U.S. military commanders say Pakistan's tribal areas are at the center of the fight against Islamic extremism; more so than Iraq, or even Afghanistan. These areas border on eastern Afghanistan and provide haven for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters to regroup, rearm and reorganize.
No shit? I think that's what we've been trying to say all along. It was more important to justify being in Iraq and making the bloddy mess out of it that we did rather than to be actually going after Bin Laden and his henchman. However, Offer of troops turned down by Musharraf, who advises Afghan focus.
Wonder what he's trying to hide...hmmmmm?
More^
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Jan 27, 2008
U.S. pays new attention to Pakistan border
Dec 20, 2007
Dec 18, 2007
Guess Who Didn't Come to Annapolis?
Bush Asked the Iraqis to Attend the Peace Conference. Why Didn't They?
The Iraqis didn't turn down the invitation, they simply failed to respond to it.
Read More ^
Nov 27, 2007
The 'Triumphant' Neocons
Citing signs of military progress in Iraq, America’s neoconservatives are reasserting their vision of the United States as an imperial power that can reshape the Muslim world in a way favorable to the interests of Washington and Tel Aviv.
Casting aside the image of the war as a bloody quagmire, the neocons are again selling Iraq as a vital beachhead in the Middle East from which the United States can project power throughout the region and achieve victory over Islamic militants hostile to Israel.
Oct 18, 2007
Iraq's Brutally Wounded (Photo Essay)
As Americans scramble for funding to try to help the many wounded veterans returning from war, many more thousands in Iraq have suffered equally horrific injuries, yet have virtually no way of receiving care.
AlterNet and multimedia co-sponsor BAGnewsNotes are pleased to host the above slideshow of images from "Iraq, brutally wounded," followed by an interview with the photographer, Farah Nosh, conducted by Nina Berman.
Read More:Iraq's Brutally Wounded (Photo Essay)
Sep 28, 2007
U.S.-led forces have killed one of the most important leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq
By PAULINE JELINEK,
Associated Press Writer
19 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - U.S.-led forces have killed one of the most important leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq, a Tunisian believed connected to the kidnapping and killings last summer of American soldiers, a top commander said Friday.
Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson said the death of the suspected terrorist in a U.S. airstrike Tuesday south of Baghdad, and recent similar operations against al-Qaida, have left the organization in Iraq fractured.
Read More...
US-led forces kill top al-Qaida leader
Saddam was ready to leave Iraq
Saddam Hussein offered to step down and go into exile one month before the invasion of Iraq. If verified, it is certain to raise questions in Washington and London over whether the costly four-year war could have been averted.
Read More...Saddam asked Bush for $1bn to go into exile
Saddam Hussein offered to step down and go into exile one month before the invasion of Iraq, it was claimed last night.
Fearing defeat, Saddam was prepared to go peacefully in return for £500million ($1billion).
The extraordinary offer was revealed yesterday in a transcript of talks in February 2003 between George Bush and the then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar at the President's Texas ranch.
The White House refused to comment on the report last night.
Blanca DeBree said...
No one loves the troops better than the President.
After all, according to a new memo leaked by El Pais, the Decider loves the troops so much that he decided to give them an early Christmas present in 2003 by invading Iraq, even though for the low cost of $1 billion, we could have been rid of Saddam Hussein and his sons permanently.
And our glorious Commander Guy loves the troops so much, he insists that we not coddle them with adequate armor or equipment in Iraq.
He knows nothing says you don't have faith in the ability of the troops to succeed than giving them fancy equipment, which pampers them.
And when, and if, they come home, he knows that giving them mental and physical health care would only make them feel helpless.
He knows that tough love is the best love.
Yes, these troops have never known a better friend than our Commander Guy.
And considering the military strongly supported him in 2000 and 2004 and helped get him elected, they've gotten the President they deserve.
