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Surging Into Catastrophe in Iraq
Link: http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/118180
Surging Into Catastrophe in Iraq
by Michael Schwartz and Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch
U.S. casualties, which are at a post-invasion high: According to an Associated Press analysis, more American troops were "killed in combat in Iraq over the past four months – at least 334 through Jan. 31 – than in any comparable stretch since the war began"; and February, with 34 American deaths in its first nine days, is exceeding this pace. These loses are largely due to roadside bombs (IEDs) and to the fact that U.S. troops are now engaged in almost continuous urban warfare. Before the invasion of Iraq, the possibility of fighting an urban war in the Iraqi capital's streets and alleys was the American high command's personal nightmare. Now, it's their reality – and the president's surge plan can only make it more nightmarish.
ED NOTE: This very long compilation of two articles gives excellent background info on the Sunni/Shia/US medley of violence that is emerging within Baghdad. A must read if you follow the Iraq War.
Saudi Arabia's own Iraq nightmare
Saudi Arabia's own Iraq nightmare
Fearful of Iran's rising influence, will the Saudis start backing Sunni insurgents in Iraq — even if the insurgents are rabidly anti-American?
Salon
By Daniel Byman
Feb. 8, 2007 | Saudi Arabia is watching with fear as the United States debates whether to stay in Iraq or leave. For while Washington may walk away from Iraq if President Bush's so-called surge plan fails, Saudi Arabia, which shares a more than 500-mile border with Iraq, cannot.
Victory Is Not an Option
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/09/AR2007020901917.html
Victory Is Not an Option
The Mission Can't Be Accomplished -- It's Time for a New Strategy
WashingtonPost
By William E. Odom
Sunday, February 11, 2007; Page B01
The new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq starkly delineates the gulf that separates President Bush's illusions from the realities of the war. Victory, as the president sees it, requires a stable liberal democracy in Iraq that is pro-American. The NIE describes a war that has no chance of producing that result. In this critical respect, the NIE, the consensus judgment of all the U.S. intelligence agencies, is a declaration of defeat.
Its gloomy implications -- hedged, as intelligence agencies prefer, in rubbery language that cannot soften its impact -- put the intelligence community and the American public on the same page. The public awakened to the reality of failure in Iraq last year and turned the Republicans out of control of Congress to wake it up. But a majority of its members are still asleep, or only half-awake to their new writ to end the war soon.
Perhaps this is not surprising. Americans do not warm to defeat or failure, and our politicians are famously reluctant to admit their own responsibility for anything resembling those un-American outcomes. So they beat around the bush, wringing hands and debating "nonbinding resolutions" that oppose the president's plan to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.
ED NOTE: This devastating editorial from the former head of the NSA. A must read if you think upon the Iraq War.
Strategic Errors of Monumental Proportions-What Can Be Done in Iraq?
Link: http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/116454
Strategic Errors of Monumental Proportions-What Can Be Done in Iraq?
By: By Lt. General WILLIAM E. ODOM (US Army Ret.)
Text of testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,18 January 2007
ED NOTE: Absolutely level and excellent! A must read.
Good afternoon, Senator Biden, and members of the committee. It is a grave responsibility to testify before you today because the issue, the war in Iraq, is of such monumental importance.
You have asked me to address primarily the military aspects of the war. Although I shall comply, I must emphasize that it makes no sense to separate them from the political aspects. Military actions are merely the most extreme form of politics. If politics is the business of deciding "who gets what, when, how," as Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall in New York City once said, then the military aspects of war are the most extreme form of politics. The war in Iraq will answer that question there.
Kurdish Iraqi soldiers deserting to avoid the conflict in Baghdad
Kurdish Iraqi soldiers are deserting to avoid the conflict in Baghdad
By Leila Fadel and Yaseen Taha
McClatchy Newspapers
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - As the Iraqi government attempts to secure a capital city ravaged by conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslim Arabs, its decision to bring a third party into the mix may cause more problems than peace.
