These people have a Ph.D in lying

very much in line with my own reactions at the despicable, implied declarations of "victory" in iraq, jeremy scahill and keith olbermann try offering up a little dose of reality...



if you don't watch it, you should know that they pull no punches...

Discussion centered around President Obama's address on the Iraq war and the ensuing criticism from neocons who complained Obama should've thanked and praised President George W. Bush for the 'success' of the surge in Iraq.

"These people have a Ph.D in lying and a master's degree in manipulating intelligence," Scahill says of the neocons, "And it is, it's really sobering to see this kind of brash historical revisionism happening in real time. The idea that these people want to post some kind of false flag of victory on the corpses of all who have died in Iraq because of their decisions. These people destabilized Iraq, they destabilized the Middle East, with their neo-con vision of redrawing maps, and they didn't even succeed in their own stated mission. This is a special kind of pathological sickness that these individuals are plagued with."

Scahill then begins to bust the 'surge' myth, "Pardon me for introducing a little bit of fact onto cable news over these 24 hours, but the reality is there was no success of the surge. The fact is that Bush's policy in Iraq caused massive destabilization, led to a civil war that killed upwards of a million Iraqis; there were ethnic cleansing campaigns. When the surge troops went in there, Baghdad was a walled-off city, the Sunnis had been pushed out and sided with the United States, Muqtada al Sadr responded to the announced timetable for withdrawal that the neocons so opposed by saying he considered it a truce with America and pulled his forces off the street... So, the entire surge myth permeates to this day, and its actually one big lie."

"Let's remember... that it was the Bush administration's policy in Iraq that created an al Qaeda presence in that country. It was their policies that destabilized that country and caused the deaths of so many Americans and so many Iraqi civilians. Stephen Hadley probably sees Osama bin Laden at his corner store or hiding in his bathroom somewhere, so... These people have ZERO credibility, and have no business in public life anymore." In conclusion the award-winning investigative journalist declares, "They shouldn't be able to leave their houses without being confronted with the death and destruction that their lives caused."

and these criminals are still walking around free...

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The Speech President Obama Should Give about the Iraq War (But Won’t)

an excellent, sobering and very sad piece by juan cole...

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Truly horrific quote of the year...

frank gaffney talking about the iraq war on msnbc today...

My position is that it’s regrettable that any Americans died. It is regrettable that they had to die, but I believe they did have to die.

if that doesn't completely disgust you, i don't know what will...

(thanks to think progress...)

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CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq

as a reprise to yesterday's post, this is the reality our media are choosing to ignore...





from the nyt...

Getting a story on the evening news isn’t easy for any correspondent. And for reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is especially hard, according to Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News. So she has devised a solution when she is talking to the network.

“Generally what I say is, ‘I’m holding the armor-piercing R.P.G.,’ ” she said last week in an appearance on “The Daily Show,” referring to the initials for rocket-propelled grenade. “ ‘It’s aimed at the bureau chief, and if you don’t put my story on the air, I’m going to pull the trigger.’ ”

Ms. Logan let a sly just-kidding smile sneak through as she spoke, but her point was serious. Five years into the war in Iraq and nearly seven years into the war in Afghanistan, getting news of the conflicts onto television is harder than ever.

“If I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts,” Ms. Logan said.

According to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of Iraq has been “massively scaled back this year.” Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. The “CBS Evening News” has devoted the fewest minutes to Iraq, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC’s “World News” and 74 minutes on “NBC Nightly News.” (The average evening newscast is 22 minutes long.)

CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq, where some 150,000 United States troops are deployed.

what the f%*& is WRONG with my country...?

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Here's a story that would gag a maggot

oh, puh-l-e-e-e-e-eze...

President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he quit playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq.

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander-in-Chief playing golf," Bush said in an interview with Yahoo and Politico.com.

"I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal," he said.

Bush said his last round of golf was in August 2003 when he was informed that a truck bomb had wrecked the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22 people, including U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

"They pulled me off the golf course and I said, it's just not worth it anymore to do," Bush said.

if that's the truth - and i have my doubts - a bigger person would never have told anyone... what are we supposed to do...? give george a medal or a chest to pin it on...?

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More of "we simply MUST face the reality of what we're doing"

i've posted several times on ali hussein, the poor little two-year old sadr city boy whose life was ripped away in an attack by u.s. forces... this slide show is courtesy of terrancedc at booman tribune... not pleasant viewing by any means, but essential viewing nonetheless to keep us mindful of the consequences of our actions as a nation...

