Clipmarks | masbury's 'iraq' clips

McCain record on veteran's issues "abysmal"

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:28:26 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "He has received failing grades from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Disabled Veterans of America, and Vietnam Veterans of America." His pro-veteran talk doesn't match his walk.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

If you look at John McCain’s record on veterans issues, it’s a failed one. … Even the Vietnam Veterans of America, those who served with Sen. McCain in Vietnam, have given Sen. McCain a ‘D’ voting record when it comes to voting to improve veterans health care and benefits. … But I think America’s veterans and voters have a right to know before the election that his voting record in the Senate has been a failed one.

“If his voting record had prevailed over the last several years, veterans would have poorer health care and fewer benefits than they have today,”

He has received failing grades from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Disabled Veterans of America, and Vietnam Veterans of America. McCain has voted against money for VA outpatient care and treatment and against increasing VA funding by $1.5 billion by closing corporate loopholes, to name a few.

25 million veterans

would be shocked and deeply disappointed to find out McCain has a failed voting record on veterans.

[Video]

Tags: mccain, veterans

Albright: Debate was "breakthrough" for Obama

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:28:17 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "responded knowledgeably, thoughtfully and confidently to the toughest questions on the economy, Iraq, and terror."

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

A Breakthrough Night for Obama

Madeleine Albright

Posted September 26, 2008 | 11:02 PM (EST)

Tonight was a breakthrough for Senator Obama, who showed himself truly ready to be president. He responded knowledgeably, thoughtfully and confidently to the toughest questions on the economy, Iraq, and terror. Meanwhile, Senator McCain spent so much time attacking his opponent, he neglected to show how a McCain-Palin administration would differ from Bush-Cheney. As a result, Obama answered the threshold question about his candidacy; McCain did not.

Tags: debate, obama

Amnesty: US contractors flooded Iraq with weapons

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:40:06 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: GWB facilitated the arming of the insurgents of the middle east. Thanks to the USA's poorly regulated tracking, insurgents are better armed than ever in history.

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

Shady deals in Iraq's arms bazaar

SAN FRANCISCO - Clandestine gun suppliers, funded by the United States and Iraqi governments, have flooded Iraq with millions of weapons since 2003, charges a new Amnesty International investigation.

Because of faulty or non-existent government tracking systems, many of those guns have gone missing, and some have turned up in the hands of insurgents.

Contracts with one of these companies, Taos Industries, account for almost half of the US$217 million Baghdad and Washington have officially spent to arm the Iraqi army, police and security forces employed by various Iraqi ministries.

Amnesty investigators have also uncovered documents that suggest that several of Taos' sub-contractors were either operating illegally or had been listed by the United Nations for smuggling weapons.

Amnesty says the situation in Iraq should also be seen as part of the bigger global problem of unrestricted arms sales.

"The time for an arms trade treaty is now,"

Tags: arms, iraq

Biden: Put Nat'l Guard head on Joint Chiefs

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:46:26 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: More than half the vets of Iraq and Afgh are Guard or Reserve; he says Guard General should be at the table with the Joint Chiefs

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

Biden: National Guard head deserves ’seat at the table’ with Joint Chiefs.»

Today, Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) spoke to the National Guard Association Conference. Noting that more than half of the veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been National Guard members or reservists, Biden declared, “Your voice needs to be heard.” He said that Lt. Gen. Craig McKinley, slated to be the first four-star general to head the Guard, should have a seat at the table with the Joint Chiefs:

It’s time for a change. Change begins with giving the Guard a seat at the table. That table in the Pentagon where the Joint Chiefs sit. General McKinley, I not only want to see your fourth star — I want to see you sitting there with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen. Your men and women are serving and dying. Your voice needs to be heard.

A similar proposal was made in 2006, but it was rejected by Donald Rumsfeld and Peter Pace, then-Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

Tags: national guard, biden

Shell first BigOil Co to open Baghdad office

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:30:46 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: The coalition of the willing get what they're after

Clip Source: www.mcclatchydc.com

Shell becomes first international oil firm to open Baghdad office since '70s

BAGHDAD — Royal Dutch Shell PLC opened an office Monday in Iraq, the first major oil and gas firm to set up a new operation here since the industry was nationalized in the 1970s.

The announcement followed the signing of an accord between Shell and the state-run Southern Oil Co. establishing a partnership to recover and market billions of dollars' worth of natural gas that's now being flared off.

Earlier this month, the Iraqi parliament approved the plan giving Southern Oil a 51 percent stake and Shell 49 percent in the project.

Western oil companies are eager to return to Iraq, but the parliament has yet to pass a law that would give them a large stake in oil production in Iraq. Many Iraqis worry that foreign oil companies would exploit the country's oil fields with no benefit to Iraqis.

Western oil firms were kicked out of Iraq when the oil industry was nationalized in 1972.

Tags: oil, iraq

Iraqi man: I wish McCain had Iraqis tell about surge

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:34:33 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "Sami Rasouli is an ... Iraqi American who grew up in Najaf. He left Iraq in the late 1970s, eventually moving to the United States, and became a US citizen. In November 2004, nearly thirty years after leaving Iraq, Sami returned home to help rebuild his country."

