Monday, August 20, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces the death of another soldier, the Dems don't debate and the moderator doesn't care, another governor is assassinated in Iraq, UK and US troops are "stretched," and more.


Starting with war resisters. This year has seen three war resisters publish their stories in book form. First up was Joshua Key's The Deserter's Tale which was followed in May by Camilo Mejia's Road from Ar Ramaid: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia and then, this month, Aidan Delgado's The Sutras Of Abu Ghraib: Notes From A Conscientious Objector In Iraq. Susan L. Rife (Sarasota Herald-Tribune) reports on Delgado who will "speak at various book-related events in Florida in September and October". Delgado explains, "As a child, I always thought of myself as a writer, always wanted to be a writer. . . . I encountered a lot of writer's block. So I would write whatever section seemed the most immediate to me, then once I had a bunch of little modules or sections, I'd write them together." Delgado is a reader (which always helps when writing a book). In a book discussion at The Third Estate Sunday Review, Mike noted that Delgado's "descriptions really make it come alive and he's a really strong writer," with Rebecca offering, "I think the book is a more 'You are there' approach than a reflection," while Cedric focused on the way Delgado captured his religious awakening in Iraq and Elaine comparing his writing style favorably to Lillian Hellman's noting, "He has a very good eye for physical detail but he also is very strong in zooming in on the telling incident." Rife writes, "The son of an American diplomat who had spent his childhood in Thailand, Senegal and Egypt, the former New College of Florida student was deployed to Iraq as a mechanic with the 320th Military Police in Nasiriyah and at the prison in Abu Ghraib. Outraged by treatment of Iraqi prisoners and prejudice against civilians, he filed for conscientious objector status." According to the Taguba Report, the US Army Criminal Investigation Command into the crimes at Abu Ghraib began in May 2003. As Delgado recounts on page 184-185, as late as January 2004, a commander was telling people to destroy evidence:

The first sergeant calls us to attention and then turns the formation over to the commander. The captain dispenses with the military formality and begins to rant at us immediately.

"I just came back from Brigade Headquarters with all the other company commanders, where General Karpinski chewed our asses about all these g**damn rumors going around! You all need to stamp this talk out! Immediately. Apparently there's word going around that some MPs were doing some things they weren't supposed to be doing and somebody took pictures of it all. You don't need to be writing about this to your families, you don't need to be telling them on the phone, and you don't need to be talking about it to each other. You better stop spreading these g**damn rumors!"

The commander pauses for a moment and then switches tactics, becoming suddenly congenial and chummy, "Look, we're all a family here. We don't air our dirty laundry in public. If we have a problem within the military, then we'll handle it internally. We don't need to let the media and the civilians into our business. If you have photos that you're not supposed to have, get rid of them. Don't talk about this to anyone, don't write about it to anyone back home. We're a family and we're going to handle this like a family. I don't want to hear any more of this kind of talk in my unit. You all just focus on going home in March, hoo-ah!"

Hoo-ah, we responded. The commander rambles on for a bit and then dismisses us. As I leave, I wonder what could have possibly gotten the entire base so worked up. There's no doubt now that everything we've heard about is true, and it must be even worse than we thought, for the commander himself to get on our backs about it. All a family? I laugh. We're only a family when the captain wants us to do his bidding or conceal some wrongdoing. The Army has tried that rhetoric before, talking about family and Army pride and everything else to try to get you to buy into what they do. When the Army talks about "handling something internally," it's only because they've done something so obviously wrong, they can't allow the rest of the country to see it. This doesn't surprise me. After all, if Americans back home saw Iraqi prisoners shot dead for throwing stones, saw the wretched conditions inside Abu, or saw the way the MPs dealt with the prisoners, what would they think of our glorious and righteous invasion? The truth about Abu Ghraib has to be concealed, has to be "kept in the family," because if the average citizen saw what we're doing to the people here, they would know in their guts that it's un-American.

Again, Delgado's The Sutras Of Abu Ghraib: Notes From A Conscientious Objector In Iraq came out this month.

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Zamesha Dominique, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.

Veterans for Peace concluded their conference in St. Louis Sunday (it ran from August 15 through the 19th). It was their 22nd annual conference. They note that the "temperature was hot (100 degrees), the worshops were hot, the speakers were hot, and IVAW was hot!" Tim Townsend (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) reported on Dennis Kucinich's strong reception Friday noting that Kucinich declared "the U.S. Congress should force the Bush administration to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq. But he also brought the crowd to its feet multiple times with a passionate delivery of his positions." AFP notes that Kucinich declared, "The Democratic leadership of the House and the Senate must finally live up to their responsibility and the promise they made to voters last year to end this war." This was followed with, "It doesn't take legislation, it simply requires a refusal to approve any additional funds and to use the $97 billion recently appropriated to bring our troops home as quickly as possible."

Earlier in the conference (Wednesday), Bud Deraps, WWII vet, spoke about Depleted Uranium: "We have learned that DU was first used in our 1991 Gulf War and that inhalation is the major cause of DU contamination. It has long been believed that it takes ten years or more for lung cancer to form from smoking. The NY Sun reported in an Aug. 6, 2007 article that there are increasing cancer cases being found in US troops that have served in the Gulf for as few as 2 to 3 years. For example, 40 year old Army chaplain Fran Sturart served in Iraq for a year after Mar. 2003. In Mar. 2006, she had a rare form of ovary germ cell cancer seen only before in teenage girls. Army Sgt. Lauderdale went to Kuwait in Jan. 2005. By the end of Mar. they found he had Stage 2 cell cancer of the mouth and tongue. Taken to Walter Reed on April 1, a doctor there said he had seen a 21 year old just back from Iraq with a similar cancer. Lauderdale, 59, died at Reed on July 14, 2006, a year and a half after arriving in Kuwait. Currently, the State Dept. Web says the US military cites four separate studies by NATO, the Rand Corp., the European Commission and the World Health Org - that found NO evidence of adverse health effects from Depleted Uranium! It is reported that we used over 320 tons of DU weapons in the brief Gulf War and over 2000 tons in the years 2003 and 04 alone. Massive bombings continue to this day. The Iraq environment minister confirms 350 sites DU contaminated by heavy bombing, saturating much of that destroyed nation. Frequent sand storms, helicopter take-offs and landings carry the deadly dust size ceramic particles aloft where they are being spread far and wide. Counting the Gulf and our present wars, we have had well over a million troops, contract and government workers cycle in and out of the region, many on their 4th tour, all possibly DU contaminated."

Larry Ingram (Collinsville Herald) reported last week on Roland James and Lane Anderson who made the decision to travel to the conference via bicycles and to do some from the Vietnam Veterans Against the war convention in Chicago because they trace the illegal war to the US "dependence on Persian Gulf oil". Zhanda Malone (Edwardsville Intelligencer) notes Anderson "handed out index cards" throughout the journey of "Things we can all do to prevent wars for oil" which "included drink needed liquid from the tap, not bottled water, drive and accelerate slower, walk and bike whenever possible; carpool to school and work; resist impulse buying; share, repair and care for power equipment; use manual tools; and grow food at home."

On September 15th (see ANSWER for more information) a mass protest will be taking place in DC and IVAW will lead a "die-in". This will be part of a several days of action lasting from the 15th through the 18th. September 17th IVAW will kick off Truth in Recruiting. CODEPINK will be conducting a Peoples March Inside Congress (along with other groups and individuals) on September 17th. United for Peace & Justice (along with others) will begin Iraq Moratorium on September 21st and follow it every third Friday of the month as people across the country are encouraged to wear and distribute black ribbons and armbands, purchase no gas on those Fridays, conduct vigils, pickets, teach-ins and rallies, etc. And those are only some of the upcoming actions.

