Tag: Iraq

A Story of Iraq, Katrina, and a Dismembered Girlfriend

Trish

I can’t get the report about the guy who dismembered his girlfriend in New Orleans and then committed suicide out of my head.

I am a hundred percent in the personal responsibility camp but it seems, even to me, like this story is evidence of the very bad karma George Bush has loosed upon our country

After Hurricane Katrina, Zackery Bowen and his girlfriend Adriane Hall appeared in news stories as examples of young people who had pressed on in the battered city despite evacuation orders and a lack of power and water.

Their story came to a disturbing end this week: Bowen leapt to his death from a hotel, leaving a note that led police to a French Quarter apartment where they found a woman’s charred head on the stove, limbs in the oven and torso in the refrigerator.

Yes, if it were a movie I would be hiding my eyes during this part, but the obvious details aren’t all that’ve been bothering me. I am a hundred percent in the personal responsibility camp but it seems, even to me, like this story is evidence of the very bad karma George Bush has loosed upon our country.

[Bowen] served in Kosovo and Iraq as a military policeman, earning several medals including the NATO medal and the Presidential Unit Citation, which is awarded to military units that have performed a heroic act in the face of an armed enemy.

After his discharge, Bowen returned to New Orleans, where he was hired at several bars because of his good looks, charming manners, and long blond hair…

A fellow bartender told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that after downing rounds of Miller High Life and Jameson’s Irish Whiskey, Bowen would grow depressed when talking about his military service, indicating that there was an overseas incident involving a child that haunted him.

New Orleans is the perfect backdrop in this horror screenplay. After all, the town with one of the richest histories in America was rendered a practically Biblical backwater after the Bush administration left its residents to die and its structures to crumble.

Alligators have been dragged from abandoned swimming pools. Foxes had to be removed from the airport. Coyotes are stalking rabbits and nutria…in city streets. And armadillos are undermining air conditioning units.

In the year since Hurricane Katrina drove out many of the people of New Orleans, wild animals have been moving in. Some were blown in by the winds or redistributed by the floodwaters. Others were drawn by the piles of rotting garbage and by the shelter afforded by all the abandoned homes and tall weeds.

Responsible for killing his girlfriend and himself: Bowen
Responsible for sending Bowen to Iraq and ruining his life: Bush
Responsible for ruining the formerly great American city where the murder-suicide took place: Bush
Ruin, ruin, and more ruin: Bush

Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way, and I’m sure Bush supporters will leave nasty comments deriding me for doing just that, but it seems to me that this story is one more indication that there are consequences for what Bush himself calls “evil doing.”

Karma is often misdefined by the My Name is Earl model of direct cause and effect. A more accurate definition is the very simple idea that whatever you create more of in the world is what you, and others, are more likely to encounter. It’s the law of mathematics.

While Katrina was still a fresh crisis, Republicans loved to say there was plenty of blame to go around, meaning none of the blame was theirs. I’m not for a second defending the acts committed by this ruined man in this ruined place. But sometimes a story is so bad that you have to really think about it. And on this one, I just keep ending up at the White House door.

Kevin Tillman Speaks

Trish

This one needs to be shouted from rooftops.

Kevin Tillman is the brother of Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who died in Afghanistan in what the military first termed as “killed in action” and later admitted was friendly fire. Both brothers enlisted in 2002, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Kevin has written an extraordinary essay that contains all the thoughts he and Pat knew they would have to keep to themselves while they served our country.

You need to read it in its entirety and then email it to everyone you know. You can do both at Truth Dig but here’s part of this incredible work.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

…Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.

…Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

…Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

…Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

…Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

GOP Falling Apart over Staying the Course in Iraq

Jon Ponder

So much for the GOP’s vaunted strict party discipline:

Even some of President Bush’s staunchest allies in solidly Republican states are publicly questioning the administration’s war policies, while others are scrambling to find new ways to talk about Iraq in the face of rising voter frustration over management of the war.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who earlier this year stood by Bush during some of the most damaging sectarian violence, this week said that Iraq was in “chaos” and that it was “worth trying” to partition the country into semiautonomous regions, a proposal that sharply diverged from White House policy.

In Washington state this week, the Republican candidate for the Senate called on Bush to replace Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, a position also taken by a Republican congressman from Connecticut and the party’s Senate candidate in New Jersey, Thomas H. Kean Jr.

Kean said this week that the Bush administration had made “horrendous mistakes” in Iraq.

In Minnesota and Iowa, congressmen in tough reelection battles have called for withdrawing troops. So, too, has the Republican candidate in the congressional district around Boulder, Colo.

