Tag: Iraq

Casualities Spike in Iraq

Jon Ponder

Last throes, cont’d, cont’d…

The number of U.S troops wounded in Iraq has surged to its highest monthly level in nearly two years as American GIs fight block-by-block in Baghdad to try to check a spiral of sectarian violence that U.S. commanders warn could lead to civil war.

Last month, 776 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq, the highest number since the military assault to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November 2004, according to Defense Department data. It was the fourth-highest monthly total since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Iraq Is the Real Scandal

Jon Ponder
We’d be a far healthier democracy if [House Speaker Dennis] Hastert was under fire for allowing Iraq to sink into a gurgling pool of its own blood.

Buck’s post yesterday summed it up: Foley’s Not the Story. If you want a sign of the true decadence of American culture, it is this: A sex scandal of any dimension or flavor will get the media up in arms in a matter of hours, whereas the senseless wasting of blood and treasure in Iraq — a killing every hour and a cost of $2 billion a week — that goes on for years is treated like a dull abstraction that partisans bicker over endlessly.

As the 16-year-old page wrote about Rep. Mark Foley’s request for his photo, that is sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick!

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Tony Norman has the same thought:

It’s fitting that former Republican Congressman Mark Foley’s sex scandal will do in the 40 days before the election what years of reporting on Bush administration incompetence and corruption couldn’t — end one-party rule in America…

Republican rule wasn’t based on moral authority earned by good judgment and civic discipline. Judging by the legislation that comes out of D.C., there’s always more talk of virtue than evidence of its practice.

Still, it was a winning strategy while it lasted. For years, Republican candidates won elections by promising to keep taxes low, their pants on and their zippers locked in the “up” position.

Demonizing “liberal Democrats” also became part of the appalling Kabuki dance of self-righteousness that dominates American politics in the Bush era. For tactical reasons, even so-called Democratic “moderates” joined in the bashing of their party’s most loyal constituents.

Still, it was only a matter of time before the mandate of heaven would be brutally withdrawn from triumphalist Republicans. No party can expect to govern forever on a steady diet of triviality and cynicism…

[…]

Foley’s Not the Story

Buck Banks

From the Armed Forces Information Service: Four Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers died at about 9 a.m. yesterday when terrorists attacked their patrol with indirect and small-arms fire northwest of Baghdad. The names of the soldiers are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Meanwhile, the Defense Department released the identities of five soldiers and one Marine who were killed recently supporting the war on terror.

Marine Capt. Justin D. Peterson, 32, of Davisburg, Mich., died Oct. 1 from a non-hostile vehicle accident in Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

Army Sgt. Denise A. Lannaman, 46, of Bayside, N.Y., died at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, on Oct. 1 from a non-combat related incident. Lannaman was assigned to the Army National Guard’s 1569th Transportation Company, Newburgh, N.Y.

Army Sgt. Joseph W. Perry, 23, of Alpine, Calif., died on Oct. 2 in Muhallah, Iraq, when his mounted patrol came in contact with enemy forces using small-arms fire. Perry was assigned to the 21st Military Police Company, 16th Military Police Brigade, 18th Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Army Spc. Angelo J. Vaccaro, 23, of Deltona, Fla., died Oct. 2 in Korengal, Afghanistan, from injuries suffered during combat operations. Vaccaro was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan Rojas, 27, of Hammond, Ind., died on Oct. 3 in Baghdad from injuries suffered from enemy small-arms fire while performing security operations. Rojas was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 172nd
Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Fort Wainwright, Ala.

Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Isshak, 25, of Alta Loma, Calif., died on Oct. 3 in Tikrit, Iraq, from injuries suffered when his vehicle received enemy small-arms fire at Hawija during combat operations. Isshak was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

U.S. Deaths in Iraq Up Sharply

Jon Ponder

Last throes, continued:

Two months after a security crackdown began in the capital, U.S. military deaths appear to be rising, even as fatalities among Iraqi security forces have fallen, U.S. military sources and analysts said.

The U.S. military Tuesday revised to eight its count of American deaths in the capital on Monday, the highest daily toll in a month. In September, 74 U.S. troops died nationwide, about a third of them in Baghdad, according to the military.

Condi Lied

Jon Ponder
Ms. Rice, the national security adviser at the time, said it was “incomprehensible” to suggest she had ignored dire terrorist threats two months before the Sept. 11 attacks.

She’s right. It is incomprehensible:

A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said Monday.

The account by the spokesman, Sean McCormack, came hours after Ms. Rice, the secretary of state, told reporters aboard her airplane that she did not recall the specific meeting on July 10, noting that she had met repeatedly with Mr. Tenet that summer about terrorist threats. Ms. Rice, the national security adviser at the time, said it was “incomprehensible” to suggest she had ignored dire terrorist threats two months before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mr. McCormack also said records showed that the Sept. 11 commission had been informed about the meeting, a fact that former intelligence officials and members of the commission confirmed on Monday.

When details of the meeting emerged last week in a new book by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post, Bush administration officials questioned Mr. Woodward’s reporting.

Now, after several days, both current and former Bush administration officials have confirmed parts of Mr. Woodward’s account.

Officials now agree that on July 10, 2001, Mr. Tenet and his counterterrorism deputy, J. Cofer Black, were so alarmed about intelligence pointing to an impending attack by Al Qaeda that they demanded an emergency meeting at the White House with Ms. Rice and her National Security Council staff.

