'with a little help from my friends' is 1 of the great beatles' songs.
it's is also the worst recording by 1 of my favorite singers. marcia and i were discussing the awful cover version released (on an album) in 1969 and we came up with the theme topic for tonight's community posters: the worst song by your favorite artist.
marcia was afraid i would forget. i can never forget, it's dreadful.
who is my favorite living singer? barbra.
she just needs the 1 name because she's that damn good.
but even some 1 as immensely talented as she is can make a really lame recording.
it's not just that she refuses to sing on the beat - a hallmark for barbra; it's also that the arrangement frequently can't even find the beat. by the time you're getting one chord played at once for four four beats BOMP ['get by with a little help from my friends'] BOMP ['try with a little help from my friends'] you realize barbra can't - at that point - sing rock & roll. she doesn't want to and that's obvious from her performance. but they could have turned it into a little carnival number.
no.
they turn it into some 1's idea of 'artistic' and it sounds like so much bad vegas. like buddy hacket's going to come running across the stage at any moment.
i love barbra and could easily name 100 songs by her that i love but that cover of the beatles has to be the worst thing released that year by any 'name'.
okay, tomorrow is the 6th anniversary of the start of the illegal war. wally, kat, ava and c.i. are in d.c. for the week (working the surrounding areas to get the news out about saturday's march on the pentagon). i mention that because i'm going to add some comments to some news from cnn:
The Obama administration is abandoning a controversial plan to charge private insurers for treatment of veterans' service-connected ailments, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday.
Pelosi made the announcement while meeting with a group of veterans on Capitol Hill.
Veterans' representatives and members of Congress have angrily opposed the proposal, which White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said was never finalized.
never finalized? well barack was pushing it and it was only the pushback from congress that prevented it. nancy pelosi made the announcement because she was the leader in the house and 1 of the big leaders in congress period leading opposition to barack's proposal. she did much more than most members and a ton more than the senate majority leader harry reid did.
nancy gets a lot wrong in my book, but she really used her weight and power to kill this proposal. she deserves credit for that. she doesn't get it in the cnn story and i find that strange. i know what happened from wally and kat recounting what's going on in d.c. and what ava and c.i. are working members of congress on. but i find it really hard to believe this is a world class secret.
nancy pelosi deserves credit and i'll give her credit for this. she earned it.
i will also say thank you to her because i'm not a veteran but what barack was proposing was repgunant and, i believe, would have left a huge stain on this country.
so thank you, nancy pelosi.
now how about standing up to barack on his not-really-withdrawing plan?
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Wendesday, March 18, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, the damage to Iraqi and US women continues, Congress holds a hearing on military suicides, and more.
Friday's snapshot noted a video of US forces 'training' Iraqi police. We're revisiting the video because the critique offered Friday of how damaging it is for women when the US military condones that behavior is only more obvious today. At his site Adam Kokesh - Revolutionary Patriot, Adam Kokesh has posted the video so you can stream it there if you're able to stream and/or enjoy streaming. For those who can't, a transcript is below and, as noted Friday, the US service member mentions three areas that we're calling A and B and C (I have no idea what he's taling about):
We're going to talk a little about how you are conducting yourselves as Iraqi police. Raise your hand if you're in the Mahdi militia. Let's see it. Who's in the militia? Who has militia ties? Which one of you are more loyal to the militia than to your own country? None of you? Bulls**t. Some of you in this formation are f**king lie right now. You know why I'm pissed off? I've come down here with my soldiers to try and train you and you're trying to f**king kill Americans, you're trying to kill your fellow f**king Iraqis cause you got no f**king backbone. You want everything from me. You want weapons and ammunition. You want fuel, you want trucks. But you're too f**king p**sy to go three kilometers down the road and go get the people that are tearing this f**king town apart. That's pure f**king cowardice. I'll take three g**damn trucks down the road any f**king day.
[To an Iraqi, thumping him on the chest] You think this is f**king funny? You want to call me out? You think it's f**king funny? Why don't I take your ass out back and kick your little f**king ass? You better shut the f**k up. F**king pay attention.
[To all] I have no problems beating anyone of your asses, not one. Because I don't give a f**k. Because you're acting like a bunch of f**king women.
[To one Iraqi] Shut up when I'm talking. Shut your f**king mouth.
[To all] I'm not going to come down here and waste my f**king time or my soldiers' lives because you don't want to do s**t. You guys better figure out where your loyalties lie. Are you loyal to Iraq, Shia, Sunni, what is it? You want to fight for your country or are you better off having me die for your country because you're too much of a f**king woman to do it yourself? You love seeing Americans die for your f**king country, you won't die for it yourself. I don't see your ass in my hometown.
[Turning around] And you f**king leadership [ought to?] get off your ass too. Lead from the f**king front. When's the last time you went on patrol? Probably never. When's the last time you went these guys down to A, when did you take them to A and lead 'em on a f**king patrol? You never did, did you? Because you're too chicken s**t.
[Facing front] Figure out what the f**k you want from us or I'm going to stop coming down here. And when the Sunnis from A come down here and cut your f**king heads off, I'm not going to do a g**damn thing about it. I'm going to let them bomb your f**king ass into oblivion with their mortars because you will not do s**t about it. I will not help people that will not help themselves. Get your heads out of this f**king bulls**t Mahdi militia and start fighting for Iraq. What do you want? Questions? . . . . [Question asked, then translated.] You wanna erase that image, you want to fix your image.
This group right here, f**k your stupid checkpoints, they're worthless. Get together, get all your weapons and start marching south towards the river. I guarantee you'll get into a gunfight and I guarantee you'll f**k some people up. Get down there and kick some ass. What? You don't need trucks. Take some water, take some food. [shouting over him] Hey, quit making excuses. Don't f**king talk about US patrols. I never saw your ass down in ledge, where the f**k were you? I never saw you in B, C, so shut the f**k up. When I tell you to man up, you shut the f**k up. You guys want to be men, go down there and start beating some f**king asses. You're supposed to be Iraqi police. Why don't you try acting like it? You sit her with your thumb up your ass because you're too f**king scared to do your jobs.
Those are the remarks. They're offensive and appling on every level including what a police force actually does, law and order and so much more. [See "Iraq," "Iraq roundtable," "The Iraq roundtable," "iraq roundtable," "Iraq," "Iraq in the Kitchen," "Talking Iraq," "Iraq around the table," "Roundtable on Iraq," "The roundtable," "Roundtable," "Friday roundtable," "Iraq roundtable" and "Talking Iraq".] They are also sexist remarks and, as such, they are offensive and damaging. For Iraqi women and for American women. The US military has no right to use female as a curse word, to use gender as a put down. MADRE's Yifat Susskind explains at CounterPunch how the illegal war and the US have impacted Iraqi women's lives:
If you haven't thought about the Iraq War as a story of US allies systematically torturing and executing women, you're not alone. Likewise, if you were under the impression that Iraqi women were somehow better off under their new, US-sponsored government.
In the spring of 2003, Fatin was a student of architecture at Baghdad University. Her days were filled with classes and hanging out in her favorite of Baghdad's many cafes, where she and her friends studied, shared music, and spun big plans for successful careers, happy marriages, and eventually, kids.
Today, Fatin says that those feel like someone else's dreams.
Soon after the US invasion, Fatin began seeing groups of bearded young Iraqi men patrolling the streets of Baghdad. They were looking for women like her, who wore modern clothes or were heading to professional jobs. The men screamed terrible insults at the women and sometimes beat them.
By the fall, ordinary aspects of Fatin's life had become punishable by death. The "misery gangs," as Fatin calls them, were routinely killing women for wearing pants, appearing in public without a headscarf, or shaking hands and socializing with men.
As the occupying power, the US was legally obligated to stop these attacks. But the Pentagon, preoccupied with battling the Iraqi insurgency, simply ignored the militias' reign of terror.
In fact, some of the most treacherous armed groups belonged to the very political parties that the US had brought to power. By 2005, the Pentagon was giving weapons, money and military training to these Shiite militias, in the hope that they would help combat the Sunni-led insurgency.
And after destroying women's lives, the US military thinks it is acceptable for one of their own to 'train' Iraqi police officers to further disrespect women? Train them to think that female is the ultimate insult? Really? That's acceptable?
The US war destroyed the rights of women in Iraq and someone wants to pretend it's 'acceptable' for US service members to further destroy the lives of Iraqi women with little stunts like that 'training'? And what about the women in the US military? wowOwow notes, "A Pentagon report released Tuesday claims one in three women soldiers will be victims of some sort of sexual assault during their service, compared to one in six women civilians. In fiscal 2008, 2,923 sexual assaults were reported -- an 8 percent spike over the prior year; 63 percent were rapes or aggravated assaults. Also, 251 incidents occurred in combat areas, with 141 in Iraq and 22 in Afghanistan -- a 26 percent increase from fiscal 2007." On yesterday's CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, (here for text, here for video), Katie Couric reported on sexual assault and the principal Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Michael Dominguez told her, "Sexual assault injures troops, injures readiness. So regardless of the numbers we have, it is by definition too much." Katie observed that 2007 saw 2,200 reported sexual assaults and "only 181 were prosecuted" to which Dominguez responded, "Yes, we absolutely have to get better. Secretary Gates himself is driving this initiative this year to improve our ability to investigate, to prosecutre and convict." Remember that point, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is driving it. NBC Nightly News also offered (video only) a look at sexual assault in the military yesterday. Jim Miklaszewski filed the report and started with Angela Peacock who was sexually assaulted while serving.Angela Peacock: You want to stay in the army keep your mouth shut, suck it up and drive on.Jim Miklaszewski: Angela did drive on and later deployed to Iraq but under the lingering trauma of the sexual assault and the horrors of war she cracked.Angela Peacock: I started having panic attacks and like sleepless nights. I was spiraling down pretty fast.Jim Miklaszewski: She was diagnosed with post traumatic stress and discharged from the army. A Pentagon report on sexual assaults released today shows Angela is not alone. In 2008 there were more than 2900 sexual assaults in the military -- an 8% jump over the previous year. Perhaps more alarming, the number of sexual assaults in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan spiked by 26%. Pentagon officials insist they're taking the disturbing trend seriously. US House Rep Jane Harman smells a cover-up and tells Miklaszewski, "And anyone in the chain of command who covers up the act, and says 'Oh, it's just boys will be boys,' which is what has been happening, also should be prosecuted." Exactly but it's equally true that when a member of the US military -- in a training position -- insults women, makes it so that the worst thing in the world to be is a woman, he is encouraging assaults on women serving in the military. He's encouraging it and so is the military command which lets him get away with. If Robert Gates is seriously concerned, he'll need to address the culture. Mike Mount (CNN) speaks with the idiot Kaye Whitley ("director of the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office) and Whitley is part of the problem as anyone who has attended a Congressional hearing on this issue knows. A victim provides testimony -- tears herself up to provide testimony -- and Kaye Whitley comes along on the next panel and gets all these little jabs in discrediting the witness -- out of compassion, you understand. She tells Mount that there's no increase in actual assaults, there's just an increase in them being reported. She's a damn fool, a damn liar and someone who should have been kicked off the tax payer payroll a long time ago. It's past time Kaye Whitley got a real job and stopped living off tax payers. Whitley pulled that crap most recently on January 28th where she pretended to be 'concerned' about Laura Waterson. Whitley was pimping for the military (and pimping's the only word) to push for more use of the trial programmed "restricted reports." What this does is allow a rape to go unreported. It counts . . . as a statistic. The women (and male victims as well) are 'counseled' by the military about this option and how it can 'help' them. And throughout their 'counseling' with the military's untrained (a seminar is not training, nor is reading a notebook) 'clinical staff' they will be counseled on whether they're prepared to step forward now or not. It's a crime. Crimes need to be reported. For the victim and especially for the attacker. A rapist may walk -- many do. But if I'm at Fort Lewis and I prosecute my rapist, even if he walks, that follows him because he's not just going to rape once. So the next victim who steps forward has a little easier way to go. As US House Rep Niki Tsongas pointed out to the dithering Whitley, with 1,896 Restricted Reports, "It means a significant number of people who committed these assaults are not accountable." They are not. Whitley wasn't concerned about the victim or about future victims. She declared that if you didn't have that restricted option (where no crime is reported and prosecuted) you would be left with something that "just tears a unit apart." Guess what, Dumb Ass Whitley, maybe it needs to. Maybe it f**king needs to. Maybe if enough units are "torn apart" by these sexual assaults, the military will get serious about preventing them. But that won't happen as long as apologists like Kaye Whitley are allowed to continue in their jobs. The woman needs to be removed from her job immediately. And civilian clinicians need to be brought in because we are talking about crimes and the military's history is one of hiding sexual assaults. Civilians who do not answer to the military chain of command need to be brought in as counselors. As Niki Tsongas also explained to Whitley "we do have new women coming into the military who have no real understanding of the threat that might exist" and "we have many young people coming into the services who we want to protect." "Restricted Rape" assists no one except the US military command which is already well versed in how to cover up sexual assault crimes.
