War? What War?

Wednesday: 14 GIs, 96 Iraqis Killed; 76 Iraqis Wounded
Tuesday: 63 Iraqis Killed, 89 Wounded
Monday: 1 GI, 60 Iraqis Killed; 67 Iraqis Wounded
Sunday: 125 Iraqis Killed, 78 Wounded
Saturday: 32 Iraqis Killed, 46 Iraqis Wounded
Friday: 4 GIs, 34 Iraqis Killed; 65 Iraqis Wounded
Thursday: 3 GIs, 64 Iraqis Killed; 40 Wounded

Insightful and inciting, Casey.

Please, everyone, send this blog post to your congresspeople, currently sunbathing in an undisclosed location.

Wednesday: 87 Iraqis Killed, 44 Wounded
Tuesday: 572 Iraqis Killed, 6 GIs; 1562 Iraqis Wounded
Monday: 4 GIs, 41 Iraqis Killed; 20 Iraqis Wounded
Sunday: 5 GIs, 57 Iraqis Killed; 37 Iraqis Wounded
Saturday: 1 GI, 81 Iraqis Killed; 34 Iraqis Wounded
Friday: 81 Iraqis Killed, 89 Wounded
Thursday: 3 GIs, 2 Britons, 46 Iraqis Killed; 21 Iraqis Wounded
I wonder how the surge is working for the families of the dead and wounded in Iraq and here at home. Probably not as well as it is for Ken Pollack and Michael O'Hanlon.
Posted by Casey Morris at August 22, 2007 10:58 AM

"I"Iraq Does Not Exist Anymore": Journalist Nir Rosen on How the U.S. Invasion of Iraq Has Led to Ethnic Cleansing, a Worsening Refugee
Crisis and the Destabilization of the Middle East
Democracy Now!
Nir Rosen is an independent journalist and the author of "In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq." He is a fellow at the New America Foundation and has reported extensively from Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. [includes rush transcript - partial] Earlier this year Rosen wrote a cover story for the New York Time Sunday Magazine called "The Flight from Iraq." He estimated that up to 50,000 Iraqis were leaving their homes each month. Iraq has been changed irrevocably, I think. I don’t think Iraq even -- you can say it exists anymore. There has been a very effective, systematic ethnic cleansing of Sunnis from Baghdad, of Shias --from areas that are now mostly Shia. But the Sunnis especially have been a target, as have mixed families like the one we just saw. With a name like Omar, he’s distinctly Sunni -- it’s a very Sunni name. You can be executed for having the name Omar alone. And Baghdad is now firmly in the hands of sectarian Shiite militias, and they’re never going to let it go...raq Does Not Exist Anymore"
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m35546&hd=&size=1&l=e

Nausea...
An Arab Woman Blues - Reflections in a sealed bottle...

I am so disgusted with everything, I don't even feel like writing.
I am disgusted with the Americans, the Brits, the French, the Germans, the Scandinavians, the Australians, the Iranians, the Arabs, the Muslims, the Christians, the Jews....( am not mentioning the Israelis because they have disgusted me long ago. It's a given)
Everything and everyone disgusts me.
I have run out of words. I don't even know which words to use anymore.
Have you ever felt that way? Not even knowing which words to use?
I can write tons of posts, would not make one single fucking difference.
But I promised someone that I will not stop writing, so here I am...
Nir Rosen, not that I terribly like Nir Rosen, but finally someone who is not an Iraqi came out and said it " Iraq is no more "
Well, hello, I have been saying it over and over and over , the sectarian shia Iranian militias and parties control everything. Along with the equally chauvinistic Israeli backed Kurdish pimps.
Imagine, one day, you come to the realization that your country, in the space of 4 years, simply does not exist anymore? Can you even envisage that?
It simply is not there anymore.
I have been way too polite. My upbringing taught me to respect guests, visitors, but you people don't know what polite is. You need to hear your own language spoken back at you.
Some American wanker, mental masturbator, produced a study not long ago. And the study shows that :
"The majority of Iraqis want a secular government today."
What the fuck is all that about? We had a secular government you bunch of assholes.
We had a country with a secular government that your academics "entre autre" managed to destroy.
http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2007/08/nausea.html

Georgies LIBERATION, HIS ILLEGAL WAR AND OCCUPATION OF IRAQ STILL GOES ON

Posted by: rossiann at August 22, 2007 11:33 AM

Why is she disgusted at the French and the Germans? They opposed this war, and got burned for it!

This was mentioned in the last thread, but I'll mention this now too.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20387818/

W says Iraq is worth it, citing South Korea and Vietnam as examples.

No need to go any further - the two nationalities that have been the most blatant partisan whores of the W regime.