On Saturday, Julian E. Barnes and Carol J. Williams (Los Angeles Times) reported that Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno declared that Bully Boy will need to change strategy or "the elevated U.S. troop levels in Iraq will continue until this time next year". That would mean, if Odierno is correct, any departures would come in August 2008, just in time for the GOP national convention. The numbers being tossed around for drawbacks (not withdrawal) would leave approximately 140,000 US forces in Iraq which is higher than the pre-escalation total present at the start of this year. Also on Saturday, Steven Lee Myers and Thom Shanker (New York Times) reported on the White House's intentions regarding the September 15th reports to Congress (Petraeus and Crocker) which is to use the reports to resell the illegal war all over again and cited unnamed White House officials including one who "made it clear that the goal of the planned annoucement was to counter public pressure for a more rpaid reduction and to try to win support for a plan that could keep American involvement in Iraq on 'a sustainable footing' at least through the end of the Bush presidency." On Sunday, the BBC reported UK General Richard Dannatt declaring that "the government has overstretched our armed forces" but, for some reason. Sarah Baxter and Michael Smith (Sunday Times of London) explained that Stephen Biddle, "military advisor to President George W Bush," that the British departure from Iraq will lead to "a number of British casualties" and the reporters note this is in keeping "with British military estimates that withdrawal could cost the lives of 10 to 15 soldiers." Tim Shipman (Telegraph of London) reported that British officers are listened to far less now by "America's top commanders" and quoted one "senior US officer familiar with Gen Petraues's thinking" summarizing it: "The short version is that the Brits have lost Basra, if indeed they ever had it. Britain is in a difficult spot because of the lack of political support at home, but for a long time -- more than a year -- they have not been engaged in Basra and have tried to avoid casualties. They did not have enough troops there even before they started cutting back. The situation is beyond their control." And, along with British troops being stretched, Lolita C. Baldor (AP) reported that "the [US] Army has nearly exhausted its fighting force and its options if the Bush administration decided to extend the Iraq buildup beyond next spring."

On Sunday, the New York Times ran a piece written by seven active duty service members entitled "Iraq As We See It" (click here for Common Dreams, click here for International Herald Tribune -- available in full at both without registration) which noted "Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricty, telephone services and sanitation. 'Lucky' Iraqis live in communities barricaded with concrete walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal. In an environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. . . . In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are -- an army of occupation -- and force our withdrawal." The piece is signed by US Army specialist Buddhika Jayamaha, Sgt. Wesley D. Smith, Sgt. Jeremy Roebuck, Sgt. Omar Mora, Sgt. Edward Sandmeier, Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, Staff Sgt. and Jeremy A. Murphy.

Of course the Iraqis have been clear, in poll after poll, about wanting ALL foreign troops out of their country. The puppet of the occupation, Nouri al-Maliki, is among the roadblocks. At Inside Iraq (McClatchy Newspapers), an Iraqi correspondent notes the puppet's claims that Iraq is now sovereign by describing Sadoon Street in Baghdad "Anyway whoever controls Sadoon Street, its not the Iraqi government which means that our Prime Minister doesn't tell the truth which means that we are not really sovereign country. When a government can't control a street, its not a government, its only a group of puppets. When a government can't provide the minimum level of security, its just a shadow, when a government take the instruction from other places than its country, its just a shadow. Its time to get rid of all the Iraqi puppets in the Green Zone and start searching for real Iraqi" leadership.

The puppet is in Syria now after his 'alliance' proved to be such a bust. Megan Greenwell (Washington Post) reported Sunday that the country's "top five government leaders began a review of the country's de-Baathification law Saturday but appeared not to have reached an agreement on that topic or any of the other critical issues that have plunged the country into a political crisis. . . . . The lack of concrete results from meetings this week diminish hopes of creating a unified government by Sept. 15, when President Bush and Congress are to receive a report about condtiions in Iraq." AFP notes the Bully Boy has stopped mentioning 'benchmarks' when speaking of Iraq and that's because the situation is so grave and because the puppet trashed 'benchmarks' two and sixteen when he shut Sunnis out of his new 'alliance.' On Sunday, Damien Cave (New York Times) offered an analysis of the puppet noting "Some American officials privately describe him as a paranoid failure," describing US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker's observation about the "pretty striking" visible Iraqi frustration with the puppet but "noted that there was as much anger within the government as outside, on the streets," while Iraqis either search for an alternative or "complain that they are not able to replace Mr. Maliki until the Americans signal strong opposition and identify a replacement."

And yet the disaster that the US government has intentionally (and illegally) created in Iraq doesn't dissuade an itching for war with Iran. Today Stephen Farrell (New York Times) observed US Major General Rick Lynch claimed that "50 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps" training Shi'ite militias fell apart when the general "conceded that no Revolutionary guard members had been captured in his region . . . The accusations came days after United States officials said the White House might list the Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization."

Also this weekend came news of life in Iraqi prisons. Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today, "In other Iraq news, new images have been released showing hundreds of Iraqi prisoners packed into cramped wire cages. The video was released after Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi visited the Rusafa prison camp in Baghdad. The prisoners are held by the dozens in wire mesh covered with plastic sheeting. On the tape, al-Hashemi is seen addressing the prisoners about their conditions. Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi: 'Those who are outside are no better than you, at least you have security. It is true that you do not have freedom , but you are better than many outside'." Saturday Waleed Ibrahim and Peter Graff (Reuters) reported on the "hundreds of inmates packed into tented wire-mesh cages" and the claim by Lt. Col. Christopher Garver that the US isn't responsible for the treatment or the conditions.

Turning to some of today's violence . . .

Bombings?

Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted "the governmor of the province of Muthanna has been killed in a roadside bombing. The assasination of Mohammed Ali al-Hassani is the second of provincial governor in Iraq in the last two weeks." Bushra Juhi (AP) reports that he was traveling in a SUV "en route to his office" with three bodyguards, an office manager and a driver -- along with al-Hassani, a bodyguard and the driver were killed. CBS and AP note that three people died besides the governor. On August 11th, Khalil Jalil Hamza was killed. He had been the governor of the Qadasiyah province. The Belfast Telegraph notes that both assasinated governors "were members of the Surpreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shi'ite group that has been fighting the Mahdi Army militia for control of oil-rich southern Iraq." As noted in Friday's snapshot, The assassinated Khalil Jalil Hamza was just replaced with Shiek Hamid al-Khudhan who is "secretary-general of the Badr Brigade".

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a motorcycle bombing in Baghdad that claimed 1 life (twelve wounded), a Baghdad car bombing that claimed 5 lives (twenty wounded), a Baghdad roadside bomb that left four wounded and a Kirkuk roadside bombing that claimed the life of 1 Iraqi soldier.

Shootings?

Reuters reports two police officers (brothers) were shot dead in Baiji and "a civil servant" was shot dead in Hawijia.

Corpses?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 12 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters reports 2 corpses (police officers) were discovered in Mosul.


Today the US military announced: "An MNC-I Soldier died of non-battle related causes August 19 in Baghdad." The announcement brought the ICCC total to 49 US service members killed in Iraq this month so far and 3707 killed in the illegal war since it began." The cause of death? "Under investigation." Last week, the US military announced 17 deaths, 3 of which were Baghdad deaths that have "an investigation ongoing" (the 2 US service members who died August 16th in Baghdad and Shawn D. Henset who died August 14th in Baghdad).

Turning to politics in the United States, yesterday at Drake University, the candidates for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination . . . met. Couldn't really call it a debate, couldn't call it a discussion since George Stephanopoulos has no idea how to moderate. For instance, a knowledgeable moderator wouldn't wait to well after the third way mark to finally get to the topic of Iraq while, at the same time, noting "I want to move on to another issue we're hearing about a lot from the voters from Iowa in the poll. More voters wrote in questions for us on the issue of Iraq than any other single issue." Again, Steph got to that well after a third of the debate was over, close to the half-way mark. If the point's not clear, voters wanted to hear about Iraq but Steph wasted everyone's time wondering about Obama and what was said about Obama and blah blah blah useless blah. Does he have a secret crush on Obama? In the Iraq section, Bill Richardson had a question for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden and there's little Steph saying he wants "Obama on that question." Does Obama need that much hand holding just to make it through public appearances?

Bill Richardson declared: "Here's my plan: My plan is that, to end this war, we have to get all the troops out, all of them. Our kids are dying. Our troops have become targets. My plan has diplomacy, a tri-partite entity within Iraq, a reconciliation among the three groups. I would have a division of oil revenues. I'd have an all-Muslim peacekeeping force, headed by the United Nations, a donor conference. But none of this peace and peace building can begin until all of our troops are out. We have different positions here. I believe that if you leave any residual forces, then none of the peace that we are trying to bring can happen. And it's important. And it's critically important that we do this with an orderly timetable. But what is key is all of the troops out -- no residual forces. You leave residual forces behind, the peace cannot begin."

This was in opposition to Joe Biden and Richardson replied, "Well, Anthony Cordesman from ABC News, a distinguished military expert, many generals agree with me that we can complete this withdrawal within six to eight months."

Biden wants to partition Iraq into three regions. Apparently he's running for the role of God. Steph wanted to lunch time poll in the midst of a debate and the results were as stupid as his efforts. Hillary Clinton wanted to make something clear.

