Comedic War Machine

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The scenario would be hilarious if death wasn’t the outcome.
Gen. David Petraeus, Decider George’s head lackey in Iraq, went on NBC Tuesday morning with a tongue-wrapping excuse to continue the horror that’s Iraq.

“We think we won’t know that we’ve reached a turning point until we’re six months past it. We have repeatedly said that there is no lights at the end of the tunnel that we’re seeing. We’re certainly not dancing in the end zone or anything like that.”

Another pile of the same bullshit that’s been ongoing for nearly eight years.

  • A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
    The study concluded that the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”
    The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both.
    “In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003.”
    Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.
    Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq’s links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell’s 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.
    The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews.
    “The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war,” the study concluded.
    “Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, ‘independent’ validation of the Bush administration’s false statements about Iraq,” it said.
    – Associated Press, (1/22/08)

When we read the above report for the first time yesterday, there was a sense of being incredulous, of not being able to fully grasp the words. Although all the information has been broadcast before in one form or another, to see it in one spot and upfront has a created a kind of retroactive bombshell. The Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism put the operation in motion.

The New York Times explained it this morning:

  • The Center for Public Integrity, a research group that focuses on ethics in government and public policy, designed the new Web site to allow simple searches for specific phrases, such as “mushroom cloud” or “yellowcake uranium,” in transcripts and documents totaling some 380,000 words, including remarks by President Bush and most of his top advisers in the two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks…
    There is no startling new information in the archive, because all the documents have been published previously. But the new computer tool is remarkable for its scope, and its replay of the crescendo of statements that led to the war. Muckrakers may find browsing the site reminiscent of what Richard M Nixon used to dismissively call “wallowing in Watergate.”

The difference in Watergate and Decider George’s various nefarious military enterprises is the wanton destruction, death, hideous and prolonged, that has cut a swath across not only the Mid East, but the world as a whole. Planet earth is an armed camp. Nixon was a crook, thug and liar and allowed the Vietnam war to continue just for the sake of politics, but Watergate was (compared to the now) a near-frivolous, white-collar romp.

All those lying phrases on the run up to the war continues even as we type.

Decider George’s little sashay around the Persian Gulf last week included a stop in Kuwait to give Petraeus a little tongue-wrapping. “Quite the contrary,” he snorted to reporters when asked about any possible down-sizing of the US presence in Iraq. Plus, the Iraqi Defense minister played footloose with the calendar: The country would “not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.”

The plot here is perpetual US presence in Iraq a long, long time.

And the US peoples are being massaged with the message.

  • A nation-building project launched in the confident expectation that the United States would repeat in Iraq the successes it had achieved in Germany and Japan after 1945 instead compares unfavorably with the U.S. response to Hurricane Katrina. Even today, Iraqi electrical generation meets barely half the daily national requirements. Baghdad households now receive power an average of 12 hours each day — six hours fewer than when Saddam Hussein ruled. Oil production still has not returned to pre-invasion levels. Reports of widespread fraud, waste and sheer ineptitude in the administration of U.S. aid have become so commonplace that they barely last a news cycle. (Recall, for example, the 110,000 AK-47s, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body armor and 115,000 helmets intended for Iraqi security forces that, according to the Government Accountability Office, the Pentagon cannot account for.) U.S. officials repeatedly complain, to little avail, about the paralyzing squabbling inside the Iraqi parliament and the rampant corruption within Iraqi ministries. If a primary function of government is to provide services, then the government of Iraq can hardly be said to exist…
    In only one respect has the surge achieved undeniable success: It has ensured that U.S. troops won’t be coming home anytime soon. This was one of the main points of the exercise in the first place. As AEI military analyst Thomas Donnelly has acknowledged with admirable candor, “part of the purpose of the surge was to redefine the Washington narrative,” thereby deflecting calls for a complete withdrawal of U.S. combat forces. Hawks who had pooh-poohed the risks of invasion now portrayed the risks of withdrawal as too awful to contemplate. But a prerequisite to perpetuating the war — and leaving it to the next president — was to get Iraq off the front pages and out of the nightly news. At least in this context, the surge qualifies as a masterstroke…
    In reality, the war’s effects are precisely the inverse of those that Bush and his lieutenants expected. Baghdad has become a strategic cul-de-sac. Only the truly blinkered will imagine at this late date that Iraq has shown the United States to be the “stronger horse.” In fact, the war has revealed the very real limits of U.S. power. And for good measure, it has boosted anti-Americanism to record levels, recruited untold numbers of new jihadists, enhanced the standing of adversaries such as Iran and diverted resources and attention from Afghanistan, a theater of war far more directly relevant to the threat posed byal-Qaeda. Instead of draining the jihadist swamp, the Iraq war is continuously replenishing it.
    – Andrew J. Bacevich, The Washington Post, (1/20/08)

As the squabbling presidential candidates play-out the jack-ass-race to the White House, the deteriorating worldwide situation get second-fiddle to it’s the economy, stupid.

  • But military officers say that the American public should not be fooled: the relative quiet in Iraq – and it is, after all, only a “relative quiet” – does not mean the “surge” has worked, or that the problems facing the US military have somehow magically gone away. Quite the opposite. For while the American public is consumed by the campaign for the presidency, the American military is not. Instead, they are as obsessed now, in January of 2008, with the war in Iraq as they were then, in 2003 – except that now, many military officers admit, the host of problems they face may, in fact, be much more intractable.
    “Don’t let the quiet fool you,” a senior defense official says. “There’s still a huge chasm between how the White House views Iraq and how we [in the Pentagon] view Iraq. The White House would like to have you believe the ’surge’ has worked, that we somehow defeated the insurgency. That’s just ludicrous. There’s increasing quiet in Iraq, but that’s happened because of our shift in strategy – the ’surge’ had nothing to do with it.”
    – Mark Perry, Asia Times, (1/22/08)

And what about the US military?

  • The National Priorities Project said the percent of “high-quality” recruits – those with a high school diploma who scored in the top half on the military’s qualification test – declined from budget years 2004 to 2007. In that period, the number of high-quality recruits fell from about 61 percent to nearly 45 percent, the group said.
    It also found that in the 2007 budget year, upper middle- and high-income neighborhoods were underrepresented by an even larger margin than three years earlier.
    – Associated Press, (1/22/08)

And add this to the Strangelove-fuel for the fire:

  • Russia’s military chief of staff said Saturday that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes to protect itself and its allies, the latest aggressive remarks from increasingly assertive Russian authorities.
    Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky’s comment did not mark a policy shift, military analysts said. Amid disputes with the West over security issues, it may have been meant as a warning that Russia is prepared to use its nuclear might.
    “We do not intend to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand … that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons,” Baluyevsky said at a military conference in a remark broadcast on state-run cable channel Vesti-24.
    – AP, (1/19/08)

Decider George and his hilarious-horrific agenda: “And thank-you so much for bringing up such a painful subject. While you’re at it, why don’t you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it. We’re closed!”
– Miracle Max, The Princess Bride

Frankenstein’s Mirror

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Happy Frankenstein Month!