Kurdish soldiers from northern Iraq, who are mostly Sunnis but not Arabs, are deserting the army to avoid the civil war in Baghdad, a conflict they consider someone else's problem.
ED NOTE: A beginning to the end game in Iraq.
Agents of Influence
Link: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article16234.htm
Agents of Influence
By Robert Dreyfuss
01/20/07 "The Nation" -- -- Did Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel, run a covert program with operatives in high-level US government positions to influence the Bush Administration's decision to go to war in Iraq? The FBI wants to know.
ED NOTE: How it really works. Reccomended reading from the halls of power.
McClatchy Report: Are Americans Getting Truth on Iraq?
Link: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003532412
McClatchy Report: Are Americans Getting Truth on Iraq?
By Mark Seibel, McClatchy Newspapers
Published: January 14, 2007 9:15 PM ET
WASHINGTON President Bush and his aides, explaining their reasons for sending more American troops to Iraq, are offering an incomplete, oversimplified and possibly untrue version of events there that raises new questions about the accuracy of the administration's statements about Iraq.
President Bush unveiled the new version on Wednesday during his nationally televised speech announcing his new Iraq policy.
A Basic History of Zionism and its Relation to Judaism
Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4549.htm
A Basic History of Zionism and its Relation to Judaism
Hanna Braun, London
First Published: September 2001: In order to understand the circumstances that led to the birth of Zionism I shall sketch an outline of the history of Judaism and the Jews.
Since biblical times Jewish communities lived in Arab lands, in Persia, India, East and North Africa and indeed in Palestine. With the destruction of the Temple and the final fall of their state in 70 AD many Jews were taken out of Judea and hence to Rome and the Diaspora. Many poorer Judeans, however (such as subsistence farmers), were able to stay in Palestine. (Some of them had converted to Christianity and were one of the earliest Christian groups.) Modern research suggests that when Islam arrived in the area in 633 AD many of these Jews converted and that they form a considerable part of today's Palestinians. These various communities were on the whole well integrated into their respective societies and did not experience the persecutions that later became so prevalent in Europe. In Palestine, for instance, Muslims repeatedly protected their Jewish neighbours from marauding crusaders; in one instance at least, Jews fought alongside Muslims to try and prevent crusaders from landing at Haifa's port, and Salah al-Dinl-din, after re-conquering Jerusalem from the crusaders, invited the Jews back into the city.
Iraq's Young Blood: The Next Jihadists
Link: http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/115275
Iraq's Young Blood: The Next Jihadists
By: Christian Caryl
Jan. 22, 2007 issue - Ammar will tell you he's proud to be carrying a gun. His father was a brigadier in Saddam Hussein's Army, a man who saw combat in his country's several wars, and from an early age Ammar had accompanied him to the shooting range. "I got used to the sound of guns then," Ammar says. So he was ready, last fall, when the imam in his Baghdad neighborhood urged residents to take up arms against the invader—who in this case happened to be members of a Shiite militia trying to push into the predominantly Sunni area. Ammar joined the neighborhood watch, a ragtag bunch of men who stand guard nightly at improvised roadblocks and rooftop observation posts. In mid-October Ammar fought his first big battle against soldiers from the Mahdi Army—"the garbage collectors and robbers," as he contemptuously refers to the Shiite militia. He says he put his Kalashnikov assault rifle to good use: "I think I injured or even killed two of them. Our group killed more than six of them that night."
DU Scandal Explodes -Horrendous US Casualties
DU Scandal Explodes -
Horrendous US Casualties
FreeMarketNews.com
The Preventive Psychiatry Newsletter has written to its subscribers telling them that the real reason the former Veterans Affairs Secretary, Anthony Principi, recently resigned was because he has been involved in a massive scandal covering up the fact that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by the use of depleted uranium, according to the SF Bay View.