Those who missed Laura Watterson's powerful and moving testimony can refer to Jan. 28th's "Iraq snapshot," Kat's "When I tried to smoke a banana," Jan. 29th's "Iraq snapshot," Ruth's "Laura Watterson's testimony and its meaning" and Kat's "Laura Watterson's testimony."
We're not done with the 'training' the US military is giving the Iraqi police. It disrespected the traditions of law and order, it confused the role of a civilian police. The US military -- which is not a trained civilian police force -- is giving 'training' lessons on topics they know nothing of. The civilian police force, in any country, is not supposed to attack civilians or suspects. They can arrest suspects but the US service member in the video isn't recommending that anyone be arrested, he is recommending that police become a viligante force. Rob Nordland (New York Times) reported earlier this week that six prisoners from Camp Bucca were released by the US military and they returned home. That was not the end of the story for them. A Haditha police "posse" was after them and "hunted them down, hancuffed them and shot them repeatedly, killing all six, according to a leader of their Al Bonemir tribe, Salal Rasheed al-Goud, was interviewed Saturday." al-Goud explains, "One of the police officers thought they had killed his brother more than a year ago." That's not justice and the US military is part of the problem when a US 'trainer' tells the Iraqi police, "This group right here, f**k your stupid checkpoints, they're worthless. Get together, get all your weapons and start marching south towards the river. I guarantee you'll get into a gunfight and I guarantee you'll f**k some people up. Get down there and kick some ass." The military is not the police and people who can't grasp that -- including the service member and all those ranking above him -- do as much longterm damage to Iraq as do any bombs dropped. This kind of 'training' -- with all the 'benefits' -- is why the US military needs to leave Iraq immediately.
Tomorrow marks the sixth anniversary of the illegal war. Some will say it's going into year seven! We won't say that. When it comes to the basics, we stick with the basics. If you were born in 2003, let's say I gave birth to you, I would be throwing you your sixth birthday this year. If your birthday was tomorrow, you would be turning six years old. No one would say, "S/he's starting her/his seventh year!" If they said that, we'd probably all encourage them to leave the birthday party -- we certainly would serve them dry cake without ice cream. The Iraq War turns six-years-old tomorrow. It is the anniversary of the start of the illegal war. March 19, 2003, Bully Boy lied the world into war with the help of an eager and compliant media. It's Barack Obama's illegal war now. He has trashed all of his promises from the campaign (as we all knew he would) including removing a brigade a month. Barack Obama is not ending the illegal war, he is continuing it. If George W. Bush told us he needed 19 months to get US forces down to 50,000, the peace movement wouldn't have gone for it and wouldn't have mistaken that for ending an illegal war.
If you want to live in the real world, World Can't Wait offers a list of other cities holding demonstrations. Saturday, those wanting to call out the illegal war can join with groups such as The National Assembly to End the Wars, the ANSWER coalition, World Can't Wait and Iraq Veterans Against the War -- all are taking part in a real action. Iraq Veterans Against the War explains: IVAW's Afghanistan Resolution and National Mobilization March 21st As an organization of service men and women who have served in Iraq, Afghanistan, stateside, and around the world, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War have seen the impact that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have had on the people of these occupied countries and our fellow service members and veterans, as well as the cost of the wars at home and abroad. In recognition that our struggle to withdraw troops from Iraq and demand reparations for the Iraqi people is only part of the struggle to right the wrongs being committed in our name, Iraq Veterans Against the War has voted to adopt an official resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and reparations for the Afghan people. (To read the full resolution, click here.) To that end, Iraq Veterans Against the War will be joining a national coalition which is being mobilized to march on the Pentagon, March 21st, to demand the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and further our mission and goals in solidarity with the national anti-war movement. This demonstration will be the first opportunity to show President Obama and the new administration that our struggle was not only against the Bush administration - and that we will not sit around and hope that troops are removed under his rule, but that we will demand they be removed immediately. For more information on the March 21st March on the Pentagon, and additional events being organized in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Orlando, to include transportation, meetings, and how you can get involved, please visit: www.pentagonmarch.org or www.answercoalition.org.
Today the US Senate's Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Personnel held a hearing on suicides in the military. Senator Lindsey Graham is the Ranking [Republican] Member on the Subcommitee and he noted early on that the Army suicide rate has doubled since 2004, that the Air Force rate has been "neglible" (and he pointed out that the Air Force has had just as many deployments as other branches, he also noted that the Army deployments were longer than some branches), he felt the Marines and the Navy had a "pretty consistent rate" over the last years. US Marine Corps Assistant Commandant Gen James F. Amos explained that the Marine's rate went up in "'06, '07 and '08." This is a problem throughout the branches -- even in the Navy which has had a more steady rate (a steady rate is not zero).
Republican Senator John Cornyn does not serve on the Committee or the Subcommittee. He participated in the meeting because he has pressed the military to investigate the suicides among recruiters stationed in Texas -- pressed them last fall. Cornyn spoke briefly, noted he was intrested in finding out the why and hows and spoke of "saving families." He stated, "It doesn't seem taking one's life is what you would call a normal response" and he pointed out that not everyone in the service (or civilian life) takes their own life. He wondered, "Is this something you think we need to do a better job of identifying on the front end when someone is recrutinged into the military . . . [or] when they return from deployments?" He wanted to know what 'the key" was for intervention.
"That is a tough question," the Army's Vice Chief of Staff, Gen Peter Chiarellis said. "70% of those or greater, a little bit greater than that, had some sort of a relationship problem" at the time of their suicides. But these relationship problems were not the only factor, "it was compounded with something else" like deployments. Chiarellis wanted a "multi-discplinary approach" which would all for "attacking" it all points. "It's going to take a multi-disciplinary approach across the entire career of the soldier."
The Navy's Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Patrick Walsh spoke of influencing factors such as alcohol, it's "glamorization," the stigma attached to asking for help and noted the differences in what the individaul reports and what the family does. Amos would echo the reporting issue when later replying to Senator Susan Collins' questions and note that family members -- wives and mothers -- were more likely to disclose more about the stress or behaviors of the individual than was the individual. (Would this include husbands disclosing more? That wasn't addressed.) To Cornyn, Amos wanted to make it clear that he did not feel there was a problem at the intake end -- meaning he refuted the notion that the problem was the 'wrong' people were being admitted. Amos referred to boot camp and how it was "designed to do a whole lot of things," to put an individual through "a stressful environment" for the purpose of identifying "those areas where he or she needs improvement -- where he or she needs our help". As for Cornyn's "why," the Air Force's Vice Chief of Staff Gen William Fraser declared, "There's no one suicide that's exactly the same as another" which is why they investigate.
Senator Ben Nelson is the Committee Chair and he wanted to know what role help or assistance played in some of the suicides since "medical record reviews indicate of the recent victims that a majority" of those who took their own lives while serving had utilized some programs -- for drinking or other preventions -- and "while it's clear that they reached out for some help -- as their medical records would indicate, they still committed suicide. [. . .] What are your throughts on that fact? Prior use of the mental health services and yet it was not sufficient or may not have been sufficient -- it may have been something else that came along?"
"That is something that we are trying to understand better," Fraser responded and noted that a suicide case where the deceased attempted to receive help "automatically triggers a mental health investigation" that attempts to discovere "was there something that happened in their care?" He was not clear in response initially, so let's be clear here. This automatic investigation does not start when someone in the military seeks help or after they have received help. This investigation only kicks in if someone takes their own life (or is thought to have taken their own life) and records show that they sought help or assistance of some form -- at that point the investigation automatically kicks in.
Also of interest is that early on, Fraser would tell Senator Nelson, "We, too, are experiencing a shortage of mental health care providers . . . due to the shortage going on across the country."
The hearing is ongoing and the second panel is doing opening statements as I dictate this. Staying with the US military, Adam Levine (CNN) reports that Secretary Robert Gates declared today that stop loss is being phased out. Stop loss is the back door draft. When someone's service is over, they are informed that there service has been extended. Camilo Mejia was stop lossed -- and he was stop lossed illegally because he was not a member of the US and could not therefore be stop lossed. Levine notes that 13,217 service members have been stop-lossed as of January. Ann Scott Tyson (Washington Post) quotes Gates stating, ""I felt particularly in these numbers that it was breaking faith . . . [stop lossing them] To hold them against their will is just not the right thing to do." She also notes:
About 13,000 soldiers are serving in the Army under the stop-loss policy, nearly double the number of two years ago. Gates said the goal is to reduce that number by 50 percent by June 2010 and to bring it down to scores or less by March 2011.
Those numbers have climbed. And they have climbed as the Defense Dept has repeatedly told Congress that stop loss was ending. As noted in the February 26, 2008 "Iraq snapshot," the Senate's Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2009 and the Future Years Defense Program:
In regards to the issue of the months involved in a tour, the committee chair, Carl Levin, had to be rather specific repeatedly finally asking "shorthand, you have to drawdown to what level?" Levin also had to pin Casey and Geren down regarding stop-loss. Beaming, Geren declared that the Army will get the number of stop-lossed soldiers down to "a little less than 8,000 today" and insisted -- at length -- that the Army wanted to "move away from" using stop-loss. Stop-loss is the backdoor draft. It's when you're service contract is ending and you're told, "Forget what your contract says, you're staying." Pressed by Levin about the decrease in the number of soldiers stop-lossed that Geren was so optimistic about, the Secretary of the Army swallowed and stated, "It might get to 7,000." Wow. It might drop to 7,000. To hear him spin and spin before Levin pinned him down you would have thought the figure was going to be significantly below 5,000. Geren insisted, "We're growing this Army faster than we planned."
Hopefully Gates is being serious but this song and dance has taken place over and over and all that happens is the number of service members stop lossed continues to increase.
Maj Gen David A. Rubenstein, in his opening statement to the committee, just revealed that a soldier who was a motivational speaker with the PBI committe committed suicide. I believe he stated yesterday but he is saying 'We lost a soldier today'.
Let's go into some of today's reported violence in Iraq . . .
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad sticky bombing that wounded one police officer, a Mosul "suicide car bomber" who took his/her own life and the life of 1 police officer with three more and one civilian left wounded, a Baquba sticky bombing which claimed 1 life, a Baquba roadside bombing which claimed the lives of "a husband and wife," and dropping back to yesterday, "A roadside bomb targeted a U.S. military convoy near al Gzaiza Bridge, northern Basra at around 5 p.m. Tuesday. No comment was available from the U.S. military at time of publication." Reuters notes a Kirkuk bombing which left three people wounded.
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad attack on a vehicle with employees of the Interior Ministry which left two passengers wounded, a Mosul shooting that wounded "an employee of the displaced and emigration department," and 1 person shot dead in Mosul. Reuters notes 1 Iraqi soldier was shot dead in Mosul.
Today Matthew Schofield (McClatchy Newspapers) reports on the lack of potable water in Iraq, "Everybody complains about the water in Baghdad, and few are willing to risk drinking it from the tap. Six years after the U.S. invaded Iraq, 36 percent of Baghdad's drinking water is unsafe, according to the Iraqi Environment Ministry -- in a good month. In a bad month, it's 90 percent. Cholera broke out last summer, and officials fear another outbreak this year." And yet the UN will allow their WHO head in Iraq to blame the cholera outbreaks on Iraqi women. Schofield does the sort of reporting we might have expected all outlets to do as the sixth anniversary approached. Instead we get silence and we get ABC's World News Tonight. Charlie Gibson was huffing about "Dramatic changes, no where more dramatic than in Baghdad" last night as he rushed to set up Terry McCarthy for another "I was in Baghdad [with three bodyguards]. I'm not now. I will proclaim it safe now that I am out of Baghdad and no one should wonder why ABC and I have refused to do live reports from Iraq." Terry opened last night's 'report' with, "Snapshots of a city reborn. Speed. Light. Style. This is Baghdad today. Where car bombs give way to car races. Where a once looted museum has been restored and reopened. Where --"Stop the tape and zoom in on Terry McCarthy's last lie. Baghdad's museum -- the "looted museum" -- has been restored and reopened? In what world? Reality from when the museum 'opened' for one day (Feb. 23rd). "As for when the rest of Iraq will be able to see the museum, that's unclear. Iraqi guards Monday afternoon told journalists it would be a couple of months," notes the Los Angeles Times' Babylon & Beyond (credited that way here and in the snapshot Feb. 23rd because no writer is named in the blog post). That's really the heart of the story. You had a limited, for-show opening. Sudarsan Raghavan and K.I. Ibrahim's "Six Years After Its Pillage, Iraqi Museum to Reopen" (Washington Post) reported puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki insists the 'opening' indicates an "embrace of democracy" -- embrace by who and of what by whom? Democracy for invited guests only? The reporters provide this background:Founded in 1923, the museum in central Baghdad once contained important pieces from the Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian periods, as well as from the Stone Age. After the collapse of Saddam Hussein's government, thieves carried away thousands of important artifacts; U.S. troops did nothing to stop the looting, drawing intense criticism from Iraqis as well as the international community. Since then, a massive effort has been underway by Iraqi ministries and foreign governments to restore the stolen pieces, which Iraq estimated at as many as 15,000. According to the United Nations' cultural arm, UNESCO, as many as 7,000 pieces are still missing, including 50 items of historical importance. Steven Lee Myers' "Far From Whole, Iraq Museum That Was Looted Reopens" covered the topic for the New York Times and Myers has previously covered the topic for the paper. His best moment may be his judgment call that "2,700-year-old stone reliefs from the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II at Khorsabad . . . eerily recalls the blast walls that protect buildings and divide streets in today's Baghdad." Terry stated last night on network TV that the museum was reopened and citizens were visiting it. LIE. It reopened for one day and it was the press and dignitaries only that could visit it. Check Myers' report on the woman outside the museum. They should be ashamed of themselves at ABC 'News.' Dahr Jamail is back in Iraq and without any bodyguards. He doesn't get to be on ABC News. He doesn't get to be much of anywhere but that may come from reporting on the ground from Iraq and not including the happy spin that people like Charlie Gibson are so in need of. From his latest report:
For centuries, artists, writers, and intellectuals have been meeting in Baghdad's teahouses over tulip-shaped glasses of sweet lemon tea, cigarettes, and shisha pipes.