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

As you and the audience, the viewers, and many Iraqis still remember, Mr. Biden, when he introduced the bill to the Congress last year to partition Iraq, now he came back on the ticket. So that was not a surprise for me, at least, because the surge has accomplished one of its objectives, that Iraq is ready to be partitioned, by expelling or displacing more than five million Iraqis within the country and outside of the country.

And most of those displaced people are Sunni, and they lived in the capital, the jewel of Mesopotamia, Baghdad, which is now a very depressed city, isolated by walls. Communities are segregated, and they have no way to move freely, unless they have their own badges from this community and another community. And the division is based on their background ethnically or religiously. It’s too bad for an Iraqi.

I wish yesterday Mr. McCain invited an average Iraqi family to attend and talk about the effect of the surge and the military operation

on Iraqi lives.

Tags: iraq, surge, mccain

McCain on Palin and Obama

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:11:16 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Be honest, now.

Clip Source: talkingpointsmemo.com

When asked about criticisms of Sarah Palin's readiness to serve as president, McCain responded: "If they want to go down that route, in all candor, she has far, far more experience than Senator Obama does."

Set aside the bravado. Can McCain possibly believe that? And if he does, what are we supposed to think of his own fitness to serve? Sen. Obama is certainly new on the national scene. But he's serving his fourth year in the US senate. He's run a successful national primary campaign. He's deeply versed on all the relevant policy issues. Palin has been the governor of one of the smallest states in the country (by pop.) for 18 months. As recently as 2006, she said she hadn't focused enough on Iraq to have an opinion one way or another about the surge. Even now, her off-hand comments about Iraq are completely at odds with Sen. McCain's.

it says a lot about McCain that he says it.

Tags: mccain, palin, obama

Will Media ask Palin the tough questions?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:23:21 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: What are her views on Iraq? She has expressed concern that we were there just for oil control, and that we had no clear plan - in contrast with McCain.
When will she be back in Alaska for her Monegan investigation deposition? The investigation is to be completed by October 31 - will it happen on schedule, or be delayed past election day by her campaigning?

Clip Source: talkingpointsmemo.com

1. As recently as 2006, Gov. Palin said she hadn't focused enough on Iraq to have a view on the surge. Just two weeks ago she told Philip Gourevitch that she wasn't sure we had a clear plan for what we were doing in Iraq and expressed concern that our real reason for being their might be to control oil supplies. Those comments may reflect a healthy skepticism about what we're doing in Iraq. But they put her in pretty sharp contrast to Sen. McCain's views. So what are her views and positions on Iraq?

2. The investigator appointed to probe Palin's firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan began trying to schedule a deposition with her last week. The investigator, Steve Branchflower, is charged with finishing his investigation by October 31st, which means he must depose Palin sometime over the next 8 weeks, presumably much sooner than later. So is she currently in contact with Branchflower, will she be returning to Alaska for the deposition, and when?

Tags: palin

Maliki: No specific deadline, no agreement

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:58:12 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Bush spokesman disagrees

Clip Source: www.mcclatchydc.com

Maliki demands 'specifc deadline' for U.S. troop pullout

BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said Monday there would be no security agreement between the United States and Iraq without an unconditional timetable for withdrawal — a direct challenge to the Bush administration, which insists that the timing for troop departure would be based on conditions on the ground.

"No pact or an agreement should be set without being based on full sovereignty, national common interests, and no foreign soldier should remain on Iraqi land, and there should be a specific deadline and it should not be open," Maliki told a meeting of tribal Sheikhs in Baghdad.

Maliki said that the United States and Iraq had agreed

on a fixed date, which is the end of 2011, to end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil

But the White House disputed Maliki's statement

"Any decisions on troops will be based on conditions on the ground in Iraq," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said

Tags: iraq

"War in Iraq has become a total disaster"

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:46:01 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "a devastated population in an obliterated nation lacking in the most essential supplies and services; a nation where death continues on a shopping spree"

Clip Source: sage

'The seemingly endless war in Iraq has become a total disaster

4,000 U.S. soldiers have been lost in battle and tens of thousands injured. In excess of one million Iraqi civilians are dead due to civil strife unleashed by the invasion

U.S. Treasury is drained and the steep decline in respect for the United States around the world is just beginning to manifest

The United States political establishment responds with collective denial on a scale that's incomprehensible

Republican presidential candidate John McCain who makes the bizarre claim that U.S. is "surrendering" with victory in clear sight. McCain touts the surge without noting that 4.0 million Iraqis are "displaced from their homes."

ten percent of Iraq's population is either dead or injured and there are 5.0 million Iraqi orphans

pathological view

claims the "surge' is a success in the context of a devastated population in an obliterated nation lacking in the most essential supplies and services

death continues on a shopping spree

Tags: iraq, war

History of Western Civilization lost in Iraq

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:56:18 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "It was there, in what the Greeks called Mesopotamia, that life as we know it today began: there people first began to speculate on philosophy and religion, developed concepts of international trade, made ideas of beauty into tangible forms, and, above all developed the skill of writing." And US invaders stood by and watched as irreplaceable world history was hauled off by unarmed looters.

