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
Filed Under Just Plain War, War & Politics | 1 Comment
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!