Clipmarks | Iraq Clips

Why the surge hasn't "worked"

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:30:47 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: It hasn't met the goals set out for it.

John McCain, aided and abetted by his loving protectors in the media, is running a victory lap on Iraq. To hear them tell it, the surge has "worked" -- indeed, it has been a huge success -- and this, like a last second Hail Mary pass, has vindicated the entire disastrous Iraq misadventure.

Everyone seems more than happy to forget what the president's own stated goal for the surge was: to create "the breathing space [the Iraqi government] needs to make progress in other critical areas."

But here we are, 18 months later, and McCain and the GOP are being allowed to change the goal.

So, even though Bush originally claimed that "a successful strategy for Iraq goes beyond military operations," the surge is now being judged exclusively on the success of "military operations." And since that's what the surge is all about, the surge is working. And since the surge is working, maybe we need to rethink this whole idea of ending the war, right?

Indeed, we can stay forever

Tags: war, iraq

So Much For Those Permanent Bases

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:04:33 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: "The direction we are taking is to have a memorandum of understanding either for the departure of the forces or to have a timetable for their withdrawal," a statement from Maliki's office quoted him as telling Arab ambassadors to the United Arab Emirates.

"The negotiations are still continuing with the American side, but in any case the basis for the agreement will be respect for the sovereignty of Iraq," he added.

As I have mentioned before, most Iraqis view the SOFA with the US as an encroachment on their sovereignty.

It was the first time that the Shiite prime minister had specifically demanded a timetable for a US withdrawal, something that President George W. Bush has repeatedly refused to set.

Bush and Maliki agreed in principle last November to sign a Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq by the end of July to set the basis for a US troop presence beyond December this year when the UN mandate runs out.

Clip Source: www.vetvoice.com

by: Chris LeJeune

Tue Jul 08, 2008

Iraqi PM is negotiating defense agreement with US that will set timetable for full US troop pullout.
Baghdad, 08 July 2008 (Middle East Online)
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday that he is negotiating a deal with Washington that will provide for only a short-term US troop presence beyond this year and will also set a timetable for a full withdrawal.
It was the first time that Iraq had made a pullout deadline a condition for a promised new agreement with the United States setting the basis for a troop presence into 2009.

Maliki is requesting a timeline for withdrawal? This is sure to embolden our enemies. I seem to remember, however, certain senators and congressmen here who have requested the same before. A majority of the Iraqi parliament requested this in the summer of 2007, and again this year. They even sent a parliamentary delegation to discuss this with our congress.

Befriending Iraqi children is crucial, major says

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:59:06 GMT

clipped by: missjackson

Clip Source: www.bpnews.net

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah (BP)--During his deployment in Iraq, Air Force Maj. Chris Gay learned firsthand that a key component of succeeding in the war is befriending Iraq's youth and showing them a level of kindness and goodwill they may never encounter otherwise.

During that time, he visited the largest of eight internally displaced persons camps in Iraq. The camp housed more than 2,500 Iraqis who fled their homes during terrorist and sectarian violence.

Clip Source: www.bpnews.net

When he discovered the children there didn't have sufficient clothing and blankets to cope with the winter weather, Gay organized a campaign to have his Sunday School class at Mountain View Baptist send boxes of garments that he could pass out to the children.

"I have two kids myself, so I had compassion for the kids," he told Baptist Press.

In the process of completing what he dubbed Operation Warm Winter, Gay said he gained a better understanding of the Iraqis living in the camp.

"We are making a tremendous difference," he said

Army hero, child-rescuer, dies of overdose

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:49:54 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "He wasn't Joseph anymore. Joseph never came home."

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Army Vet Seen in Iconic Photo Dies of Overdose

An Army medic who became famous for being photographed in 2003 carrying an Iraqi child to safety has died at the age of thirty-one after overdosing on a computer cleaner aerosol. Army Specialist Joseph Dwyer had been struggling with post-traumatic stress syndrome. After he returned from Iraq, his marriage fell apart, and he spiraled into substance abuse and depression. In 2005, he shot up his El Paso, Texas apartment and held police at bay for three hours with a 9-mm handgun, believing Iraqis were trying to get in

His mother Maureen Dwyer said

he just couldn’t get over the war. He wasn’t Joseph anymore. Joseph never came home.”

Tags: iraq

Maliki calls for withdrawal timetable; Rebuffed by Bush

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:39:20 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Al-Maliki said, “The goal is to end the presence of foreign troops.” Now we'll see how much Iraqi sovereignty matters!

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Maliki Calls for Timetable for US Troop Withdrawal

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has for the first time publicly called for a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. The Bush administration has been secretly negotiating a long-term agreement with Iraq that would allow the US to keep permanent military bases in Iraq. But al-Maliki said Iraq only wants to sign a short-term agreement that includes a withdrawal timetable. Al-Maliki said, “The goal is to end the presence of foreign troops.” In Washington, the Bush administration rebuffed Maliki’s request. Pentagon spokesperson Bryan Whitman criticized timelines as “artificial.” State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack questioned whether Maliki might have been misquoted.

