The Billion dollar Soap Opera

from Moon of Alabama

EXCERPT
To sum it up:

• Maliki is the U.S. supported puppet in Iraq
• Maliki starts a war on Sadr
• Sadr stops the offense against him and successfully attacks Maliki's forces and his backers in the Green Zone
• Maliki sends folks to Iran to have an Iranian "terrorist supporter" mediate a peace deal with Sadr
• Sadr sets the terms under which he agrees to stop fighting
• Maliki agrees (somewhat) to Sadr's terms and the truce
• The U.S. taxpayer pay $12 billion a month to watch this show

Isn't this a bit absurd?

The Full Article is a good read

Last of Iraqis gives you the 6 days of the Sadr Surge from an Iraqi perspective

And of course, Juan Cole always has more information on the situation

UPDATE: Newshoggers: Basra and Beyond

Sunday, bloody Sunday

Easter letter from Michael Moore:

Friends,

It would have to happen on Easter Sunday, wouldn't it, that the 4,000th American soldier would die in Iraq. Play me that crazy preacher again, will you, about how maybe God, in all his infinite wisdom, may not exactly be blessing America these days. Is anyone surprised?

4,000 dead. Unofficial estimates are that there may be up to 100,000 wounded, injured, or mentally ruined by this war. And there could be up to a million Iraqi dead. We will pay the consequences of this for a long, long time. God will keep blessing America.

And where is Darth Vader in all this? A reporter from ABC News this week told Dick Cheney, in regards to Iraq, "two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting." Cheney cut her off with a one word answer: "So?"

"So?" As in, "So what?" As in, "F*** you. I could care less."

I would like every American to see Cheney flip the virtual bird at the them, the American people. Click here and pass it around. Then ask yourself why we haven't risen up and thrown him and his puppet out of the White House.

The Democrats have had the power to literally pull the plug on this war for the past 15 months -- and they have refused to do so. What are we to do about that? Continue to sink into our despair? Or get creative? Real creative. I know there are many of you reading this who have the chutzpah and ingenuity to confront your local congressperson. Will you? For me?

Cheney spent Wednesday, the 5th anniversary of the war, not mourning the dead he killed, but fishing off the Sultan of Oman's royal yacht. So? Ask your favorite Republican what they think of that.

The Founding Fathers would never have uttered the presumptuous words, "God Bless America." That, to them, sounded like a command instead of a request, and one doesn't command God, even if they are America. In fact, they were worried God would punish America. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington feared that God would react unfavorably against his soldiers for the way they were behaving. John Adams wondered if God might punish America and cause it to lose the war, just to prove His point that America was not worthy. They and the others believed it would be arrogant on their part to assume that God would single out America for a blessing. What a long road we have traveled since then.

I see that Frontline on PBS this week has a documentary called "Bush's War." That's what I've been calling it for a long time. It's not the "Iraq War." Iraq did nothing. Iraq didn't plan 9/11. It didn't have weapons of mass destruction. It DID have movie theaters and bars and women wearing what they wanted and a significant Christian population and one of the few Arab capitals with an open synagogue.

But that's all gone now. Show a movie and you'll be shot in the head. Over a hundred women have been randomly executed for not wearing a scarf. I'm happy, as a blessed American, that I had a hand in all this. I just paid my taxes, so that means I helped to pay for this freedom we've brought to Baghdad. So? Will God bless me?

God bless all of you in this Easter Week as we begin the 6th year of Bush's War.

God help America. Please.
Michael Moore

Greeted with Flowers and Kisses in Iraq

Hat tip- Moon of Alabama

Ahmadinejad visits Iraq

This persian gets a warm welcome from Talibani , the Kurds, and Maliki.

The whole situation is mindboggling. It's that bad. I knew that Iran had made inroads with certain Shiite clerics and some of the more powerful personalities in the chaos that is Iraq, but this fawning welcome of Ahmadinejad, the representative of their age-old blood enemy, is astounding.

Maliki- hailing Iran's contribution to Iraqi security. The Kurds- begging for someone to protect them from the Turks, since the U.S. is ignoring Turkey's attacks in the north. Shiites pressing for favors and protection in the future. We've taken out Saddam, who was basically our agent in the greater scheme of things. This benefited the hard-liner fundamentalist muslims. This benefited Al-Qaeda. We can all see that now. And now, it has led Iran through the open door of Iraq and to the front steps of its heart.

The only dissenting voice was that of the Sunnis, of course.

from Iran Focus
“Those who imagined that by removing Saddam they would create a power base in the region today see that, through the blessing of the Islamic revolution, Iraq has been transformed into a strong bastion in defence of the Islamic revolution”, Ahmadinejad said.

Juan Cole on the visit

Iran's diplomacy trumps America's shock and awe.

Ahmadinejad, asked about the purpose of his visit:

"There is nothing out of the ordinary when brothers meet, you know how deep our ties are," he said quickly, adding in Arabic: "You can see it with your own eyes now."

This is what Bush traded 5,000 American lives and 3 Trillion dollars for. Saddam Hussein for Iran. Does that Iranian oil bourse seem even a little more significant now?

UPDATE: Batocchio has a comprehensive post on Iraq and the surge HERE

UPDATE 2: Welcome to everyone visiting from The Atlantic-

UPDATE 3: Robert Scheer writes about the American media blackout on Ahmadinejad's visit

I Link, therefore I am...

What about that oil?

What's in a name? Barack Hussein style

Dr. Ben Marble (the guy who told Dick Cheney to go fuck himself) sent me a link to his new music vid - Go FU Cheney music vid

Texas - the CO2 State

Israeli Minister threatens Palestine with Holocaust

Watching Bill Maher's program the other day, with Kingston and Frum, I really wanted to reach through the tv and knock the shit out of Kingston. The guy is a total lying sleazebag and the people he's really lying to the most are his own supporters, republicans. He was pimping the flag pin/pledge of allegiance bullshit. This video I found at Americablog pretty much refutes this new pile of steaming republican lies. I have noticed Dan Abrams has been taking it to the liars pretty well lately, ala Olbermann. He's like the anti-Joe Scarborough.

