Clipmarks | BobbyDelray's 'iraq' clips

Fifth, Sixth, or Seventh Tour of Duty

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:48:52 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: If MCCain becomes president those currently in the military can look forward to a fifth, sixth or seventh tour of duty in Iraq.

Or maybe, he intends to start paying volunteers like we pay our mercenaries.

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

McCain: Only World War III would justify draft

Only World War III would prompt Republican presidential candidate John McCain to bring back the military draft, McCain said on Tuesday.

Many Americans are fearful the U.S. government will be forced to reinstitute the draft given the prolonged Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Asked about that possibility by a potential voter in Florida during a telephone "town hall meeting," McCain said: "I don't know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War III."

Mission Accomplished? Iraq to award oil contracts to foreign firms

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:26:37 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.breitbart.com

Iraq will award contracts to 41 foreign oil firms in a bid to boost production that could give multinationals a potentially lucrative foothold in huge but underdeveloped oil fields, an official said on Sunday.

They cover Kirkuk field (Shell), Rumaila (BP), Al-Zubair (ExxonMobil), West Qurna Phase I (Chevron and Total), Maysan province development (Shell and BHP Billiton) and the Subba and Luhais fields (Anadarko, Vitol and the UAE's Dome), according to a previous media report.

Investigators: Millions in Iraq contracts never finished

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:01:54 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: Its time to call for the heads of those responsible. It appears firings and some jail time might help insure these practices are stopped.

As taxpayers shouldn't we be demanding accountability?

Clip Source: hosted.ap.org

Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete, federal investigators say.

uneven reconstruction effort that has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $100 billion

U.S. Agency for International Development contracted with Bechtel Corp. in 2004 to construct a $50 million children's hospital in Basra, only to "essentially terminate" the project in 2006 because of monthslong delays

But rather than terminate the project, U.S. officials modified the contract to change the scope of the work

when in fact the hospital was only 35 percent complete

"The report paints a depressing picture of money being poured into failed Iraq reconstruction projects - contractors are killed, projects are blown up just before being completed, or the contractor just stops doing the work," she said.

Pitiful More Forced to Stay in Army

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:24:04 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.usatoday.com

The Army has accelerated its policy of involuntary extensions of duty to bolster its troop levels, despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates' order last year to limit it, Pentagon records show.

STOP-LOSS NUMBERS INCREASE

Gates directed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the service secretaries to minimize mandatory tour extensions, known as "stop loss," in January 2007

Since then, the number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army rose 43% to 12,235 in March

the military has sent more troops to Iraq and extended tours to 15 months to support an escalation in U.S. forces ordered by President Bush

Soldiers affected by stop loss now serve, on average, an extra 6.6 months

"Secretary Gates understands the hardship stop loss poses to our troops and their families, but he also understands the need to maintain cohesive units on the battlefield throughout deployment," Morrell said. "Troops who have trained together and fought together should remain together."

Tags: iraq, army, tour of duty

Ex-Rumsfeld deputy describes Iraq as 'major debacle'

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:37:08 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.usatoday.com

The Iraq war has turned into a "major debacle," a former Pentagon official writes in a report published by the National Defense University in Washington.

"Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle," Joseph Collins writes at the beginning of his 60-page article.

Collins, a retired Army colonel, served as a senior DoD official under Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld.

Among the conclusions he reaches in Choosing War: The Decision to Invade Iraq and Its Aftermath:

To date, the war in Iraq is a classic case of failure to adopt and adapt prudent courses of action that balance ends, ways, and means

Globally, U.S. standing among friends and allies has fallen. Our status as a moral leader has been damaged by the war

At the same time, operations in Iraq have had a negative impact on all other efforts in the war on terror

The central finding of this study is that U.S. efforts in Iraq were hobbled by a set of faulty assumptions

Tags: iraq, war, rumsfeld, joseph collins

Petraeus, Crocker update lawmakers on Iraq war

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:07:22 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: Follow the links for continuous updates.

Clip Source: blogs.usatoday.com

Click here to watch the hearing live.

USA TODAY's David Jackson reports that there are long lines outside the hearing room, including about a half-dozen women wearing black robes - their faces powdered white - and carrying bundles made to look like bloody babies.

"I Will Not Be Silent," one woman's sign says.