We here at Compatible Creatures adore creative ideas, especially those creative ideas engaging our most-disturbing interest as of late: The Catastrophic Legacy of Decider George.

One of the most creative ideas to catch our eyes in recent memory was a piece by Los Angeles Times columnist Rosa Brooks, which appeared Thursday under the title “Monsters of our own making,” in which Brooks compares Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein to the monster shit-fire Decider George has created in all corners of the globe.
This month marks the 190th anniversary of the first publication of Shelly’s ode to free-thinking science, and Brooks crafted a much-parted creature from the failures of Decider George.

  • “Start with this week’s big story from Pakistan. According to Tuesday’s New York Times, Islamic militant groups funded and nurtured for years by the Pakistani intelligence services — with U.S. backing, in the 1980s — are now completely out of control. The Pakistani government, which hoped to use militant groups to further its own interests in Afghanistan and the Kashmir region, now finds that the militants have instead “turned on their former handlers,” carrying out “a record number of suicide attacks last year, including some aimed directly at army and intelligence units.
    Making matters worse, many analysts say that the Pakistani intelligence services are riddled with agents who support the militants and their extremist agenda. Despite this, the Bush administration continues to shower Pakistan’s military and intelligence services with aid, even as Pakistan sinks further into chaos. Long-term U.S. strategy? None. Score: Monster, 100; Frankenstein, 0.”

Brooks, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center with experience traveling the world with such groups as the US Department of State, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International USA, carries the column from Pakistan to nearby Afghanistan and finally to the horror that is Iraq.

  • “Then there’s Iraq. Deaths are thankfully down somewhat, but the lack of political progress has left a tenuous, still-violent stalemate, sustainable only if U.S. troops remain indefinitely. On Tuesday, Iraq’s defense minister said Iraq couldn’t provide internal security until at least 2012 and wouldn’t be able to defend its borders until at least 2018.
    Iraq was supposed to be a beacon of peace, democracy and stability. Instead, it turned into a recruiting beacon for Islamic militants, a black hole for taxpayer dollars and a quagmire for our troops.”

And Brooks concludes:

  • “So here’s my proposal: Let’s join together to mark Frankenstein Month, a national period of reflection on foreign policy hubris and unintended consequences. President Bush has established National Mentoring Month, National Farm-City Week and Great Outdoors Month — so why not Frankenstein Month?
    Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein built his monster out of body parts pilfered from corpses, and the monsters created by our reckless foreign policies also reek of the charnel house. Of course, in Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein is tormented by guilt when he realizes what a horror he has unwittingly unleashed on the world, and he tries desperately to undo the damage he’s done. There might be some lessons here for the White House.”

Decider George ‘tormented by guilt’? As if… One wonders if Frankenstein/Decider George ever looks hard in the mirror at himself. Read Brooks’ entire column at www.latimes.com/news/columnists. A tidy, well-executed piece.

And so the legacy continues:

  • The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) said the Taliban’s “easy departure” in 2001, when a US-led invasion drove them from power, was more of a strategic retreat than an actual military defeat.
    “A few years from now, 2007 will likely be looked back upon as the year in which the Taliban seriously rejoined the fight and the hopes of a rapid end to conflict were finally set aside by all but the most optimistic,” ANSO said.
    – heraldsun.com.au, (1/19/08)
  • Violence left nearly 50 people dead in two major southern cities Friday when members of a shadowy, messianic cult attacked police and fellow Shiite worshippers — a year after a similar plot was foiled during Shiite Islam’s most important holiday.
    Iraqi authorities said at least 36 people were reported killed in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, and at least 10 in Nasiriyah, where witnesses said U.S.-led coalition jet fighters and helicopter gunships targeted a police station seized by cult gunmen.
    U.S. military spokesman Maj. Brad Leighton said an Iraqi request for air support in the area was approved, but he could not confirm whether airstrikes were carried out. Some clashes raged into the night, raising the possibility of more casualties.
    – Associated Press, (1/18/08)

And this first-person piece about a Shia returning to her Baghdad home in a Sunni neighborhood:

  • “I realised then they were the second Sunni family to have lived in our house in the year since we left.
    At this point I looked at his wife – she looked ashamed. She told her husband to give me some money to help me out. He did so unwillingly – giving me less than 1% of what he should have done. He warned me not to come back.
    I walked back to the bridge that connects the two neighbourhoods. I was so preoccupied, I forgot to wait at the checkpoint. I was walking through when I heard an American soldier call out “taftish” (search) in bad Arabic.
    He searched me and I walked back into the Shia neighbourhood.
    The whole experience had been so surreal. I felt drained.”
    – BBCArabic.com, (1/18/08)

Upon reading the entire account of this woman, one gets the dreaded sense Iraq is finished as a nation.

True Lies In The Sand

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Despite the talk about US troops leaving Iraq as soon as the disheveled country can defend itself, the real timeline is blowing in the wind, and it’s a long-range wind. Although Decider George’s so-called “surge” has seen some improvements, Iraq will most likely never be able to stand on it own two feet.

  • The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend its borders from external threat until at least 2018.
    Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.
    Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir’s projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year.
    President Bush has never given a date for a military withdrawal from Iraq but has repeatedly said that American forces would stand down as Iraqi forces stand up. Given Mr. Qadir’s assessment of Iraq’s military capabilities on Monday, such a withdrawal appeared to be quite distant, and further away than any American officials have previously stated in public.
    – New York Times, (1/15/08)

As Decider George trips across the Mid East this week running his arrogant, ignorant mouth, he’s exposed as a guy out of touch with reality. Even undermining his own country.

