Fw: Benchmarks: Hard to find good news in Iraq

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Karim A G

To: Karim A G

Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2005 6:27 AM

Subject: Benchmarks: Hard to find good news in Iraq

 http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050729-035958-3382r

 

Benchmarks: Hard to find good news in Iraq

By Martin Sieff
UPI Senior News Analyst
Published July 29, 2005

 

WASHINGTON -- It was another very bad week indeed in Iraq:
    
    A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers from the Georgia National Guard; 16 Iraqi government workers were killed when their buses traveling together were machine-gunned by insurgents and two Algerian diplomats kidnapped by al-Qaida in Iraq were killed.

 

In addition, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report issued Thursday documented the impact of the insurgency in seriously derailing reconstruction efforts. And a psychiatric survey concluded that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a serious mental illness, was 10 times more prevalent in American combat veterans from Iraq than had been previously thought.
    
    The GAO report documented how the costs of fighting the insurgency had dealt crippling blows to reconstruction plans. It said $1.8 billion intended for major electrical utilities and water projects during Fiscal Year 2004 had been diverted to pay for security forces instead.
    
    In all, $4.7 billion, or about one quarter of the total $18.4 billion that Congress had approved in emergency funding since July 2004 to rebuild Iraq has had to be switched to other unanticipated needs, the GAO said.
    
    It also noted that far from having Iraq's oil industry up and running within a few weeks or months of toppling Saddam Hussein, as Department of Defense policymakers had optimistically expected at the time, crude oil production and total electrical power generation in Iraq has still not even reached the modest levels they were at before military operations to topple Saddam began in March 2003.
    
    Also on Thursday, Army Surgeon-General Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley told reporters that a survey of 1,000 U.S. troops who had returned from Iraq showed that 30 percent of them developed stress-related mental health problems three to four months after coming home.
    
    That was a 10 times higher percentage than the 3 to 5 percent previously diagnosed with significant mental health problems immediately after they left the Iraq combat theater.
    
    The survey, therefore, suggested that the long-term psychiatric problems afflicting U.S. veterans of the Iraq war will be far more numerous and severe than anyone had previously anticipated.
    
    According to the Iraq Index Project of the Brookings Institution, 22 U.S. soldiers were killed in the seven days from July 20 to July 27. That was more than twice the number of the previous week and almost four times the number -- six -- killed the week before that.
    
    This brought the total number of U.S. fatalities in Iraq from all causes since the start of military operations to topple Saddam to 1,790, of whom 1,380 were killed in hostile incidents. Some 17 of the 22 U.S. fatalities in the past week from July 20 to July 27 were killed in such incidents, the IIP said.
    
    The number of U.S. troops wounded in action from the beginning of hostilities on March 19, 2003 through Wednesday, July 27 was 13,657, an increase of 98 compared with the previous week. This was a little worse than the 76 killed during the week of July 13-20, but still less than half the 293 U.S. soldiers wounded from July 6 to July 13, according to the IIP figures.
    
    Nevertheless, well over 100 U.S. troops are now being wounded per week, many of them grievously, losing limbs or suffering permanent brain damage. That amounts to well over 5,000 per year.
    
    In all, 52 Iraqi police and troops were killed by the insurgents from July 20 to July 27, including the 16 killed in the attack on the buses. That brought the total number of Iraq military and police killed from June 1, 2003 to Wednesday of this week 2,717. Through the month of July up to July 27, 240 Iraqi police and soldiers were killed by the insurgents, the IIP said.
    
    The total toll of Iraqi police killed during the month of July, therefore, looks likely to still be a little less than the 296 killed in June and the 270 killed in May. But that is really cold comfort because it is still far higher than any other month in the insurgency so far.
    
    The total number of Iraqi police and military killed per month never came near to 200 per month until March this year, and has never been below it since. As Jeffrey White, the respected military analyst of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told UPI this week, the overall trend of casualties inflicted by the insurgents continues to inch relentlessly upwards.
    
