Throwing these fucksticks in federal prison would be a good start. Seriously–now what?  Hopefully, come January, we can start to fix some of the damage from the Bush years. That set of tasks makes the labors of Heracles look like a fucking Sunday school picnic. Basically, we need an entire overhaul of foreign and domestic policy. (Sounds kind of simple when you put it like that, doesn’t it?) Despite the vital nature of fixing things, however, we face an even more important job: How do we keep this shit from ever happening again? Reading Athenae’s description of and reaction to … Continue reading What to Do?

Pretty much: The risks of war, says Feith, were well known and documented in a memo from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Feith refers to as “the parade of horribles” in his upcoming Harper Collins book, War and Decision. They included ruining the reputation of America overseas, strengthening Muslim militant resolve and triggering the ethnic strife occurring in Iraq now. What they didn’t anticipate? “That the Bathist regime, even after it was overthrown, would be in a position to organize and recruit for and to finance and command an insurgency,” says Feith. His book also addresses the fact that the … Continue reading Feith: I’d Do It Again

VS. Liberal blogosphere or Bush admininstration hack: Who would you trust? It’s been two years, so I can forgive people who went looking for information about Feith recently if they overlookedthis, what was one of the first progressive blogosphere forays into publishing, before it became the hot new thing to do. With Doug Feith’sexcuse opus coming out next month (for the love of God, don’t pay for the thing, steal it from somewhere or read over somebody’s shoulder), it occurs to me that it might be worth reminding people that there were, in fact, people on this story before anybody … Continue reading The Doug Feith Primer

Way to go, Chimpy. Senior Army and Marine Corps leaders said yesterday that the increase of more than 30,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has put unsustainable levels of stress on U.S. ground forces and has put their readiness to fight other conflicts at the lowest level in years. In a stark assessment a week before Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is to testify on the war’s progress, Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army’s vice chief of staff, said that the heavy deployments are inflicting “incredible stress” on soldiers and families and that they pose … Continue reading Heckuva Job Dept.

Another sign ofsucces. Violent civilian deaths in Iraq have climbed to their highest level since mid-2007, Iraqi government figures showed on Tuesday, due to a spike in violence between Iraq security forces and Mehdi Army fighters. A total of 923 civilians died violently in March, up 31 percent from February and the deadliest month since August 2007, according to figures released by Iraq’s interior, defence and health ministries. [snip] The latest Iraqi data showed 102 police officers and 54 soldiers were killed, compared with 65 and 20 respectively in February, and that 641 insurgents had been killed and 2 509 … Continue reading Surge

Face it there isn’t a number that could make theFreepi think it wasn’t such a good idea. But somelocal families who lost loved ones to this war think 4000 is enough… It’s nearly been three years since Mark Maida died while serving in Iraq. At his parents home their is a whole room dedicated to the fallen soldier. Pictures, plaques and even Mark’s drivers license. There isn’t a day that goes by that they don’t think of him. “I get up at 4am because that’s when he use to call. I still think about him and can’t go back to … Continue reading “people making the decisions can’t handle that responsibility anymore”

Carry me home. A. Continue reading 4,000

Big Time is asinsightful as he is honest. BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq has defeated terrorism and is well on the road to recovery after five years of war, a confident Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday. Then the lights went out. Maliki, known for his steely nerves, tried to continue his speech. But his bodyguards would have none of that. They hustled him off the stage,, possibly fearing that the power failure might be part of a plot against the prime minister. Maliki’s speech was an attempt to boost his nation’s morale on the anniversary of the start of the … Continue reading “Successful Endeavor”

Bloody splitters! BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A conference to reconcile Iraq’s warring political groups began to unravel even before it got under way on Tuesday, with the main Sunni Muslim Arab bloc pulling out and protesting it had not been properly invited. The gathering, billed as the biggest of its kind in Iraq, aimed to bring leaders of rival factions together around much-delayed so-called laws meant to promote common cause between majority Shi’ites and minority Sunni Arabs. The Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab bloc, had said it would attend but pulled out as dozens of political leaders gathered at a … Continue reading Judean People’s Front? We’re the People’s Front of Judea!