What? Who knows. Speaking of what needs to be done, by her plan, to get troops out of Iraq, she declared "this is going to be very dangerous and very difficult. A lot of people don't like to hear that." And since she thinks they don't want to hear it, she doesn't follow up on it changing the topic to equipment. Hillary Clinton stumbled around and the point is she's not for bringing all troops home -- not before the election, not if she's sworn in January 2009. The same is true of Barack Obama. A lot of people do NOT like to hear that. Not in the Democratic Party.

Chris Dodd was left out of the discussion -- apparently Steph has no crush on him. Edwards stated that he felt there was an "orderly way [to] bring our troops out over the next nine or 10 months." Instead of following that with an explanation, running with it to demonstrate a distinct reason why anyone should support him, he instead wasted the rest of his spot playing cheerleader for other candidates. Steph then all but served the question to Hillary's clone/twin Barack Obama who gave non-answers as well but -- as usual -- made a point of whining that in 2002 he was against the illegal war. In 2002, Obama was against the illegal war. In 2004, he was for continuing the illegal war and against bringing the troops home. Once sworn into the Senate in Januray 2005, he voted for every proposal to continue the illegal war until this past summer. But in 2002, America take note, in 2002 Barack Obama was against the war -- which appears to be all his campaign has to offer.

After Steph tossed to to Obama, Dennis Kucinich declared, "We can talk about George Bush driving a bus into a ditch, but let's not forget there was a Democratic Senate in charge that OK'ed the war. And those senators who are up on this stage helped to authorize that war and they have to take responsibility for that. Likewise, they have to take responsibility for funding the war. You say you're opposed to it, but you keep funding it. I think the American people have to look at that and ask, What's going on? Now, I've had a plan on the table for four years to get out of Iraq, and Democrats in Congress have to stand up to the pledge they made in 2006 to take us out of that war. They have to tell the president now, 'Bring the troops home. We're not going to give you any more money for that war.' The American people have a right to expect that we're going to take a new direction. But, frankly, you cannot expect a new direction with the same kind of thinking that took us into war in the first place. We cannot leave more troops there. We cannot privatize Iraq's oil. We cannot partition that country and expect there's going to be peace. We need a president who understands that, one who's been right from the start, and one who has shown the judgment, the wisdom, and the maturity to take the right stand at the time that it counted most, when the American people needed someone to stand up. And I'm the one who did that."

And that was pretty much it. Less than a third of the debate was spent on the issue of Iraq. Steph declared, before Chris Dodd could even weigh in, "Let's move on now. We've got a question -- we've got an e-mail question from Seth Ford of South Jordan, Utah." Seth wanted to know about prayer. Apparently he thought ABC was seeking input on the 20/20 'news' special "A Presidential Confidant." And too much reality makes Steph's do drip so it was off to nonsense. But remember what Steph said at the start of the tiny Iraq section: "I want to move on to another issue we're hearing about a lot from the voters from Iowa in the poll. More voters wrote in questions for us on the issue of Iraq than any other single issue. They all wanted to know what your plans were to get out of Iraq, and to get out safely from Iraq."

The voters wanted to know about Iraq. Steph wanted to talk prayer. Mike Gravel was cut off during the Iraq section. John Donnelly (Boston Globe) notes Gravel asking, "Why do we think that we can rule that country? This is American imperialism you're hearing up here, and that hasn't worked and it will never work."
Since Gravel wasn't allowed to speak freely (interruptions and crosstalk) and since he was shut out of the previous debate, we'll note that on August 8th, he was a guest for the first hour (the only guest) on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show.

Mike Gravel: It's important to be in these debates so that people can hear my voice and say that guy looks a little unusual, "I didn't know he was still alive" or "I never heard of him before." Keep in mind people who generally are over 40 who remember or are a little bit interested in politics 30, 25 years ago

Diane Rehm: You're 77.

Mike Gravel: That's right. They know who I am. I was very, very controversial. I was what they call a maverick. But also I took some very hard stands. And it's interesting, when you talk about ending the draft, when you talk about releasing the Pentagon Papers, stopping a nuclear testing on the North Pacific, starting the nuclear critique so that we wouldn't use it for, for a generation of electricity and then, at the time, I was looked at, I was marginalized by mainline media. And so now, when we look back 25 years, people say, "My God, you did a lot of courageous things." Well I did a lot of things that the media didn't buy into because I wasn't conventional wisdom then and I'm not now.

Diane Rehm: Considering the current situation in Iraq, do you believe it was a mistake to end the draft?

Mike Gravel: No, not in the slightest. In fact, I'm very proud of the fact that George Bush does not have the boots on the ground to invade Iran. They're going to have to do it with some other device. And thank God for Sy Hersh who blew the whistle on their possible use of nukes in that regard. And as you recall, in the first debate I challenged Hillary, Obama, Edwards, they all pledged that the nukes were still on the table with respect to Iran. Iran's done nothing to us. We're the -- they have have a beef with us. We destabilized. There were only two democracies in 1953 in the Middle East. One was Israel the other one was Iran. And what did we do? Our CIA and Kermit Roosevelt [Jr. -- known as "Kim"], the grandson of Teddy Roosevelt, was so proud, wrote a book [Countercoup] about how we destroyed their democracy and look what -- we put in a king, then a king got lost, now we got the ayatollahs. If we would just leave the Iranians alone, they have a real interesting record of moving to democracy.

On the topic of Iraq, he declared, "I see nobody in sight that's prepared to truly end the war. And what I see is politics as usual whether it's on the liberal side let's say with Dennis Kucinich or on the middle or the far . . . right with other Democrats. But there's no, I see no will to end the war because you end it right now in the Congress with the leadership, the Democrats have taken over, and this is a tragic failure. I submitted to the Congress a procedure, a law, I call it "The Withdrawal Act" that would make it a felony and would put Bush in jail or set up a prima facie case for impeachment if he did not follow the law. The Constitution's very clear: the Congress makes the laws, the Executive has to enforce and obey the laws. But you now have to set it up so that he'll veto and how do you get this passed, this law passed? Real simple. You see, they do a cloture vote. Oh one cloture vote, two, can't do it. Stop. Or an override veto. Can't do it? Stop. That's ridiculous. The rules permit to have a vote on cloture every single day, seven days a week, and all the way through this August recess which they're all taking -- and then when the bill comes back vetoed they can repeat it every single day and, I promise you, Diane, that in twenty, forty days we will have a law on the books to withdraw the troops from Iraq. Now time is fleeting. This could have been done by Labor Day and all, I mean all the troops, would come home by Christmas.

Of Sunday's debate, China's People Daily Online sums up the Iraq section with, "A few, including Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich and former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, talked about an immediate withdrawal, while others warned that it would be difficult to mount a swift withdrawal." Anne E. Kornblut (Washington Post) analyzes the debate here. Javier C. Hernandez ( Boston Globe) profiled Dennis Kucinich over the weekend in solo face time for the hour (the candidate was meeting with the Boston Globe's editorial board) during which Kucinich likened his foreign policy to Jimmy Carter's and noted that the White House was guilty of "committing a 'monstrous crime' by going to war in Iraq, pointing to what he described as hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties and to questions about whether administration officials lied in making the case for war. Kucinich, who has called for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney, said US forces should immediately end their 'occupation' of Iraq and said a multinational peacekeeping force should be brought in to help stabilize the country."

In the Democratic forum held yesterday, the moderator repeatedly refused to ask, "WHAT IS YOUR PLAN?" Candidates went soft and fuzzy (with the few exceptions noted already). That's a waste of time. It's also much worse because Iraq is dropping off the media radar yet again. Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) reported today, "In media news, a new study shows corporate news coverage of the Iraq war has dropped sharply in the last four months. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the Iraq war accounted for just fifteen percent of news coverage, down from twenty-two percent earlier this year. Network evening news coverage of the war went from forty-percent to nineteen percent. The Democratic and Republican presidential campaign emerged as the most-covered issue over the same period."

iraq
aidan delgado
camilo mejia
joshua key
iraq veterans against the war
democracy now
amy goodman
the washington post
megan greenwell
anne e. kornblut
the new york times
damien cave
stephen farrell
the los angeles times
carol j. williams
leila fadel
mcclatchy newspapers
tina richards
military families speak out
iraq veterans against the war

The newest Democratic ad -- a somber commercial from Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) claiming that he is the only candidate with a plan to end the war in Iraq -- came up as a debate question, and it triggered a spirited back-and-forth over how best to bring U.S. troops home. It was perhaps the most in-depth discussion the candidates have had over their exit plans, and it revealed a field sharply divided, some advocating a quick withdrawal and others favoring one that takes longer and is more cautious.
Richardson has advocated withdrawing troops within six to eight months, and he pressed that view again in trying to draw distinctions with the front-runners.
"We have different positions here," said Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations. "I believe that if you leave any residual forces, then none of the peace that we are trying to bring can happen. And it's important."
Biden countered: "If we leave Iraq and we leave it in chaos, there'll be regional war. The regional war will engulf us for a generation. It'll bring in the Shia, it'll bring in the Saudis, it'll bring in the Iranians, it'll bring in the Turks."
Clinton, Edwards and Obama said in effect that they supported Biden's position, cautioning that it will be necessary to leave some troops behind to assist Iraqi forces and Iraqis who have helped Americans on the ground.