    At least, the number of multiple casualty car bombings in July up to July 27 was significantly down compared with the record highs of May and June. There were 30 such attacks in June but only 20 so far this month up to July 27, a decrease of 33 percent.
    
    The number of casualties in multiple casualty bombings, however, was significantly higher in July than it had been in June. Up to July 27, already 254 people were killed in such attacks compared with 228 for the entire month of June. However, the number of people injured in such attacks dropped significantly from 528 in June to 464 in June, the IIP said.
    
    U.S. strategic hopes in Iraq now more than ever are pinned on the hope that the 100 battalions of the new Iraqi army and security forces will be able to take up the burden of combat and defense increasingly in the coming months. But the it has yet to be established that they will be able to do so.
    
    As documented in previous "Benchmarks," "Operation Lightning," the first major active use of these forces, put 23,000 of them out on to the streets of Baghdad, but it failed to dent the level of insurgency at all. On the contrary, attacks and casualties inflicted went on to peak in May and June, and have only dropped by relatively small amounts since then.

 

A prayer for the US, and the planet by Carol Wolman

Psalm 67

   ¹God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.  ²That Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations.

 

Dear Lord, we have desecrated your bountiful creation, polluted the DNA you gave us with radioactive particles, massacred your creatures, human and otherwise.  Humans, the species to whom You gave dominion, are ruled by spirits of greed and hatred, and make endless war.  Even though You showed us in August 1945 that nuclear weapons can destroy all life, we persist in manufacturing and deploying them. 

 

Show us Your way, O Lord, that Your saving health may cleanse us of our lust for power through wielding nuclear weapons, and relieve us of our greed for oil.  Show us how to convert to healthy sources of energy.  Help us beat our swords into plowshares, and abolish nuclear weapons.

 

Dick Cheney has asked the Pentagon to draw up "contingency plans" for nuking Iran in case of another "9-11".  Suspicions are growing that "9-11", the recent bombings in Britain, the bombings in Spain just prior to the elections there, and others have been "false flag" operations performed by the international power elite in order to rally the public behind fascist leadership.

 

With the growing threat to the fascist leadership in the US from the impeachment movement, another "9-11", providing an excuse for martial law, would not be a shock.  Nuking Iran would follow quickly.  A recent poll shows that 60% of Americans expect World War III pretty soon.  The rapture cult is beckoning thermonuclear war, which they see as fulfillment of prophecy.

 

Give us discernment, O Lord, so that we might understand that we are being lied to, and so that we may experience the danger we are in. Help us to take proper measures before it is too late.  Let us not be intimidated by the false prophets of the rapture cult, who tell us to give up hope of life on earth.  Rather, strengthen our will to live, and our faith that You, the God of life, will show us the way to a healthy, peaceful future.

 

The US has pretty much demolished Afghanistan and Iraq.  The sins our country has committed are outrageous, and unforgiveable.  Now Bush et al are considering wreaking even greater havoc on Iran, and spreading nuclear pollution far and wide.  The UN was lied to about Iraq- perhaps if Kofi Annan investigates the lies, the international community could be mobilized to stop another aggressive move by the US.

 

Dear Lord, have mercy on us.  Let Thy way be known among the nations. 

 

In the name of the Prince of Peace,  Carol Wolman

 

 

Strategy Suggestion for the 2006 Election by Carol Wolman

Strategy Suggestion for the 2006 Election

by Carol Wolman

The corruption in the US government is far advanced.  Fair elections are a thing of the past.  The machines are rigged, both parties advocate war and are in thrall to the corporations, and opponents to the Bush party are harassed, disenfranchised, even arrested.

 

2006 may be our last chance to reclaim representative democracy in America.  Drastic measures are called for, to sweep the criminals out of office and install people who honestly will work for the people.

 

I propose the formation of an ad hoc party, the Impeachment Party, with a single plank in the platform- impeach the criminals in the White House and bring them to trial.  This party would run candidates in as many Congressional Districts as possible.  Results:

 

1) It would give the impeachment movement a clear, viable goal that works within the framework of our Constitution.

