Thursday, September 13, 2007

THIS JUST IN! UGLY BULLY'S BACKSTAGE PROBLEMS!

 
MERE HOURS AWAY FROM THE DEBUT OF UGLY BULLY, AIRING AFTER UGLY BETTY ON ABC TONIGHT, BULLY BOY RECEIVED BAD NEWS.
 
THE SCRIPT HE REHEARSED INCLUDED LAVISH PRAISE FOR THE "MODEL PROVINCE" (TRADEMARK PENDING TO TONY SNOW) AL ANBAR BUT TODAY'S NEWS INCLUDED THE DEATH OF HIS CHIEF COLLABORATOR -- WHO DINED WITH BULLY BOY LAST MONDAY -- BY A BOMBING.
 
BULLY BOY WAS SO UPSET HE BEGAN ATTEMPTING TO GO ON A BENDER.  SADLY, LAURA BUSH REFUSED TO SHARE ANY OF HER BEER, INSISTING, "I ONLY HAVE 3 SIX PACKS!  I MAY NOT MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT!"
 
REMEMBER HIS DAYS IN HOUSTON, BULLY BOY BEGAN LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO SNORT BUT SADLY COULD ONLY FIND GROUND RED PEPPER WHICH HE PROCEEDED TO SNORT 15 LINES OF.
 
"IT WAS SCARY FOR A BIT," EXPLAINED U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE AND ANGER CONDI RICE TO THESE REPORTERS.  "WE HAD TO SUMMON A DOCTOR BECAUSE HE HAS AN INTENSE SNEEZING AND WHEEZING FIT.  HIS EYES ARE BLOOD SHOT BUT AMERICA ALREADY OVERLOOKS THAT SO WE WERE FINE THERE BUT THERE WAS NO WAY, WITH THAT HOARSE VOICE, HE COULD PERFORM THE OPENING NUMBER SO WE CUT THAT."
 
BULLY BOY WAS HOLED UP IN HIS DRESSING ROOM IN CURLERS REPORTEDLY CONSUMING VAST AMOUNTS OF CHINESE FOOD AND ICED TEA TO FLUSH THE SNORTED RED PEPPER OUT OF HIS SYSTEM.
 
 
Ugly Bully follows Ugly Betty in primetime as Bully Boy -- currently at a 36% approval rating in the latest CNN poll "unchanged from an August poll and barely above where it was in January" -- attempts to resell his illegal war all over again.  But there's a problem with the sales pitch.  The "model province" was Al-Anbar Province (if you believed the soft and easy press -- that was never reality).  And now . . . a plot twist.
 
 
 
Starting with war resisters and returning to the roundtable where Brian Lenzo and Kyle Brown (US Socialist Worker) speak with war resister Eli Israel, war resister Camilo Mejia and Phil Aliff.  Lenzo and Brown asked Mejia and Israel why they made a decision to resist?
Mejia replies, "I got tired of being afraid.  I realized that with everything that happened in Iraq -- and a lot of messed-up sh*t happened, from the torture of prisoners to the killing of civilians to the unnecessary exposure of our own troops -- and the inability to stand for what I believed was the right thing to do, and being there with the political conviction that the war was wrong, freedom really has nothing to do with not being in shackles or chains but with your own ability to do what you believe in your heart to be the right thing to do.  I had to overcome my fear.  I knew all along what the right thing was but I hadn't had the freedom to act upon that belief.  It got to the point where I could no longer conciliate my conscience with my military duty, and I decided that whenever being a good soldier and being a good human being came into conflict, the right thing to do was be a good human being."
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Zamesha Dominique, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko,Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
 
 
 
Resistance is ongoing in the US and gearing up for Saturday, September 15th (see ANSWER for more information) mass protests will be taking place in DC and IVAW will lead a "die-in". This will be part of a several days of action lasting from the 15th through the 18th. September 17th IVAW will kick off Truth in Recruiting. CODEPINK will be conducting a Peoples March Inside Congress (along with other groups and individuals) on September 17th. United for Peace & Justice (along with others) will begin Iraq Moratorium on September 21st and follow it every third Friday of the month as people across the country are encouraged to wear and distribute black ribbons and armbands, purchase no gas on those Fridays, conduct vigils, pickets, teach-ins and rallies, etc. 
 
[. . .]
 