Martha notes the above from Anne E. Kornblut's "Democratic Rivals Caution Against Swift Iraq Pullout" (Washington Post). The article is about the Iowa debate. Whether you agree with Biden or Richards, their opinions are consistent. Obama's actually is it's just that most people don't know about it. He's bragged and bragged about being opposed to the illegal war before it started. He's less public since he decided to run for president about being opposed to ending the war or withdrawal. He's made those comments since he was running for Senator in 2004 and they aren't as Chicken Sop for the Soul friendly so they tend to get overlooked as people assume anyone opposed to the illegal war before it began would be someone wanting to end it as quickly as possible.

John Donnelly (Boston Globe) notes the following on Democratic hopeful Mike Gravel:

Mike Gravel, a former US senator from Alaska, objected to the tone of the Iraq discussion.
"Why do we think that we can rule that country?" he said. "This is American imperialism you're hearing up here, and that hasn't worked and it will never work."

And from Javier C. Hernandez' profile (Boston Globe) on Dennis Kucinich that ran this weekend (suprisingly brief when Hernadez claims an hour of solo face time with the candidate):

Kucinich accused the Bush administration of committing a "monstrous crime" by going to war in Iraq, pointing to what he described as hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties and to questions about whether administration officials lied in making the case for war. Kucinich, who has called for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney, said US forces should immediately end their "occupation" of Iraq and said a multinational peacekeeping force should be brought in to help stabilize the country.
"As Shakespeare said: 'Hell is empty, and all the devils are here," he said, quoting from "The Tempest" and referring to the damage the war has inflicted and the "mercenaries" and private contractors working in the region.
Kucinich said he looked to the foreign policy of Jimmy Carter, whom the congressman said was the last president to demonstrate "fluency in being able to deal diplomatically with very serious crises."

China's People Daily Online notes of the debate, "A few, including Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich and former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, talked about an immediate withdrawal, while others warned that it would be difficult to mount a swift withdrawal." Mark Geary (KCRG) observes:

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson pushed for a quicker exit from Iraq than the rest of the candidates.
But, the feasibility of his ideas drew some criticism. "The issue is troops there. It's not the timetable. I don't see why we need to keep troops there. All my opponents want to keep troops there, and that's not going to work," Richardson said.
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich said Americans should trust his judgment because he's the only candidate who never voted for the war.
"If people would have listened to me, we wouldn't have had our troops die. We wouldn't be wasting 1-2 trillion dollars and one million innocent Iraqis wouldn't have perished," Kucinich said.

For those confused, prior to this summer's vote, Obama voted for the already started illegal war once he got into the Senate and did so repeatedly. AFP notes the following:

At the same time, the administration will argue that vital US interests in Iraq require a sustained commitment of US forces, said the paper.
Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich, who is again running for president this year, urged fellow congressional Democrats to take decisive action and cut off funding for the Iraq war.
"The Democratic leadership of the House and the Senate must finally live up to their responsibility and the promise they made to voters last year to end this war," Kucinich told an annual convention of Veterans for Peace in St Louis, Missouri, on Friday.

That is from their article entitled "Bush avoids US benchmarks in assessing situation in Iraq" and of course Bully Boy's avoiding discussing the 'benchmarks' -- Nouri al-Maliki's 'alliance' last week trashed numbers two and sixteen.

Olive notes Frank Walker's brief story in the Sydney Morning Herald on Iraq Veterans Against the War's Matt Howard who is traveling through Australia and sharing the "horrors being carried out by US forces in Iraq" and call for "a mass mobilisation against the war when President [George] Bush comes for APEC. Let your voices be heard."

And Zach wanted the upcoming September 15th demonstration in the US noted again:

On Saturday, September 15, thousands of antiwar protesters from all over the United States will descend on Washington DC. The protest will coincide with the report by Gen. David Petraeus about progress of the Iraq war. The demonstration will culminate in a mass "die-in" led by Iraq war veterans.
About the September debate in Congress, Representative John Murtha, D-Pa., told the Associated Press, "This is big time," Murtha said, "When you get to September, this is history. This is when we're going to have a real confrontation with the president."
"It will not be a real debate without the voice of the people present," stated Brian Becker, National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition. "The eyes of the national and international media will be focused on Washington DC and on the words and positions of the politicians and generals. We are determined to make sure that this so-called debate cannot take place inside Congress without them hearing the voices of thousands of angry veterans, students and working people demanding an immediate end to the war," Becker added.
Those organizing for the September 15th demonstration include the ANSWER Coalition; Ramsey Clark; United States Labor Against the War; Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation; Mounzer Sleiman, Vice Chair, National Council of Arab Americans; Cindy Sheehan; Cynthia McKinney; Veterans for Peace (National); Iraq Veterans Against the War; Tina Richards, CEO of Grassroots America; Rev. Lenox Yearwood, CEO of Hip Hop Caucus; Code Pink; Father Roy Bourgeois and Eric LeCompte, School of Americas Watch; Kevin Zeese, Democracy Rising; Navy Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto, co-founder Appeal for Redress; Liam Madden, Pres., Boston Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War and co-founder of Appeal for Redress; Malik Rahim, founder of Common Ground Collective, New Orleans; Howard Zinn, Author and Historian; Carlos & Melida Arredondo, Gold Star Families for Peace.
The September 15 demonstration was initiated by the ANSWER Coalition, which has organized most of the large-scale demonstrations in Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities since 2001.
To make arrangements for Interviews with antiwar leaders, organizers, activists and military families, call Sarah Sloan at 202-904-7949. For more information about the September 15 March on Washington, visit www.answercoalition.org.

And Reuters reports two police officers (brothers) shot dead in Baiji, a roadside bombing in Tuz Khurmato claimed the life of 1 Iraqi soldier, five truck drivers kidnapped in Baiji, a Baghdad bombing killed 3, two corpses were discovered in Mosul, a person was shot dead in Hawija.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

the washington post
anne e. kornblut
iraq veterans against the war
 

In Iraq today, Mohammed Ali al-Hassani is dead. Bushra Juhi (AP) reports the governor of the Muthanna province was in a SUV "en route to his office in the provincial capital of Samawah" which his driver (Al-Hassani), three bodyguards and an officer manager -- Al-Hassani and one bodyguard were killed -- when they encountered a roadside bomb. The Belfast Telegraph notes he is the second governor of a southern province killed this month and that "Both governors were members of the Surpreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shi'ite group that has been fighting the Mahdi Army militia for control of oil-rich southern Iraq." The other governor, Khalil Jalil Hamza, was killed August 11th and, from Friday's snapshot:

Among the Shi'ite militias Sunnis have called "death squads" is the Badr Brigade. Last week, the governor of the Qadasiyah province was assassinated. CBS News and AP report today that Sheik Hamid al-Khudhan, "secretary-general of the Badr Brigade" has just been elected the new govenor "by a narrow majority" of council members. With these and other actions, the puppet's cry of "We must unite" seems less like a slogan and more like a threat.

Khalil Jalil Hamza, like Mohammed Ali al-Hassani, was a governor of a southern province, they both opposed the Badr Brigade, they both died in roadside bombings, last week the Badr Brigade installed one of their own to fill Khalil Jalil Hamza's spot as governor.

