Happy Thanksgiving

I hope all of you have a Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your families and the good food that so many of us are blessed and lucky to have. Take a moment and remember those of our fellow Americans that are doing without or needing help this year. Also remember that we have more than 180,000 young men and women deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and even though there may be turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce in the chow hall they are far from home and in harm's way.
Maybe next year we can welcome the majority of the them home and share this holiday in person.

I have to go get my pie in the oven and get going on the dressing. See you back here tomorrow maybe.

The Real 'Surge'

While most of us have a sense that things are not going well in Afghanistan the following puts it in a little more sobering perspective:

There have been 556 Americans killed in Afghanistan since 2001. 64 of them--nearly 12 percent--have been killed in the last six weeks.

'Bring it on Bush' is spilling the blood of our men and women needlessly. He needs to be impeached and imprisoned for lying to the American people, killing Americans in a useless war and ignoring the real threat posed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. His incompetence has allowed them to rebuild and his ill advised 'surge' in Iraq is resulting in a real 'surge' of dead American soldiers in Afghanistan.


crossposted at SteveAudio

A Crime Any Way you Look At It

Here's "Bring 'em On" Shrub in September 2004

The Taliban no longer is in existence.

Yesterday:

Taliban insurgents carried out a bold assault on a remote base near the border with Pakistan on Sunday, NATO reported, and a senior American military official said nine American soldiers were killed.

The attack, the worst against Americans in Afghanistan in three years, illustrated the growing threat of Taliban militants and their associates, who in recent months have made Afghanistan a far deadlier war zone for American-led forces than Iraq.

This is monumental failure 'writ large'. What a tragedy...and the only ones paying the price are our soldiers.

Over There

Just in case you haven't been paying attention...what with grieving over Tim Russert and watching McSame dig his hole deeper.

There have been 4,413 coalition deaths in Iraq since the occupation started:

Just in case you are a detail oriented type as of June 17, 2008 that boils down to:

4,101 American sons and daughters
2 Australians
176 mates from the UK
13 Bulgarians
1 Czech
7 Danes
2 Dutch
2 Estonians
1 Fijian
5 Georgians
1 Hungarian
33 Italians
1 Kazakh
1 Korean
3 Latvian
22 Poles
3 Romanians
5 Salvadoran
4 Slovaks
11 Spaniards
2 Thai
18 Ukrainians

Oh, and lest we forget, At least 30,209 American soldiers have been wounded in action and had their lives changed forever.
If I figure it correctly we have about 7 months before we can start bringing them home.

BTW, did I mention that in one of the deadliest attacks in Baghdad in months, at least 51 Iraqis were killed and 75 were wounded today in a car bombing.

Finally We Get Confirmation of what We Already Knew

The Senate Intelligence Committee finally issued its report on prewar intelligence during the build up to the Iraq War. While it is couched in the polite language of the Senate, the report confirms what we already know. Bush lied to the American people about the Iraq War.

Republican Senators fought very hard to prevent the release of this intelligence report way back in 2004 so as not to endanger Bush's re-election. Then they managed to block release of the report in 2006 to protect their own re-elections. While it is absolutely unforgivable that this report was delayed for 4 years for strictly political reasons all the delay has wound up releasing the report in 2008 and leaves John McCain standing there with his pants down around his knees trying to defend Bush's Iraq war.

The Committee’s report cites several conclusions in which the Administration’s public statements were NOT supported by the intelligence. They include:

Statements and implications by the President and Secretary of State suggesting that Iraq and al-Qa’ida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al-Qa’ida with weapons training, were not substantiated by the intelligence.

Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information.

Statements by President Bush and Vice President Cheney regarding the postwar situation in Iraq, in terms of the political, security, and economic, did not reflect the concerns and uncertainties expressed in the intelligence products.

Statements by the President and Vice President prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq’s chemical weapons production capability and activities did not reflect the intelligence community’s uncertainties as to whether such production was ongoing.

The Secretary of Defense’s statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information.

The Intelligence Community did not confirm that Muhammad Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 as the Vice President repeatedly claimed.

One would think that chicken dancing around a blow job being grounds for impeachment would justify at least considering impeachment for lying to the American people about something as serious as war and the resultant death and maiming of thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi. Just saying.

Perspective on 120,000 Dead Children

I am as bad as everyone else in complaining about the price of gas and the price of food here in the U.S. but I really, really need to keep my perspective. This story on CNN about the drought and food crisis in Ethioipa should help us all keep a better and more realistic outlook when it comes to our challenges with the increased cost of living. When I dwell upon the reality we are seeing in Ethiopia and balance it against the the daily spending in Iraq I get so angry I want to tear up and cry. The World Food Programme is asking for a lousy $10 million dollars for emergency food supplies. The WPF supplies UNICEF with its emergency food.