 

2) It would remind all citizens that ultimate authority in this country rests with "we the people", not with corporations, political parties, or secretive, powerhungry cabals.

 

3) It would show that impeachment is not a partisan issue- in fact, a Republican in Vermont, Morrisseau, has already declared himself an impeachment candidate.

 

4) It would reframe the political debate- instead of focusing on single issues, it would focus on the overriding need to restore honest government, which serves people rather than corporations. 

 

5) It would force the media to pay attention to the impeachment movement.   As the people take back authority, interest will build and the impeachment movement will grow.

 

5) The impeachment candidate in each district would challenge all the other candidates to state whether they would support the impeachment process.   When a better-funded candidate endorses impeachment, the Impeachment Party candidate might withdraw.  The goal is to have one candidate in each district who makes impeachment a centerpiece of the campaign.

 

6) The Congressional vote in 2005 would then amount to a referendum on impeaching Bush and Cheney. 

 

This is our best bet to get rid of the Bush-Republican domination of the Congress in 2006.  If we can impeach and evict Bush and Cheney, the presidency goes to the Speaker of the House, who would probably a Democrat.   I believe that all our energy should go into this single goal- and the rest will follow.  

 

 ^{Matthew 13: 45}  The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:  ⁴⁶Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

 

One final thought- let's encourage all voters to use absentee ballots, bypassing rigged machines, lines and intimidation at the polls.

 

Carol S. Wolman. MD

is a psychiatrist and lifelong peace activist. 

She hosts http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peacemakersBiblestudy/

email: cwolman@mcn.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fw: Don't count on early Withdrawal from Iraq by Mike Whitney

 

----- Original Message -----

From: A

To: carol wolman

Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 9:33 PM

The situation in Iraq is dire but not in the way the American media characterizes it. The simple fact is that there "are no additional U.S. or allied troops to help and that Iraqi soldiers are far from ready to take over."( Scripps Howard News Service) 

There are legitimate concerns that the military is beginning to unravel. As retired Gen.Barry McCaffrey said last week,"The Army and Marines are starting to come apart. The National Guard is in a stage of meltdown," he said. "By the end of next summer, we're going to be halfway out of Iraq." 

This is the real thrust behind the talk of "withdrawal"; not respect for Iraqi sovereignty or any other such nonsense. Rumsfeld has continued with his terror-campaign in the Sunni areas and is pushing for a quick signing of the constitution so he can proceed with his plan to split up the country. There's nothing more to it then that. The US will never leave Iraq unless it is forced to do so. 

The Pentagon will withdraw the troops it has to, but secure its permanent presence in the bases it has already established; maintaining its dominance over the political system and the distribution of oil. The talk of withdrawal is designed to reassure the American people that progress is being made and that the normally recalcitrant administration is pursuing political options. It contains a thread of truth, but certainly not enough to warrant the kind of excitement we're hearing from triumphant anti-war activists. 

Rather than criticize the chatter about "withdrawal" consider this; the US economy is currently underwritten by $8 trillion of debt. If that debt is not sustained by foreign investors through continued use of American greenbacks the entire economic system would collapse. It is as simple as that. The world will not continue "mopping up our red ink" (Paul Craig Roberts) if it is not backed up by access to the world's dwindling oil reserves. This is why we will not leave Iraq and why there has been absolute uniformity among the establishment media in maintaining their support for the most unpopular, immoral and cowardly war in American history. 

The bottom line is this; failure in Iraq is now considered an 'existential threat' to America's continued dominance in the world. We should not anticipate that that is something that American elites will easily relinquish. 

 

Don't count on early Withdrawal from Iraq 

By Mike Whitney 

07/29/05 "ICH" -- -- "The bottom line is this, failure in Iraq is now considered an 'existential threat' to America's continued dominance in the world. We should not anticipate that that is something that American elites will easily relinquish." (excerpt) 

We can expect to hear a lot about civil war in the next few weeks; and federalism, too. Don't believe a word of it. 

