Oops
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The war in Iraq is a horror in which no US citizen is immune.
In a well-presented op/ed in the Los Angeles Times last week, Cy Bolton, a former TV news anchor and military affairs reporter, wrote of the lies Decider George and his cronies presented in getting the US involved in Iraq.
There is no ambiguity — no one else to blame for the fraud from the Oval Office:
- Another example is the now infamous nuclear reference from Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address: “Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” Not only was this refuted twice in early 2002 — by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV and by French intelligence — but the CIA’s National Intelligence Council investigated and told the White House four days before the address that “the Niger [Africa] story is baseless and should be laid to rest.” So the administration knew the claim was false, used it anyway and when caught, issued a collective “oops.” Although these speeches are vetted by Bush staffers, State, Defense, National Security and the CIA, it just slipped through. Riiiiight.
…
Space constraints don’t allow for a refutation of all the lies the president told about Iraq’s threat, their weapons and their link to Osama bin Laden. However, consider this final point: Our government spent nearly tens of millions of dollars to try to impeach a president for lying about consensual sex between two adults. Compare that to this abomination: George W. Bush knowingly lied to the American people in selling his case for a war that has directly led to the deaths of more than 4,000 Americans. They are deaths brought about by his lies, deceit and deception. It is an American atrocity of monumental proportion, followed closely by the heinous fact that no one has held him accountable. Where is the outrage?
And the shit continues more than five years later.
A collective ‘oops’ for a nasty incident Friday which claimed the life of a relative of Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, and opened a tear in the wound of so-called Iraqi sovereignty:
- Iraqi officials in Karbala said the operation began at dawn Friday, when U.S. aircraft delivered dozens of American troops to the rural Shiite Muslim town of Janaja, which is populated mostly by members of the Maliki tribe.
Raed Shakir Jowdet, the Iraqi military commander of Karbala operations, said that four Apache helicopters and a jet fighter soared over the area. About 60 U.S. soldiers then stormed the town, “terrifying the families,” he said.
Jowdet said that an unarmed civilian named Ali Abdulhussein was killed in his home. He added that the man detained in the operation, Hussein Nima, was visiting the area and didn’t reside in Karbala.
…
(Oqeil al) Khazaali, the U.S.-allied governor, denounced the operation at a news conference, saying the U.S. military hadn’t coordinated in advance with Iraqi forces, who assumed control of Karbala security in October 2007. The governor said the raid set “a dangerous precedent” for areas ostensibly under full Iraqi control.
“The airdrop confuses the agreements, and America should answer for this violation,” Khazaali said.
Khazaali said the raid was based on false intelligence and that the U.S. military should “submit a report to clarify all the circumstances and to point out the killers and hand over the names of everyone who participated in the military operation in order for them to appear before the Iraqi judicial system.”
Decider George’s war is starting to completely unravel.
The Iraqis are also justifiably angered over an incident last Wednesday where three people described by the Interior Ministry as bank employees on their way to work were shot and killed near the Baghdad airport when they tried to pass an American convoy.
History will not be proud of the situation developing with Iraqi sentiment.
- The reaction to the latest deaths signals that the Iraqi government is likely to push hard on the issue in the negotiations.
These two shootings “are a violation of the law and an encroachment on Iraqi sovereignty,” said a statement from the General Command of the Iraqi armed forces. “We demand the coalition force to arrest their employees and refer them to the judiciary because their crimes were committed in cold blood.”
That there is some pretty harsh language: “crimes committed in cold blood.”
Negotiations my ass.
Two different agreements between the US and the Iraqi government — one the so-called Status of Forces Agreement, and the second (though the both are security-tied together) a gigantic oil contract between the Oil Ministry and four huge oil companies, including Exxon-Mobil, headquartered in the US — are appearing to head south more and more in Iraq.
Just about everyone, from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani down to the guy walking (or running) around Baghdad, loathes the US — and from one Iraqi politician in Washington earlier this month that probably 70 percent of Iraqis want the US out.
oops.
Wrong Assumptions
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So Decider George wants a little history, huh?
He thinks the future will look more kindly on his tortured ass than folks do nowadays.
Wrong!
Never assume! It Makes An Ass Out of You and Me.
Wrong!
Even before being Decider George — back when he was just George Jr., back when he did nothing but have a damn-good time; he can’t remember if he’d ever done cocaine, “We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don’t remember” — he carried a personal history of being a fraud.
Check out some nut-case George Jr. shit here.
