Today in Iraq

War News for June 30, 2004 Bring ‘em on: US troops mortared near Balad. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqis wounded in car bomb attack on Samawah police station. Bring ‘em on: Eleven US soldiers wounded in mortar attack near Baghdad airport. Bring ‘em on: British security contractor killed in ambush near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: Two insurgents killed in attack on Baghdad police station. Bring ‘em on: Two insurgents killed building a bomb in Baquba. Bring ‘em on: US troops ambushed by roadside bomb near Baghdad. NYT reports abducted Marine had deserted. Miserable failure. “More than a year into an aid effort that American officials likened to the Marshall Plan, occupation authorities acknowledge that fewer than 140 of 2,300 promised construction projects are under way. Only three months after L. Paul Bremer III, the American administrator who departed Monday, pledged that 50,000 Iraqis would find jobs at construction sites before the formal transfer of sovereignty, fewer than 20,000 local workers are employed.” Thailand begins troop withdrawal from Iraq. Let freedom reign. “But the past 14 months were nothing like they'd seen - a foreign occupation that most of them considered heavy-handed and insensitive, bombings that killed thousands and maimed many more, an insurgency that often triggered harsh retaliations, and violent crime. With the spirit of the city near breaking point, Monday's restoration of sovereignty meant little - not least because many Iraqis are convinced that it means little with 160,000 foreign troops still in the country. The woes of the past 14 months manifest themselves in multiple ways - from what people talk about to the graffiti and the lifestyle many have had to adopt. Upbeat views are rare. Grim outlooks are common.” Basra airport won’t open as scheduled. “Capt Francis said to date no money had been spent on infrastructure but £14.6 million had been allocated by the now defunct Coalition Provisional Authority to spend on buildings, a radar and air traffic control equipment.” But the good news is that the CPA organized a Baghdad chapter of the Optimists Club and bought summer-camp property for the Iraqi Boy Scouts. Commentary Editorial: “While piously declaring its determination to unearth the truth about Abu Ghraib, the Bush administration has spent nearly two months obstructing investigations by the Army and members of Congress. It has dragged out the Army's inquiry, withheld crucial government documents from a Senate committee and stonewalled senators over dozens of Red Cross reports that document the horrible mistreatment of Iraqis at American military prisons. Even last week's document dump from the White House, which included those cynical legal road maps around treaties and laws against torturing prisoners, seemed part of this stonewalling campaign. Nothing in those hundreds of pages explained what orders had been issued to the military and C.I.A. jailers in Iraq, and by whom.” Opinion: “The ceremony in Baghdad is the appropriate time to pronounce the war in Iraq a failure, maybe even a debacle. Its only success was the removal of Saddam Hussein – an ogre, yes, but one who had been largely defanged by years of U.N. sanctions, arms inspections and his own stunning incompetence. No meaningful link to al-Qaida has been established, no weapons of mass destruction have been found and no diminution of terrorism has resulted – an astounding trifecta of failure. In fact, as the State Department reluctantly reported, there is now more worldwide terrorism than ever before. Even Saudi Arabia, our friendly filling station, is now a risky place for Americans. More successes like Iraq, and Americans won’t want to travel farther than Bruce Springsteen’s Jersey Shore.” Casualty Reports Local story: Two Maryland airmen wounded in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Florida contractor killed in Iraq. Note to Readers "Today in Iraq" is one year old today. I just wanted to thank everybody who takes the time to read this blog and contribute comments. Atrios over at Eschaton is running a John Kerry Wednesday fundraiser. If you really want to help America take out the trash in November, go there and throw Kerry a few bucks. It's worth it and I have it on very good authority Kerry will reward Atrios' fundraising by appointing him ambassador to Iraq. For any readers who are interested, here are the latest statistics from Sitemeter. I have no idea what these numbers mean, but I present them for your edification and amusement. VISITS Total 289,033 Average Per Day 1,298 Average Visit Length 1:16 Last Hour 84 Today 614 This Week 9,089 PAGE VIEWS Total 349,914 Average Per Day 1,566 Average Per Visit 1.2 Last Hour 104 Today 740 This Week 10,959 Update: GAO Report: "The 105-page report by Congress' investigative arm offers a bleak assessment of Iraq after 14 months of U.S. military occupation. Among its findings: • In 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces, electricity was available fewer hours per day on average last month than before the war. Nearly 20 million of Iraq's 26 million people live in those provinces. • Only $13.7 billion of the $58 billion pledged and allocated worldwide to rebuild Iraq has been spent, with $10 billion more about to be spent. The biggest chunk of that money has been used to run Iraq's ministry operations. • The country's court system is more clogged than before the war, and judges are frequent targets of assassination attempts. • The new Iraqi civil-defense, police and overall security units are suffering from mass desertions, are poorly trained and ill-equipped. • The number of what the now-disbanded Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) called significant insurgent attacks skyrocketed from 411 in February to 1,169 in May." Haul your happy asses over to Eschaton and donate to the Kerry campaign if you want to end this Bush-league incompetence. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 28, 2004 Bring ‘em on: US prisoner of war executed. Bring ‘em on: Three US Marines killed by roadside bomb near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: US patrol ambushed in Baghdad; one Iraqi killed. Bring ‘em on: Senior police official wounded in assassination attempt near Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi policeman killed in attack on police station in Mahmudiyah. Bring ‘em on: Fighting reported in Ramadi. Bring ‘em on: Explosions reported near Green Zone in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi civilians killed in roadside bomb attack against US convoy in Baquba. More troops. “The U.S. Army is planning an involuntary mobilization of thousands of reserve troops to maintain adequate force levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense officials said on Monday. The move -- involving the seldom-tapped Individual Ready Reserve -- represents the latest evidence of the strain being placed on the U.S. military, particularly the Army, by operations in those two countries.” Crooks. “According to documents posted on its own web site, the CPA’s little-known Program Review Board (PRB) has quietly committed billions of dollars in Iraq’s oil revenues to new contracts that critics say will enrich US and British corporations while limiting the amount of revenue Iraq’s new interim government will have at its disposal when it assumes authority from the CPA on June 30.” Stranded. “According to the Foreign Ministry, 33-year-old Gana Trading employed Choi Wook has wanted to come home to Korea since receiving word of Kim Sun-il's murder, but because overland travel is almost impossible due to the threat of attack from armed groups and Mosul Airport is closed, he has remained in Mosul.” Commentary Analysis: “U.S. commanders concede that they are far from quelling a stubborn and increasingly sophisticated insurgency. It has extended well beyond supporters of Saddam Hussein and foreign fighters, spreading to ordinary Iraqis seething at the occupation and its failures. They act at the grass-roots level, often with little training or direction, but with a zealousness born of anticolonial ambitions. U.S. commanders acknowledge that military might alone cannot defeat the insurgency; in fact, the frequent use of force often spurs resistance by deepening ill will. ‘This war cannot be won militarily," said Major General John Batiste, commander of the 1st Infantry Division, which oversees a swath of the northern Sunni triangle, as the area is called. ‘It really does need a political and economic solution.’” Analysis: “As has happened so many times regarding Iraq, ideology clouded analysis. The best-equipped, best-trained army in the world has not been able to crush or even find the ‘dead-enders,’ whose operations have grown in size, skill and organization. Fourteen months after the fall of Baghdad, Iraq's main airport remains closed, the road from the airport to Baghdad is a free-fire zone, several other key routes linking the country are extremely dangerous, and attacks on infrastructure, civilians and troops are a daily occurrence.” Opinion: “Let's say the obvious. By making Iraq a playground for right-wing economic theorists, an employment agency for friends and family, and a source of lucrative contracts for corporate donors, the administration did terrorist recruiters a very big favor.” Opinion: “The American torture of Iraqi prisoners was not especially helpful to Army Spc. Keith M. Maupin, who was shot dead by "the Sharp Sword against the Enemies of God and his Prophet." Torture is a two-way street. Nor does it seem so helpful today to U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. He has been missing since June 21 and now he is being shown on Arab television with a sword over his head. Voices say they will cut off his head. This is simultaneously impossible to contemplate and yet so familiar that you flinch at the mention. I wonder what these dangerous fools in Washington, Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, think about the Marine.” Opinion: “When Allawi was first picked for the prime minister post through an opaque selection process ostensibly run by a U.N. representative, former CIA Iran-Iraq analyst Kenneth Pollack justified the agency's earlier use of Allawi as a terrorist with the comment "send a thief to catch a thief." But the question now is: Do you send a thief to build a democracy?” Casualty Reports Local story: Illinois soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: California Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: New Hampshire Guardsman wounded in Iraq. Local story: Three Oregon Guardsmen wounded in Iraq. Local story: California soldier wounded in Iraq. Awards and Decorations Local story: Pennsylvania soldier decorated for valor in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 28, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Insurgents capture US Marine near Fallujah, threaten beheading. Bring ‘em on: One British soldier killed, two wounded by roadside bomb near Basra. Bring ‘em on: US contractor killed as RAAF C-130 is hit by ground fire near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Six ICDC members killed in attack near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: One US Marine killed in action in al-Anbar province. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi children killed in mortar attack near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed in rocket attack near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi policeman killed in mortar attack in Mosul. Bring ‘em on: Five Kurdish peshmerga wounded by roadside bomb near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: Insurgents threaten Pakistani contractor with beheading. Bring ‘em on: British security contractor killed in Baghdad ambush. "Sovereignty" given to interim Iraqi government, Baghdad fashion maven and incompetent administrator L. Paul Bremer cuts and runs. KIA’s mother sounds off. “The mother of a soldier killed last week in Iraq planned to openly challenge the Pentagon on Sunday night by not only allowing the media to take pictures and video as her son's coffin arrived at Sacramento International Airport, but by encouraging outlets to publish and distribute the images. ‘I don't care what [President Bush] wants,’ Nadia McCaffrey said of the administration's policy that bans on-base photographing of coffins returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. She planned to hold a short ceremony in front of reporters and photographers inside a Delta Airlines cargo terminal at the airport shortly before Flight 1583 was scheduled to arrive from Atlanta at midnight with the body of her son, National Guard Spc. Patrick McCaffrey, 34.” Commentary Editorial: “The missteps have been many: listening to Iraqi exiles like Ahmad Chalabi who insisted that their countrymen would welcome invaders; using too few troops, which led to a continuing crime wave and later to kidnappings and full-blown terror attacks. Disbanding the Iraqi army worsened the nation's unemployment problem and left millions of former soldiers unhappy — men with weapons. Keeping the United Nations at arm's length made it harder to regain assistance when the need was dire. It will take years for widely felt hostility to ebb, in Iraq and other countries. The consequences of arrogance, accompanied by certitude that the world's most powerful military can cure all ills, should be burned into Americans' memory banks. Preemption is a failed doctrine. Forcibly changing the regime of an enemy that posed no imminent threat has led to disaster. The U.S. needs better intelligence before it acts in the future. It needs to listen to friendly nations. It needs humility.” Read the whole thing. Analysis: “When the war began 15 months ago, the president's Iraq policy rested on four broad principles: The United States should act preemptively to prevent strikes on U.S. targets. Washington should be willing to act unilaterally, alone or with a select coalition, when the United Nations or allies balk. Iraq was the next cornerstone in the global war on terrorism. And Baghdad's transformation into a new democracy would spark regionwide change. But these central planks of Bush doctrine have been tainted by spiraling violence, limited reconstruction, failure to find weapons of mass destruction or prove Iraq's ties to al Qaeda, and mounting Arab disillusionment with U.S. leadership. ‘Of the four principles, three have failed, and the fourth -- democracy promotion -- is hanging by a sliver,’ said Geoffrey Kemp, a National Security Council staff member in the Reagan administration and now director of regional strategic programs at the Nixon Center.” Analysis: “Young Army captains spend their evenings in mayors' offices, advising on everything from democracy theory to garbage collection. Slightly older lieutenant colonels organize sheiks' councils. ‘Every commander in this division has personally run an election,’ either in Bosnia or Kosovo, says a senior officer in the 1st Infantry Division, now based in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. By default, they have become America's nation-builders overseas.” These are all tasks that should have been accomplished by the civilian reconstruction authority, not the uniformed services. The CPA has been a miserable failure. Opinion: “Backbiters and back-stabbers are as entitled as anyone to ask questions, but they, like the rest of us, must remain realistic and credible. Today Iraq is poised for increased prosperity and a better political future. Many, if not most, of its people are imbued with hope. Thousands of brave Americans, with the support of most of us here, are slowly but surely turning that hope into reality.” So