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by Juan Cole
$35.00
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Despite an influx of thousands of U.S. troops, Baghdad continues to experience devastating violence. Four explosions Monday killed at least 76 people.
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The U.S. military insists that Abu Ghraib was an isolated abuse, but at least one soldier suggests a wider system of torture is at work: “I watched as detainees were forced to stand naked all night, shivering in their cold cells and pleading with their captors for help. Others were subjected to long periods of isolation in pitch-black rooms. Food and sleep deprivation were common, along with a variety of physical abuse, including punching and kicking.”
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asashop.org
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that if the surge goes badly, the military will probably move troops “out of harm’s way.” Why wait? He also said the surge is not the “last chance” to get it right in Iraq. Let’s hope Congress stops quibbling and makes him wrong.
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The Pentagon has had it with picking up the slack from civilian agencies in Iraq, grumbling its concerns to the president and even Congress. The military has been forced to fill jobs that otherwise would be performed by civilians, mainly from the State Department, which, unlike the Army, can’t force people to work under the nightmarish conditions it helped to create.
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On Friday, “Countdown” aired this troubling video of American soldiers negotiating Iraqi traffic by bumping cars out of the way and driving on the wrong side of the road. The soldiers would rather avoid making themselves stationary targets than build goodwill among the already outraged Iraqis.
(h/t: Crooks and Liars)
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friedmanarchives.com
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The president will ask Congress to approve $245 billion in additional funds for “military and diplomatic operations” in Iraq and Afghanistan over the next two years when he submits his budget on Monday. We’re guessing not much of that would actually be spent on diplomacy.
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npr.org
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Nancy Pelosi, who just returned from Iraq, told NPR that “what is happening in Iraq is chaos,” adding that after all this time, “We just have to end it.” The speaker of the House also visited Afghanistan and said she supports sending more troops there to fight a resurgent Taliban.
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dw-world.de
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The latest report from the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction says tens of millions of dollars have been wasted because of failure and fraud. Among other abuses, the report cites a never-used $48.3-million housing facility, complete with an Olympic-size swimming pool. If Willie Sutton were alive today, he’d head straight to Baghdad.
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The Pentagon lists the number of soldiers wounded in combat in Iraq at more than 23,000, a tally often quoted by news agencies. But if one considers troops injured in “noncombat action,” a separate category that includes noncombat helicopter crash victims, the critically ill and others, the number doubles to about 50,000, leading critics to charge that the military is attempting to conceal the true human cost of the war.
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AP Photo / Charles Dharapak
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By Robert Scheer — Stop him before he kills again. That is the judgment of the American people, and indeed of the entire world, as to the performance of our president, and no State of the Union address can erase that dismal verdict.
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wikipedia.org
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Many in the Arab media who supported the toppling of Saddam Hussein—and sometimes braved death threats to do so—now feel betrayed by the incompetent policy that followed: “It’s a success story for al-Qaeda, a success story for autocratic Arab regimes that made democracy look ugly in their people’s eyes.”
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John McCain may be a little miffed that the president is sending only 21,500 additional troops to Iraq, but he still supports a surge—even, aparently, if it’s unlikely to succeed. Chuck Hagel, on the other hand, thinks sending any troops into a civil war is a mistake, particularly if the prime minister of Iraq doesn’t even want them around.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Although 3,200 additional troops have been deployed in Baghdad in an effort to assert control, violence continues to worsen. A double car bombing on Monday killed 88 people and injured 160. This does not bode well for a full-blown surge.
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komotv.com
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The first wave in Bush’s surge—3,200 troops—arrived in Baghdad as the United States experienced the most violent day for its forces in two years. Twenty-five American soldiers were killed on Saturday.
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greeninstitute.net
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Roger Morris, who served on the senior staff of the National Security Council under Presidents Johnson and Nixon, knows a thing or two about the folly of escalation. In this must-read essay, the award-winning historian reminds us that a military’s unwillingness to admit defeat and a president’s desire for victory are no excuse for the lives wasted on a futile vision of conquest.
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A double bombing outside a Baghdad university has killed at least 70 people and injured 170, according to police. Twenty-five more died elsewhere in Baghdad from bombings and shootings on one of the most violent days in Iraq since the war began.
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The National Priorities Project, a nonprofit organization that aims to turn “data into action,” has an interesting tool on its website that shows just how much the Iraq war is costing your community. The cost so far to Crawford, Texas: $986,998. The cost to Los Angeles County: $11,342,897,442—that’s billions—and counting.
Posted on Jan 16, 2007
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AP Photo / Murad Sezer
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By Chris Hedges — A longtime observer of insurgencies, violence and war, the reporter writes that the presidential plan to send more troops to Iraq is a mistake of catastrophic proportions that is likely to rival the most stupid and brutal blunders he’s seen.
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You have to hand it to Joe Lieberman. Rattling off one stale lie and misdirection after another, as he did this Sunday on “Meet the Press,” while maintaining a straight face could not have been easy. Luckily Chuck Hagel was on hand to refute Lieberman’s tired propaganda.