Turning to other news, Wednesday on WBAI's Wakeupcall Radio, Sue Udry (United For Peace and Justice) spoke with Deepa Fernades about [PDF format warning] "Iraq: The People's Report" which details a number of issues including the Iraqi refugee crisis, the lack of power and potable water.  Udry noted, "We're up close to half a trillion dollars -- five hundred billion dollars spent in Iraq. And the Bush administration is asking -- we're still not sure how much more he wants.  But between 140 and 200 billion more.  But that-that five-hundred billion could have been spent on for example, in the US could have built, over 4 million affordable housing units we could have paid 7 million public school teachers, we could have insured 272 million unisured childred."
 
The report  has many strong points.  But it's already led to complaints on campuses we've spoken at this week.  The question students want to know (wording it nicely here): Is there a reason Phyllis Bennis and Eric Lever low ball the number of Iraqis who have lost their lives?  "Estimates range from 71,017-600,000+" is shameful.  If they're going to go with the lower estimate (Iraq Body Count) it is incumbent upon Bennis and Lever to use the correct number from the Lancet Study which WAS NOT six-hundred-thousand-plus.  It was 655,000-plus. [PDF format warning] "Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey" was written by Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy and Les Roberts.  From the third paragraph of the summary: "We estimate that as of July 2006, there have been 654 965 (392979-942636) which corresponds to 2-5% of the population in the study area."  The number is 654,965 and that was the number through July 2006 -- last year.  In October of 2006, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) began the interview she and Juan Gonzalez conducted with Les Brown noting, "More than 650,000 people have died in Iraq since the U.S. led invasion of the country began in March of 2003.  This is according to a new study published in the scientific journal, The Lancet.  The studdy was conducted by researches at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad."  On March 27th of this year, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted, "BBC News is reporting the British government ignored the conclusions of its own experts when it dismissed a medical studdy estimating more than 650,000 Iraqis have died due to the Iraq war.  The study appeared in the British medical journal the Lancet last year.  Researches based their findings on interviews with a random sampling of households taken in clusters across Iraq.  In newly-released memos, the chief scientific adviser at Britain's Ministry of Defence called the researcher's methods 'close to best practice' and 'robust.'  Both the US and Britain publicly rejected the study and criticized its methods."
 
That may be understandable from government liars.  It is not understandable from peace groups. What could have been a strong resource for UFPJ has instead become a source of mockery or a source of anger on several college campuses.  And you know what?  The students are right to be angry.  Saying 600,000 is dishonest. And the number was over 600,000 in July of 2006 -- over a year ago.  Things like getting the numbers wrong (intentionally) go a long way towards explaining why so many students against the illegal war are writing off the established peace movement.  This is the warning and groups can heed it or they can ignore it.  But stunts like that are exactly why students are washing their hands of a number of groups and see them as inherently useless.  (The authors of the report should also be paying attention to the reaction.  Especially Bennis because she's better known and that's not a good thing in this instance.) 
 
1,040,369 is the current estimate of Iraqis killed during the illegal war.  That number is via Just Foreign Policy which uses the Lancet study as well as the deaths reported since then -- and notes that all deaths are not reported so the number is higher than their estimate.   In September of 2007, you need to do better than offer up a number from July of 2006 (which you still get wrong) and when you don't, you better accept the questions you're inviting about exactly how much value you place on Iraqi lives because the student movement has moved beyond the nonsense that's being pushed off on them.  They're not the timid crowd and they're not going to take direction from anyone but especially not from those they don't trust.  Something as basic as the numbers leads to questions, not trust.
 
 
Finally, on PBS' NOW with David Brancaccio: this week (Friday's on most PBS stations), the program expands to an hour for a special look at the Third Infantry's First Brigade which is on it's third deployment to Iraq. A preview is posted at YouTube. The earlier broadcast of interviewing the Third Infantry's First Brigade can be found here. And NOW is offering an online exclusive of interviews with members of the Third Infantry and their spouses.
 
 

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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

THIS JUST IN! BARACK GOES BOTH WAYS ON IRAQ!

 
MAKING ABOUT AS MUCH SENSE AS ONE OF DAVID BROOKS' MYTHICAL "BOBO"S, BARACK OBAMA ISSUED HIS 'PLAN' TODAY STATING "WE NEED TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN THE RESPONSIBLE REMOVAL OF OUR TROOPS FROM IRAQ'S CIVIL WAR"    WHILE ALSO SAYING, "WE WILL NEED TO RETAIN SOME FORCES IN IRAQ AND THE REGION."
 
MAYBE HE GOT CONFUSED BY HIS OWN LONG WINDED NATURE?
 