In the New York Times this morning, Stephen Farrell's "French Official’s Iraq Visit Offers Lift, U.S. Says" deals with the visit of the French foreign minister to the Green Zone and US Major General Rick Lynch's claim "that 50 memembers of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps were operating in the area, training Shiite militias". Farrell goes on to observe:

General Lynch conceded that no Revolutionary Guard members had been captured in his region but said that 217 weapons with Iranian markings had been seized since April. The accusations came days after United States officials said the White House might list the Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

the new york times
stephen farrell

The Perfect Spy by Larry Berman, a political science professor at the University of California's Davis campus, is a fascinating account of An's life during the Vietnamese war with the US. Like Singer's biography of Debs, Berman's work presents the reader with a man whose life is more than the sum of its parts. An, who died a hero of the Vietnamese struggle for independence in 2006, lived two lives as a spy and a journalist. Berman's many interviews with An help him provide a picture of how An managed this while simultaneously keeping his allegiance to Americans he befriended and to the Vietnamese revolution. It's not 007 stuff that is related here, but intrigue exists, especially in the recounting of An's work prior to the Tet offensive in 1968 and in his efforts to get friends from the losing side out of Vietnam during the final days of the southern Vietnamese government in 1975.
Equally interesting to today's reader is the contextual information Berman provides throughout the book. As the United States edges closer to the fifth year of its war in Iraq, the descriptions of US tactics during the war in Vietnam make it clear that not only was the US involvement in Vietnam a combination of imperial hubris and human pride, it was very much a policy and not a mistake. As one analyzes US actions in that war forty years ago in light of the current one, it's quite apparent that many of the strategies that failed in Vietnam are being attempted again in Iraq and Afghanistan with minimal variation. Likewise, it becomes ever more apparent that , like the Vietnamese war, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not mistakes or blunders (as today's Democrats are so fond of saying),but essential parts of US geopolitical strategy. Even though it is clear by now that there are several differences between the US war on Vietnam and its current adventure in Iraq, there are similarities that can not be denied. One example came to me as I read Berman's description of the various factions in southern Vietnam and Washington's attempts to sort them out through bribery, political chicanery and murder. The description of these manipulations are reminiscent of the ongoing situation in Iraq, where multiple factions are struggling for control and US intelligence and other forces seem to shift their alliances every few months, seemingly without reason.
In the same manner that the US reader will see similarities between the way the war in Vietnam was waged in Vietnam and in the US media and political arena, so might the Iraqi or Afghani reader. Indeed, if I were a member of the resistance in those countries, I might even draw some useful lessons from An's insights and analysis as it was applied to the situation of the Vietnamese national liberation struggle by its fighters. Likewise, the astute reader of An's biography can not help but see how many of today's arguments used to justify the continued US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan are nothing but rehashed rationales from its debacle in Vietnam.

The above, noted by Mia, is from Ron Jacobs' "The Virtues of Resistance" (CounterPunch). An is Pham Xuan An and Jacobs is also reviewing Ray Singer's The Bending Cross, a biography on Eugene V. Debs. Meanwhile, the US military announces it is extended to the max and "nearly exhausted" while the country with the second largets number of troops on the ground in Iraq also notes that is extended to the max. And seven US service members ("Buddhika Jayamaha is a U.S. Army specialist. Wesley D. Smith is a sergeant. Jeremy Roebuck is a sergeant. Omar Mora is a sergeant. Edward Sandmeier is a sergeant. Yance T. Gray is a staff sergeant. Jeremy A. Murphy is a staff sergeant.") share their opinion in "Iraq As We See It" (click here for Common Dreams, click here for International Herald Tribune -- available in full at both without registration):

The most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. "Lucky" Iraqis live in communities barricaded with concrete walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal. In an environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act.
Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, "We need security, not free food."
In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are - an army of occupation -- and force our withdrawal.

Until then . . .


They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.
-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)

Last Sunday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 3689. Tonight? 3703. This as the US attempts to pull back from patrols in an attempt to lower fatalities in the lead up to Gen. David Petraues' September 15th report to Congress. While, as Tim Shipman (Telegraph of London) notes, also criticizing British forces for their own pull back:

A senior US officer familiar with Gen Petraeus's thinking said: "The short version is that the Brits have lost Basra, if indeed they ever had it. Britain is in a difficult spot because of the lack of political support at home, but for a long time - more than a year - they have not been engaged in Basra and have tried to avoid casualties.
"They did not have enough troops there even before they started cutting back. The situation is beyond their control.
"Quite frankly what they're doing right now is not any value-added. They're just sitting there. They're not involved. The situation there gets worse by the day.["]

Just Foreign Policy's count for the number of Iraqis killed since the start of the illegal war stands at 1,012,979. In some of the violence today . . . Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad motorcycle bombing that claimed 1 life, a Baghdad mortar attack that claimed 7 lives (forty-one wounded), a Baghdad roadside bombing that claimed 1 life, fifteen people kidnapped off a Baghdad bus, a 12-year-old boy (Hakam Falah Khalaf) kidnapped "in front of his family's house in Kirkuk (and, on Saturday, Raad Abdul was kidnapped in Al Hawija -- a truck driver) and 14 corpses discovered in Baghdad with another one discovered in Kirkuk ("Al Rashad area"). Reuters notes the Baghdad mortar attack death toll rose by 3 to ten, 1 person dead from a Baghdad bombing "in a garbage dump" and 3 people ("suspected insurgents") killed by US forces.

The illegal war has resulted in over four million Iraqis being turned into refugees internally and externally. A little over two million are external refugees. Dina Aboul Hson (Gulf News) reports on Sonia Azad, a twelve-year-old peace activist, who went to Jordan to film "a documentary about Iraqi children who are suffering in Jordan and make their voices heard in the United Kingdom and the United States. We will show the film at the House of Commons." China's People's Daily Online observes that "Jordanian Eductation ministry estimated taht at least 50,000 Iraqi students [children] were expected to flood scholl system on Sunday across Jordan" as a result of "a decision finalized by the Jordanian Ministry of Education last Monday, which allows all Iraqi students, with or without a residency permit, to study in public schools as of the beginning of this scholastic year." The bulk of the external refugees have gone to either Jordan or Syria. Martin Patience (BBC) notes that puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki will spend three days in Syria starting Monday and "The issue of Iraqi refugees is also expected to be raised as there are almost two million refugees in Syria." If that number is correct, then the number of external refugees has risen dramatically. In the spring, the estimate was 2.1 million external refugees with the bulk of them going to Jordan and Syria. Last month, Amnesty International estimated there were 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria:


Syria is the only country that has so far kept its border open to refugees fleeing the sectarian violence in Iraq. It is estimated that there are now some 1.5 million Iraqis living in Syria, with around 30, 000 more arriving each month. The majority have arrived during the last 17 months following the bombing of al-'Askari Shi'a holy shrine in Samarra on 22 February 2006. This attack, apparently carried out by members of al-Qa'eeda in Iraq, severely damaged the shrine and also triggered a widespread intensification in the level of sectarian violence between Shi’a and Sunni armed groups.
Amnesty International sent a three-person fact-finding delegation to Syria between 13 and 30 June 2007 in order to investigate the situation of Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers. In particular, Amnesty International looked into their legal status, their access to services such as health, education and housing, the impact that the presence of Iraqi refugees is having on the local community and on the Syrian economy, and how the Syrian authorities have been responding to continuing influx of Iraqis. Amnesty International also sought to find out whether the pledges of economic and other assistance to Syria, and Jordan, the other main country of refuge for Iraqis, by governments that attended an international conference held on 17-18 April 2007 in Geneva, have been honoured or not. At that conference, convened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) specifically to address the potential humanitarian crisis arising from the flight of refugees from Iraq, governments were invited to assist Syria, Jordan and other countries affected in their efforts to afford protection and meet the other needs of the refugees. In the course of the visit, Amnesty International's delegates met with several senior Syrian government officials, including the Deputy Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Health, Education, Higher Education, and the Minister for Cooperation with the Red Crescent Society. They also met with representatives of some national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), United Nations (UN) agencies, such as UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and some European Union (EU) diplomats.
Amnesty International's delegates interviewed dozens of Iraqis of diverse backgrounds who had been forced to leave Iraq and had gone to Syria in search of safety. Most of them had personally suffered serious human rights abuses, including rape and other forms of torture, and were traumatized as a result but with no possibility to receive appropriate treatment.