Without this emergency food UNICEF estimates about 120,000 Ethiopian children under the age of five will die within the month and another 6 million are at risk of the same fate in the near term.

Here is the math that should guarantee Bush, Cheney and their whole evil clan a secure place in hell forever...

The World Food Programme needs a lousy $10,000,000(10 million bucks) for emergency food aid to offset the rising cost of food. Now to put that measly 10 mil into perspective let's check out the spending in Iraq...

Estimates are that we are spending $5,000 a second or $300,000 per minute or $18,000,000 per hour and yeah that comes out to $432,000,000 a day or $12,960,000,000 a month (that's 12.96 billion dollars).

Do you think it might be possible to lay off making the lives of millions of Iraqi miserable for about 33 and a half freaking minutes and send the money ($10,050,000) to the World Food Programme? Is that really too much to ask? I won't tell you how happy they would be if you could see your way clear to taking a day off. BTW it might help the morale of our boys and girls over there as well...double benefits...what are you waiting for?

No More GWOT

Over at YDD, Steve Bates alerts us to the absurdity and tragedy of what George Bush and his cronies are doing to Mohammed al-Qahtani, a suspected 9/11 operative, and dozens and dozens of other so-called "suspects".

Charges Against 9/11 Suspect Dropped
His Statements Were the Result of Abusive Interrogation, Officials Say
By Josh White and Julie Tate
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 14, 2008; Page A04

U.S. authorities have long considered Mohammed al-Qahtani one of the most dangerous alleged terrorists in U.S. custody, a man who could have been the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, plot if he had not been denied entry into the country.

But yesterday, amid concerns about using information obtained during abusive military interrogations, a top Pentagon official removed Qahtani from the military commission case meant to bring justice to those behind the vast Sept. 11 conspiracy.

Susan J. Crawford, the appointed official who decides which cases will be heard in the largely untested commission process, dismissed the charges against Qahtani while affirming those against five other alleged terrorists to stand trial at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Prosecutors reserve the right to charge Qahtani again, and the military says it can hold him without trial for the duration of the counterterrorism wars. But his defense lawyers and officials familiar with the case say it is unlikely that Qahtani will face new charges because he was subjected to aggressive Defense Department interrogation techniques -- such as intimidation by dogs, hooding, nudity, long-term isolation and stress positions.

This is an edited version of my comment:

How embarrassing as an American! I was thinking that maybe one of the first things our new Democratic President should do is officially declare the Global War on Terror lost and over. The reality is that the terrorists have done pretty much what they wanted. They have set us on a path of destruction by our own hand, caused us to sacrifice our fundamental and founding principles and turned us into a nation sniveling cowards afraid of the evil brown person under the bed. We don't even want to talk about what they have given Shrub and company an excuse to do to our treasury and to our young men and women in the military.

I haven't quite settled on a name but something on the order of a Global Search for Understanding, Peace and Tolerance might work but feel free to leave your own suggestions in the comments.

Without the excuse of a GWOT the thugs at GITMO and the other illegal torture prisons we are maintaining around the world will have no reason to hold all the mostly innocent people. The GWOT has gone on long enough and we have lost. Need to regroup and bring some new ideas to the game.

Iran Says Thanks

Juan Cole on the latest developments in Iraq:

The entire episode underlines how powerful Iran has become in Iraq. The Iranian government had called on Saturday for the fighting to stop. And by Sunday evening it had negotiated at least a similar call from Sadr (whether the fighting actually stops remains to be seen and depends on local commanders and on whether al-Maliki meets Sadr’s conditions).

So can someone explain to me why Shrub and Cheney are spending $12 billion a month expand the influence of Iran in the Middle East? Is this why we have spent 4000 plus American lives and countless thousands of Iraqi lives? So that Iran can have a clear playing field in Iraq.

How Many More 'Postive Moments' Can We Take?

My head is going to explode!

According to Dear Leader the escalating violence in Basra is actually a "positive moment":

I thought that was a very positive moment in the development of a sovereign nation, that is willing to take on elements that are -- you know, that believe they're beyond the law.

And secondly, we are helping, but it's important to know that the Iraqis are in the lead. This is a positive moment in the development of a nation that can govern itself and defend itself and sustain itself. We will provide oversight and, on occasion, support when asked. This is an Iraqi operation.

I guess this is Shrub's idea of oversight and occasional support:

American military forces for the first time conducted air strikes on targets in Basra late Thursday, joining Iraqi security forces in trying to oust Shiite militias in the southern port city.