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Olbermann: "The only thing they're even half-way good at is half-assed lying and they're not very good at that"

mission accomplished, celebrating the deadliest month for u.s. troops in iraq since september of last year...



and, lest we lose sight of the true depth of the iraq tragedy, i'm going to do something i'm loathe to do, and that's to re-post one of the saddest photos i've seen in a long, long time, not for voyeuristic purposes, but simply to keep the horror visible...


Ridh Hadi places his two-year old nephew,
Ali Hussein, into a coffin in the Shiite
stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq
on Wednesday, April 30, 2008. The child
died on Tuesday after U.S. forces struck
back at militia fighters with 200-pound
(90-kilogram) guided rockets that
devastated at least three buildings in the
densely packed district that serves as the
Baghdad base for the powerful Mahdi
Army militia.
(AP Photo/ Karim Kadim)

so very, very sad...

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Why would Saudi Arabia want to get its embassy employees killed in Iraq? Oh, yeah, and then there's the political reasons...

o-o-o-o-oooooh no-o-o-o-oooo, there's NO reservations about contact with the iraqi government, absolutely NONE, unless, of course, you want to consider that the saudi government thinks the iraqi government is biased against sunnis... but, really, that's just a teeny-tiny little thing... pay it no mind...

The Iraqi capital isn't secure enough yet for an embassy, Saudi Arabia said Wednesday, insisting its diplomatic absence there doesn't reflect a lack of support for the country.

Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal's comments following months of urging by both Iraq and the United States for the kingdom to establish an embassy.

His statement was an apparent retreat from September comments that his country would open a Baghdad embassy soon.

"There aren't any reservations at all regarding contact with the Iraqi government by Arab countries," Saud told reporters.

"The real reason why there's no embassy in Baghdad is not for political but for security reasons," said Saud. "When secure conditions are present, then embassies ... will go to Iraq."

Iraqi and U.S. officials have been pushing Baghdad's Sunni neighbors to open embassies in Iraq as a sign of support for the Shiite-dominated government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia has kept al-Maliki's government at arm's length and has criticized it as biased against Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.

i don't know what their problem is... isn't the green zone safer than washington d.c...? i must remember to ask mccain about that when i see him again...

speaking of embassies and security, the employees of denmark's embassy here in kabul were "evacuated" to "undisclosed location" here in the city yesterday... it seems there's been a little flap over another cartoon...

The Danish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it has evacuated its staff from embassies in Algeria and Afghanistan because of threats after newspapers reprinted a cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Embassy employees have been moved to secret locations in both countries' capitals but continue to work, Foreign Ministry spokesman Erik Laursen said.

The announcement comes after Danish intelligence officials warned of an "aggravated" terror threat against Denmark since newspapers in the country in February reprinted a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The warning specifically singled out North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The threat "is so concrete that we had to take this decision," Laursen told The Associated Press. "The decision is based on intelligence," he said, declining to elaborate.

sunday is the day afghanistan celebrates gaining its independence from britain back in 1919... damn near every morning at the ungodly hour of 6, choppers are doing practice fly-bys right past my window, at least ten of them, two-by-two, followed by another ten screaming jets... as soon as it finishes its agonizingly slow upload, i will post a youtube video of two of the choppers on the fly-by that i took about 45 minutes ago...

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Just another day in Iraq

as i sit here in kabul, feel the brilliant sunshine streaming in my window, (particularly welcome after several days of rain) and view this youtube clip, i am reminded that this kind of horror could literally take place at any time on the very street below my room... i hope and pray every day for an end to this insanity...

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Scenes from an Iraki childhood

warning... it will break your heart...

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Juan Cole chronicles events in the five-year period since the fall of Saddam

it's a great, articulate, informed, insightful, sweeping, and utterly damning overview...

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A mosiac of the 4000 who will never come home

nico pitney has done a mosiac of the 4000 americans who gave their lives for an illegal war in iraq...


Click on image for full (very large) size

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Posthumous citizenship for some of the 4000 dead in a war that was illegal in the first place

shameful...

The overall U.S. death toll in Iraq rose to 4,000 after four soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad, a grim milestone that is likely to fuel calls for the withdrawal of American forces as the war enters its sixth year.

to add to the boundless tragedy, we have this...