IN BAD NEWS FOR HOPRAH AND HER BOOK CLUB, ALTHOUGH OBAMA WAS INTRODUCED BY ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, HE'S FACING CALLS TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM BRZEZINSKI OVER A BOOK.  HOPRAH, SCREEN ALL YOUR SELECTIONS WITH THE PERSON IN CHARGE OF OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN (SAMANTHA POWER) BEFORE ANNOUNCING THEM!
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance, Eli Israel is the first US service member to publicly refuse to take part in the illegal war while stationed in Iraq.  Brian Lenzo and Kyle Brown (US Socialist Worker) speak with Israel, war resister Camilo Mejia and Phil Aliff.  Here, Eli Israel is discussing what he realized while in Iraq:
 
Militarily, you can't fight "terrorism" by browbeating "terrorists." You can't terrify terrorists into not attacking you.
And let's throw out the word "terrorists." You can't browbeat people into not attacking you. Believe it or not, most people want to live in peace. Believe it or not, most Palestinians and Israelis want to live in peace. 
I've changed my perspective on the world in so many ways because of what's going on in Iraq. To think that they would continue this situation forever without us doing the things we're doing is ridiculous. 
We're creating people to attack us tomorrow. The doors that are getting kicked in, the people who are being harassed, the children who are crying, the women who are seeing their houses torn apart in front of them, the men who are being shot while defending their own families, the neighbors who are being interrogated with Tasers to turn in their neighbors--all of those people are going to hate us for what we're doing. 
When are we going to accept responsibility?
 
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Zamesha Dominique, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko,Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
 
 
Greg Mitchell (Editor & Publisher) reports that Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance T. Gray are among the dead from Monday's Baghdad "vehicle accident".  The two, along with five other active duty service members, wrote a New York Times column entitled "Iraq As We See It."
Dropping back to the August 20th snapshot:
 
On Sunday, the New York Times ran a piece written by seven active duty service members entitled "Iraq As We See It" (click here for Common Dreams, click here for International Herald Tribune -- available in full at both without registration) which noted "Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricty, telephone services and sanitation. 'Lucky' Iraqis live in communities barricaded with concrete walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal. In an environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. . . . In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are -- an army of occupation -- and force our withdrawal." The piece is signed by US Army specialist Buddhika Jayamaha, Sgt. Wesley D. Smith, Sgt. Jeremy Roebuck, Sgt. Omar Mora, Sgt. Edward Sandmeier, Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, Staff Sgt. and Jeremy A. Murphy.
 
Mitchell notes, "One of the other five authors of the Times piece, Staff Sergeant Jeremy Murphy, an Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head while the article was being written. He was expected to survive after being flown to a military hospital in the United States."
 
 
As a warm up act, Davey & the Petraeuses didn't do much to excite the crowds, not even the duet (performed with Ryan Crocker) of "Stay" ("a little bit longer . . .") did much to whet appetites for the main attraction.  The reviews were hostile to brutal.  The San Jose Mercury News editorialized that Davey couldn't "conceal that the surge has failed" and "Bush has no strategy beyond his faith in Petraeus and the knowledge that, in 14 months, Iraq will become another president's burden."  Newsday's James P. Pinkerton felt Davy's act was old and moldy and explained how it had been pulled from mothballs out of the Vietnam era. Stan Goff (CounterPunch) found the offstage chorus lacking and also wasn't impressed with Davey's costume: "The articulate, level-voiced General, though he only went to combat when Bush invaded Iraq, has more fruit salad on his chest than any veteran of three previous wars."
 Arun Gupta (Democracy Now!) pointed out that Davey had never lived up to the earlier hype including a 2004 Newsweek cover which boasted of his abilities to train the Iraq police and military and that when he trained Shia militias (such as the Special Police Commandos) he "issued the usual denials: 'Oh, we're not giving them any weapons.  This is an Iraqi initiative.'  And so, now he's saying the same thing with the Sunni militias."
 
 
 
So Thursday night, Ugly Bully airs on ABC following Ugly Betty as Bully Boy takes to primetime to deliver his equivalent of Tricky Dick's "Peace With Honor" speech.  Though Bully Boy's speech is expected to be as out of touch and laced with lies as Nixon's January 23, 1973 speech, his speech writers are still hard at work in attempting to top the howlers Nixon lobbed such as "The important thing was not to talk about peace".  A 'wisdom' Bully Boy has internalized.
 