And this in Baghdad:

U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad, as an offensive to quell party-backed militias entered its third day. Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the area as American troops took the lead in the fighting.

Four U.S. Stryker armored vehicles were seen in Sadr City by a Washington Post correspondent, one of them engaging Mahdi Army militiamen with heavy fire. The din of American weapons, along with the Mahdi Army's AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, was heard through much of the day. U.S. helicopters and drones buzzed overhead.

How many more of Shrub's 'positive moments' do you think the Iraqi people can stand?

Who's Who In Iraq

In case you can't keep the players straight in the latest Iraq explosion Kevin Drum has put together this cheat sheet.

WHO'S WHO....Can't tell the players without a program in the 2-way (or is it 3-way or 4-way?) intra-Shiite gang war currently underway in Basra and southern Iraq? Here's a quick cheat sheet:

• ISCI = SIIC = new name for SCIRI = Badr Corps = "aristocratic" Hakim family = exiles during Saddam Hussein's reign = pro-Iran = generally in control of army and security forces = pro-U.S. = ally of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Dawa Party.

• Mahdi Army = JAM = "firebrand cleric" Muqtada al-Sadr = Iraqi nationalists = originally part of Maliki's governing coalition but no longer = anti-U.S. = populist/working class orientation = controls much of the oil sector in Basra.

• "Special groups" = rogue elements of the Mahdi Army = maybe Sadr is just as happy to have Maliki take these guys out for him, but who knows for sure?

• Fadhila = ex-allies of Sadr = won some elections in Basra in 2005 = smallest of the three Shiite factions in the south.

Global Food Crisis Gets Worse

As I have mentioned here before and even as recently as yesterday the cost of food has skyrocketed in the last year. There are a variety of reasons including crop failures related to drought and such but the biggest cause is diverting food to biofuels (more profit to be had) and the increasing cost of fuel. The insane war in Iraq has added dramatically to the cost of oil.

Now we have the World Food Programme, for the first time in its history, asking for money.

Faced with the dramatically spiralling costs of wheat, rice and corn, the World Food Programme has made an unprecedented appeal for at least $500m (£250m) to help it continue supplying food aid to 73 million needy people this year.

[snip]

The WFP estimates that food prices rose by 55 per cent between June and the end of February, meaning it needed an extra $500m on top of the $2.9bn it had already budgeted for. However, prices have risen a further 20 per cent in the past three weeks, meaning the organisation's emergency shortfall could, in reality, be closer to $700m.

[snip]

Rice last week jumped to a three-decade high, experiencing the same sort of spike that has already affected wheat, corn and soybeans. The price of these staple foods has been driven skywards by increased demand for food from the newly prospering parts of south and east Asia, damage to crops by natural disasters, and by the growing demand for biofuels. "It's a global phenomenon which is hitting the most vulnerable populations hard," Ms Sheeran said.

In Bangladesh, those on a dollar a day are dropping the protein element of their diet because they can only afford the basic staple rice. "And even those earning $2 a day are forced into coping strategies which could lead to a malnutrition crisis," Ms Sheeran said. "They are giving up health or educational needs to get a basic food budget."

It is the people eking out an existence on 50 cents per day that are suffering most, however, like people in some parts of El Salvador who have been forced to halve their nutritional intake. "We now have a situation where there's a lot of food on the shelves but people cannot afford it," Ms Sheeran said.

We, in the more prosperous countries, don't think about it on a daily basis but, as an example, a substantial percentage of the population across southern Africa eats mealy-meal, which is cooked corn meal. Sometimes they may get a few lentils or beans and on a rare occasion some meat to mix in but this is what they eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner if, in fact, they can even afford three meals a day. Just small increases in the cost of corn hit these people hard. Over a billion people in the world today eek out an existence on a dollar or less per day. This is another subject that needs to be on the agenda when we are talking about what the next American administration is going to be.
Let's not even discuss the trillions of dollars being wasted in Iraq... only a fraction of which could solve this problem globally and permanently.

4,000 Tragedies

From AP:

A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, pushing the overall American death toll in the five-year war to at least 4,000. The grim milestone came on a day when at least 61 people were killed across the country.

There are at least six other deaths of American soldiers that died of wounds received in Iraq that the DOD does not count in the total above.

Sad Anniversary

I've got tons of work to do but I can't let today go by without noting that today marks the five year anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ignoring the protests of millions of people in the U.S. and around the world today, 5 years ago, we learned that George Bush and Dick Cheney in concert with their incompetent band of "chickenhawks" had begun their "shock and awe" campaign against Baghdad.