according to Bob Dole, any American who questions Lieutenant AWOL’s disastrous Iraq policy is a “back-stabber.” Bob, you’re starting to sound like one of those Nazis you fought 60 years ago. Opinion: “The news from Iraq is worse than ever. Government ministers, local officials and Iraqi police officers are murdered in broad daylight. American troop convoys are ambushed at roadsides. Foreign civilians are taken hostage and beheaded on an almost weekly basis. Ahmed Chalabi, the Bushies' first choice to head the new democratic Iraq, is exposed as a double agent for Iran and a blatant liar about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Oil pipelines are regularly sabotaged. And control of Fallujah, in the mutinous Sunni triangle, is ceded without a fight to the jihadi militants.” Casualty Reports Local story: North Carolina Guardsman killed in Iraq. Local story: Mississippi soldier wounded in Iraq. Note to Readers The US Marine captured by insurgents disappeared on June 21, according to US military sources. That was the same day four US Marines patrolling in Ramadi were killed. There were no survivors from that patrol. News reports indicated that the dead Marines were found without weapons or body armor, and that their rucksacks had been searched. I strongly suspect the US Marine was captured during that ambush. Having had some experience in this field, I also suspect this patrol was actually a Marine intelligence operation that went very, very wrong. Soldiers with a native language ability are almost always seconded to intelligence or civil affairs duties. A five-man patrol in a hostile area like Ramadi makes little tactical sense – assuming the insurgents hold no other captives. The ambush happened to suddenly that the Marines apparently had no time to radio a call for help. Finally, the videotape released by the insurgents announcing the Marine’s capture said they had “lured” him outside the Marines perimeter. Update: Of course, I could be entirely wrong about the purpose of the patrol. Hometown newspaper stories reveal that the four Marine KIAs, all members of 2d Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, were all relatively junior enlisted personnel. It might be worth remembering the circumstances surrounding the capture of three US soldiers by Yugoslavian Military Intelligence in Macedonia in April 1999, at the start of the NATO Kosovo campaign. The soldiers were part of a routine mounted patrol comprised of four vehicles operating near Kumonovo, Macedonia. The NCO in charge of the patrol sent the three soldiers and their vehicle on an unauthorized mission off the designated patrol route to score some chow at a well-known roadside chicken stand where they were subsequently ambushed and captured. I heard a tape of the radio transmissions between the ambushed soldiers and the patrol leader. One of the ambushed soldiers grabbed the radio mike and transmitted a by-the-book spot report while under fire. The sergeant acknowledged the report and added, “You better not be bullshitting me!” 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 27, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Forty Iraqis killed, 22 wounded by two car bombs in Hilla. Bring ‘em on: Two ICDC members, one Iraqi policeman killed in ambushes near Mahmoudiyah. Bring ‘em on: Oil pipeline bombed near Latifiyah. Bring ‘em on: Explosions, smoke, reported in Green Zone in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Insurgents threaten three Turks with beheading. Bring ‘em on: Coalition patrol ambushed near Hindiyah. Elections. “Premier Iyad Allawi said the January 2005 elections may be delayed by two months if attacks continue and threaten the political process.” State of emergency. Some form of martial law looks increasingly likely in at least parts of Iraq after its caretaker government takes power on June 30. The country has remained dangerously unstable since the US-led invasion last year. Baghdad fashion maven and incompetent administrator L. Paul Bremer hands over “sovereignty.” “Some of the orders signed by Bremer, which will remain in effect unless overturned by Iraq's interim government, restrict the power of the interim government and impose U.S.-crafted rules for the country's democratic transition. Among the most controversial orders is the enactment of an elections law that gives a seven-member commission the power to disqualify political parties and any of the candidates they support. The effect of other regulations could last much longer. Bremer has ordered that the national security adviser and the national intelligence chief chosen by the interim prime minister he selected, Ayad Allawi, be given five-year terms, imposing Allawi's choices on the elected government that is to take over next year.” L. Paul Bremer packs up his extensive wardrobe. “Adel Abdel Mahdi, Iraq's new finance minister, served on the Iraqi Governing Council as a representative of an Islamic party with a reputation for working well the United States. Bremer, he said, was surrounded by a cadre of political advisers and Iraqi exiles who often shielded him from the reality of problems like cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's following or the likely public fallout of an offensive against insurgents