Hemp is better.

If we ignore the war it will go away.  They just had the winter solder happening, well our corporate media did not cover it.  Iraq vets trying to let people know how bad war is, telling it like it is. Not Hunky Dory, except to McCain taking his walk down a secured area, the truth must not be heard, lies from the experts, the cover ups, the war is going well, especially after the surge. We will win according to Bush.  Win what?

Even the candidates are ignoring the war, the only political person who attended the Winter Solder was Kucinich.  Some people do not agree that war is good for business.

“I’ll even buy you lunch at a chinese sidewalk cafe if you like… “

Thanks anyway Mensa Member, but...I don’t like.

With all due respect, (or maybe not) the only Mensa’s I like are the ones who don’t identify themselves as such.

Well shanenolan,
Herein lies the majority of the problem. People who don’t know anything..
How do the Shiites become the ‘extremists’ when they happen to be the MAJORITY of Iraqis? (at least outside of semi-autonomous Kurdistan) Yep, the very same MAJORITY group that Saddam oppressed. (Saddam was Sunni).

In THIS case, (as the article makes clear) these so called ‘extremists’ are both Sunni and Shiite. In other words, like I said before…they are IRAQIS.
Moving along, do you really believe that “WE” were supposed to ‘set-up’ a NEW government in a foreign SOVEREIGN nation? They already HAD one. We DESTROYED it. And then, we DESTROYED the country.

And now you suggest that “WE” should ‘cut OUR losses’? How are we gonna do that? You got any ideas on how we revive 4,000 dead US troops, and heal another 100,000 plus wounded ones. Should we many cut the Iraqis’ losses as well, or they just don’t count?

You’re right though, since we should never have been there, it’s 5 years late for us to be gone.

Amazing how you would think that those extremists ‘continue to wreck havoc’. How do they do that with no military and no weapons other than the ones that the US supplies?

Conservative Yankee…

I stand corrected. You’re right. I have to say that there aren’t any of these “Chinese Bases” in my PARTICULAR city, but that’s not to say that there aren’t some close enough. (and plenty of them). I think the nearest Wal-Mart is about 53 miles, (in either direction) and I haven’t seen a Circuit City anywhere here. Taget...probably closer, but I can’t think off hand now, where one is.

BUT, “Linen’s and Things” and K-Mart, and well, and OSH, and Home Depot, and all of them are close enough.

All comes from the same place though, so you’re right.

Now of course I don’t ‘consume’ much other than the bare necessities. When I do, I generally do it by mail, and from companies closer to your neck of the woods...the few that are still in business.

Pretty soon I’ll have to figure out how to grow my own cotton and then spin it. I wonder if I can grow it in the same patch with the cacti?

Pentagon report finds no evidence of Saddam attempt to assassinate Bush ......and people STILL believe the 9/11 scam!!!

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Pentagon_report_finds_no _evidence_of_0324.html

9/11 WAS an inside job!

4000 might be the wrong number
Submitted by AMericanArab on Tue, 2008-03-25 03:48.
There are 27,000 injured and I think when an injury turns to death they don’t count him or her since there is only one count per person: you are either injured or dead; they don’t do a follow up count!

They say things are getting better in Iraq but what I have observed over the past five years is when it gets to summer and the temperature rises so does the violence! This is awful people these boys and girls are dying in vain, and Bush said that when the families meet with him when one of their own dies they tell him “complete the mission,” I find that hard to believe!

http://www.bdogmania.com is mourning and telling McCain he is full of it!

»

1000 yards max for a 60mm and less if your in defilade.  You can’t just get up and run away with a 82mm mortar very fast.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=224

Monday, March 24th, 2008
So? ... A Note from Michael Moore

Friends,

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

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

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

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

I would like every American to see Cheney flip the virtual bird at them, the American people. Click http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/19/cheney-poll-iraq/ and pass it around. Then ask yourself why we haven’t risen up and thrown him and his puppet out of the White House.

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

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

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

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

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

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

God help America. Please.

Michael Moore
MMFlint at aol dot com
MichaelMoore.com

This doesn’t answer your question, but it highlights why present action can bring no answer to your question.

And it highlights something else:

“… take advantage of the American people’s apathy toward foreign affairs, cut US losses, and withdraw US forces immediately from both Afghanistan and Iraq ...”