  • In public, President Bush has been careful to reassure Israel and other allies that he still sees Iran as a threat, while not disavowing his administration’s recent National Intelligence Estimate. That NIE, made public Dec. 3, embarrassed the administration by concluding that Tehran had halted its weapons program in 2003, which seemed to undermine years of bellicose rhetoric from Bush and other senior officials about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But in private conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week, the president all but disowned the document, said a senior administration official who accompanied Bush on his six-nation trip to the Mideast. “He told the Israelis that he can’t control what the intelligence community says, but that [the NIE's] conclusions don’t reflect his own views” about Iran’s nuclear-weapons program, said the official, who would discuss intelligence matters only on the condition of anonymity.
    – Newsweek, (1/21/08 issue)

“His own views…” There doesn’t seem to be any connection between democracy and Decider George.
As he dines in decadent opulence in lavish tents and jeweled mansions of oil-rich sheiks on the Persian Gulf, the New York Times ran a well-researched piece on the downside of war at home. The article said at least 121 GIs have been involved in killings since arriving back stateside from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. “In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction,” the Times story read. The long, detailed Times piece should be required reading for all US peoples.
Which leads to this:

  • On Dec. 12, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called a hearing on “Stopping Suicides: Mental Health Challenges Within the Department of Veterans Affairs.” At that hearing suggestions were raised and conversations begun that hopefully will bear fruit.
    But I find myself extremely anxious in the face of some of these new suggestions, specifically what is being called the Psychological Kevlar Act of 2007 and use of the drug propranalol to treat the symptoms of post-traumatic stress injuries. Though both, at least in theory, sound entirely reasonable, even desirable, in the wrong hands, under the wrong leadership, they could make the sci-fi fantasies of Blade Runner seem prescient.
    The Psychological Kevlar Act “directs the secretary of defense to develop and implement a plan to incorporate preventive and early-intervention measures, practices or procedures that reduce the likelihood that personnel in combat will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other stress-related psychopathologies, including substance use conditions. (Kevlar, a DuPont fiber, is an essential component of U.S. military helmets and bullet-proof vests advertised to be “five times stronger than steel.”) The stated purpose of this legislation is to make American soldiers less vulnerable to the combat stressors that so often result in psychic injuries.
    – Penny Coleman, Alternet, 1/10/08

Not only have both theaters of war gone badly in the field, the horrors of participation have come home and will fester in the American psyche for a generation.

And in an interview with ABC News earlier this week, Decider George came across as someone that’s either near-about insane, or just doesn’t give a fat-rat’s ass:

  • In Riyadh today, the president participated in a traditional sword dance with one of the princes of the royal family. It was a public — and a little awkward — display of affection, all part of Bush’s first visit to Saudi Arabia aimed at repairing strained relations between the world’s biggest oil producer and the world’s biggest oil consumer.
    “My image [is] ‘Bush wants to fight Muslims.’ And, yes, I’m concerned about it. Not because of me, personally. I’m concerned because I want most people to understand the great generosity and compassion of Americans,” he said.
    “I’m sure people view me as a warmonger and I view myself as peacemaker,” the president said. “They view me as so pro-Israeli I can’t be open-minded about Palestinian peace, and yet I’m the only president ever to have articulated a two-state solution. And you just have to fight through stereotypes by actions.”
    Bush said despite Saudi Arabia’s connection to some of the Sept. 11 hijackers and terrorism ideology in general, he views the Saudis as “our friends.” He spoke of meeting with Saudi entrepreneurs and business leaders during his trip who worry that Americans view them as enemies, not friends.
    “There’s a lot of really good people here,” Bush said. “Look, you can’t deny the fact that some, a majority, of the terrorists came from Saudi, but you should not condemn an entire society based upon the actions of a handful of killers.”
    When asked to respond to the fact that many Americans do not view him as a peacemaker, the president replied, “We’ll see what history says. I happen to believe that the actions I’ve taken were necessary to protect ourselves and lay the foundation for peace. That’s what I believe. But history — I’ve often said this — I don’t think the history of my administration is going to be written during your time as a newscaster, or my time on Earth. I believe that it’s going to take a while for people to determine whether or not the foundation of peace has truly been laid.”
    – ABC News, (1/15/08)

Most Americans, however, do view Decider George as a failure. In the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll released this week, just 32 percent approve of the way President Bush is handling his job. The summary rating had been stuck at 33 percent from July to December.
The president has not enjoyed an approval rating above 50 percent since January of 2005, and those disapproving “strongly” continue to outnumber strong approvers by greater than 3 to 1.

Why do US peoples dislike Decider George? Outside of the fact everything he touches turns to lethal dog shit? One point that’s catching on — he’s a half-truth-sayer of complete lies:

  • Bush heaped praise on his hosts, the rulers of the United Arab Emirates, for luring foreign investment and “building a prosperous society out of the desert.”
    Left out, noted analyst Manar Shorbagy, an associate professor who teaches a course on U.S. politics at the American University in Cairo, was the ill-fitting fact that Iran is the country’s No. 1 trade partner.
    Also unmentioned was the UAE’s role as an important conduit for Iranian imports in spite of U.S.-backed economic sanctions. Moreover, a large and thriving Iranian expatriate community is central to commerce and society in Abu Dhabi and its more glamorous sister city, the commercial hub of Dubai.
    – McClatchy Newspapers, (1/13/08)

One waits with frustration and impatience for Decider George to return next year to his own Texas sandbox.

Massacre No-News

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As we scanned the online news sources this morning there was nothing at all about this in any of the US mainstream or alternate news operations:

  • Hamas has blamed George Bush’s tour of the Middle East for Israel’s latest deadly incursion into the Gaza Strip that has left at least 16 Palestinians dead and at least 50 others injured.
    David Chater, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Jerusalem, said the “major” Israeli incursion began late on Monday night.
    He said: “Apache helicopter gunships, armoured bulldozers, tanks and ground troops were all involved in this incursion.
    “There are also reports of another incursion in the industrial zone near the Erez crossing.”
    Ehud Olmert, the Isaeli prime minister, has reportedly ordered a series of “sharp and short” incursions, Chater said
    Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said: “What happened today is a massacre, a slaughter against the Palestinian people.
    Our people cannot keep silent over these massacres. These massacres cannot bring peace.”
    – Al Jazeera English, (1/15/08)

Decider George’s visit last week to Palestine was scant over before this took place. And despite Decider George’s nonsense blubber about a peace treaty between the warring factions to be completed before his term of office ends next January.

One must remember: Peace is not Decider George’s forte.

Iraq Draw-Up

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“It’s just this war and that lying sonofabitch Johnson. I would never hurt you. You know that.”
Jenny’s activist ‘boyfriend’ in Forrest Gump

Despite creating a living hell for the Iraqi people, Decider George wants the horror to continue. Despite all the reality staring him in the face, and like a retarded turtle who won’t let go until it thunders, the delusion of himself makes the teeth tightened down. The dream-like vision he carries bleeds literally over onto the Iraqi and US peoples.