And last but not least, Olbermann dissects the Bushspeak ....

Random observation: Going through my sitemeter and reviewing some of the hits I got through google searches DOES NOT give me any faith in my fellow man... There are some sick fucks out there.

Levels of Fucked up

Whiskey Dick


Beaver Enlightenment


Stuck Sober


Totally Fucking Wasted out of Your muthafucking gourd

Bits and Pieces

Play Me


Lubbock Left

"Wow!
I never thought I would live to see the day when more Lubbockites participated in the Democratic Primary than in the Republican Primary in the second most conservative city in the USA. Let’s hope the trend continues through election day (where, for once, the Democratic precinct conventions will get the nice big rooms in the voting locations!).
This is an exciting time to be a Democrat!"

Tom Hayden returns to Vietnam

As I walked through the busy Christmas streets, however, I was gripped by the question of why the Vietnam War was necessary in the first place. Why kill, maim and uproot millions of Vietnamese if the outcome was a consumer wonderland approved by the country's still-undefeated Communist Party? The whole wretched American rationale for the war, that Vietnam was a dangerous domino, a pawn in the cold war, seemed so painfully wrong. Was there any connection between destroying so much life and causing the Vietnamese to go Christmas shopping? Would the same outcome--a one-party socialist government leading a market economy--have occurred in any event, without the destruction? Now that US naval ships were paying peaceful visits to Da Nang, this question nagged at me: is it possible that Marxism and nationalism won the war but capitalism and nationalism have won the peace?

Just Another day in Iraq

5 US Troops Killed;
25 Dead, 70 Wounded in Violence;
Turkey Bombs Iraq

The Casual casualties

After reading this over at Unruly Mob, I just can't put up my usual Friday goof-off bullshit...

Semper Fi

Iraq's Tragic Future

Common Dreams has an interesting article written by Scott Ritter...

EXCERPT
The continued ambivalence of the American population as a whole toward the war in Iraq, perhaps best manifested by the superficiality of the slogan “Support the Troops,” all the while remaining ignorant of what the troops are actually doing, has led to a similar amnesia among politicians all too willing to allow themselves to seek political advantage at the expense of American life and treasure. January 2008 cost the United States nearly 40 lives in Iraq. The current military budget is unprecedented in its size, and doesn’t even come close to paying for ongoing military operations in Iraq. The war in Iraq has bankrupted Americans morally and fiscally, and yet the American public continues to shake the hands of aspiring politicians who ignore Iraq, pretending that the blood which soaks the hands of these political aspirants hasn’t stained their own. In the sick kabuki dance that is American politics, this refusal to call a spade a spade is deserving of little more than disdain and sorrow.

Hope is all that's left, unfortunately

Polishifter - on another 5 dead soldiers in Iraq

More kids die
More Women die
More Iraqis die
More of everyone dying

"Hillary is a fighter"
"Obama has a voice I can relate to"

Neither matters if they settle into office with all the faux tsunamic force of a Pelosi.

Damn it! Why in the flying fuck do today's progressives choose style, sex and race over a candidate who is promising to get our troops out of there?? Do you people believe that Edwards is a liar? Because Hillary and Obama aren't even TALKING about getting us out of Iraq.

Hillary with all of her AIPAC ties, and Obama "Everything's on the table" with starting NEW wars in Iran. What part of "WAKE THE FUCK UP!" Do you not understand?

Fucking Hell! I just can't understand it. Wake the Fuck up.
Please.

A vote for Hillary, a vote for Obama- is a vote for MORE DEATH in Iraq. There will 5000 dead troops and god knows how many civilians before Bush steps down from office. And after another 4 years of Hillary or Obama there will be 5,000 more.

Goddamnit, wake up.

UPDATE: MSNBC says Edwards is dropping out of the race...
My heart sinks-

Listening to NPR this morning, they had two soundbites of average joes talking about Obama. These voters in Florida explained their support for Obama as being tied to his ability to bring the country together. Well, pardon me, but the country is together, except for the insane 23% of the racist, sexist, Republican base who thinks that George Bush is the greatest person in the world.

They are wrong. And they have been wrong from the get-go. Most of those who supported Bush in the beginning now have seen the error of their way and have come to the light. This has been a dark time in American history and we have yet to see the full ramifications of the Bush presidency. The recession is just beginning and our foreign policy is in shambles. And guess what? I have NO Desire to move to the middle at this point!

We, the far left, have been right over and over. People want change from the ridiculousness of the present system. We were on the cusp of great change. Returning to the middle only serves the ignorance of the Republican base, who are completely happy with the system as is. As radical as real change might be, it is desperately needed. We don't need to shake the hand of our dumb ass Uncle the racist over dinner and say "Agree to disagree." We need to get in his face and say "You stupid fuck- how many soldiers died because you couldn't open your damn eyes? How much will OUR Family suffer because of this recession? How many times have you called ME a traitor as you worshipped at the altar of corporate oil?"

These stupid fuckers don't deserve to have us move closer to their ignorant mindset. Each and every one of them needs to be held down, choking, as we force feed them the truth, no matter how much they don't want to take their medicine. The Right has NO accountability. They are a full blown minority at this point, EXCEPT in the halls of Congress. But that is changing. And Republicans will become less and less powerful in the coming years as a direct result of how wrong they have been on EVERYTHING.

I HOPE Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton do not back down as so many other Democrats have done in recent days. I HOPE that they understand that this country is in dire straits and needs to implement some real change. I HOPE that they will reverse their mealy mouthed stance on Iraq as soon as they are elected and get our troops out of there, post-haste.