While each day that we occupy Iraq it is a tragedy, it is on anniversaries like today that we must acknowledge the true burdens of war: 3,990 American troops have been killed, some 30,000 have been wounded in action, about 145 have died of self-inflicted wounds and 308 foreign troops have also died. No one can seem to agree on the number of Iraqis dead but it is legion. We have also created some 4 million Iraqi refugees across the Middle East. We have also bankrupted ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.

In spite of the above we are still been told daily that "progress is being made". We even have a Presidential candidate telling us that it doesn't matter if we are in Iraq for another 100 years and trillions of taxpayers dollars. We are not told of the billions of dollars simply lost. We are not reminded that only 3 of the 18 benchmarks have been met by the Iraqi government. We are not reminded that this war has lasted longer than WWII. We are not reminded that it has now cost more than Vietnam. We are not reminded that global terrorism has increased every year since the invasion. We are not reminded that the early gains made in Afghanistan are now virtually reversed by the resurgent Taliban. We are not reminded that opium harvests are setting new records. We are not reminded that last year was the most deadly for American troops since the beginning. We are only told that we are "making progress" and that is a lie.

This year, we Americans will have an opportunity to choose our future in Iraq. We have an election in which we will have the opportunity to decide if next March 19th we are marking a more tragic list of the costs of war or acknowledging as a nation the tragedy of our mistake and making plans to right the wrongs and heal the wounds. The choice is up to us and it is my dearest wish that we not squander this glorious opportunity.

Homegrown Disaster

9/11 was bad and there is absolutely no argument from anyone that this is so. The reality, however, about what has happened to our country and our government since then is even a greater tragedy. Beyond the disastrous Iraq debacle, beyond the deficit, beyond even the rampant criminal looting of our treasury lies a deeper and more threatening tragedy. Scarecrow over at Firedoglake while discussing the unbelievable collusion of the FAA in allowing Southwest Airlines to ignore routine safety inspections, lists some of the other assaults on our well being that have been perpetrated by the Bush administration in the last month...that's right...in the last month alone.

-- Bush' BLM appointees ignore State's pleas for environmental safeguards for drilling in Colorado.

-- Bush Administration wins Supreme Court ruling shielding medical device makers from state lawsuits for defective products.

-- EPA adopts weaker smog standard at Bush's behest and against unanimous advice of scientific advisory panel in favor of stronger standard.

-- Administration seeks weaker version of bill meant to improve Consumer Product Safety Commission.

-- Bush Administration keeps CPSC hobbled without quorum; nominates manufacturers' lobbyist.

-- Lax USDA inspections failed to prevent "downer" (sick) cows from entering food supply.

-- EPA has no standards to test for toxic effects of pharmaceuticals in nation's water supplies.

-- Bush official questions need for new safety standards, even after "preventable" refinery explosion kills 12.

-- Defense Department oversight lax in allowing Cheney's Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, to provide unhealthy water to US troops for nearly two years.

-- Bush suppressed public health report on Great Lakes.

I am quite sure there are more to be listed but this is quite enough to get the picture. Bush/Cheney are systematically destroying the country and no one seems to care. The Democrats in Congress are threatening to give Shrub immunity for violated our rights over the wiretapping of millions of Americans while ignoring this litany of horror evolving daily. They do seem to find time to wring their hands over drugs in baseball but when it comes to the real threats in America it looks like we are on our own.

And one more thing...if you plan on voting for McCain in the primary election this fall (assuming there will be an election) then you will be voting to continue this rampant rape and pillage of America.

Thank You - Bernie Marcus

Some good news in the AJC this morning. Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, has stepped up to so what the Congress and Shrub have failed to do. It is just tragic that this necessary support for our wounded vets has to come from the private sector. Maybe this action will embarrass someone into doing what's right. Thanks Bernie for taking the lead.

In a move meant to help injured soldiers and send Washington a message, Atlanta businessman Bernie Marcus stepped up Monday to help veterans get top-flight medical care. But he warned there was a limit to his generosity.

Marcus got involved in January after he heard of a soldier who was treated at the Shepherd Center and was improving, but faced the loss of funding.

"It angered me," said Marcus, a co-founder of Home Depot and now a billionaire philanthropist. " It is disgraceful and it is not something that we should have to tolerate in this country."

Marcus offered to underwrite the costs — care, transportation and housing — of any wounded soldier, sailor or Marine whom the Shepherd Center, a renowned Atlanta clinic for brain and spinal injuries, approved for treatment.

At a press conference Monday at the Shepherd Center, Marcus said he wanted to set an example for his fellow philanthropists. He aims to bring financial help and possibly shame the Pentagon and Congress into covering all medical treatment costs for its vets.

