Clipmarks | dulios's 'iraq' clips

Pentagon Institute: Iraq War "Major Debacle", Outcome "In Doubt"

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:50:57 GMT

clipped by: dulios

Pentagon institute calls Iraq war 'a major debacle' with outcome 'in doubt'

"Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle," says the report's opening line.

"No one as yet has calculated the costs of long-term veterans' benefits or the total impact on service personnel and materiel," wrote Collins, who was involved in planning post-invasion humanitarian operations.

the United States has suffered serious political costs, with its standing in the world seriously diminished. Moreover, operations in Iraq have diverted "manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers" from "all other efforts in the war on terror" and severely strained the U.S. armed forces.

"Compounding all of these problems, our efforts there (in Iraq) were designed to enhance U.S. national security, but they have become, at least temporarily, an incubator for terrorism and have emboldened Iran to expand its influence throughout the Middle East,"

Tags: pentagon institute, iraq, war, veterans, terrorism, iran

An American Marine

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:21:23 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: It's a long article, but well worth reading.

I think of all my relatives who've experienced war as either combatants (those who I've known: WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Latin America, and Iraq) or as civilians (my father's family in the "old country" - Greece).

War is hell.

Clip Source: www.rollingstone.com

The Troubled Homecoming Of The Marlboro Marine

This is the face of the war in Iraq. The mind behind it will never be the same.

Before the photograph. On that day, as Miller paused for a smoke during a lull in the fighting, a photographer from The Los Angeles Times captured the battle-weary Marine with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Miller's face was smeared with soot and sand and blood and war paint, none of which could camouflage his bewilderment and exhaustion. The image was soon plastered all over the news, appearing in more than 150 publications worldwide and earning him the moniker "Marlboro Man."

That was then. These days, Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller spends much of his time sitting on the floor of the run-down trailer he keeps as a residence behind his father's house in the tiny coal-mining town of Jonancy, Kentucky (population 297).

He wishes someone had told him that "there may come a time when all that shit you learned, you might not be able to turn it off."

Tags: war, veterans, ptsd, marines, mental health

When Rape is OK: Female Contractors in Iraq

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:23:57 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: Women like -- as you may remember -- Jamie Leigh Jones, 23, a former employee of military contractor KBR who has been unable to get her charges of gang rape heard in court; women like Mary Beth Kineston, who was fired after complained about harassment and groping incidents. "I felt safer on the convoys with the Army than I ever did working for KBR," Kineston told the Times. "At least if you got in trouble on a convoy, you could radio the Army and they would come and help you out. But when I complained to KBR, they didn't do anything. I still have nightmares. They changed my life forever, and they got away with it."
Jones testified in Congress in December -- and yesterday -- in order to draw attention to such cases and urge lawmakers to change regulations governing private arbitration. Emboldened by Jones, more women have begun to step forward, talking about mysteriously disappearing complaints and about being given, for their grievances, an 800 number and a pat on the head.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

Can't work for them, can't sue them

It's bordering on cliché by now, dismayingly enough, to observe that women deployed to Iraq face (at least) "two kinds of assault," are "fighting on two fronts," or that some say the worst part of being at war was not being ambushed by insurgents. Indeed, as today's New York Times reports, "a number of women who have reported that they were sexually assaulted by co-workers while working as contractors in Iraq ... now find themselves in legal limbo, unable to seek justice or even significant compensation."

Tags: rape, female contractors, iraq

Chairman, Joint Chiefs: US Troops are Tired

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:41:32 GMT

clipped by: dulios

Clip Source: www.salon.com

Mullen: US Troops Are Tired

Feb 6th, 2008 | WASHINGTON -- The top uniformed military officer on Wednesday described a tired U.S. military force, worn thin by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and unlikely to come home in large numbers anytime soon.

The assessment comes as President Bush decides whether to continue troop reductions in Iraq — possibly endangering fragile security gains made in recent months — or not, and risk straining ground forces further.

"The well is deep, but it is not infinite," Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We must get Army deployments down to 12 months as soon as possible. People are tired."

Photog jailed in Iraq for doing his job too well

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 20:16:11 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: Another example of the unholy union between empire and media.

Clip Source: www.blackagendareport.com

blackagendareport.com

Bilal Hussein sits in a jail cell in Iraq. Hussein is a Pulitzer prize winning photographer for the Associated Press. He did his job well, so well in fact that the United States military decided to silence him for good.

Hussein was arrested in April of 2006 and held without charge until November 2007. At that time the Pentagon claimed they had evidence Hussein was a "terrorist media operative" who had "infiltrated the AP."

Tags: iraq, bilal hussein