Tags: iraq

Cheney Motivated by Iraq Oil

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:13:40 GMT

clipped by: Wisco
clipper's remarks: Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan appeared on CBC Radio One's [i]The Current{/i], where he told the host that Vice President Cheney wanted to invade Iraq for oil and personal gain.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

Inquiring about Vice President Dick Cheney’s motivations to go to war, host Jim Brown noted that Cheney “doesn’t strike me as someone who would be particularly motivated by idealistic visions.” McClellan agreed, adding that Iraq’s oil occupied Cheney’s mind more than anything else:

MCCLELLAN: Certainly you can’t discount the large oil reserves inside Iraq and how much that plays into our national security interests and I don’t think you can discount how much that plays into the vice president’s thinking.

BROWN: Or his portfolio for that matter.

MCCLELLAN: Or his portfolio for that matter, absolutely with that being a former chief executive officer for Halliburton and that certainly played heavily into his thinking more so I think than the idea of transforming the Middle East into a beacon of democracy.

[Video]

Tags: news

Panel calls for new War Powers Act

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:57:50 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "The current War Powers Resolution is 'ineffective at best and unconstitutional at worst,' and should be scrapped"

Clip Source: cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com

Panel calls for new War Powers Act

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The United States needs a new law requiring that the president consult with Congress before going to war, a blue-ribbon panel led by two former secretaries of state will say Tuesday.

The current War Powers Resolution is “ineffective at best and unconstitutional at worst,” and should be scrapped, James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher write in Tuesday’s New York Times, previewing the conclusion of the year-long study they led.

The recommendation follows failed efforts by Democrats in Congress to put a stop to the war in Iraq or to put conditions on President Bush’s conduct of it. Congress passed a joint resolution to authorize armed force against in Iraq in 2002, but some Bush opponents say it should not have been interpreted as a blank check for the United States to invade and occupy the Gulf nation.

Tags: foreign policy, politics

Iraq Insists on US Withdrawal Timetable

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:54:13 GMT

clipped by: jano_cabrera

Clip Source: www.breitbart.com

Iraq insists on withdrawal timetable

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's national security adviser said Tuesday his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces

The comments by Mouwaffak al-Rubaie were the strongest yet by an Iraqi official about the deal now under negotiation with U.S. officials. They came a day after Iraq's prime minister first said publicly that he expects the pending troop deal with the United States to have some type of timetable for withdrawal.

President Bush has said he opposes a timetable.

"Our stance in the negotiations underway with the American side will be strong ... We will not accept any memorandum of understanding that doesn't have specific dates to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq," al-Rubaie said.

"This is what the Iraqi people want, the parliament and other Iraqi leaders," said al-Adeeb.

Tags: iraq, bush

Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki demands US withdrawal timetable

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:23:26 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish MP, said that the issue of immunity for US forces had become a particularly sensitive subject for Iraqis. “We have suffered so much from immunity. Immunity equals committing crimes. In the name of immunity they have killed people, they have their own prisons, they captured Iraqis. We can’t continue like this,” he said.

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Iraq said for the first time yesterday that it wanted to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from its territory.

President Bush has long resisted a schedule for pulling his 145,000 soldiers out, arguing that it would play into the hands of insurgents. Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia Prime Minister, who boasted last week that he had crushed terrorism in the country, suggested that it was time to start setting time-lines.

The Iraqi parliament has bridled at pushing through such a binding deal with the outgoing and unpopular Bush Administration, saying that the negotiations have been secretive and could undermine Iraq’s sovereignty. “I don’t know anything about this agreement and neither does parliament,” said Ezzedine Dawla, a Sunni MP. “We’re going to pass something we don’t know anything about.”

Tags: iraq, exit strategy, war, politics, elections, military

Iraq and PTSD

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:45:10 GMT

clipped by: Spokane_Realtor
clipper's remarks: Unbelievably sad!

Clip Source: spokanevalleyinsider.com

Clip Source: www.newsday.com

The sad saga of a soldier from Long Island

The March 2003 image became one of the most iconic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq: that of a bespectacled American soldier carrying an Iraqi child to safety. The photograph of Army Pfc. Joseph Dwyer, who was raised in Mount Sinai, was used by news outlets around the world.

After being lionized by many as the human face of the U.S. effort to rebuild a troubled Iraq, Dwyer brought the battlefield home with him, often grappling violently with delusions that he was being hunted by Iraqi killers.

The war that made him a hero at 26 haunted him to the last moments of his life.

"He loved the picture, don't get me wrong, but he just couldn't get over the war," his mother, Maureen Dwyer, said by telephone from her home in Sunset Beach, N.C. "He wasn't Joseph anymore. Joseph never came home."

"Talking to him, he knew he was going to die," Maureen Dwyer said.

Did Valerie Plame Wilson Commit Perjury?

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:14:28 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: But, that is no excuse for the Valerie Wilson-Plame to sit in front of a Congressional Committee and LIE like she did.
This is what Valerie Plame said sworn testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:

Plame also testified that she played no part in deciding to send her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, on a mission to Niger in 2002 to assess the reliability of reports that Iraq's then-president, Saddam Hussein, was trying to buy yellowcake uranium from that country for use in a secret nuclear weapons program.