Tammy Duckworth Did Not Cut and Run, Mr. President

Jon Ponder

Last week, in one of the lowest moments of his miserable presidency, George W. Bush accused the Democratic Party of becoming “the party of cut and run.” Tammy Duckworth, the Democrat running for the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Illinois) who lost both her legs in when her helicopter took fire in Iraq, has an answer for the president:

“Well, I didn’t cut and run, Mr. President. Like so many others, I proudly fought and sacrificed, Duckworth said. “My helicopter was shot down long after you proclaimed ‘mission accomplished.”

And neither did the 60 or so other Democratic veterans running for Congress this year.

Woodward: Bush’s Public Persona Has Become Defined by ‘Incompetence and Arrogance’

Jon Ponder
Card was enough of a realist to see that two negative aspects to Bush’s public persona had come to define his presidency: incompetence and arrogance. Card did not believe that Bush was incompetent, and so he had to face the possibility that as Bush’s chief of staff, he might have been the incompetent one.

Bob Woodward’s front page story for Sunday’s Washington Post is online now. Lots of bombshells about the Bush Administration’s campaign to deceive the American public about conditions on the ground in Iraq — and why they are doing it (hint: Henry Kissinger is advising them).

Here’s an excerpt from the end of the article about Bush’s former chief of staff, Andrew Card, and his private doubts about the prospects of success in the war after he had tried unsuccessfully to have Sec. of Defens Donald Rumsfeld fired. No bombshells here but apparently some confirmation of what we all suspect — that Bush is stubbornly following the wrong course of action, despite the better judgment of smarter people:

[In March of this year], White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr. prepared to leave the administration after submitting his resignation to Bush. He felt a sense of relief mixed with the knowledge that he was leaving unfinished business.

“It’s Iraq, Iraq, Iraq,” Card had told his replacement, Joshua B. Bolten. “Then comes the economy.”

One of Card’s great worries was that Iraq would be compared to Vietnam. In March, there were 58,249 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. One of Kissinger’s private criticisms of Bush was that he had no mechanism in place, or even an inclination, to consider the downsides of impending decisions. Alternative courses of action were rarely considered.

As best Card could remember, there had been some informal, blue-sky discussions at times along the lines of “What could we do differently?” But there had been no formal sessions to consider alternatives to staying in Iraq. To his knowledge there were no anguished memos bearing the names of Cheney, Rice, Hadley, Rumsfeld, the CIA, Card himself or anyone else saying “Let’s examine alternatives,” as had surfaced after the Vietnam era.

Card put it on the generals in the Pentagon and Iraq. If they had come forward and said to the president “It’s not worth it” or “The mission can’t be accomplished,” Card was certain, the president would have said “I’m not going to ask another kid to sacrifice for it.”

Card was enough of a realist to see that two negative aspects to Bush’s public persona had come to define his presidency: incompetence and arrogance. Card did not believe that Bush was incompetent, and so he had to face the possibility that as Bush’s chief of staff, he might have been the incompetent one. In addition, he did not think the president was arrogant.

But the marketing of Bush had come across as arrogant. Maybe it was unfair in Card’s opinion, but there it was.

He was leaving. And the man most responsible for the postwar troubles, the one who should have gone, Rumsfeld, was staying.

Congressional Report: Iraq Now Costing $2 Bil per Week

Jon Ponder

And it’s all borrowed money! Right. Bush broke it — your grandkids will be paying for it:

A new congressional analysis shows the Iraq war is now costing taxpayers almost $2 billion a week — nearly twice as much as in the first year of the conflict three years ago and 20 percent more than last year — as the Pentagon spends more on establishing regional bases to support the extended deployment and scrambles to fix or replace equipment damaged in combat.

The upsurge occurs as the total cost of military operations at home and abroad since 2001, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will top half a trillion dollars, according to an internal assessment by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service completed last week.

It’s facts like these that belie the fakery of the conservative ideology. Republicans say that fiscal responsibility is important to them but it’s the first thing they shoved off the raft when they claimed power.

Conservatism is really about power for power’s sake — a construct that is a zero sum game. To acquire power, Republicans must take it away from from their opponents. If unchecked, they won’t stop until they have taken it all, leaving the rest of us, well, powerless.

When the conservatives have America’s social structures will be just like Mexico’s, with all the financial and political capitol held by a few oligarchs.

The saddest part is, the Republicans are paving their way to power on the backs — and the votes — of the uneducated, unwealthy dittoheads that their objective is to subjugate.

Poor and uneducated Mexicans have the sense to know they are being trampled on — that’s why they’re coming here illegally. The poor and uneducated in America are deluded political sheep.

Iraqi Government Shiites Are Protecting Death Squads from U.S. Justice

Jon Ponder

Friends like these:The predominantly Shiite government of Iraq, which we helped get elected, is protecting Shiite death squads who are slaughtering Sunnis:

Senior U.S. military officials have stepped up complaints that Iraq’s Shiite-led government is thwarting efforts to go after Shiite death squads blamed in the execution-style killings of Sunni Arabs in neighborhoods across this capital.

Although deadly Sunni Arab rebel attacks remain frequent in Baghdad, U.S. officials, including Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, say death squads affiliated with Shiite militias have become the main factors ratcheting up the capital’s death toll from sectarian killings.

Civilian deaths in Baghdad during July and August totaled more than 5,100, according to United Nations figures, and most were caused by the sectarian strife.

However, the 8,000 U.S. troops sent to Baghdad in recent weeks to restore order have been largely prevented from confronting those militias, many of which have ties to Iraqi government officials.

A little background: Saddam Hussein was a member of the Sunni minority, which subjugated the Shiite majority. When the U.S. held elections, the Shiites, who belong to the same Muslim sect that rules Iran, took over.