The thing is, I didn't HAVE to HOPE that Edwards understood these matters and would take action to correct them. I knew. It am glad he was able to move Hillary and Obama closer to the left on all these issues. I can only hope they ditch their pollsters and their popularity contests and show some real spine and perseverence. Hope, unfortunately, is what the American people are counting on. And now, with the best candidate out of the race, it's all I have as well.

Blog comment of the day

found on one of the stock trading blogs...

(it may have gotten deleted... most of the comments on that thread are getting that way)

"No, shit-for-brains…I’m a military officer trying to keep our boys and girls alive in the midst of one of teh greatest foreign policy coups in our nation’s short history, while you sit on your overweight, fast-food-eating carcass of an arse in the US and act all indignant and patriotic and all that blah.

It’s ignorant citizens like you who let our politicians run afoul of international law and trash our credibility abroad, and then vote for them again so they can finish the job. And it’s citizens like you who put your little red, white and blue flags on your big shiny SUVs, while carefully placing your “No Dogs, Sailors or Soldiers on the Grass” sign on your front lawns.

.
And your comment about beheadings is putting the cart before the horse, I’m afraid.
You make me sick. I hate the fact that I swore an oath to defend and die for you."

.
GFY

Blogging your own epitath...

Final Post

Andrew Olmsted, RIP

from an earlier post of his:

Asking the Hard Question

I have been reliably informed that my posting of late has been rather dark. That's probably true, in no small part because it seems that no matter where I turn, I end up reading things like this:

The goal of Democrats -- and their allies -- over the next two years should not and cannot be to stop the war cold turkey. The goal should be to politicize the issue in preparation for 2008.

I may not agree with the assessment of the far left, but at least they're honest. They think we've lost in Iraq and that we should get out now. Contrast that with those who see in Iraq a wonderful opportunity to win more seats for their party, like publius. It pleases me to no end that if I end up getting killed in Iraq, at least my wife can take comfort in knowing my death may help the Democrats win the White House in 2008. Really, that makes it all worthwhile.

Harsh? Absolutely. And I realize that publius' motives are sincere. But while the odds are pretty good I'll live through my trip to Iraq, the fact remains that too many of my comrades will die in Iraq between now and the day a new President takes office in January 2009. If people think that we have lost in Iraq, then they have a duty to say so and do what they can to get us out of Iraq, not position themselves to be in better shape to do so in two years. The idea that Congress cannot stop this war flies in the face of the facts. Congress can quite easily end the war within six months if they so choose. No money equals no war, and while the Democrats aren't strong enough to pass a resolution rescinding the Authorization to Use Military Force, they are certainly strong enough not to pass a budget funding further operations in Iraq. Yes, six months is a long time and more people will die, but that eighteen month window means perhaps 1,000 more dead soldiers and many times more soldiers whose lives will be forever changed by the wounds they receive there.

Of course, doing so would probably be politically devastating to the Democrats. The Republicans would use such a move as ammunition for scurrilous demagoguery, carefully avoiding the questions they've mostly been able to dodge over the past four years about their responsibility for the war. But the war would still end, and while it might hurt the Democrats initially, given that their actions would come roughly a year before the next election, who knows how they might look in the fall of 2008 when American soldiers are no longer coming home in caskets; President George H.W. Bush looked nigh-unbeatable a year before the 1992 election; I assume we all remember how that one turned out.

More to the point, it seems to me that it is the right thing to do, if you believe we should be getting out of Iraq. If you think the surge cannot work and that we've lost, I fail to see how you can justify waiting an additional 18 months because the politics aren't right. John Kerry once asked how you can ask someone to be the last man to die for a mistake. It would appear that for a lot of Democrats, that question is easier to answer than Kerry thought.

Unfortunately, Andrew Olmsted won't be the last good soldier to die for this mistake. Not by a long shot. Political expediency be damned! A Congress that respects our troops and their deaths would have stopped this mistake years ago, may not even have begun it in the first place.

Out of Iraq - NOW. Immediate withdrawal- and if Iraq falls into more chaos, so be it. The deaths belong on the heads of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and every neocon sycophant that profitted off this immoral invasion. It's time for an American presence in Iraq to end. To those of you in Congress, if you don't want more deaths to be on YOUR heads- you will do everything in your power to stop the Republican war profiteering machine.

And I sincerely believe that every one of you in Congress who would continue this "war" at this time, knowing what we all know now- deserves to be imprisoned for the rest of your life as a war criminal and a traitor to our military and our country by squandering them so needlessly.

Progress = Ending the Occupation

Only One Top Dem will End Iraq Occupation

Guess Who that is ?

(from Alternet)
EXCERPT
"According to the National Journal, the Democratic candidates' "disputes over issues have almost completely evaporated in the campaign's final days." The leading Dems, according to the Journal, are beating each other up over who has the most effective "leadership style" or similar abstractions. The notion that the top candidates are virtually identical on the issues and vary only in "tone" -- with Clinton the voice of experience and pragmatism, Obama the feel-good "uniter" who can heal a divided country and John Edwards the aggressive economic populist -- has become, to some degree, the conventional wisdom of campaign 2008.

But, as is often the case, it's also simply wrong."

"While it's true that the big three have similar stances on a number of issues, on Iraq -- the one that Democrats and swing voters say is either their top concern, or No. 2 after the economy -- the top candidates' differences couldn't be more significant. In fact, only John Edwards among the top three Dems would effectively end the occupation of Iraq within a year of taking office."

Stopping the Occupation/"war" is the first step for any real progress in this country. And John Edwards is the only one who I believe will actually attempt to bring our troops home from Iraq as soon as he can.