The chairman's opening statement is available on his website.

Levin focuses on the giant surpluses that the Iraqi government has accumulated in recent years.

"The Iraqi government seems content to sit by, build up surpluses and let Americans reconstruct their country and foot the bill. But the American people surely aren’t content with that, and the Bush administration shouldn’t be either."

"We're no longer starting into the abyss of defeat," McCain says, arguing that the surge has provided "an opportunity" for a safe and democratic Iraq

He condemned "irresponsible calls" for withdrawal, but did not cast them in partisan terms.

Read the commander's prepared remarks by clicking here.

Army Worried by Rising Stress of Return Tours

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:14:17 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: I wonder when people are going to ask themselves about their own patriotism? We sit back comfortably and watched as the same men and women are sent to Iraq over and over.

What sacrifice has the American public made to support our efforts in Iraq?

What is the real definition of Patriotism?

When is the public going to say that these practices go against everything we believe and stand up against?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Army leaders are expressing increased alarm about the mental health of soldiers who would be sent back to the front again and again under plans that call for troop numbers to be sustained at high levels in Iraq for this year and beyond.

Among combat troops sent to Iraq for the third or fourth time, more than one in four show signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress, according to an official Army survey of soldiers’ mental health.

President Bush has signaled that he will endorse General Petraeus’s recommendation, a decision that will leave close to 140,000 American troops in Iraq

But in a meeting with Mr. Bush late last month in advance of General Petraeus’s testimony, the Joint Chiefs of Staff expressed deep concern about stress on the force, senior Defense Department and military officials said.

Among the 513,000 active-duty soldiers who have served in Iraq since the invasion of 2003, more than 197,000 have deployed more than once

more than 53,000 have deployed three or more times

Tags: iraq, war, patriotism

Cheney Unconcerned by Iraq War’s Unpopularity

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:30:19 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: thelede.blogs.nytimes.com

Vice President Cheney, already a lightning rod for critics of the Iraq war, seemed likely to ruffle more feathers today with remarks he made to a TV interviewer as the nation marked five years of war in Iraq.

After Ms. Raddatz asked about the economy — which he said was in “a rough patch,” not a recession — the subject turned to the deep unpopularity of the Iraq war. Here’s a transcript of the exchange, released by the network:

Raddatz: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.

Cheney: So?

Raddatz: So? You don’t care what the American people think?

Cheney: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls. There has, in fact, been fundamental change and transformation and improvement for the better. That’s a huge accomplishment.

The network has posted video of the exchange online.

their public remarks have rarely been so tersely dismissive of the strongly held views of many Americans about the conflict.

More Money Flowing into Iraq

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:07:29 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: U.S. economy could fall casualty to wars.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

The flow of blood may be ebbing, but the flood of money into the Iraq war is steadily rising, new analyses show.

In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the "burn" rate of its earliest years

Beyond 2008, working with "best-case" and "realistic-moderate" scenarios, they project the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion -- or more -- by 2017.

Interest on money borrowed to pay those costs could alone add $816 billion to that bottom line, they say.

A boy rests at an Iraqi refugee camp in June. Economists say it's hard to calculate the social costs of war.

That total far surpasses the $670 billion in 2007 dollars the Congressional Research Service says was the U.S. price tag for the 12-year Vietnam War.

Tags: iraq, war, cost

Where is Iraq's oil money going?

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:55:58 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Two senators are asking congressional investigators to look at Iraq's oil revenues and see if the war-ravaged nation can pay for its own reconstruction, an effort that has been bankrolled to this point mostly by U.S. taxpayers.

Government Accountability Office that Iraq has "tremendous resources" in banks worldwide but is doing little to improve security and reconstruction efforts.

We believe that it has been overwhelmingly U.S. taxpayer money that has funded Iraq reconstruction over the last five years, despite Iraq earning billions of dollars in oil revenue

Using numbers from the U.S. State Department and Iraqi Oil Ministry, the senators said Iraq hopes to produce 2.2 million barrels of oil a day this year. Weekly averages suggest that the number has climbed as high as 2.51 million barrels a day.

That kind of oil production could earn Iraq a projected $56.4 billion this year

we believe that Iraq will accrue at least $100.0 billion in oil revenues in 2007 and 2008

Tags: oil, iraq, revenue, reconstruction

Record number of soldiers committed suicide last year

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:58:51 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.usatoday.com

A record number of active-duty soldiers killed themselves last year, according to The Washington Post.

