Clipmarks | jklugman's 'fubar' clips

A 'fit' of panic is good when bad things happen

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:47:05 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

The military has given the English language two words that brilliantly articulate different types of crises: The first is snafu, an acronym for "situation normal, all f***ed up." The second is fubar, which stands for "f***ed up beyond all recognition." As we travel the bumpy road of life, we must prepare to deal with both.

Go ahead and freak out

Levine noted that people who have physical emergency reactions often cope better with crisis, and show fewer symptoms of trauma afterward, than people who hold still. Stress compels action; in snafu situations, Mother Nature gives just one instruction to all her children, and that instruction is, "Move!"

When the unexpected strikes, find a private space and let your body do whatever it wants. Heave, kick, shake your head like a wet cat. Then let that energy flow into constructive action, whether it's contesting a credit card charge, yanking cactus spines out of your child, or slapping duct tape on a broken pipe.

Tags: stress, health, mental, crisis, emergency, nature, trauma, emotion, reaction

White House 'panicked' over anti-war resolutions

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 03:15:29 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Via Brad DeLong

Clip Source: www.politico.com

Bush Allies Warn Iraq Vote Could Harm War Plan, GOP Future

By: Jim VandeHei
January 27, 2007 06:45 PM EST

Top White House officials are scrambling to prevent a showdown over the Iraq war that could tear apart the Republican Party and severely undermine President Bush's plan to increase U.S. troop levels.

White House officials are pleading with GOP senators to oppose any congressional resolution that specifically condemns Bush's effort to escalate the war effort in coming months, congressional sources said Friday morning. In private conversations, the officials are telling senators that the resolution would demoralize U.S. troops and hurt the GOP politically for years to come.

Bush allies are arguing that Republicans will damage their individual political interests as well. Their logic is that there is no anti-war constituency inside the Republican Party, pointing specifically to Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., a potential presidential candidate who has opposed the surge but not gained much traction with party activists. "That's a flat argument," the senior aide said. "That does not work."

The Bush White House is described as panicked by the prospects of mass defections and open to compromise. They have cause for concern: at least six Republicans, including Sen. John Warner of Virginia, have signed resolutions opposing the surge. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nev., has not committed to a vote on the resolution next week. He is negotiating compromise language between Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Warner, the panel's ranking Republican and an influential voice on military matters, to entice more GOP senators to support the measure.

Tags: bush administration, incompetence, iraq, fubar, congress, democrats, republicans, via:brad delong

How bad are things in Iraq?

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 02:58:47 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.brendan-nyhan.com

January 27, 2007

How bad are things in Iraq?

Very, very bad. Here's a disturbing fact mentioned in passing during a NPR report that aired on Monday about kidnappings in Iraq:

Some people now tattoo telephone numbers on their arms, so if they are killed their families can be contacted.

And here's Vice President Cheney on CNN two days later:

Bottom line is that we've had enormous successes [in Iraq] and we will continue to have enormous successes.

It must be fun to live outside the reality-based community.

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Tags: bush administration, iraq, fubar, civil war, civil-war, incompetence, deception

Iraqi Dead May Total 600,000, Study Says

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:36:29 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

October 11, 2006

Iraqi Dead May Total 600,000, Study Says

By SABRINA TAVERNISE and DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

BAGHDAD, Oct. 10 — A team of American and Iraqi public health researchers has estimated that 600,000 civilians have died in violence across Iraq since the 2003 American invasion, the highest estimate ever for the toll of the war here.

The figure breaks down to about 15,000 violent deaths a month, a number that is quadruple the one for July given by Iraqi government hospitals and the morgue in Baghdad and published last month in a United Nations report in Iraq. That month was the highest for Iraqi civilian deaths since the American invasion.

But it is an estimate and not a precise count, and researchers acknowledged a margin of error that ranged from 426,369 to 793,663 deaths.

It is the second study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It uses samples of casualties from Iraqi households to extrapolate an overall figure of 601,027 Iraqis dead from violence between March 2003 and July 2006.

The findings of the previous study, published in The Lancet, a British medical journal, in 2004, had been criticized as high, in part because of its relatively narrow sampling of about 1,000 families, and because it carried a large margin of error.

