Clipmarks | BartendingBear's 'iraq war' clips

Palin & Iraq - Where does she stand? What does she know?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:33:21 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: By public comments and report... she's clueless.

Presumably, John McCain would only select a candidate for vice president who shared his supposedly clear-eyed vision about Iraq, who had also called for -- or at least thought it was a good idea -- to push more troops into Iraq in 2007.

In an interview with Alaska Business Monthly shortly after she took office in 2007, Palin was asked about the upcoming surge. She said she hadn't thought about it. "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq," she said. "I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe."

Seven months into the surge

"I'm not here to judge the idea of withdrawing, or the timeline,"

I'm here to find out what Alaskans need of me as their governor."

Fort Richardson, near Anchorage, has dispatched countless soldiers to Iraq

Bush Should Be Sent to The Hague

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 04:03:28 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Sounds like a plan to me.

Clip Source: www.presstv.ir

Former Democratic candidate Mike Gravel says President George W. Bush should be taken to The Hague for war crimes rather than being impeached.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel

In a Monday video conference with Press TV, the former Alaska senator said President Bush does not 'deserve' to be impeached for invading Afghanistan and Iraq, which has resulted in the loss of 'millions of lives'.

"An Impeachment just means you would only take away his (Bush's) presidency. Well, he is almost done (with) his presidency. What really needs to happen is that these people have to be held accountable for the crimes they have committed," the 78-year-old Democrat said referring to the US president and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"If you impeach president and vice president, Nancy Pelosi is going to become president; that is not going happen," Gravel added.

War Dead Out Of Sight & Out Of Mind = BushCo Likes It That Way

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:47:09 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Arlington whistle-blower fired for trying to allow media access to military funerals.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

On April 24, the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank reported on the Pentagon’s effort to keep media out of earshot and photo range of the funeral of Lt. Col. Billy Hall, the 4,011th American to die in Iraq. Milbank wrote that Gina Gray, Arlington’s new director of public affairs, “pushed vigorously to allow the journalists more access to the service yesterday — but she was apparently shot down by other cemetery officials.”

Today, Milbank reports that Gray was demoted and then fired by the Army for trying to investigate the restrictions on the media:

Gray told Milbank that Arlington’s deputy superintendent “has been calling the families of the dead to encourage them not to allow media coverage at the funerals — a charge confirmed by a high-ranking official at Arlington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”

Last month, CBS’s Lara Logan said she believed “the soldiers feel forgotten” because Americans don’t understand the harshness of the Iraq war.

BushCo's "Gross Incompetence" Cost Billions - Ex US Commander In Iraq

Sun, 04 May 2008 01:08:02 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Would someone PLEASE IMPEACH THESE ASSHATS!!! This ineptitude isn't criminal, but they have done more than enough that is. HANG 'EM HIGH!

Clip Source: rawstory.com

In a new memoir set to be published May 6, the former commander of US forces in Iraq provides new intimate details of the goings-on at high levels of the Bush Administration in the first year of the Iraq war.

His sharp tongued conclusion: "Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars were unnecessarily spent, and worse yet, too many of our most precious military resource, our American soldiers, were unnecessarily wounded, maimed, and killed as a result. In my mind, this action by the Bush administration amounts to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty."

Sanchez commanded the US military in Iraq from 2003-2004. The three-star general was relieved of his commander in 2004 following the Abu Ghraib scandal, and in 2005, was told his career was over and he wouldn't be promoted to a fourth star.

US "...was clueless on counterinsurgency" - Paul Wolfowitz

Thu, 01 May 2008 21:55:17 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Intel? We don't need no stinkin' intel! We can ride in on our horses while wearing our cowboy hats and shoot the place up, though.

Clip Source: www2.nysun.com

Paul Wolfowitz, in his first public remarks on the Iraq war in years, said the American government was "pretty much clueless on counterinsurgency" in the first year of the war.

The former deputy secretary of defense said yesterday that the force sent to Iraq was adequate for fighting Saddam Hussein's military, citing the speed with which American troops toppled the regime. But Mr. Wolfowitz said no one in the Bush administration anticipated that Saddam would order his security services to wage an insurgency after their formal defeat on the battlefield.

his remarks yesterday have special relevance, because in the run-up to the war, the deputy secretary of defense downplayed testimony from a retired Army chief of staff, General Eric Shinseki, who told Congress that postwar stabilization operations would require several hundred thousand troops.