Besides, we've never done any nation-building in Iraq that we did in South Korea.

BTW, the Republican trolls over at Ellen Beth's Illinois 10th blog are scrambling to protect their Korean benefactors from the facts about their partisan politics. How revealing of them!

Posted by: Ally McRepuke at August 22, 2007 11:59 AM

Samsung blue, everybody knows one...
Samsung blue, ever garden grows one...

Kneel Die Mon

Bush on Iraqi leader al-Maliki: 'I support him'
Statements endorsing prime minister made after apparent distancing

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - President George W. Bush, scrambling to show he has not abandoned Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, offered a fresh endorsement on Wednesday.

"Prime Minister Maliki's a good guy, a good man with a difficult job and I support him," Bush said in a speech to military veterans.

"And it's not up to the politicians in Washington, D.C. to say whether he will remain in his position," Bush said. "It is up to the Iraqi people who now live in a democracy and not a dictatorship."

moron...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20385843/

It's up to the few Iraqis left that haven't either fled the country or been blown to bits...

He's a good guy.... what a friggin maroon.

i would just like to know wether the iraqis have signed over their oil yet that would surely justify a few more deaths or a few thousand more whilst bush prays to the invisible man there,s no hope for anyone in iraq

Has anyone seen the War in Iraq recently? I ask this, because on my teevee, it seems to have gone missing.

I'm talking about actual reporting, be it from Baghdad or Bacquba. Right now I am looking at the CNN page and the MSNBC page and neither has a single story about the fighting in Iraq. Not one. I move on to the front page of MSNBC and again, same thing. Not a single story. And I've been looking for over 24 hours now.

War? What war?

Okay guys what is happening, what happened to my posts.
The stats of the dead are on antiwar.com

"Iraq Does Not Exist Anymore": Journalist Nir Rosen on How the U.S. Invasion of Iraq Has Led to Ethnic Cleansing, a Worsening Refugee
Crisis and the Destabilization of the Middle East
is on Democracy Now

and Nausea is an Iraqi Woman looking at her country, that is no more after Georgie Bush President of the USA who led America and his Coalition including Australia to destroy her Nation with lies.

Are my posts being rejected from DCP, the same as they are from the media and cable news.

Not good I think.

I still see yer posts rossi, although the numbers make me not want to look...

Okay guys sorry but the site came up empty on my computor, my posts where there one minute and gone the next, don't know how it happened but there where no posts, darn now they are there.
I do apologise.

Why is she disgusted at the French and the Germans? They opposed this war, and got burned for it!

Posted by: Ally McRepuke at August 22, 2007 11:39 AM

Well judging from what I have been reading France and Germany and in there plundering her nation, of their oil the same as we are plundering her nation of everything that was Iraq.
They might have opposed the war and got burned for it, but they are in there plundering her country now. I try to look at this war from both sides Ally, darn it all how can over 1000000000 Iraqis be killed, and Georgie call Sadam a Despot, and have him murdered. Iraq was secular. not any more the fundamentalist shias have taken over and Georgie and his gang put them there.
I wonder every day if River from Baghdad Burning, even got out of Iraq. Just a blogger like you and I, with no home to call her own anymore.

