Add in the continued cutback in funding for the VA hospitals by Bu$h Inc. and the care necessary for our vets will be impossible in the future. How this pathetic stick figure of a man can visit hospitalized vets when he knows he’s cutting back funding for them is despicable.
A government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.

It’s fascinating in hindsight that there actually was one strategy which Bush could have pulled in Iraq and walked away triumphantly with a resounding win having an enormous moderating influence on the region. 

Instead of the botched “nation building” and self styled “spreading of democracy” he is currently attempted, he could have gone in, simply smashed Iraq’s military and everything in sight, then immediately pulled out leaving them their chaos and promising to be back with worse if Iraq ever even thought of crossing US interests again such as by seeking WMDs. 

Iraq probably would still be in the mess it is today, with sectarian violence, a sham of a national government, without electricity or infrastructure and possibly seriously weakened visa vi Iran.  BUT, all those things are happening anyway and we wouldn’t be looking like the weak, ineffectual idiots we do now.  Nor would it have cost us the trillions of dollars and thousands of unnecessary deaths and injuries.  Although it still would have been stupid and hypocritical to launch such a pre-emptive invasion, at least we wouldn’t be facing the possibility of some day soon getting kicked out of Iraq as now is starting to look increasingly likely.  Too bad there are no do-overs in international affairs.  Too bad the Supreme Court picked the wrong guy to put in office.

[more irreverence at resistence-is-possible.blogspot.com]

It behooves me to know that most people in the world have not been told about the REAL human cost of these Middle East wars.
America is stuffed! and it will get worse when all the troops return with their own personal “badge” of DU poisoning, which will pass directly to their spouses, girlfriends, children, hospitals, doctors, nurses, Wal-Mart stores and staff, in fact anyone who comes in contact......for the next 25,000 years till the half-life wears down.
So, it’s goodbye to any country who was a member of the “coalition of the willing”.
I say to all Americans now.....leave! before those troops come home to your area, ‘cos it aint gonna be the ame no more.
What a diabolical way to remove humans from the Planet....and all thought up, tested and then implemented by Henry Kissinger, Richard Perle, and the CFR.

RE:  • Comment #50291 by Steve Sorensen  on  1/29  at  12:05 pm — “Hillary Clinton, in Iowa, recently said she was misled by the administration, and that’s why she voted for the war initially.  Why doesn’t she allow the same wiggle room for others who may have been misled about certain reasons for going to war?”

>>>>> Please, Steve, don’t build a straw man out of Hillary

That pathetic woman is as bought and sold as any politician on the Hill. Bottom line is this: The 911 coup is an open secret in Washington. They’re now scrambling behind the scenes in every way possible to rein in the neocon madmen and shut down their operatives and network of moles infesting the security agencies, without blowing the cover up and precipitating the constitutional crisis that would follow. That’s what’s behind the “window dressing” shown to the public in the form of the Iraq Study Group.

Since 911 is the pretext on which the War of Terror and the Myth of Islamofascism is based, the myth to which every politician refers when campaigning on how they would better execute the War of Terror, 911 truth is the lynchpin to the madness. No amount of truth about the mountain of lies leading up to the war, domestic spying, torture — nothing else will slow this juggernaut of madmen, driven by Nietzchien craving for endless war.

Support 911Truth - End War of Terror

I was attracted to your site because concern for “truth” was stated.  Such talk about liars: the Pentagon, the President, others.  What about unfactual or insufficient inferences drawn from one sad aspect of war (suffering) being forced upon the motives of decisionmakers?  ‘They’re only in it for the money,” etc.  I know when we hurt we want to find blame.  Here’s another concern relative to this: Hillary Clinton, in Iowa, recently said she was misled by the administration, and that’s why she voted for the war initially.  Why doesn’t she allow the same wiggle room for others who may have been misled about certain reasons for going to war?  Including the Secretary of State at the time, and the President?  Now the question to ask personally is: Is there truth in the above?  Or do I continue to believe disingenuous inferences as fact, when the truth is, they may not be.  The Truth still sets us free, but only so far as we allow it to go in us.

It’s the Bush adminstration of hiding the real cost of the war. We really don’t know what this war is really costing us in terms of human casualties and money. We really won’t know until long after the war is over and Bush and Cheney are long gone from office. That’s the way they want it. The less we know, the less people will protest. When the financial security of this country is seriously at stake, And the veterans who fought this war are filling America’s mental institutions and jails. When the bulk of homeless people are Iraq or Afganistan war veterans, then America will learn and fully understand the cost of this war.

RE:  • Comment #50233 by Paul  on  1/29  at  8:13 am

“As a disabled Vietnam vet, I can only say: We were told Agent Orange was safe! The world scientific body places dioxin as being amongst the most dangerous elements to humankind???”

>>>>> add DU (Depleted Uranium)

and you’ve got a Military Industrial Complex that literally delivers war after war that keeps on killing for generations. In Southern Iraq the fathers of newborns no longer ask the doctors if it’s a boy or a girl, but rather, if it’s normal.  The world can no longer suffer the Military Industrial Complex, whose CEOs appear to have lost their very souls and seem now to deserve nothing less than deprivation of all human privileges.

At least one media outlet, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, is addressing this subject.

There has been so much deception in the Iraq War that it seems hard to keep track of it all.

The media and the public at times seem apathetic or unwilling to deal with the pain and loss that troops and their families have experienced.

Though written shortly after the start of the war, the article below still seems useful. It looks at public and media attitudes about reporting casualities:

Are the U.S. media and public ready to deal with the troops severely wounded in the Iraq war?