A car bomb detonated near one of the oldest teahouses a year-and-a-half ago, causing massive destruction around the area. When it reopened recently, Mohammed Al-Mumain, a 59-year-old biology teacher resumed his visits there. The portly, jovial teacher brought tea for my colleague and I before settling to talk, "The mind needs art and education. I come here because the lamp needs electricity. The lamp of my mind, like that in all of us, needs to discuss and review life continually. That feeds me. When I come here I feel like a teenager again. All that I need, the old culture along with the new, I find here."
His eloquence was a pleasure as he proceeded, "Life is interaction. Anywhere, anytime, any moment, we are changing. Our biology and blood pressure changes, and interactions, whether positive or negative, bring us change. Some people resist change, others accept it. It depends upon the culture of the man or woman. This is why we need our art, because it connects us with what has brought us here, and reminds us of where we are headed."
By exploring the human condition, art brings about new insights into the human ability to relate and communicate. By appealing to finer human emotions, it creates a framework of values in society, while giving us a context in which to grasp our relationship to the universe.
While Dahr offers reality and real reporting, you need to consider how many are staying silent and read Betty's "Our childish press" which really says it all.
In other news, we don't cover scandals or 'scandals' so we've ignored the attempts to attack one of the hardest working members in Congress but Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report) has weighed in and his article is essential reading. The same people were behind other attacks, for example, they derailed the anti-war Jack Murtha and allowed Steny Hoyer to be installed as Nancy Pelosi's right hand (and they continue to attack Murtha). Maybe it's time they were examined because those losers have done a lot of damage. Who do they work for, this 'organization' that just suddenly sprouted up? It's a question to ask and it's one the DC press is whispering about. We'll note this from Bruce Dixon (Black Agenda Report) on the response to Rev Jesse Jackson's people-empowered campaigns:
The threat to Democratic party leaders faded after the '84 and '88 elections, when Jackson demobilized his people into the existing structures of the Democratic party. But the lesson was not lost on Democratic Party leaders. In the wake of the small-d democratic upsurge of the 1980s they cemented their hold on the Democratic Pary by founding the Democratic Leadership Council. The DLC assured them access to the same sources of corporate funding as Republicans, and on the same basis. As long as Democrats carried the water of big insurance, big pharma, the airlines, the energy companies and Wall Street, as long as DLC-funded candidates could speak for the party's base rather than allowing that base to speak for itself, and as along as the Democratic base was sent home between elections, Democrats would be assured a steady stream of corporate funding.
In a generation, the nation's elite educational institutions along with think tanks from the Manhattan Institute to the Rand Institute, and funding from corporate foundations, would incubate a new generation of "black leaders," the Cory Bookers, the Artur Davises, and finally Barack Obama. While paying expert lip service to the tradition of African American struggle for human rights and economic justice, the new-style leaders declare themselves "pragmatic, not dogmatic," and actively oppose the interests of the constituents that make their careers possible.The so-called New Democrats with whom Barack Obama identifies are, next to the House Blue Dogs, the most rightwing of Democratic reps in Congress, with considerable overlap between the two groups. In fact, several House New Democrats are also Blue Dogs. New Democrats supported the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and continual increases in the military budget. They all supported the bailout, and uphold No Child Left Behind and favor the gradual dismantling and privatization of public education in the US which NCLB set in motion. New Democrats are tepid at best on the Employee Free Choice Act, which would give workers across the country the legal standing workers have in many other advanced industrial countries to fight for wage and benefit increases and respect and dignity on the job.
iraq
adam kokesh
cbs newsthe cbs evening news with katie courickatie couric
nbc nightly newsbrian williamsjim miklaszewskipeoples weekly world
abc world news tonightcharlie gibsonterry mccarthy
the new york timesrob nordland
the washington postann scott tyson
sahar issa
matthew schofield
mcclatchy newspapers
dahr jamail
steven lee myersk.i. ibrahimsudarsan raghavan
glen fordbruce dixon
iraq veterans against the wara.n.s.w.e.r.world can't wait
thomas friedman is a great man
3/18/2009
3/17/2009
be outraged
The Obama administration has proposed to bill veterans' private insurance companies for combat-related injuries. But the plan has incited an uproar on Capitol Hill and charges from veterans groups that the plan is unethical and would further burden the war-wounded and their families.
The proposal, which would save the Department of Veterans Affairs $530 million a year, threatens to complicate the new administration's relations with the 25 million Americans who have served in the military.
The plan would authorize the VA to pursue reimbursement of medical costs from private insurers, or so-called third-party billing, for treating injuries and medical conditions sustained in the course of a veteran's military service. The VA already pursues third-party billing for non-service-related conditions.
the above is from ann scott tyson's 'Obama Administration Proposes Third-Party Billing for Combat-Related Injuries' (washington post) and thanks to c.i. for passing it on.
barack's proposing what!!!!!
that should be the reaction.
we should be outraged and offended.
we should be outraged by this as well, from mike mount (cnn):
Reports of sexual assault among U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan rose 26 percent from the previous year, according to an annual Pentagon report presented to Congress on Tuesday.
Among all active duty U.S. military troops, the Pentagon showed an increase of about 8 percent in sexual assault reports from the previous year.
Dr. Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office, told reporters she attributes the increases to improved reporting methods and officials' belief that military personnel are less fearful of backlash from commanders and peers after reporting an assault.
maybe the next time michelle obama wants to pretend she gives a damn about military families, she can be asked about that. maybe she doesn't hear about sexual assault or the economic problems when she just hob knobs with the military officer's wives.
that michelle, never has time for the common people except when the cameras are around. no wonder she and barack are so perfect for each other.
i'm sick as a dog tonight (which is why c.i. - after telling me to go to bed repeatedly and offering to guest post - called back and said, 'well use these links'). but i noted a.n.s.w.e.r. already this week and i want to note this from world can't wait:
6 Years of US in Iraq/Escalation in Afghanistan
Humanity is in Mourning over millions of deaths & two countries destroyed
Stop Occupations & Torture for Empire! The World Can't Wait!
Come OUT to the first national protests of U.S. occupations under President Obama:
THURSDAY March 19 leave work & school to PROTEST the 6th anniversary of the Iraq War.
SATURDAY March 21 at the Pentagon (and SF & LA). Make our demands visible everywhere.
The U.S. war on Afghanistan is an unjust war of aggression-the supreme war crime, waged not to bring democracy and liberation to the Afghan people, but to control Afghanistan with the goal of permanent domination of the Middle East.
But, we don't have to go along!
It's immoral to "wait and see" or hope for the best from Obama. Do not begin accepting and supporting the very crimes that you so hated under Bush's presidency. These actions under Obama are just as immoral as they were under Bush. If you care about humanity, get in the streets to send a message to the world that there are millions of us who don't want these crimes carried out.
Download March 19 flyer & add your own location information.
Listen to radio announcement for Berkeley Protest at Marine Recruiters Station.
ADD your protest. FIND protests.
New flyer: Why We Demand All US Troops out of Afghanistan Now.
New York City Protest Plans Thursday March 19 1 PM. Converge at Union Square, 14th and Broadway. Rally to stop the occupations and torture. Statement to rally in NYC and at all events around the country by Chris Hedges, former NY Times Mid-East bureau chief. Music by Rebel Diaz, Marcel Cartier & Outernational
3 PM. March through the city in black, carrying an enormous black shroud symbolizing humanity's grief and opposition to US occupations of Iraq & Afghanistan. Some will wear orange jumpsuits to oppose continued secret rendition and torture. Guantanamo is still open, torture is still going on and must stop! Artists -- bring your visual displays of those killed in the occupations. Youth contingent will march to say We Are Not Your Soldiers! Obama as president does not change the illegitimate and immoral nature of the wars! Some will march with white masks in a "March of the Dead."
5 PM. Converge at Times Square Armed Forces Recruiting Station. 43rd & Broadway.. Obama wants 92,000 more for the Marines and Army to escalate the war in Afghanistan! We will deliver the black shroud to the recruiters.
Selected Protests Thursday March 19:
Allentown PA 11:30 AM 5th & Hamilton Streets
Atlanta GA 3:00 PM Georgia State University, Alderhold Learning Center, Room 24, 60 Luckie St. 4:30 PM March to CNNBerkeley CA: 3:00PM Rally @ MLK Park (next to Berkeley High School.) March to Marine Recruiters
Evanston IL 3:30 PM Church Street & Dodge Avenue
Honolulu HI All day at University of Hawai'I Manoa Architecture Courtyard and Auditorium
Louisville KY 3:00-6:00PM 6th and Jefferson Streets
Madison WI 6:00 PM Labor Temple, 1600 South Park Street
Miami FL 7:30pm MOCA Plaza, 770 NE 125th Street
Nashville TN 4:30PM - 6:30PM 2501 West End Avenue
Rockford IL 5:00 PM Hillcrest & Alpine
Rockland ME 12 noon-1:00 PM, corner of Main and Park
San Antonio TX 4-6:30 PM. FLORES ST/COMMERCE San Antonio City Hall
Seattle WA 12:00 noon Army Recruiting Center 23rd Avenue & South Jackson Street
Washington DC: Our Spring Break! 10:30 AM - 3:00 PM Franklin Park (13th and K St. NW) Reconvene at 17th and Constitution at 1:00 PM.
More details and other events
**Saturday, March 21: March on the Pentagon with people from all over the east coast & the Midwest. Meet World Can't Wait at the SE corner of 23rd Street & Constitution beginning at 10am. Look for orange posters & jumpsuits. We'll be brining the demand "Stop Occupations and TORTURE for Empire! The World Can't Wait!"
Get bus tickets and transportation information from the ANSWER Coalition
Everybody's talking about crime, crime, but who are the criminals? -- Peter Tosh
From the "better to look forward department" of the Obama administration comes news that detainees in Afghanistan won't have habeas corpus rights, and that indefinite detention will continue, although the term "enemy combatant" is history. More from worldcantwait.org:
Amnesty International Says Bush Policies are Coming Back as Obama administration retains indefinite detention. David Swanson points out today that these "policies" are crimes. For more outrageous specifics, read Andy Worthington in Guantánamo: The Nobodies Formerly Known As Enemy Combatants and Dennis Loo on habeas corpus in If You Undermine the Foundation, What Becomes of the Structure?
Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait
the world can't wait - even when i can't stop puking. i will be protesting this week. i hope you will be too. let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Tuesday, March 17, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, the US miltiary shoots a 12-year-old girl dead, Kristoffer Walker makes a decision, we grade All Things Media Big and Small (hint, it's a big-fat F for nearly everyone!) and more..
March 17, 2003, Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House and announced that Saddam Hussein and his sons had 48 hours to leave Iraq. In other words, get out of town by sundown after next. And the media ate it up as much as they ate up the non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction. It was wall to wall but not much time for anyone to point out that Bush sounded like the bully of the global village. That would have required 'reporters' and 'journalists' to use observational skills and that was a no-no. Why, back then, they couldn't even correct the false linkage by the White House of Iraq to 9-11. But they could bore the hell out of us. Ever wonder what it would be like to be an embed?
Look, there's NBC's Richard Engel bent over at the waist with a tooth brush in his mouth showing us what 'life' will be like in these bad, non-news, farmed out to all the NBC affiliates footage. Nightline spent the night yacking about Bully Boy's 'bravado,' but everyone had time to get giddy over the oncoming slaughter.
Now it's six years later and where is the media? Apparently ABC's Nightline didn't disgrace itself enough with last night's freak story on the "memory like a hard drive" man. No, tonight they will answer the following (heavily promoted) question: "What happens when Jake Tapper and actor Pull Rudd 'accidentally touched hands?'" Yes, it should be "touch hands" but the steno pool that's taken over ABC News is just so giddy that their news-muffin Jake and Paul Rudd got a little hand contact. See, there are two names and that's a who! And their hands touch so that's a what! Who and What!!!! If they can just find a "when," they're pretty sure they've got a news story!!!!