Meanwhile I can offer one bit of advice. As a military mother, I know our loved ones avoid telling us the truth. Believing they are somehow protecting us, they tell us what we want to hear. “I’m fine. Everything’s going good. We’re winning.” Anything but the truth to spare the folks back home from worrying.

So perhaps if the guys over there started telling their families back home the truth, things might change. If mom and pop actually realized, from their loved ones own lips, how bad and hopeless it really is, we might start seeing the kind of pressure and demand on D.C. that has to happen to bring it to an end.

I know that puts it back on the troops, but the truth coming from a family member over there will be believed. Those families don’t want to believe us.

***

“To fix this mistake, end it as quickly as we began it”

“Accepting Reality Is No Vice, and Being Oblivious Is No Virtue”
by Ivan Eland

http://www.progress.org/2008/withdraw.htm

“The obliviousness of the American people, politicians, and press is especially acute when it comes to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The media, always concerned about being branded as “liberal” or “unpatriotic,” portray improvements in Iraq by the US troop surge. This portrayal has been so rosy and so accepted by the American people that the Republicans will attempt to use progress in Iraq against the Democrats in the 2008 election. In Afghanistan, the press coverage has been more accurate concerning the resurgence of the Taliban, but the media and the Democrats seem to think that the United States could still win if more troops are inserted. If the American public is deluded over the surge in Iraq, it is simply ignorant of what is going on in Afghanistan.”

“At the risk of being a “nattering nabob of negativity,” I would argue that the United States is still losing—and ultimately will be defeated—in both of these brushfire guerrilla wars. Others are pointing in the same direction. In Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, and Guerilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq, William R. Polk, who has experienced insurgencies in the field, concludes from history that in the mid- to long-term—absent genocide by counterinsurgency forces—insurgents almost always prevail.”

*

“The next president of the United States could actually take advantage of the American people’s apathy toward foreign affairs, cut US losses, and withdraw US forces immediately from both Afghanistan and Iraq—two quagmires that are creating new radical Islamic terrorists in reaction to the occupation of Muslim lands by non-Muslims.”

***

Except for Cyrena, all this is old news, that no one has done anything about, Mortars are not a close in weapons system, they are referred to as indirect fire weapons, and depending on he charge placed on the end of the projectile, they can fire up to 3000 meters, and that is a small mortar 60mm,so if you change the angle, increase the charge go with a bigger tube you can get a couple of miles out of them.

sorry:
Scoop >> Top Scoops >>

US Soldiers Asked To Protect Halliburton Profits
Monday, 6 September 2004, 12:00 pm
Opinion: Guest Opinion

Real Stories from Real Americans: A Plea for Help

By Spiros D - Baghdad
Straight Talk
From: http://straighttalk.ourfuture.org/dsp_fact_story.cfm?b log_ID=1&bge_id=72
Tuesday 31 August 2004

I am a soldier stationed in Iraq concerned about the role of private contractors in this war, and would like to ask for your help. How can you who are way over there help me way over here? Well, let me tell you how.
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For those of you not aware, the US military is not the only US organization that is functioning over here in Iraq. A large US contractor called KBR (Kellog, Brown, and Root), a daughter company of Halliburton (once run by VP Dick Cheney), is operating on every US base in Iraq.

KBR manages many of the solider services that we have here on the base; things like running the food service, waste disposal, pumping the latrines, laundry services, movement and control, and the central distribution center. KBR is also scheduled to take over all fuel hauling and freight hauling in general. When things started to heat up earlier this year KBR put a hold on taking over hauling operations. Now that things are seeming to come back under some control KBR is looking at taking over again.

Now I know you are asking yourself what in the world this has to do with you.

Let me explain… KBR is now requesting, and the army is allowing, US soldiers to ride “shot gun” in KBR convoys hauling KBR goods all over Iraq. KBR is afraid to be out on the roads alone and want our US soldiers to risk their lives riding shot gun for their missions.

KBR is currently staffed by mainly non US international personnel along with a growing number of Iraqis. Most do not speak English, none have had military training on defensive driving, proper convoy operations, avoiding ambushes, navigating around IED’s [hidden roadside bombs], proper procedure for calling in support or medivac or fire support, procedures to follow after taking enemy fire, the list goes on. These drivers are simply paid drivers that are making roughly 5 -8 times our wages and get paid whether the freight arrives or not.