This morning, after making an ass of himself all over Palestine, Decider visited US troops in Kuwait and met with Gen. David Petraeus, the overall commander in Iraq. Although no one else has made public what the two clowns discussed, Decider George blew smoke again.

  • Talking with reporters afterward, Bush made clear that any further troop reductions were contingent on Petraeus’s assessment of whether the recent decline in violence in Iraq can be maintained with fewer troops. A final decision will likely come in March, when Petraeus is scheduled to offer another report to Congress on conditions in Iraq.
    “A lot of people thought that I was going to recommend pulling out, or pulling back,” he noted. “Quite the contrary; I recommended increasing the number of forces so they could get more in the fight, because I believed all along if people are given a chance to live in a free society, they’ll do the hard work necessary to live in a free society,” Bush said. Iraq “is now a different place from one year ago.”
    “I’m not making excuses for a government, but to go from a tyranny to a democracy overnight is virtually impossible,” Bush added. “And so when you say, ‘Am I pleased with the progress?’ What they have gone through and where they are today I think is good progress. Have they done enough? No.”
    “There is no doubt in my mind that we will succeed,” Bush told the troops. “There is no doubt in my mind when history was written, the final page will say: ‘Victory was achieved by the United States of America for the good of the world.’ ”
    Bush said that in Iraq “long-term success will require active U.S. engagement that outlasts my presidency” — a comment that seemed aimed at assuring U.S. allies in the region but that will likely stoke anger among Democrats and others who see Bush as irresponsibly passing on the war to his successor.
    – The Washington Post, (1/12/08)

Oh, “Quite the contrary…” The lying sonofabitch Bush.

On Friday for Reuters news service, Decider George spelled it out:

  • WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush said on Friday the United States would have a long-term presence in Iraq that could “easily” last a decade, but that it would be at the invitation of the Iraqi government.
    In an interview with NBC News, Bush was asked about recent comments by Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain that it would be fine with him to have a U.S. military presence in Iraq for 100 years.
    “That’s a long time,” Bush replied, adding that there “could very well be” a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq at the invitation of the government in Baghdad. When asked if it could be 10 years, Bush replied: “It could easily be that, absolutely.”
    Bush was interviewed in Jerusalem as he was wrapping up his first presidential visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
    (1/11/08)

And how do the recipients of all this nastiness feel about it?

  • FALLUJAH – US and Iraqi officials claim that security is improving across al-Anbar province and much of Iraq. Security during the last half of 2007 was indeed better than in the period between February 2006 and mid-2007. But this has brought little solace to many Iraqis, because violence is still worse than in 2005 and early 2006.
    Violence levels are down, but attacks have not ceased. “Nine US soldiers were killed in 24 hours, US B-1 and F-16 bombers dropped over 40,000 pounds of special munitions on the Arab Juboor villages just south of Baghdad, and Awakening (militia paid for by the US) leaders and senior police officers are being assassinated all over Iraq, yet US army leaders and top officials say Iraq is safe and sound,” lawyer and human rights activist Mahmood al-Dulaimy told IPS.
    Dulaimy said US President George W. Bush has succeeded in convincing many people in the United States that everything in Iraq is all right. “It is you media people who fool the world by transmitting false news about the situation in Iraq,” Dulaimy said. “Look around you and tell me what is good here.”
    Many people in Fallujah say they simply want the US forces to leave. “If the US generals mean they will hand over security to Iraqis and leave the province, then I will salute them all,” retired Iraqi army colonel Salman Ahmed told IPS in Fallujah. “But I know it is just another comedy like that played elsewhere in Iraq, where Iraqis (officials) are just ropes for American dirty laundry. We want our country back for real, not just on paper.”
    – Inter Press Service, (1/12/08)

The full story, from which the above couple of graphs were pulled, carries a much more detailed account of how the rank and file Iraqis feel about the continued US presence in their country. Just this week the US bombed the living shit out of areas which were suppose to be safe and sound.

  • BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military dropped 40,000 pounds of explosives southeast of Baghdad on Thursday in air strikes that underscored the tenuousness of U.S. progress.
    The targets were near Arab Jabour, a Sunni Muslim-dominated district on Baghdad’s outskirts that U.S. officials recently called a security success and an example of how local Sunni tribesmen had turned against Al Qaeda in Iraq.
    But Thursday’s air attack indicated that the area still has a considerable Sunni militant presence.
    The statement said more than 40 targets in three large areas were hit during two passes by two B1 bombers and four F16 fighter jets. A U.S. military official in the area said the targets were Al Qaeda in Iraq weapons caches and bomb-making materials.
    The blitz dropped 38 bombs in its first 10 minutes, the statement said.
    – McClatchy Newspapers, (1/11/08)

And what about the big, ole war on terror? Decider George (and all US peoples) are in for another shit-fire.

  • ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — President Pervez Musharraf warned that U.S. troops would be regarded as invaders if they crossed into Pakistan’s border region with Afghanistan in the hunt for al-Qaida or Taliban militants, according to an interview published Friday.
    Musharraf, whose popularity has plummeted amid a surge in extremist attacks in recent months, also told Singapore’s The Straits Times that he would resign if opposition parties tried to impeach him following next month’s parliamentary elections.
    Pakistan is under growing U.S. pressure to crack down on militants in its tribal regions close to the Afghan border.
    The rugged area has long been considered a likely hiding place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, as well as an operating ground for Taliban militants planning attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan.
    The New York Times reported last week that Washington was considering expanding the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the military to peruse aggressive covert operations within the tribal regions.
    Musharraf told the Straits Times that U.S. troops would “certainly” be considered invaders if they set foot in the tribal regions.
    “If they come without our permission, that’s against the sovereignty of Pakistan. I challenge anybody coming into our mountains,” he said in the interview in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. “They would regret that day.”
    – Associated Press, (1/11/08)

Mush-mouth Musharraf seems to have taken words right from Decider George’s verbal playbook: “They would regret that day…”

The entire world already regrets even hearing the name of George W. Bush.

Laughing-stock Horror

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Shame: synonyms — humiliate, ridicule, insult, demean, disrespect, soul-murder; see Bush, George W.

Not only do the US peoples have to put up with Decider George’s arrogant incompetence in everything he touches, now they have to bear the shame of the man as he blunders from one spot in the Middle East to another.
As someone who represents America to the world, we are screwed!

