The War in Iraq

Use of private contractors in Iraq proves costly

Cheney Energy Task Force documents feature map of Iraqui Oilfields. Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under court order as a result of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.” The documents, which are dated March 2001, are available on the Internet at: www.JudicialWatch.org. Keep reading

Entre padre e hijo estadounidenses

Pentagon hiding reality of toll from war in Iraq

The Army concludes that at least 21 soldiers committed suicide in Iraq

A Little Perspective

This is the nail in the Iraq War's coffin for any sane, thinking individual, regardless of their political stripe. (Thanks to Tom Paine.com and the Center for American Progress.)

To get some perspective, here are some real-life comparisons about what $87 billion means:

$87 Billion is more than the combined total of all State budget deficits in the United States. The Bush administration proposed absolutely zero funds to help states deal with these deficits, despite the fact that their tax cuts drove down state revenues. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities].

$87 Billion is enough to pay the 3.3 million people who have lost jobs under George W. Bush $26,363.00 each! The unemployment benefits extension passed by Congress at the beginning of this year provides zero benefits to workers who exhausted their regular, state unemployment benefits and cannot find work [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities].

$87 Billion is more than double the total amount the government spends on Homeland Security. The U.S.spends about $36 billion on homeland security. Yet, Sen. Warren Rudman (R- NH.) wrote, Americawill fall approximately $98 .4 billion short of meeting critical emergency responder needs for homeland security without a funding increase. [Source: Council on Foreign Relations].

$87 Billion is 87 times the amount the Federal Government spends on After School Programs. George W. Bush proposed a budget that reduces the $1 billion for after-school programs to $600 million cutting off about 475,000 children from the program. [Source: The Republican-dominated House Appropriations Committee].

$87 Billion is more that 10 times what the Government spends on all environmental Protection. The Bush administration requested just $7.6 billion for the entire Environmental Protection Agency. This included a 32 percent cut to water quality grants, a 6 percent reduction in enforcement staff, and a 50 percent cut to land acquisition and conservation. [Source: Natural Resources Defense Council].

There you go. In black and white. A few million of you will receive this letter. Please share the above with at least a half-dozen people today and tomorrow. I, like you, do not want to see another approval rating over 50 percent.

Most Iraq Deaths Are Guardsmen, Reservists.
As they prepare to increase their role in Iraq including more combat duty, soldiers with the Army National Guard and Army Reserve already are experiencing a bigger share of U.S. military deaths there.

Brain injuries high among Iraq casualties

Iraq and Liberal Interventionism in American Foreign Policy– PART 1

by Larry DeWitt

Intimations of Greatness-

In mid-November the President of the United States stood in historic 17th century Banqueting House of Whitehall Palace in London and spoke to the British aristocracy–and through the media to the British people and to the world–about the war in Iraq. The Banqueting House haS been the setting for state banquets and for similar speeches for nearly four hundred years. On that afternoon in November 2003 the speaker of the moment reminded a listener of no one so much as Winston Churchill, who roamed the rooms of Whitehall for sixty years himself. This was a surprising invocation since the speaker was George W. Bush, he of the fractured syntax and, up to now, a mind like a mullet and a soulfulness little deeper than a college frat boy. And yet it was indeed George W. Bush, and the words he spoke, and the depth of conviction with which he spoke them, could only be fairly described as Churchillian. There were, I would even say, intimations of greatness in that speech. Keep reading

November Deadliest Month in Iraq. Keep reading

In the past seven months, at least 11 soldiers and three Marines have committed suicide in Iraq, military officials say. That is an annual rate of 17 per 100,000. The Navy also is investigating one possible suicide. And about a dozen other Army deaths are under investigation and could include suicides. Keep reading

"The war on terrorism as pursued by the Bush Administration cannot be won. On the contrary, it may bring about a permanent state of war. Terrorists will never disappear. They will continue to provide a pretext for the pursuit of American supremacy. That pursuit, in turn, will continue to generate resistance. Further, by turning the hunt for terrorists into a war, we are bound to create innocent victims. The more innocent victims there are, the greater the resentment and the better the chances that some victims will turn into perpetrators". George Soros. Keep reading