Nice surge you got there… Is the Mahdi Army’s ‘cease-fire’ over? BAGHDAD – The gun battle in Sadr City between Shiite militiamen and the Iraqi Army lasted only 10 minutes, according to residents of the slum where Moqtada al-Sadr holds great sway. In the end, as many as 18 soldiers were captured after the March 8 ambush, carried out by so-called “rogue elements” of Mr. Sadr’s Mahdi Army. [snip] The next day, the men were freed, but not all of them returned with their guns, newly issued US manufactured M16s that are now believed to be in the hands of … Continue reading I’d Hate To Ruin It

So much for thesuccess of the surge. Fighters from the Shi’ite Mehdi Army and U.S. soldiers exchanged rocket and mortar fire on Thursday, threatening a ceasefire declared by the militia’s leader, the anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al Sadr. Sadr, whose militia fought two battles against U.S. forces in southern Iraq in 2004, extended a ceasefire last month, but at the weekend issued a statement telling followers they could defend themselves if attacked. The ceasefire has been praised by U.S. commanders for reducing violence, with attacks across Iraq down by 60 percent since last June. But U.S. forces are stretched thin by … Continue reading The Party’s Over

So glad theSurge is working. BAGHDAD — Bombers unleashed a wave of explosions in Baghdad and north of the capital Monday, including two attacks that killed eight U.S. service members in the deadliest day for the military this year, American and Iraqi authorities said. Continue reading Tough Day Yesterday

Stay the Course! The flow of blood may be ebbing, but the flood of money into the Iraq war is steadily rising, new analyses show. In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the “burn” rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book. Beyond 2008, working with “best-case” and “realistic-moderate” scenarios, they project the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion — or more … Continue reading More Good News For Republikkkans

Via caliph garrett in comments, Dougie Feith blames the dog for eating his war: Among the disclosures made by Feith in “War and Decision,” scheduled for release next month by HarperCollins, is Bush’s declaration, at a Dec. 18, 2002, National Security Council meeting, that “war is inevitable.” The statement came weeks before U.N. weapons inspectors reported their initial findings on Iraq and months before Bush delivered an ultimatum to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Feith, who says he took notes at the meeting, registered it as a “momentous comment.” [snip] Others have criticized Feith’s plan as relying too heavily on Iraqi … Continue reading Rejected Title: ‘If I Did It’

It’s the precedent. A. Continue reading It’s Not The War Crimes

[sniff] Thank you, Surge. Iraq’s presidential council rejected Wednesday a measure setting up provincial elections — seen as a key step to develop Iraq’s nascent democracy — in the latest setback to U.S.-backed national reconciliation efforts. Continue reading Benchamrks, Bitches!

Apparently they areconfused.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that many Europeans are confused about NATO’s security mission in Afghanistan, and that they do not support the alliance effort because they opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq.

“I worry that for many Europeans the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan are confused,” Mr. Gates said as he flew here to deliver an address at an international security conference.

“I think that they combine the two,” Mr. Gates added. “Many of them, I think, have a problem with our involvement in Iraq, and project that to Afghanistan, and do not understand the very different — for them — the very different kind of threat.”

Gee, I wonder how they became so utterly confused. Perhaps it was statements like this?Chimpy, January 31, 2008:

And the two most evident places that that’s happening right now is in Afghanistan and Iraq. Both those countries are part of the war on terror. These aren’t separate, you know, wars; they’re part of the same war; different theaters, certainly different circumstances, but the outcome is essential for our security.

Continue reading “Stoopit Furriners”

Chimpy’s job approval rating slipped three percentage points in the latest Fox News Poll(two points above his all-time low in that poll) but these two paragraphs in Fox’s analysis of their poll results really struck me: Some congressional opponents to the president’s plan have suggested they may use the “power of the purse” to prevent additional troops being sent to Baghdad.A clear majority of Americans — 57 percent — says if they were in Congress they would vote against funding the troop increase; 38 percent would vote for it. On the broader question of cutting off all money for the … Continue reading 41% Want To Cut Off ALL Funding For Iraq War

But the question is justwho is surging? BAGHDAD, Feb 6 (KUNA) — The US Army Wednesday reported its forces in Iraq are on average hit with an anti-armor attack once every three days for over a month now. A statement by the MNF said such attacks increased over the past 35 days but caused no serious losses or damage. [snip] While the increased attacks only injured some MNF soldiers, they killed many innocent civilians who happen to be close by at the time of the attack, it said. The US Army recently shifted from humvees to more secure armored vehicles … Continue reading The Surge Is Working!