Yesterday Decider George was forced to travel by car to meet Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, in the West Bank after his helicopter was grounded by bad weather.

  • “You’ll be happy to know, my whole motorcade of a mere 45 cars was able to make it through without being stopped,” Bush said after being asked about the 30-minute journey from Jerusalem and Ramallah.
    “I’m not so exactly sure that’s what happens to the average person.”
    – Al Jazeera, (1/10/08)

The car drive took him through an Israeli security checkpoint within sight of the separation barrier. Decider George’s words were insensitive at best, an example of his continuous arrogant, don’t-give-shit attitude at worse. The remarks were extraordinary given the pain and humiliation caused at the checkpoints.

  • “I remember once in Hawara, one of the checkpoints outside Nablus, and I was doing the story of a family who lost their main loved one … he was a cancer patient and he was told to get out of his car and walk across the checkpoint, and that killed him.
    That’s the experience that most Palestinians have of these humiliating checkpoints … it was very much in bad taste and was a joke that will not have gone down well with anyone in Gaza or the occupied West Bank.”
    – Al Jazeera’s David Chater in West Jerusalem, (1/10/08)

And despite the red carpet treatment provided Decider George by Abbas, ordinary Palestinians loath him.

  • RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — Angry demonstrators in the West Bank town of Ramallah branded US President George W. Bush a “war criminal” on Thursday as locals said he would do nothing for the plight of the Palestinians.
    Security forces, out in force to ensure the security of the American leader on his first trip to the occupied Palestinian territory, used batons and tear gas as they charged around 200 demonstrators who were chanting “Bush, war criminal!” and “Bush out!”.
    Rasha Qawas, 36, who lives near the Muqata, chose to leave her home and stay with her brother during Bush’s visit and said she felt the US president had showed contempt for Palestinian tradition.
    “The Americans are proud of their history and their symbols. By ignoring the mausoleum set up as our monument to historic leader Yasser Arafat, Bush is showing contempt for all our sacrifices,” she said.
    – Agence France-Presse, (1/10/08)

And this morning, during a tour with Condi Rice of Israel’s Holocaust memorial, the Yad Vashem memorial, Decider George responded in the only way he could.

  • At one point, Bush viewed aerial photos of the Auschwitz camp taken during the war by U.S. forces and called Rice over to discuss why the American government had decided against bombing the site, according to Avner Shalev, Yad Vashem’s chairman.
    The Allies had detailed reports about Auschwitz during the war from Polish partisans and escaped prisoners. But they chose not to bomb the camp, the rail lines leading to it, or any of the other Nazi death camps, preferring instead to focus all resources on the broader military effort, a decision that became the subject of intense controversy years later.
    “We should have bombed it,” Bush said, according to Shalev.
    – Associated Press, (1/11/08)

And while Decider George is tripping across the Holy Land, the problems he created in Iraq continues to boil over.

  • A new movement to oust Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is gathering force in Baghdad. And although the United States is counseling against this change of government, a senior U.S. official in the Iraqi capital says it’s a moment of “breakthrough or breakdown” for Maliki’s regime.
    The new push against Maliki comes from Kurdish leaders, who, U.S. and Iraqi sources told me, sent him an ultimatum in late December.
    “The letter was clear in saying we are concerned about the direction of policies in Baghdad,” said a senior Kurdish official. He described the Dec. 21 letter as “a sincere effort from the Kurdish parties to help the government reform — or else.”
    – David Ignatius, The Washington Post, (1/9/08)

And the business at home as seen by the Brits:

  • Voters in the United States may have switched their attention to the contest to find his successor, but George Bush will embark on an ambitious nine-day tour of the Middle East tomorrow in a last desperate effort to salvage a legacy from two terms in office overshadowed by a catastrophic foreign policy that has earned him the distinction of being one of the worst presidents in the country’s history.
    The Bush legacy will not be peace in the Middle East nor an end to conflict in Iraq, but it could be a political earthquake among voters so dismayed by the mess he has made of America’s foreign policy and fearful of economic recession that they are deserting his party in droves.
    – Leonard Doyle and Andrew Buncombe, The Independent, (1/7/08)

And this:

  • He’s a poll cellar-dweller whom even GOP presidential candidates sneer at, but George W. Bush and some congressional backers see happy days for the prez this year. His fans have dubbed it his “legacy year,” when they hope to lock in his achievements on the domestic front. Among the items Bush’s GOP congressional allies want to work on this month: continuing his tax cuts and extending the controversial No Child Left Behind Act. As for the war, they say, the news has been good, and Bushies believe that their guy will eventually get credit for opening the war on terrorism. But more immediately, they are predicting a remarkable poll shift to about 45 percent favorable by the time he leaves office next year.
    – US News & World Report, ‘Washington Whispers,’ (1/10/08)

Should we laugh, should we cry? Should we cower in shame?

‘My soul uplifted’ — Sir George in Palestine

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Hubris is an interesting word. We here at Compatible Creatures have a dour longing for words which look weird and are rarely used in general-public discourse. However, hubris have been used a lot the last five or six years, mainly to describe on the horrifying achievements of Decider George and his bunch.
Greek in orgin, hubris has come to mean exaggerated self-pride, or self confidence (overbearing pride), often resulting in fatal retribution and was considered the most heinous, greatest sin in classical Greece — from Wikipedia.

This week Decider George is mucking about the Holy Land. This morning he met with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank and babbled that a Middle East peace treaty would be signed by the time he leaves office next year. Yesterday he met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and today Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Decider George looked into their souls (he has that power — he did it with Valdimar Putin) and could envision peace exploding all over the war-scared place.

  • “In order for there to be lasting peace, President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert have to come together and make tough choices and I’m convinced they will. Is it going to be hard work? You bet.”
    – Speaking at a joint news conference with Abbas, cnn.com (1/10/08)

You betcha! Abbas is pretty-much disliked among Palestinians and Olmert is hanging by a thread in Israel while Decider George throws some hubris on the classical fire.
After all that wonderful camaraderie, Decider George played tourist.

  • “Not only was my soul uplifted, but my knowledge of history was enriched.”
    – Bush in Bethlehem after a visit to the Church of the Nativity, cnn.com (1/10/08)

Decider George’s historical knowledge can never, never be enriched. He’s slaughtered history, from Vietnam to Iraq, and lied about anything else. But he can rattle that saber with the best of them, but really, that’s all the little arrogant sonofabitch is worth — run the mouth.