In the October issue of Vanity Fair, former New York Times reporter Todd S. Purdum offers the establishment view on the Bully Boy that's still worlds away from what he could have offered at the New York Timid.  From "Inside Bush's Bunker" (page 334, article runs from 332 to 335 and 390-395):
 
Now, with not quite a year and a half left before Bush leaves office, we have already arrived at the beleaguered endgame of his presidency.  From deep inside the fortified precints of the White House, the president projects a preternatural calm.  He gives orders to nonexistent armies, which his remaining lieutenants gamely transmit: "Reform immigration!" "Overhaul the tax codes!" "Privatize Social Security!" Outside the bunker, in the country that his administration now refers to as "the homeland," there is chaos and confusion.  The Democrats bridged the Ptomac after winning the elections last fall, and the Blue Army has now overrun most of political Washington.  Its flag flies above the Capitol.  More and more of the president's subordinates have been captured and interrogated, most notabley the attorney general, Alberto Gonzales.  Others, such as Matthew Dowd, the president's former chief campaign strategist, have managed to make good their escape -- Dowd by parachuting onto the front page of the enemy New York Times with a detailed denuciation of Bush's policies.  Indepenent powers that would sue for peace -- the Baker-Hamilton Commission, for example -- have been banished.  Some loyalists, including presidential counselor Dan Bartlett, have simply fled to the safety of the private sector.  For one reason or another, most of the commander in chief's senior advisers are now gone, replaced by callow upstarts and last-chance opportunists.  The two most powerful advisers have been the president's second-in-command and his propaganda minister -- his vice president and his political strategist -- who had been at his side from the beginning and have remained close and trusted, despite the catastrophes they helped to engineer.  Dick Cheney will haunt the bunker till the end, but the political strategist, Karl Rove, has quietly slipped away.  The leader himself -- with his lady and his loyal dog -- soldiers on, in an atmosphere of disconnection and illusion.  Lurid tabloid tales may hint at binge drinking and marital estrangement, although visitors report uniformly, and much to their surprise, that the president seems optimistic, unbowed, chipper, his gaze bright and steadfast.  The tide is about to turn!  We will prevail!  But it is a hermetic and solidarity existence. 
 
Also in the current issue of Vanity Fair is Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele (Vanity Fair) report on the theft of millions in Iraq (article noted in the September 5th snapshot).  The Pulitzer Prize winning correspondents discussed their article with Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) today.
 
 
 

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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

THIS JUST IN! DAVY'S BLOT'S ALL HE'S GOT!

 
GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS SPENT THE EVENING SOBBING AFTER SENATOR BARBARA BOXER ADMONISHED HIM TODAY TO TAKE OFF THE "ROSY COLORED GLASSES."
 
"I REFUSED THE ROSE COLORED GLASSES!" DAVY PETRAEUS SOBBED.  "BOBBY GATES SAID I SHOULD WEAR THEM BUT I SAID NO.  I ALSO TOOK OUT ALL THE LINES ABOUT BEING 'HAPPY TO SERVE THE WHITE HOUSE AS BUTT-BOY'!  DON'T I GET CREDIT FOR ANYTHING!  FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL CALLED ME TODAY AND SAID, 'HA HA, YOU'VE GOT A BLOT NOW TOO!'  HE SAYS IT'S LIKE HERPES AND IT WON'T GO AWAY!  CAN YOU SEE IT?"
 
 
 
Starting with war resisters, John Catalinotto (Workers World) takes a look at war resistance and observes, "Recruiting is way down among African Americans and contested throughout Puerto Rico. The military is drawing from an ever narrower base--small-town USA and immigrants desperate for a quicker road to legal status. Army, Marine and National Guard troops are sent for multiple and longer tours to Iraq and Afghanistan.  Meanwhile, organizers of the GI anti-war movement gathered in St. Louis from Aug. 15 to 19 for conventions of Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). During the IVAW convention, IVAW elected a new board, and this board in turn selected by consensus one of the first war resisters, former Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, as its new chair-elect."  Catalinotto then leads a dialogue with Different Drummer's Paul Foley, Appeal for Redress' Jonathan Hutto, and IVAW's Mejia, Margaret Stevens, Liam Madden and Phil Aliff.  Stevens, who became the new treasurer for IVAW, points out, "It has political significance that Mejia is popular in the organization and respected as a war resister. It says a lot about what people think is the right way to challenge the problem. Camilo said three years ago: 'I won't participate. It is a bad military and I won't help participate.' It is a very courageous stand. He earned his stripes."  Camilo Mejia tells the story of his stand and how he came to the decision in Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia published last May.
 