It's the sixth anniversary of the start of the illegal war this week. The war the media sold. With their breathless and unsupported conjecture. They couldn't stop their heavy panting back then. Six years later and the illegal war drags on but their interest has gone limp. It was a case of premature declaration, you see. They just can't manage to muster the energy for Iraq these days.
Case in point, the evening news. ABC World News Tonight is 'reporting' on Iraq this week via a correspondent, Terry McCarthy, who is already out of Iraq. So it's really not a report so much as a recollection, apparently. Yesterday Charlie Gibson offered that upbeat coffee talk he served for years as the host of Good Morning America declaring "conditions there really are looking up." "There" would be Iraq. Last week Baghdad saw two of the worst bombings in months but, don't worry, baby, Charlie Gibson has a Beach Boys summer tune to sing. To watch the webcast, click here. Terry cites that ridiculous poll (we dealt with it yesterday). Whether the rest of the week will bring actual reporting or more propaganda passed off as 'reporting' -- when it doesn't even pass for editorial comment -- we'll see. It's a real shame that in this era of satellite phones, Terry McCarthy and ABC want to do commentaries as opposed to on-the-spot reporting. But probably on-the-spot reporting doesn't allow Terry the luxury of grabbing a shiny ribbon and tying a pretty bow around everything -- reality rarely does. Be sure to tune in tonight as Terry shows more slides from MidEast vacation.On The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric yesterday, Lara Logan interviewed (link has text and video) Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen who opened with, "Billions of dollars were wasted in the Iraqi reconstruction enterprise" and that "$32 billion later, we don't know a whole lot about what's happened to that money." Bowen's been asked to offer input on Afghanistan reconstruction. That was it for Iraq reporting on CBS. NBC Nightly News was far too busy promoting The Tonight Show (and it's 'big' guest) to be bothered with doing too much else. Commercials are hard, aren't they Bri-Bri Williams?
Gee, if the networks had shown so little interest in the Iraq War this time in 2003, maybe it wouldn't have started? If they hadn't wasted your time and their own with baseless claims treated as fact, if they hadn't willingly marched to the drumbeat of war . . . That's "what if" and the press doesn't like to play that game -- except when it comes to their benefits. They deal in realities and the reality is they should pretty much all be out on the street because they're not doing much of anything. As the American people has grasped more and more that they were lied into an illegal war, you might think broadcasters would use the week of the sixth anniversary to review that. They wouldn't have to own up to their own mistakes, they could just present the claims by the White House in 2003 and fact check them now. They could do, something, anything to indicate that they gave a damn that the illegal war they sold continues. Nothing they did last night indicated they had any regrets or, for that matter, awareness. Over at public television, Jim Lehrer did what the commercial networks couldn't bother with. Headlines on PBS' NewsHour included Lerher noting, "Also today an American soldier was fatally injured during combat operations in Baghdad."
Six years is a long time. Children who were seven-years-old when the Iraq War started are now thirteen. Unless they're Iraqi children then they may be thirteen-years-old or, just as likely, they may be dead after their country being torn apart by six years of war and occupation. But, hey, Terry McCarthy was able to dine out and he only required three bodyguards for it -- that's three bodyguards which, for the record, ABC News failed to reveal to viewers. But Charlie couldn't shoot in his shorts while coozing that things were better in Iraq if viewers got to know that even in 'safe' Iraq, ABC News' fly-in correspondent traveled with multiple bodyguards.
That's Big Media. What about Panhandle Media? The Progressive is on spring break apparently. Who knows what Matty Rothschild will get tattooed on his fat ass before the week's over? But Iraq? Nothing. Pope and AIDS? Check. Ruth Conniff bubbling on about things she'll never understand? Absolutely! Anyone doing a damn thing that matters? Hell no, it's pathetic Matthew Rothschild. The man who thinks it's 'cute' when a woman's called the c-word, so cute that he has to link to it, even if it means The "Progressive" links to The Weekly Standard.
The Nation? Matty can take comfort that they're actually worse than The Progressive. While the former mag does nothing period, The Nation offers non-stop content that never says a damn thing. That tends to happen when LIE FACE Melissa Harris Lacewell (the latest chins on that woman are frightening -- she's truly getting the face she deserves) is brought in. Let's all be honest, Melissa Harris Lacewell is not a journalist, not an academic. She is a LIE FACE. Only a LIE FACE goes on TV to offer 'observations' about the candidates in the Democratic Party primary and 'forgets' to tell the audience that she's campaigning for one candidate (Barack Obama) and that she's been doing it since 2007. Only a LIE FACE tells Charlie Rose that people are ticked off at Tavis Smiley and 'forgets' to inform that this is the latest astro-turf campaign she's kicked off and she kicked it off with her "Who Died and Made Tavis King?" Melissa's a LIE FACE. Which makes The Nation a perfect fit for her. She can't write and that is always a plus at The Nation as well. She has no original thoughts or, for that matter, what might be seen as deep thoughts. It's as if she's finally been welcomed home to her mother ship. There's no time for Iraq at The Nation. They have a financial crisis! The kind that they've long wanted. Sadly, even in the midst of their wet dreaming, they can't muster anything worth reading.
In These Times is aware the Iraq War hasn't ended and they offer David Enders' "A Nation Divided: If the war in Iraq is winding down, what does peace look like?" which includes:
On one street corner, I asked the half-dozen men standing there how many of them had lost an immediate relative -- all claimed they had. Some raised shirts to show shrapnel wounds.
The United Nations recently estimated that as many as 500,000 of the approximately 2 million Iraqi refugees who fled the country might return this year. But they won't necessarily be returning to the houses, neighborhoods or cities from which they fled. Many are simply returning because they can no longer afford to stay in neighboring countries, especially Syria, where Iraqis refugees struggle to obtain official work permits.
"The Americans provided no security, they did nothing for us," says Hussein Fadhil, a Shiite and one of the estimated 2,000 people who remained throughout the fighting, despite the death of his father to a mortar. "They told us they didn't know where the mortars were being fired from."
In These Times is the exception to the rule. The almost folded up and doors closed LeftTurn has nothing to offer but that's been the case for, what, two years now? Three? Meanwhile at intentional distraction Yes! Magazine . . . nothing. They're paid to do nothing and to offer nothing and they live up to the purpose very well. WalkOn, WalkOn.org. The New Republic? Not a damn thing. They could have had a link but not a damn thing. Harper's magazine? Not a damn thing. Now Scott Horton can bore us -- and insult his own education -- by writing today about Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck, he just can't tackle the Iraq War. Pravda on the Hudson's Amy Goodman serves up War Hawk Juan Cole to talk about "Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel and Beyond" -- no link to garbage. Juan Cole flutters and flaps in the wind. In the segment Iraq gets a little more time than Saudi Arabia. "But Saudi Arabia isn't even in the title of the segment!" No, it's not. But if you need to hear Juan Cole declare, "Well, you know, for me, the issue is not so much the rate at which the United States withdraws from Iraq" -- well, if you need to hear that, you're one sick f**k -- in which case Juan Cole probably is a perfect match for you. Let us know where you're registered, we'll get you a nice gift.
KPFA's The Morning Show is the audio exception as In These Times is the print one. Today Philip Maldari interviewed Thomas E. Ricks, author of the new bestseller The Gamble. In the excerpt below they're discussing the "Awakeing" Councils.
Philip Maldari: Well we've got a situation that's very dicey though. We've got 100,000 young men with guns on the payroll -- the Sunni militias, we've got a Shia dominat central government in Baghdad that is not particularly interested in integrating this 100,000 force into the largely Shia government army and consequently the government in Baghdad is very nervous about the possibility of the US funding a force that ultimately could become their rival in a civil war.
Thomas E. Ricks: As one Shi'ite politician says in the book, "Baby crocodiles are cute but you can't keep adult crocidiles in the house." And the feeling of a lot of a lot of the Shi'ite leadership is the Americans have been feeding baby crocodiles and then we're going to bug out at them and leave them to deal with these adult crocodiles snapping at them. This is one reason that I say in the book while I have a lot of admiration for what the American military did in Iraq over the last couple of years, especially the people who were against the war but thought that they should try to help the Americans minimize the damage, despite all of that, my conclusion is that the surge failed. There's a conventional wisdom in this country that the surge succeeded and that the war is over -- and I think both those conclusions are badly wrong and dangerous because they repeat the over optimism of the Bush administration id dealing with Iraq.
Phillip Maldarai: So, um, if it failed -- it doesn't -- deaths are down right now, uh, there are these massacres, these suicide bombings but there are fewer of them, uh, and we're seeing fewer US military personnel being ambushed and killed but are you saying this is just the lull before the storm?
Thomas E. Ricks: I'm saying that the surge kicked the can down the road. That it probably is a lull before the storm because the purpose of the surge was to improve security but not just to improve security for itself -- to improve security to create a breathing space in which a political breakthrough would occur. Well here the surge is over and none of the questions that faced Iraq before the surge have been solved. All the big questions are still hanging fire out there. For example, how do you share oil revenue? Another is will Iraq have a strong central government in Baghdad or be a loose confederation? A third is what is the basic relationship between Sunni, Shia, Kurd? A fourth is who holds power within the Shia community? A fifth is what is the role of Iran which, by the way, is the big winner in the war so far? All these questions are still out there, all these questions have led to violence in the past, all of them may well lead to violence again.
Phillip Maldari: My guest is Thomas Ricks, his current book The Gamble: General David Petreaus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq 2006 - 2008. We've sort of left out of the picture Muqtada al-Sadr -- the rebel cleric leading a huge Shia militia in the slums of Baghdad. He and his militia have agreed to stand down for the time being but these men are fully armed, they, uh, are militant. They are, at times, quite critical of the centeral government even though the central government is also Shia and they at any time can decide to go back to combat, right?
Thomas E. Ricks: They can. And Ambassador Crocker, who is one of America's most experienced diplomats in the Middle East, talks about Lebanon as the future of Iraq. People don't seem to want to hear him when he says that. Here's a guy who has lived in Lebanon, actually was in the US embassy when it was blown up and about three doz - or four dozen of his colleagues were killed. When he talks about Iraq as Lebanon, what he means is exactly you'll have outfits like Sadr who has a role in the government but also has an independent militia outside the government. And that's very much the model that Hizbollah has pursued in Lebanon. It's not a model for civility, nor is it a model for a country at peace with its neighbors.
Phillip Maldari: Well and we're going to see the Sunni minority in Iraq with -- with their militia, 100,000 well armed young men, and we're spending what? 30 million dollars a month to pay them?
Thomas E. Ricks: We were. We're trying to make the Baghdad government pay it now and they're kind of cranky about that as you might expect
Phillip Malderi: But is that going to go on indefinitely? I mean if we ever cut off the flow of money, what would happen?
Thomas E. Ricks: Well they're supposed to become part of the Iraqi army, we'll see. This is one of the big questions: Will that work out? This is -- I mean, you're pointing to all the reasons that I think Iraq is a far more troubled place than Americans seem to think it is. This is why I'm very concerned when President Obama talks about getting out of Iraq quickly that he's not departing from President Bush but that he's repeating the mistakes of President Bush. Bush didn't invade Iraq and say, "Listen I have a great idea, let's invade Iraq and get stuck there for ten years." He said, "Let's go into Iraq and get out quickly." The original American war plan was to be down to 30,000 troops by September 2003. When Obama talks about getting down to 30,000 to 50,000 troops by August or September of next year that sounds a lot to me like Bush.
We found two exceptions in an allegedly 'diverse' and 'alternative' media. Reality tells on them. Another example would be Kristoffer Walker. The 28-year-old Iraq War veteran's name was mentioned by the bulk of Panhandle Media. Search the archives of Democracy Now! and you'll never find his name mentioned, not even in a headline. Amy Goodman never had time for the soldier who told the military "no." Last month he went public with his decision not to return to Iraq. If he was hoping for the kind of support he needed, he really didn't get it. Associated Press covered him, his state's media (Wisconsin) covered him and that was pretty much it. Some websites covered him. At his website, he links to Courage to Resist but Courage to Resist never covered him, never did a blurb on him. A US soldier -- in the US -- announces he's not returning and Courage to Resist can't cover it? Sarah can bore us all with her hopes and dreams of Bambi Obama but Courage to Resist can't make time to cover Kristoffer? That's f**king bulls**t. And before they ask for money again, they need to explain how the hell that happened. I'm not joking and I'm not in the mood to be nice. Kristoffer needed support. He needed his story to be told. And who the hell bothered to help? Wisconsin? Hmmm. Madison Wisconsin. Home of Matthew Rothschild! But of course The Progressive didn't have time for Kristoffer.