An accounting is coming quickly for Decider George, and all the horror he has created.
History for this sonofabitch is in the here and now.
Except in this instance it’s not just about drinking and snorting and breaking up the house, the crime is against the US nation’s army.
The New York Times reported yesterday, Saturday, of an US Army report scheduled to be released on Monday, which tears new assholes for Decider George’s main-culprit general, Tommy Franks, and his chief warrior, Damn-Dumb-nuts Don Rumsfeld.
In the Times‘ story on the report, the US Army reports on itself on how it performed after the fall of Baghdad, and the bottom line is not very good, not good at all.
Apparently. these Pentagon guys didn’t even have a clue.
Tommie Franks, with a push, shove and a kick from the White House, changed operation specifications:
- The story of the American occupation of Iraq has been the subject of numerous books, studies and memoirs. But now the Army has waded into the highly charged debate with its own nearly 700-page account: “On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign.”
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The report focuses on the 18 months after President Bush’s May 2003 announcement that major combat operations in Iraq were over. It was a period when the Army took on unanticipated occupation duties and was forced to develop new intelligence-gathering techniques, armor its Humvees, revise its tactics and, after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, review its detention practices.
A big problem, the study says, was the lack of detailed plans before the war for the postwar phase, a deficiency that reflected the general optimism in the White House and in the Pentagon, led by then-Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, about Iraq’s future, and an assumption that civilian agencies would assume much of the burden.
“I can remember asking the question during our war gaming and the development of our plan, ‘O.K., we are in Baghdad, what next?’ No real good answers came forth,” Col. Thomas G. Torrance, the commander of the Third Infantry Division’s artillery, told Army historians.
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“We had the wrong assumptions and therefore we had the wrong plan to put into play,” said Gen. William S. Wallace, who led the V Corps during the invasion and currently leads the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.
And then along comes the moron L. Paul Bremer, the US colonial viceroy who issued all kinds of decrees in the days following the fall of Saddam — especially disbanding the Iraqi army and banning former Baath Party members from working with the government — all just adding JP-4 jet fuel to a already kindled fire.
According to the Times, Bremer’s actions caught American field commanders “off guard” and, in their view, “created a pool of disaffected and unemployed Sunni Arabs” that the insurgency could draw on.
What a freakin’ bunch of assholes!
The ‘wrong assumptions’ led to the ‘wrong plan’ which all came from Decider George’s White House.
Assume what one will.
This president already has a legacy.
Asshole! Into a Looking Glass
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Vice President Dufus Dick Cheney is way-more than an asshole, more a liar, thoughtless and corrupt and yesterday a bit of this horror came out in spades.
Dufus Dick’s chief-of-ass-scratch, David Addington, paid a subpoeanaed visit to the US House Judiciary Committee and acted like his time was way-too precious to be wasted talking to Congress-people.
According to the Washington Post, Addington played the holier-than-the US Constitution, and being an asshole into one beautiful, turd-like turn:
- There he sat, hunched and scowling, at the witness table in front of the House Judiciary Committee: the bearded, burly form of the chief of staff and alter ego to the vice president — Cheney’s Cheney, if you will — and the man most responsible for building President Bush’s notion of an imperial presidency.
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Could the president ever be justified in breaking the law? “I’m not going to answer a legal opinion on every imaginable set of facts any human being could think of,” Addington growled.
Did he consult Congress when interpreting torture laws?
“That’s irrelevant,” he barked.
Would it be legal to torture a detainee’s child?
“I’m not here to render legal advice to your committee,” he snarled. “You do have attorneys of your own.”
…
And he showed abundant disdain for dissenters, such as Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), who asked whether Addington consulted lawmakers about anti-torture statutes.
“There is no reason their opinion on that would be relevant,” he answered.
…
Cheney’s Cheney continued to dole out the scorn (“You asked that question earlier, today, and I’ll give you the same answer”) until Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), the last questioner, inquired about waterboarding. “I can’t talk to you — al-Qaeda may watch these meetings,” Addington said.
“I’m glad they finally have a chance to see you, Mr. Addington,” Delahunt joked.
“I’m sure you’re pleased,” Addington growled.
The photo that accompanied the Post article showed Addington, along with John Yoo, he of the infamous “torture memo,” smirking like of couple of loudmouth assholes in ninth grade after being hauled into the principal’s office.
Again to the piece in the Post:
- After several such dances around the questions (whether, for example, the president could order somebody buried alive), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) offered his grudging respect: “You guys are great on ‘Beat the Clock,’ ” he said.