Sep 26, 2007
The Great Iraq Swindle
How is it done? How do you screw the taxpayer for millions, get away with it and then ride off into the sunset with one middle finger extended, the other wrapped around a chilled martini? Ask Earnest O. Robbins -- he knows all about being a successful contractor in Iraq.
You start off as a well-connected bureaucrat: in this case, as an Air Force civil engineer, a post from which Robbins was responsible for overseeing 70,000 servicemen and contractors, with an annual budget of $8 billion. You serve with distinction for thirty-four years, becoming such a military all-star that the Air Force frequently sends you to the Hill to testify before Congress -- until one day in the summer of 2003, when you retire to take a job as an executive for Parsons, a private construction company looking to do work in Iraq.
Sep 11, 2007
Iraq for Sale - The War Profiteers
The story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.
Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.
Thanks to Billy Warhol for sending me the link to this Video!~
Rod said...
Saw this documentary a month ago on Starz Cinema, and it is scary stuff.
While Greenwald is not the most accomplished of documentarians, the case he made was absolutely astounding.
Scariest of all--and being devoted an entire chapter in Naomi Wolf's The End of America--is Blackwater, a private security firm that has grown since the beginning of the war to $500 Million worth of contracts with the Department of Defense.
They are not only immune from prosecution by "Order 17", but have done their dirty work both in Iraq and in New Orleans during Katrina cleanup.
They are Halliburton's equivalent of Herman Goebbels SA.
Very scary stuff indeed...
Jeff Herz - My View of the World said...
Scary, very scary stuff.
I know we live in a capitalist economy, but why do these profit mongers have to be taking all of our taxpayer money?
PoliShifter said...
War Is A Racket is a book written in 1935 by Major General Smedley Butler where after his military service he concludes that war is a racket, a collusion of governments and businessmen to make money
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps.
I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers.
In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents. ...
I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914.
I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.
I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.
I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912.
I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916.
I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903.
In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.
WAR is a racket.
It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.
It is the only one international in scope.
It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people.
Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about.
It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.
Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict.
At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War.
That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns.
How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle?
How many of them dug a trench?
How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out?
How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets?
How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy?
How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious.
They just take it.
This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war.
The general public shoulders the bill.
And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting.
Newly placed gravestones.
Mangled bodies.
Shattered minds.
Broken hearts and homes.
Economic instability.
Depression and all its attendant miseries.
Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.
Sphere: Related ContentSep 6, 2007
Interview With President Bush in Iraq
President Bush spent about seven hours Monday in Anbar province, where he addressed troops and met with U.S. and Iraqi leaders. Listen to the president talk about his trip. Sphere: Related Content
Bush Should Start By Admitting Fault
President Bush could do his part by admitting what the world knows -- that many prewar criticisms of the invasion were on target. Such an admission would be just the shock a serious diplomatic project would need. It would make it easier for European and Arab leaders to help, as their constituents are reluctant to bail out a president who still insists that he was right and they were wrong. Our troops face death every day; the least the president can do is face the truth.
Read More...How To Change Iraq
Aug 29, 2007
Unlimited Hypocrisy
WASHINGTON — As prominent Republicans began calling for Larry Craig to resign, the Idaho senator agreed on Wednesday to step down from his committee leadership posts while the Senate ethics panel investigates the circumstances surrounding his guilty plea in connection to a June arrest at a Minnesota airport.
You know this strikes me as funny - not really 'ha ha' funny but a weird kind of funny.
Although I realize that this says "prominet Republicans" are calling for Craig to resign, have you noticed how much press this is getting?
I find it funny that everyone is outraged by this yet has sat by for the past seven years and allowed the President to do as he will.
Am I to understand that it is more acceptable to lie a Nation into a War and less acceptable to be accused of being gay?
Is it worse to be gay than it is to be responsible for the death of countless numbers of people on both sides of the War in Iraq?
Where has the Ethics Committee been when it comes to the President and his Bushies?
If Craig is guilty of behavior that is unfitting of a Senator than Bush is surely guilty of behavior unfitting of a President,
Is it just me or is this hypocrisy without limit?
