IRAQ
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US + Allies |
Iraqi |
Death Toll (9/12/06) |
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Injured (9/12/06) |
Unknown |
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UN Report: 6,000 Iraqi Civilians Killed in 2 Months
July 16 , 2006 AFP
A UN human rights report issued today says, "A total of 5,818 civilians were reportedly killed and at least 5,762 wounded during May and June 2006..killings, kidnappings and torture remain widespread in Iraq and the number of civilians killed continues to grow". Out of the nearly 6,000 killed 244 were women, and 71 were children.
MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell Accuses Cindy Sheehan of "trashing the President"
July 7 , 2006 Media Matters
On MSNBC's Hardball on Thursday Norah O'Donnell accuses peace activist Cindy Sheehan of "trashing the president" at home and abroad. The atmosphere was anything but receptive, as evidence from an introduction from O'Donnell that stated that Sheehan calls the President a terrorist and stands with a "socialist dictator"(Hugo Chavez
On three separate occasions O'Donnell said Sheehan was "trashing the President" and implied that she "hated" the president, to which Sheehan responded, "Well, actually, I don't hate the president, either. And I don't trash the president; I trash the president's foreign policy, which is fundamentally and inherently wrong and immoral. And I don't tell people around the world anything that they don't know."
In response to O'Donnell's question that Sheehan calls Bush "the biggest terrorist in the world" Sheehan responded,"Well, you know, he says a terrorist is somebody who kills innocent men, women, and children, and there has been over 100,000 innocent men, women, and children killed in Iraq on his orders."
Throughout the interview Sheehan responded with simple, to the point answers and she remained calm, even though it was obvious to all who saw the interview that O'Donnell was trying to provoke Sheehan.It was hard to believe this was not a FOX News channel interview.
See the Video and the transcript here. MSNBC Email link
Cindy Sheehan Starts Hunger Strike to Protest War
July 3 , 2006 AFP
Peace activist (Code Pink/Camp Casey/Camp Democracy) Cindy Sheehan will start a hunger strike tomorrow to protest the war in Iraq. Other members of the Code Pink group will join her with celebrities expected to join in for at least 1 day of her expected long term fasting.
Tens of Thousands Protest Iraq War in NYC
April 30, 2006 Associated Press/CBS News
Tens of Thousands of protesters protested the war in Iraq on Saturday in New York City. Event organizers estimated 300,000 people marched. The NYC police department declined to give and estimate as to the number of protestors. Jesse Jackson, Cindy Sheehan, and Susan Sarandon were among the marchers.
As of Saturday 70 US soldiers have died in Iraq during the month of April. Bush said to expect "more days of sacrifice and struggle".
See AP Boston Globe Story Here.
Top EU CIA Official Says Bush Went to War for Policy & Ignored Intelligence
April 23, 2006 CBS News, 60 Minutes
Tyler Drumheller, 26 year veteran of the CIA and top EU official, says the Bush Administration picked and choosed which intelligence information it needed to sell the war in Iraq to Americans and the world. In an interview with CBS News 60 Minutes Drunheller says of the Administration, ""The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy."
The 60 Minutes piece tied together the Niger Yellowcake Uranium story, and Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame story asserting that the information presented by the Bush Administration to the United Nations and United States citizens (State of the Union) was known by the US Intelligence community to be false and that claims by the British government were unsubstantiated. Ed Bradley writes:On March 7, 2003, the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency announced that the Niger uranium documents were forgeries. The Bush administration went to war in Iraq 12 days later, without acknowledging that one of its main arguments for going to war was false.
As of today neither Britan, nor the United States have provided any evidence that Iraq had an active Nuclear program, let alone had the basic materials needed to enrich Uranium.
Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack (Elite 82nd Airborne Division, Iraq) Wants Rumsfeld Out
April 14, 2006 CNN Story
"I really believe that we need a new secretary of defense because Secretary Rumsfeld carries way too much baggage with him," retired Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack told CNN's Barbara Starr on Thursday." He goes on to say," Specifically, I feel he has micromanaged the generals who are leading our forces there," Swannack said in the telephone interview.