Thursday, April 26, 2007
The Great Wall of Segregation...
…Which is the wall the current Iraqi government is building (with the support and guidance of the Americans). It's a wall that is intended to separate and isolate what is now considered the largest 'Sunni' area in Baghdad- let no one say the Americans are not building anything. According to plans the Iraqi puppets and Americans cooked up, it will 'protect' A'adhamiya, a residential/mercantile area that the current Iraqi government and their death squads couldn't empty of Sunnis.
The wall, of course, will protect no one. I sometimes wonder if this is how the concentration camps began in Europe. The Nazi government probably said, "Oh look- we're just going to protect the Jews with this little wall here- it will be difficult for people to get into their special area to hurt them!" And yet, it will also be difficult to get out.
The Wall is the latest effort to further break Iraqi society apart. Promoting and supporting civil war isn't enough, apparently- Iraqis have generally proven to be more tenacious and tolerant than their mullahs, ayatollahs, and Vichy leaders. It's time for America to physically divide and conquer- like Berlin before the wall came down or Palestine today. This way, they can continue chasing Sunnis out of "Shia areas" and Shia out of "Sunni areas".
I always hear the Iraqi pro-war crowd interviewed on television from foreign capitals (they can only appear on television from the safety of foreign capitals because I defy anyone to be publicly pro-war in Iraq). They refuse to believe that their religiously inclined, sectarian political parties fueled this whole Sunni/Shia conflict. They refuse to acknowledge that this situation is a direct result of the war and occupation. They go on and on about Iraq's history and how Sunnis and Shia were always in conflict and I hate that. I hate that a handful of expats who haven't been to the country in decades pretend to know more about it than people actually living there.
I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.
On a personal note, we've finally decided to leave. I guess I've known we would be leaving for a while now. We discussed it as a family dozens of times. At first, someone would suggest it tentatively because, it was just a preposterous idea- leaving ones home and extended family- leaving ones country- and to what? To where?
Since last summer, we had been discussing it more and more. It was only a matter of time before what began as a suggestion- a last case scenario- soon took on solidity and developed into a plan. For the last couple of months, it has only been a matter of logistics. Plane or car? Jordan or Syria? Will we all leave together as a family? Or will it be only my brother and I at first?
After Jordan or Syria- where then? Obviously, either of those countries is going to be a transit to something else. They are both overflowing with Iraqi refugees, and every single Iraqi living in either country is complaining of the fact that work is difficult to come by, and getting a residency is even more difficult. There is also the little problem of being turned back at the border. Thousands of Iraqis aren't being let into Syria or Jordan- and there are no definite criteria for entry, the decision is based on the whim of the border patrol guard checking your passport.
An airplane isn't necessarily safer, as the trip to Baghdad International Airport is in itself risky and travelers are just as likely to be refused permission to enter the country (Syria and Jordan) if they arrive by airplane. And if you're wondering why Syria or Jordan, because they are the only two countries that will let Iraqis in without a visa. Following up visa issues with the few functioning embassies or consulates in Baghdad is next to impossible.
So we've been busy. Busy trying to decide what part of our lives to leave behind. Which memories are dispensable? We, like many Iraqis, are not the classic refugees- the ones with only the clothes on their backs and no choice. We are choosing to leave because the other option is simply a continuation of what has been one long nightmare- stay and wait and try to survive.
On the one hand, I know that leaving the country and starting a new life somewhere else- as yet unknown- is such a huge thing that it should dwarf every trivial concern. The funny thing is that it’s the trivial that seems to occupy our lives. We discuss whether to take photo albums or leave them behind. Can I bring along a stuffed animal I've had since the age of four? Is there room for E.'s guitar? What clothes do we take? Summer clothes? The winter clothes too? What about my books? What about the CDs, the baby pictures?
The problem is that we don't even know if we'll ever see this stuff again. We don't know if whatever we leave, including the house, will be available when and if we come back. There are moments when the injustice of having to leave your country, simply because an imbecile got it into his head to invade it, is overwhelming. It is unfair that in order to survive and live normally, we have to leave our home and what remains of family and friends… And to what?
It's difficult to decide which is more frightening- car bombs and militias, or having to leave everything you know and love, to some unspecified place for a future where nothing is certain.
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Iraqi PM Lashes Out At Bush, Senators: Iraq "Can Find Friends Elsewhere" »
Iraq's prime minister lashed out Wednesday at U.S. criticism, saying no one has the right to impose timetables on his elected government and that his country "can find friends elsewhere."

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed the U.S. presidential campaign for the recent tough words about his government, from President Bush and from other U.S. politicians.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070822/syria-iraq/

I would say that would be the shia fundamentalist, wouldn't it?

Just called the Veterans of Foreign Wars office in Kansas City about Bush's speech "invoking" the Vietnam War. I told the woman answering the phone that it was disgusting to me that a Vietnam draft-dodger like Bush should be telling ANYONE how important it was to stay and fight in Vietnam.

She said, "they are many who have called and feel exactly as you do."

She said, "they are many who have called and feel exactly as you do."

Posted by: Ralpheh at August 22, 2007 01:39 PM

Good for You, They have been calling Thom Hartman this morning, on Air America relating their disgust at Georgies invoking the Vietnam War.

France shifts its stance on the conflict in Iraq

The French move carries the personal mark of Kouchner, who was one of the few French politicians who backed the forcible removal of Saddam Hussein before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and whose longstanding and close relations with Kurdish and Shiite leaders have earned him credibility in the region. During his visit to Iraq, he held talks with religious and political leaders, including Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani, whom he has known for three decades.

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=7199818

U.S. officials rethink hopes for Iraq democracy

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nightmarish political realities in Baghdad are prompting American officials to curb their vision for democracy in Iraq. Instead, the officials now say they are willing to settle for a government that functions and can bring security.

But for the first time, exasperated front-line U.S. generals talk openly of non-democratic governmental alternatives, and while the two top U.S. officials in Iraq still talk about preserving the country's nascent democratic institutions, they say their ambitions aren't as "lofty" as they once had been.