“I don’t play basketball,” replied the 41-year-old Yoo.
“That was a game show,” Cohen explained.
This would be very funny, ‘Mad TV,’ or ‘SNL’ kind of shit, except the fate of the US republic rests on the assholes like Addington and Yoo.
Their performance before the committee displays the horror of the last near-eight years — way above the common man and stretched way into the dark of criminals.
The US peoples know, however:
- WASHINGTON — Three out of four Americans, including large numbers of Republicans, blame President Bush’s economic policies for making the country worse off during the last eight years, according to a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll released Wednesday, reflecting a sharp increase in public pessimism during the last year.
Nine percent of respondents said the country’s economic condition had improved since Bush became president, compared with 75% who said conditions had worsened. Among Republicans, 42% said the country was worse off, while 26% said it was about the same, and 22% thought economic conditions had improved.
…
Seventy percent of respondents said the rising cost of fuel had caused hardship for their families, and the pain appeared to be spread across all income groups: 79% of people with incomes of less than $40,000 a year said the higher prices were a hardship, but so did 55% of respondents with incomes above $100,000.
…
All together, 82% of respondents said the economy was doing badly, compared with 71% who felt that way when the question was asked in February. And the pessimism has intensified: Fifty percent of respondents said the economy was doing “very badly,” compared with 38% in February.
The Times/Bloomberg poll, conducted June 19-23 under Pinkus’ supervision, interviewed 1,233 adults nationwide. The poll’s margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Assholes that mirror into a looking glass of arrogance.
One day, buddy boys, one day…
Fan belts and Alternators
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Any idiot general worth his star should have seen this coming.
Although a few military types did pipe up, they were shouted down by Decider George and his warrior-in-camp, Damn-Dumb Don Rumsfeld.
Now it’s broken-back, breakdown:
- WASHINGTON — The Pentagon faces a more than $100 billion bill to repair and replace worn out or destroyed equipment, vehicles and weapons, officials and members of Congress say, but paying for it may endanger plans to boost the size of the military.
The military is scrambling to re-equip because the Pentagon failed to plan for the long and expensive war in Iraq, said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs the House panel that oversees military spending.
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More than five years of simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have ground down military equipment.
Humvees, for example, travel as much as 100,000 miles a year in Iraq, five times the peacetime rate. Heavy armor strains engines and axles.
Military operations have cost $572 billion since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pentagon records show.
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Just how high the bill will go depends on when U.S. troops leave Iraq and how much equipment is upgraded rather than repaired, said Andrew Krepinevich, executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
– USA Today, (6/25/08)
Bad equipment and the dying continues.
Today in Iraq, three US Marines and two interpreters were killed in Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, in another one of those cross-fire suicide bombing intended for pro-US Iraqis during.
While yesterday, Wednesday, four US GIs were killed, three in Ninevah province and the fourth in an EFP attack in Baghdad.
And in Afghanistan, where the situation is getting worse, three US-led coalition soldiers and a local-national interpreter were killed in a roadside bomb, bringing the foreign forces killed there this month to 39, the highest monthly toll of the war there — about to enter its seventh year.
An informative insight into the attrition rate of US equipment in two very troublesome wars, especially in the area of fuel consumption, was given by Robert Bryce last March, published by The American Conservative.
Titled “Oil for War,” the article revealed what a shattering, ironic mess Decider George and his cronies have provoked.
Some snips:
- Today the average American G.I. in Iraq uses about 20.5 gallons of fuel every day, more than double the daily volume consumed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq in 2004.
Thus, in order to secure the third-richest country on the planet, the U.S. military is burning enormous quantities of petroleum.
And nearly every drop of that fuel is imported into Iraq. These massive fuel requirements—just over 3 million gallons per day for Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Energy Support Center—are a key reason for the soaring cost of the war effort.
…
In 2007 alone, the U.S. military in Iraq burned more than 1.1 billion gallons of fuel. (American Armed Forces generally use a blend of jet fuel known as JP-8 to propel both aircraft and automobiles.)
About 5,500 tanker trucks are involved in the Iraqi fuel-hauling effort. That fleet of trucks is enormously costly.
In November 2006, a study produced by the U.S. Military Academy estimated that delivering one gallon of fuel to U.S. soldiers in Iraq cost American taxpayers $42—and that didn’t include the cost of the fuel itself. At that rate, each U.S. soldier in Iraq is costing $840 per day in fuel delivery costs, and the U.S. is spending $923 million per week on fuel-related logistics in order to keep 157,000 G.I.s in Iraq.