Iraqi oil industry in crisis
Link: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=13770
Iraqi oil industry in crisis
By Heiko Flottau in Cairo for ISN Security Watch (7/12/2005)
Iraqi oil exports fell to their lowest level in two years in November 2005. Bad management of the reconstruction effort, widespread corruption among government figures, and sabotage by insurgents are the reasons for the decline. Experts say that the US strategy of military intervention in oil-rich regions can only diminish, rather than increase, the supply to world markets.
Nowhere to run
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1653454,00.html
Nowhere to run
After what has been described as the most foolish war in over 2,000 years, is there a way out of Iraq for President Bush, asks Brian Whitaker
Tuesday November 29, 2005
The Gaurdian
There is a remarkable article in the latest issue of the American
Jewish weekly, Forward. It calls for President Bush to be impeached and put on trial "for misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 BC sent his legions into Germany and lost them".
ED NOTE: This from the British press.
UP IN THE AIR
Link: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/051205fa_fact
UP IN THE AIR
Where is the Iraq war headed next?
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
In recent weeks, there has been widespread speculation that President George W. Bush, confronted by diminishing approval ratings and dissent within his own party, will begin pulling American troops out of Iraq next year. The Administration's best-case scenario is that the parliamentary election scheduled for December 15th will produce a coalition government that will join the Administration in calling for a withdrawal to begin in the spring. By then, the White House hopes, the new government will be capable of handling the insurgency. In a speech on November 19th, Bush repeated the latest Administration catchphrase: "As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." He added, "When our commanders on the ground tell me that Iraqi forces can defend their freedom, our troops will come home with the honor they have earned." One sign of the political pressure on the Administration to prepare for a with! drawal came last week, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Fox News that the current level of American troops would not have to be maintained "for very much longer," because the Iraqis were getting better at fighting the insurgency.
ED NOTE: Sy Hersh hits the nail on the head again. A very well written piece on where we are going from here in the Iraq conquest.
Drinking the Kool-Aid
Link: http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/journal_vol11/0406_lang.asp
Drinking the Kool-Aid
The Middle East Policy Journal June, 2004
W. Patrick Lang
Col. Lang is president of Global Resources, Inc. and former defense intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
Throughout my long service life in the Department of Defense, first as an army officer and then as a member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, there was a phrase in common usage: "I will fall on my sword over that." It meant that the speaker had reached a point of internal commitment with regard to something that his superiors wanted him to do and that he intended to refuse even though this would be career suicide. The speaker preferred career death to the loss of personal honor.
This phrase is no longer widely in use. What has taken its place is far more sinister in its meaning and implications. "I drank the Kool-Aid" is what is now said.
ED NOTE: I am tempted to place this in the Essential Reading Section. Probally the best historical review I have read from within the career policy community outlining the growth of the neocon influence; from the first Gulf War until now. A close reading will reveal names and connections that are now deeply involved with the Valerie Plame Treason affair. This piece is too long to include here, I attach a long excerpt and direct you to the full link.
The Fall of the Warrior King
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/magazine/23sassaman.html?pagewanted=print
October 23, 2005
The Fall of the Warrior King
By DEXTER FILKINS NY Times
The body had not yet turned up. Indeed, at that point, early in January 2004, it wasn't clear there was a body at all. Months later, at the trial, the lawyers would still be arguing about it, the puffy, wrinkled corpse that was finally found floating face down in an irrigation canal off the Tigris. But even then, even before the dead man surfaced, it was clear that something had gone wrong on that cold Iraqi night down by the river, something wild by the American military's standards of discipline and force, and the problem had wended its way up the chain of command to the unit's commander, Lt. Col. Nathan Sassaman.
ED NOTE: War consumes everything, even its own. All is grey as the landscape merges into the obscuring moral fog. This is the story of an excellent officer and his downfall. To long to post here I attach the beginning of this piece and refer you to the original.