  • “We have made it very clear, and they know our position, and that is: There will be serious consequences if they attack our ships, pure and simple. My advice to them is: Don’t do it.”
    – Remarks about Iran and the recent incident on the Strait of Homuz in the Persian Gulf, Associated Press (1/9/08)

Indeed, the incident sure sounded serious. Five boats supposedly manned by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy “maneuvered aggressively in close proximity” of US Navy ships in the Strait of Homuz last week. According to published reports an actual confrontation was avoided at the last minute.
On a four-minute, 20-second videotape released Tuesday by the Pentagon, a deep, thick-accented voice could be heard over the radio saying, “I am coming to you,” and later to explain, “You will explode in a few minutes.”
No one knows if the voice came from the five ships circling around, or from somewhere else. A mysterious, strange and dangerous “incident.”

The Iranians denied there was any hostility.

  • Iran’s state-run Press TV quoted a spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy as saying Wednesday that the video “had been compiled using file pictures and the audio had been fabricated.” An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman downplayed the incident, calling it “normal,” state-run news agency IRNA reported. “The case … was similar to the past ones and it was a regular and natural issue,” Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said, according to the news agency.
    –cnn.com (1/9/08)

“Incident” in quotes since we’re dealing with Decider George. One must also keep in mind the infamous 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which led to the horror of Vietnam — a resolution based on another pack of lies. (US Senate passes Iraq Resolution 77-23, Oct. 11, 2002).

And while Decider George gets his soul uplifted, US troops are still dying in Iraq.

  • BAGHDAD – Nine American soldiers were killed in the first two days of a new American drive against al-Qaida in Iraq, U.S. military said Wednesday.
    Six soldiers were killed and four were wounded Wednesday in a booby-trapped house in Diyala province, where joint U.S.-Iraqi forces were driving through a difficult web of lush palm and citrus groves, farmland and fertile river bottoms.
    The military also announced that three U.S. soldiers were killed and two were wounded Tuesday in an attack in Salahuddin province. The operation began Tuesday.
    – AP (1/09/08)

Despite great secrecy in launching the above-mention operation, most of the insurgents had disappeared before the US troops could get in position. The GIs are fighting an elusive enemy on their own turf.
And this:

  • About 151,000 Iraqis died from violence in the three years after the United States invaded, concludes the best effort yet to count deaths — one that still may not settle the fierce debate over the war’s true toll on civilians and others. The estimate comes from projections by the World Health Organization and the Iraqi government, based on door-to-door surveys of nearly 10,000 households. Experts called it the largest and most scientific study of the Iraqi death toll since the war began.the British-based Iraq Body Count. The Body Count project bases its figures mostly on media reports — a method known to underestimate deaths because many go unreported. That group listed 47,668 civilian deaths from violence during the period studied in the WHO survey, and between 80,331 and 87,742 to date since the war began. The group’s numbers do not include deaths of fighters, but the WHO survey and an earlier one published in the journal Lancet in 2006 do. The Lancet study, by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, drew wide criticism, partly because it came out just before the 2006 congressional elections. It surveyed 1,849 households and concluded that 600,000 Iraqis had died from violence, mostly gunfire, and roughly 50,000 more from other causes like heart disease and cancer.
    – AP (1/9/08)

Before he departed for the Middle East, Decider George held a video conference with Iraqi officials along with Vice President Dufus Dick Cheney, Condi Rice and Admiral Mike Mullen.
Speaking afterwards in the Rose Garden, Decider George babbled incoherently that Iraq last year “has become incredibly successful beyond anybody’s expectations.”

And shit like that needs rebuttal.

  • “It is a failure of leadership when our president calls 2007 incredibly successful beyond anybody’s expectations when the Iraqi government has done so little to achieve stability and it has been the most lethal year yet for American troops.”
    – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement, AP (1/8/08)

Nice, but too much hubris as our soul was not lifted nearly enough.

Blowback American Style

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Smoke and mirrors continue to embody the war in Iraq. Even as New Hampshire residents go to the polls today for the first primary of the 2008 presidential race, the slaughter in the Mid East continues as the pundits, talking heads and the mainstream media (now affectionately/sarcastically dubbed the ‘MSM’ by those in the know) have skipped around the details of how the nightmarish conflict is going.

  • As of Monday, Jan. 7, 2008, at least 3,911 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,181 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.
    The AP count is three higher than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Monday at 10 a.m. EST.
    – Associated Press (1/7/08)

Young Americans continue dying in the face of lies.

  • The death rate in Iraq in the past 12 months has been the second highest in any year since the invasion, according to figures that appear to contradict American claims that the troop “surge” has dramatically reduced the level of violence across the country.
    The research comes from Iraq Body Count (IBC), which has extensive experience of working in the country, and concludes that deaths outside Baghdad actually rose until September.
    – new.independent.co.uk 1/7/08

According to a new poll by Harris Interactive, released this past weekend, US peoples are sick and tired of Decider George and his blubbering mouth. Fifty-nine percent held a negative view of how Decider George and his minions have conducted the vast, overreaching and unsuccessful war on terror — a campaign that has created a world far more frightened and more distrustful of the US. In the same poll, 57 percent responded they were dissatisfied on how well Decider George and his criminal gang has protected US civil liberties.
And when you have a former US senator, a former candidate for president of the US — one likened to George McGovern — who calls for impeachment of Decider George and his cold-hearted, warrior-not, blood-lust-filled vice president, Dufus Dick Chaney, then one understands how respondents in these polls respond.
McGovern, who ran for president in 1972 and lost to Dick Nixon, wrote in a Washington Post op/ed this past weekend those two bully-boys should be brought on charges ranging from war crimes to crimes against humanity and for just being asshole criminals. (McGovern would never use the term ‘assholes’ — he was writing for a MSM).

And all this, just as Decider George leaves today for a sojourn to the Middle East. Why go there? Why not.

  • The White House today dismissed al-Qaeda threats to attack President George W. Bush during his Middle East trip.
    “Al-Qaeda offers nothing but death and violence,” said Gordon Johndroe, White House national security spokesman, who said the President’s visit this week sought to “offer the ideology of hope” to “people who seek a better life”.
    In a message posted online today, an American member of al-Qaeda urged Islamist militants to target Mr. Bush “with bombs” during his trip to the Middle East starting tomorrow.
    Mr. Bush should be welcomed “not with flowers and applause, but with bombs and car bombs”, said al-Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn, a convert to Islam who has been indicted for treason by a US jury.
    He also reportedly tore up his passport on the video, which drew a scornful reaction from the White House.
    “I would note that this guy is wanted for treason and does not need his passport,” Mr. Johndroe said.
    – The New York Times (1/7/08)

Why does the word “treason” coming the White House makes us shudder, then piss us way, way off? And what would be worse? President Dufus Dick?
And what’s this flowery shit: “offer the ideology of hope” (from Barack Obama’s playbook) and “people who seek a better life” ?????