Given that the Iraq War is now costing about $2.5 billion per week, petroleum costs alone currently account for about one-third of all U.S. military expenditure in Iraq.
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The MRAPs mean even greater demand for fuel from U.S. troops in Iraq.
An armored Humvee covers perhaps 8 miles per gallon of fuel.
One version of the MRAP, the Maxxpro, weighs about 40,000 pounds, and according to a source within the military, gets just 3 miles per gallon.
The increased demand for fuel for the MRAPs will come alongside the need for an entirely new set of tires, fan belts, windshields, alternators, and other gear.
And there’s no apparent end in sight.
Although this week a glimpse into something in the future.
The Task Force for a Responsible Withdrawal for Iraq, a 20-member committee which met last March, laid out a blueprint to pull the US ass out of a wringer.
Titled, “Quickly, Carefully, and Generously: The Necessary Steps for a Responsible Withdrawal from Iraq,” the committee’s report proposes a basis for a complete withdrawal of American forces within 12 to 18 months — starting first with a modified UN mandate for Iraqi aid and support in a gradual American troop draw-down.
A good look at the Task Force report is found here.
One knows, however, Decider George ain’t gonna go for it.
He ain’t pumped gas into a car in decades — has no idea where a fan belt or alternator would be located, and wouldn’t know the function of each.
And he won’t when he gets back to the ranch.
‘How Deep the Rabbit Hole Goes’
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“This is your last chance.
After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes…
Remember, all I’m offering is the truth, nothing more…
Follow me…
Apoc, are we online?”
– The Matrix (1999)
Into the mists of war continues the US.
The self-defeating ‘Global War on Terror’ has created a rabbit hole of such depth and persuasion, Alice could never, ever find her way back to the surface again.
The US public is in the same boat as little Alice, and Neo.
Network TV — ABC, CBS and NBC — coverage of the Iraqi war has really dropped in the past year.
Even some TV journalists have reported on less reporting, making one, CBS chief foreign correspondent hottie Lara Logan to proclaim: “If I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts.”
CBS now has no full-time reporter in Iraq and no network TV news operation has a full-timer in Afghanistan.
The problem ends up not before the mass of the US public.
And this unseen trail is so littered with discarded and damaged shit, the general public has no clue of what’s really happening with their sons and daughters in far-off places.
Decider George and his cohorts have so muddied the waters, screwed-up every conceivable item on an seemingly unending agenda of disasters, that even if Barack Obama is elected president this fall, he will face what could easily be termed as an anti-Gordian Knot — no single, bold stroke will free this sonofabitch-entanglement.
Iraq and Afghanistan both are entering a new phase, or maybe just an acceleration of the last one.
In Iraq, it’s really the same old story, but getting closer to reality: Yesterday four Americans — two of whom were civilians — were killed in a Baghdad bomb blast, but with a new twist.
Instead of a roadside bomb, or sniper fire, it was as inadvertent do-gooding in the wrong place — a Sadr City council office.
The day before, on Monday, two US GIs were killed after leaving a local council office in Madaen, a city southeast of Baghdad.
Security within the ranks of the Iraqi security forces.
The blast in Baghdad carried an all-time favorite security concern: “…how a bomb hidden in a bag could get inside.”
- As one of the soldiers unfurled photographs of the council members, an explosion ripped through the room, knocking one member, Qasim Abdul Zahra, to the floor. As he looked up, he could just make out the forms of bloodied Americans through the smoke, he said. Unwittingly, they had become human shields, he said.
“The explosion happened just outside the room, near the Americans,” who were standing by the door, he said. “They were the ones that received the most shrapnel; and that’s why we are still alive,” he said of himself and the three other council members who were present.
While the four Iraqi council members in the room survived, six Iraqis outside the room were killed by the blast.
– New York Times, (6/25/08)
And this from the Christian Science Monitor:
- The brazen Tuesday morning bombing occurred in an Iraqi municipal council building within the section of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Shiite stronghold of Sadr City that is sealed off and guarded by American and Iraqi forces.
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What’s more, it brings into the forefront, yet again, serious doubts about the capabilities and even the loyalties of Iraqi forces. The Iraqi Army had prime responsibility for securing the building located behind a stretch of high walls and barbed wires. No civilian vehicles are allowed into this stretch and everyone coming in is supposed to be searched by the Iraqis.
And what’s the score on that so-called Iraqi surge — Decider George’s ‘New Way Forward’ from more than 18 months ago?
