Today in Iraq

War News for November 16, 2003 Bring 'em on: Three US soldiers wounded in ambush near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqi policemen wounded in Katyusha attack on police post in Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: Seventeen soldiers killed, five wounded, one missing in yesterday’s battle in Mosul. South Carolina town has lost three soldiers in Bush’s War. Kidnapped Portugese journalist freed. NYT reports on wounded soldiers. Florida Guardsmen return from Iraq. “Great deal of hostility” toward US troops in Mosul. This place was friendly towards the United States back in April. On patrol in Baghdad. No chickenhawk here. This soldier should be an inspiration to all those conservative laptop commandos who expect somebody else to do their fighting for them. Lies come home to roost. I never planned to post a PFC Jessica Lynch story on this blog, because I think that soldier has had enough manipulation and victimization. But the serial lying and fabrications that characterize this administration are so well documented in this particular story, as well as the consequences of their lying. Those are lessons most children learn early, but the Bushies are slow learners. In one way, the story is wrong. Unless you completely fuck up all over yourself while in captivity, most POWs receive a Bronze Star Medal, as did PFC Lynch. Update: I was cruising around the ‘net tonight and I found that USNDEMVET did a follow-up to a story I posted earlier about the courageous Alabama bidnessman Winton Blount IV, who is braving shot and shell in Iraq to land those yummy CPA contracts. Turns out plucky young Winton is the grandson of Winton Blount, whose Senate campaign employed George W. Bush while he was AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard back in 1972. What a co-inky dink! Pure fucking intimidation. Marine’s Girl is closing her blog. Another Saddam Hussein tape turns up on Arab TV. Hey, Lieutenant AWOL, where is this guy? And where's Osama? What about that asshole who was sending all that anthrax through the US mail? Any luck with that traitor who compromised Valerie Plame? Could you find your own ass with both hands and a flashlight? Commentary Opinion: The beginning of the end. “With the US election only a year away the White House must find a way out of the Iraq nightmare. That is why George Bush’s man in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, returned to Iraq last week after emergency talks in Washington carrying a brand new strategy in his briefcase.” Opinion: What Iraq won’t get is self-rule. “The Prime Minister can't say it, but more than unilateralism, it was dishonesty that doomed George W. Bush's war on Iraq and soured much of the world on America. Incompetence — exacerbated by imperial arrogance and cultural ignorance — turned the occupation into a nightmare. Now, all those traits are in play in the American plan to ostensibly turn Iraq over to the Iraqis.” Editorial: From “stay the course” to “cut and run.” “Running away is not an option for the United States. President Bush, who promised again Friday that our troops ‘will stay . . . until the job is done,’ can't allow domestic political considerations to alter the timetable for finishing the job.” Oh, but you can bet your bottom dollar that Lieutenant AWOL will put his precious political ass above national interest. You don’t realize that Bush is nothing more than a big-talking pussy of the first order. Opinion: “In Vietnam, we faced more than 1 million enemy combatants backed to the hilt by North Vietnam and its superpower… In Iraq we confront a few thousand Baathists and jihadis with, at most, limited support from Iran and Syria.” I love the way these chickenhawks use the word “we.” This conservative armchair field marshal wasn’t in Vietnam, nor is he anywhere near the shooting in Iraq. Editorial: Time to make a decision on Iraq. “It's time to stop this nonsense and either beef up the military presence in Iraq or fold up our tent and skulk home.” Editorial: Extricating America from Bush’s Quagmire. Opinion: A truly foolish adventure. “As things stand, the coalition must now choose in Iraq between two different kinds of disaster. If their troops stay the course, they seem certain to face increasing popular hostility and military threat. If they depart relatively soon, Iraq will almost certainly descend into chaos of a fearful kind. To remain will be terrible; to leave probably worse. In my years of observing Western foreign policy, I have never witnessed a more foolish adventure than the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq.” Operation Cut and Run Bush wants out. “Bush said the United States will not spend ‘years and years’ in Iraq as a new government takes shape.” L. Paul Bremer will “help” write new Iraqi constitution. Analysis: Saving Lieutenant AWOL. "If the plan succeeds, Mr. Bush could declare an end the formal American occupation of Iraq by early summer, just as the presidential campaign heads into its final and decisive stretch."