"Democratic institutions are not necessarily the way ahead in the long-term future," said Brig. Gen. John "Mick" Bednarek, part of Task Force Lightning in Diyala province, one of the war's major battlegrounds.

The comments reflect a practicality common among Western diplomats and officials trying to win hearts and minds in the Middle East and other non-Western countries where democracy isn't a tradition.

The failure of Iraq to emerge from widespread instability is a bitter pill for the United States, which optimistically toppled the Saddam Hussein regime more than four years ago. Millions of Iraqis went to the polls to cast ballots, something that generated great promise for the establishment of a democratic system.

But Iraqi institutions, from the infrastructure to the national government, are widely regarded as ineffective in the fifth year of the war.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/08/22/iraq.democracy/index.html

No Shiite, Sherlock.

Feed your mind something good...

http://www.wwoz.org/

Listen.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said Bush had drawn the wrong lesson from history:

"America lost the war in Vietnam because our troops were trapped in a distant country we did not understand supporting a government that lacked sufficient legitimacy with its people," Kennedy said in a statement.

Sen. Joe Biden, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, invoked his own Vietnam analogy in a statement released after the speech:

"It's the president's policies that are pushing us toward another Saigon moment -- with helicopters fleeing the roof of our embassy -- which he says he wants to avoid."

Biden said that Bush continues to cling to the premise that Iraqis will rally behind a strong central government, but he believes that will not happen.

"There's no trust within the Iraqi government; no trust of the government by the Iraqi people; no capacity of that government to deliver security or services; and no prospect that it will build that trust or capacity any time soon," Biden's statement said.

But House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said more Democrats are "bucking their party leaders" in acknowledging progress in Iraq.

"Many rank-and-file Democrats have seen this progress firsthand and are now acknowledging the successes of a strategy they've repeatedly opposed," Boehner said in a statement. "But Democratic leaders, deeply invested in losing the war, would rather move the goalposts and claim that a precipitous withdrawal is the right approach despite the overwhelming evidence of significant progress."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/22/bush.iraq.speech/index.html

"Many rank-and-file Democrats have seen this progress firsthand and are now acknowledging the successes of a strategy they've repeatedly opposed," Boehner said in a statement. "But Democratic leaders, deeply invested in losing the war, would rather move the goalposts and claim that a precipitous withdrawal is the right approach despite the overwhelming evidence of significant progress."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/22/bush.iraq.speech/index.html

Posted by: monkey at August 22, 2007 03:30 PM

Where the Bloody Hell does the GOP find so many losers?

Posted by: rossiann at August 22, 2007 04:31 PM

Americas heartland.

Embattled Bush Official Resigns Justice Post (Bradley Schlozman)
Facing multiple investigations, a senior Justice Department appointee has resigned his post.

Bradley Schlozman stepped down from his position as a counsel in the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, a branch of the Department of Justice, last week, a Justice spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

Schlozman, a key figure in several political controversies, is under investigation by the department's inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility for allegations he was involved in politicizing hiring and firing decisions at the Justice Department. He is also a subject of the congressional probe into the U.S. attorneys firing scandal.

Last year, the 36-year-old Kansas native took a U.S. attorney post in Missouri after its previous holder, Todd Graves, was dismissed. Graves has said he refused to sign off on a lawsuit involving the state's voter rolls. The suit went forward anyway. This year, a court ruled against the Justice Department in the matter. The department is appealing the ruling. Schlozman had backed the case from Washington.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/08/embattled-b...

Is Iraq Fit for "Freedom"?

By CHARLES CRAIN/BAGHDAD
Time

The distance between Washington rhetoric and the reality of the Iraq war has always been vast. But even by that standard, President Bush's latest remarks are notable for their detachment from the facts on the ground.

For one thing, President Bush's speech to a Veterans of Foreign Wars group in Kansas City compared present-day Iraq to postwar Japan, arguing, "Then as now, the critics argued that some people were simply not fit for freedom."

But the conflict in which the U.S. is embroiled in Iraq has little to do with fitness for freedom. The President, for example, touts U.S. successes in "helping to bring former Sunni insurgents into the fight against al-Qaeda." This is indeed a laudable achievement by the U.S. military, but it has little to do with freedom or even with strengthening the Iraqi government. Turning Sunni insurgents against al-Qaeda may hasten the demise of the jihadist wing of the insurgency, but it will not end the violence in Iraq. Those same insurgents now fighting al-Qaeda remain implacably opposed to the democratically elected government in Baghdad.

