BULLY BOY
PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID
TABLE
PRINCESS BARRY O HAS REVEALED THAT HE'S AN OUT OF TOUCH DANCER BY EXPLAINING, "I DANCE GANGNAM STYLE."
YES, HE DOES, ALL ACROSS THE BODIES OF THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO SERVED IN THE U.S. MILITARY, ACROSS THE MEMORIES OF THE U.S. FALLEN AS WELL.
WHEN PSY CALLED FOR THE MURDERS, ASSASSINATIONS AND EXECUTIONS OF U.S. SOLDIERS AND THEIR FAMILIES, PRINCESS BARRY O GOT ALL MOIST AND HIS 'BARRY O' AND DECIDED PSY WAS JUST THE FELLA FOR HIM.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
"I should have seen the s**t coming down the hall," sings Greg Dulli on the Afghan Whig's "When We Two Parted" (New Year's Eve, the Whigs will be rocking it at Bogart's in Cincinnati). When it comes to Thomas E. Ricks, most of us did. It was only a matter of time before he turned on Emma Sky and, today, at Foreign Policy he does.
We're aganostic on Emma but we can enjoy the implosion as Ricks argues
Sky is wrong (and the subtext is Tommy Loves David Petraeus best so he
turns on Emma and her US military patron Gen Ray Odierno). While
chuckling over the dynamics and drama Thomas E. Ricks churns out, we're
also left with this 'stellar' advice:
If
anything could be recommended at this point, it would be for the Obama
Administration to abandon the unwanted meddling in Iraqi police affairs
and ineffective training, and to openly and effectively engage that
broad Iraqi public through positive political focus on the "plain
vanilla" operations of civil government systems and technical advice,
which the United States has an abundance of and the Iraqi public
seriously needs.
Iraq is a
failed-state. You realize too late that Thomas E. Ricks is not only a
War Hawk but also completely ignorant. You realize what you always
feared: Thomas dabbles. The police program has been greatly scaled back
and that happened long ago -- and rather publicly even in the US
press. Iraq does not move forward under Nouri.
At
some point, the US government is going to have to grasp what various
NGOs already have. But there's Thomas Ricks, who should know better,
talking about actions that transfer technology to a despot. In doing
so, they alarm the Kurds and the Sunnis and make Iraq even less stable.
Poor Thomas E. Ricks. When he died as a reporter, he was reborn as the chief sales person for the munitions industry.
As he calls for 'technology' to be shared, it's worth noting Monday's Defense Security Cooperation Agency's press release:
WASHINGTON,
December 24, 2012 -- The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified
Congress Dec. 21 of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government
of Iraq for Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) operations and
maintenance services and associated equipment, parts, training and
logistical support for an estimated cost of $125 million.
The
Government of Iraq has requested a possible sale of Very Small Aperture
Terminal (VSAT) operations and maintenance services, equipment
installation services, upgrade VSAT managed and leased bandwith, video
teleconferencing equipment, 75 VSAT Equipment Suites (consisting of 1.8m
VSAT terminals, block up covnerters (BUCs), low-noise down converters
(LNBs), required cables and components, iDirect e8350 modem, network
operation and dynamic bandwidth equipment, and iMonitor softward),
spares and repair parts, tools, personnel training and training
equipment, publications and technical documentation, U.S. Government and
contractor representative technical support services, and other related
elements of logistics and program support. The estimated cost is $125
million.
This proposed sale will contribute
to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by
helping to improve the security of a friendly country. This proposed
sale directly supports the Iraqi government and serves the interests of
the Iraqi people and the United States.
This
proposed sale will continue U.S. support to the development of Iraqi
Defense Network (IDN) VSAT terminals. Iraq intends to use these defense
articles and services to provide command and control for its armed
forces. The purchase of this equipment will enhance the Iraqi
military's foundational capabilities, making it a more valuable partner
in an important area of the world and supporting its legitimate needs
for its own self-defense.
The proposed sale of this support and services will not alter the basic military balance in the region.
The
principal contractors will be 3Di Technologies and L-3 Communications
Company in Hanover, Maryland. There are no known offset agreements
proposed in connection with this potential sale.
Implementation
of this proposed sale will require U.S. Government or contractor
representatives to travel to Iraq for delivery of operations and
maintenance services, installation of new sites for each year of
required operations and maintenance services, and field services to
install and move VSAT sites and training for a period of one year.
There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.
This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.