in Fallujah. ‘Who do you think he listens to?’ he said ‘He took a lot of bad advice.’” Bad advice? What do you expect when you staff an organization with refugees from the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute? Bremer is a posturing fool who could fuck up a wet dream. He’s the man who put the FU in FUBAR. Winning tactically and losing strategically. “To make matters worse, some U.S. officials who had relevant experience — State Department officers who had worked in places like Somalia and Haiti — said they were initially locked out by a hostile Pentagon, which didn't trust their views. Instead, the CPA was staffed by a wide variety of volunteers — State Department officials, members of other federal agencies, congressional aides, business executives and academics — who sometimes came with more enthusiasm than expertise. Many signed up for stints that lasted only 90 days, barely long enough to begin understanding Iraq's complexities. The three-month policy was changed when Bremer arrived. Subsequently, people had to serve six-month terms. Some were Republicans devoted to Bush's vision of a free-market democracy in Iraq as a beachhead for reform in the Arab world. They included Scott Carpenter, a former aide to Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.); Dan Senor, a former aide to then-Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.); Williamson Evers, a Hoover Institution education expert who was an advisor to the 2000 Bush presidential campaign; and Jay Hallen, a 24-year-old Yale graduate who applied for a job at the White House and instead landed the assignment of reopening the Baghdad Stock Exchange. (It hasn't reopened yet.)” Salvadoran troops evacuate Najaf. 1st Armored Division prepares to depart Iraq (again). “Their time here has left many soldiers, from veteran tank drivers to young company commanders, with a confused picture of the Iraqis who never took up arms against them. Many share tales of intimate kindnesses by individual Iraqis. But they also acknowledge that the tactics they used against an elusive insurgency, while killing many enemy fighters, created new adversaries among civilians caught in the crossfire.” Commentary Analysis: “The insurgents have no intention of laying down their arms. Indeed, the nature of the insurgency in Iraq is fundamentally changing. Time reported last fall that the insurgency was being led by members of the former Baathist regime, who were using guerrilla tactics in an effort to drive out foreign occupiers and reclaim power. But a Time investigation of the insurgency today—based on meetings with insurgents, tribal leaders, religious clerics and U.S. intelligence officials—reveals that the militants are turning the resistance into an international jihadist movement. Foreign fighters, once estranged from homegrown guerrilla groups, are now integrated as cells or complete units with Iraqis. Many of Saddam's former secret police and Republican Guard officers, who two years ago were drinking and whoring, no longer dare even smoke cigarettes. They are fighting for Allah, they say, and true jihadis reject such earthly indulgences.” Casualty Reports Local story: Louisiana soldier killed in Iraq. Off Topic From the Fuckin' Honor and Dignity department. “’These things happen from time to time,’ said White House spokesman Scott McClellan when asked what Bush's reaction to Cheney's remark had been. ‘You're talking about one incident involving a private exchange,’ McClellan told reporters traveling with Bush on a trip to Ireland and Turkey. ‘It's not an issue with the president. The president is looking ahead.’” 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 25 and 26, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Seven Iraqis killed in three attacks in Baquba. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed in Baghdad ambush. Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi Kurd killed, 40 wounded by car bomb in Arbil. Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi policeman killed, one wounded by roadside bomb in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: US troops reported fighting insurgents in Diyala province. Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi policeman killed, one wounded in ambush near Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: Fighting and airstrikes reported in Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Explosions reported in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Five ICDC recruits wounded in mortar attack near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: Two decapitated bodies discovered near Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqi policemen killed, one wounded in RPG attack in Baquba. Bring ‘em on: US convoy ambushed in Najaf. Flowers and music. “‘Cultural training takes 10 seconds,’ he said: ‘The Iraqis hate us. They want to kill us. That's all you need to know.’ Such sentiments are now commonplace among the rank-and-file troops the Star surveyed during visits to three U.S.