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Zamesha Dominique, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko,Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
 
Turning to violence in Iraq, Ali al-Fadhily (IPS) examines the violence being conducted by the rival Shia sects which "have spread across southern Iraq and Baghdad" and observes, "Many Iraqis are outraged at the government's inability to contain the crisis.  They also say the government is making misleading statements."  Meanwhile Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London via CounterPunch) points out a key factor missing in the 'Petraeus' 'report': "The truest indicator of the level of violence in Iraq is the number of people fleeing their homes because they are terrified that they will be murdered.  According to the UN High Commission for Refugees the number of refugees has risen from 50,000 to 60,000 a month and none are returning.  Iraqi society is breaking down.  It is no longer possible to get medical treatment for many ailments because 75 per cent of doctors, pharmacists have left their jobs in the hospitals, clinics and universities.  The majority of these have fled abroad to join the 2.2 million Iraqis outside the country."  Today on Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman interviewed Rick Rowley and broadcast his documentary on the realities of  the 'model' province, Al Anbar:
 
AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about General Petraeus's report, we're joined by filmmaker and journalist Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films. He has just returned from Iraq, where he closely tracked the situation in Anbar province. In a few minutes we'll broadcast a report that Rick shot in Anbar province, but first your comments on the testimony of Ambassador Crocker, Rick, and General Petraeus.
RICK ROWLEY: Well, when General Petraeus says that they're merely applauding these tribes from the sidelines, he's lying. I mean, while we were embedded with the Americans, we saw American military commanders hand wads of cash to tribal militias. And when he says that they are facilitating their integration into the country's security forces, what he means is they're pressuring Iraq's government to incorporate these militias wholesale into the police forces. In fact, that's one of the promises that these tribes are given, that after working with the Americans for a few months, they'll become Iraqi police, be armed by the Iraqi state and be put on regular payroll. So it's completely disingenuous, what he's saying.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain who these militias are in Anbar province that the US troops are working with.
RICK ROWLEY: Well, it's been widely reported that these are former insurgents who were fighting Americans in the past. And that, you know, is troubling for American soldiers. But the far more troubling issue for Iraq is that many of these groups are war criminals who are responsible for sectarian cleansing in the region.
We spent a month and a half in the country, and we crisscrossed Iraq. I was traveling with David Enders and met with the production support of Hiba Dawood, and we found entire communities of refugees who had been displaced by exactly the same tribes that the US had been working with in other parts of the country.
So, you know, it's one thing for Americans to call this a reconciliation process and say that, you know, we're fine with working with people who used to be fighting with us, but it's an entirely different thing for them to be funding groups who are already responsible for sectarian cleansing and are arming themselves for a sectarian civil war.
 
Remember, DN! offers audio, video and transcripts, watch, listen or read the exclusive report. In some of today's reported violence . . .
 
Bombings?
 
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad mortar attack that left seven people wounded, a Baghdad car bombing that claimed 1 life and left five more wounded.
 
Shootings?
 
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports an attack in Diyala that left 2 police officers shot dead, twelve police officers wounded, and 10 assailants dead.  Reuters notes six police officers dead from a checkpoint appointment outside Qaiyara, an Iraqi "security officer" was shot dead in Riyadh while "an Iraqi army officer" was shot dead in Kirkuk.  And, dropping back to yesterday, Robert H. Reid (AP) reports, "Also Monday, U.S. and Iraqi troops killed three civilians during a raid in Sadr City, police and residents said. Bleichwehl, the military spokesman, said the raid targeted a suspected Shiite extremist who eluded capture. He said there were no reports of civilian or military casualties. But residents showed AP Television News the coffins of the people they said were killed in the raid - a woman and her two daughters. A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, confirmed they were killed in the firefight."
 
Kidnapping?
 
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a student was kidnapped in the "village of Taxa (south Kirkuk)."
 
Corpses?
 
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 12 corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes a corpse was discovered in Abbasi.
 
Meanwhile, in DC, the circus goes on as Gen. David Petraeus maintains he wrote his own report -- and apparently dyed his own hair -- while repeating every bit of spin the Bully Boy's handlers could dream up.  Cindy Sheehan observes of the US Congress' refusal to end the illegal war (observes at Common Dreams):
 
