war. He wanted an illegal war. He lied and he got away with it. (So far.) And today, it drags on, and some people still think it's about 'freedom' or 'democracy' though most have caught on.

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, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 3266. Tonight? ICCC reports 3296 with 49 for the month thus far. That's thirty in seven days.
That's the only escalation Bully Boy has delivered, an escalation in the death toll. Of course that includes Iraqis. Bully Boy is an equal opportunity death merchant.

Editor & Publisher notes a poll by the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg News which found "48% to 43% this group says the president should sign the funding bill which includes a timetable for withdrawal, rather than veto it, as he has promised to do. Then asked if congress should stick to its guns if Bush vetoes the bill, and continue to deny funds unless withdrawal is accepted, 45% support this idea, while 43% back the president." Remember those results, we'll come back to them shortly.

Today (in the US, Friday in Iraq) the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier died April 12 due to a non-battle related cause." And they announced: "An MND-B Soldier died when a patrol was attacked with small arms fire north of the Iraqi capital. The unit was conducting a security patrol when the attack occurred."

The poll (noted above) shows that American people want US troops home. Bully Boy doesn't. And he offers one excuse after another for why his illegal war must continue. Pulling the truth from behind the myth, Robert Parry's "Iraq & the Logic of Timetables" (Consortium News):

It has become a standard part of George W. Bush's litany for why he will veto a congressional plan for setting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. combat forces from Iraq: "Why would you say to the enemy, 'Here's a timetable. Just go ahead and wait us out?'"
Well, there's a logical answer to Bush’s rhetorical question. If a timetable encourages Iraqi insurgents to silence their guns and to stop planting roadside bombs -- even temporarily to wait the Americans out -- Iraq might get the breathing space it needs to begin healing its sectarian divisions.
Indeed, one could argue that Bush’s "surge" plan and Bush's fear about letting the enemy "wait us out" offer essentially the same opportunity: to achieve enough peace and quiet in the short term for reconciliation and reconstruction to begin.
But a withdrawal timetable has additional advantages. First, it has the chance of bringing relative peace to the entire country as insurgents pull back anticipating a total American military withdrawal, while the "surge" seeks greater security only for Baghdad.
One of the criticisms of the "surge" is that it amounts to a version of "Whack-a-Mole," with insurgents disappearing for a while only to pop up in another location vacated by U.S. troops. The "surge" rationale, however, is that even a temporary sense of security in the capital might give the Iraqi government a chance to restore calm.
Another plus for a withdrawal timetable is that it would assure Iraqis that the U.S. military presence will not be open-ended, thus undercutting one of the strongest arguments of the insurgency, that it is a national resistance fighting a foreign occupation.
A date certain for American withdrawal also would put non-Iraqi al-Qaeda operatives -- who number only an estimated five percent of the armed insurgency -- in a tighter fix. Without the United States to point to, al-Qaeda would find it tougher to recruit jihadists and would likely face military pressure from Iraqi nationalists fed up with foreign interference.

Carl noted Robert Parry's article. Now Parry's done what few will in the mainstream, he's taken the claims and examined them as opposed to the "said" and "said" structure. Use that to think about something, the poll results above. Though gas bags treat the Dem's measures (we'll get to the measures) as something unreasonable, the people still support it. Imagine, if the concept of withdrawal were really discussed in the mainstream media -- imagine how high the call for withdrawal would be?

The measures? Kara notes Mike Glover's "Kucinich sees 'fake debate' over Iraq war" (AP via AfterDowningStreet.org):

Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio criticized fellow Democratic presidential candidates on Thursday for waging a "fake debate" over the war in Iraq, saying they are masking their support for the war.
"You cannot claim you are for peace and vote to fund the war," Kucinich said told The Associated Press. "It's totally contradictory."
The Cleveland Democrat was at the Iowa Statehouse where he met with House and Senate Democrats. He conceded his long-shot status but said public anger about the war in Iraq could work to his advantage.
"I'm certainly a long shot in this race and I understand that," he said. "I'm in a singular position. All these other Democrats have voted to keep the war going."
Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina are considered the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination, but all have voted at one time or another to continue the war, said Kucinich, scheduled to speak at a meeting of the Iowa State Education Association in Ames later in the day.
Kucinich said Democrats are missing the point of the last election, where they grabbed control of both chambers of Congress.
"The Democrats were elected to end the war," Kucinich said.
While the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination are seeking to draw distinctions over the war, he said none of them have taken steps to end it.
"We've got a fake debate going on inside the Democratic Party right now on the war," Kucinich said. "People are saying they are for peace and they are voting to keep the war going."

Dennis Kucinich is correct. The measures give phoney timetables and benchmarks that Bully Boy can waive because if he waives them (which he would if the bill passed), Dems can scream, "Look what he did!" and try to ride that into office in 2008. They're trying to cobble together a winning strategy for 2008 -- at the expense of everyone in Iraq and in complete opposition to the mandate they were voted in on.

Remember the poll? Imagine the disgust level with Congress right now if the measures were accurately covered. Imagine the demands coming from the people right now. Polls reflect attitudes and they're based on the information people are provided with. In many ways, a poll is nothing but a test of information the press has "taught."

Last highlight goes to Steven. Noting how the circle repeats, he highlights Seigrfreid L. Sasson's
"I Believe the War is Being Deliberately Prolonged by Those Who Have the Power to End It" (CounterPunch):

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.
I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow-soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.
I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust.

That's from a statement made in . . . 1917. CounterPunch notes: "Siegfried Sassoon, one of the the greatest poets of the First World War era, died in 1967. His war poems are collected in The War Poems and his vivid diaries of the war have been published as Memoirs of an Infantry Officer."





and the war drags on

Posted by at

Iraq snapshot

Thursday, April 12, 2007.  Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, war resisters continue standing even when little jerks attack, the puppet pushes the privatization of Iraq's oil, and Kurt Vonnegut is dead.
 
 
Starting with war resisters, it must have been a full moon.  You had the overgrown "girl" going after war resisters and then you got Little Priss (at the most laughable student newspaper of any college in the US) doing the same.  It takes a special kind of voice to 'sing' so passionately about the tough life when Daddy's a big league coach but we're not supposed to talk about that, I'm guessing.  Just like we're all supposed to pretend Junior's slug line is in anyway authentic (Little Boys from Suburbia have nasty cases of Big City Envy that force them to lie -- something that was frowned upon in the private, religious school they attended to avoid mixing with other races).    Maybe Little Priss can join the overgrown "girl" and assist her in basket-weaving her home-made maxi-pads.   What has them up in arms?  A nasty case of toxic shock syndrome?
 
No, a hatred of war resisters such as Camilo Mejia whose new book, Road from Ar Ramaid: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia, will be published by The New Press next month (May 1st).  Kirkus Reviews found it, "Timely, courageous and cautionary."  Mejia, as noted in Amy Goodman and David Goodman's Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders and the People Who Fight Back, served six months in Iraq and, after returning to the US, applied for c.o. status and self-checked out of the military.  Mejia was convicted of desertion and sentenced to a year at Fort Still.  Upon release, Mejia declared, "Peace does not come easily, so I tell all members of the military that whenever faced with an order, and everything in their mind and soul, and each and every cell in their bodies scream at them to refuse and resist, then by God do so.  Jail will mean nothing when brekaing the law became their duty to humanity."  Another quote Camilo Mejia is known for, noted by Eric Ruder (Socialist Worker), is "Behind these bars, I sit a free man because I listened to a higher power, the voice of my conscience."
 
Mejia's book follows Joshua Key's successful  The Deserter's Tale and joins other books exploring the resistance in the military today including Peter Laufer's  Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq.  Mejia is also featured in the documentary To Disobey.
As Monica Benderman, wife of Iraq war resister Kevin Benderman, has noted, there has been little on resistance in many bookstores.  Monica and Kevin Benderman intend to do their part to change that by writing their own book.
 