Anyone who is fed up with the insanity of the neocons has only one real choice to stop more of our soldiers for dying in Iraq for the sake Billionaire War profiteers and neocon chickenhawks.

If you AREN'T Enraged at 4 years of our soldiers dying for lies by rich, fat fucking lowlife corporate slime powermongers like Dick Cheney and George Dubya, then you ARE the traitor to our country.

And waving your fucking little flags is a piss poor excuse for really supporting the troops as Dubya and his Saudi backroom oil buddies send our military into a meatgrinder, then take away their goddamn healthcare, pensions, and futures once they return crippled.

Shame on every one of you who has supported the anti-American policies of war, torture, and the murder of civilians that George Bush has brought us.

Shame.

This is a very important juncture in our nation's future - Don't Fuck It UP by voting for some corporate sycophant or some ineffective, insincere "Rock Star" who hasn't even done a good job as a Senator.

Shifting Sands in the hourglass

Sunni vs. Shia- How Al Qaueda lost Baghdad, the story behind the Sunni Militias, and why momentary peace in Iraq bodes ill for the occupation...

Published on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 by The Independent/UK

Only One Thing Unites Iraq: Hatred of the US
The Americans will discover, as the British learned to their cost in Basra, that they have few permanent allies

by Patrick Cockburn

As British forces come to the end of their role in Iraq, what sort of country do they leave behind? Has the United States turned the tide in Baghdad? Does the fall in violence mean that the country is stabilising after more than four years of war? Or are we seeing only a temporary pause in the fighting?American commentators are generally making the same mistake that they have made since the invasion of Iraq was first contemplated five years ago. They look at Iraq in over-simple terms and exaggerate the extent to which the US is making the political weather and is in control of events there.

The US is the most powerful single force in Iraq but by no means the only one. The shape of Iraqi politics has changed over the past year, though for reasons that have little to do with “the surge” - the 30,000 US troop reinforcements - and much to do with the battle for supremacy between the Sunni and Shia Muslim communities.

The Sunni Arabs of Iraq turned against al Qa’ida partly because it tried to monopolise power but primarily because it brought their community close to catastrophe. The Sunni war against US occupation had gone surprisingly well for them since it began in 2003. It was a second war, the one against the Shia majority led by al-Qa’ida, which the Sunni were losing, with disastrous results for themselves. “The Sunni people now think they cannot fight two wars - against the occupation and the government - at the same time,” a Sunni friend in Baghdad told me last week. “We must be more realistic and accept the occupation for the moment.”

This is why much of the non-al-Qa’ida Sunni insurgency has effectively changed sides. An important reason why al-Qa’ida has lost ground so swiftly is a split within its own ranks. The US military - the State Department has been very much marginalised in decision-making in Baghdad - does not want to emphasise that many of the Sunni fighters now on the US payroll, who are misleadingly called “concerned citizens”, until recently belonged to al Qa’ida and have the blood of a great many Iraqi civilians and American soldiers on their hands.

The Sunni Arabs, five million out of an Iraqi population of 27 million and the mainstay of Saddam Hussein’s government, were the core of the resistance to the US occupation. But they have also been fighting a sectarian war to prevent the 16 million Shia and the five million Kurds holding power.

At first, the Shia were very patient in the face of atrocities. Vehicles, packed with explosives and driven by suicide bombers, were regularly detonated in the middle of crowded Shia market places or religious processions, killing and maiming hundreds of people. The bombers came from al-Qa’ida but the attacks were never wholeheartedly condemned by Sunni political leaders or other guerrilla groups. The bombings were also very short-sighted since the Iraqi Shia outnumber the Sunni three to one. Retaliation was restrained until a bomb destroyed the revered Shia al-Askari shrine in Samarra on 22 February, 2006.

The bombing led to a savage Shia onslaught on the Sunni, which became known in Iraq as “the battle for Baghdad”. This struggle was won by the Shia. They were always the majority in the capital but, by the end of 2006, they controlled 75 per cent of the city. The Sunni fled or were pressed back into a few enclaves, mostly in west Baghdad.

In the wake of this defeat, there was less and less point in the Sunni trying expel the Americans when the Sunni community was itself being evicted by the Shia from large parts of Iraq. The Iraqi Sunni leaders had also miscalculated that an assault on their community by the Shia would provoke Arab Sunni states like Saudi Arabia and Egypt into giving them more support but this never materialised.

It was al-Qa’ida’s slaughter of Shia civilians, whom it sees as heretics worthy of death, which brought disaster to the Sunni community. Al-Qa’ida also grossly overplayed its hand at the end of last year by setting up the Islamic State of Iraq, which tried to fasten its control on other insurgent groups and the Sunni community as a whole. Sunni garbage collectors were killed because they worked for the government and Sunni families in Baghdad were ordered to send one of their members to join al Qai’da. Bizarrely, even Osama bin Laden, who never had much influence over al Qa’ida in Iraq, was reduced to advising his acolytes against extremism.

Defeat in Baghdad and the extreme unpopularity of al Qa’ida gave the impulse for the formation of the 77,000-strong anti-al-Qa’ida Sunni militia, often under tribal leadership, which is armed and paid for by the US. But the creation of this force is a new stage in the war in Iraq rather than an end to the conflict.

Sunni enclaves in Baghdad are safer, but not districts where Sunni and Shia face each other. There are few mixed areas left. Many of the Sunni fighters say openly that they see the elimination of al Qai’ida as a preliminary to an attack on the Shia militias, notably the Mehdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr, which triumphed last year.

The creation of a US-backed Sunni militia both strengthens and weakens the Iraqi government. It is strengthened in so far as the Sunni insurrection is less effective and weakened because it does not control this new force.

If the Sunni guerrillas were one source of violence in 2006 the other was the Mehdi Army, led by Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia nationalist cleric. This has been stood down because he wants to purge it of elements he does not control, and wishes to avoid a military confrontation with his rivals within the Shia community if they are backed by the US army. But the Mehdi Army would certainly fight if the Shia community came under attack or the Americans pressured it too hard.