A young, ambitious immigrant from Guatemala who dreamed of becoming an architect. A Nigerian medic. A soldier from China who boasted he would one day become an American general. An Indian native whose headstone displays the first Khanda, emblem of the Sikh faith, to appear in Arlington National Cemetery.

These were among more than 100 foreign-born members of the U.S. military who earned American citizenship by dying in Iraq.

Jose Gutierrez was one of the first to fall, killed by friendly fire in the dust of Umm Qasr in the opening hours of the invasion.

[...]

And yet, his foster mother agonized as she accompanied his body back for burial in Guatemala City: Why did Jose have to die for America in order to truly belong?

[...]

Immigrant advocates have similar mixed feelings about military service. Non-citizens cannot become officers or serve in high-security jobs, they note, and yet the benefits of citizenship are regularly pitched by recruiters, and some recruitment programs specifically target colleges and high schools with predominantly Latino students.

"Immigrants are lured into service and then used as political pawns or cannon fodder," said Dan Kesselbrenner, executive director of the National Immigration Project, a program of the National Lawyers Guild. "It is sad thing to see people so desperate to get status in this country that they are prepared to die for it."

this is my country - let the most disadvantaged, the lowest rungs of the societal and income ladder, and often the most desperate go out and die for the benefit of the super-rich elites, and for what...? crumbs from their banquet table...

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Last of Iraqis

i stumbled across the last of iraqis blog the other day... it's the product of an iraqi named mohammed...

i'm a 25 years old dentist i live in iraq (Baghdad) i was born and raised here but unfortunately i'm thinking that the iraqis are going to extinct so i made this blog wishing that i can make a difference or even share my greif with the whole world and give them an idea about what's happening here from the point of view of a civilian living in the war zone not from the politicians nor people who gets their benefits from the conditions.

it's so rare to read an honest, first-person account of life in baghdad, altho' i'm sure i could dig out more if i tried... riverbend, via her weblog, baghdad burning, was one of those voices until she and her family had had enough and escaped to syria...

mohammed offers this up close and personal view of a 25 november suicide car bomb explosion through the eyes of one of his friends, followed by an eye-opening first hand account of an experience with the iraqi police...

The incidents in the last couple of days was really frustrating for me and my hopes for a better future, because again I figured that I was so naïve to think things will improve, it's true that some areas changed from very troubled to "Iraqi normal" areas, that means it's dangerous but like the others not more……
Today there has been an explosion by a suicide car bomb in Bab AlMuatham providence near the square , where many important buildings lies; the ministry of health, a governmental clinic, the dentistry, medicine and pharmacy colleges, the dental technical institute and a very crowded transportation garage all of these near the are of the explosion.
I have many friends who works at that clinic, one of them was so close to the explosion on his way to work , in fact he was two cars away from it…. He was with his mother in the car when the explosion happened, the car was totally destroyed and his mother was seriously injured, he survived the incident with scratches only because the explosion was at his mother's side so she took the shock instead of him, the explosion was so sever that even his mobile phone was broken, his mother is in hospital now, they are doing operations for her.
My friends said that at least 15 people have died in this explosion till now, and many are seriously injured, most of my friend's cars have been damaged by this explosion they said that it was so sever.
Another huge explosion was near my house today, I don't know about it, but the explosion was so strong.
Before that, At Friday I was really sad and heart broken for the poor people who died in AlGhazil market, the sick bastard who planned the explosion placed an explosive pack in the middle of birds-filled cage, because this market is for pets, and they only open at Fridays, more than 15 people have died in this explosion.
What I feared from has occurred, the relative peace and quietness that we have witnessed in the past couple of weeks was just for terrorist's re-evaluation, it seems that the terrorists from all the sides were just planning what to do next, they were planning how to overcome the current changes and achievements, I don't know why but they always seem to succeed, why can't we have peace for at least a month?
Well, I think I know part of the answer, because today as the ministry of anterior has announced in a survey that they made that: 19,000 of it's members can't read or write!!!! 12% of the police force can't read or write!!! I just want to know how could they do their job when they can't even read the cars papers or even the IDs? That's a shocking part of the answer.
Now I know why these incidents happened with me in which I laughed my guts out, once a checkpoint stopped me and the policeman asked for my ID and the car papers, to my surprise, he hold the paper upside down and pretended that he is checking them, he looked at it for a moment and then told me I can go, what a farce.
And now I know why many times when they take the ID and the papers they stare at them like they were comparing a drawings to find the differences!!
I just want to know how could a force that 12% of it can't read or write bring peace and settlement back to a torn-up country like Iraq?

his 4 december post offered this heartbreaking video...