Turning to the internally displaced in Iraq, last Tuesday the Yazidi sect was targeted with multiple bombings in northern Iraq and the death toll climbed to over 300 (the BBC counts 344 dead from the bombings, four-hundred wounded, in their most recent report). With more on the region, this is from Corey Levine's "Baghdad Diary: Gripped by tragedy" (Kalinga Times):

Although the Yazidis, who are found onlin in northern Iraq, speak Kurmanji (a northern Kurdish language) and many of their cultural practices are observably Kurdish, they are not ethnologically considered Kurds. However, in the sectarian maelstrom that defines current day Iraq, Kurds are arguing for the Yazidis, whose numbers reach approximately a half million, to be recognized ethnically as Kurds, particularly as many Yazidis reside in communities near Mosul, the oil-rich city close to the border of Iraqi Kurdistan.
In a kind of tit-for-tat situaion, in the contested city of Kirkuk, on which a referendum will be held next year, the government of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan has been quietly encouraging the migration of Arabs from the oil-rich city through generous relocation allowances and offers of exchanges of land with Kurds living in the south. Although benign compared to what Saddam enforced on the city's Kurdish population in the 1980's of murder, mayhem and forced expulsion in an attempt to 'Arabize' the city; an exodus is an exodus, is an exodus, particularly when the potentials spoils offers as great a reward as one of the prime oil fields in the world's second largest oil producing country.
In other places in Iraq, particularly Baghdad, the sectarian violence is also leaving its mark on the demographics of the country in terms of shifting populations. I am reminded of Bosnia at the height of the war there when previously ethnically mixed communites became mono-ethnic entities either due to forced expulsion or the sense that it was much safer to be with 'your own kind'.
With similar patterns of 'ethnic cleansing', Iraq is quickly becoming the country with the largest number of internally displaced. According to the UN agency responsible for refugees, the total number of internally displaced people in the country is inching towards the two million mark.

Internal and external refugees, well over a million Iraqis dead from the illegal war, basic services still not met (electricity, potable water, security, etc.), the US and the UK militaries both stating they are "stretched," the death count for foreign (non-Iraqi) forces rising constantly, the five year mark of the illegal war six months away and no 'progress' to show for the illegal war. (No surprise there.) Tell Congress, as Iraq Veterans Against the War, Tina Richards and Military Families Speak Out are, Fuding the war is killing the troops. It's not saving them, it's not saving Iraqis.

Pru gets the last highlight, from Great Britain's The Socialist Worker, "Get the troops out now: not one more day, not one more life:"

Why is Gordon Brown sending troops to kill and die in a war that is lost?
Another week, and another six young British soldiers lie dead in the mire of Iraq and Afghanistan.
These wars have been lost. They could never have been "won".
Yet Gordon Brown is prepared to throw away the lives of more soldiers, and countless Iraqi and Afghan civilians, so that George Bush can say that Britain is still on board in his "war on terror".
One such soldier was 20 year old private Craig Barber. He was killed last week trying to stop the constant barrage of mortars that are falling on the last remaining British outpost in Iraq.
British troops have little influence over the south of the country. They are under daily attack by a resistance movement that is growing more confident.
In September last year British commanders launched "Operation Sinbad". They hoped the operation would check the growing influence of the resistance.
It was the last roll of the dice by the occupation in the south in an attempt to win the war.
But far from bringing security, it accelerated the collapse of the Iraqi authorities installed by the British in 2003.
Shortly afterward British troops abandoned their headquarters in Basra and ­withdrew to the airport on the outskirts of the city.
Their presence at the airport serves no ­function beyond saving the reputation of George Bush.
The US fear that if the British withdraw fully then the pressure will mount on the US to do the same.
So British soldiers remain under siege, hunkered behind sand bags, occasionally sending out patrols. It was during one of these missions that private Craig Barber was killed.
The pointless death of Barber, and the 238 other servicemen and women before him, is the bloody price that British soliders pay for Gordon Brown's "special relationship" with the US.
The following should be read alongside this article: » Chaos in Iraq as occupation fails» Civilian casualties accelerate in Afghanistan
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The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


iraq
and the war drags on
donovan
ron jacobs
iraq veterans against the war
tina richards
the socialist worker

Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts "Bully Boy Meets Jenna's Fiance." Bully Boy, in wedding drag, asks, "So do you do drugs? Do you like killing people? Do you believe in screwing over the average citizens? Are you a professional liar?" The fiance responds, "No sir." Bully Boy then asks, "Then how the hell do you expect to fit into this family?"

the world today just nuts
bully boy
bully boy meets jeannas fiance
comic
the common ills

In a flip, Damien Cave has the best piece (a "news analysis") in this morning's New York Times and Richard A. Oppel Jr. has the worst.

Oppel's piece runs on the front page and is entitled "Falluja’s Calm Is Seen as Fragile if US Leaves." It opens with what should have required a remark but apparently didn't: Falluja's chief of police (Faisal Ismail Hussein) waving around a photo of bucket containing a severed head. If anyone doesn't grasp it, that's not how you sell yourself to the press. (But Oppel appears not to notice.) If you're supposedly restoring order to a region, you shouldn't come off like a nut job who would keep a photo like that let alone wave it around to the press.

Falluja's always been a difficult region for the Times because they did so much to lie about what happened there. Actually, a few did attempt to get bits and pieces of truth out there. But there was Dexy with his 'award winning' rah-rah that took hold. (He will hopefully be stripped of the prize at a later date.) There's a vehicle ban, Oppel tells you. He even tells you about the concrete barriers that divide the destroyed city in 10 sections. He neglects to tell you about the retina scans. Maybe he feels that informing the US public the city has been divided (by the US) into ten sections gets the point across that there is no freedom in Falluja, only punishment? If so, opening with a nut case put in charge of the city waving around a photo of a severed head was the way to go.

But elsewhere he's repeating the myths that if US forces leave Falluja the city will fall apart. The city fell appart (and was largely reduced to rubble) because the US destroyed in November 2004. Men and boys were slaughtered. Those lucky enough to survive (many of whom fled before the slaughter) often now live in 'tent cities' -- well outside Falluja -- in abject poverty.

The 'success' has to do with Falluja being destroyed, with Falluja being turned from a city (even a destroyed one) into a nightmare vision of a police state.

It doesn't matter what the US does or what al-Maliki does. Falluja's going to pop. And when that time comes, if the US is still on ground there, it won't matter that they're present.

That's reality.

Foreign forces can't destroy a city and enforce their ideas of order and expect it to last. (In the US, apparently a hurricane can do the first part and the White House can get away with it.) (Can and still has.)

The walls will come down. Not by US choice but by the decisions of the citizens of Falluja.

Turning to Damien Cave who, again, offers the best thing he's done all week (I'm referring to last week, but I haven't been to sleep yet so it's still last week). It's entited "Iraqi Premier Stirs Discontent, Yet Hangs On" and, repeating, it's Cave best writing. He deserves praise for it.

Martha notes this from Megan Greenwell's "Iraqi Leaders' Talks Yield Scant Results" (Washington Post):

Iraq's top five government leaders began a review of the country's de-Baathification law Saturday but appeared not to have reached an agreement on that topic or any of the other critical issues that have plunged the country into a political crisis.
[. . .]
The lack of concrete results from meetings this week diminishes hopes of creating a unified government by Sept. 15, when President Bush and Congress are to receive a report about conditions in Iraq.

Gareth notes the BBC's "UK troops 'stretched but winning'" where General Sir Richard Dannatt says the UK troops are stretched (but 'winning'! -- he must have missed the Times of London today):

His comments came as Defence Secretary Des Browne denied claims the government is failing in its duty to UK troops who put their lives on the line for their country.
The Royal British Legion had said the Military Covenant - guaranteeing troops fair treatment in return for forgoing other rights - is not being upheld.
Shadow Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox said: "We face the problem that in Britain the government has overstretched our armed forces without giving them sufficient resources to do the job they're being asked to do."
He went on to criticise the level of commitment from Britain's allies.
Dr Fox said: "Our international allies, particularly some of our European allies and Nato, simply have not been stepping up to the plate in an international operation of this nature."

From Sarah Baxter and Michael Smith's "Britain faces Iraq rout says US" (Times of London):

A MILITARY adviser to President George W Bush has warned that British forces will have to fight their way out of Iraq in an “ugly and embarrassing” retreat.
Stephen Biddle, who also advises the US commander in Iraq, said Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias in the south would try to create the impression they were forcing a retreat. “They want to make it clear they have forced the British out. That means they’ll use car bombs, ambushes, RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] . . . and there will be a number of British casualties.”
The comments coincide with British military estimates that withdrawal could cost the lives of 10 to 15 soldiers.

New content at The Third Estate Sunday Review:

Truest statement of the week
A Note to Our Readers
Editorial: The death toll from the illegal war mou...
TV: Another cesspool trying to pass for news
Getting to know . . . Pelosi
17 US service members announced dead last week
The boom goes bust
Once up a time . . . A scary tale
Timothy J. Learn arrested for being AWOL in Ithaca...
Highlights


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

megan greenwell
the washington post
the new york times
damien cave
the third estate sunday review

Kat: The Cowboy Junkies appeared on my radar, and on the radars of many who know them, with their second album, 1988's The Trinity Session. The stand out tracks for me were their covers of "Blue Moon" and "Sweet Jane" but the entire album was listenable and seemed to fit together and set a mood in the way that Sade's done on her best albums. After that, they honestly fell of my radar and might have stayed off were it not for an appearance on Laura Flanders' radio program where they discussed a number of topics including their new CD Early 21st Century Blues (2005).