On February 27, 2003, Mr. Wolfowitz told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the estimate was "wildly off the mark."

A Litany of BushCo. Lies About Iraq

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:11:20 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Video tape is a wonderful thing.

Clip Source: whatthe.blogetery.com

[Video]

Compilation of lies the Bush administration told leading up to the Iraq war, the lies they told during the war to cover up the initial lies, then the admissions of lying when they were all lied out! Watch how certain Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice, and Wolfowitz were about things initially, only to later act as though there was no possible way to be certain.
They are trying to lie their way into war with Iran…DON’T BUY IT PEOPLE!

Dick Cheney's Error

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:15:10 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Mickey Edwards, House member '77-'93, comments on the posture Cheney takes as to the role of the US citizenry in deciding to go to war.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Cheney told Raddatz that American war policy should not be affected by the views of the people. But that is precisely whose views should matter: It is the people who should decide whether the nation shall go to war. That is not a radical, or liberal, or unpatriotic idea. It is the very heart of America's constitutional system.

In Europe, before America's founding, there were rulers and their subjects. The Founders decided that in the United States there would be not subjects but citizens. Rulers tell their subjects what to do, but citizens tell their government what to do.

If Dick Cheney believes, as he obviously does, that the war in Iraq is vital to American interests, it is his job, and that of President Bush, to make the case with sufficient proof to win the necessary public support.

When the vice president dismisses public opposition to war with a simple "So?" he violates the single most important element in the American system of government: Here, the people rule.

Adm. Fallon - Top US Commander For Iraq War Resigns

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:38:25 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: A fighting admiral resigns because of the perception he disagrees with Bush? Something is smelly.

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. commander for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, will retire because of misperceptions he disagrees with the Bush administration on Iran, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday.

Fallon asked to retire after a magazine article portrayed him as challenging President George W. Bush on Iran policy. The article in Esquire magazine suggested Fallon was pushing the administration to avoid war with Iran.

"Recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my views and the President's policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time and hamper efforts in the CENTCOM region," Fallon said in a statement.

"And although I don't believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command Area of Responsibility, the simple perception that there is makes it difficult for me to effectively serve America's interests there," he said.

Active Duty Military Speak Out Against The War

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:26:21 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Between deployments, they work to inform public of the truth we are denied by our government and the media.

Clip Source: www.news8austin.com

A growing number of active duty soldiers or recent Iraq war veterans are speaking up about the war in Iraq.

"The honest truth is that if the American people knew what was going on over there everyday, they would be raising their voices too. They would be saying, 'Hey, bring those guys home," Sgt. Selena Coppa said.

Coppa blames lawmakers in Washington for filtering the facts on the war in Iraq. She said there's no real end in sight.

"We lost really good friends, really good leaders who died in Iraq. From my perspective, it didn't make any sense, we didn't
accomplish anything, and I talked to a lot of other soldiers who feel the same way," Fort Hood soldier Casey Porter said.

Porter is spending his numbered days in the U.S. passing out pamphlets before he is redeployed this summer.

"I honestly thought I might not live through my second tour, so I
thought, you know if I'm going to die anyway, I need to say the
things I need to say," Cantu said.

He's also home between deployments to Iraq.

How The Spooks Took Over The News

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:19:21 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "The Pentagon has now designated "information operations" as its fifth "core competency" alongside land, sea, air and special forces."

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Onthe morning of 9 February 2004, The New York Times carried an exclusive and alarming story. The paper's Baghdad correspondent, Dexter Filkins, reported that US officials had obtained a 17-page letter, believed to have been written by the notorious terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi to the "inner circle" of al-Qa'ida's leadership, urging them to accept that the best way to beat US forces in Iraq was effectively to start a civil war.

There is very good reason to believe that that letter was a fake – and a significant one because there is equally good reason to believe that it was one product among many from a new machinery of propaganda which has been created by the United States and its allies since the terrorist attacks of September 2001.

For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the mass media are operating as its compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it.

Ground Troops Stretched To Absolute Limit

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:44:27 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Military leaders claim contingencies could force nukes into play.