-led coalition bases in and around the Iraqi capital this week. Take the temperature of the average soldier, and you will find it high with frustration.” More troops. “In his confirmation hearing before the US Senate on Thursday, General George Casey - who will soon take over as the commander of coalition forces - said the US Central Command was planning for an increase in troop numbers in the face of the growing challenge. ‘The insurgency is much stronger than I certainly would have anticipated,' he told the senators.” Coalition of the Clueless. “Armitage, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz and Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators that they continue to believe that the insurgency is made up of a small minority of extremists and former members of Saddam Hussein's government who are bent on disrupting the drive for democracy in Iraq. But what was previously envisioned as a faltering insurgency has evolved into a significant security problem and a largely unknown quantity.” “We’re making good progress.” “Everything changed with the war. Her middle brother, Ali Muhammad Maarouf, 20, a soldier, was shot and killed in the first few days of the fighting in the southern port city of Basra. And a few weeks later, after major combat was declared over but when law and order had yet to be established, her husband was shot in the head one night by a business associate. Halla said that her husband was still alive when she arrived at the hospital and that he managed to tell her, ‘Halla, be a good girl,’ before he died. Halla insisted on spending the night at the morgue, hugging Walid's body and weeping. At daybreak, one of her brothers came and gently carried her away.” Iraqi casualties. “A total of 1,258 Iraqis were killed across this Arab nation between May 4 and June 17, according to a Health Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity. During the same period, 4,317 Iraqis were wounded.” After-action report. “This is an account of the 60-day campaign as it was seen by dozens of the soldiers who fought in key battles from April 8 through June 4 and by the commanders who guided them. It is also drawn from a tour of the area. Many of the battles took place in four cities -- Kut, Karbala, Najaf and Kufa. The soldiers were led by four lieutenant colonels, all in their early forties, each seasoned by a year in the country.” Retired Marine NCO sounds off. “Retired Marine Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey is one of an increasing number of US Army veterans and families speaking out about the actions of the occupation forces in Iraq. Mr Massey will talk to the crowds from his home in North Carolina via a telephone link-up. And the ex-marine, who was honourably discharged in December after serving 12 years with the army, will detail the horrors he witnessed while on duty in Iraq.” Commentary Analysis: “Well-equipped and highly coordinated, the insurgents demonstrated a new level of strength and tactical skill that alarmed the soldiers facing them. By the end of the day, infantry and armoured patrols had driven the insurgents from the battered centre of the city. Two US soldiers were killed in the fight. 'They were definitely better than what we normally face,' said Lieutenant T.J. Grider, 25, whose platoon fought for more than 12 hours.” Analysis: “The simultaneous offensive six days before the handover of sovereignty on June 30 to the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had two political objectives. One was to cast doubt on the reality of the handover by showing that Allawi's survival depended on the presence of 140,000 U.S. troops. Without the intervention of the U.S. Air Force, things could have gone seriously wrong on Thursday. This dependence was common knowledge to officials. The insurgents staged a blockbuster to deliver the message to the whole nation. June 30 would be a sham: The Americans will still be in charge. The second aim was to demonstrate that Sunni insurgents and other militant groups -- in this case Zarqawi's al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Monotheism and Holy War) organization -- could work together against the common enemy.” Casualty Reports Local story: North Carolina Guardsman killed in Iraq. Local story: Georgia Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Wisconsin soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: California Guardsman killed in Iraq. Local story: Wisconsin soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: New Hampshire Guardsman wounded in Iraq. Local story: New Hampshire Guardsman wounded in Iraq. Local story: California soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Three Oregon Guardsmen wounded in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

