Clipmarks | deb2012's 'war' clips

Newt on What might have been

Sun, 11 May 2008 14:22:08 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: Gingrich has an amazing knowledge of history and the reasons leaders succeed or fail in times of danger

Clip Source: newt.org

Imagine that on the morning of September 12, 2001, the shocked national political leadership in both parties had understood the necessity to take a deep, long look at the Irreconcilable Wing of Islam.

Imagine that the President and Congressional leaders on a bipartisan basis had mandated a series of public hearings on the scale of the radical Wahhabist financing from sources in Saudi Arabia, the degree of Iranian and Syrian support for terrorism, the various propagandizing and recruiting efforts that were underway to attract terrorists at a rate faster than we could kill or imprison them.

Imagine that on September 12, 2001 the news media had begun a series of informative, in-depth explorations of the Iranian war against America

With this starting context, an alternative history might well have played out

The key debate for the next year ought to be the larger war, the real enemies, the need for a real strategy, and solutions to the scale of the challenge we face.

Tags: history, politics, war, 9/11

How much are you paying for this war?

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:28:17 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: If every family knew they would have to each pay near $50,000 for the Iraq war, Bush's approval rating might be at ZERO right now. At 25% approval rating, those 25% are still clueless how much this war is costing our country. The Outstanding Public Debt as of NOW is: $9,354,811,947,563 making each citizen's share $30,777. I'm not sure if it's worth it or not, but at least we ought to know that there's more fiscal malfeasance than ever.

Clip Source: investorshub.advfn.com

We’ll still be making disability payments to Iraq war veterans 50 years from now.

A Congressional study by the Joint Economic Committee found that the sums spent on the Iraq war each day could enroll an additional 58,000 children in Head Start or give Pell Grants to 153,000 students to attend college. Or if we’re sure we want to invest in security, then a day’s Iraq spending would finance another 11,000 border patrol agents or 9,000 police officers.

if you believe that staying in Iraq does more good than harm, you must answer the next question: Is that presence so valuable that it is worth undermining our economy?

All that would consume less than one month’s spending on the Iraq war.

Professor Stiglitz calculates that the eventual total cost of the war will be about $3 trillion. For a family of five like mine, that amounts to a bill of almost $50,000.

Tags: economy, iraq, debt

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Or how we won the war in Iraq

Mon, 05 May 2008 21:10:27 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: a new book quoting the "experts" and exposing what they said

Clip Source: www.pbs.org

It's an in-depth study and analysis of five years of expert commentary on the Iraq war. The authors have somewhat sadly, if not reluctantly, concluded that the most distinguished cast of experts ever before assembled reached a grand consensus on the Iraq war — and that all of them got it wrong. How did it happen? The whole thing is so tragic perhaps only satire can give us the answer.

Did you find a single expert who got it right?

Well, strangely enough, we did. And it was Dick Cheney himself.

he was interviewed in 1994 by

the American Enterprise Institute

He said that if we tried to invade Iraq and go all the way to Baghdad, we'd find ourselves caught between the Sunnis and the Shiites. He said that Turkey wouldn't like that, and they could come down to try to deal with the Kurds. He worried about we could end up as an occupying power and be there for years. He was very prescient.

He obviously decided he needed to change his position.

Tags: books, politics

Body of War

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:56:27 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: Directors interviewed by Bill Moyers-the congressional debate in 2002 is especially eye opening

Clip Source: www.pbs.org

Five years ago this week, President Bush invaded Iraq because, we were told, Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was plotting with Al Quaeda terrorists to attack America. We were told the war would be quick and tidy - and that grateful Iraqis would welcome their liberators with flowers in the streets.

Well, now the war is into its sixth year. We're spending over ten billion dollars a month, with the long-range cost reckoned in trillions. For Iraqis and for American soldiers and their families, the human toll is even harder to calculate -- numbers alone don't do it: 4,000 soldiers dead, nearly 30,000 wounded. But numbers aren't personal; the only way truly to understand the human cost of this war is to know someone who is bearing it. Someone like Tomas Young.

Tags: politics, war

citizen arrest warrants for Bush and Cheney

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:48:25 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: issued by Veterans for Peace

Clip Source: www.globalresearch.ca

Backed by family members and supporters all across the nation, U.S. military veterans will serve citizen arrest warrants for George Bush and Dick Cheney tomorrow in Washington, D.C.

The warrants are "for multiple violations of the Constitution and international war crimes," according to a statement issued by Veterans for Peace, a national organization of men and women who served in wars and military conflicts beginning with the Spanish Civil War in 1936 through the present war in Iraq.

The patriots will also retake their military oath, which includes the words: "I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Body of War

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:20:12 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: a winner

Clip Source: youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: documentary

U.S. Depression coming?

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:44:08 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: see the CNN video at the link

Clip Source: www.blacklistednews.com

History will likely record that the

"$3-8 Trillion" Iraq War

was a key reason why the American economy shuddered to a stop and a new Great Depression began, if the financial genocide continues :

The spending on Iraq was a hidden cause of the current credit crunch because

the US central bank responded to the massive financial drain of the war by flooding the American economy with cheap credit.

"The regulators were looking the other way and money was being lent to anybody this side of a life-support system..."

That led to a housing bubble and a consumption boom, and the fallout was plunging the US economy

Tags: economy

forgotton war

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:03:05 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: Best tv news-Bill Moyer's Journal

Clip Source: www.pbs.org

“We’re paying a billion dollars a year to Pakistan, which is orchestrating the Taliban insurgency. So it’s actually U.S. taxpayer money that is paying for the insurgents, who are then killing – at the moment – Canadian troops... It’s been very clear to me, watching since 2002, that Pakistan has been buying us off by a well-timed delivery of an al-Qaeda operative, which has then caused us to look the other way about the Taliban... so this is why 99 % of the people in Kandahar believe that we are allied with the Taliban. Everybody thinks that America is allied with the Taliban.”

Tags: war

Afghanistan Conflict

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:18:39 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: Gates calls out Europe....

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Nearly everything about President Bush’s botched war of choice in Iraq has made it much harder to win Afghanistan’s war of necessity

As Mr. Gates rightly noted, Afghanistan is not Iraq. It is a war that began in response to a terrorist attack on the United States, and the fight to defeat the Taliban is fully backed by international law, the United Nations and is a solemn legal commitment of NATO.

Europe’s failures in Afghanistan go far beyond disagreements over Iraq. Many European countries are not fully prepared to fight. The size of their armies, their training, their equipment are all insufficient for 21st-century conflicts, and their citizens are deeply casualty-averse. That is not surprising since many European leaders have not told their voters why winning in Afghanistan is essential.

Tags: politics

Dems and War history

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:36:15 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: To be fair about a Republican taking us into a pre-emptive war...context

Clip Source: investorshub.advfn.com

FDR (DEMOCRAT) led us into World War II.

Germany never attacked us; Japan did.
From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost ...
an average of 112,500 per year.

Truman (DEMOCRAT) finished that war and started one in Korea
North Korea never attacked us.
From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost ...
an average of 18,334 per year.

John F. Kennedy (DEMOCRAT) started our involvement in
the Vietnam conflict in 1962.
Vietnam never attacked us.

Johnson (DEMOCRAT) turned Vietnam into a quagmire.
From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost ..
an average of 5,800 per year.

Clinton (DEMOCRAT) went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent.
Bosnia never attacked us .
He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three
times by the Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on
multiple occasions.

Tags: history