The paper cites an internal Army study that shows 121 soldiers committed suicide in 2007. That's a 20% increase over the prior year

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have placed severe stress on the Army, caused in part by repeated and lengthened deployments," the paper reports. "Historically, suicide rates tend to decrease when soldiers are in conflicts overseas, but that trend has reversed in recent years. From a suicide rate of 9.8 per 100,000 active-duty soldiers in 2001 -- the lowest rate on record -- the Army reached an all-time high of 17.5 suicides per 100,000 active-duty soldiers in 2006

The number of attempted suicides among soldiers is six times higher than it was

The Associated Press is quoting preliminary figures that show more than a quarter of the suicides took place in Iraq

Click here for the warning signs that suggest someone is considering suicide

Tags: iraq, suicide, army, death, soldiers killed themselves

Females are taken care of by men in this country

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:00:45 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

Since the U.S. invasion in 2003, women have faced more restrictions as the formerly secular Iraq becomes religious. Few women leave their hair uncovered in Baghdad. Women’s activists fear women will suffer if the new constitution eventually allows individuals to decide domestic issues according to Islamic religious traditions.

Policewomen in Iraq have been told to hand in their guns, in the latest sign of cultural and religious conservatism taking hold in the country, reports the Los Angeles Times’s Tina Susman.

Most of the few policewomen who worked in street patrols have been reassigned to desk jobs.

Gen. Phillips says when he questioned Iraqi Interior Ministry officials about the diminishing role of women in the force, he was told, “Females are taken care of by men in this country.”

Tags: iraq, women, guns, religion

Iraqi Problems That the Surge Isn’t Solving

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:03:20 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

Any gains in suppressing violence in Iraq have yet to be matched by the political progress necessary to make those changes lasting, writes Juan Cole in Salon.

Iraq remains home to one of the most violent civil conflicts in the world

Iraqi government statistics show that deaths attributable to political violence in the past three months have averaged 700 per month.

The high level of violence and political problems mean that Iraq is still failing as a state, says Prof. Cole, and in danger of collapsing.

Shiites in Parliament have angrily stymied a Bush administration-backed measure to soften the ban on former Baath party members from working in government.

On the other side, bodyguards of one Sunni leader in Parliament, Adnan Dulaimi, were recently discovered to have been handling explosives.

Making reconciliation even more complicated, Sunnis themselves are splitting into factions, Newsweek reported this week

Tags: iraq, surge, problems

20,000 vets' brain injuries not listed in Pentagon tally

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 22:31:08 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.usatoday.com

At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY.

The data, provided by the Army, Navy and Department of Veterans Affairs, show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also are not reflected in the Pentagon's official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327.

Fort Hood, Texas, home of the 4th Infantry Division, which returned from a second Iraq combat tour late last year. At least 2,700 soldiers suffered a combat brain injury

Fort Carson, Colo., where more than 2,100 soldiers screened were found to have suffered a brain injury

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where 1,737 Marines were found to have suffered a brain injury

More than 150,000 troops may have suffered head injuries in combat

Marine didn't recognize signs of brain injury

Tags: vets, brain injury, pentagon, army, navy, veterans affairs

Estimates on Iraq-War Costs

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 02:46:01 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

How much has the war in Iraq cost the U.S.?

The most-basic estimate covers only spending to date, and is limited to budgetary items of military and diplomatic operations in Iraq. The Congressional Budget Office put those costs at about $400 billion in testimony last month before a House panel.

But start projecting forward 10 years

and you get a wide range of figures, all the way up to $3.5 trillion.

The latest estimate came this week from Congressional Democrats. The Joint Economic Committee’s majority staff released a report estimating the costs incurred so far in Iraq and Afghanistan at $1.6 trillion, and pegs costs through 2017 at $3.5 trillion. The report received widespread press coverage, including on CNN and in the Washington Post.

Republicans responded by criticizing the report for “errors and poor methodology,” but didn’t offer their own estimate.

The CBO

estimated total budget costs through 2017

between $1.2 trillion and $1.7 trillion

interest costs between $600 and $700 billion

Tags: iraq, war, costs, budget