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Monday, December 08, 2003

War News for December 8, 2003 Bring ‘em on: US troops ambushed by roadside bomb near Duluiyah. Bring ‘em on: Sabotage continues with attacks on oil and electrical infrastructure. Bring 'em on: One US soldier killed wounded in drive-by shooting in Mosul. Bring 'em on: Iraqi police sapper killed in bomb explosion in Baquba. Remember all those Iraqi schools Lieutenant AWOL was crowing about? "During repairs, 'reports started coming in about poor quality,' said 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion Maj. Linda Scharf, who was responsible for the schools in question, and who started fielding calls from concerned teachers and headmasters. 'So I asked one of my teams to go verify the rumors,' Scharf said. 'They took their digital camera, and the reality turned out to be worse than the rumors...' "'For the soldiers who've been here since the war trying to build trust with the Iraqis, the work was insulting. Right now we are looking at a company who is representing the United States, doing poor work in Iraq and allowed to get away with it,' Scharf said. 'You see the kind of work we're leaving behind, and then of course the question comes up: Who is going to come back and fix all this?'" AFN arrives in Baghdad. Indonesia says Bush’s War is a quagmire and “did not bring about any significant change in the nature of the world’s problems”. Sunni clerics warn that CPA plans to deploy Kurdish and Shi'a militia will cause civil war in Iraq. Remaining South Korean electrical contractors leave Iraq. Bush’s War is a mess. Sen Kerry says Lieutenant AWOL is a fuck-up. Here's an opportunity for another Google-bombing on the White House webpage. Another soldier sounds off about Operation Jive Turkey. (Second letter.) Bangladesh evacuates diplomats from Iraq. Andy Card says manipulation of intelligence is a “moot point.” General Sanchez says to expect an upsurge in attacks against US troops and "taking out" Saddam Hussein will have little effect on insurgency. Newt Gingrich slams Lieutenant AWOL's Iraq policy. "In an exclusive interview with Newsweek, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a quiet confidant of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, says the U.S. went 'off a cliff in Iraq.'" Since Newt is one of the neo-cons on Rummy's Defense Policy Board who helped engineer this folly in the first place, it appears that he is just another one of the rats jumping Lieutenant AWOL's foundering yacht of state. Commentary Editorial: “Cheney was supposed to prevent something like this from happening. He was supposed to protect the not so well prepared W. from the big mistakes. And yet, as more accounts of the maneuvering inside the administration are revealed, it is increasingly clear that it was Cheney who was the moving force behind the decision to fight a war of choice against Iraq.” Opinion: World War II and Bush's War. "Bush led us into war not with those who had attacked us but with a target of choice, without direct provocation -- Saddam Hussein, after all, had nothing to do with 9/11. It was as if Bush liked the feel of victory, the adoration of the people. Or whatever the feeling is that comes from changing regimes nobody asked you to change." Opinion: Bush's War has damaged American national security. " What did Bush have in mind when he abandoned the pursuit of al-Qaida and misrepresented intelligence reports about Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction"? Why did Bush manipulate the public to lead more than half of them to believe that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were allies, when in reality they were enemies? How did Bush convince Congress that invading Iraq was a good idea?" Operation Cut and Run Rummy plans to cut training even more for Iraqi police. “’Experts say it should take eight weeks to train a policeman. We put some out on the street after four, with the understanding that we needed them on the street and life isn't perfect.’ He said the Pentagon aims to provide the remaining weeks of training in the future.” Bushies now want another strong man with a moustache. "If the result is the dismemberment of Iraq, so be it. Iraq has become a mess. There is only one priority: to 'get out with dignity.' This strategy is now being rammed down the throat of the US administrator in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, by George W. Bush's new 'realist,' Deputy National Security Adviser Bob Blackwill."

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