Indeed, the men Bush now casts as freedom-loving allies in the battle against al-Qaeda are the very same insurgents dismissed by the Administration for years as thuggish dead-enders committed to reconstituting Saddam Hussein's brutal regime. They have turned to the U.S. military for help as they face annihilation at the hands of both Sunni jihadists and Shi'ite militiamen. Watching American soldiers patrol Sunni neighborhoods alongside masked ex-insurgent gunmen is a testament to the power of political chaos and brutal violence to create strange bedfellows. But such alliances are invariably temporary — U.S. commanders are well aware that these same insurgents may again turn their guns on the Iraqi government — and they hardly symbolize progress in a march towards freedom and democracy.

The leaders of some of these groups President Bush now counts as converts to the cause of freedom make no bones about their agenda. A former insurgent leader in west Baghdad said he believes he will have to fight the Iraqi government once he's through with al-Qaeda, because the Shi'ite-led government, in his view, is simply a militia-backed proxy of Iran.

Optimists may want to argue that such views will mellow as these groups are draw into the political process. But their view of the Iraqi government — democratically elected thought it may be — is not dissimilar to that of American soldiers and diplomats in Iraq.

A senior U.S. military official said this month that Sunni tribal sheiks and some former insurgents are more in touch with the will of the Sunni community than are the Sunnis elected to the national government. Commanders in key Baghdad neighborhoods such as Ghazaliya and Ameriyah acknowledge that their nominal partners in the Iraqi security forces are, in some cases, more loyal to Shi'ite militia chieftains than to the ephemeral ideal of a peaceful, non-sectarian, free Iraq. In that context, the events President Bush is citing as evidence of progress on the road to freedom may instead be simply a prelude to intensified sectarian violence.

Bush, speaking on behalf of U.S. soldiers, asked the question, "Will their elected leaders in Washington pull the rug out from under them just as they are gaining momentum and changing the dynamic on the ground in Iraq?"

Some soldiers certainly do wonder if Washington politics will interfere with their mission in Iraq. But with ex-insurgents proving better allies than elected Sunni politicians, and with the Shi'ite government unwilling and unable to create loyal and non-sectarian security forces, U.S. soldiers have a more pressing concern. They wonder if their military successes will be rendered irrelevant by the realities of Iraqi politics. That worry will not be assuaged by more platitudes from their commander in chief.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655111,00.html

Ok I have to know.

Has anyone here actually seen the Beverly Sills Cleopatera proformance?

I am missing something good, aren't I?

I swear video/audio of it is more elusive than a grassy knoll gunman.

PS... For a great treat from my generation, AND available on any file share or music site..

Check out Sarah Brightman on The Fifth Element soundtrack. She is simply amazing, at the hieght of her power.

Man I an a lousy speller.

My mom would be so ashamed if she knew.

I think the whole 'but the nation is not engaged' thing...is a myth.

I mean seriously. No one is getting excited about our presidential wannabes, but all of us, everywhere we look see more and more people waking up and standing up. Against george w. bush.

I think the 'but young people don't care' is also a myth that even young people perpetuate. It is one of those talking points that kinda becomes a subconcious explaination.

More and more, I am starting to believe it is deliberately deceptive.

Youth participate in anti-war movement

By Evan Axelbank / News 10 Now

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- This protest was as much about what they were saying, "End the war" as it was about who was saying it.

"I don't know if we have anything to say that adults can't say, I think it makes more of an impact when kids care though,” said Lizzie Marris, a Cazenovia resident.

During Vietnam, the young were out in front against the war. Now, the most visible Iraq War protestors probably remember Vietnam. Think Cindy Sheehan, and not a texting teenager. But this time, that's who was protesting.

"My parents were some of those kids that were involved during the Vietnam war and they kind of let me know that this is something that was important to do,” said Sophie Friedman of Fayettville.

Many of the young protestors here say it's difficult for them to put their finger on exactly why their generation has been largely absent from leading the charge against the war. They say part of it could have to do with the draft, and the fact that there was a draft during Vietnam, but not now.

"You feel safe here, you feel like nothing can really touch you, from places where I come from, everyone's very comfortable, and just you feel untouchable, you're OK so everybody must be OK, sort of,” Marris said.

Carol Baum of the Syracuse Peace Council says she isn't sure why the young aren't yet leading the charge, and hopes this protest is a sign.

"Back to the Vietnam era, it took many many many years before there were those tens and hundreds of thousands of young people on the streets,” said Carol Baum, a staff member for the Syracuse Peace Council.

The United States spent 16 years in Vietnam. We've been Iraq a third of that time.

http://news10now.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=117034

By the way Woz...

That little girl footballer. You were right, I did enjoy that very much. TY.

What a brave girl.

Posted by: Christy at August 22, 2007 08:05 PM

Christy,

I think we ought to get every highschool across America to stage walkouts.