KBR is requesting that US soldiers risk their lives at the hands of inexperienced and improperly trained individuals to provide them with security. Now there is no doubt that we need to protect KBR’s missions but we have suggested and to date have been denied the opportunity to run the convoys with properly modified and equipped military vehicles.

We have suggested that we run in the convoys with every third vehicle being a US Army gun truck with proper drivers and fire support. With this arrangement KBR can still haul the freight in their vehicles but we would run the mission and deal with any situations as they develop the way we have been trained to. This is the only way that most of us want the missions to be run, the others are just afraid to be opposed to the decisions our leadership is making.

Here is where you come in. Out of a desire to honor the oath we took upon entering the army we do not want to disobey a direct order if and when the order comes for us to ride with KBR. We do however want to make all the lawmakers and politicians aware of the danger we are being unnecessarily exposed to on these missions.

Our hope is that each of our friends and loved ones back home will take a few minutes and send out emails to any local, state, and US congressman and senators and demand that they require the US military to stop this practice of allowing US troops in KBR vehicles.

try the scoop link. its working.
here is the rest of the story.:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/news/scoops.html
As of this writing, 3rd Platoon of the 283rd TC (my unit) is currently running these missions. We have been warned that it is only a matter of time and my whole unit will be running these missions. If nothing is done back home then more soldiers and myself in particular will be placed in unnecessary danger.

Please help.

Thank you for your time and help. I miss you all and look forward to seeing you all again upon my return.

**********

NOTE: For additional on the ground stories from American servicemen and women, please check out http://www.optruth.org/

http://straighttalk.ourfuture.org/dsp_fact_story.cf m?blog_ID=1&bge_id=72
http://www.scoop.co.nz/
US Soldiers Asked To Protect Halliburton Profits
Monday, 6 September 2004, 12:00 pm
Opinion: Guest Opinion

Real Stories from Real Americans: A Plea for Help

By Spiros D - Baghdad
Straight Talk
From: http://straighttalk.ourfuture.org/dsp_fact_story.cfm?b log_ID=1&bge_id=72
Tuesday 31 August 2004

I am a soldier stationed in Iraq concerned about the role of private contractors in this war, and would like to ask for your help. How can you who are way over there help me way over here? Well, let me tell you how.

This picture has to be hanging in the White House while GWB and all of his criminal administration members are still there.

Congrats to all of them !

Say what you want about the surge not working, Bush/Cheney/Petraeus are all about casting any increase in violence as the work of the Iranians.  While we’re obsessing over the noise coming out of Rev. Wright’s mouth, the tortoise continues plodding forward toward the finish line.  These guys want to get into it with Iran and unless they are stopped, that’s what will happen.

our brainiac in iraq, general betrayus,claims iran is responsible for the attacks on the “green zone”.last week it was al qaeda, it hardly matters, we occupy a country that hates us and always will. does anyone believe the horseshit coming from bush’s mouthpiece? i look forward to the day when the iraqi people destroy our base and kill all the bush stooges living there. that will be the day iraq is truly “liberated”.

Everyone everywhere should be constantly reminded to stop calling it what it isn’t; IT IS NOT A WAR!  IT IS NOT A WAR!  IT IS NOT A WAR!

From the beginning, it has been nothing more than a U.S. Corporate Government sponsore police action; an aggression against a sovereign, an aggression of opportunity, and an aggression against humanity; resulting in the invasion, occupation, murder and displacement in millions of its indigenous population for the purposes of plunder.

Let us as American citizens denounce all U.S. sponsored corporate criminals monetarily benefiting themselves from any established position here within the U.S. along with their associate counterparts within Iraq, by demanding those corporate establishments that they immediately remove the American flag from their place of business, lest they be erroneously perceived, by the Iraqi people, to representative of the true good wishes and intentions of the American citizenry towards them. These corporate, financial criminals do not represent the U.S. Constitution, or its citizenry!

Since the pseudo-representatives of the people, whose only allegiance has been to the reckless Corporate Oligarchy, no longer represent the best interests of its American Citizenry; whom with careless abandonment, having shamefully bloodied that symbol in their frenzied and selfish pursuit of personal aggrandizement, they too should be stripped of their American flag lapel pins.

We denounce the following remarks by the Corporate Oligarchy talking heads.