Security still ain’t secure:
- While agreeing with the administration that violence has decreased sharply, a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office concluded that many other goals Bush outlined a year and a half ago in the “New Way Forward” strategy remain unmet.
The report, after a bleak GAO assessment last summer, cited little improvement in the ability of Iraqi security forces to act independently of the U.S. military, and noted that key legislation passed by the Iraqi parliament had not been implemented while other crucial laws had not been passed
…
In many respects, the two reports seemed to assess wholly different realities. The 74-page Pentagon document emphasized what it called the “negative role” in Iraqi security that Iran and Syria have played. The 94-page GAO report did not mention Iran and referred to Syria only in the context of Iraqi refugees who had settled there.
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In comments appended to the GAO report, the State, Treasury and Defense departments objected to its conclusions, especially the judgment that the administration needs to fashion a new strategy.
“We do not require a new strategic document,” the State Department wrote. The Pentagon said it “nonconcurs with the GAO recommendation” to update the strategy, adding that the “New Way Forward … remains valid.”
– San Francisco Chronicle, (6/24/08)
And what way forward in Afghanistan?
As in Iraq, it is hard to know your enemy.
The US might have a much bigger mess in Afghanistan than Iraq, but the scorecard is still security, security, security — but of who?
Along with the increasingly dangerous spark between Afghan and Pakistani border forces the last couple of weeks, now an assassination plot:
- In a news conference in Kabul, Sayeed Ansari, the spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service, said Afghan authorities had evidence of the direct involvement of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, Inter-Service Intelligence, or ISI, in the assassination attempt.
He said the evidence was based on documents uncovered during the investigation into the assassination attempt, confessions from 16 suspects detained after the attack, and cellphone contacts. He gave no further details or specific names of officials within the Pakistani agency that may have been involved.
“Based on the investigation of the case and documents we found as well as confessions by suspects we arrested they show that the real schemers and organizers of the terrorist attack” on the celebratory parade on April 27 “is the intelligence organization of Pakistan, ISI, and its associates, which committed unforgivable crimes.”
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“We don’t guess about the involvement of ISI, we are saying it precisely,” he said. The well-coordinated assassination attempt against Mr. Karzai took place at the Afghan national day military parade in central Kabul. Mr. Karzai escaped unhurt but three people were killed in the assault, including a tribal chief and a member of Parliament who were in the reviewing stands near Mr. Karzai, and a 10-year-old boy.
– New York Times, (6/26/08)
And what about the US’s entire operation in Pakistan, supposedly a top US ally in the above-mentioned, great, whole-wide-world, “War on Terror” and all its counterparts.
A real big problem in the whole proceedings, of absolute course, is the US guy, Decider George, and the Pakistani guy, Pervez Musharraf, are complete assholes.
And corrupt assholes, as reported by the Washington Post:
- The Bush administration has paid Pakistan more than $2 billion without adequate proof that the Pakistani government used the funds for their intended purpose of supporting U.S. counter-terrorism efforts, congressional auditors reported yesterday.
Their report concluded that more than a third of U.S. funds provided Pakistan since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were subject to accounting problems, including duplication and possible fraud.
The Pentagon paid about $20 million for army road construction and $15 million to build bunkers in Pakistan, but there is no evidence that the roads or bunkers were ever constructed, the Government Accountability Office reported.
Islamabad also billed Washington $200 million for an air defense radar system that may not have met a U.S. condition: that reimbursement cover combat or logistical costs supporting U.S. military operations against terrorism beyond what a country would spend on its own needs.
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“It seems as though the Pakistani military went on a spending spree with American taxpayers’ wallets and no one bothered to investigate the charges,” said Sen.Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “How hard would it have been to confirm that a road we paid $15 million for was ever built? It is appalling that the Defense Department did not send any embassy officials working in Pakistan to verify these enormous costs.”
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In one example, the report cited monthly payments averaging $19,000 per vehicle for 20 passenger vehicles used by the Pakistani navy that appeared to contain “duplicative charges,” the GAO said. The Pentagon often did not document its basis for evaluating claims and did not check Pakistan’s currency conversions, which could have led to overbilling, the report said.
The Musharraf nut don’t fall far from the Decider George tree.
And the matrix of shit-clinging horror and incompetence and greed created all over the world by Decider George is made worse by an Alice in chains.
As Morpheus explained, this Decider George shitfire can be felt “when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes.”
Down a deep, deep, dark rabbit hole.