Though sometimes, I'm tempted to quit everything that I do. I am really feeling down and try to keep it away from the blog for the most part.

But the longer they don't impeach the bigger the knot in my stomick gets. I'm so spitten' mad that they can find reasons that impeached Clinton but the (insert cusses here) can't get up the courage to impeach the men MOST DESERVING EVER of being impeached.

(one giant arggggggggghhhhhhhh)

But the longer they don't impeach the bigger the knot in my stomick gets. I'm so spitten' mad that they can find reasons that impeached Clinton but the (insert cusses here) can't get up the courage to impeach the men MOST DESERVING EVER of being impeached.

(one giant arggggggggghhhhhhhh)

Posted by: sparrow at August 22, 2007 08:51 PM

I feel the same way. I am sure we all do.

And when W blatantly panders to his favorite Asian-American demographics like he did today, to further justify the war, it's downright sickening.

No more kimchi and pho for me.

Good thread Casey - and the perfect work of art for such a piece. I find it hard to believe that you don't have people reporting from Iraq every day. It has a very high profile here in Australia. Not sure about commercial news and current affairs but certainly on the ABC and SBS even though sbs has turned commercial.

And almost every day a documentary or reporting has words from young American soldiers on the ground. The last was a young man who has just finished his 15 months and doesn't want to go back - naturally. There was one brief clip that I saw over and over and over. It was an officer talking to his men. The officer said, "You have two choices, when you are searching; you either kill 'em OR you treat 'em with dignity and respect." He repeated this several times whilst looking straight at the camera. He seemed programmed to say those words over and over.

Posted by: woz at August 22, 2007 09:15 PM

Woz,

The whole media thing here increases that knot in my stomick too. It's to the point where I'm amazed that all of this has been allowed to happen and continue.

Thank god for K.O. or Jack Cafferty, and the Comedy Network or we would have less than nothing!

(one giant arggggggggghhhhhhhh)

Posted by: sparrow at August 22, 2007 08:51 PM

What a great match, sparrow. We are all IN the Scream pictured above. Every day I think about Clinton getting impeached and it doesn't compare on any level with the current lot in the White House.

I think that the way he's set up the court system in DC - he'd probably just veto the Impeachment.

"He seemed programmed to say those words over and over."

I am certain he knew you, John Q. Public would be watching.

How strange you see this, and we see,,,virtually nothing.

Sparrow, I am not sure about how walk out would work, but like I said, the more I think about it, the more sure I am the perception is a myth.

I talk to a lot of people about politics. And tme and time again there are two groups that respond every time. Older people and younger people.

My own age, they get disgusted and refuse to speak of politics or religion in a social way. It is very strange, but it is the people my age that just do not give a sh*t.

And the elderly, the funny thing is, they are actually more suseptable to the propaganda than the younger people are. The elderly speak of it with a sense of duty and doom. They are compelled to speak of it.

Younger people are totally different. I have yet to meet one kid between the ages of 9 and 21 that can not be immediately pulled into a political discussion. They are fascinated by it and just as compelled as our elders.

But unlike them, these kids are completely open and absolutely curious about what is going on. It always surprises me how much they already do know.

I am always left with the impression they are not just hungry to understand, but starving for it. To me they seem desperate to understand.

When people say 'kids don't care about politics'...in a way, it makes sense on an emotional level. Kids don't care about a lot of things, so it seems to be a rational conclusion.

But, when I look around my lying eyes tell me it is simply not true. There is movement among them I have never seen before, an awareness.

We think they are not engaged, so we don't bother to engage them. The talking point becomes an assumption, as untrue as anything else assumed.

I think it is in the best intrests of the powers that be, that we believe our kids have no personal stake in this. No opinion on it.

It is also in their favor our children also believe it is true.

For any who want to see one current affairs bulletin about Death Valley in Iraq where more American soldiers have lost their lives than anywhere else in Iraq.

http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/

Iraq's death valley
Earlier this year with great fanfare, George W. Bush as US commander-in-chief ordered an extra 30,000 American troops into Iraq. They were meant to spearhead his controversial surge strategy, with his initial efforts concentrated in Baghdad. Faced with this sudden hike in American troop numbers, insurgents in the city fled. The US military says they're now largely hold up in the Diyala River Valley in the so-called Sunni triangle to the battered Iraqi capitals east. Just a couple of weeks back, John Martinkus, on his first visit to Iraq since he was kidnapped there three years ago, got himself embedded with the Americans in what John quite justifiably describes as death valley.

Transcripts are also available.

There are other past programs on that page too.