In the words of John McCain: F--- You!
In the words of Dick Cheney: So What!
In the words of a xenophobic god, crusader GW Bush: If you’re not with me, you’re a terrorist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU

In the words of Hillary Clinton: Experience as Usual (Who loves McCain more than she does her own and to prove it, is willing to destroy the village in order to save it.)

Peace, Best Wishes and Hope

Thanks truthdig, for posting the BBC story first. Were it not for the foreign press it would be impossible to draw parallels that so clearly point out how completely our own mainstreammedia is manipulated into slanting the news.

From AP, reporting out of D.C., we see a very different focus:

***

“Navy Lt. Patrick Evans, a military spokesman, expressed condolences to all the families who have lost a loved one in Iraq, saying each death is “equally tragic.”

*[Which is why it’s doubly important we not allow the American people to see their coffins off-loaded when they get shipped home. Keeping ignorance and indifference alive, so people will regain their confidence and start spending their dollars again, has to be the goal of every god-fearing, patriotic official spokesman for the great “First Branch” of our government. And we remain grateful to mainstreammedia for supporting our determination to keep the people “properly” informed. But we do offer condolences.]

“There have been some significant gains. However, this enemy is resilient and will not give up, nor will we,” he said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done.”

*[In the future, please don’t ask me to define “gains” the “enemy,” or what “a lot of work” means. I am committed to preserving the sanctity of “presidential unity."]

“U.S. officials have insisted they are not going after Sadrists (Sadrists???) who respect the cease-fire but are targeting renegade elements, known as special groups, that the Americans believe have ties to Iran.”

*[The president has asked we not confuse you with all the “labels” coming across his desk any more. You should be relieved and grateful to see the trend towards the new and improved, all encompassing label “special groups, tied to Iran.” Much easier to say. Much easier to remember. And as always, the president is being considerate of your requirements. The president has said, we must remain committed to helping a free press keep the people of this great nation up to date and informed.]

*[Me reading between the lines. Gets easier every day]

***

Of course there is nothing funny about this tragedy. But isn’t it peculiar that with all the bad-guy-groups running around in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Pentagon always manages to bring in Iran?

Why it almost seems ... one needs to ask oneself ... who benefits?

Certainly not Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan or the Iraqis ... and certainly not our troops!

Hmmm?

However, the great “free” press in the great nation of the United States can be counted on to bring us timely updates on the various activities of the multitudes of various organizations of “Islamist” extremist “bad guys” now being lumped into “special groups tied to Iran” just as fast as the Pentagon can filter and create them.

And to mainstreammedia’s credit [and the eternal gratitude of the - First thorny bud on the First Branch of Government -] they will continue to allow us to NOT recognize and honor the fallen when they get off-loaded tomorrow.

Or the next day ... or the next day ... or the next ...

Meanwhile, isn’t there something you need to go buy?

What’s that?

You don’t have any money?

Shhhh!

One Year Later, Market Where McCain Strolled ‘Freely’ Is Controlled By Sadr, Too Unsafe For Americans To Visit

On April 1, 2007, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) strolled through the open-air Shorja market in Baghdad in an effort to prove that Americans are “not getting the full picture” of what’s going on in Iraq. In a press conference after his Baghdad tour, McCain told a reporter that his visit to the market was proof that people could “walk freely” in parts of Baghdad.

What McCain failed to mention was that he was accompanied by “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead.” He also appeared to be wearing a bulletproof vest during his visit.

Since that trip, McCain has claimed that the situation in Iraq has improved even more. A few months ago, McCain claimed that “we’ve succeeded militarily” in Iraq. Things, of course, are going so well, that he wants to keep U.S. troops there for at least 100 years.

McCain is now back in Iraq for a “surprise visit with Iraqi and American diplomatic and military leaders.” He is joined by fellow Iraq war defenders Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). But it’s unlikely they will be visiting the Shorja market again. Today, CNN reported that they tried to visit the Shorja market, but it was too unsafe and they were unable to go:

We got close to that marketplace today, Jim, but our own security advisers here in Iraq did not want us to go there. They didn’t believe it was safe for an American to be in that area. We were in a thriving marketplace nearby.

But when you show up, the local Iraqis, while it is clear security is better on the street — it is clear there are more markets open, just the traffic jams alone tell you that things are better on the streets of Baghdad — it’s also a very sensitive potential neighborhoods.