Let's look at the two claims in the press release:
1)
The purchase of this equipment will enhance the Iraqi military's
foundational capabilities, making it a more valuable partner in an
important area of the world and supporting its legitimate needs for its
own self-defense. The proposed sale of this support and services will
not alter the basic military balance in the region.
2) This proposed sale directly supports the Iraqi government and serves the interests of the Iraqi people and the United States.
With
regards to one, how is Iraq's military foundational capabilities
increased without "alter[ing] the basic military balance in the
region"? And since Nouri al-Maliki's own State of Law can't go a month
without proclaiming that some segment of Iraqi military is plotting to
overthrow al-Maliki, how is it in the interests of the region to arm
Iraq?
Even more importantly, who are these
weapons to be used on? Not only is there a valid concern that Nouri
will use weapons on the Iraqi people, there is Nouri's notorious
paranoia. Do you put a loaded gun into the hand of the crazy person
ranting on the street about how people are out to get him?
With
regards to the second assertion -- there's no way this helps the US and
it's even more difficult to see how this $125 million purchase helps
the Iraqi people.
David Romano (Rudaw) observes
that $6 billion was the annual budget for Iraq from 1997 to 2003 and
the people were provided with food, with electricity, with basic public
services. Now?
Today's Iraq enjoy an
unimaginably higher budget. Oil revenues bring in some one hundred
billion dollars a year. One would think that with such vast sums of
wealth, the country would enjoy spectacular increases in standards of
living. Instead, garbage lies uncollected on street corner after street
corner, with little children playing in disease-ridden alleyways.
Security remains elsuive as kidnappings, mafia shakedowns and political
assassinations cast a shadow across entire communities. Baghdad and
other cities still lack electricity, with noisy portable generators
rumbling through the night and spewing their pollution across entire
neighborhoods. Some twenty-five billion dollars "spent" on restoring
the country's electrical grid seems to have produced little tangible
results, possibly because the business interests who rent generators
don't want the electric grid restored.
Explain to me again how the Iraqi people are helped by this $125 million weapons contract? Today, Alsumaria reports 4 deaths -- including two sisters, one 12 and one 18. From Wednesday's snapshot:
Alsumaria notes yesterday's rains have caused 3 deaths and two people to be injured in Baghdad -- two deaths from a house collapsing due to the rain and one from electrical death (with two more injured in that as well) and that main streets in the capital are sinking. All Iraq News notes Baghdad has been placed on high alert because of the torrential rains.
You could mistake Baghdad for Venice in this All Iraq News photo essay which notes that students are forced to walk through the high standing water to get to schools. They also note of Tuesday's rainfall: Baghdad had the most yesterday (67 mm) followed by Hilla, Azizia and Karbala (rainfall was also recorded in Samawa, Rifai and Basra -- of those three, Basra was the highest and Baghdad's rainfall was three times Basra's). It's not just Baghdad. Alsumaria notes that after ten house[s] collapse[d] in Wasit Province village, the Iraqi Red Crescent began evacuating the entire village.
Al Mada notes
today that Iraqis who might plan to travel Italy no longer need visit
Venice to see streets of water, they just need to step outside their
homes and they can take in the beauty of water surrounding houses,
riding a car through the Sadr section of Baghdad can be like a gondala
ride in Venice.
As Iraq crumbles, Nouri's
spending $125 million on a weapons program (which will allow him to
track Iraqis via satellite)? This helps the Iraqi people how?
There
is no ethical justification for the US government to allow this sale.
Greed isn't ethical but they could be honest and admit that greed is why
they'll gladly grab $125 million that should instead be spent improving
the lives of the Iraqi people. "Greed" would be a honest reason for
the deal. Again, not an ethical reason, but an honest one.
Reuters reports
that protests continued today in Iraq with the highway to Jordan and
Syria being blocked "for a fifth day" and that along with the protest in
Ramadi, there was also a protest in Mosul. Earlier today, Alsumaria reported
that a protest has been called for Friday (Moqtada al-Sadr has added
his endorsement) and the focus of the protest will be women prisoners.
This has been building for some time with the treatment of women in
Iraqi prisons and detention centers been a focal point for weeks now
with allegations of rape and torture. Kitabat notes that calls for the women prisoners to be released were frequent at most of this week's rallies. Alsumaria notes
that Moqtada al-Sadr told the network through his spokesperson (Salah
al-Obeidi) that he regrets statements at demonstrations that go to
sectarianism and against the Iraqi national identity and he stated he stands with the calls the protesters are making.
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