"And I believe he has culpability associated with the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and, so, rather than admitting these mistakes, he continually justifies them to the press ... and that really disallows him from moving our strategy forward."
Army Major General John Batiste & Riggs Calls for Rumsfeld's Resignation
April 13, 2006, Washington Post Story
Yesterday Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, commander of 1stInfantry Division in Iraq from 2004-2005, said in an interview,"I think we need a fresh start. We need leadership up there that respects the military as they expect the military to respect them. And that leadership needs to understand teamwork"I think we need a fresh start" at the top of the Pentagon, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004-2005, said in an CNN interview. "We need leadership up there that respects the military as they expect the military to respect them. And that leadership needs to understand teamwork." Then saying, "It speaks volumes that guys like me are speaking out from retirement about the leadership climate in the Department of Defense".
The general has, in the past, noted his subscription to the so called "Powell Doctrine" which states that the US will not send soldiers into harms way without sufficient numbers.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Riggs echoed Batiste's remarks, saying he believes that his peer group is "a pretty closemouthed bunch" but that, even so, his sense is "everyone pretty much thinks Rumsfeld and the bunch around him should be cleared out."Riggs said, explaining that he believes Rumsfeld and his advisers have "made fools of themselves, and totally underestimated what would be needed for a sustained conflict."
On Tuesday, Gen. Peter Pace, who is the first Marine to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, attempted to tamp down the revolt of the retired generals. "No officers were muzzled during the planning of the invasion of Iraq", he said.
Some have said that the fact retired Generals are speaking out against the administration is worrisome. Richard H. Kohn, a military historian at the University of North Carolina who writes frequently on civilian-military relations notes, "How can you prosecute a war if the military and civilians don't trust each other?" Kohn asked.
White House Knew Mobile Biological Weapons Labs Claims False
April 12, 2006 Washington Post Article
The Washington Post reported today that a special civilian CIA investigation team sent to Iraq concluded trucks found there could not be Mobile Biological Weapons Labs, nor could they have been converted to fulfill such a role. The investigation team released their findings 2 days prior to the Bush Administration announcing to the world that they had found Mobile Biological Weapons Labs, and therefore the supposed WMD's. The Bush Administration then pushed the notion of banned Iraqi weapons despite conclusive evidence to contrary for 1 year.
The White House claims the administration did not know about this report. Former CIA director Tenet refused to comment.
Special Prosecuter: A "concerted action to discredit, punish or seek revenge against" a critic of the Bush Administration
April 9, 2006 Washington Post Story
Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time described a "concerted action" by "multiple people in the White House" -- using classified information -- to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" a critic of President Bush's war in Iraq-a Washinton Post Story reports today. It notes that this is the first time the special prosecutor has used the Vice Presidents name specifically.
Second Downing Street Memo:Bush on Path to War Regardless of UN Outcome
March 27, 2006
The New York Times has received a confidential letter written by British top foreing policy advisors. The letter documents a private two-hour meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair on Jan 31, 2003, in which Bush made clear to Blair that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second UN resolution, even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons.
Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski Critical of Iraq War
March 20, 2006
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor under President Carter, returned to appear on The News Hour, with Jim Lehrer, to discuss the status of the war in Iraq. Brzezinski, who appeared 1 year earlier to discuss the same topic, was critical of the US performance over the past year, and proposed a possible solution to the seemingly never ending conflict.
When asked about where the United States stands, with regard to Iraq after 3 years of occupation, Brzezinski responded: "The fact that it is three years speaks for itself, obviously we haven't been very successful. We are facing a war of attrition, and in a war of attrition if the insurgency, that's domestic, that's indigenous, is not losing, it is basically winning because it is fighting against an occupation army. 87% of the Iraqi people want us to leave, that says something, we just heard Mr. Allawi (former Iraq Prime Minister) on the air. The fact of the matter is neither the sectarian conflict between the Shiite and the Sunni's, nor the struggle against us is abating. It is either continuing at an intense level, or getting worse. There are lessons to be drawn from that."