And in Virginia and Tennessee, states that Bush won handily in 2004, Senate candidates have been put on the defensive over their earlier calls to “stay the course” in Iraq, a line Republicans once hoped would demonstrate resolve. Both candidates there are now saying the U.S. must change tactics in Iraq.

“We haven’t found one part of the country, even in the South, where it is good to say, ‘Stay the course,’ ” said Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group for GOP centrists. But Republicans “don’t want to do a major in-your-face with the president. They are trying to work around the issue in their districts.”

Wash Times: GOP Baker Commission’s ‘Plan B’ for Iraq Includes Coup to Install Dictator

Jon Ponder

Last spring, President Bush reluctantly appointed GOP uber-operative James Baker to chair a task force to come up with alternatives for extricating U.S. forces out of the quagmire in Iraq.

The commission has finished its work and its findings — which are collectively called “Plan P” — are ready to be released. Typically, however,the Bush Administration is keeping the Baker report secret until after the elections next month.

Someone has leaked the results to — of all places — the ultra-rightwing Washington Times. One of the three proposed strategies is radical in the extreme:

Coup in Baghdad: According to the scenario, the new U.S.-trained [Iraqi] army, along with elements of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist-led army, would stage a coup to oust the al-Maliki government and replace it with one led by a more effective figure — by most accounts Mr. [Iyad] Allawi.

Other solutions in Plan B include:

Partition: Under this plan, notably advocated by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat, Iraq would be divided into Sunni, Shi’ite and Kurdish regions, each enjoying a high degree of autonomy.

Phased withdrawal: Under this plan, U.S. troops would be gradually withdrawn over a period of months and a reserve force would be redeployed elsewhere in the region.

In a healthy democracy, our politicians would be debating these alternatives now as a part of the midterm campaigns. It is emblematic of the Bush presidency that Plan B is being kept secret now, and will only be revealed after voters have cast their votes.

Sgt. Merideth Howard, 52, Killed on Duty in Afghanistan

Jon Ponder

Not so long ago, the idea of putting women in the line of fire was controversial — even unthinkable to some. Now it’s all but routine:

On Sept. 8, 2006, Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Merideth Howard was killed while on duty in Afghanistan. She had been assigned to the 364th Civil Affairs Brigade which was tasked with rebuilding roads and water systems.

Sgt. Howard was killed when a car bomb exploded near a military Humvee in which she was riding. She was 52 years old, which makes her the oldest female casuality of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

When she traveled with her unit, Sgt. Howard manned an M-240 machine gun. Yet, the Army consistently tells the American public that women are only positioned in areas of safety, and not exposed to battle.

GOP Leaders Fail Pop Test on the Difference between Sunnis and Shiites

Jon Ponder
One take-away from the story of the schism between Shiites and Sunnis is that these are people who can hold a grudge of centuries. This would have been a factor to consider before we invaded and pissed them all off.

In August 2006, Peter Galbraith, the former ambassador to Croatia, revealed that in the run-up to invading Iraq President Bush did not know that Muslims in the region were split into two sects, Shiites and Sunnis, and that these two sects had been in conflict for over a thousand years.

Now that the president has led United States forces into the middle of an escalating civil war between the two sects, you might think his Republican cohorts in Congress would have a basic knowledge of the issues that divide the two sides. If so, you would be wrong:

Take Representative Terry Everett, a seven-term Alabama Republican who is vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence.

“Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” I asked him a few weeks ago.

Mr. Everett responded with a low chuckle. He thought for a moment: “One’s in one location, another’s in another location. No, to be honest with you, I don’t know. I thought it was differences in their religion, different families or something.”

To his credit, he asked me to explain the differences. I told him briefly about the schism that developed after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and how Iraq and Iran are majority Shiite nations while the rest of the Muslim world is mostly Sunni. “Now that you’ve explained it to me,” he replied, “what occurs to me is that it makes what we’re doing over there extremely difficult, not only in Iraq but that whole area.”

Representative Jo Ann Davis, a Virginia Republican who heads a House intelligence subcommittee charged with overseeing the C.I.A.’s performance in recruiting Islamic spies and analyzing information, was similarly dumbfounded when I asked her if she knew the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.

“Do I?” she asked me. A look of concentration came over her face. “You know, I should.” She took a stab at it: “It’s a difference in their fundamental religious beliefs. The Sunni are more radical than the Shia. Or vice versa. But I think it’s the Sunnis who’re more radical than the Shia.”

Did she know which branch Al Qaeda’s leaders follow?

“Al Qaeda is the one that’s most radical, so I think they’re Sunni,” she replied. “I may be wrong, but I think that’s right.”

Did she think that it was important, I asked, for members of Congress charged with oversight of the intelligence agencies, to know the answer to such questions, so they can cut through officials’ puffery when they came up to the Hill?