The new study is more representative, its researchers said, and the sampling is broader: it surveyed 1,849 Iraqi families in 47 different neighborhoods across Iraq. The selection of geographical areas in 18 regions across Iraq was based on population size, not on the level of violence, they said.

Tags: iraq, statistics, civilian-killings, suffering, fubar, bush administration, incompetence, civil war, civil-war

Trent Lott gets bashful

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:58:33 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: According to this article, Republicans are going to wait for 2-3 months to see if there are any improvements in Iraq, before demanding a withdrawal.

Via Josh Marshall

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

The Senate: The Republican Revolt

How close is Bush to losing his own party?

By Richard Wolffe, Holly Bailey and Eleanor Clift

Newsweek

Jan. 22, 2007 issue - Last Tuesday afternoon, a day before President George W. Bush went on TV to explain his decision to send more troops to Iraq, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called his Republican colleagues together for a private talk. Several GOP senators had already come out against the plan. McConnell, Bush's closest Senate supporter on Iraq, hoped to keep others from defecting. He urged his colleagues to stand together at least until Bush had the chance to speak to the country. After the meeting, the senators went outside the room to display their unity to waiting reporters. McConnell said he thought more troops were just the thing to "give us a chance to succeed." He then stepped aside so the other senators could second his sentiments. No one came forward. McConnell's eye fell on Trent Lott. "Trent?" McConnell said, motioning him toward the microphone. "I don't think I have anything to add," said Lott.

Tags: trent lott, republicans, war, politics, bush administration, surge, fubar

Bush admin considering allying with Iraqi Shiites

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:49:29 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Laura Rozen reports on a secret mission [EDIT: meeting, not mission] where Stephen Hadley advocated the US drop its posture as a "neutral referee" in the Iraqi civil war and align with the Shiites to crush Sunni insurgents.

This strikes me as a very, very bad idea.

Via Kevin Drum

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Unleash the Shiites?

The U.S. may be forced to choose sides in Iraq's civil strife.

By Laura Rozen, LAURA ROZEN, a senior correspondent for the American Prospect, writes about foreign policy issues from Washington.
November 16, 2006

This past Veterans Day weekend, according to my sources, almost the entire Bush national security team gathered for an unpublicized two-day meeting. The topic: Iraq. The purpose of the meeting was to come up with a consensus position on a new path forward. Among those attending were President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, national security advisor Stephen Hadley, outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.

Numerous policy options were put forward at the meeting, which revolved around a strategy paper prepared by Hadley and drawn from his recent trip to Baghdad. One was the Shiite option. Participants were asked to consider whether the U.S. could really afford to keep fighting both the Sunni insurgency and Shiite militias — or whether it should instead focus its efforts on combating the Sunni insurgency exclusively, and even help empower the Shiites against the Sunnis.

So what's the logic behind the idea of "unleashing the Shiites"? It's the path of least resistance, according to its supporters, and it could help accelerate one side actually winning Iraq's sectarian conflict, thereby shortening the conflict, while reducing some of the critical security concerns driving Shiites to mobilize their own militias in the first place.

But such a strategy brings with it significant dangers. Washington might pick the wrong leaders on the side it chooses to back. Should it, for instance, continue to back Iraq's Shiite prime minister, Nouri Maliki, or tilt in favor of his Shiite rival, Abdelaziz Hakim, and his party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq? Either choice could lead to more intra-Shiite infighting and violence.

Tags: bush administration, iraq, civil war, civil-war, fubar, civilian-killings, incompetence, stephen hadley

White House sitting on another secret Iraq report

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 18:05:11 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: According to Josh Marshall, this second report isn't official an NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) but it is very similar to one.

Clip Source: www.tpmmuckraker.com

BREAKING: Harman Calls for Release of Second Secret Iraq Report

By Justin Rood - September 26, 2006, 12:15 PM

There's a second damning Iraq report floating around the intelligence community.

At least, that's according to Rep. Jane Harman (CA), the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee. At an event this morning, Harman disclosed the existence of a classified intelligence community report that gives a grim assessment of the situation in Iraq, and called for it to be shared with the American public -- before the November elections.