The Pentagon is moving forward with its plan to divide Iraq into three parts and it's using the pretext of civil war to justify its strategy. Rumsfeld and co. have known for some time that the conflict is no longer "winnable" and they've been moving in this direction since shortly after the elections. The choice of language, "civil war and federalism", only bear out what the media plan of attack will be. 

The plan to split up Iraq actually appeared first in a New York Times editorial nearly a year ago. The Bush administration is uncomfortable admitting that the situation on the ground is so desperate that uniting the country under a strong central government is no longer possible. They've already begun talking about "regional autonomy" which tells us that the country will be divided into three parts; a Kurdish region in the north, a Shia region in the south, and a Sunni region in the middle. This model suggests that the Sunnis, the former heads-of-state and military under Saddam, will be cut out of Iraq's great oil wealth. 

The strategy for dividing Iraq depends in large part on inciting violence between the various ethnicities and religious sects. It harkens back to age-old dictum, "divide and conquer". Those who have watched Iraq carefully know that the myriad bombings of Shi'ite mosques, markets and town-centers, are part of a suspicious pattern that suggests counterinsurgency methods are being used to increase sectarian hostilities. The various resistance organizations have repeatedly denied involvement in these attacks in communiqués via the internet, and it's hard to believe that the al Zarqawi group (if it exists?) would risk alienating the public just to murder civilians. What could he possibly gain? Guerilla warfare requires the tacit support of the masses to conceal its activities. In the Sunni areas, that support would quickly dissipate if the resistance was shown to be directly involved in bombings like the one two weeks ago that killed 32 children while they were taking candy from marines. Whoever is behind these wanton acts of slaughter is uncertain, but it's clear that the majority of Iraqis do not believe that they are instigated by the resistance. 

What has been taking place in Iraq for the last few months is truly extraordinary. A massive counterinsurgency program has been conducted behind the iron-curtain of the western media. Early reports from Dahr Jamail suggested that up to 60,000 Iraqis had been rounded up in Rumsfeld's "scattershot" scheme to quell the violence. This is an increase of over 
50,000 detainees since the months following the Abu Ghraib scandal. Jamail's numbers were confirmed this week by US Army General Jack Keane, a former deputy chief of staff, who said that occupation forces had "killed or arrested more than 50,000 Iraqi insurgents in the past seven months." Keane's admission should put to rest the notion that Rumsfeld is seeking a political solution for the ongoing hostilities. He persists in his misguided belief that force alone will remedy the current violence. 

If we follow the stories from the independent media we can figure out what has really been going on in the Sunni heartland for the last 7 months. Apart from the counterinsurgency activities, which are carried out by the "Wolf Brigade" and other US sponsored militias; the Marines have been going from city to city; Haditha, al-Qaim, Karabila, Tal Afar etc, pounding the civilian areas, destroying infrastructure, and rounding up military aged men suspected of involvement with the resistance. All of this is taking place beyond the blinkered view of America's "free press". The western media continues to function as the information-annex of the US military. We'll probably never know the magnitude of the war crimes in these areas until the US withdrawals completely. 

The situation in Iraq is dire but not in the way the American media characterizes it. The simple fact is that there "are no additional U.S. or allied troops to help and that Iraqi soldiers are far from ready to take over."( Scripps Howard News Service) 

There are legitimate concerns that the military is beginning to unravel. As r etiredGen.BarryMcCaffreysaidlastweek,"TheArmyand Marines are starting to come apart. The National Guard is in a stage of meltdown," he said. "By the end of next summer, we're going to be halfway out of Iraq." 

This is the real thrust behind the talk of "withdrawal"; not respect for Iraqi sovereignty or any other such nonsense. Rumsfeld has continued with his terror-campaign in the Sunni areas and is pushing for a quick signing of the constitution so he can proceed with his plan to split up the country. There's nothing more to it then that. The US will never leave Iraq unless it is forced to do so. 