American politicians continually throw up their hands in disgust that Iraqis cannot reconcile or agree on how to share power. But equally destabilising is the presence of a large US army in Iraq and the uncertainty about what role the US will play in future. However much Iraqis may fight among themselves, a central political fact in Iraq remains the unpopularity of the US-led occupation outside Kurdistan. This has grown year by year since the fall of Saddam Hussein. A detailed opinion poll carried out by ABC News, BBC and NTV of Japan in August found that 57 per cent of Iraqis believe that attacks on US forces are acceptable.

Nothing is resolved in Iraq. Power is wholly fragmented. The Americans will discover, as the British learned to their cost in Basra, that they have few permanent allies in Iraq. It has become a land of warlords in which fragile ceasefires might last for months and might equally collapse tomorrow.

Middle East correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, Patrick Cockburn was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn prize for war reporting. His book on his years covering the war in Iraq, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (Verso) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction.

Explosives Found Inside Iraq's Green Zone

Is this the beginning of the End?

From Americablog, two U.S. troopers taunt Iraqi children with a bottle of water...

And some comments from Americablog...

That kid will remember Americans for the rest of his life. He'll remember running through dirty streets with sewer puddles, in the heat and the dust, for a plastic bottle of designer water from the laughing Americans. If he survives our destruction of his country, could you blame him if he grew up to be another Bin Laden?What you sow, so shall you reap. Webster

There are 1000 actions like this happening every day in Iraq. Why DOES ANYONE think having our troops in Iraq is HELPING A damn thing? Our troops HATE the Iraqi people more and more day by day and the Iraqi people grow to hate the American presence every day as well. What happens when the Iraqis finally consolidate their power enough to make real strikes against U.S. troops?This is FREEING Iraq? THIS is giving them hope? THIS is helping the Iraqi people?I don't fucking think so.And when it all goes to hell and there's a mad rush back to the green zones and out- Will every damn one of these Pro-War fools say that they couldn't have foreseen it coming? Fade

War is Hell.
MC Haiku

"War is Hell" makes it alright? This isn't a War! This is systematically destroying an entire country so the military industrial complex can't make billions. This is most inept plan to steal Iraq's oil ever dreamed up in the mind of shallow millionaire pundit assholes like Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer. In the end, we are getting less oil now that we got from Saddam.No ONE can say Iraq is in better shape now than when Saddam was in charge. Anyone who defends and supports US Presence in Iraq at this point is a complete and utter fool who is SUPPORTING our troops being killed EVERY DAMN DAY.The mission was a farce if the goal was liberating Iraqis, controlling the oil or instituting Democracy. The mission was a complete success if the goal was destabilizing the Middle East, killing a million Iraqis, increasing terrorism and anti-american sentiment among muslims and making RICHER men out of the Cheney's, the Rumsfelds, the CEOs of Bechtel and Halliburton, AND - not to mention, bankrupting the U.S.treasury.How many dead American troops will the Pro-War types balk at? How many more Americans will have to die before you bastards see that you've been had?
Fade

Ah the magic of democracy and the beauty of taunting impoverished children for a mere laugh.George W. Bush's America ladies and gentlemen.-
GSD

How valuable or scarce is fresh water in Iraq that a kid would run that far just for one bottle? There's a underlying story about living conditions that would lead to the desperation shown by these kids. Once dropped, the kids on the street swarmed the lone bottle. WTF is going on with the reconstruction? Turk, Meister

How many more people, on both sides, will die before the Pro-War crowd PULLS THEIR FUCKING HEADS OUT OF THEIR ASSES?!?!

Time to end the illegal occupation. This IS NOT A WAR. There is no Winning. It's just a matter of HOW MUCH We WILL Lose in the end.

Bush's Vietnam Field trip

Olbermann's special comment on Bush's trip to Vietnam:

Full Article

EXCERPTS:

It is a shame and it is embarrassing to us all when President Bush travels 8,000 miles only to wind up avoiding reality again. And it is pathetic to listen to a man talk unrealistically about Vietnam, who permitted the “Swift-Boating” of not one but two American heroes of that war, in consecutive presidential campaigns. But most importantly — important beyond measure — his avoidance of reality is going to wind up killing more Americans.

And that is indefensible and fatal.

Asked if there were lessons about Iraq to be found in our experience in Vietnam, Mr. Bush said that there were, and he immediately proved he had no clue what they were.
“One lesson is,” he said, “that we tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take a while.”

“We’ll succeed,” the president concluded, “unless we quit.”

If that’s the lesson about Iraq that Mr. Bush sees in Vietnam, then he needs a tutor.
Or we need somebody else making the decisions about Iraq. Mr. Bush, there are a dozen central, essential lessons to be derived from our nightmare in Vietnam, but “we’ll succeed unless we quit,” is not one of them.

The primary one — which should be as obvious to you as the latest opinion poll showing that only 31 percent of this country agrees with your tragic Iraq policy — is that if you try to pursue a war for which the nation has lost its stomach, you and it are finished. Ask Lyndon Johnson.

The second most important lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush: If you don’t have a stable local government to work with, you can keep sending in Americans until hell freezes over and it will not matter. Ask Vietnamese Presidents Diem or Thieu.

The third vital lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush: Don’t pretend it’s something it’s not. For decades we were warned that if we didn’t stop “communist aggression” in Vietnam, communist agitators would infiltrate and devour the small nations of the world, and make their insidious way, stealthily, to our doorstep. The war machine of 1968 had this “domino theory.”
Your war machine of 2006 has this nonsense about Iraq as “the central front in the war on terror.”