For someone who hadn't listened to them in some time, that was a huge surprise and one of the best CDs of 2005. Since then they've put out a live set (CD and DVD) that I didn't really grab me. Their new studio CD came out last spring and is entitled at the end of paths taken. It's amazing.

The Cowboy Junkies are three Timmins siblings: Margo on vocals, Peter on drums and Michael on guitar. Non-relative Alan Anton rounds out the group and mainly with his bass playing. He also co-wrote three songs with Michael Timmins who is the group's primary songwriter and responsible (solo) for all the other songs on the CD.

The album hangs together wonderfully. If you loved what they did with Bruce Springsteen's "You're Missing" in 2005, you'll love what they're doing here which is going even deeper into meditations on life and loss. Those are the songs that work best for Margo's voice because she can sing a lament like few others.

When paired with Michael, as on "Someday Soon" where they take part in some vocal interplay, the voice can be playful, but, on most on the tracks, it's the haunted quality that Margo's staking out and she's digging deeper than you'd expect.

A lot is made of the second album being recorded in a church as though that accounted the purity in Margo's tones. She always had that ability to grab you and pull you in, whether she was recording in a church or a concert hall. Early 21st Century Blues shocked me because I had checked out and was surprised to find out how much she'd grown. That's not with vocal gymnastics but with her ability to shade and interpret. That album was so good it made my picks of the best of 2005.

I was expecting the next studio CD to coast -- and more than happy with that expectation based on the level reached. She has shaped up to be everything so many wanted from Annie Lennox's solo career. But she's growing by leaps and bounds these days and to listen at the end of paths taken is to feel as if she's been holding out on you. There are moments she grabs in the repeated phrase "And the rain comes down" ("Follower 2") that are completely unexpected and 100% thrilling.

This isn't a Margo Timmins solo album and after the you get over still more vocal growth, the thing that will probably hit you next is what a band the group's become. They're in there supporting the vocals and driving the songs. I just mentioned "Follower 2" and it would be a huge diservice to move on to any other song without noting the amazing drum work going on in that song. It is so inspired and pushes the song to another level without overtaking it. The Timmins and Anton have to be the best music combo today.

The keyboard work on "It Doesn't Really Matter Anyway" is perfection and everyone has their moments over and over in each song.

Two lyrical passages may best sum up the album. Both were written by Michael Timmins. From the amazing "Still Lost:"

Here we stand at the end of paths taken
(Guiding Light Inspiration)
The slow decline
The crumbling foundation, the stations, and now the cross
but we're still lost.

And from my personal favorite track on the entire CD, "Spiral Down:"

Now it all begins
or continues to
spiral down,
spiral down.

I've laid it out on paper
instructions of what to do
as my mind begins to waver
losing contact with you.

If all you know by the Cowboy Junkies is "Sweet Jane," you'll probably be eager to hear either of those tracks but, let me warn you, they aren't the band they were in 1988. They've matured well beyond their years. If I still voted in those Rolling Stone readers poll (I stopped the year 'readers' gave Backstreet Boys the prize for best band -- that was also the first year they allowed people who didn't purchase the issue with the ballots to vote so a lot of embarrassing crap made the list as various fan sites steered people to online voting), they'd have my vote for Band of the Year.

If we had anything resembling real diversity in radio, everyone would know this CD. It would be blaring from car radios and received like the musical equivalent of needed rain. at the end of paths not taken may be the biggest surprise of 2007 for me because I was expecting to enjoy it but to enjoy it because I assumed they'd remain at the level of their last studio album. Instead, they've yet again kicked it up another notch.

Check it out and you'll see what I mean. Miss out and keep confusing bombastic with what a band can do. You can find the CD in stores and online and more information at Rounder Records and at the Cowboy Junkies' website. But to really experience the beauty of at the end of paths not taken, you'll have to listen.

the cowboy junkies
at the end of paths not taken
laura flanders
the third estate sunday review
kats korner
the common ills

Ruth: I am still doing my reports. I am a little stunned because I thought I would go through the e-mails in the public account to help out everyone. I saw repeated e-mails from one man and thought, "What does he want?"

I have never seen such filth in my life and not only am I no shrinking violent, all of my children were boys. I had honestly assumed there was little I had not heard. I called C.I. to inform about the e-mails and C.I. had been ignoring them and instructed everyone working the public account to do so as well. I was out of the loop which is how I ended up being the first one to read them.

But that was over three hours ago and my hands are still shaking from the threats and the filth. To use the term of my day, I was "freaking out" when I read them. When I told C.I. about them, C.I. was cool as a cucumber so I will assume those sort of things come in frequently.

If someone was threatening me with talk of 'come Monday,' I would be freaking out. C.I. pointed out, "There's no reason for anyone to be nervous. He's just another crackpot making threats and getting angry when the response isn't 'I'm scared! I'm so scared! Please don't hurt me!' Don't worry about it."

That does explain the sexism at you know what site since the stalker, and I will use that word, is a friend of the man who makes it a point to tear into any female reporter but always sees a new day dawning when it comes to male reporters.

I had not planned to write about this. For one thing, when I sat down at the computer this evening, I did not even know about it. I knew it had a problem in 2005 for Rebecca. She avoided him and left the country for a summer vacation. I called Rebecca to ask, "Was he this obsessive with you?" She told me that he finally went away. She also feels bad because she never responded to him. He wrote her and she did not respond. Then he started writing C.I. and Rebecca asked C.I. to respond saying she was out of the country. Then he pops back up a few months ago and apparently has been writing these strange e-mails ever since. I may have missed one earlier, but I believe I read seven e-mails.

When I phoned C.I. my hands were shaking and they still are. C.I. juggled the phones to get several people over to look at the e-mails and one person to do a security check on the home but mainly stayed on the line with me repeating, "Ruth, don't worry." I honestly am worried.

The man sounds nuts. Hannibal Lecter nuts.

I just really cannot get beyond the abuse in those e-mails.

My chest feels tight and my arms are stiff and numb while my hands shake.

I called my oldest son and he came right over because he was afraid I was having a heart attack. I am not having a heart attack, I am just stunned and, even though the e-mails were not to me, really frightened.

The smartest thing to do would be not to do a report; however, if I do that I will have missed two weeks in a row.

I had planned to note some radio programs I enjoyed during the week but I cannot concentrate when I look at the notes I made. So maybe there is some value in just sharing about this?

As a feminist from way back, I do believe in the value of sharing. Consciousness Raising helped us realize that these "personal" events were not happening just to one woman but to many. It really helped us re imagine the world and change it. I certainly do not think enough change has taken place but the feminist movement has transformed the world.

That did not come about because we asked for things, not even nicely, that came about because we refused to be sidelined or turned into doormats.

In sharing our stories, we realized it was not just one of us suffering, it was all of us. We realized that the so-called "personal problem" was very much a societal problem. For some of us, that meant realizing that we might get by on a pass as an exception but the pass could be revoked at any moment, whether it was based on our position, our skin color, our sexuality, our attractiveness, or what have you. At the core, we were all judged as "less than" based on our gender.

We learned about respecting ourselves as much as anything else. The movement's accomplishments are rarely noted in the mainstream press, unless they are ridiculed, but for any woman living in that period, the changes have been immense.

My best friend in high school, to offer an example, had the highest G.P.A. She was named salutatorian, not valedictorian. A number of us were angry but we did accept, back then, the explanation that the man who was named valedictorian needed the title because he would someday be supporting a family.

That was bunk then and it is bunk now. But we rolled over on it because we were taught and socialized to believe that we were "less than." Our gender made us "less than" on the scale of humanity. This lie was based on another, that biology was "destiny."

Now if biology truly were destiny, they would not have needed to game the awarding of valedictorian. But that happened repeatedly in various scenarios. A man was all better and, when he was not, the system was gamed so that he would still be recognized as if he were. That really drove home the lie when we took the time to think about. The system was set up to reward males by their very gender but when a woman could win on the unlevel playing field, the system had to be gamed.

Certainly, during WWII, women demonstrated they could work in large numbers. The war ended and the women were told to go home. These were "male jobs" and "male destiny." So how did women ever manage to hold them down in the first place?