Mejia and Benderman are a part of a movement resistance within the military that also includes Ehren Watada, Dean Walcott, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson,  Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Joshua Key, Ricky Clousing, Mark Wilkerson, Agustin Aguayo, Camilo Mejia,  Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake 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.
 
 
In Iraq today the violence continued.  So badly that US Secretary of State Condi Rice felt the need to issue a laughable statement:  "We know that there is a security problem in Baghdad."  "We know"?  Speaking for the rest of the world, "we hope so."  We hope you know there is a problem in Baghdad.  Still, it is an improvement over her usual "no one could have guessed" statements.
 
The most shocking incident of violence today for the US administration may have been the bombing inside the Green Zone.  NPR's Tom Bullock notes that the explosion took place "inside the Iraqi parliament building" in the heavily fortified section of Baghdad known as the Green Zone and that it was "a major security breach."  BBC offers that the cafeteria where the bombing took place "is for MPs and their staff, some of whom were having lunch there."
AFP, noting that the Green Zone is "the country's most heavily guarded site," observes that the bombing took place "despite a massive US-Iraqi security crackdown".  Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) notes that the bombing was caputed by "news video camera" revealing "the blast: a flash and an orange ball of fire causing a startled parliament member who was being interviewed to duck, and then the smoky, dust-filled aftermath of confusion and shouting."  The news team was from Al-Hurrah, the US based and US tax funded propoganda outlet. Abdul-Zahra also notes that two legs, apparently belonging to the person who detonated the bomb, can be seen on the videotape. There is dispute as to whether a person carried the bomb in and it exploded on his/her person or whether the bomb was planted somewhere in the cafeteria.  Dean Yates and Ross Colvin (Reuters) sketch out the basic procedures of entry: "the confrence centre is restricted to accredited parliamentary staff, deputies, security guards and journalists.  Only MPs, police and kitchen staff can access the cafeteria.  Two Shi'ite lawmakers said the metal detector used at the VIP entrance was working, but a Sunni legislator said when he arrived there was a power cut and bags were being manually searched.  A Reuters cameraman said the scanner at a second entrance used by staff and journalists was operating."  Those steps are to access the cafeteria.  AFP notes gaining entry to the Green Zone "is restricted to visitors carrying picture identity cards and required to pass through multiple checkpoints and metal detectors."
 
James Hider (Times of London) explains the bombing, in "practical terms," means "the incident also whosed that the bombers can get straight into the heart of what was meant to be the most protected place in Baghdad.  Therefore, in effect, it serves to send out the message that nobody is safe and that the insurgents can get suicide bombers in anywhere.  The reality is that, despite its reputation as a heavily fortified and protected area, the Green Zone isn't actually that impenetrable.  Within the zone itself live 15,000 Iraqis who go in and out every day."  CNN states that 14 MPs were wounded (reported number is currently as high as 20).  AP notes three members of parliament dead -- Taha al-Liheibi (Sunni), Mohammed Awad (Sunni) and Niamah al-Mayahi (Shi'ite) -- and that they are part of the total eight reported dead.  Martin Seemungal (CBS News) spoke with a parlimentarian in the cafeteria who stated that 6 MPs may have been killed in the bombing.
 
The Green Zone is where Iraq's puppet government offices are, where the stadium-size US embassy is, where many journalists are.  As a result, that bombing has cast a lengthy shadow over an earlier one today.  BBC reports that a truck bomb took out the Sarafiya bridge in Baghdad during rush hour traffic and that it "sent several cars toppling into the River Tigris below."  CBS and AP report: "Cement pilings that support the bridge's stell structure were left crumbling.  At the base of one laid a charred vehicle enigne, believed to be that of the truck bomb."  CNN notes 10 dead, 26 wounded and that "two large sections in the middle of al-Sarafiya bridge collapsed into the river."  AFP reports that "River police raced to the scene on patrol boats and divers donned oxygen cylinders to search the murky waters for survivors after officials said four cars tumbled off the bridge."   Reuters reminds that, "The Tigris River cuts Baghdad in half and the Sarafiya bridge is a key artery in the northern part of the city."
 