That one marketplace, as a matter of fact, you do see Iraqi police, you do see the Iraqi army, but in truth, that area is controlled by the radical cleric Moqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi army.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/16/mccain-market-iraq/

It is the reassuring fact the Surge is working, that our country is so right in it’s corporate control over deciding on the best way to further fill the pockets of the wealthy. 

Yes, I remember, if we were not in Iraq, the weapons of mass distraction would be here on our soil.  well, it seems them that are running our government show a level of competence, one of enlightenment and wisdom that we should not question, for we are only peons and cannon fodder.

Granted Mankind has seen many Dark times in our History- but none to the Depth and scope of that which we face Now.
I often wonder if we are not now living in Damnation. Forever victims of the 7 deadly sins. Perhaps David, Jesus and Mohammad were are three chances- and we failed. And Evil has reigned for the 2 millenia. How can we not consider this as we hear the Hate and judgements From the pulpits> I am not referring to Rev Wrights Sermons- thsoe we indignations adn Outrage concerning the Bricks & Mortar that have seized our Minds and Souls. Far more of an indictment are those from the vatican, the Temples and the Mosques. Those arrogant enough to judge anything that was Not Created By Us- as vile or evil. But then Who or What should we expcet from their long awaited ‘Savior’ - who they expect to ‘save ‘ them’ . I dare say perhaps their ‘Savior’ will be ‘Lucifer’. How much more Power and Oppression do they see being given to them, beyond what they have Taken so far?
But if the True Meek shall inherit the earth, why should we Fear. We may be judged and punished - but will our children live to see a new Dawn for ManKIND, HUMNANity? I am ready & willing to see the Day when the Stewardship of Man is Judged. Becasue at this point we can hand our children nothing as ugly as we do now.

The use of close in weapon systems such as mortars to barrage our #1 base clearly demonstrates how out of control the U.S. commanders are of the situation.

Time to get out.

• “….The suicide attacker ploughed an explosives-laden tanker into the army base, causing a massive blast.”

ARMY base. This one in Mosul.

Barrages Hit Green Zone, Gunmen Kill Seven
By Paul Tait
Reuters
Sunday 23 Mar 2008
• “Baghdad - Baghdad’s heavily fortified “Green Zone” came under heavy rocket or mortar attack on Sunday, and police said at least two people had been killed outside the government and diplomatic compound.”

And here…THE GREEN ZONE AKA – The US Capitol of the Middle East.

• “..A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, pushing the overall American death toll in the five-year war to at least 4,000…”

Does anybody see a pattern here? Like..who the TARGETS are? THE U.S. MILITARY.

And, check out the ‘language’ in this…
• “..Rockets and mortars pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone, underscoring the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups despite an overall lull in violence.”..

Now, for anybody who’s been reading these reports for 5 years now, there’s definitely been a change in the way this is being reported, and in all fairness, the BBC and other foreign news media has always been far more accurate. What are now being called ‘extremist groups’ in this piece, were routinely alled ‘terrorists’, ‘rebels’, ‘insurgents’ and a few others I can’t remember.

NEVER have they been referred to as what they are, RESISTANCE fighters, or even FREEDOM fighters, or OPPOSITON fighters. (as in opposed to being invaded and occupied by a foreign army).

And now, we’re calling them ‘extremist groups’ instead of IRAQIS. They admit that these are both Sunni and Shia, - IRAQIS, but because they are resisting the occupation of a foreign occupier, (after 5 years) and directing attacks against those same FOREIGN OCCUPIERS of their used to be sovereign state, they are considered ‘extremist groups’. (because I guess for one to resist, one much be an ‘extremist’)

Now, had the US not disbanded the Iraqi Army upon invasion, (set aside if the US hadn’t invaded and stayed to begin with) then it can be presumed that the Iraqi Army would be fighting against the invasion of a foreign military power. (That would be us) So, would we call THEM ‘extremist groups’?

Well, not reasonably speaking, or at least not in terms of what generally happens when the military of one country invades another country that HAS a defending military structure. Since Iraq no longer has that, we just call the people of that country, ---the Iraqis,- ‘extremist groups’.

So, if some Chinese army folks invade my neighborhood here in California, and set up a few army bases, and my neighbors and I get together to try to fight them off, I guess we would be ‘extremist groups’.