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$17
Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman
By Mary Tillman with Narda Zacchino
Hardcover $17.13
$40
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nytimes.com
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It turns out America is much better at creating refugees than taking care of them. While thousands of Iraqis flee their homeland every day, the U.S. had planned to accept only 500 this year.
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Officials from Iraq’s Health, Defense and Interior ministries on Monday said 16,273 Iraqi civilians, police and soldiers died from violence in 2006. The number is higher than tabulations by the Associated Press, which put the figure at 13,738, while the U.N. has estimated casualties in the neighborhood of 36,000. Whichever number is most accurate, too many people have been killed in this war.
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Iraqi state television
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By Robert Scheer — The grisly holiday hanging of Saddam Hussein has been greeted mostly with cheers from the media, but Truthdig editor Robert Scheer takes a different view, noting that even top Nazis, in the Nuremberg trials, received a far superior grade of justice.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said early Friday there will be “no review or delay” of Saddam Hussein’s execution. However, confusion abounds as to the timing of the sentence.
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Largest Minority
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While the Bush administration has busied itself thinking up ways to sell a troop escalation in Iraq, North Carolina Republican Rep. Robin Hayes had a better idea, saying stability in the war-ravaged country hinged on “spreading the message of Jesus Christ.”
(h/t: Largest Minority)
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AP Photo / Khalid Mohammed
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By Robert Scheer — Many critics of the war suggest that the U.S. remains in Iraq because it wants that nation’s petroleum. But oil is not the primary reason. Instead, look to the military-industrial complex, a threat that President Eisenhower warned of in the 1960s.
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whitehouse.gov
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With the disastrous Project for the New American Century reduced to one lonely employee and the fiasco in Iraq continuing to unravel, the BBC’s Paul Reynolds takes a look at the last days of neoconservatism.
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knowmore.org
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According to a count by the Associated Press, the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq has exceeded the 2,973 victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The bleak milestone was reached on Christmas Day.
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Left: josephstiglitz.com / Right: harvard.edu
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This week Truthdig salutes Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes for uncovering the true cost of the war in Iraq. Last year Nobel Prize-winning economist Stiglitz and Harvard budget expert Bilmes estimated the total price tag for Bush’s misadventure in Mesopotamia at $2.267 trillion—a tad higher than the $350 billion to $500 billion so often discussed.
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Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer and contributor James Harris discuss Robert Gates, the virtues of “losing” at war, race in America and more.
Posted on Dec 23, 2006
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Robert Scheer joins Truthdig contributor James Harris for a lively discussion on the devolution of Robert Gates, exiting Iraq, the politics of race and more in this special audio edition of the Truthdig podcast. (Now includes transcript)
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicated on Thursday that she still believed Iraq would emerge “as a country that is a stabilizing factor” for the Mideast, and that President Bush would not ask for continued investment if he—and she—did not believe the venture was worthwhile. Well, that’s good to know. For a few years there, it seemed like they didn’t know what they were doing.
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alternet.org
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When debating troop levels in Iraq, one ought not to forget the countless bodyguards, interpreters, truck drivers and mercenaries scattered around the country. Apparently not even Central Command has a firm grasp of just how many civilian contractors are employed in Iraq—a number that could be as high as 100,000.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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A year after 24 Iraqi civilians were killed in the town of Haditha, eight U.S. Marines have been charged in the crime—four with second-degree murder and four others with covering up the slaughter.
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iraqirocker.blogspot.com
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In this powerful collection of blogs from recent days, Iraqis react to the violence sweeping their nation. Here’s Meemo, a 19-year-old from Baghdad who’s getting out: “I leave Baghdad in two days…. I’m not going to see death anymore; I’m not going to hear car explosions again; I will come back to life again.”
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msnbcmedia.msn.com
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Muqtada al-Sadr may call for a monthlong unilateral cease-fire amid the formation of a new political coalition in Iraq. Sadr is set to meet Thursday with key Shiite political leaders and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to discuss his role, or lack thereof, in the changing political landscape.
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cnn.com
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Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command and the military chief of the Iraq fiasco, will retire in March. Though officials say Abizaid tendered his retirement before Rumsfeld was pushed out, his departure will allow Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President Bush more flexibility in their Iraq makeover, as Abizaid has been a dogged opponent of increasing troop levels.
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Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol stopped by “The Daily Show” for a friendly chat about all of Bush’s wonderful achievements in Iraq and the war on terror. Whoops! Stewart took Kristol apart, swatting down one exhausted talking point after another as it flew across the desk.
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AP Photo / Ron Edmonds
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By Robert Scheer — Here we go again: A new secretary of defense and yet another call for ending the war in Iraq by escalating it. What are they smoking in the Bush White House?
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richardsilverstein.com
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President Bush has instructed Defense Secretary Robert Gates to provide a plan for increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps. A major increase would take years to achieve and would not alleviate problems associated with the White House’s plan to “surge” troop levels in Iraq.
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msnbc.com
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According to the Pentagon’s latest report, violence in Iraq has reached record levels in all measured categories, with a 32 percent increase in attacks on U.S. troops. The 50-page document also notes a 60 percent increase in civilian casualties since the formation of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government.
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Colin Powell, who’s been on something of a credibility campaign since that vaudevillian performance at the United Nations, took John McCain’s “troop surge” Iraq strategy to task on Sunday: “Let’s be clear about something else ... that gets a little confusing. There are really no additional troops.”