The fourth pivotal lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush: If the same idiots who told Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon to stay there for the sake of “peace With honor” are now telling you to stay in Iraq, they’re probably just as wrong now, as they were then ... Dr. Kissinger.

And the fifth crucial lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush — which somebody should’ve told you about long before you plunged this country into Iraq — is that if you lie your country into a war, your war, your presidency will be consigned to the scrap heap of history.

(...)

And these lessons from Vietnam, Mr. Bush, these priceless, transparent lessons, writ large as if across the very sky, are still a mystery to you. “We’ll succeed unless we quit.”
No, sir.
We will succeed against terrorism, for our country’s needs, toward binding up the nation’s wounds when you quit, quit the monumental lie that is our presence in Iraq.
And in the interim, Mr. Bush, an American kid will be killed there, probably tonight or tomorrow. And here, sir, endeth the lesson.

Full Article

Crooks and Liars has the video up

Other Vietnam-related Insights: Kissinger says Military Victory Not possible

Halfway through November

November's Casualties in Iraq

Life

They bruised my soul with a proverb,
They bruised my back with a rod,
And they bade me bow to my elders,
For that was the word of God.

They pent up my soul and bound me
Till life was a living death,
They struck the wine from my fingers,
The passion from my breath.

I reached my hands to living,
They hurled me back into school,
And they said, "Go learn your lessons,
"You innocent young fool."

They yowled till they woke the trumpets --
And the sword blade rent the plow,
And they said, "It is your duty
"To die for your elders now."

They cowered far from the battle
As I went into the strife,
And I spilled my guts in the trenches
In the red dawn of my life.

And the elders named me hero,
But more than their words and ire
Was the scent of a strange wild flower
There where I died in the mire.

Robert E. Howard

It has been a week since the elections and already ALL the news I see is Republicans talking about MORE Troops, More involvement, More "staying the course". And the Democrats snipe at each other and jockey for their own committee positions : "Whee! Let the lobbying begin!" The Democrats voted Steny Hoyer OVER Murtha. Who in the hell is Steny? Why are the ONLY times I have seen his name is when he's badmouthing other Democrats? And why is Carville attacking Dean, the man whose 50 state policy worked so well?

I don't think that some of the old-school Dem Dinosaurs get IT, exactly.

We voted out the bastards who got America where we are right now. We didn't kick those bastards out so you could merrily take their goddamn place taking kickbacks and sitting on your fat asses. Get our TROOPS out of Iraq. Fuck Bush I's and Bush II's "Study Groups". The only thing these cronies are studying is how to best separate oil from Iraqis. Redeployment plans IMMEDIATELY. Every minute that is wasted on the Republican's Failed plans is a minute that a new American soldier may die in.

If the Democratic party Fails in this, because they are too busy marketing themselves- WE WILL NOT FORGET. Do your damn jobs. The ones that Republicans HAVEN'T DONE For 12 damn years!

It's time to start fixing America.

The Destroyers and the Destroyed

This is how America defends itself?

from World can't wait...

Kim, long distance trucker and mom, writes about Marine returned form Fallujah, working at a Denny’s in Rollo MO:

"In Fallujah, it was like in the Bible,” he began slowly. “When they marked the houses with lamb’s blood, and the Angel of Death flew over and killed the firstborn sons in all the houses that weren’t marked. They marked the houses…and the ones that weren’t marked, they had us go in and open fire and…” He stopped speaking and only made gestures.

“The kids?” asked my co-driver.

“Yes.”

The waiter’s words came a little faster now. “If people knew what was really happening over there, they’d rise up and say, ‘bring our kids home NOW!’ If people knew, they wouldn’t stand for it.”

Beit- Hanoun : Murder and Terror, IDF Style

More Murder to come... IDF not done yet...

Arming Terrorists : America supplies the world with weapons

Why Americans are clueless to Israeli Aggression: Media Bias

Israeli Atrocities : Nazi Solutions to Jewish Problems

Israelis killing more and more civilians ... Gaza deaths

And at the United Nations, the U.S. continues to Veto measures that would save lives and promote peace- just so Israel can continue their murderous rampages unchecked...

Fuck em they're just Arabs

The weapons that our Government is selling to anybody and everyone end up, time and time again- in the hands of those who would kill Americans. Clusterbombs are dropped hours before a CEASE FIRE in record numbers. Those clusterbombs are still killing Lebanese children TODAY, months after the battle is over. Israel not only kills Palestinians and Lebanese in their lust to blitzkrieg their enemies, but also kills jews among them who want peace. They run over American women with bulldozers, and apparently can do no wrong as far as the media is concerned.

It is well past time to STOP the arrogant racist attacks of the Israelis. Yes, I know, the Palestinians want to destroy them. And why WOULDN'T They after all of the above? There are peace activists on both sides. A big step in getting Israel to behave is cutting off American support for their immoral and murderous actions. Its time to cut terrorism's heart out and stop cutting off one of its arms only to watch it regrow them. And a large piece of the heart of terror is Israel's terrorist acts.

Protect America- It is time to disarm Israel. Let the Jews and the Palestinians enjoy an equal footing for once. Maybe that will teach them the lessons they DID NOT Learn from the actions of the Germans leading up to the holocaust. As much as Israel warmongers might want a Palestinian Holocaust- We SHOULD stop the IDF like we stopped the Nazis.

We are ALL Human. Let's not forget that.

Impeachment is TOO Good.

"The Government, being resolved to undertake the political and moral purification of our public life, are creating and securing the conditions necessary for a really profound revival of religious life." - Adolph Hitler, in a speech at the Reichstag on March 23, 1933

"No matter what amount of talent is employed in the organization of propaganda, it will have no result if due account is not taken of these fundamental principles. Propaganda must be limited to a few simple themes and these must be represented again and again. Here, as in innumerable other cases, perseverance is the first and most important condition of success."Mein Kampf; the James Murphy translation. February, 1939

For President Bush, Impeachment isn't enough, by far.