Dr. Lawrence Korb, a former senior Defense Department official now with the liberal-progressive Center for American Progress, hasn't seen the report but has discussed it with those who have. "It's a very bleak picture of what's going on in Iraq," he said.

Tags: nie, bush administration, secrecy, iraq, fubar

US officer: our generals are not worthy of our soldiers

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:20:04 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Lt. Col. Paul Yingling wrote an article in the Armed Forces Journal that says that lack of accountability has resulted in generals who are basically toadies of the civilian leadership, failed to confront the seriousness of the insurgency in Iraq, and misled the public about the situation there.

Via Richard Adams at the Guardian News Blog.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

An active-duty Army officer is publishing a blistering article attacking U.S. generals, saying they have botched the war in Iraq and also misled Congress about the situation there.

"America's generals have repeated the mistakes of Vietnam in Iraq," charges Lt. Col. Paul Yingling, an Iraq veteran who is deputy commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. "The intellectual and moral failures . . . constitute a crisis in American generals."

Its appearance signals the public emergence of a split inside the military among younger, mid-career officers and the top brass.

America's general officer corps did not accurately portray the intensity of the insurgency to the American public," he writes. "For reasons that are not yet clear, America's general officer corps underestimated the strength of the enemy, overestimated the capabilities of Iraq's government and security forces and failed to provide Congress with an accurate assessment of security conditions in Iraq."

Tags: iraq, military, army, paul yingling, incompetence, fubar, soldiers

"The war will be over Iraq, over its dead body"

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 13:10:20 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: VIa Marc Cooper

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Sectarian Strife in Iraq Imperils Entire Region, Analysts Warn

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 16, 2006; A01

BAGHDAD -- While American commanders have suggested that civil war is possible in Iraq, many leaders, experts and ordinary people in Baghdad and around the Middle East say it is already underway, and that the real worry ahead is that the conflict will destroy the flimsy Iraqi state and draw in surrounding countries.

"We're not talking about just a full-scale civil war. This would be a failed-state situation with fighting among various groups," growing into regional conflict, Joost Hiltermann, Middle East project director for the International Crisis Group, said by telephone from Amman, Jordan.

"The war will be over Iraq, over its dead body," Hiltermann said.

Tags: iraq, fubar, civil war, civil-war, bush administration, incompetence

Iraq: The 2% Truth

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 00:05:11 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: marccooper.com

Beyond the fulminations and whimpers of the Bushies over a biased media, it seems that if anything the American press has been too polite in describing the catastophe underway in Iraq.

Check out this hair-raising piece in Editor and Publisher based on a talk by veteran NYTimes war reporter Dexter Filkins who says that the anarchy and bloodshed sweeping Iraq has placed 98% of Iraq "off-limts" to reporters. Asked his advice he would offer a reporter heading to Iraq, he simply said "don't go."

Don't go, because you can hardly report anything at all. Even gettting out of a vehicle puts the life of a Western reporter at risk. Just to get what news from Iraq that the NYT currenty collects requires the hiring, literally of a small army:

According to Filkins, the New York Times is burning through money "like jet fuel" simply to securely maintain its operations in the country.

Tags: iraq, fubar, civil-war, marc cooper, media, journalism

Bush endangering troops by not planning for withdrawal

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:24:14 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Mark Thoma reproduces part of a National Journal article that points out that troop withdrawal can be very dangerous for the troops, and by failing to plan for it the Bush administration is increasing the odds for a chaotic, difficult, and dangerous withdrawal for the US troops when withdrawal does come.

Clip Source: economistsview.typepad.com

in all probability, the United States is going to draw down some or most of its troops from Iraq sooner or later, regardless of whether the surge ends up pacifying Baghdad or not (likely not). Military experts all agree that pulling out could end up being the most difficult and treacherous phase of the entire war. But the Pentagon can’t really plan for withdrawal because the president doesn’t want to discuss it.

As you pull forces out, it reverses, and your strength curve goes down, and the situation becomes steadily more dangerous. It's most dangerous for the very last squad that leaves the country. That's why you saw helicopters on the rooftops of the Saigon embassy in 1975."