James Hider (Times of London) offers his opinion of the message sent with the bridge bombing, "the attack on the al-Sarafiya bridge is also believed to be extremely symoblic.  The east of Baghdad is mainly Shia while the west is mainly Sunni, and the Parliamentary speaker today said that the insurgents are conspiring to divide Baghdad in two.  The particular bombing -- destorying one of the main access points uniting the city -- illustrates this well.  . . .  There are, of course, other ways to get across the city apart from this particular bridge.  But the fewer there are, the greater the chance of those who use them getting caught up in the bombing."  BBC News' Jim Muir observes that both "attacks are major blows to the much-trumpeted security surge now in its third month".
 
The puppet of the occupation, Nouri al-Maliki,  is in Seol and, from miles away, issued a statement on the bombings.  It was apparently more important that he be present in South Korea for the big push that Iraq will raise producting of oil to 3 million barrels per day. In doing so, he was also selling the privatization of Iraq's oil (something the US Congress is on board with).  Reuters notes: "The world's top oil comapnies have been maneuvering for years to win a stake in Iraq's prized oilfields such as Bin Umar, Majnoon, Nassiriyah, West Qurna and Ratawi, all located in the south of the country."   In Baghdad, however, it was all smilles as Hoshyar Zebari (Iraq's Minister of Foreign Affairs) met with Hassan Kazimi Qumi (Iran's ambassador to Iraq) where they discussed the upcoming meeting in Egypt and Iraq's help in obtaining the release of one Iranian diplomat.  Strangely, considering Little Willie's big press conference yesterday, bombings and weapons weren't a topic of the meeting.
 
As Norman Solomon (CounterPunch) observes, the US government has their eyes on Iran and US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are 100% all options for war (all repeating the "no option" off the table mantra).  Despite this, Solomon notes, WalkOn.org is pushing the myth that "Hillary Clinton has provided some much needed leadership on" the issue of war with Iran -- apparently Hillary cried, "To the barricades!"  Solomon concludes: "To praise Hillary Clinton for providing 'much needed leadership' on Iran -- and to mislead millions of e-mail recipients counted as MoveOn members in the process -- is a notable choice to make.  It speaks volumes.  It winks at Clinton's stance that 'no option can be taken off the table.'  It serves an enabling function.  It is very dangerous.  The stakes are much too high to make excuses or look the other way."
 
Meanwhile, in the ruins of Iraq, another anniversary passed yesterday but it wasn't as crowd pleasing as the staged take-down of a Saddam statue.   Haydar Baderqghan (Azzaman) reminds that it is four years of "the looting of  Iraq Museum," that the Ministry of Archaeology and Terrorism issued a statement condeming "the barbarism of wars and their destructive outcome," and that only 4,000 of the 15,000 stolen artifacts have been recovered (four years later).
 
In other violence today . . .
 
Bombings?
 
Reuters reports 2 roadside bombing in Kirkuk killed 6 and injured 21, a Baghdad mortar attack that left one person dead and one wounded.
 
Hussein (McClatchy Newspapers)  notes a Baquba bombing that killed 4 police officers and injured two more and another Baquba bombing that wounded two people;
 
Shootings?
 
Hussein (McClatchy Newspapers) reports one person shot dead in south Baghdad and another shot and injured and one person shot dead in east Baghdad.  Reuters reports a police officer "guarding civil servants on a bush" in Mosul was shot dead.
 
Corpses?
 
Hussein (McClatchy Newspapers) offers a breakdown of the areas of Baghdad that 12 corpses were discovered in today.
 
Finally, in the United States, a passing deserves noting, from Democracy Now!:
 
 
And finally, the author Kurt Vonnegut has died. He was eighty-four years old. Vonnegut authored at least nineteen novels including "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle." In recent years, Vonnegut was a fierce critic of the Bush administration and a columnist for the magazine In These Times.
 
Transcript, audio and video of Vonnegut can be found here at Democracy Now!
 