When asked about the costs and benefits of being in Iraq:
" I think the benefits have been very few.The obvious one, the removal of Sadaam Hussein. But we have undermined our international legitimacy.That's a very high cost to a super power. We have destroyed our credibility; no one believes anything the President says anymore. We have tarnished our morality with Abu-Ghraib and Guantanimo.These are phenomenal costs. And there is of course blood, and money, and tens of thousands of Iraqi's killed. So in my view the time has come to face all of this, to realize that staying for (a) prolonged period of time, and for some ephemeral victory, is not the solution. It is time to leave, and I think a four point program could be implemented that will permit us to leave in a fashion that would not be a debacle."
"Ask the Iraqi government to ask us to leave, first of all. And some will ask us, some have already asked us in fact."
"Secondly, concert with the Iraqi government on the date of our departure, so it is a joint decision, out in about a year."
"Third, the Iraqi government then convenes a conference of neighbors, Muslim neighbors, who are interested in continued stability in Iraq and in helping to prevent a civil war from exploding."
"And Forth, arrange a donors conference for the recovery of Iraq."
"If we can do that, I think we will be better off if we do it. Otherwise we are stuck, and this is getting worse and worse. The region is becoming more de-stabilized and hostile to us."
............
"We have to get rid of this Colonialist mindset, that we are there to teach them how to be a country, how to be a democracy, how to avoid a civil war. This is their country, they are quite capable of running it once we are out."
When asked about whether US troop withdrawal would achieve the goal of 'Victory' the President talked about today: "Goals have to be realistic, unless they're just slogans. The notion of us occupying Iraq, creating democracy during occupation and that democracy spreading throughout the Middle East, was an illusion from day one."
"Not even a worthy goal?” Responded News Hour Anchor Gwen Ifill.
"It may be a worthy goal, but a worthy goal that is unrelated to reality is not a serious goal. This is not a serious goal. Some day the region will be democratic, but it will be democratic because democracy has been nurtured from within. It is a potential in most societies. I don't believe that that Islamic societies are not capable of being democracy's because we know some Muslim societies that are democracies, but it has to come from within. It is not going to be imposed by an occupation army that's brutalizing the country while at the same time "democratizing" it.
He went on to say "the longer we stay, the worse the war of attrition becomes, the deeper we will be drawn in, the more unstable the regime will be and the higher the cost to us."...he goes on to say," the region is becoming more and more volatile, and potentially more explosive, and increasingly driven by anti-American antagonism that is becoming pervasive."
Retired US General Questions Rumsfeld Competence
March 20, 2006
Retired US General Paul D. Eaton wrote in the NY Times today that Defense Secretary Donald "Rumsfeld is not competent to lead America's armed forces,". The general notes that Rumsfeld has been party to alienating the United States Military-ignoring out allies (including NATO) and our domestic intelligence (Colin Powell and the doctrine that bares his name).
He has fashioned a Pentagon intollerant of dissent, with the early appointment of Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki's successor and dismissal of "competent advisers like General Anthony Zinni and others who predicted that the Iraqi forces might melt away, leading to chaos."
General Eaton suggests that President Bush accept Donald Rumsfeld's previous offer to resign, and replace him with a Secretary of Defense " who will listen to and support the magnificent soldiers on the ground." The General calls on the Congress to hear from the soldiers and call on them to testify frequently. He maintains that their control of the budget could facilitate the administration allowing this to happen.
Retired U.S. Army Major General Paul D. Eaton was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004.
More Criticism of Rumsfeld from Kissinger, and Brzezinski
March 20, 2006
former GOP Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as national security adviser under President Carter, both criticized Rumsfeld's March 19, 2006 Editorial in the Washington Post that stated,"Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis."
See the Christian Science Monitor Article, and Kissinger and Brzezinski's comments, here.
Third Anniversary of the start of the Iraq war
March 20, 2006
The third anniversary of the Iraq war was met with optimism by the bush administration, with President Bush saying that they are pursuing a strategy " that will lead to victory in Iraq". Many Congressmen and Senators are questioning what the term 'Victory' really means.
The anniversary of the war was met with protests all around the world. For a war that was to be over in 6 months, and cost under $6 Billion it has fallen far short.