Christy - my eldest was born in '74. So, I'm old enough to be your mother. :-D

FORWARD:

On August 28, Iraq Summer and Move-on are planning over 400 Take a Stand Town Hall meetings and vigils around the country. You can find one near you or sign up to organize a vigil here.

If you are planning to come to DC in September there is plenty of opportunity to protest the war:.

SEPT 15 - Mass March in D.C. - ANSWER Coalition
SEPT 17 - People's March inside Congress - CodePink
SEPT 18 - Congressional Challenge Day - Grassroots America
SEPT 20 - Speak Truth to Power - Declaration of Peace and the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
SEPT 29: National March on Washington Troops out Now Coalition
SEPT 22-29: Troops out Now Coalition - Encampment in Front of Congress to STOP the War -

CodePink is organizing many events in DC throughout the month - check here

Old enough to be my mother, yet with none of the issues my actual mother has with my existance.

I would say that works for me.

Here is a US scream:

http://i.pbase.com/u37/kayakbiker/upload/34789451.Screamisnotmissing.jpg

Sad - I'm not allowed to see it kayakbiker

I heard Bush on radio on the way home .. he made the comparison between Iraq and Vietnam because he actually implied we should have stayed in Vietnam longer.

The surge is working
Blackout: Militants Seize Control Of Iraq Power Grid

Militias Seizing Control of Grid, Starving Baghdad of Electricity

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/world/middleeast/23electricity.html?ex=1345521600&en=ec2685fb33d35d33&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Good for her,

Tillman's Widow Breaks Silence, Says Country Needs 'Authentic Leadership'

The wife of NFL athlete-turned-Army Ranger Pat Tillman said Wednesday in her first public comments since her husband's death by friendly fire that the country needs "authentic leadership."

Saying that talking about her best friend was difficult, Marie Tillman told an audience at the University of Arkansas about the many good qualities of the NFL athlete and Army Ranger.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070822/pat-tillman-widow/

Confirmed: Private US Companies Helped Bush Spy On Americans

_ McConnell confirmed for the first time that the private sector assisted with President Bush's warrantless surveillance program. AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies are being sued for their cooperation. "Now if you play out the suits at the value they're claimed, it would bankrupt these companies," McConnell said, arguing that they deserve immunity for their help.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070822/spy-chief-opens-up/

Bush Supporters Launch Iraq Ad Campaign
Pro-war group launches $15 million ad blitz

The board consists of Blakeman; Fleischer; Mel Sembler, a Florida Republican who was Bush’s ambassador to Italy; William P. Weidner, president and chief operating officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corp.; and Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

The donors include Sembler; Anthony Gioia, a Buffalo businessman who was Bush’s ambassador to Malta; Kevin Moley, who was Bush’s ambassador to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva; Howard Leach, a former Republican National Committee finance chairman who was Bush’s ambassador to France; Dr. John Templeton of Pennsylvania, chairman and president of the John Templeton Foundation; Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast Spectacor, the huge Philadelphia sports and entertainment firm; Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and ranked by Forbes magazine as the third-wealthiest American; and Richard Fox, who is chairman of the Jewish Policy Center and was Pennsylvania State Chairman of the Reagan/Bush campaign in 1980.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5479.html

FOX wants war with Iran.

It's almost too ridiculous to believe, but it's shockingly real. We've already compiled over 4 hours of FOX footage just in the last few months... the same images, sound effects, yelling and threatening that led the U.S. to invade Iraq is happening right now to sell a war with Iran. They are saying the exact same things!!

Here is the video evidence, side-by-side with what they said about Iraq.
http://foxattacks.com/iran?utm_source=rgemail

WE CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN.

This is a critical moment, and we must send a message to the major television networks urging them to ask tough questions, be skeptical, and tell us what is really happening. They must not follow FOX down the road to another war.

We've put together an open letter to the networks. Will you sign it?
Sign the letter: http://foxattacks.com/iran?utm_source=rgemail

What in the crap happened to Pat Tillman?

It would be very interesting to hear her theory.

War? What war?

Families of GIs killed in Iraq crash mourn
14 soldiers died on Wednesday when Black Hawk crashed in country's north

ST. LOUIS - Ricky Bell was due to come home in less than a month. Michael Hook couldn’t wait to do the same — his fiancee is pregnant.

Both were among 14 U.S. soldiers who were killed Wednesday when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq, part of the Pentagon’s worst single-day death toll in Iraq since January.

The military said it appeared the aircraft was lost due to mechanical problems and not from hostile fire.

The death toll included troops from Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, Missouri and Ohio, according to news reports. The military did not immediately release their names.

The helicopter’s two pilots and two flight crew members were based at Washington state’s Fort Lewis, base spokesman David Kuhns said.