 

Get your own web address.
Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business.
Posted by at

Other Items



Sinking in polls and struggling to reinvigorate his foundering presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered a robust defense of the war in Iraq on Wednesday, declaring that President Bush and the conflict's supporters are on the right side of history in the struggle against terrorism and extremism.
Dismissing public opinion polls as offering nothing but "temporary favor" to the war's opponents, McCain directly confronted the biggest obstacle to his White House ambitions: his unyielding support of a war that more than two-thirds of the country has turned against.


The above, noted by Lloyd, is from Michael D. Shear's "McCain Calls War 'Necessary and Just'" (Washington Post). Senator Crazy Ass also attempted to put forward that US forces should have remained in Vietnam where, no doubt, they'd still be fighting today:

"I understand the frustration caused by our mistakes in this war. I sympathize with the fatigue of the American people," he told cadets at the Virginia Military Institute. "But I also know the toll a lost war takes on an army and a country. It is the right road. It is necessary and just."



The toll a lost war takes? Today Vietnam is rebuilding. It was not a threat to the US, nor was it ever. Not a threat, nor was it ever? Sound familiar?


Front page of the New York Times offers David S. Cloud's "U.S. Is Extending Tours Or Army In Battle Zones" which is about extending tours of duty to 15 months (an increase of three months) and Bobby Gates (Secretary of Defense) tries to sugar coat it by stating this will allow a year of downtime ("for those lucky enough to return" goes unstated).


David E. Sanger offers a "NEWS ANALYSIS" on A8 entitled "4 Years On, the Gap Between Iraq Policy and Practice Is Wide" which quotes Stephen J. Hadley (national security advisor) stating of the wish for a war czar, "We're trying to learn from our experience." Four years and counting of the illegal war and they're trying to learn from their experience. Bobby Gates is on board and argues that, though the position shouldn't be referred to with the term "czar," "this is what Steve Hadley would do if Steve Hadly had the time". Read that and Gates' comments about how the position would allow a person "to call a cabinet secretary and say 'The president would like to know why you haven't delivered what's been asked for yet'." The vacationing Bully Boy has ample time to vacation. But the job duties remain too much. Next up, a sitter for the Bully Boy to get him through cabinet meetings.


Okay, e-mails. Yes, there are some real idiots out there. We may deal with it at The Third Estate Sunday Review. But let's be really clear here, dumb ass women are dumb ass women. They exist in the world as easily as dumb ass men. They can play it like they're in it for whatever but the reality is a little Harold Ford Junior pushing, Iraq war loving, piece of trash can claim she's one of the "girls" from here until the day she's thankfully lowered into the ground. Won't change the fact that she's not a feminist and that the dopey site-lette she's part of isn't empowerment.


I was reading the e-mails and thinking, "How did that dopey site-lette even become an issue?"
Around the 30th or 40th e-mail someone finally mentioned where it was seen (I think that was Brenda's e-mail that mentioned it). We don't link to that site (nor to the site-lette). It's an embarrassment. A professional journalist shouldn't (as he did) brag about catering the news to political parties. It's not the journalists most embarrassing public moment but it honestly is the end of the career. We may address it at The Third Estate Sunday Review, we may not. But I logged into the private accounts this morning, saw the total of unread e-mails and wondered "What happened?" I think I've read a third of them this morning. The journalist is a journalist no more. (I know the journalist.) We don't link to that site. The dopey "girl" is a War Hawk and just because "Democrat" is next to her name doesn't change that.


I noted we wouldn't be linking to former journalist's site and why. It is an embarrassment -- even before he gives space to Lady War Hawk. We don't link. (Nor do we link to the site-lette. It's a long term joke. If that's not clear -- a site-lette that recommends books on embroidery and one entitled "Comfy Cloth Pads" isn't of any interest. Yes, the latter book is about maxi-pads. Ones you can wash out and reuse. Speaking only for myself, "Pass." But I do believe, for those interested, Lynne Cheney's book Sisters explains how to make your own.)


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



Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)