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Believe it or not, winning the war in Iraq was never the Bush administration’s highest priority. Saving its tax cuts was more important. That was once spoken of as a moral problem. Now, it’s a practical barrier to a successful outcome.
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Appearing on “The Daily Show,” Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International, said Bush still believes his policy is working in Iraq and suggested that the president may be the last neoconservative left in power. When asked by Jon Stewart what role the president’s advisors might be able to play, Zakaria responded: “Without being flippant, I think maybe what [Bush] needs is a therapist.”
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AlterNet caught White House press secretary Tony Snow spinning his icy heart out, only to get nailed the next day by CBS’ Bob Schieffer: “I think the reason the president [has] put [announcing his new Iraq strategy] off is he just hasn’t decided at this point what he wants to do, and I don’t think it’s any more complicated than that.”
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pageoneq.com
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The Pentagon is expected to recommend expanding both the military and its presence in Iraq as part of its “double down” strategy. Another element of the plan, to be presented to President Bush on Wednesday, is likely to include a direct confrontation with Moqtada al-Sadr and his militia.
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indymedia.org
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By Robert Scheer — Truthdig’s editor enters the mind of Donald Rumsfeld, who journeyed to Iraq recently to bid farewell to the troops, but ended up repeating the lies that put them at risk.
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rgj.com
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The president has delayed a speech announcing possible changes in his Iraq strategy because, according to White House press secretary Tony Snow, he didn’t feel it was ready. Snow was careful to say that didn’t mean Bush was planning last-minute changes. Does that mean an ineffective strategy should remain in place, with the death toll mounting, because the rhetoric needs work?
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nytimes.com
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Iraqi politicians have been meeting, with help from the Bush administration, to see if they can form a new coalition in Parliament to sideline the troublemaking Moqtada al-Sadr. The new group of Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites would have to attract moderates to find a way to handle Sadr’s militia, with its estimated 60,000 men.
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channel4.com
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Columnist and comedian Will Durst explores the irony of delivering a report to a president who doesn’t read. Of the Iraq Study Group’s 79 recommendations, Durst writes: “Unfortunately none of them involved the President and his entire Cabinet resigning, proving perhaps this study group should’ve studied more.”
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Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) on “This Week” elaborated on remarks he made earlier on the Senate floor, where he called the Iraq war “absurd” and possibly even “criminal.” Asked what had brought about his change of heart, Smith replied: “Waking up the other morning and turning on the news and hearing that yet another 10 of our soldiers died the same way that several thousand have ... and I went from steamed to boiled.” Watch it
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guardian.co.uk
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While saying goodbye to the troops in Iraq, outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made what one can only hope was his last erroneous link between the war and 9/11: “We feel great urgency to protect the American people from another 9/11 or a 9/11 times two or three ... .”
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intelmessages.org
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Despite all the attention focused on the Iraq Study Group’s report, one of its more damaging allegations has largely escaped media scrutiny: The Pentagon and intelligence agencies are drastically underreporting acts of violence in Iraq. The panel said that one day the U.S. reported 93 acts of violence when in fact there were more than 1,100. (h/t: Randi Rhodes)
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news.wisc.edu
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Sen. Russ Feingold critiques the Iraq Study Group report and argues for a more holistic approach to counter-terrorism: “The Iraq Study Group essentially sees Iraq the same way that most of official Washington does—as the be-all and end-all of our foreign and national security policy. Nothing could be further from the truth….”
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greatestcities.com
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Private Saudi Arabians have allegedly donated millions of dollars to Sunni insurgents in Iraq, according to the Iraq Study Group and Iraqi officials. It’s an open secret that Iran has supported Shiite militants, causing some to worry that Iraq’s sectarian strife could develop into a regional quagmire.
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nytimes.com
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With Tony Blair by his side, the president was careful on Thursday to laud the Iraq Study Group’s report, but maintain his stance on troop withdrawals and diplomacy. In particular, Bush said he would not compromise on preconditions for talks with Syria and Iran.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The Iraq Study Group Report makes clear that you can’t whip up a representative government by buying a cake mix or holding a single election and declaring victory.
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Flipping through the news channels on Wednesday, one would have seen an endless parade of pundits and politicians praising the Iraq Study Group’s report. One exception was a man who was critical of the war before it was in style, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who told “Countdown’s” Keith Olbermann: “The fact is, this commission was composed apparently entirely of people who did not have the judgment to oppose this Iraq war in the first place….” Watch it
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By Marie Cocco — The Iraq Study Group has offered its anticlimactic advice on the war, but how will we address that other quagmire in Cuba, where some 430 anonymous prisoners languish in limbo?
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By Joe Conason — If nothing else can be said for Robert Gates, he seems to have learned that the appearance of honesty is preferable to blatant attempts at deception.
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Robert Gates has been confirmed by the Senate with enormous support. While much has been made of Gates’ “fresh perspective” on the war, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) pointed out that it is the president who structures policy. And this president is notorious for selectively listening to advice.
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newsweek.com
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With Moqtada al-Sadr walking out of Nouri al-Maliki’s government, the Iraqi prime minister is desperate for the support of prominent Shiite Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and his 30 parliamentarians, which may explain President Bush’s meeting with the politician earlier Monday. However, Hakim has strong ties to Iran, which is widely assumed to equip and fund his militia, placing Bush in yet another awkward tap dance between stability in Iraq and hostility toward Iran.
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Marching in Chicago: Resisting Rahm Emanuel’s Neoliberal Savagery
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