The Pentagon will withdraw the troops it has to, but secure its permanent presence in the bases it has already established; maintaining its dominance over the political system and the distribution of oil. The talk of withdrawal is designed to reassure the American people that progress is being made and that the normally recalcitrant administration is pursuing political options. It contains a thread of truth, but certainly not enough to warrant the kind of excitement we're hearing from triumphant anti-war activists. 

Rather than criticize the chatter about "withdrawal" consider this; the US economy is currently underwritten by $8 trillion of debt. If that debt is not sustained by foreign investors through continued use of American greenbacks the entire economic system would collapse. It is as simple as that. The world will not continue "mopping up our red ink" (Paul Craig Roberts) if it is not backed up by access to the world's dwindling oil reserves. This is why we will not leave Iraq and why there has been absolute uniformity among the establishment media in maintaining their support for the most unpopular, immoral and cowardly war in American history. 

The bottom line is this; failure in Iraq is now considered an 'existential threat' to America's continued dominance in the world. We should not anticipate that that is something that American elites will easily relinquish. 

There's a real danger in hoping that the Bush administration has seen the error in its preemptive war strategy. Apart from disappointment one feels as the occupation drags on, it also shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the current regime. This is the greatest gathering of fanatics in high-office since World War 2. It is as unlikely that reason will prevail in any of their policy decisions as it is that they will leave office according to the normal protocols. Until we see the gallows going up on Pennsylvania Ave and the throngs of angry citizens swarming the White House; we should contain our enthusiasm.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com

Fw: [PDA] Downing Street Minutes Next Steps - Resolution of Inquiry

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Kevin Spidel, PDA

To: cwolman@mcn.org

Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 7:41 PM

Subject: [PDA] Downing Street Minutes Next Steps - Resolution of Inquiry

Dear Carol, Thanks in part to an overwhelming show of public outrage over the implications of the Downing Street Minutes, the light of inquiry is finally shining into the darkest corners of this administration’s shady dealings. Suddenly, things are moving very quickly. On July 17, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) – along with 34 co-sponsors – introduced a Resolution of Inquiry in the House of Representatives. If it passes, the White House and the State Department will be required to "transmit all information relating to communication with officials of the United Kingdom between January 1, 2002, and October 16, 2002, relating to the policy of the United States with respect to Iraq." This potentially paradigm-shifting resolution must be voted on in committee within fourteen legislative days of its introduction. The resolution will almost certainly be voted on in committee between September 6 and 16, because if it is not, Lee can demand a vote of the full House. If left standing, however, the resolution must be taken up again by September 16. Here’s where your help is needed: the more Congress Members in the full House who co-sponsor the resolution, the more likely it is to be approved by members of the committee. Now is the time to bring full pressure to bear on those representatives who remain uncommitted and to do all we can to get as many members as possible to sponsor this resolution. (Write to your member here.) When writing your representatives, tell them that information in the Downing Street Minutes strongly suggests that President Bush intentionally deceived Congress about the reasons for going to war. Tell them that if such is not the case, the administration should be eager to release the information contained in the additional official documents and see the President vindicated. Either way, Congress and the American people deserve to know the truth. Full disclosure is essential. No one is above the law. We will not stand for secrecy in our White House. We have only a few days in which to urge our representatives to keep this pivotal resolution alive. Demand that committee members not only vote for it, but vow to discuss it at length and engage in substantive debate when the committee meets, forcing opposing members to go on record with their reasons for voting it down. The future of our country hangs in the balance. And, as always, PDA is here. Progressive representatives are working alongside the citizenry, pushing for truth and justice. Your participation and support are making this all possible. Thank you for all you’re doing. TAKE ACTION HERE: http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/bills/?bill=7877436 In peace and solidarity, Kevin Spidel National Political Director Progressive Democrats of America http://www.pdamerica.org

 

 

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