Prince criticizes the Bush Assministration’s general pigheadedness on Iraq. The United States could have avoided some of the problems it is experiencing in Iraq if it had listened to Britain’s advice and learned from its experiences, Prince Andrew said in an interview published Tuesday as he began a trade mission to the U.S. In a rare airing of political opinion by a senior member of the British royal family, the prince said the invasion and its aftermath had created a “healthy skepticism” in Britain about what was said in Washington and led many to ask, “Why didn’t anyone listen to … Continue reading Purple Rain

That’s a lot ofblood on his hands. More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to research conducted by one of Britain’s leading polling groups. The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB) with 2,414 adults in face-to-face interviews, found that 20 percent of people had had at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes. The last complete census in Iraq conducted in 1997 found 4.05 million households in the country, a figure ORB used to … Continue reading One Million Killed In Chimpy’s Vanity War

Huh-oh. Influential members of Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement have urged the anti-U.S. Shiite cleric not to extend a cease-fire when it expires next month, officials said Monday, a move that could jeopardize recent security gains. [snip] Al-Sadr’s August order for his feared Mahdi Army militia to freeze activities for six months was seen by U.S. commanders as a major factor in a nationwide reduction of violence. Continue reading Thus Ends The “Success” Of The Surge

Oy. A defense contractor hired to repair combat equipment routinely failed to do the job right and then charged the government millions of dollars for the extra work needed to get the gear ready for battle in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a newly released audit. Overall, the contractor’s employees at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait worked about 188,000 additional hours to fix Humvees, heavy transporters and fighting vehicles that allegedly were mended but flunked a military inspection, the Government Accountability Office said. The GAO estimates the Army paid $4.2 million for the additional labor. Under the terms of the $581 … Continue reading Nice Work If You Can Get It

Miserable Failure. Iraqi lawmakers have refused to pass the 2008 budget because of rows over funding, including how much money to give the autonomous Kurdistan region, in the latest sign of the country’s deep political divisions. Officials said on Tuesday that failure to pass the $48 billion budget would hold up vital spending at a time when Washington is urging the government to jumpstart the economy to take advantage of sharp falls in violence. “All projects at the ministries will be delayed, especially investment projects,” Planning Minister Ali Baban told Reuters. [snip] U.S. officials have praised the 2008 budget as … Continue reading Your Benchmarks Are Showing

Iraq forever! Two senior defense officials told a House committee today that Iraq’s growing security forces should be able to take full responsibility for internal security sometime between early 2009 and 2012, but they declined to predict when U.S. military personnel could withdraw from the country. In a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, the officials also said that Iraq would not be able to defend itself against external threats for at least another 10 to 12 years. They said that does not necessarily mean U.S. troops must remain in Iraq until then, although it was likely that forces … Continue reading Not Tellin’

Heckuva job, Chimpy! The cultivation of opium poppies whose product is turned into heroin is spreading rapidly across Iraq as farmers find they can no longer make a living through growing traditional crops. Afghan with experience in planting poppies have been helping farmers switch to producing opium in fertile parts of Diyala province, once famous for its oranges and pomegranates, north- east of Baghdad. At a heavily guarded farm near the town of Buhriz, south of the provincial capital Baquba, poppies are grown between the orange trees in order to hide them, according to a local source. [snip] The speed … Continue reading The Afghanization of Iraq

February 8, 2004: I’m a war president. October 26, 2006: You know, when I campaigned here in 2000, I said, I want to be a war President. January 15, 2008: “My image [is] ‘Bush wants to fight Muslims.’ And, yes, I’m concerned about it. Not because of me, personally. I’m concerned because I want most people to understand the great generosity and compassion of Americans,” he said. “I’m sure people view me as a war monger and I view myself as peacemaker,” the president said. Continue reading War President