Steve Hammons
American Chronicle
October 30, 2005

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle. asp?articleID=3349

It is foolish to ever believe the military. As an example, to this very day, France lists their deaths from W.W.I as a tally only of those identified. The rest were never fully counted.

We will never fully count the casualties. Why? It is because new fodder, recruits, are needed. Sililiarly, if a soldier or marine dies of combat wounds in Germany or in the states then he is not listed as a “combat death.”

These figures will surely be increased when the Department of Defense is under new guidelines of a new butcher. All Bush family’s servants are at the same level of stupidity. Sorry for our young men serving in Iraq !

As a disabled Vietnam vet, I can only say: We were told Agent Orange was safe! The world scientific body places dioxin as being amongst the most dangerous elements to humankind??? Who you going to trust? Certainly not anything put forth by the Pentagon! Orwell’s Newspeak can’t even come close to language and communications from, of and by the Pentagon leadership and SOP (standard operating procedures.)

It would not surprise me at all to learn that the Pentagon has deliberately understated the number of personnel wounded as a result of the War In Iraq.  Military officials, after all, have a way of using convenient euphemisms to minimize or even trivialize the repercussions of their actions.  Why else do you think they use the phrase “collateral damage” to refer to civilian casualties, as if the lives lost were of no more consequence than a damaged building or dead livestock?  Knowing this, is it really all that far-fetched to think that they might choose to count only those who are injured in combat as “wounded”?

If memory serves (and it usually does), I read something a couple of years ago claiming that it’s not just the wounded but also the dead whom the Pentagon are conveniently understating.  According to what I remember, it was claimed that the military was only counting the deaths of people killed in combat and not people who died outside of the field of battle—such as, say, someone who was injured on the field of battle and died while being transported to a medical facility.  This would mean, of course, that the number of people who have died as a result of the War In Iraq is actually higher than the official 3,000-plus.  Given that the Bush administration hasn’t exactly show itself to be a shining example of either honesty or openness, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this were proven true.

Of course they are hiding the facts. They routinely lie, this is exactly why they have difficultly dealing with this entire situation.
So many lies,and the real picture becomes obscured. Soon your groping blindly in the dark.
Scratching your head as to why it’s not working…

When they banned photos of the caskets coming home should have been the first clue, this adimistration has no use for the truth.

If your taken from the battlefield (Downtown Baghdad)....and flown to a army hospital in europe, and die there....Your not counted as a casualty of Iraq occupation.

This Republican cabal has gone far on lies, manipulatons ,cover-ups and secrets… But their ability to continue to fool the public is wearing very thin and fast.

As hard as they try to manipulate and hide it...run and deny it....in the end...the truth will find them.

only the bush administration as near as i can telltrying to operate the war on a clean white glove, has had the insensitivity to try to call those woulded trops injured in an accident, even while they were on patrol duty and the humvee went in the river and killed troops, i mean that is the only thing they can plan, something as underhanded as that, they don’t know much about the military aspect of life, if so they would have had enough food for the troops in the early days, they would have all had bullet proof vests,the humvees would have all had armor, they convoy on attack wouldn’t have had to stop and wait for refueling trucks to catch up to the assault, war president? give me a break. maybe liar president, that fits.

Whatever the true numbers are, they are far too high a price to pay in order for George Bush’s friends in the oil industry to multiply their wealth beyond imagination; and for Dick Cheney to see his Halliburton stock grow in value in four years from $360,000 to $13,000,000 - AND FOR NO OTHER REASON.

The military couldn’t continue to do business (yes, it’s a business for the Lifers) as usual if the people paying the bills actually understood the real costs.
I note there is no mention of the number of vets with PSTD. That cost will play our for years to come in vets needing medical intervention, and the cost of those who become full time dependents on various social services such as treatment for alcohol and other addictions. My father served in a world war three in the Pacific and he never recovered from the experience. As a matter of fact I was adversely impacted by his problems as they fell on the family too.

Here’s how it works Corporals make sargeants who make higher level sargeant to the highest level of I think pay grade E9. 2nd Lieutenants Makes 1st, makes Captain, makes major, makes Lt. Colonel, makes Colonel, makes General and on up the Star parade. They all make the next grade faster in time of war. Peace is deadly to lifers, they get rifed (reduction in force) I’ve seen Lt. Colonels walking around as 5 or 6 stripe Sargeants in the early 60’s. Generals have to cook while the fires hot, and they will keep stoking for all it’s worth.

That’s why we can’t let Generals determine the feasibility of war. Remember when Truman fired the great American General MacArthur. I think Harry said war was too important to leave it to the Generals. Oh, and Harry? He served as a junior Officer in WW1 so he knew what he was talking about.

We also don’t have an accurate count of the
DEAD—-the pentagon does not include in their statistics serviceman who died from injuries in Iraq, but were medically treated in German hospitals; so theoretically twice as many dead could be dead.

As many as 1 of every 10 soldiers from the war on terror evacuated to the Army’s biggest hospital in Europe was sent there for mental problems.

Between 8 and 10 percent of nearly 12,000 soldiers from the war on terror, mostly from Iraq, treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany had psychiatric or behavioral health issues.

That means about 1,000 soldiers were evacuated for mental problems.

The hospital has treated 11,754 soldiers from the war on terror, with 9,651 from Iraq and the rest from Afghanistan.

The pentagon has played a dishonorable role in the whole Bush fiasco.  From Operation Northwoods to 911 to Guantanimo the loyalty of our military establishment has been suspect in many ways which should be thoroughly examined in the open.  Has the pentagon been feathering its own nest in an ongoing protection racket?  How has its incestuous relationship with major corporations played itself out over the years?  Isn’t it time to make it against the law for retired military personnel to draw another check as a corporate stooge?