The military could take a host of steps to help mitigate the risks of a U.S. troop drawdown... [But] ... It's almost impossible for the military to seriously plan for a contingency -- withdrawal -- that the commander-in-chief won't even discuss, Sinnreich noted.

Tags: bush administration, iraq, fubar, incompetence, war

Gunmen Kill Afghan Women’s Advocate

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 23:53:56 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

September 25, 2006

Gunmen Kill Afghan Women’s Advocate

By CARLOTTA GALL

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept. 25 — A senior Afghan official specializing in women’s rights was gunned down here on her way to work Monday morning by suspected Taliban gunmen. It was the highest-level assassination of a woman in Afghanistan in the five years since the Taliban were ousted from power.

Safia Amajan, 65, had served as chief of the Woman’s Affairs department in Kandahar for five years, working to improve women’s rights and opportunities for education and vocational training. A former teacher and high school principal, she was well known and much liked in Kandahar.

A spokesman claiming to speak for the Taliban took responsibility for the killing in a telephone call, Reuters reported.

telephone

Tags: afghanistan, taliban, women, gender, islam, fubar, civilian-killings

Pentagon suppressing Baghdad death toll

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 20:26:05 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.realcities.com

Posted on Fri, Sep. 08, 2006

U.S. count of Baghdad deaths excludes car bombs, mortar attacks

By Mark Brunswick and Zaineb Obeid

McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. officials, seeking a way to measure the results of a program aimed at decreasing violence in Baghdad, aren't counting scores of dead killed in car bombings and mortar attacks as victims of the country's sectarian violence.

In a distinction previously undisclosed, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said Friday that the United States is including in its tabulations of sectarian violence only deaths of individuals killed in drive-by shootings or by torture and execution.

That has allowed U.S. officials to boast that the number of deaths from sectarian violence in Baghdad declined by more than 52 percent in August over July.

But it eliminates from tabulation huge numbers of people whose deaths are certainly part of the ongoing conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Not included, for example, are scores of people who died in a highly coordinated bombing that leveled an entire apartment building in eastern Baghdad, a stronghold of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Tags: military, bush administration, deception, iraq, civil war, civilian-killings, fubar

US military has lost Iraqi province - Marine official

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:35:32 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks:

We haven't been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically -- and that's where wars are won and lost.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Situation Called Dire in West Iraq

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 11, 2006; A01

The chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq recently filed an unusual secret report concluding that the prospects for securing that country's western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there, said several military officers and intelligence officials familiar with its contents.

The officials described Col. Pete Devlin's classified assessment of the dire state of Anbar as the first time that a senior U.S. military officer has filed so negative a report from Iraq.

One Army officer summarized it as arguing that in Anbar province, "We haven't been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically -- and that's where wars are won and lost."

Tags: anbar, iraq, fubar, civil war, bush administration, incompetence, occupation

US official in Iraq: "We are being played like a pawn."

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 18:18:08 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

U.S. and Iraqis Are Wrangling Over War Plans

“We are implementing a strategy to embolden a government that is actually part of the problem,” said an American military official in Baghdad involved in talks over the plan. “We are being played like a pawn.”

Tags: iraq, bush administration, fubar, incompetence, war

Clipmarks | jklugman's 'fubar' clips

A 'fit' of panic is good when bad things happen

White House 'panicked' over anti-war resolutions

How bad are things in Iraq?

Brendan Nyhan

January 27, 2007

How bad are things in Iraq?

Iraqi Dead May Total 600,000, Study Says

Iraqi Dead May Total 600,000, Study Says

Trent Lott gets bashful

The Senate: The Republican Revolt

How close is Bush to losing his own party?

Bush admin considering allying with Iraqi Shiites

Unleash the Shiites?

White House sitting on another secret Iraq report

US officer: our generals are not worthy of our soldiers

"The war will be over Iraq, over its dead body"

Iraq: The 2% Truth

Bush endangering troops by not planning for withdrawal

Gunmen Kill Afghan Women’s Advocate

Pentagon suppressing Baghdad death toll

U.S. count of Baghdad deaths excludes car bombs, mortar attacks

By Mark Brunswick and Zaineb Obeid

McClatchy Newspapers

US military has lost Iraqi province - Marine official

US official in Iraq: "We are being played like a pawn."