The Iraq War - Chapter 2

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

The Chinese News Agency (Xinhua) reports that one of the senior commanders of the US armed forces in Afghanistan is hinting that our troops (currently at around 18,000) will stay in Afghanistan as long as the Hamid Kharzai and his administration want us to be there...which as the general cited with his examples of South Korea and Germany, could be a long, long time. It probably also means that our troops will have to be in Iraq for a long, long time unless the people voted into office in the January elections kick us out. And if they did, what would the Bush Administration do? Our mission there would be incomplete because the terrorists will not have been eliminated and our control over the oil resources will become even more tenuous.

Miulang

http://www.informationclearinghouse....rticle7619.htm

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

The Chief of the US Army Reserve has come out publicly blasting the Bush Administration and the Pentagon for stretching the Reserve forces so thinly by deploying so many Reservists to Iraq and Afghanistan that it would be unable to support other Army contingency plans or to help with domestic emergencies, which is its primary job.

Miulang

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...dedgeneralsays

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

We consume 21 million barrels of oil every day. Since we stopped producing enough of our own around 1970, this leaves us hostage to the vageries of the international oil cartels. This is the reason we are in Iraq. This is the reason why China, who is becoming an even bigger consumer of oil, is making buddy-buddy with the likes of Sudan, Canada, and Russia.

Yes, the war in Iraq IS unfortunately about oil, or rather, the control of the oil resources.

Miulang

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...s/hostagetooil

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

More excerpts from the blog of Riverbend, the young Iraqi woman who lives in Baghdad as she reports on what's happening around her. In November, she reports on Fallujah (http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/20...g_archive.html). In December, she has a Christmas wishlist: (http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/20...g_archive.html), and in her first entry in the new year, she speculates on the national elections which will be held later this month: (http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/20...g_archive.html)

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

Just prior to the November elections, Americans were told to expect that the Pentagon would go to Congress and request another $75 billion to support operations in Iraq. Today, the amount is now expected to be $100 billion. That's a third of what we've already spent over the last 2 years!

I don't see how the Bush Administration can expect to start cutting our trillions of dollars of deficit if we continue to sneak extra money here and there to pay for things that weren't budgeted for. If our government were an individual citizen, it would be filing for Chapter 11! Or maybe they're using smoke and mirrors and "fuzzy math" to rationalize the whole sorry mess. As taxpayers, can we also use that fuzzy math on our income tax returns, too?

Miulang

http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010605F.shtml

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

To everyone who supports the Bush Administration's illegal war in Iraq, may you never have to come face to face with the people of an utterly destroyed nation. To those of us who support our troops but not the bungled war effort, pray that they have safe passage and return home soon. Below is a first person account of what's really going on in Iraq.

Miulang

http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010805F.shtml

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

Rummy and the Pentagon are so worried about our failure to quell the insurgency in Iraq that they are thinking of invoking the "Salvador Option", which would put the Christians in Action or units of the Special Forces under cover to root out and kill or kidnap Sunni leaders in order to break the back of the insurgency. Unfortunately, what they neglect to remember about this particular insurgency is that for every one of the leaders they kill or capture, another jihadist is ready and willing to step up to lead the cause.

The Pentagon's thinking is, "hey, this worked in El Salvador in the 1980's, so it's gonna work in 2005". That was another time, working in another culture.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek/

In other news, we are now holding over 3,000 foreign fighters in prison. The Attorney General designate, Alberto Sanchez, has said in past memos that the Geneva Conventions don't apply to foreign fighters because they are not citizens of Iraq and are not dressed in uniforms. And then he had the gall to tell Congress during his confirmation hearings last week that he didn't believe in torture and would abide by the Geneva Conventions??? If we thought Gitmo and Abu Ghraib were the end to this humanitarian atrocity, I don't think we've seen anything yet.

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

The Association of Muslim Scholars, which is one of the chief voices of Iraq's Sunni Muslims, has sent word to the US that it will call off its boycott of the January 30 national elections if the US can provide the group with a timetable for the pullout of all coalition forces in Iraq.

The US government will do one of 2 things: tell them "hell no! We won't pull out of Iraq until we are assured that the security of Iraq is guaranteed" or we will give them a bogus plan and do what we want anyway, which is to remain there for at least 4-5 more years. Either way, we will be regarded as infidels and evildoers, and the insurgency will continue. The Muslims have every good reason to be wary of our words.

Thank you, Bush Administration. Thank you Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Condi Rice.

Miulang

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...iraq_elections

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

The entire 13-member election commission of Anbar province (where Ramadi and Fallujah are located) has resigned, citing personal safety in light of threats against their lives. This just adds more fuel to the argument that an officially sanctioned national election cannot be held, because now there is no authority in charge of ensuring that the Sunnis show up to vote on Jan. 30. So now how will the US and its coalition members entice the Sunnis to come out and vote? The Bush Administration was adamant about having Sunni representation in this election on Jan. 30, come hell or high water. Looks like hell is about to descend.

Miulang

http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011105Z.shtml

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

Also earlier today, the deputy police chief of Baghdad and his son were assassinated by insurgents. This is another reason why the election board turned tail and headed for the hills. For all they know, their number could be up next.

Miulang

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100n...name_page.html

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

All of a sudden, some people in Congress are coming to their senses. They realize that we are in a no-win situation in Iraq and our body count is accelerating with each passing day as the insurgents build bigger and more powerful bombs.

One Republican Congressman from NC, Howard Coble a staunch supporter of the President (heaven forfend! A Republican going against the President??? This is heresy!) is even considering having discussions in Congress about a pullout that would have the US start to leave Iraq immediately after the elections in 3 weeks instead of sticking around and becoming statistics in Iraq for a decade or more. The 10-term congressman, head of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, said he is "fed up with picking up the newspaper and reading that we've lost another five or 10 of our young men and women in Iraq."

I applaud this guy's courage. I just hope one of the neocon henchpeople of Rummy and Wolfowitz don't do something bad to him in some dark alley one night. That's what the "terrorists" are doing to Iraqi security forces to prevent them from doing their jobs.

Miulang

http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011105A.shtml

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

The Ukrainian government has adopted a resolution to withdraw its peacekeeping forces from Iraq by the end of April, 2005.

This is the thanks that the US gets for helping elect a "democratic" president? Actually, the Rada is just being prudent: they see that the war is a no-win situation for their troops and with the escalating violence, they would be better off pulling out of Iraq than "staying the course."

Miulang

http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd...-11&do_alert=0

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

If this wasn't so outrageous, it would be funny. Now George Bush, instead of admitting that not having the volatile Sunni region participate in the Jan. 30 elections would make for a bogus election, is now telling us "the numbers of voters and the results don't mean anything."

Um, excuse me? I thought the reason we were having this "national" election and the reason why we were fighting against the insurgents was to ensure that the minorities in Iraq (the Sunnis and the Kurds) would have some say in their new transitional government.

Reason #2 for us being in Iraq, now hopelessly dashed against the rocks.

Miulang

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...5065_2005jan12

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

All it takes is a few pebbles to start a landslide...

http://www.informationclearinghouse....rticle7678.htm

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

The Pentagon is also taking the White House to task for its ill-conceived plans for the Iraqi invasion and occupation.

http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26973

Miulang