Clip Source: www.marinecorpstimes.com

If the U.S. were to face a new conventional threat, its military could not respond effectively without turning to air power, officials and analysts say.

That is the ultimate upshot of the war in Iraq: a response elsewhere would consist largely of U.S. fighters and bombers — even, perhaps, some degree of nuclear strike — because so many ground troops are tied up in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“I believe that we, as a nation, are at risk of mission failure should our Army be called to deploy to an emerging threat,” Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee, said last year, basing his assessment on classified Army readiness reports.

“We would have had to start growing the Army and Marine Corps five years ago for it to have made a difference today,” Schultz said.

Graph Shows War Costs Contrasted To Alt Energy R&D

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:26:48 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: It's just sick. Pitiful.

Clip Source: www.solarpowerrocks.com

These figures are in millions. The source for energy R&D expenditures is from the National Council for Science and the Environment.

Though the war in Iraq now costs about $120B a year, two authors (one a Nobel prize winner) estimates the total cost of this war exceeds 2 Trillion Dollars.

That $2,000,000,000,000? Well, that amount of money could’ve built solar thermal plants here that would have provided energy for 2/3rds of our nation’s energy demand.

“Accrued liabilities for U.S. federal employees’ and veterans’ benefits now total $4.5 trillion. Indeed, our debt for veterans’ health and disability payments has risen by $228 billion in the past year alone…The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the interest payments on the money borrowed to finance the Iraq war will total $264 billion to $308 billion.”

Tags: solar, energy, coal, nuclear, iraq, war

Boston Arrests Protesting Vets, Too

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:52:34 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: More power to these fellas. They sacrifice again in defense of the honor of their country. I can see it no other way.

Clip Source: www.democraticunderground.com

More than a dozen members of an antiwar veterans group were arrested yesterday as they protested the exclusion of their message from Boston’s Veterans Day parade.Members of Veterans for Peace lined up in front of a podium at City Hall Plaza holding antiwar placards, as color guards from Massachusetts military units and JROTC bands from across the state filed into Government Center for a ceremony, sponsored by the American Legion, to honor veterans after the parade. Some protesters wore gags, which they later said symbolized the fact that, while they were permitted to march in the parade, they were prevented from carrying signs opposing the war in Iraq.

“We were exercising our First Amendment rights,” said Winston Warfield of Dorchester, a member of the group. “The First Amendment protects free speech, even when you don’t agree with what’s being said.”

Tags: protest, veterans

Protesting Vets Banned From Veteran's Day Parade

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:41:41 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: I guess we only honor vets who like war. Dissenters deserve no respect?

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Antiwar veterans who attempted to march in a Veterans Day Parade Saturday in Long Beach were banned by organizers who said the parade is supposed to thank veterans and not serve as a political demonstration.

Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out were prevented from joining the annual parade down Atlantic Avenue and restricted to a nearby parking lot, officials said. Organizers said the groups were trying to push a political agenda at an event to honor veterans. Earlier this week, the Veterans Day Parade Committee rejected their applications to participate, according to the Long Beach Press- Telegram. "This is not a political event, this is a time to come and just say thank you to all veterans," said Long Beach City Councilman Val Lerch, who also was on the parade committee.

Tags: protest, war, veteran

The "Hitler Comparison"

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 05:44:22 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "The only thing that can prevent them from fulfilling their wretched and terrible goals of oligarchy, universal slavery and domination of the world is your voice, your derision, your hand, raised in resistance, your lips mouthing a simple no."

Clip Source: agonist.org

The "Hitler comparison" should be shouted from the rooftops, as should the Goebbels comparison, the Himmler comparison, the Mengele, Stalin, Torquemada, Beelzebub comparisons and all the rest. If it struts like a Nazi, talks like Nazi, tortures like a Nazi and wages aggressive and illegal war like a Nazi... it's not a duck.

Make no mistake, these people, the architects of the last six years of international turmoil, of domestic division, of war and death, of crushing despair and hopelessness, are Nazis, perhaps not yet in the full bloom of adulthood, not yet grown to the evil proportions of their twentieth century predecessors, but they have emerged from their larval stage and are prepared for full flight, They have all the weapons, they lack nothing, nothing, but to complete their rewriting of our laws and of course, they need those handsome uniforms.

Tags: bush, hitler, iraq