And one more freakin’ question: What about the US peoples?

  • The feared recession in the US economy has already arrived, according to a report from Merrill Lynch.
    It said that Friday’s employment report, which sent shares tumbling worldwide, confirmed that the US is in the first month of a recession. Its view is controversial, with banks such as Lehman Brothers disagreeing.
    An official ruling on whether the US is in recession is made by the National Bureau of Economic Research, but this decision may not come for two years.
    The NBER defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months”.
    It bases its assessment on final figures on employment, personal income, industrial production and sales activity in the manufacturing and retail sectors.
    Merrill Lynch said that the figures showing the jobless rate hitting 5% in December were the final piece in that puzzle.
    It added that the current consensus view on Wall Street that there is a good chance of avoiding a recession is “in denial”.
    It also objected to the use of euphemistic terms for the state of the economy.
    “To say that the backdrop is ‘recession like’ is akin to an obstetrician telling a woman that she is ’sort of pregnant’,” the report said.
    – news.bbc.co.uk (1/8/08)

And what about Decider George? (Another question, we know.)

He lied again. On Friday, Decider George told a business luncheon that while there is some uncertainty about slowing economic growth, the nation’s “financial markets are strong and solid.”
And furthermore: “This economy of ours is on a solid foundation, but we can’t take economic growth for granted. And there are signs that will cause us to be ever more diligent and make sure that good policies come out of Washington.”
What a load of shit-crock.

And what about this shit? (We know, we know — another question).

  • Pakistani officials involved in the nuclear black market network have significant cross-over with al-Qaeda and 9/11. Officials such as the chief of ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency, allegedly sent $100,000 to 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta, and aides of A.Q. Kahn — who had used the stolen secrets to develop nuclear weapons for Pakistan — met with Osama bin Laden “weeks before 9/11…to discuss an Al-Qaeda nuclear device.”
    – bradblog.com (1/6/08)

This whole story of Sibel Edmonds, the former FBI translator who has been under a Bush administration gag order for the past five years, has not reached the MSM and thus has not reached into the US heartland to create more outcry for Decider George’s removal. Edmonds has now begun to disclose some of the classified information she has been prohibited from revealing. The story broke in the UK Sunday and it will rattle the windows if allowed to gather media steam in the US.
A major player in the scandal: Marc Grossman.
Grossman was the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey (‘94-’97), the Asst. Sec. of State for European Affairs (‘97-’00) and served under Colin Powell and Richard Armitage at the State Department from 2001 to 2005 as the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. He’s currently employed as the Vice Chairman of the D.C. and China-based consulting firm, The Cohen Group, founded by the former Republican Defense Secretary for Bill Clinton, William S. Cohen.

Awake, awake US peoples!

Death Stalks the Lie

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As the new year gains momentum, nothing seems to have changed — yet. The results off the “surge” has painted a heart-warming and optimistic picture of the hell that’s Iraq. The real weak-link of the so-called surge is the alliance between former Sunni insurgents now bearing arms for US dollars to fight Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the reality of the position. The science-fiction, butterfly-swarm effect of the Ninewa Sahwa (“Awakening”) Councils and it’s US-sanctioned non-counterpart, the Concerned Local Citizens (CLCs) is a short shelf life.

  • BAGHDAD — Persistent violence in volatile Diyala province prompted security forces to impose a daylong vehicle ban Friday in the provincial capital, Baqubah, as frictions grew over a U.S.-backed program to recruit Sunnis to fight the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq.
    Hundreds of protesters also took to the streets in two other Diyala towns, Muqdadiya and Buhriz, alleging that U.S. forces had detained at least two members of the local Awakening Council, the U.S.-financed citizen security groups, local police officials said.
    The protests underscore the U.S. military’s tenuous position: Many of the volunteer fighters are former Sunni insurgents who joined forces with the Americans for $10 a day and the promise of a job in the security forces. Although the effort has been credited with a significant reduction in violence in the region, Shiite leaders are suspicious of the effort, and some military officials have said that the program’s success may be difficult to sustain.
    – latimes.com (1/5/08)

In situations like Iraq, pouring cash into the hands of former enemies can be sustained only so long as the cash and the fire keep rolling inward. And in an insurgency campaign, friend or foe is the very big question. The Awakening Councils is an all Iraq kind of deal — a paramilitary political movement out in Iraq’s heartland where the crippled, ineffectual central government has no power. The CLCs are like US recruiters — sign a form and out you go.

  • An Iraqi soldier shot and killed two American soldiers on Dec. 26 in Mosul. Their deaths had already been reported, but the details had not been released until today. The troops had been on a joint patrol when, for unknown reasons, the Iraqi soldier fired upon the Americans. Three American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were wounded as well. The shooter fled, but was later captured along with another soldier. It is believed that the Iraqi had ties to a Sunni militant group that has yet to join forces with Coalition troops as other militant groups have already done.
    – antiwar.com (1/6/08)

If one wanted to catch a glimpse into the reality of the surge and a right-this minute update of Iraq, view antiwar.com’s daily list of reported murderous goings-on and the result is a sense of continuing disaster.

There’s also some heroic, Hollywood-like situations:

  • BAGHDAD – Two Iraqi soldiers three themselves on a suicide bomber who slipped into a crowd celebrating Iraq’s Army Day, but the attacker detonated an explosives vest, killing both soldiers and nine other people, US military and police said.
    It was the deadliest of a series of attacks across Baghdad that left as many as 16 people dead.
    About two dozen soldiers were in the street celebrating at an Army Day event hosted by a local non-governmental agency pushing for unity in Iraq. Several soldiers and civilians lay in pools of blood after the attacker struck, AK-47 machine guns and shoes scattered on the ground.
    – Associated Press (1/6/08)

How can one give peace a chance when there’s no end in sight — good or bad, or even worse to come?