How do I know that Congress is playing politics with human hearts? All one has to do is observe the lack of action on the part of the red and blue pigs to come to this sad but inevitable conclusion. Apparently, MAJORITY Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) has spent more time over his summer recess trying to convince red pigs to go against George's war plan than he spent trying to coalesce his blue caucus into something that would not resemble the red pigs so closely that the blur becomes purple. He and Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) have already decided that they do not have enough votes to end the occupation just as they decided that impeachment was "off the table" even before they were elected! So they will happily hand over to George more of your tax money and China's money to continue the killing fields in Iraq. Why are they so miserly with democracy, but generous with our treasury and with our dear human treasure?        
I got two very overt answers to this question one day in Congress this past spring when I was on the Hill. In one of my meetings with Congressman Conyers, he told me that it was more important to put a Democrat back in the White House in '08 than it was to "end the war." After I recovered from my shock, I knew it was confirmed that partisan politics is exactly what is killing our children and the innocent civilians in Iraq. My next stop was in a Congresswoman's office who has always been 100% correct about the war. She is a lovely woman with a lovely heart and does not in anyway qualify (and there are a few dozen others who do not) as a blue pig. She had tears in her eyes when she told me: "Cindy, when I go to Speaker's meetings and we talk about the war, all the talk is about politics and not one of them mentions the heartbreak that will occur if we don't pull our troops out, now." People are dying for two diverse but equally deadly political agendas. The red pigs want to keep the war going because they feed out of the trough of carnage and the blue pigs want to keep it going for votes! Either way is reprehensible.
 
Just Foreign Policy's Robert Naiman notes (at Common Dreams) of the Democrats' purchasing of the illegal war before their summer break, "It's true that under current Senate rules, on a free-standing bill, 60 votes would be needed on an Iraq bill to overcome a filibuster threat. (Why we tolerate that only 51 Senate votes are needed to confirm nominees to the Supreme Court who oppose fundamental civil rights protections for all Americans, but 60 Senate votes are needed to pass free-standing legislation to end the Iraq war, is a question that deserves a great deal of further scrutiny.) But as we saw on the fight over the supplemental, only 51 votes are needed to attach withdrawal language to legislation that continues to fund the war. With less than 60 votes, the Senate attached a timetable for withdrawal. The President, as expected, vetoed the legislation. Then the Senate backed down. There was no legal or constitutional reason for the Senate to back down. It was a political decision. As a legal matter, the outcome of a confrontation where the Senate and the President agree to fund something, but don't agree on the legislative language to go along with the funding, is undetermined. It's just a question of who blinks first. The Senate could have agreed to continue funding on a temporary basis while the confrontation continued -- that's what the House did -- but 51 Senators didn't have the stomach for that either."  He goes on to explain that with Tim Johnson back in the Senate and Republican Senators indicating (such as Chuck Hagel again today) a break with the White House over Iraq, leadership could round up 51 votes.  It's also true, as Ruth reminded us over the weekend, Mike Gravel laid out another way to get legislation through when he was a guest for the August 8, 2007 broadcast of NPR's The Diane Rehm Show:
 
Real simple. You see, they do a cloture vote. Oh one cloture vote, two, can't do it. Stop. Or an override veto. Can't do it? Stop. That's ridiculous. The rules permit to have a vote on cloture every single day, seven days a week, and all the way through this August recess which they're all taking -- and then when the bill comes back vetoed they can repeat it every single day and, I promise you, Diane, that in twenty, forty days we will have a law on the books to withdraw the troops from Iraq. Now time is fleeting. This could have been done by Labor Day and all, I mean all the troops, would come home by Christmas.
 
 
Grasping what Congressional 'leadership' refuses to, Gwen Van Veldhuizen lays out very clearly in her letter to The Modesto Bee: "The time has come for our healthy young Americans to be pulled out of Iraq.  They are in harm's way.  They are in the middle of a civil war.  A recent documentary has shown that if Iraqis run away from American troops, our troops are instructed to shoot.  My niece, who is in the Army, confirms this. [. . . ] The troops who have changed their hearts and minds about their mission in Iraq have goen absent without leave.  They have seen fathers killed while their children cry.  Soldiers don't go AWOL on a whim.  A lot of serious consequences follow such a decision.  Amid all this turmoil, I hear that President Bush's daughter is getting married . . . how sweet."
 
 

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Monday, September 10, 2007

THIS JUST IN! DAVY PETRAEUS POUTS!

 
GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS POUTED AND WHINED TODAY FOLLOWING HIS "BLAH, BLAH, LIE, BLAH, BLAH BLAH, SPIN, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, AVOID" TESTIMONY TO CONGRESS.
 
"THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY BIG D-A-A-A-A-A-A-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y!"  HE WHINED LIKE A BRIDE UPSTAGED AT HER OWN WEDDING. 
 
 
"I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE A-TOPIC!" HE SCREAMED STAMPING HIS FOOT.  "EVEN BRITNEY SPEARS' BOMBING AT THE MTV AWARDS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO UPSTAGE ME!  IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY BIG D-A-A-A-A-A-A-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y!  I EVEN PUT THIS AWFUL BROWN SHOE POLISH IN MY HAIR!"
 