We were told a number of lies, our mothers, and their mothers were told a number of lies. Every step forward, every challenge that a woman who came before made eased the road for all of us. It gave us the foundation to build a movement on.

When we shared, we realized crimes were not "personal problems." A woman being beat up, a woman being raped, those were not "personal problems." But the system certainly allowed them to be judged that way.

Systematic abuses and discrimination were supposed to be just "natural." That was the way things were, we were told. The Civil Rights Movement and the peace movement laid the groundwork for the challenges we would make as well. Women were part of those movements and we saw the power that we had. Some of us owned our power immediately, some needed to learn it was okay to own it.

But we really did change the world and are still changing it.

So that a man from that period is a woman hater is not surprising. That he attacks a woman and threatens her is not surprising. With equality, not full because we still are not there, making strides, he obviously has felt under attack for some time. So he probably feels very powerful sending threatening e-mails. He probably expected C.I. to cower. When C.I. noted them here, the man was enraged because no abuser likes to be exposed. Ike Turner still attempts to pass off his physical and mental abuse of Tina Turner as something minor and pin the problems on her.

That is how it is when a woman tells the truth. When abusive men are exposed, they are even angrier because it was all supposed to be "personal" and remain unknown. It always the public shame they face for their actions that enrages them, the sunlight of day shining on their behaviors.

Which, when you think of it, demonstrates that, despite claims otherwise, even they know their behaviors are not the "norm" or acceptable.

The Washington Post, a few months ago, explored the abuse of women online. So hopefully this somehow contributes to that discussion.

I am an old woman now with grandchildren and, no doubt, great grandchildren on the way in the near future. My generation and ones that came after have fought for a better and more equal world. Younger generations take up the challenge today and we see, fortunately, that many males are willing to join in the struggle. The feminist movement has never stopped or ceased. The accomplishments have been immense and more will be done. We should probably see the attacks on women online as a the last struggles of sexists who think they have a "right" to bully women, to threaten them, and to silence them. Hopefully, those final gasps will have died out when my granddaughter Tracey is a grandmother.

feminism
the washington post
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
ruths report
the common ills

Your threatening e-mails are not private. I can and will quote from any I see fit.

Cease and desist writing them.

Your name was here in two entries and it's been removed and replaced with "Dumb Ass" because a friend with the FBI suggests you have "issues." He now has copies of all your e-mails.

Your name is no longer up here. You will have to find some other way to get a little fame.

Quit harassing me.

Stop threatening me.

And don't contact me again.

It has been repeatedly noted that the privacy policy does not cover your kind.

Continued attempts to contact me will be seen as continued harassment.

You're sick.

You've written repeatedly this week. Your harassments and your threats need to stop immediately.


Get help.

Finally, I am not your "buddy," The Common Ills is not a "blog" and your offensive e-mails would be offensive to any woman. Save your tough guy act for your male friends (if you have any) and quit harassing women via your e-mails. This one is sick of it.

If the Bush administration does not change strategy, the elevated U.S. troop levels in Iraq will continue until this time next year, the second highest ranking American commander in Iraq said Friday.
As the White House and Congress gear up to renew the debate over U.S. strategy in Iraq next month, Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno outlined current military plans, saying the first of the extra "surge" forces would begin returning home in April. The last of the units that are part of the buildup would leave next August as the U.S. force in Iraq returns to its previous level of about 132,000.

The above is from Julian E. Barnes and Carol J. Williams' "Troop buildup could last year, general says" (Los Angeles Times). Odierno held the press confrence and he has a strained relationship with the truth so take it for it's worth. In addition, the drawbacks being tossed around would leave US ground forces at approximately 140,000 which means there would be more in Iraq than pre-escalation (if a reduction comes). Also remember this myth of 'improvements' has been disproven by McClatchy Newspapers figures. (And McClatchy -- then Knight-Ridder -- got it right when the New York Times was willfully getting it so wrong.)

Speaking of the Times, remember when War Pornographer Michael Gordon's 'reported' on the prison tents? Waleed Ibrahim and Peter Graff (Reuters) offer a reality based report of "hundreds of inmates packed into tented wire-mesh cages" and this is from their article:

The U.S. military says it is now holding 23,000 Iraqis, 19,000 of them at Camp Bucca, a giant prison camp in southern Iraq. Washington says its own prisoners are covered by U.N. Security Council resolutions which allow its forces to hold them without charge as long as they are deemed a threat.
Although U.S. forces are not responsible for prisoners held by Iraqi authorities, "we encourage them to treat their prisoners with as much respect as is seen in the West," said U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver.
The Shi'ite-run Interior Ministry was criticised over the treatment of detainees in 2005 after U.S. forces said they discovered secret cells in which detainees had been tortured.

The prisoners can be held by some coverage from the UN? And the occupying power (the US) thinks they also have no responsibilities for the treatment of prisoners "held by Iraqi authorities". Well what Bully Boy hasn't rewritten, he's trashed. Apparently the new system is a form of "responsibilitization" or however he might mangle the word.

The AP reports a Baghdad mortar attack today that has thus far claimed at least seven lives including an infant and that at least four people are dead and thirty-eight wounded from ongoing bombings in Kirkuk that began Friday night.

The August 7th snapshot noted the following:

Today, Prensa Latina reports: "Sectors from the Puerto Rican society will start a campaign next week against military recruitment in schools to enter the US Army, said activists from the Independentista Party of Puerto Rico (PIP) Monday." You can't vote in the presidential elections, the US won't allow you your independence but your children can die in an illegal war started by the US."

With more on those and other efforts, Martha notes this from Paul Lewis' "Recruiting For Iraq War Undercut in Puerto Rico" (Washington Post):

The scene outside the Ramon Vila Mayo high school unfolded at schools throughout Puerto Rico this week as the academic year opened. On this island with a long tradition of military service, pro-independence advocates are tapping the territory's growing anti-Iraq war sentiment to revitalize their cause. As a result, 57 percent of Puerto Rico's 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders, or their parents, have signed forms over the past year withholding contact information from the Pentagon -- effectively barring U.S. recruiters from reaching out to an estimated 65,000 high school students.
"If the death of a Puerto Rican soldier is tragic, it's more tragic if that soldier has no say in that war," said Juan Dalmau, secretary general of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP). His efforts are saving the island's children from becoming "colonial cannon meat," he said.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, all schools receiving U.S. federal funding must provide their students' names, addresses and phone numbers to the military unless the child or parents sign an opt-out form. Puerto Rico received $1.88 billion in U.S. education funds this year. For five years, PIP has issued opt-out forms to about 120,000 students in Puerto Rico and encouraged them to sign -- and independista activists expect this year to mark their most successful effort yet.

In the New York Times, Mark Lander provides comic relief by noting Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling's concern that spouses remain at the base in Germany. The punch line being, they had no concern about getting Steph Teske there when her husband Chris Teske was being stationed there. The headline writer also provides a chuckle, "At German Base, Troops and Kin Gird for New Iraq Tour." Kin? Who knew Ma and Pa Kettle were on the paper's payroll?

Steven Lee Myers and Thom Shanker's "White House to Offer Gradual Cuts as Iraq Plan" runs on the front page and

One administration official made it clear that the goal of the planned announcement was to counter public pressure for a more rapid reduction and to try to win support for a plan that could keep American involvement in Iraq on "a sustainable footing" as least through the end of the Bush presidency."

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "You Are Staying" below:



Rachel notes two upcoming programs on WBAI (broadcasting out of NYC and available to online listeners as well)

Sunday, August 19, 11am-noon EST
THE NEXT HOUR
Poet Hugh Seidman interviews poet Harvey Shapiro upon publication of Shapiro's "The Sights Along The Harbor: New and Collected Poems." (Re-broadcast of a program that originally aired April 16, 2006.)
Monday, August 20, 2-3pm EST
CAT RADIO CAFE
Political satirist Will Durst, just opened to rave reviews in "The All-American Sport of Bi-Partisan Bashing"; actor/musicians Preston Clark and Grant Vargas on their play "33 to Nothing," about an aging rock band; and author Leslie Garis on "House of Happy Endings," a family memoir involving her grandparents, the authors of The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift and Uncle Wiggily. Hosted by Janet Coleman and David Dozer.

The following community sites have updated since yesterday morning:

Rebecca's Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Cedric's Cedric's Big Mix;
Kat's Kat's Korner;
Betty's Thomas Friedman is a Great Man;
Mike's Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine's Like Maria Said Paz;
Wally's The Daily Jot;
and Trina's Trina's Kitchen

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


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