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Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer joins James Harris for a conversation on the Vietnamization of Iraq, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the plight of Oakland and more.
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Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer joins James Harris for a conversation on the Vietnamization of Iraq, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the plight of Oakland and more.
Posted on Jan 12, 2007
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boston.com
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In honor of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s passing, we’re re-posting one of his classic moral stands. This 2007 speech against the escalation of the Iraq war was so good we had to give him the Truthdigger of the Week award back then.
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npr.org
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President Bush may have assurances that Nouri al-Maliki will not tolerate sectarian violence in Iraq, but the prime minister’s refusal to publicly confront his militant backers suggests he may be more interested in consolidating Shiite power than fostering stability.
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news.yahoo.com
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Needless to say, the Democrats hated Bush’s plan for escalating the war in Iraq, although they differed on how to defeat the action. Ted Kennedy continues to push for a direct confrontation, while the leadership wants to start off with a symbolic vote. Hillary Clinton was surprisingly feisty in her comments, calling Bush’s policy “marred by incompetence and arrogance.”
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By Molly Ivins — The people have already spoken out against an increase of troops in Iraq. Now it’s time to act.
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By Joe Conason — Following his latest attempt to rally the dispirited and angry nation in support of the prolonged conflict in Iraq, the question before Congress is starkly simple: What are the people’s representatives obliged to do about the bad judgment and bad faith of this president?
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from msnbc.com
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The president began his address to the nation Wednesday evening by accepting responsibility for mistakes made in Iraq. But as he outlined his commitment to escalate the war, complete with abundant references to 9/11 and the specter of al-Qaida, George W. Bush demonstrated the same insulation from reason and reality that created this nightmare in the first place.
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nytimes.com
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House and Senate Democrats are planning a symbolic vote on Bush’s escalation of the Iraq war, partially to force Republicans to take a stand on the issue. While they haven’t ruled out more aggressive—and meaningful—measures, the Dems agreed that demonstrating their opposition was the least they could do.
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sfgate.com
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The military is trying to coerce freelance journalist Sarah Olson to testify against Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse to go to Iraq. Olson, whose story about Watada appeared on Truthout.org, has resisted the military because, in her own words: “Journalists should not be asked to participate in the prosecution of political speech.”
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Mr. Fish
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By Robert Scheer — To surge or not to surge, that is the question. As our prince proposes, once again, to take arms against a sea of troubles, he responds not to the disaster that he has visited upon Iraq, but rather embraces a desperate strategy for salvaging what remains of his reign.
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Nancy Pelosi, appearing on “Face the Nation,” said the Congress will not fund a troop escalation without justification. Pelosi maintained that the Dems have no intention of cutting off funds for the war in general, although she insisted a “new direction” is necessary.
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npr.org
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Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid sent a joint letter to the president on Friday, warning him that they would fully resist any effort to send more troops to Iraq: “Adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans and stretch our military to the breaking point for no strategic gain.”
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Transcripts never do justice to Jack Cafferty’s sardonic, punchy oratory, as is the case with this assault on Bush’s latest propaganda campaign: “So next week, when the president talks about sending more of your sons and daughters to die in Iraq, don’t think ‘surge.’ Recognize it for what it is.”
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washingtonpost.com
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Carolyn Ho has gone to Washington to fight on behalf of her son, Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse to go to Iraq. Watada faces court-martial and six years in military prison for abstaining from a war he believes is illegal.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — If the president orders a “surge” of U.S. troops into Iraq, he will force a confrontation with a Congress no longer enamored with his once-vaunted political instincts.
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theonion.com
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According to ABC News, the president intends to replace Gen. Bob Casey, who currently oversees the Iraq war, with Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, and when Gen. John Abizaid retires in March, Bush will ask Adm. William Fallon to take over Central Command. Leave it to Bush to find someone from the Navy to oversee two ground wars.
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nytimes.com
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Bush’s former Iraq and U.N. ambassador, John Negroponte, currently the director of national intelligence, is expected to accept a tacit demotion in order to become Condoleezza Rice’s deputy at the State Department. As if shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic, the president continues to shift a cast of familiar characters he’s come to rely on to implement his failed policies.
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The Washington Post’s Rajiv Chandrasekaran tells Jon Stewart that while many of Bush’s Iraq blunders have been pored over extensively, the story of American corruption and incompetence in the Green Zone has been largely ignored—from the 21-year-old former ice cream vendor who was sent to reform the Interior Ministry to the questioning of aspiring imperialists as to whether they had voted for Bush.
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During another of his notable special comments, Keith Olbermann took Bush to the woodshed over reports that the president plans to sell a troop escalation in Iraq as a “sacrifice.”
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AP Photo / Marco Di Lauro, Pool
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By Robert Scheer — Someone has to say it: The hanging of Saddam Hussein was an act of barbarism that makes a mockery of President Bush’s claim it was “an important milestone on Iraq’s course to becoming a democracy.”
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Marching in Chicago: Resisting Rahm Emanuel’s Neoliberal Savagery
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