Killing Fields of Not-Iowa

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An inescapable horror:

  • BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) – Three Iraqi civilians were killed by US military fire in two incidents on Thursday in the province of Diyala, one of the most dangerous regions in the country, Iraqi security officials said.
    Two people died in the town of Al-Ghalibiyah, just west of the provincial capital Baquba, when a US patrol shot up their vehicle as it entered the main street from a side road while the convoy was passing, Iraqi army major Ziad al-Ani told AFP.
    “It was in coincidence. The passing US military convoy thought the car was a hostile target and opened fire, shooting dead two people,” said Ani.
    In the other incident, US forces killed a civilian crossing the street near a gas factory in the centre of Baquba, said police Captain Muhannad al-Bawi, without giving further details.
    Doctor Ahmed Fuad of the Baquba general hospital confirmed that the medical facility had received three bodies.
    The US military said it is investigating the claims.
    – Agence France-Presse (1/3/08)

Although the Iowa caucus has been perceived as placing the economy over the Iraq war in importance, Barack Obama’s victory of change will open the war wounds as the presidential campaign swings to New Hampshire next Tuesday.
In the wildness of it all, bootjack John McCain explained why he and the rest of the Republicans will be slaughtered this year. US peoples are tired of this shit:

  • McCain, working the crowds in New Hampshire, interrupted someone recalling that President Bush envisions U.S. forces in Iraq for 50 more years with, “Maybe a hundred [years].” He continued, “That’s fine with me, I hope that would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaeda is training and equipping and recruiting and motivating people every single day.”
    – scholarsandrogues.com (1/4/08)

No matter what politics portrays in the coming weeks: Bring the troops home now!

Homeward Bound — Not!

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  • “One can only wonder, now that the United States has ‘liberated’ Iraq from Saddam Hussein, just who will liberate Iraq from the United States.”
    – Raed Jarrar, Iraq consultant at the Public Policy Office of the American Friends Service Committee in Washington, an independent peace group.

Jarrar also told Inter Press Service (IPS) the contract forged last month by Decider George and US-installed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will make matters even worse in Iraq. Despite polls showing most ordinary Iraqis want the US presence to completely end, or at minimum, become less conspicuous, and despite a mandate from the Iraqi parliament last April that “demand a timetable for the withdrawal of the occupation forces from our beloved Iraq,” the US troops continue as if there were no conditions.

  • “Bypassing the Iraqi parliament and continuing to undermine the Iraqi political process will push more Iraqis to choose armed resistance instead of political nonviolent resistance.
    The US role in supporting the unpopular and unelected Iraqi cabinet will increase violence and undermine Iraqis’ plans to achieve national reconciliation. The best way to support reconciliation in Iraq is to stop supporting a minority of Iraqi separatists against the majority of Iraqi nationalists.”
    – Jarrar to IPS (1/3/08)

Most Americans want the boys and girls in Iraq to come home. In a Knowledge Networks poll released by the Associated Press this past weekend, 68 percent voiced opposition to the war while 54 percent believe Decider George’s “surge” has not really stabilized Iraq.
And according to all the bullshit coming from candidates working themselves into a furor as the race for the White House officially starts today with the Iowa caucus, the Iraqi war seems to have dropped behind the economy as the leading hot-button issue.
One source to blame is the mainstream media, now a business experience:

  • An analysis of news coverage by the three broadcast news networks and the three primary cable news networks show Iraq war coverage now comprises less than five percent of nightly newscasts, compared to 16 percent just one year ago. On New Years Day, the war was not even mentioned on two of the three primetime evening newscasts.
    – capitolhillblue.com (1/2/08)

And on top of that, there’s not been much chatter on John Edwards’ statement that he would bring US troops home from Iraq within 10 months after taking office — if he’s elected, of course.

In Iraq, though, those GI boots on the ground are singing in their minds:

  • “Homeward bound,
    I wish I was,
    Homeward bound,
    Home where my thought’s escaping,
    Home where my music’s playing,
    Home where my love lies waiting
    Silently for me.”
    – Paul Simon, Homeward Bound

Cannon Fodder

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  • EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Darcy Woodke recalled the day she picked up her husband and several of his National Guard buddies after they got back from Iraq.
    “I stopped at a four-way stop sign. I have never seen people in my life freak out like that. They were saying, ‘Why are you stopping? Go! Go! Go! Go! Don’t stop! Don’t stop!’ Mrs. Woodke said.
    The soldiers were trained in Iraq not to stop at an intersection because that can make you an easy target for insurgent gunmen or bombers.
    – Associated Press (1/1/08)

The horror of war isn’t just in a so-called war zone. Due to Decider George, nearly 4,000 US troops have died since the illegal, stupid invasion of Iraq in 2003. However, the number for GIs bent by serving in a such an inferno as Iraq has sky-rocketed, with suicides and mental disorders almost commonplace.

  • New Pentagon figures released to NPR show that since the United States invaded Iraq, officers have kicked out far more troops for having behavior issues that are potentially linked to post-traumatic stress disorder than they did before the war.
    The numbers raise troubling questions about how the military is handling mental-health issues.
    – National Public Radio (11/15/07)

And that’s just for the Americans. The issue of living in the Decider George-created war zone is beyond comprehension.

  • Ending or reducing rampant violence requires understanding its full cause-and-effect cycle, especially its root causes, so that they can then be addressed with all available legitimate political, military, judicial and socio-economic means. Sermons from London, double standards and surges from Washington, bravado from Tel Aviv, and renewed Arab-Asian authoritarianism – all of which we witnessed again this week – are not the answer; they are the among the core of the problem.
    The overwhelming majority of the over 1 billion people – mostly Muslims – in the Arab-Asian region did not bomb a restaurant, assassinate a politician or attack an army post in past weeks. Most Arabs and Asians congratulated their neighbors for the religious feasts of the day; shared a felicitous greeting and probably a celebratory meal, tea or sweet; sent their children to school; and prayed hard. They especially continued to pray for more merciful and sensible leaders in their own capitals and abroad, who could summon elusive wisdom and humility for a change, instead of only aggravating the global maelstrom of political violence they have created in our name.
    – Rami G. Khouri, The Daily Star, Lebanon (12/29/07)

And on the home front, presidential contender John Edwards told the New York Times on Sunday (published this morning) that he would have the bulk of US troops out of Iraq within nine or 10 months of taking office: Immediately 40,000 to 50,000 out, the rest in a short period, leaving between 3,500 and 5,000 to protect embassies and aid workers.

  • “I absolutely believe this to my soul: We are there propping up their bad behavior (Iraq’s central government). I mean really, how many American lives and how much American taxpayer money are we going to continue to expend waiting for these political leaders to do something? Because that is precisely what we are doing.”
    – John Edwards to NYT

Well, now. What about that shit?

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