In this video I used a song called "The new country" for a very popular Iraqi singer who is Husam AlRasam, it's not a new song, and it was released when I started blogging.
This song is very popular between Iraqis, I can say that more than 80% of Iraqis have it either on their mobile phones or computers.
There is something strange in this song, whenever I hear it I twitch although I've heard it countless times, believe me in Arabic it's much more effective, because the emotions were lost in translation, but I think the images compensates for that loss.
There is one thing that I want to make it clear, you will notice in the video the name Khansa`, she is a well known Arabic historic character and a poet, her brother died in a battle and she was blind from crying him, then in AlQadesia battle her four sons died too.
I'd like to dedicate this video to all the innocent Iraqis who died for a reason or no reason at all, to all the Iraqis who had to leave their country or home, to all real Iraqis who had to suffer from the situation, for everyone who loves his country, to all the innocent men in the world who died for no mistake they have done and to anyone who cares for the human race.

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Dana Perino: "It is an honor and a privilege to be in the briefing room"

so be goddam grateful that we even bother answering your questions at all, you senile old bat...



and here's the ugly guts...

The White House press secretary [Dana Perino] then blasted the reporter for using her "bestowed" front row position in the press room to make "absurd and very offensive statements."

"Helen, I find it really unfortunate that you use your front row position, bestowed upon you by your colleagues, to make such statements," Perino said. "This is a -- it is an honor and a privilege to be in the briefing room, and to suggest that we, at the United States, are killing innocent people is just absurd and very offensive."

Thomas asked Perino about civilian casualties in Iraq: "Do you know how many we have since the start of this war?"

"How many -- we are going after the enemy, Helen," Perino said, ducking the question. "To the extent that any innocent Iraqis have been killed, we have expressed regret for it."

The longtime White House correspondent who has gone after presidents from both political parties responded, "Oh, regret. It doesn't bring back a life."

But Perino refused to get sentimental over civilian casualties.

"Helen, we are in a war zone, and our military works extremely hard to make sure that everyone has the opportunity for liberty and freedom and democracy, and that is exactly what they are doing," Perino said. "I'm going to move on."

is dana perino really such a naïf that she thinks the u.s. ISN'T killing innocent people...? and, yeah, i understand she isn't going to ADMIT to it from the podium of the presidential press briefing room, but, seriously, folks...

(white house transcript here...)

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"Bush has destroyed half a century of good will among NATO allies"

juan cole reflects on not counting 20,000 brain-injured iraq troops as casualties and the destruction of u.s. credibility in the foreign policy arena...

Whoever is responsible for this disgusting travesty is an automatic candidate for Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World." My guess is that the trail will lead back to Donald "its not a guerrilla war" Rumsfeld and Richard Bruce "most prominent traitor in American history" Cheney. Gregg Zoroya of USA Today reports that 20,000 US troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and suffered brain injuries were never classified as wounded by the Pentagon and are not included in the official statistics for the wounded issued by the Department of Defense. Although some of the under-reporting of this condition could be inadvertent, the scale of it strongly suggests an underlying policy.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien says that it was among the great victories in his life that he stood against US pressure to join in the Iraq War.

Uh, the purpose of a wise and mature US foreign policy is to avoid close allies ending up speaking like that. Bush has destroyed half a century of good will among NATO allies, most of whom now think they are better off not following Washington's lead. Leaders who threw in with Bush, like Aznar of Spain and Berlusconi of Italy, have been ushered off the political stage by enraged publics. As someone who grew up when the US (and its currency) was respected by most Europeans and other North Americans, I am sad to see the way W. has debased our position and humiliated our country.

the full quote from professor cole that headlines this post is, "Bush has destroyed half a century of good will among NATO allies, most of whom now think they are better off not following Washington's lead..." i don't think that's necessarily a bad thing... the u.s. sorely needs more countries who are willing to chart their own course and exert their influence on US for a change... our massive arrogance balloon is way overdue for a pricking...

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