 
Starting with war resistance, Laura K (We Move To Canada) offers some basic needed steps to support the war resisters who have gone to Canada:
 
Here are some practical ways you can help.
Buy the video. "Let Them Stay" was produced by the War Resisters Support Campaign. It's an excellent introduction to the issue, and can help educate you and others about what US war resisters are facing in Canada. The Support Campaign is an all-volunteer organization. 100% of your $20 will go towards legal and material aid for war resisters.
Contact the federal government. Write your MP. Write Stephen Harper. Write the Immigration Minister. Tell them this is the Canada you want to live in. Tell them: let them stay.
Sign the petition. If you haven't done so already, join 14,000 of your countrypeople in asking the government to let them stay.
Spread the word. How many Canadians don't even know there are US war resisters seeking refuge in Canada? Among those who know, how many mistakenly believe the former soldiers can just live legally in Canada? Talk to your friends, your co-workers, your running buddies, the folks at your dog park. You can help raise awareness, and help create support for those three words.
October 27, 2007 is an International Day of Action Against War. Join your neighbours to protest the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. There will be simultaneous protests in Canada and the US. Resisters will be there. Let them stay.
 
These steps and others are needed because, though unreported (big suprise), the number of US war resisters in Canada continues to grow.
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Zamesha Dominique, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko,Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
 
As Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today "the Bush administration's top two officials in Iraq are set to give Congress their long-awaited progress report on the Iraq war.  The expected outcome is more of the same."  In August, a CNN poll found 53% of Americans "suspect that the military assessment will try to make it sound better than it actually is" (Wally's "THIS JUST IN! US SAYS: 'PETREAUS WILL BETRAY US!'" and Cedric's "Petreaus wet & wild moment haunts him" noted the reaction as well) with the Polling Director, Keating Holland, for CNN saying that he didn't "think the mistrust is directed at Petreaus as much as it is what he represents."  That was in August.  Today, Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted a Washington Post - ABC News poll just released that found . . . 53% say "they believe Petraeus will try to sugar-coat the situation on the ground." The poll was reported by the Post on Sunday and also found 64% disapprove of the Bully Boy's "handling his job," 62% declaring that the Iraq War was "not worth fighting," 60% say the US "is not making significant progress toward restoring civil order in Iraq," 58% say the escalation "hasn't made much difference," 54% do not believe "the security situation" in Iraq will improve "over the next few months," 58% want to see the number of US service members in Iraq decrease," 55% support setting "a deadline for withdrawing U.S. combat forces from Iraq by next spring" and 62% say the US should withdraw "right away".  Let's repeat that: 62 percent of those polled said the US forces should begin leaving Iraq "right away."  When you add in the portion for "By the end of the year" (27%) the percentage leaps to 89%.  89 percent of Americans support US troops beginning to leave Iraq by the end of 2007.  Not 2008, not 2009. CBS and the New York Times poll released Sunday (by CBS) found 45% of those survey saw "no impact" from the escalation.  That poll (with a 3% plus/minus margin) found a six percent increase in the number supporting the escalation since August.  On ABC's This Week Sunday, it was the never ending Dinasour Tour as Cokie Roberts, George Will and Sam Donaldson (on tamborines) joined George Stephanopoulos for the roundtable and Cokie Roberts pimped (from apparently the CBS poll) the tiny increase as big news until Stephanopoulos corrected her by pointing out just how small the increase in this one poll was. Stephanopolous also noted the 62% figure in the CBS - New York Times' poll who stated the US "made a mistake getting involved in Iraq."  That figure matches up with the 62% in the Washington Post - ABC poll who stated that "the war with Iraq" was not "worth fighting." (If Stephanopolous was referring to the Post poll, he should have noted the six percent increase in the escalation making things "better" -- also a margin of +3 or -3 -- that "no difference" also had an increase.  Guests or moderator stating "a poll by ___" would also clarify which poll was being cited.)
 
In both polls, 62% of Americans declare the illegal war a mistake.  The Washington Post - ABC News poll, again, has 89% of Americans wanting the US forces to beginning withdrawing "right now" or by the end of 2007.  We could go to Congress, but let's go to the peace movement instead because it's not pretty.  This weekend, Common Dreams posted Tom Hayden's strategy for . . . "Ending the War in 2009."  2009.  2009?  It's 2007 and people are yet again be encouraged for two more years.  Tom Hayden is hitting the snooze button when America needs to be waking up.  Rabbi Micheal Lerner, on Friday, posted a transcript of various members of the peace movement participating in a dialogue with some members of Congress.  In a news article (link goes to Common Dreams, we don't link to the original site), Lerner states that "even the people in the anti-war movement don't have - a coherent alternative world view from which to base a strategy."   My "world view" sees him beating the hell of his "inner child."  If that does something for him, more power to him.  However, there is no "world view" needed to end the illegal war (if a "world view" is indeed missing currently).  Nor is there a need to wait for 2009 to end the illegal war.  And you have to wonder why US House Rep Lynn Woolsey even bothered to participate in the dialogue that Lerner later posted if no one's going to listen to her? 
 