A soldier's story: The short life and violent death of Sgt Chris Hickey
Link: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article321649.ece
A soldier's story: The short life and violent death of Sgt Chris Hickey, 1st Battalion, the Coldstream Guards
His death on Tuesday got only fleeting mentions. So Severin Carrell went in search of the man who was the 97th Briton to fall in Iraq, and found friends asking: how many more of our lads are going to die like this?
Published: 23 October 2005 The Independant
Life was looking up for Christopher Hickey. He had a job he loved, and family and friends who loved him. He was due to come home to Britain tomorrow after his second tour of duty with the Coldstream Guards in Iraq.
ED NOTE: And in the end, beyond the grand design, the politics and retoric; beyond race, creed, and nation; this is where war always ends. Another missing life. A very balanced and well writen piece.
WMD — weapons of mass delusion
WMD — weapons of mass delusion: A step- by-step look at an Iraqi program that never existed.
By Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press
Beneath the giant dome of a Baghdad palace, facing his team of scientists and engineers, George Tenet sounded more like a football coach than a spymaster, a coach who didn't know the game was over.
"Are we 85 percent done?" the CIA boss demanded.
The arms hunters knew what he wanted to hear.
"No!" they shouted back.
"Let me hear it again!" They shouted again.
The weapons are out there, Tenet insisted. Go find them.
Veteran inspector Rod Barton couldn't believe his ears.
"It was nonsense," the Australian biologist said of that February evening last year, when the then-chief of U.S. intelligence secretly flew to Baghdad and dropped in on the lakeside Perfume Palace, chandelier-hung home of the Iraq Survey Group.
ED NOTE: An excellent overview of what is now known about the false intellegence in the rush towards the Iraq War. Very much worth reading.
WMD — weapons of mass delusion: A step- by-step look at an Iraqi program that never existed.
By Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press
Beneath the giant dome of a Baghdad palace, facing his team of scientists and engineers, George Tenet sounded more like a football coach than a spymaster, a coach who didn't know the game was over.
"Are we 85 percent done?" the CIA boss demanded.
The arms hunters knew what he wanted to hear.
"No!" they shouted back.
"Let me hear it again!" They shouted again.
The weapons are out there, Tenet insisted. Go find them.
Veteran inspector Rod Barton couldn't believe his ears.
"It was nonsense," the Australian biologist said of that February evening last year, when the then-chief of U.S. intelligence secretly flew to Baghdad and dropped in on the lakeside Perfume Palace, chandelier-hung home of the Iraq Survey Group.
ED NOTE: An excellent overview of what is now known about the false intellegence in the rush towards the Iraq War. Very much worth reading.
How can the US ever win, when Iraqi children die like this?
Link: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=22336&mode=nested&order=0
Robert Fisk: 'How can the US ever win, when Iraqi children die like this?'
By Robert Fisk, The Independent
There's the wreckage of a car bomb that killed seven Americans on the corner of a neighbouring street. Close by stands the shuttered shop of a phone supplier who put pictures of Saddam on a donkey on his mobiles. He was shot three days ago, along with two other men who had committed the same sin. In the al-Jamia neighbourhood, a US Humvee was purring up the road so we gingerly backed off and took a side street. In this part of Baghdad, you avoid both the insurgents and the Americans - if you are lucky.
ER NOTE: Please Read.
Talking Wounded
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/09/AR2005080901441_pf.html
Talking Wounded
Terry Rodgers Came Back From Iraq a Changed Man, and Not Just Because of the Bomb
By Peter Carlson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 10, 2005; C01
"So we're driving down the road and it's midnight, so it's pitch-black, and when you're driving at
night, you don't use any lights," says Terry Rodgers, "but we can see fine because we've got night vision goggles."
He's sitting in the living room of his mother's townhouse in Gaithersburg, telling the story of his last night in Iraq. He's still got his Army crew cut and he's wearing a T-shirt with an American flag on the chest.
ED NOTE: A soldiers tale.
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