Clip Source: www.tomdispatch.com

The Past Destroyed: Five Years Later

On April 11, 12, 13, and 14, 2003, the United States Army and United States Marine Corps disgraced themselves and the country they represent in Baghdad, Iraq's capital city. Having invaded Iraq and accepted the status of a military occupying power, they sat in their tanks and Humvees, watching as unarmed civilians looted the Iraqi National Museum and burned down the Iraqi National Library and Archives as well as the Library of Korans of the Ministry of Religious Endowments. Their behavior was in violation of their orders, international law, and the civilized values of the United States. Far from apologizing for these atrocities or attempting to make amends, the United States government has in the past five years added insult to injury.

In 1258 AD the Mongols descended on Baghdad and pillaged its magnificent libraries

The world has never forgotten that medieval act of barbarism, just as it will never forget what the U.S. military unleashed

in 2003

Tags: war, iraq

Bushco wrote war pitch BEFORE knowing intel

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:39:28 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: National Security Archive reports the Bush-Cheney White paper "justifying" the invasion was developed a full three months in advance of the intelligence data and analysis that should have served as the basis for that justification; then doctored NIE report to agree with their own White Paper. Only imminent threat mentioned was the possibility of Iraqi terrorism in USA if Saddam regime was threatened - but Bushco deleted it before giving the report to Congress.

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

the Bush-Cheney White paper "justifying" the invasion was developed a full three months in advance of the intelligence data and analysis that should have served as the basis for that justification. The National Security Archive summed it up succinctly:

"The U.S. intelligence community buckled sooner in 2002 than previously reported to Bush administration pressure for data justifying an invasion of Iraq,

"The documents suggest that the public relations push for war came before the intelligence analysis, which then conformed to public positions taken by Pentagon and White House officials. For example, a July 2002 draft of the "White Paper" ultimately issued by the CIA in October 2002 actually pre-dated the National Intelligence Estimate that the paper purportedly summarized, but which Congress did not insist on until September 2002." National Security Archive in "Scoop' Independent News, August 24, 2008.

4.0 million Iraqis are "displaced

ten percent of Iraq

dead or injured

5.0 million

orphan

Tags: bush, war, iraq

Sunnis, armed by US, disarmed by Iraq govt

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:28:40 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Awakening Councils, who fought al-Qaida, not trusted by Shi'ite govt.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

BAGHDAD — The Shiite-led government is cracking down on U.S.-backed Sunni Arab fighters in one of Iraq's most turbulent regions, arresting some leaders, disarming dozens of men and banning them from manning checkpoints except alongside official security forces.

The moves in Diyala province reflect mixed views on a movement that began in 2007 among Sunni tribes in western Iraq who revolted against al-Qaida in Iraq and joined the Americans in the fight against the terrorist network.

U.S. officials credit the rise of such groups, known variously as Awakening Councils, Sons of Iraq and Popular Committees, with helping rout al-Qaida.

But Iraq's government is suspicious of such groups, fearing their decision to break with the insurgency was a short-term tactic to gain U.S. money and support. The government fears they will eventually turn their guns against Iraq's majority Shiites.

America has spent

$200 million on salaries, equipment and training for the fighters, which now number nearly 100,000

Tags: iraq

Foreign policy experts: Get US out of Iraq.

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:41:16 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Annual survey of experts from left and right.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

REPORT: 69 percent of foreign policy experts favor redeployment from Iraq.

Today, the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy released their annual “Terrorism Index,” a survey of more than 100 U.S. foreign policy experts, conservatives and liberals alike, on developments in international affairs. Some highlights:

– 80 percent say that the U.S. has focused too much on the war in Iraq and not enough on Afghanistan.

– 69 percent recommend that the majority of U.S. forces in Iraq be redeployed in the next 18 months, up one percent from last year.

– Zero percent say Iraq is most likely to become the next al Qaeda stronghold; 51 percent say Pakistan will be.

– 81 percent say U.S. policy towards Iran has negatively impacted national security.

Tags: war, iraq

Why McCain is more dangerous than Bush

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:06:43 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Caught up in his fear that a military failure would encourage America's enemies, McCain can see no alternative to military victory, no matter what the cost.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

During the hottest days of the Cold War, Gen. Thomas Power headed the Strategic Air Command, whose nuclear-armed B-52s were meant to deter the Soviet Union. General Power, like many of the Air Force brass at the time, believed that nuclear war with the Soviets was inevitable. He thought the United States would do better to fight that war sooner rather than later and believed we could emerge victorious. "At the end of the war," he argued in 1960, "if there are two Americans and one Russian, we win!"

Counter-insurgency and nuclear obliteration are poles apart, I know. But McCain's insistence on "winning in Iraq," remaining there "until Iraq is secure," and "bomb-bomb-bombing Iran" reveal the same mindset that made General Power so dangerous. Caught up in his fear that a military failure would encourage America's enemies, McCain can see no alternative to military victory, no matter what the cost. This

could prove extremely self-destructive in a commander in chief.

Tags: mccain, politics