Some CPD officials could not recall how the office decided to contact the former ambassador, however, interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicate that his wife, a CPD employee, suggested his name for the trip. The CPD reports officer told Committee staff that the former ambassador's wife "offered up his name" and a memorandum to the Deputy Chief of the CPD on February 12, 2002.

Clip Source: gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

It's been a rough go for the "so covert they know not if she is covert" Plame-Wilsons ever since her husband started hustling for the democrats and giving speeches on his African poolside adventures...

Plame also testified that she played no part in deciding to send her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, on a mission to Niger in 2002 to assess the reliability of reports that Iraq's then-president, Saddam Hussein, was trying to buy yellowcake uranium from that country for use in a secret nuclear weapons program.

Here's a closeup of the document...

Notes: Niger/Iraq uranium meeting CIA 2/19/02

Meeting apparently convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA WMD managerial type and the wife of Amb. Joe Wilson, with the idea that the agency and the larger USG could dispatch Joe to Niger to use his contacts there to sort out the Niger/Iraq uranium sale question. Joe went to Niger in late 1999 in regard to Niger's uranium program, apparently with CIA support.

Tags: joseph wilson, valerie plame, niger, iraq uranium, cia support

Vets Slipping Into The Bottle...

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:34:08 GMT

clipped by: zelda67

Clip Source: www.newser.com

(Newser) – A rise in alcohol abuse among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is worrying military officials, the New York Times reports. Counseling services for vets suffering post-traumatic stress disorder are stretched to the limit and many tormented former soldiers are turning instead to the bottle. The increase in binge drinking, and a smaller rise in illegal drug use, is blamed for a rise in crimes and other misconduct involving veterans.

The military is working to discourage alcohol abuse and to persuade vets to seek help, but it's struggling to overcome the traditional image of the hard-drinking fighting man. "The problem in today’s military is soldiers have to be warriors, killers, but we don’t allow them any releases like we used to,” said one vet. "You can’t go out and drink, you can’t get into a fight. It’s completely unrealistic.”

Tags: vets, iraq

It Must Suck Being Joseph "Yellow-Cake" Wilson IV Now!

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:58:54 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: In his speech, Ambassador Joseph Wilson described himself as the investigator sent to Niger by the government and says the government sent him there and not the CIA (a lie). Wilson said there was nothing to the uranium story (another lie), described the US as "occupiers" of Iraq (a shocking statement at the time), and described a conspiracy to help Israel dominate the Palestinians.

Joe Wilson repeated the lie for several years that the Iraq was not seeking uranium from Niger even though five days after Wilson's NYT op-ed, George Tenet put out a statement describing how the person the CIA sent to check out the Niger story (Joe Wilson) found that the Iraqis had indeed tried to open up trade talks, which were interpretted by government officials in Niger as an attempt to purchase uranium ore.

AP Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107ap_iraq_yellowcake_mission.html

Clip Source: gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

Do you remember when Valerie Plame sent her husband Joe Wilson to Niger?

Although she denied it several times, Plame did indeed come up with the idea that her husband would be an ideal candidate to sort out the Niger/Iraq uranium sale question.

In fact, here's a copy of the memo--

And, here's the transcript from the memo:

Notes: Niger/Iraq uranium meeting CIA 2/19/02

Meeting apparently convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA WMD managerial type and the wife of Amb. Joe Wilson, with the idea that the agency and the larger USG could dispatch Joe to Niger to use his contacts there to sort out the Niger/Iraq uranium sale question. Joe went to Niger in late 1999 in regard to Niger's uranium program, apparently with CIA support.

Valerie Plame sent Joe.

A month before Robert Novak wrote his column, Ambassador Joseph Wilson spoke out against the Bush Administration and Israel at the Far-Left 2003 IRAQ FORUM Conference.

The audio is still posted HERE (40:38 in duration)

Tags: joe wilson, valerie plame, niger, "yellow-cake"robert novak, richard armitage

those who do not learn from history...

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:35:39 GMT

clipped by: fudomyoo

Clip Source: www.salon.com

In spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the former POW insists we could have won. No wonder he talks of occupying Iraq for a century.

Nobody has denigrated the service of John McCain or his suffering in captivity as a prisoner of North Vietnam, as much as his supporters wish to pretend that someone did.

what is most striking about McCain's attitude toward Vietnam is his insistence that we could have won -- that we should have won -- with more bombs and more casualties.

Very few military historians agree with McCain's bitter analysis

But it is easy to understand why a man who thinks that we should have escalated the Vietnam War after 10 futile years would talk about occupying Iraq for a century. And it is hard to imagine why voters would elect a president who still believes that 60,000 American dead and more than 300,000 wounded in Vietnam were not quite enough.

Tags: mccain, war, delusional

100 Years in Context

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:24:32 GMT

clipped by: mpolloc
clipper's remarks: McCain explains 100 years in Iraq to Russert

Clip Source: www.salon.com

[Video]