He went public about needing an attorney. He made it clear that he was struggling and he needed support. Not money; support. He didn't get it. He never got it. Not what he needed. Not what he deserved. Not what his brave stand warranted. The sixth anniversary of the illegal war will be 'celebrated' by Kristoffer returning to Iraq. To a war he's called not only illegal but immoral. He explains to WFRV that, "the Army has a gun to my head. They have the authority to level an incredible amount of force against me and can thereby ruin my life. I have been placed in a very dangerous situation. It is not my intention to allow the Army to use their gun and ruin my life." It's too bad so few cared about Kristoffer or his stand. It's too bad that when we have someone stand up and say "no," no support group emerges. No one's there to provide the system of support needed. It's too bad. And it sends a message. But don't worry, everyone, Mitch Jesserich is in love with Barack and thinks his laughable audio "letters" fawning over Barack, using the a Beatles love song, a love song John wrote for Yoko, to 'illustrate' what America feels for a president? How f**king pathetic and how offensive to the actual love that John and Yoko had. Is there one damn grown up left in Panhandle Media? If so, can they please send Mitch to a lengthy time out? Mitch, while you were juking on tape and smirking at your smutty wet dreams, a real world was out there and people were struggling. They weren't the egg heads from Harvard, but their lives did matter even if you do everything you can to render them invisible. Ehren Watada. Still no decision. Still in the US military. All this time later. It happens because of people like Mitch. It happens because it's more improtant to people like Mitch that a fan club for Barack exists -- that they build a fan club -- than that a war be ended or that those who speak out against it get the recognition they deserve. Kristoffer Walker was betrayed by the alleged 'anti-war' movement in the US. They had no time for him. They were too busy fingering themselves and moaning "Barack."
The illegal war hits the six year mark this Thursday and World Can't Wait offers a list of other cities holding demonstrations. The Grannies Peace Brigade is kicking things off early in NYC on Wednesday with a demonstration at noon, 44th St and Broadway, outside the Time Square recruiting station. Saturday, those wanting to call out the illegal war can join with groups such as The National Assembly to End the Wars, the ANSWER coalition, World Can't Wait and Iraq Veterans Against the War -- all are taking part in a real action. Iraq Veterans Against the War explains:IVAW's Afghanistan Resolution and National Mobilization March 21st As an organization of service men and women who have served in Iraq, Afghanistan, stateside, and around the world, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War have seen the impact that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have had on the people of these occupied countries and our fellow service members and veterans, as well as the cost of the wars at home and abroad. In recognition that our struggle to withdraw troops from Iraq and demand reparations for the Iraqi people is only part of the struggle to right the wrongs being committed in our name, Iraq Veterans Against the War has voted to adopt an official resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and reparations for the Afghan people. (To read the full resolution, click here.) To that end, Iraq Veterans Against the War will be joining a national coalition which is being mobilized to march on the Pentagon, March 21st, to demand the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and further our mission and goals in solidarity with the national anti-war movement. This demonstration will be the first opportunity to show President Obama and the new administration that our struggle was not only against the Bush administration - and that we will not sit around and hope that troops are removed under his rule, but that we will demand they be removed immediately. For more information on the March 21st March on the Pentagon, and additional events being organized in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Orlando, to include transportation, meetings, and how you can get involved, please visit: www.pentagonmarch.org or www.answercoalition.org.
Please note CounterPunch and Dissident Voice regularly cover Iraq -- they weren't included in the above for that reason. US Socialist Worker usually covers Iraq as well. In terms of Kristoffer Walker, he was ignored by all three outlets. AP reports on Kristoffer's decision here. Tony Walter reports on it for the Green Bay Press-Gazette here.
Meanwhile Missy Ryan, Mohammed Abbas, Ahmed Rasheed and Samia Nakhoul (Reuters) offer the sort of overview the MSM should be providing on the sixth anniversary:
People like analyst Ghassan al-Attiyyah blame the United States for stoking sectarian and ethnic killing as they sought in the early days to empower majority Shi'ites sidelined under Saddam's Sunni-led regime and to forge a government that represented the majority. "They failed to understand Iraq. They made great mistakes, basically enhancing divisions among Iraqis," said Attiyyah, who heads the Iraq Foundation for Democracy and Development. Today, the U.S. military approach is seen as more adroit, based more on community outreach and tutoring increasingly competent, though far from independent, local forces rather than using sheer force. But some say it's far too late. "The genie was let out of the bottle, and society is now polarised between sectarian and ethnic forces," Attiyyah said.
It's not as 'fun' as Jake Tapper and Paul Rudd cock-knocking around possibly but it would qualify as news.
The illegal war continued today and so did the violence . . .
Shootings?
Sahar Issa and Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) report the US military shot (wrongly) at a civilian car, missed the car and killed a 12-year-old gril who was "passing by," 1 person was shot dead in Mosul, 1 college student was shot dead in Mosul, 1 suspect was shot dead by police in Mosul, unknown assailants shot dead 1 Iraqi soldier in Mosul and 1 person was shot dead in Diyala Province today.
Corpses?
Sahar Issa and Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) report 1 corpse (Iraqi soldier) was discovered in Qayara adn 2 corpses were discovered in Aluthaim.
iraq
abc world news tonightcharlie gibsonterry mccarthythe cbs evening news with katie couriclara logannbc nightly newsbrian williamspbsthe newshourjim lehrer
thomas e. ricks
philip maldari
kpfathe morning show
missy ryanmohammed abbasahmed rasheedsamia nakhoul
The proposal, which would save the Department of Veterans Affairs $530 million a year, threatens to complicate the new administration's relations with the 25 million Americans who have served in the military.
The plan would authorize the VA to pursue reimbursement of medical costs from private insurers, or so-called third-party billing, for treating injuries and medical conditions sustained in the course of a veteran's military service. The VA already pursues third-party billing for non-service-related conditions.
the above is from ann scott tyson's 'Obama Administration Proposes Third-Party Billing for Combat-Related Injuries' (washington post) and thanks to c.i. for passing it on.
barack's proposing what!!!!!
that should be the reaction.
we should be outraged and offended.
we should be outraged by this as well, from mike mount (cnn):
Reports of sexual assault among U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan rose 26 percent from the previous year, according to an annual Pentagon report presented to Congress on Tuesday.
Among all active duty U.S. military troops, the Pentagon showed an increase of about 8 percent in sexual assault reports from the previous year.
Dr. Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office, told reporters she attributes the increases to improved reporting methods and officials' belief that military personnel are less fearful of backlash from commanders and peers after reporting an assault.
maybe the next time michelle obama wants to pretend she gives a damn about military families, she can be asked about that. maybe she doesn't hear about sexual assault or the economic problems when she just hob knobs with the military officer's wives.
that michelle, never has time for the common people except when the cameras are around. no wonder she and barack are so perfect for each other.
i'm sick as a dog tonight (which is why c.i. - after telling me to go to bed repeatedly and offering to guest post - called back and said, 'well use these links'). but i noted a.n.s.w.e.r. already this week and i want to note this from world can't wait:
6 Years of US in Iraq/Escalation in Afghanistan
Humanity is in Mourning over millions of deaths & two countries destroyed
Stop Occupations & Torture for Empire! The World Can't Wait!
Come OUT to the first national protests of U.S. occupations under President Obama:
THURSDAY March 19 leave work & school to PROTEST the 6th anniversary of the Iraq War.
SATURDAY March 21 at the Pentagon (and SF & LA). Make our demands visible everywhere.
The U.S. war on Afghanistan is an unjust war of aggression-the supreme war crime, waged not to bring democracy and liberation to the Afghan people, but to control Afghanistan with the goal of permanent domination of the Middle East.
But, we don't have to go along!
It's immoral to "wait and see" or hope for the best from Obama. Do not begin accepting and supporting the very crimes that you so hated under Bush's presidency. These actions under Obama are just as immoral as they were under Bush. If you care about humanity, get in the streets to send a message to the world that there are millions of us who don't want these crimes carried out.
Download March 19 flyer & add your own location information.
Listen to radio announcement for Berkeley Protest at Marine Recruiters Station.
ADD your protest. FIND protests.
New flyer: Why We Demand All US Troops out of Afghanistan Now.
New York City Protest Plans Thursday March 19 1 PM. Converge at Union Square, 14th and Broadway. Rally to stop the occupations and torture. Statement to rally in NYC and at all events around the country by Chris Hedges, former NY Times Mid-East bureau chief. Music by Rebel Diaz, Marcel Cartier & Outernational
3 PM. March through the city in black, carrying an enormous black shroud symbolizing humanity's grief and opposition to US occupations of Iraq & Afghanistan. Some will wear orange jumpsuits to oppose continued secret rendition and torture. Guantanamo is still open, torture is still going on and must stop! Artists -- bring your visual displays of those killed in the occupations. Youth contingent will march to say We Are Not Your Soldiers! Obama as president does not change the illegitimate and immoral nature of the wars! Some will march with white masks in a "March of the Dead."
5 PM. Converge at Times Square Armed Forces Recruiting Station. 43rd & Broadway.. Obama wants 92,000 more for the Marines and Army to escalate the war in Afghanistan! We will deliver the black shroud to the recruiters.
Selected Protests Thursday March 19:
Allentown PA 11:30 AM 5th & Hamilton Streets
Atlanta GA 3:00 PM Georgia State University, Alderhold Learning Center, Room 24, 60 Luckie St. 4:30 PM March to CNNBerkeley CA: 3:00PM Rally @ MLK Park (next to Berkeley High School.) March to Marine Recruiters
Evanston IL 3:30 PM Church Street & Dodge Avenue
Honolulu HI All day at University of Hawai'I Manoa Architecture Courtyard and Auditorium
Louisville KY 3:00-6:00PM 6th and Jefferson Streets
Madison WI 6:00 PM Labor Temple, 1600 South Park Street
Miami FL 7:30pm MOCA Plaza, 770 NE 125th Street
Nashville TN 4:30PM - 6:30PM 2501 West End Avenue
Rockford IL 5:00 PM Hillcrest & Alpine
Rockland ME 12 noon-1:00 PM, corner of Main and Park
San Antonio TX 4-6:30 PM. FLORES ST/COMMERCE San Antonio City Hall
Seattle WA 12:00 noon Army Recruiting Center 23rd Avenue & South Jackson Street
Washington DC: Our Spring Break! 10:30 AM - 3:00 PM Franklin Park (13th and K St. NW) Reconvene at 17th and Constitution at 1:00 PM.
More details and other events
**Saturday, March 21: March on the Pentagon with people from all over the east coast & the Midwest. Meet World Can't Wait at the SE corner of 23rd Street & Constitution beginning at 10am. Look for orange posters & jumpsuits. We'll be brining the demand "Stop Occupations and TORTURE for Empire! The World Can't Wait!"
Get bus tickets and transportation information from the ANSWER Coalition
Everybody's talking about crime, crime, but who are the criminals? -- Peter Tosh
From the "better to look forward department" of the Obama administration comes news that detainees in Afghanistan won't have habeas corpus rights, and that indefinite detention will continue, although the term "enemy combatant" is history. More from worldcantwait.org:
Amnesty International Says Bush Policies are Coming Back as Obama administration retains indefinite detention. David Swanson points out today that these "policies" are crimes. For more outrageous specifics, read Andy Worthington in Guantánamo: The Nobodies Formerly Known As Enemy Combatants and Dennis Loo on habeas corpus in If You Undermine the Foundation, What Becomes of the Structure?
Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait
the world can't wait - even when i can't stop puking. i will be protesting this week. i hope you will be too. let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Tuesday, March 17, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, the US miltiary shoots a 12-year-old girl dead, Kristoffer Walker makes a decision, we grade All Things Media Big and Small (hint, it's a big-fat F for nearly everyone!) and more..
March 17, 2003, Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House and announced that Saddam Hussein and his sons had 48 hours to leave Iraq. In other words, get out of town by sundown after next. And the media ate it up as much as they ate up the non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction. It was wall to wall but not much time for anyone to point out that Bush sounded like the bully of the global village. That would have required 'reporters' and 'journalists' to use observational skills and that was a no-no. Why, back then, they couldn't even correct the false linkage by the White House of Iraq to 9-11. But they could bore the hell out of us. Ever wonder what it would be like to be an embed?
Look, there's NBC's Richard Engel bent over at the waist with a tooth brush in his mouth showing us what 'life' will be like in these bad, non-news, farmed out to all the NBC affiliates footage. Nightline spent the night yacking about Bully Boy's 'bravado,' but everyone had time to get giddy over the oncoming slaughter.
Now it's six years later and where is the media? Apparently ABC's Nightline didn't disgrace itself enough with last night's freak story on the "memory like a hard drive" man. No, tonight they will answer the following (heavily promoted) question: "What happens when Jake Tapper and actor Pull Rudd 'accidentally touched hands?'" Yes, it should be "touch hands" but the steno pool that's taken over ABC News is just so giddy that their news-muffin Jake and Paul Rudd got a little hand contact. See, there are two names and that's a who! And their hands touch so that's a what! Who and What!!!! If they can just find a "when," they're pretty sure they've got a news story!!!!
It's the sixth anniversary of the start of the illegal war this week. The war the media sold. With their breathless and unsupported conjecture. They couldn't stop their heavy panting back then. Six years later and the illegal war drags on but their interest has gone limp. It was a case of premature declaration, you see. They just can't manage to muster the energy for Iraq these days.