Bush threatens to confront Iran over alleged support for Iraqi insurgents
George Bush yesterday ramped up the war of words between the US and Iran, accusing Tehran of threatening to place the Middle East under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust and revealing that he had authorised US military commanders in Iraq to "confront Tehran's murderous activities".
In a speech designed to shore up US public opinion behind his unpopular strategy in Iraq, the president reserved his strongest words for the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which he accused of openly supporting violent forces within Iraq. Iran, he said, was responsible for training extremist Shia factions in Iraq, supplying them with weapons, including sophisticated roadside bombs. Iran has denied all these accusations.
Read More...Bush threatens to confront Iran over alleged support for Iraqi insurgents
Related Article...Iranian President Makes Direct Appeal to Americans
State Department Dismisses Letter, Which Excoriates U.S. Policies in Iraq, Israel
Excerpt from Letter:
The five-page letter, which was both conciliatory in references to "Noble Americans" and scathing in lambasting Jewish influence in the United States, said there is an urgent need for dialogue between Iranians and Americans because of the "tragic consequences" of U.S. intervention abroad.
In Iraq, he wrote, hundreds of thousands have been killed, maimed or displaced, while terrorism has grown "exponentially" and daily life has become a challenge. "With the presence of the US military in Iraq, nothing has been done to rebuild the ruins, to restore the infrastructure or to alleviate poverty," he wrote. ". . . I consider it extremely unlikely that you, the American people, consent to the billions of dollars . . . from your treasury for this military misadventure."
Step it up Bush
The administration of President George W. Bush, which is currently spending roughly 30 million dollars a day on military operations in Iraq, has earmarked only 20 million dollars for Iraqi humanitarian needs in bilateral aid for all of 2007.
This is just another way that the Bush Administration is calling into question our national credibility and honor. Helping Iraqi refugees on a larger scale is not an embarrassing necessity. It is an opportunity to show consistency.
President Bush asserts that were we to leave Iraq we would abandon Iraqis to chaos and genocide, so then. why is our Aid to Refugees not being stepped up?
Read More.....Obstacles Keep Iraqi Refugees From U.S.
Aug 28, 2007
Iran is Getting Into Position
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 28, 6:00 PM ET
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boldly declared Tuesday that U.S. political influence in Iraq is "collapsing rapidly" and said his government is ready to help fill any power vacuum.
The hard-line leader also defended Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite Muslim who has been harshly criticized by American politicians for his unsuccessful efforts to reconcile Iraq's Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
"The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly," Ahmadinejad said at a news conference, referring to U.S. troops in Iraq. "Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbors and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation."
Read More....Iran ready to fill any vacuum in Iraq
I may be wrong but it looks like Iran and Saudi Arabia are getting into position to oppose the United States in Iraq. This is going to get much worse.....based on his past performance Bush is going to make sure it does.
Why Can't All States Do This?
By: DON THOMPSON - Associated Press
SACRAMENTO -- California voters could get a chance to register their opinions about the Iraq war under a bill that passed the state Senate Wednesday after a sharply partisan debate about whether the initiative could demoralize troops in the field.The Vote Us Out of Iraq measure would be an advisory question on the Feb. 5 presidential primary ballot and ask voters if they support an immediate withdrawal of troops.
It was sent to the Assembly on a 23-11 party-line vote and must win approval from that house and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to get on the ballot.
"Once again, we are a nation at war. And once again, the people want peace," the bill's author, Sen. President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, told senators before the vote.
SACRAMENTO -- California voters could get a chance to register their opinions about the Iraq war under a bill that passed the state Senate Wednesday after a sharply partisan debate about whether the initiative could demoralize troops in the field.The Vote Us Out of Iraq measure would be an advisory question on the Feb. 5 presidential primary ballot and ask voters if they support an immediate withdrawal of troops.
It was sent to the Assembly on a 23-11 party-line vote and must win approval from that house and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to get on the ballot.