"We can't take care of everybody in the military, that is obvious, but perhaps we can set a standard for around the country," he said. "I expect that the government is going to take care of them eventually. It is their obligation.

Rocks Down a Sinkhole

I am just asking what we have to show for it? A Peaceful and prosperous Iraq? Afghanistan? A new and revitalized Middle East eager to move forward as part of the world community? How about a global turn toward prosperity and improved lives for everyone?

In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the "burn" rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.

Beyond 2008, working with "best-case" and "realistic-moderate" scenarios, they project the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion -- or more -- by 2017.

Interest on money borrowed to pay those costs could alone add $816 billion to that bottom line, they say.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has done its own projections and comes in lower, forecasting a cumulative cost by 2017 of $1.2 trillion to $1.7 trillion for the two wars, with Iraq generally accounting for three-quarters of the costs.

Regardless of who is elected this fall a lot of this has already been committed and spent. We still have the injured to care for. We still have a hopelessly destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan that we have some responsibility for helping. We still have to pay off the debt accrued during this mess because not one bullet was paid for out of cash on hand and very little of the spending was even in the Federal Budget.

Positive Move

Al-Sadr today extended the Mehdi army ceasefire that has been responsible for much of the apparent progress of the so-called "surge". It dosn't get mentioned in the traditional media or if it is, it is buried in the article somewhere and is usually only a one liner. The current "Surge Success" article on CNN does mention the ceasefire but only in passing. The bullets for the article are...

• Iraqi official: Baghdad security crackdown has reduced violence about 75 percent
  
• Small signs of political reconciliation, but many observers say they're superficial
  
• U.S. and Iraqi forces turn attention to new militant trouble spots such as Mosul
  
• Defense officials want a "pause" in troop pullouts to assess security situation

If you just read the bullets you get the idea that things are going well enough to celebrate. The article itself presents a slightly different picture.

"There have been significant steps forward. There's been quite a bit of progress against al Qaeda in Iraq and against other extremist elements," said Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, speaking in an interview last week with a radio station.

"But having said all that, again I want to be very cautious upfront and note that there's nobody here doing victory dances in the end zone or talking about 'turning the corner' or 'seeing lights at the end of the tunnel,' " Petraeus said. "There's still a lot of hard work still to be done."

Translation: We'll be here for a long time.

Just so you don't forget we still have troops in harm's way and as of today the death toll in Iraq stands at 3970. There have been 66 deaths of American troops since the beginning of the year.

How to "Un-Torture"

Via the Washington Post we discover that the FBI has been trying to "untorture" the six suspects that they want to kill in the big show trial the Shrubbery has planned.

The Bush administration announced yesterday that it intends to bring capital murder charges against half a dozen men allegedly linked to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, based partly on information the men disclosed to FBI and military questioners without the use of coercive interrogation tactics.

The admissions made by the men -- who were given food whenever they were hungry as well as Starbucks coffee at the Defense Department's Guantanamo Bay prison -- played a key role in the government's decision to proceed with the prosecutions, military and law enforcement officials said.

FBI and military interrogators who began work with the suspects in late 2006 called themselves the "Clean Team," and set as their goal collecting of virtually the same information the CIA had obtained from five of the six through duress at secret prisons.

Via Crooks & Liars

John D. Hutson, a retired Navy rear admiral and former judge advocate general. “Once you torture someone, it is hard to un-torture them. The general public is going to be concerned about the validity of the testimony.” …

That pretty much sums it all up in my book!

Want a Good Cry?

Andy Olmsted left a posthumous message for Hilzoy to post at Obsidian Wings. I wasn't a regular reader of his Rocky Mountain News blog and regret it immensely. Andy was killed in an ambush in Iraq yesterday. RIP Andy.

How Low Can They Go?

Here is the CNN headline....Did Hillary Clinton Kill Benazir Bhutto? Jane at FDL has more with a H/T to Rox Populi

It is actually shameful that our traditional media can stoop so low. I guess it is not too surprising since we get this from the NY Times.

On Thursday evening, officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to local law enforcement agencies informing them about posts on some Islamic Web sites saying that Al Qaeda was claiming responsibility for the attack, and that the plot was orchestrated by Ayman al-Zawahri, the group’s second-ranking official.

One counterterrorism official in Washington said that the bulletin neither confirmed nor discredited these claims. The official said that American intelligence agencies had yet to come to any firm judgments about who was responsible for Ms. Bhutto’s death.

They don't really care what the truth is as long as they can use the news to further the idea that Al-Qaeda is responsible for everything bad and that if we don't continue to fund Bush's adventure then the dirty Muslims will be here in no time to rape your daughters and turn your sons into towel heads.