3000 dead Americans. 25,000 seriously injured, some of whom will never lead normal lives ever again. A world that used to respect America for it's freedoms now fears and despises us for our hypocrisy. Lady Liberty's hands have been bloodied by a madman and a fool. An idiot who was so convinced that he was right that NO price was too high. No Constitutional law was important enough respect as he blundered along his destructive path. No immoral act was too shameful for him to lower our country to, in his so-called quest to "protect" us.

President Bush and his advisers, with the power of Congress behind them after 9-11 began making big changes to our Government. The first blow to the Constitution was the "Patriot" Act. Then he began spying on everyone whose agenda was suspect, chiefly not on terrorists, but on anti-war protesters.

He bought media sources and inserted pro-war, pro-fear propaganda wherever possible. He dropped taxes on the rich, effectively paying off Corporations and the affluent to help support his policies. To pay for these tax-cuts his Congress cut benefits for welfare and college tuition assistance. Who cares? The middle class doesn't mean anything.

He controlled the rich with promises of more tax cuts, and controlled the poor with threats of terror and inspiring fear among the common man. He used his religion as a bludgeon, he told us he did NOT NEED Complex reasons for his actions. He played the prophet while his Pharisees in Congress played the politics of sucking on the teat of Lobbyist cash. They scaled back the EPA, OSHA, and countless other important agencies for money from the Corporations. They traded the health and welfare of the very people of America for Corporate gold. They gave tax cuts to oil companies and cut alternative energy programs. President Bush appointed CEO after CEO of industry hacks into positions of "oversight".

He looted our Budget. Only one of his harmful plans didn't go as planned- And if you are retired, you better thank God for that. His privatization of Social Security would have worked as well as letting Halliburton "assist" in Iraq. In short it would be a nightmare that bled our nation's elderly dry. But as gullible as the American public was on WMD, and torture and spying - they didn't quite trust Grandma's money to Bush's Cadre of Larry Kudlow scumbags.

So, no- Impeachment is Not Enough. Although the best possible action for America would be removing this fool from the Office of the President as soon as we can.

But embarrassing this man isn't enough. He doesn't know what shame is. He's a cruel, vindictive little man who has disgraced our nation. He deserves more than simply losing a job that his Daddy's money got him.

I want him to apologize personally to every family who has lost a soldier for LYING TO THEM. I want him to ask forgiveness for sending those troops to die for a Lie.

I want him stripped of all possessions- I want him homeless, barefoot and befuddled. I want him starving and dehydrated for a week while under camera lights like he left so many Katrina victims. I want him to KNOW what it is to not have anything. Not Daddy's money, not his oil buddies bailing him out. I want "W" to be branded into his forehead like the mark of Cain.

I want him to walk the breadth of Iraq, wearing an irradiated uranium collar made from the shrapnel that our troops are exposed to. I want him to stop in every Iraqi city to see what he is responsible for. I want him to hold a dead Iraqi child killed by an airstrike in his guilty hands. I want him to bury that child in front of its family.

But most of all I want him to UNDERSTAND. I want him to OPEN HIS EYES and see the truth of what he has wrought on the world. I want him to comprehend how he has hurt America, Americans, and how his actions will hurt Americans for years to come.

I am an atheist, but I even wish there WAS a god, who could render a more perfect judgement than I on the miserable excuse for a human being that George Bush is.

But, I expect I will be lucky to get even an impeachment. I know one thing, for the rest of American history, the time President Bush II was in office WILL be considered a dark time in America's past. He will be vilified. Eventually we will ALL know the full list of his crimes and his "legacy" will be treated accordingly.

wow, I can breathe now..

Democracy ain't dead yet, praise gods, the founding fathers and liberal bloggers!

It's a grand day for America- that much is sure. But It ain't over!

We have come a long way. I am very glad to have men of vision and moral clarity who have made their dedication to our democracy and constitution their FIRST Priority. Men like John Amato, Glenn Greenwald, Keith Olbermann and the thousands of my fellow C&L'ers and bloggers who have helped expose this band of crooks for what it is.

Accountability starts today. If the Dems who got in today sit back on the laurels in the spirit of bi-partisanship then they will fail us.These Repubs aren't going to roll over. Look at Tom Delay, listen to Rush Limbaugh- Watch Tucker and company spin "bipartisanship" in the hopes that NO Republicans will be Held accountable for their despicable actions.There's a long way to go. But yesterday was helluva big step.

Democrats took the house, the jury is still out on Virginia and Montana for the Senate.
I shudder at how racist/sexist the state of Virginia must be, for so many people to vote for George Allen. I mean, that guy put a horse's head in the mailbox of his black neighbors as a joke, calls people niggers and macacas and spit in his ex wife's face. Classy.

Republicans are going nuts all around me. My boss is particularly upset today, he sent an email of pics of puppies out to "cheer up" his fellow rich republican/libertarian elites... They probably shudder at the fact that minimum wages may finally be raised. Thank god. Only a working man who busts his ass all day and still can't feed his family can properly understand what a charade making $200 / week for 40 hours of work is. Its fucking ridiculous but the Rich Republicans have fought this tooth and nail for the past 12 years.

God bless the working man- Only Democrats support these men. I don't know any Republicans that put in a full day of actual work. God knows that these rich fuckers that come in and out of my financial group all day don't.

The Bush/Rove Cult is irreparably damaged. I can hold my head high again as an American in light of the America's actions yesterday. Hopefully we can get rid of the corrupt closeted self hating fags and corporate sellouts in the Republican party and bring some Accountability back to our government.