In the dialogue Tim Carpenter, of Progressive Democrats of America, discusses how his group and UFPJ have "been working hard" and "doing email blasts during the recess and Congressional visits.  We've generated a little over 9,000 of those emails blast into the [Speaker's?] office . . ."  No offense to Carpenter but did he, Lerner or anyone else participating follow what Woolsey replied?
 
Lynn Woolsey: That's all very useful, Tim, and it's very meaningful.  Because people aren't in the streets, because they're electronically communicating, it's easier for the Congress or the media to pretend that it isn't happening, but it isn't visible.  Now people start asking: "Why aren't people on the streets?" And I say that they are on the streets, they're on their blog, and they're communicating.  We get 3000 emails sometimes in a day, and other members are too, and you cannot pretend the public's not interested in this.
 
Woolsey is a nice person so it would be a smart thing to strip away the kind words and zoom in on: "Because people aren't in the streets, because they're electronically communicating, it's easier for the Congress or the media to pretend that it isn't happening".  I know several people participating in that dialogue and am not trying to beat any of them over the head, but what Woolsey is saying should be loud and clear to everyone.
 
Leslie Cagan (UPFJ) notes that the strategy that's been pushed (by WalkOn.org) has been target Repubes and notes that she feels (I agree with her) that "a lot of their strategy is geared towards the Presidential elections and the Congressional elections next year."  What does Woolsey respond?  "Well, maybe you folks should go after the Democrats."  Woolsey is a nice person, she's also very smart.  Now maybe in a conversation, those statements can drift over heads.  When they appear in the transcript, there should be no confusion. 
 
Medea Benjamin (CODEPINK -- whom I have tremendous respect for) is focused, in her first two sentences, on the fact that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won't meet with activists.  Pelosi won't.  Benjamin's correct.  Benjamin (far smarter than I) should be able to grasp Pelosi is NOT GOING to.  If she's forced, she might.  Pelosi talks it up when she comes home but what does she ever do when she's in DC?  What has she ever done?  (Disclosure: I have donated to Pelosi's campaigns -- all of them -- in the past.  I have already stated I am behind Cindy Sheehan in this race.)  Pelosi plays a cute little show when she comes home.  She's all grins and spins.  Her final townhall (apparently -- though it hadn't been billed as the "Farewell Townhall" to those of us attending) had her getting a taste of reality at the same time members of district eight got a taste of reality.  Pelosi insisted that she would oppose the construction of any permanent bases in Iraq.  When confronted with the fact that permanent bases were already being constructed, Pelosi tried to finesse the term "permanent" and actually said, "Nothing last forever."  In that moment, Pelosi, who's been treated with kid gloves for the most part, demonstrated just how great the gulf between her and the citizens who put her into office is.  Pelosi grasped the startled reaction and she's not done another townhall.  I don't remember if Medea was at that townhall but I know she's heard of it.  Peace activists need to grasp Pelosi wrote them off then.  It's been a slow estrangement ever since.  So the point here is, forget Nancy Pelosi.  She doesn't represent the district.  She's made that very clear on every issue.  Target others.  (In DC work.  I'm not saying call off any vigils outside Pelosi's office.  She needs to be made uncomfortable.  But realize that's all that's going to help.  She's got her eyes on the 2008 elections and she doesn't give a damn about ending the illegal war.)  After noting Pelosi's refusal to meet with the activists (Pelosi should be written off and so should Joe Lieberman -- nothing is achieved by meeting with either), Benjamin asks the money question: "Can't she [Pelosi] decide that we're not going to keep funding this war?"  Lerner (rightly) points out, "Pelosi could simply not bring up any funding bill for the military.  She could not bring it up, and then say: 'We're only going to bring it up if you agree to end the war'." -- to which Woolsey adds, "That we're only going to be spending our money to bring the troops home.  And that's what we're [the Progressive Caucus] going to be pushing for, I promise."
 
As I'm reading Woolsey's remarks three things are needed (out of many) right now.  (1) Physical mobilization (not e-activism).  (2) Democrats needing to be targeted.  (3) Support for the Progressive Caucus made clear.
 
 
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"

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