Case in point, the evening news. ABC World News Tonight is 'reporting' on Iraq this week via a correspondent, Terry McCarthy, who is already out of Iraq. So it's really not a report so much as a recollection, apparently. Yesterday Charlie Gibson offered that upbeat coffee talk he served for years as the host of Good Morning America declaring "conditions there really are looking up." "There" would be Iraq. Last week Baghdad saw two of the worst bombings in months but, don't worry, baby, Charlie Gibson has a Beach Boys summer tune to sing. To watch the webcast, click here. Terry cites that ridiculous poll (we dealt with it yesterday). Whether the rest of the week will bring actual reporting or more propaganda passed off as 'reporting' -- when it doesn't even pass for editorial comment -- we'll see. It's a real shame that in this era of satellite phones, Terry McCarthy and ABC want to do commentaries as opposed to on-the-spot reporting. But probably on-the-spot reporting doesn't allow Terry the luxury of grabbing a shiny ribbon and tying a pretty bow around everything -- reality rarely does. Be sure to tune in tonight as Terry shows more slides from MidEast vacation.On The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric yesterday, Lara Logan interviewed (link has text and video) Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen who opened with, "Billions of dollars were wasted in the Iraqi reconstruction enterprise" and that "$32 billion later, we don't know a whole lot about what's happened to that money." Bowen's been asked to offer input on Afghanistan reconstruction. That was it for Iraq reporting on CBS. NBC Nightly News was far too busy promoting The Tonight Show (and it's 'big' guest) to be bothered with doing too much else. Commercials are hard, aren't they Bri-Bri Williams?
Gee, if the networks had shown so little interest in the Iraq War this time in 2003, maybe it wouldn't have started? If they hadn't wasted your time and their own with baseless claims treated as fact, if they hadn't willingly marched to the drumbeat of war . . . That's "what if" and the press doesn't like to play that game -- except when it comes to their benefits. They deal in realities and the reality is they should pretty much all be out on the street because they're not doing much of anything. As the American people has grasped more and more that they were lied into an illegal war, you might think broadcasters would use the week of the sixth anniversary to review that. They wouldn't have to own up to their own mistakes, they could just present the claims by the White House in 2003 and fact check them now. They could do, something, anything to indicate that they gave a damn that the illegal war they sold continues. Nothing they did last night indicated they had any regrets or, for that matter, awareness. Over at public television, Jim Lehrer did what the commercial networks couldn't bother with. Headlines on PBS' NewsHour included Lerher noting, "Also today an American soldier was fatally injured during combat operations in Baghdad."
Six years is a long time. Children who were seven-years-old when the Iraq War started are now thirteen. Unless they're Iraqi children then they may be thirteen-years-old or, just as likely, they may be dead after their country being torn apart by six years of war and occupation. But, hey, Terry McCarthy was able to dine out and he only required three bodyguards for it -- that's three bodyguards which, for the record, ABC News failed to reveal to viewers. But Charlie couldn't shoot in his shorts while coozing that things were better in Iraq if viewers got to know that even in 'safe' Iraq, ABC News' fly-in correspondent traveled with multiple bodyguards.
That's Big Media. What about Panhandle Media? The Progressive is on spring break apparently. Who knows what Matty Rothschild will get tattooed on his fat ass before the week's over? But Iraq? Nothing. Pope and AIDS? Check. Ruth Conniff bubbling on about things she'll never understand? Absolutely! Anyone doing a damn thing that matters? Hell no, it's pathetic Matthew Rothschild. The man who thinks it's 'cute' when a woman's called the c-word, so cute that he has to link to it, even if it means The "Progressive" links to The Weekly Standard.
The Nation? Matty can take comfort that they're actually worse than The Progressive. While the former mag does nothing period, The Nation offers non-stop content that never says a damn thing. That tends to happen when LIE FACE Melissa Harris Lacewell (the latest chins on that woman are frightening -- she's truly getting the face she deserves) is brought in. Let's all be honest, Melissa Harris Lacewell is not a journalist, not an academic. She is a LIE FACE. Only a LIE FACE goes on TV to offer 'observations' about the candidates in the Democratic Party primary and 'forgets' to tell the audience that she's campaigning for one candidate (Barack Obama) and that she's been doing it since 2007. Only a LIE FACE tells Charlie Rose that people are ticked off at Tavis Smiley and 'forgets' to inform that this is the latest astro-turf campaign she's kicked off and she kicked it off with her "Who Died and Made Tavis King?" Melissa's a LIE FACE. Which makes The Nation a perfect fit for her. She can't write and that is always a plus at The Nation as well. She has no original thoughts or, for that matter, what might be seen as deep thoughts. It's as if she's finally been welcomed home to her mother ship. There's no time for Iraq at The Nation. They have a financial crisis! The kind that they've long wanted. Sadly, even in the midst of their wet dreaming, they can't muster anything worth reading.
In These Times is aware the Iraq War hasn't ended and they offer David Enders' "A Nation Divided: If the war in Iraq is winding down, what does peace look like?" which includes:
On one street corner, I asked the half-dozen men standing there how many of them had lost an immediate relative -- all claimed they had. Some raised shirts to show shrapnel wounds.
The United Nations recently estimated that as many as 500,000 of the approximately 2 million Iraqi refugees who fled the country might return this year. But they won't necessarily be returning to the houses, neighborhoods or cities from which they fled. Many are simply returning because they can no longer afford to stay in neighboring countries, especially Syria, where Iraqis refugees struggle to obtain official work permits.
"The Americans provided no security, they did nothing for us," says Hussein Fadhil, a Shiite and one of the estimated 2,000 people who remained throughout the fighting, despite the death of his father to a mortar. "They told us they didn't know where the mortars were being fired from."
In These Times is the exception to the rule. The almost folded up and doors closed LeftTurn has nothing to offer but that's been the case for, what, two years now? Three? Meanwhile at intentional distraction Yes! Magazine . . . nothing. They're paid to do nothing and to offer nothing and they live up to the purpose very well. WalkOn, WalkOn.org. The New Republic? Not a damn thing. They could have had a link but not a damn thing. Harper's magazine? Not a damn thing. Now Scott Horton can bore us -- and insult his own education -- by writing today about Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck, he just can't tackle the Iraq War. Pravda on the Hudson's Amy Goodman serves up War Hawk Juan Cole to talk about "Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel and Beyond" -- no link to garbage. Juan Cole flutters and flaps in the wind. In the segment Iraq gets a little more time than Saudi Arabia. "But Saudi Arabia isn't even in the title of the segment!" No, it's not. But if you need to hear Juan Cole declare, "Well, you know, for me, the issue is not so much the rate at which the United States withdraws from Iraq" -- well, if you need to hear that, you're one sick f**k -- in which case Juan Cole probably is a perfect match for you. Let us know where you're registered, we'll get you a nice gift.
KPFA's The Morning Show is the audio exception as In These Times is the print one. Today Philip Maldari interviewed Thomas E. Ricks, author of the new bestseller The Gamble. In the excerpt below they're discussing the "Awakeing" Councils.
Philip Maldari: Well we've got a situation that's very dicey though. We've got 100,000 young men with guns on the payroll -- the Sunni militias, we've got a Shia dominat central government in Baghdad that is not particularly interested in integrating this 100,000 force into the largely Shia government army and consequently the government in Baghdad is very nervous about the possibility of the US funding a force that ultimately could become their rival in a civil war.
Thomas E. Ricks: As one Shi'ite politician says in the book, "Baby crocodiles are cute but you can't keep adult crocidiles in the house." And the feeling of a lot of a lot of the Shi'ite leadership is the Americans have been feeding baby crocodiles and then we're going to bug out at them and leave them to deal with these adult crocodiles snapping at them. This is one reason that I say in the book while I have a lot of admiration for what the American military did in Iraq over the last couple of years, especially the people who were against the war but thought that they should try to help the Americans minimize the damage, despite all of that, my conclusion is that the surge failed. There's a conventional wisdom in this country that the surge succeeded and that the war is over -- and I think both those conclusions are badly wrong and dangerous because they repeat the over optimism of the Bush administration id dealing with Iraq.
Phillip Maldarai: So, um, if it failed -- it doesn't -- deaths are down right now, uh, there are these massacres, these suicide bombings but there are fewer of them, uh, and we're seeing fewer US military personnel being ambushed and killed but are you saying this is just the lull before the storm?
Thomas E. Ricks: I'm saying that the surge kicked the can down the road. That it probably is a lull before the storm because the purpose of the surge was to improve security but not just to improve security for itself -- to improve security to create a breathing space in which a political breakthrough would occur. Well here the surge is over and none of the questions that faced Iraq before the surge have been solved. All the big questions are still hanging fire out there. For example, how do you share oil revenue? Another is will Iraq have a strong central government in Baghdad or be a loose confederation? A third is what is the basic relationship between Sunni, Shia, Kurd? A fourth is who holds power within the Shia community? A fifth is what is the role of Iran which, by the way, is the big winner in the war so far? All these questions are still out there, all these questions have led to violence in the past, all of them may well lead to violence again.
Phillip Maldari: My guest is Thomas Ricks, his current book The Gamble: General David Petreaus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq 2006 - 2008. We've sort of left out of the picture Muqtada al-Sadr -- the rebel cleric leading a huge Shia militia in the slums of Baghdad. He and his militia have agreed to stand down for the time being but these men are fully armed, they, uh, are militant. They are, at times, quite critical of the centeral government even though the central government is also Shia and they at any time can decide to go back to combat, right?
Thomas E. Ricks: They can. And Ambassador Crocker, who is one of America's most experienced diplomats in the Middle East, talks about Lebanon as the future of Iraq. People don't seem to want to hear him when he says that. Here's a guy who has lived in Lebanon, actually was in the US embassy when it was blown up and about three doz - or four dozen of his colleagues were killed. When he talks about Iraq as Lebanon, what he means is exactly you'll have outfits like Sadr who has a role in the government but also has an independent militia outside the government. And that's very much the model that Hizbollah has pursued in Lebanon. It's not a model for civility, nor is it a model for a country at peace with its neighbors.
Phillip Maldari: Well and we're going to see the Sunni minority in Iraq with -- with their militia, 100,000 well armed young men, and we're spending what? 30 million dollars a month to pay them?
Thomas E. Ricks: We were. We're trying to make the Baghdad government pay it now and they're kind of cranky about that as you might expect
Phillip Malderi: But is that going to go on indefinitely? I mean if we ever cut off the flow of money, what would happen?
Thomas E. Ricks: Well they're supposed to become part of the Iraqi army, we'll see. This is one of the big questions: Will that work out? This is -- I mean, you're pointing to all the reasons that I think Iraq is a far more troubled place than Americans seem to think it is. This is why I'm very concerned when President Obama talks about getting out of Iraq quickly that he's not departing from President Bush but that he's repeating the mistakes of President Bush. Bush didn't invade Iraq and say, "Listen I have a great idea, let's invade Iraq and get stuck there for ten years." He said, "Let's go into Iraq and get out quickly." The original American war plan was to be down to 30,000 troops by September 2003. When Obama talks about getting down to 30,000 to 50,000 troops by August or September of next year that sounds a lot to me like Bush.
We found two exceptions in an allegedly 'diverse' and 'alternative' media. Reality tells on them. Another example would be Kristoffer Walker. The 28-year-old Iraq War veteran's name was mentioned by the bulk of Panhandle Media. Search the archives of Democracy Now! and you'll never find his name mentioned, not even in a headline. Amy Goodman never had time for the soldier who told the military "no." Last month he went public with his decision not to return to Iraq. If he was hoping for the kind of support he needed, he really didn't get it. Associated Press covered him, his state's media (Wisconsin) covered him and that was pretty much it. Some websites covered him. At his website, he links to Courage to Resist but Courage to Resist never covered him, never did a blurb on him. A US soldier -- in the US -- announces he's not returning and Courage to Resist can't cover it? Sarah can bore us all with her hopes and dreams of Bambi Obama but Courage to Resist can't make time to cover Kristoffer? That's f**king bulls**t. And before they ask for money again, they need to explain how the hell that happened. I'm not joking and I'm not in the mood to be nice. Kristoffer needed support. He needed his story to be told. And who the hell bothered to help? Wisconsin? Hmmm. Madison Wisconsin. Home of Matthew Rothschild! But of course The Progressive didn't have time for Kristoffer.
He went public about needing an attorney. He made it clear that he was struggling and he needed support. Not money; support. He didn't get it. He never got it. Not what he needed. Not what he deserved. Not what his brave stand warranted. The sixth anniversary of the illegal war will be 'celebrated' by Kristoffer returning to Iraq. To a war he's called not only illegal but immoral. He explains to WFRV that, "the Army has a gun to my head. They have the authority to level an incredible amount of force against me and can thereby ruin my life. I have been placed in a very dangerous situation. It is not my intention to allow the Army to use their gun and ruin my life." It's too bad so few cared about Kristoffer or his stand. It's too bad that when we have someone stand up and say "no," no support group emerges. No one's there to provide the system of support needed. It's too bad. And it sends a message. But don't worry, everyone, Mitch Jesserich is in love with Barack and thinks his laughable audio "letters" fawning over Barack, using the a Beatles love song, a love song John wrote for Yoko, to 'illustrate' what America feels for a president? How f**king pathetic and how offensive to the actual love that John and Yoko had. Is there one damn grown up left in Panhandle Media? If so, can they please send Mitch to a lengthy time out? Mitch, while you were juking on tape and smirking at your smutty wet dreams, a real world was out there and people were struggling. They weren't the egg heads from Harvard, but their lives did matter even if you do everything you can to render them invisible. Ehren Watada. Still no decision. Still in the US military. All this time later. It happens because of people like Mitch. It happens because it's more improtant to people like Mitch that a fan club for Barack exists -- that they build a fan club -- than that a war be ended or that those who speak out against it get the recognition they deserve. Kristoffer Walker was betrayed by the alleged 'anti-war' movement in the US. They had no time for him. They were too busy fingering themselves and moaning "Barack."