“Oh, I think it’s very important,” said Ms. Davis, “because Al Qaeda’s whole reason for being is based on their beliefs. And you’ve got to understand, and to know your enemy.”

The schism between Shiites and Sunnis started with a conflict over succession of leadership after Mohammed departed the planet around 700 C.E.:

Sunnis have their historical roots in the majority group who followed Abu Bakr, an effective leader, as Muhammad’s successor, instead of his cousin and son-in-law Ali. The Sunnis are so named because they believe themselves to follow the sunnah or “custom” of the Prophet. Shi’ites are those Muslims who followed Ali, the closest relative of Muhammad, as Muhammad’s successor.

One take-away from the story of the schism between Shiites and Sunnis is that these are people who can hold a grudge of centuries. This would have been a factor for the president and the Republicans to have considered before we invaded and pissed them all off.

Annual Army Association Convention Serves Up Some Real Insights

Buck Banks

Military intelligence — not your father’s oxymoron: How did I miss this convention? Sounds like a real good time was had by all, and if all the panels were as productive of outside-the-box thinking as the one on irregular warfare and counterinsurgency operations, then I could just kick myself. Here are some of the more insightful comments:

“I don’t see conventional challenges to be dominant for a long time,” said Conrad Crane, director of the U.S. Army Military History. “Our enemies are going to make us fight this kind of war until we get it right,” Crane said. “This is our future.”

‘Our enemies are going to make us fight this kind of war until we get it right.’

“This is revolutionary” — building democracies and helping them establish capitalist economies and open and public police forces and judicial systems, said Kalev Sepp, assistant professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey, Calif. “The mission is too broad to put on the shoulders of the military alone,” he said. “It has to be interagency.”

“We will not prevail with the force of arms alone,” Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, agreed.

“We are much closer to the beginning than the end of this long conflict,” he said, emphasizing the need for public support and financial backing to ensure the mission succeeds.

“Ultimately, victory requires a national strategic consensus, evident in both words and actions,” Schoomaker said. “While such a common strategic foundation, understood and accepted by the American people, existed during the Cold War, … it is not yet evident that such common understanding exists today.”

Study: Iraq War Dead Exceeds 600,000

Jon Ponder

Los Angeles Times:

More than 600,000 Iraqis have died violently since the U.S.-led invasion, according to a new estimate that is far higher than any other to date.

The report, by a team of researchers criticized for its death estimates two years ago, says that 601,027 Iraqis have suffered violent deaths since the March 2003 invasion. It also suggests that the country has become more violent in the last year.

“This clearly is a much higher number than many people have been thinking about,” said Gilbert Burnham, the report’s lead author and a professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. “It shows the violence has spread across the country.”

Iraq’s violent death rate rose from 3.2 deaths per 1,000 people in the year after the invasion to 12 per 1,000 from June 2005 to June 2006, according to the researchers, whose findings are being published this week in the British medical journal Lancet.

U.S. Military in Iraq Losing Faith in PM al-Maliki

Jon Ponder
Sec. Rice’s plane was forced to circle Baghdad for nearly an hour before landing because of a mortar attack near the airport.

Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer:

For weeks, unnamed U.S. commanders and officials in Baghdad have been telling journalists that they are losing faith in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. They say he is unable to check sectarian violence and foster national reconciliation. Even Rice warned that Maliki’s six-month-old government had reached “a critical time.” Her own plane was forced to circle Baghdad for nearly an hour before landing because of a mortar attack near the airport.

On my last trip to Iraq in June, it was already clear that the prospects for a Maliki government were far from rosy. Why should anyone be surprised?

Having lived under dictatorship, or in exile, for decades, Iraqi leaders have no experience in running a country. Maliki was a compromise choice, a man whose chief qualification was that he had served as an aide to the previous (and incompetent) Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and came from Jaafari’s Dawa Party. The choice was made by the majority coalition of Shiite parties, who fought among themselves for weeks over the pick.

Cabinet posts were doled out to the various sectarian parties according to the number of assembly seats they had won in elections. Many ministers are more loyal to their parties than to the Maliki central government, and operate independent fiefdoms. Maliki didn’t even appoint a cabinet secretary (the official responsible for coordinating ministries and cabinet meetings) until last month.

The interior minister, Jawad Bolani, was chosen because he had no close affiliation to any party. The hope was that such “independence” would enable Bolani to purge the ministry of sectarian death squads that have infiltrated the police and commando forces. But, lacking a political base, Bolani has proved too weak – with one recent exception – to control or clean out this crucial ministry.

It is difficult to see how Iraq’s government will get much better.