The Black Hawk had just picked up troops after a mission when it crashed, said Lt. Col. Michael Donnelly, a military spokesman in northern Iraq.

The 10 troops picked up were based at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, according to a statement by Col. Timothy M. Ryan, rear detachment commander of the 25th Infantry Division.

Due to go home
Bell, 21, was due to come home to Caruthersville, Mo., on leave Sept. 13, his aunt, Glenda Overbey, told The Associated Press. He had been in Iraq since June, where he turned 21 on June 30.

“I knew him when he was a little boy,” said J.J. Bullington, his former middle school principal. “I taught him swimming. This is a real small community of about 7,000. Everybody knows each other.”

Another victim, Josh Harmon, 20, of Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio, about 25 miles northeast of Cleveland, was a combat medic in the Army, said Tim Serazin, a lieutenant at the nearby Willoughby Hills Fire Department, where Harmon’s father, Richard, serves as chief.

“It’s horrible, and obviously there are other families going through this as well,” he said after military officials contacted the Harmon family Wednesday night.

Harmon, a 2003 high school graduate, got married earlier this year to a woman he had met while training in Hawaii, Serazin said.

Tradition of public service
The family has a tradition of public service, he said. “He was very proud of his father and his father was very proud of him,” Serazin said.

Hook, 25, of Altoona, Pa., had been in Iraq for almost a year on his first tour, said his father, Larry Hook, who lives north of Atlantic City, N.J.

“He died doing what he wanted to do,” Larry Hook told the Altoona Mirror in Thursday’s editions. “But it’s been pretty devastating.”

Hook graduated in 2001 from Altoona Area High School, where he played football. “It was his dedication that I remember,” coach Phil Riccio said.

The crash also claimed the life of 21-year-old Army Spc. Nathan Hubbard — the second tragedy for his family, which lost another son in Iraq three years ago, the Fresno Bee reported.

The Hubbards, of Clovis, Calif., lost Nathan’s older brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, to a roadside bomb in downtown Ramadi in 2004. A third brother, Jason, will be returning home from Iraq to be with his family, said Clovis police spokeswoman Janet Stoll-Lee.

In suburban Chicago, the death of Phillip J. Brodnick, 27, was announced by Burbank, Ill., Mayor Harry Klein during a village board meeting Wednesday night, The (Tinley Park) Daily Southtown newspaper reported. Brodnick is the son of Burbank police officer James Brodnick, Police Chief Bruce Radowicz said.

Doing what he wanted to do
Another Missouri victim was Jessy Pollard, a 2003 high school graduate from Springfield. He died doing what he wanted to do, Pollard’s stepfather, Alan Dewitt, told the Springfield News-Leader.

“He was fighting for our American freedoms that we enjoy,” Dewitt said. “After high school, he really got into wanting to do that. He prayed about it a lot before he joined.”

Pollard, 21, is survived by his mother, Patti Jo Dewitt, and a sister. His aunt, Sandy Kaufman, said her nephew had been excited to pursue a military career.

“He just really embraced it,” she said. “He’d come home and regale us with stories about jumping out of planes at night.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20405270/

“He was fighting for our American freedoms that we enjoy”

I just can't hang with that line anymore, I just can't.

Somebody has GOT to explain to me how this effin catastrophe is doing anything to "protect" the freedoms "we enjoy".

how about ENJOYED, past tense... cuz I'll bet a donut that we have LESS freedom today than we did before George the Devil assumed the throne.

Damn Them

"The crash also claimed the life of 21-year-old Army Spc. Nathan Hubbard — the second tragedy for his family, which lost another son in Iraq three years ago, the Fresno Bee reported."

How horrible. That poor family.

Monkey, or any other US male here...

Is there any legal way I can get my son out of signing up for Selective Service at 18 and if not, what happens if I just...forbid him.. from signing?

If the United States Constitution no longer exists, then they have no rights to my son.

Posted by: Christy at August 23, 2007 08:53 AM

I've never been so happy that my kids have a disability.

Wow. Total flashback Monkey.

When I was a kid, a friends father, a vietnam vet, a scary man, told me I should be glad my father did not fight. He said 'Your father was lucky to be born crippled.'

My son...is the picture of health. What if he is an established pacifist?

Can you concientiously object to Selective Service?

http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/analysis/toons/2007/08/22/mitchell/index.html

Christy
If you feel like I do, you will let your son go to war over your own dead body. I have been looking into this since I was 15.
http://www.rjtlaw.net
http://www.objector.org
http://www.sss.gov/FSconsobj.htm
http://www.scn.org/IP/sdmcc/co.htm

Woz why are you blocked from seeing the image at my link?