The illegal war hits the six year mark this Thursday and World Can't Wait offers a list of other cities holding demonstrations. The Grannies Peace Brigade is kicking things off early in NYC on Wednesday with a demonstration at noon, 44th St and Broadway, outside the Time Square recruiting station. Saturday, those wanting to call out the illegal war can join with groups such as The National Assembly to End the Wars, the ANSWER coalition, World Can't Wait and Iraq Veterans Against the War -- all are taking part in a real action. Iraq Veterans Against the War explains:IVAW's Afghanistan Resolution and National Mobilization March 21st As an organization of service men and women who have served in Iraq, Afghanistan, stateside, and around the world, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War have seen the impact that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have had on the people of these occupied countries and our fellow service members and veterans, as well as the cost of the wars at home and abroad. In recognition that our struggle to withdraw troops from Iraq and demand reparations for the Iraqi people is only part of the struggle to right the wrongs being committed in our name, Iraq Veterans Against the War has voted to adopt an official resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and reparations for the Afghan people. (To read the full resolution, click here.) To that end, Iraq Veterans Against the War will be joining a national coalition which is being mobilized to march on the Pentagon, March 21st, to demand the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and further our mission and goals in solidarity with the national anti-war movement. This demonstration will be the first opportunity to show President Obama and the new administration that our struggle was not only against the Bush administration - and that we will not sit around and hope that troops are removed under his rule, but that we will demand they be removed immediately. For more information on the March 21st March on the Pentagon, and additional events being organized in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Orlando, to include transportation, meetings, and how you can get involved, please visit: www.pentagonmarch.org or www.answercoalition.org.
Please note CounterPunch and Dissident Voice regularly cover Iraq -- they weren't included in the above for that reason. US Socialist Worker usually covers Iraq as well. In terms of Kristoffer Walker, he was ignored by all three outlets. AP reports on Kristoffer's decision here. Tony Walter reports on it for the Green Bay Press-Gazette here.
Meanwhile Missy Ryan, Mohammed Abbas, Ahmed Rasheed and Samia Nakhoul (Reuters) offer the sort of overview the MSM should be providing on the sixth anniversary:
People like analyst Ghassan al-Attiyyah blame the United States for stoking sectarian and ethnic killing as they sought in the early days to empower majority Shi'ites sidelined under Saddam's Sunni-led regime and to forge a government that represented the majority. "They failed to understand Iraq. They made great mistakes, basically enhancing divisions among Iraqis," said Attiyyah, who heads the Iraq Foundation for Democracy and Development. Today, the U.S. military approach is seen as more adroit, based more on community outreach and tutoring increasingly competent, though far from independent, local forces rather than using sheer force. But some say it's far too late. "The genie was let out of the bottle, and society is now polarised between sectarian and ethnic forces," Attiyyah said.
It's not as 'fun' as Jake Tapper and Paul Rudd cock-knocking around possibly but it would qualify as news.
The illegal war continued today and so did the violence . . .
Shootings?
Sahar Issa and Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) report the US military shot (wrongly) at a civilian car, missed the car and killed a 12-year-old gril who was "passing by," 1 person was shot dead in Mosul, 1 college student was shot dead in Mosul, 1 suspect was shot dead by police in Mosul, unknown assailants shot dead 1 Iraqi soldier in Mosul and 1 person was shot dead in Diyala Province today.
Corpses?
Sahar Issa and Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) report 1 corpse (Iraqi soldier) was discovered in Qayara adn 2 corpses were discovered in Aluthaim.
iraq
abc world news tonightcharlie gibsonterry mccarthythe cbs evening news with katie couriclara logannbc nightly newsbrian williamspbsthe newshourjim lehrer
thomas e. ricks
philip maldari
kpfathe morning show
missy ryanmohammed abbasahmed rasheedsamia nakhoul
3/16/2009
answer a.n.s.w.e.r.'s call
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Everything Bully Is Barack Again" and that's reason enough to get off your ass and get busy. barack's not 'change.' he's more of the same. and this week sees the 6th anniversary of the start of the illegal war.
we need to get active. we need to get vocal. we need to demand an immediate end to the iraq war.
this is from a.n.s.w.e.r.:
The March 21st March on the Pentagon is shaping up to be a dramatic and highly significant demonstration. From the Pentagon, we will march to the nearby giant corporate offices of Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation, General Dynamics and KBR (the former subsidiary of Halliburton).There are 64 departure locations in 20 states bringing thousands of activists to Washington, D.C. Large numbers of students from across the country are mobilizing to join the demonstration. We will be carrying hundreds of coffins representing the victims of war from Iraq to Afghanistan, Palestine, Pakistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Yemen, and the U.S. GIs who have been killed in the various fronts of George W. Bush’s proclaimed "endless war." Bush is gone but these criminal occupations and unilateral bombing attacks continue each and every day. Tens of thousands more troops are being sent to Afghanistan. In the last month civilian deaths in Iraq spiked and the occupation continues to cost $480 million each day. The people of Gaza are living under siege.We will deliver these coffins to the doorsteps of the biggest war corporations and profiteers who make up the anchor of the Military-Industrial Complex.Precious and limited resources are diverted from education, jobs, housing and health care, and given to these war corporations. The huge profits derived from war become an incentive for more war. We need a real change and that’s why we are marching in the thousands on March 21.
There are several ways that you can be a part of this important action:1) Be part of a team that carries a coffin in the march2) Bring a coffin to carry in the march3) Participate in the worksession to prepare the coffins
Click here to sign-up
Donate
Please make an urgently needed donation today by clicking this link to donate online through our secure server, where you can also find information on how to donate by check.Get Involved
Find Transportation to DC
Sign up if you are organizing transportation
Download flyers and posters
Add a link
View list of endorsers
Endorse
Sign up to volunteer
DonateGo to http://www.pentagonmarch.org for more information.
i'll stand with a.n.s.w.e.r. gladly. they don't pretend to be something they aren't, they don't attempt to trick. and united for peace & justice is attempting to squeeze this event out, to make sure that most people don't know a thing about it. so it's important that you take part in it.
it's important that, just as we spent 8 years saying 'NO!' to the bullying of george w bush, we say no to the bullying of united for peace and justice.
they don't want to end the illegal war. but they can't be content with being useless, they have to attempt to ensure that no 1 else gets active.
that's bulls**t and you know it as easily as i do.
so we really need to stand up and say no.
and we can do that.
and imagine the message we can send with a large turnout.
so let's get active and let's get mobile.
this saturday. you can spare it. tell 10 people about the event between now and thursday morning. get the word out on it.
that's all i've got for tonight because that's what i want you to focus on.
you can go read Kat's "Kat's Korner: Joshua Radin shares some simple beauty" and take some inspiration from some beautiful music. let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Monday, March 16, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, the US military floats an 'event' out slowly, who's teaching Iraqi journalists, a soccer player is shot dead in Iraq, the president of Iraq says he won't run again, the president of Iraq states there will be no independent Kurdish state, and more.
Today the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier died March 16 from combat related injuries while conducting a patrol in Baghdad. The Soldier's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by Department of Defense. The incident is currently under investigation." The announcement brings the number of US service members killed in Iraq to 4259. The numbers pile up.
So do the stories. Kristoffer Walker is one story. The 28-year-old Iraq War veteran is refusing to return to Iraq. At his site, he provides [PDF format warning] a fact sheet which goes over the timeline of events and other basics such as the e-mail he sent the military February 20th:
This email is to inform you that I am not returning to Iraq. I have made the decision to stay in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I have intentioonally missed my flight out of Green Bay and I will not be making any effort to return to Iraq. It is my firm belief that you all understand why I have done this. If you need to contact me, I can be reached via my wife's cell phone. The phone number is 920-***-**** [number blocked out by K. Walker] I will not be fleeing my hometown, so I can be found at my home.
Additionally, I am still under orders to be on active duty, and although I will not be at my appointed duty station, I will contact a local Army Reserve unit (432nd Civil Affairs) to see if they need me to work there until one of two things happen:
1. The orders placing me on active duty are rescinded and I am transferred to a reserve unit in or around Green Bay, or
2. I am arrested.
If you need me to contact the 353rd's rear-deatchment/full-time staff in Buffalo, Minnesota I will do that, I would need a POC for that however.
Finally, just so you are aware, I have contacted the local media outlets (newspaper and television) as well as a handful of national news outlets, in order to make others aware of this situation. I am not going to hide. I know fully what I am doing.
The die is cast.
Respectfully,
SPC Kristoffer Walker
At his website, Kristoffer highlights a quote from Thomas Jefferson: "In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
Last month, Kristoffer told WEAU13, "Operation Iraqi Freedom and the war in Iraq, is -- it's an immoral operation and it's also being poorly managed." He told Lou Hillman (Fox 11), "My beliefs haven't changed and nothing has changed between Friday and now in Iraq. I am not a pacifist. There is an absolute need for our armed forces." Speaking to Tony Walters (Appleton Post Crescent), he explained, "The Army's definition is a little different than mine. The Army's definition is that you have to be opposed to war and all its forms. That's not me. I absolutely support using military force to respond or retaliate to attack. By their standards, you're not allowed to object to one conflict over another. . . . I signed up to defend the Constitution and defend the country against foreign enemies. But I'm not going to do something immoral and contrary to the contract I signed up for. It's really quite sad."
Kristoffer Walker joins many others in saying "no" to the illegal war. Camilo Mejia is the author of Road from Ar Ramadi. He is an Iraq War veteran. He is a conscientious objector. He stood up to the full power of the US military and he survived and then some. He is the chair of Iraq Veterans Against the war. All of that, before you even get into the adventures of his father and mother, is more than worth hearing about and those makes him someone worth hearing. Those in South Bend and Goshen Indiana have the opportunity to hear him next week. Monday, he will be speaking at 7:00 pm on the Indiana University South Bend's campus and Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. he will be speaking in Goshen at Iglesia Menonita Del Buen Pastor. Both events are free and open to the public and more information can be found here. Mejia is among the early resisters and his actions are noted by Michael J. Mooney (Broward Palm Beach) who explains the struggle war resister Aslan Lamarche is currently undergoing. He joined the military at the age of 18, he then self-checked out and went to Canada. His attempt to be granted refugee status in Canada was denied. His parents (from Trinidad and Cuba) remain in Flordia and Aslan states, "It's sad. My parents came to the U.S. for a better way of life. And now, their oldest son had to leave that same country for the same reason." He is taking classes in Toronto and hoping for some good news. He says, "It's hard to be 20 years old and be hated by two governments. And Canada is a very strange country in a lot of ways. They just have this blind trust that their government will do the right thing. The majority of Canadians want us to stay. They say, 'Don't worry. Everything will be fine.' But at the end of the day, none of them are willing to fight for us." [The previous sentences on Camilo's speaking engagements have appeared in the Thursday snapshot and since and will continue to show up until Tuesday evening.] While Aslan remains in Canada and hopes for some sort of refugee status, Robin Long was extradited last year. Yesterday Robin had two visitors from Canada. Tony Perry (Los Angeles Times) reports Canadian MPs Olivia Chow and Borys Wrezesnewsky were at San Diego's Miramar Marine Corps Air Station to visit with Robin who was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment. Perry notes New Democratic Party MP Olvia Chow will "speak Monday night at a rally of anti-war activisits, 7 p.m. at the Joyce Beers Community Center, 4065 Vermont Street, San Diego." AP reports that although Chow and Wrzesnewskj were allowed to speak with him, they "were not allowed to take notes or record the interview". Chow is quoted stating, "My heart sank, it was very heavy. I was angry that Canada deported him."
Many other war resisters in Canada are at risk of deportation (if they file for refugee status -- many resisters go to Canada and skip that process -- a process that no one has yet won in this era). Friday's snapshot noted Megan Feldman's "Gimme Shelter" (Dallas Observer) which reported on US war resisters in Canada. The article opens with Kimberly Rivera who is from the Dallas - Fort Worth area. From the article:Take Joshua Key, who grew up in a trailer in the tiny town of Guthrie, Oklahoma. A burly welder with tattooed arms, Key, 30, grew up admiring his grandfather who fought in the Korean War. By age 12, he was shooting snakes with AK-47s and Glocks, and 10 years later he joined the Army after struggling to support his wife and children on his earnings from KFC. A country boy who recalls his wife saying, "You get 'em, Josh, before they get you. Even if it's a kid. They're terrorists too," Key never dreamed that after a tour in Iraq he'd be living in self-imposed exile, the author of a book titled The Deserter's Tale.