The first step is deploying our troops out of Baghdad and into Afghanistan. Hell, there's no reason to LOSE BOTH WARS. Bechtel has given up on Iraq. They made 2.3 billion of American money, FAILED to rebuild the infrastructure of Iraq and now are cutting and running. This is a big deal, people. The only thing we are building in Iraq NOW is our multibillion dollar Embassy/Castle/Mansion. And maybe one or two permanent bases...

But the point is- with no reconstruction efforts, our troops are stuck there with no American benefits coming to the Iraqi people. Our occupation becomes even less desirable to Iraqis (is that possible?!)

The Shia have put up with the occupation more or less = give or take a few fiery Al-Sadrs... But the fact is, Shiites Haven't put forth any substantial effort to killing U.S. troops the way the Sunnis are. The Sunnis are responsible for 80% of the U.S. casualties. But Al-Sistani is basically ignored by the Iraqi people in deferment to Al-Sadr nowadays, and Sistani is, in turn avoiding speaking to U.S. officials. Maliki is trying to show that he isn't another Bush poodle. The Shia politicians have pointedly asked the American occupation to end, immediately. Iraqis want us gone, except for the ones who were milking Halliburton and Bechtel- But like I say- that is ending. With the civil war getting more and more intense, the Mahdi army won't avoid open firefights with troops much longer. We need to get our boys and girls out of harm's way, immediately.

I need to check with the Iraqi blogs today, and see how the Iraqis are taking the Anti-Bush statement that was made yesterday. I predict that they will receive this news with welcome. The farther that the American people can push Pres.Bush and his cronies from us, the better the world will receive the United States. But still, welcome news to Iraqis or not- they want us gone from their country. Yesterday. And in that, I am in perfect agreement with them.

Callous as it may sound, Here's what I think needs to be done-

Redeploy our troops to Afghanistan. Crush the Taliban and hold a serious presence there, not the half ass job that is being done right now. Build permanent bases in Afghanistan. Crush the drug trade and build some REAL infrastructure for the Afghani people.

Let the Iraqi civil war begin in earnest. I hope the Shia win. And don't fret about Iranian ties just yet. Remember, as soon as Iraqis control Iraq- they will remember their distate for Iran. And if they don't, I must confess, I don't give a damn. Iran is not a threat. And the more we leave these people alone, the less they will fucking hate us. Got it?

Iraq will rebuild itself. It will be bloody, but its a necessary transformation. And for those of you who are only concerned about the oil: Relax, you immoral greedy bastards! Rest assured, the U.S. will wheel and deal with whoever ends up controlling Iraq. You can bet your last dollar on THAT.

"We found the WMD!" For what good it does them

Well, here are two subjects that I commented on earlier at two of the most popular blogs concerning Iraq and the Middle East. One was on Moon of Alabama- the comments webpage for Billmon's Whiskey Bar. These are my thoughts on Todays' Topic of Treason: The Nuclear weapon plans of Iraq (finally discovered) and how the Republicans posted them on the Internet for all to see...

Freedom of Information

So much ado about nothing on either side? Or justifiable activity for both sides depending on what level of hypocrisy you want to take?

On the Bushbot side: Okay, so it is proof that Iraq did have plans for making nuclear weapons. The moronic part there is that the Republicans who were so afraid of nukes ARE responsible for other countries having access to this nuclear information. So I guess the loudest of both sides will attack the other for the next two weeks over this...

Meanwhile. Back in reality: the U.S. has over 6,000 active nuclear warheads. Israel has their own illegal nuclear stockpile which they got by ignoring UN sanctions. Is having the technology for nukes, or even building them as a safeguard against your enemies something that the US should be starting wars over? If we hadn't allowed Israel to do it, would we even be having this conversation? I think that it is ridiculous to believe that a country that might build one nuke would use it to immediately attack a country with 6000 of them. I, for one was and AM against INVADING another country PRE-EMPTIVELY for any reason. Being an oppressor will one day be the downfall of Israel, one day when the US can't protect them any more. And with the outrageous acts of the current Bush administration, we may be closer to not being able to protect Israel than we have EVER been.

So what's the point? Malkin and crew finally got their smoking gun. Much good that it does them. Would you rather Saddam had a nuke, right now, or have the U.S. bankrupted, overstretched, humiliated and excoriated as it is now? Some of us saw how this would end up from the start- for the rest of you : Hindsight is 20/20.
(Sigh) I wish.

And on No Quarter, Larry Johnson expounds on the deteriorating situation in Iraq.

Over the rubicon, Into the Styx

In the comments I posted this:

Who in their right mind EVEN thinks we can hold on to Iraq for the Next 3 years?

Is Civil War the only thing keeping the Iraqis from outright ejecting our troops? I find it repulsive, in light of all the information that the progressive side has known for years now- (because we go into these situations without blinders on) that NOW that the Pro-Iraq war crowd FULLY understands there IS no good news in Iraq- that they can't take the next mental step forward. 105 US deaths in a month will likely look like a Good month if the militias keep consolidating their power. And I don't see ANY reason why they won't.

Here's a BIGGER Reason to get the HELL out of Iraq right now: Do we REALLY want to get backed forcibly out ala the Israelis backing out of Lebanon? Our occupation of Iraq has quite a bit in common with THAT Failed Israeli operation. If we declare victory, turn it over to the Iraqis and get the hell out, sure it will deepen the chaos for a few months- but then, the Iraqis will have the situation in their own hands and they won't be able to blame everything on the US Presence. Face it, Our troops sit there (to borrow an earlier commenters analogy:) acting as an Anti-Gang police task force against the Bloods and Crips of the Sunni/Shia situation. Except in this situation, 90% of the population of Baghdad is a member of one of these two gangs.

It's a bloodbath for our troops waiting to happen.

THERE IS NO SECRET BUSH PLAN. It's going to hell in a handbasket.
If you give a damn about our troops then support redeploying them OUT of Iraq IMMEDIATELY.