"Once again, we are a nation at war. And once again, the people want peace," the bill's author, Sen. President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, told senators before the vote.
Sphere: Related Content
Aug 22, 2007
Bush to invoke Vietnam in arguing against Iraq pullout
On Wednesday in Kansas City, Missouri, Bush will tell members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that "then, as now, people argued that the real problem was America's presence and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end," according to speech excerpts released Tuesday by the White House.
"Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam War and how we left," Bush will say.
In My View of "It" the question is, how has this been allowed to happen? Bush is not following the will of the people anymore than President Johnson did in Vietnam.
They lied and got us to go along for a very short time right after the war started, as governments are able to do right after the beginning of an armed conflict, in order to able to create an atmosphere of war hysteria.
That’s not true anymore. The American people have begun to understand what is going on and have turned against the policies in Washington, but of course they are still there. They are still in power.
Thus leading to my next question - why are they still in Power?
Read More Here....
Rod said...
I can only think that the Bush Administration is still in power because of one of several reasons, or a combination thereof:
1) Americans haven't figured out a way to send a text message that will vote the administration out, especially when none of them can sing. They are still confused that Tony Snow shows up as the MC instead of Ryan Seacrest. ('sup wit dat?)
2) The 53 percent of the electorate that re-elected the President would have to admit to themselves that they made a mistake. Because they cannot do that, they cannot organize and request impeachment proceedings from their representatives.
3) The 78 percent of voting Christian Evangelicals who re-elected Bush would have to embrace the notion that their pastor might have been wrong, and thus not operating under divine guidance. Since we all know that God doesn't make mistakes, please see reason #2.
4) That 1 out of every 3 Americans who shows up in every poll and thinks that the President is still doing a good job has a history of congenital mental illness. Once again, please see reason #2.The sad thing about all this is that at least the Romans had lead poisoning as an excuse for the decline of their empire...
Aug 15, 2007
This is how great our "War on Terror" is going!
How many more have to die before we figure out that this just isn't working?
A US military spokesman, Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, said he believed the bombings were the work of al-Qaida.
"The car bombs that were used all had the consistent profile of al-Qaida in Iraq violence," Gen Bergner told reporters in Baghdad. "We're continuing to investigate, and we'll learn more in the coming days."
Read More...Iraq rescuers sift through rubble after suicide blasts that killed 200
Jun 28, 2007
Iraq by the Numbers
By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com.
Americans are waiting for General David Petraeus to report to Congress in September on the "progress" of the President's surge strategy. But there's no reason to wait for September. Here's a look at some telltale numbers that show the horror in Iraq.
The question is: What word best describes the situation these Iraqi numbers hint at? The answer would probably be: No such word exists. "Genocide" has been beaten into the ground and doesn't apply. "Civil war," which shifts all blame to the Iraqis (withdrawing Americans from a country its troops have not yet begun to leave), doesn't faintly cover the matter.
If anything catches the carnage and mayhem that was once the nation of Iraq, it might be a comment by the head of the Arab League, Amr Mussa, in 2004. He warned: "The gates of hell are open in Iraq." At the very least, the "gates of hell" should now officially be considered miles behind us on the half-destroyed, well-mined highway of Iraqi life. Who knows what IEDs lie ahead? We are, after all, in the underworld.
Source: Alter Net: War in Iraq
Related Article: 20 beheaded bodies found on Iraqi river bank
May 12, 2007
Missing Oil and Corrupt Officials
Billions in Oil Missing in Iraq, U.S. Study Says
By JAMES GLANZ
Published: May 12, 2007
Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.
Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.
The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country’s oil industry.
The report also covered alternative explanations for the billions of dollars worth of discrepancies, including the possibility that Iraq has been consistently overstating its oil production.
The draft report, expected to be released within the next week, was prepared by the United States Government Accountability Office with the help of government energy analysts, and was provided to The New York Times by a separate government office that received a review copy. The accountability office declined to provide a copy or to discuss the draft.
If you believe this I have some swamp land in Florida to sell....
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