Ryan Johnson, a slight, beareded, 25-year-old from California's Central Valley who looks more like an organic famrer than a soldier, says he enlisted because he was tired of working factory jobs at places like Frito Lay and couldn't afford college. His mother, a homemaker, and his stepfather, a UPS driver, kept yellow ribbon bumper stickers on their cars and voted Republican.
Dale Landry, a 23-year-old from the Dallas area who deserted in 2007, joined the Air Force his senior year of high school. Besides the fact that it would enable him to go to college, he figured the military could be a good path out of low-income, red-state America and into a career in Democratic politics. His mother was a waitress who raised him alone except for a series of husbands who came and went, and he wanted his life to look as different from hers as possible.
Those are just a few stories -- both from Feldman's article and from the ongoing, illegal war. People's lives are being destroyed by the Iraq War. The bulk of the Iraqi lives destroyed are stories that will never be told outside of Iraq (and many won't even be told there). But the destruction doesn't end until the war does. As long as it drags on -- with 146,000 US troops or with 28,000 US troops -- the destruction continues. This week marks the sixth anniversary of the start of the illegal war. Actions will take place. Some people are working overtime to prevent you from knowing that. John Walsh (CounterPunch) notes the silence and offers:
Now some in UPFJ have characterized A.N.S.W.E.R. as loony lefties because a leading member is a group calling itself "Marxist-Leninist." Zowie, kids! That is really scary! I remind such people that Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King were not deterred from allying with "Marxist-Leninists," nor were any of those who joined in the fight against Nazism and Colonialism. What is the big deal? If A.N.S.W.E.R. is the only group willing to organize a loud and clear street opposition to the Obama version of war and empire, I for one will not be deterred from joining in by a pathetic bit of redbaiting. And if only those who call themselves "Marxists-Leninists" are willing to call such an action, then perhaps there is something in the wisdom of Marx, and Lenin, that remains of value.
To be clear, UPFJ is staffed with Communists. The difference is they are closet Communists. Leslie Cagan, Judith LeBlanc (although she is an office holder in the Communist Party), Carl Davidson and many more -- that's just their 'board.' They smear A.N.S.W.E.R. because if you're a member of that organization and you are a Communist, you're not asked or expected to hide in a political closet. They use A.N.S.W.E.R. to make themselves look 'viable' and 'palatable.' And the real untold story of McCarthyism is how this same action taking place right now took place in the 1940s. UPFJ does their little whisper campaign against A.N.S.W.E.R. turning that organization into a bloodied shark so that everyone's attention goes there, they all feed off A.N.S.W.E.R. and, in the meantime, UPFJ looks 'innocent.' There's nothing wrong with being a Socialist, Communist, Republican, Democrat, Green, whatever. There's something very wrong about hiding it. UPFJ hides what they are. A.N.S.W.E.R. welcomes any and all members from all political walks of life. They don't ask that a Republican pass themselves off as a Democrat or that a Communist pretend to be a Green. By contrast, UPFJ are the exact same cowards John Reed fought against, they are the cowards in every era of history.
Back to Walsh: "So the question really is, Which side are you on? That of the Obamanation and the Democrat Party version of war and empire? Or on the side of public, mass opposition to the war/ I hope that as many as possible choose the latter course -- in D.C., L.A. or S.F." The the six year mark is this Thursday and World Can't Wait offers a list of other cities holding demonstrations. Saturday, those wanting to call out the illegal war can join with groups such as The National Assembly to End the Wars, the ANSWER coalition, World Can't Wait and Iraq Veterans Against the War -- all are taking part in a real action. Iraq Veterans Against the War explains:IVAW's Afghanistan Resolution and National Mobilization March 21st As an organization of service men and women who have served in Iraq, Afghanistan, stateside, and around the world, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War have seen the impact that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have had on the people of these occupied countries and our fellow service members and veterans, as well as the cost of the wars at home and abroad. In recognition that our struggle to withdraw troops from Iraq and demand reparations for the Iraqi people is only part of the struggle to right the wrongs being committed in our name, Iraq Veterans Against the War has voted to adopt an official resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and reparations for the Afghan people. (To read the full resolution, click here.) To that end, Iraq Veterans Against the War will be joining a national coalition which is being mobilized to march on the Pentagon, March 21st, to demand the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and further our mission and goals in solidarity with the national anti-war movement. This demonstration will be the first opportunity to show President Obama and the new administration that our struggle was not only against the Bush administration - and that we will not sit around and hope that troops are removed under his rule, but that we will demand they be removed immediately. For more information on the March 21st March on the Pentagon, and additional events being organized in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Orlando, to include transportation, meetings, and how you can get involved, please visit: www.pentagonmarch.org or www.answercoalition.org.
Those wishin' and hopin' that the treaty masquerading as a Status Of Forces Agreement is going to end the war (that would be the treaty done by the Bush White House -- the same White House that said there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq) better resort to some stronger sleeping aids or wake the hell up. The SOFA 'guarantees' US troops out of Iraqi cities in months. However, that's not what will happen. AP interviewed Nouri al-Maliki, puppet of the occupation, over the weekend as he finished his visit to Australia:
Nouri al-Maliki said in an interview with The Associated Press that he had told President Barack Obama and other top U.S. officials that any withdrawals "must be done with our approval" and in coordination with the Iraqi government. "I do not want any withdrawals except in areas considered 100 percent secure and under control," al-Maliki said during his flight from Australia to Baghdad at the end of a five-day visit.
Get it? There's nothing really to enforce in that treaty. The treaty is a joke and, increasingly, so are the fools who still believe in it. Friday's snapshot opened quoting IRAQ: The Logic of Withdrawal author Anthony Arnove from his "Moved on from the struggle" (Socialist Worker). It's probably a good time to quote one section again:
WE KNOW that Iraq will remain under occupation until at least the end of 2011, but there is very good reason to believe that between now and then, the Iraqi government, which owes its survival to Washington, will cut a deal to allow U.S. forces to remain longer. Such an agreement would also likely give the U.S. long-term access to military bases and access to Iraqi air space.
Heidar Kazem will not see the end of the illegal war. He died today. GOAL.com reports he was shot dead while playing in a soccer game: "Reports indicate that the player had just scored and had begun to celebrate before a shot was fired from the crowd. It is believed a rival fan brought out the gun as he was angry his side went down. With no regard for anyone, the fan took aim and pulled the trigger." AP reports the game was in Hillah and a suspect was arrested at the game.
In some of the other reported violence today . . .
Bombings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing which left thee people wounded (one was an "Awakening" Council member). Reuters notes the following Sunday night incidents: a Kirkuk grenade attack which left a doctor injured, a Mosul sticky bombing which left one personw ounded and a Baghdad grenade attack which resulted in 1 death and three people injured.
Shootings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that Sunday night saw 1 Iraqi soldier shot dead in Mosul. Reuters notes a Sunday US and Iraqi forces raid in Mosul in which 1 woman was shot dead.
Saturday Khalid al-Ansary, Tim Cocks, Waleed Ibrahim, Tim Cocks and Janet Lawrence (Reuters) reported Jalal Talabani has announced when his term as Iraq's president ends with this year, when he'll be 76-years-old and, of course, there is his history of heart problems. He refused to follow doctors' orders regarding what to eat. Refused the orders mere hours after leaving the hospital, wasn't even on the flight back to Iraq yet. Collapsed in a US bookstore and had to be escorted out. And that was one year before he had to come back to the US for heart surgery. Translation, the news isn't at all surprising. Presumably, Talabani's stepping down in December is dependent upon elections being held then (as they are currently supposed to be). Should they be delayed (and aren't they always in Iraq?), Talabani would presumably stay on his presidential post until they were held. Alsumaria reports Talabani is in Turkey today for a conference on water and has already "met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the presence of South Korean Prime Minister." AFP notes the conference is held every three years and is more 'timely' this year following the United Nation's report (published last week) declaring a "global water crisis". AFP states approximately "20,000 people are expecte for the Fifth World Water Forum" while is a week-long conference. DPA adds, "In addition to discussions on how to stop Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) militants from using their bases in mountainous northern Iraq from where they launch attacks on Turkey proper, Talabani and Erdogan also discussed bilateral economic issues and the Middle East peace process." Meanwhile Hurriyet reports:
Talabani told a Turkish newspaper in an interview published on Monday that it would not be realistic to believe that an independent Kurdish state could survive as it is likely that neighboring countries Turkey , Iran and Syria would close their borders.
"I tell my Turkish brothers not to fear that Kurds will declare independence. It is an advantage for Kurds to stay within the borders of Iraq in terms of their economic, cultural, social and political interests," he told in the interview.
Sabah got the interview and they quote Talabani stating, "Iraq will not be separated and the civil war is over" and "The ideal of a united Kurdistan is just a dream written in poetry. I do not deny that there are poems devoted to the notion of a united Kurdistan. But we can not continue to dream." If accurate, Talabani's remarks will spark anger among some Kurds. And it may be a great deal of anger and it may be among many Iraqi Kurds.
Last Thursday, the British embraced another revelation as government e-mails further supporting the theory that pre-war intel was fixed were released. Caroline Alexander (Bloomberg News) reports 72% of respondents in a new BBC survey support an inquiry into the Iraq War. BBC explains that the 18-24 years-old group supports an inquiry by 81%. What the British want -- the "vast majority," as Reuters notes -- is an inquiry; however, "Prime Minister Gordon Brown has ruled out holding an inquiry until all British troops have left the country. The remaining 4,000 or so soldiers, based near the southern city of Basra, are due to start pulling out at the end of May."
Friday, Rebecca moderated a community roundtable -- "Iraq," "Iraq roundtable," "The Iraq roundtable," "iraq roundtable," "Iraq," "Iraq in the Kitchen," "Talking Iraq," "Iraq around the table," "Roundtable on Iraq," "The roundtable," "Roundtable," "Friday roundtable" and "Iraq roundtable" -- and we'll note this section of the roundtable:
Rebecca: Okay, a new topic. C.I. slid this over to me. Stars and Stripes notes there are reports emerging that the US shot down an Iranian drone flying over Iraq in February. Any thoughts?
Ruth: This is the first I'm hearing of it and, if it is true, my first question would be why that is? Seems to me the public should have known about this last month if it was true. The Iraq War is not supposed to be hidden from the public. A drone shot down would be news that the public should have. What is the purpose in hiding that? The fact that it was hidden makes me think that it is a false story.
Betty: I would agree with Ruth on that. How many times have we heard, "Iran's causing trouble! Iran's training fighters! Iran's supplying weapons!" Over and over. And now we're supposed to believe that the US has information and has sat on it for a month? I don't buy it. I'm with Ruth. And, excuse me, C.I. didn't they brag about their drone capabilities last month? The military.
C.I.: The US military did brag about a drone. A US drone was used as an assault weapon on February 23rd, the US military announced it March 2nd, it was in the March 3rd snapshot. It was an "unmanned drone" and it shot off a missile. It killed some people and the US military was thrilled and issued their announcement. That was seven days later.
Elaine: So seven days to announce 'good news.' Certainly, as Betty pointed out, past remarks by the US military would indicate they would see an Iranian drone as "good news." If seven days is the standard to announce good news, we should have heard of an Iranian drone no later than March 7th, right?
Kat: Right. If not sooner. Because they could argue that in the first case, "National security! We must not let the 'enemies' know about our capabilities right away!'" I'm with Ruth, Betty and Elaine on this, I don't buy it. Even if the US government comes out and confirms the reports, I'm not sure that I will buy it.
This morning the US military trotted an Iraqi out to the press to verify the claim they still wouldn't comment on. When that didn't get them the attention they wanted, they had to make the statment themselves. CNN reports they issued a statement today which read: "This was not an accident on the part of the Iranians. The [drone] was in Iraqi airspace for nearly one hour and 10 minutes and well inside Iraqi territory before it was engaged." No one's supposed to ask why they didn't issue a statement sooner. No one's supposed to ask why they trickled this out starting Friday evening. No one's supposed to ask why the Iraqi military was speaking to the press before the US military did. No one's supposed to ask a lot of questions. In fact, it appears for the 'news' to be considered valid, no one can ask questions. It's very strange.
And the news just got stranger. No offense to Richard Tomkins personally, but his employer is not the most trusted in the world: the Moonie owned Washington Times, UPI and Middle East Times. So why is M-NF announcing that Tomkins is teaching Iraqi journalists about journalism? Is the lesson find a crazy who fancies himself to be a charasmatic and your institution can stay in business regardless of whether anyone reads it or not? If so, staff from Moonie-owned periodicals are the perfect people to teach journalism.
iraqkristoffer walkerweau13lou hillmantony walters
camilo mejiarobin longaslan lamarche
the los angeles timestony perry
joshua key
ryan johnson
john walsh
iraq veterans against the wara.n.s.w.e.r.world can't wait
mcclatachy newspapers
khalid al-ansarytim cockswaleed ibrahimtim cocksjanet lawrence
today's zamanhurriyetalsumariasabah
anthony arnove
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)