Note to Readers, June 24, 2004 Due to my work schedule and domestic chores, it's almost impossible for me to research and update this site on Thursdays and Fridays. After a cursory examination of today's news, it's apparant there is another major, coordinated uprising underway in Iraq. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to give this story appropriate attention. Alert readers, please post links to news stories in comments. Let's make this a cooperative effort for the the next two days. Try to stay on topic and I'll see you all on Saturday morning. Thanks, YD. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 23, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqis killed by roadside bomb near Baghdad hospital. Bring ‘em on: South Korean hostage beheaded near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqis killed, six wounded in air strike near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Two US soldiers killed, one wounded in ambush near Balad. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqis killed in insurgent attack in Khaldiyah. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi translators assassinated near Basra. Bring ‘em on: Oil pipeline sabotaged near Beiji. Bring ‘em on: Bulgarian troops ambushed near Karbala. Bring ‘em on: US convoy ambushed by roadside bomb in Baghdad. Two Iraqis killed. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi policeman killed by roadside bomb near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi policemen killed in Ramadi drive-by shooting. AQ threatens to assassinate Iraqi interim prime minister. List of foreigners kidnapped in Iraq. Wolfie watch. “Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, said Tuesday that the Pentagon had underestimated the violent tenacity of an insurgency that formed after Baghdad fell, and he acknowledged that the United States may be forced to keep a significant number of troops in Iraq for years to come.” More troops. “The U.S. Central Command has informally asked Army planners for up to five more brigades - about 25,000 troops - to augment the American force of 138,000 soldiers and Marines now in Iraq, military officers and Pentagon officials said.” Mission accomplished. “Of the 842 U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the invasion 15 months ago, 622 were killed by hostile fire, according to a Pentagon tally. The largest part of that combat death toll, 513, has come since President Bush's declaration on May 1 last year that major combat was over. These troops died at the hands of Iraqis and a sprinkling of foreign Arabs fighting the U.S. occupation and seeking to derail the Bush administration's plan to transform the country.” The full article is entitled, "A Soldier's Last Battle" and is well worth reading. AWOL update on Lieutenant AWOL. “The Associated Press sued the Pentagon and the Air Force on Tuesday, seeking access to all records of George W. Bush's military service during the Vietnam War. Filed in federal court in New York, where The AP is headquartered, the lawsuit seeks access to a copy of Bush's microfilmed personnel file from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin.” Commentary Analysis: “But just nine days before Iraq takes its biggest legal stride since the invasion, the transfer of what is officially called full sovereignty on June 30 draws deep skepticism on Baghdad's streets. In bookshops and offices, mosques and teahouses, ordinary Iraqis say they eagerly await the end of the U.S.-led occupation, but they dispute that an unelected interim Iraqi government, backed by about 140,000 U.S. troops, constitutes the fully sovereign state that President Bush and Iraqi politicians have touted. These doubts pose a fundamental challenge to Iraq's fragile new government as it embarks on the high-stakes foray into autonomy.” Opinion: “Cheney and Bush are squealing so much because the unmasking of their fiction about Iraq is one more shot into the solar plexus of their diminishing credibility -- and in the president's reelection campaign, credibility is a major route to the independent-minded voters who will probably decide the election. Cheney and Bush, in short, have been caught in a lie, and that is why they are squealing.” Analysis: “To put it succinctly, very little of what the White House told Congress to persuade it to pass the war resolution has turned out to be true or come to pass. Poor planning by the civilian chiefs at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his two top aides, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, has contributed to needless casualties. Washington didn't have a contingency plan for a serious insurgency after cities were taken and ‘major combat’ was over. U.S. occupation casualties continue to rise even as newly trained Iraqi forces begin taking over security duties. The prisoner torture scandal at the Abu Ghraib jail has also stained the Defense Department and the CIA.” Casualty Reports Local story: Georgia Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: California soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Kentucky Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Virginia soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: California soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Florida and Georgia contractors killed in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 22, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Three US soldiers wounded in two ambushes near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed, six wounded in mortar attack near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Five Iraqis killed in roadside bomb ambush near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: Fifty insurgents storm and demolish Iraqi police station near Iskandariyah. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi bomb disposal expert wounded near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: City council member assassinated near Tikrit. Bring ‘em on: Two local council members assassinated in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi university dean and spouse assassinated in Mosul. Up shit creek. The perfect image of Lieutenant AWOL's Iraq policy. Cowards. “The Bush administration's policy of barring news photographs of the flag-covered coffins of service members killed in Iraq won the backing of the Republican-controlled Senate on Monday, when lawmakers defeated a Democratic measure to instruct the Pentagon to allow pictures.” Crooks. “Auditors working for the United Nations have strongly criticised the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority for its management of the 20 billion dollar fund from oil sales, which it said is ‘open to fraudulent acts,’ the Financial Times said. KPMG International experts also ‘encountered resistance from CPA staff’ in its attempts to oversee the fund's spending, according to an interim KPMG report obtained by the financial daily.” South Korea evacuates businessmen and workers from Iraq. Charades. “The United States plans to turn over legal, but not physical, custody of Saddam Hussein and some other prisoners to the Iraqi interim government soon after it takes over on June 30, a senior official said on Tuesday.” Lieutenant AWOL the uniter, not a divider. “Thousands of Ukrainian protesters on Tuesday demanded the government bring troops home from Iraq, saying politicians had no right to spill the blood of others for their own gain. About 2,000 Communists holding red flags and 5,000 Orthodox believers, who carried icons, swarmed the central independence square in Ukraine's capital Kiev and then marched to parliament, where speaker after speaker called for the troops' return.” Commentary Opinion: “When Clinton was in office we were preoccupied with DNA stains on dresses, not bloodstains on the streets of Baghdad, Mosul or Najaf. Nothing close to 150,000 American troops were dispatched to fight a foreign war during the Clinton administration, although I suspect there will be critics this week who will find a way to hold that against him, too. At least I hope so.” Analysis: “America's make-do policy in the Iraqi endgame was outlined by a senior administration official. From his account it's clear that Bush and his advisers have been improvising for the past few months, struggling to craft an exit strategy. The grand designs that launched the war are now long gone, replaced by a process of trial and error.” Opinion: “It's not surprising that an administration already bent on war would interpret every dot, every squiggly line, as evidence that Hussein and bin Laden were in cahoots. This made sense to Bush and Cheney since, as we have found out to our dismay, they cannot distinguish between one kind of evil and another. Every possible suggestion of cooperation somehow became proof. This was particularly the case with Cheney when it came to weapons of mass destruction. He seized on the murkiest of reports to proclaim that Iraq had "reconstituted" its nuclear weapons program, which, lo these many months later, has yet to be found. So deluded were our top guys that they invaded Iraq expecting that the major problem would be how to clean up after all the victory parades.” Opinion: “Yeah, right. The reality is that Bush and company have turned the language of lying into a fine art, always leaving themselves a shred of deniability in case the truth catches up. For example, Cheney has repeatedly cited as a smoking gun an always shaky report about 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta possibly meeting with an Iraqi official in Prague only months before the attacks, telling the nation that this sole claim to direct evidence linking Iraq with 9/11 had ‘been pretty well confirmed.’” Casualty Reports Local story: California soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Virgin Islands soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Washington State Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: California Marine dies in Iraq. Local story: Two Vermont Guardsmen wounded in Iraq. Local story: Connecticut soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Hawaii soldier injured in Iraq. Local story: Minnesota soldier wounded in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 21, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Four US soldiers killed in ambush near Ramadi. Bring ‘em on: Two ICDC soldiers killed, 11 wounded in roadside bomb ambush near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Turkish truck driver killed in ambush in Iraq. Bring ‘em on: Home of Iraqi interior minister mortared near Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Explosions and gunfire reported in Samawah. Bring ‘em on: Four insurgents killed in fighting near Samarra. Military judge declares Abu Ghraib a crime scene. “A military judge on Monday declared the notorious Abu Ghraib prison a crime scene that cannot be demolished as President Bush had offered. He also refused to move the trial of a soldier accused of abusing inmates.” Wolfie’s sock puppet spews RNC talking points about media coverage. “New Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer explained his belief that 90 percent of what's happening in Iraq is good news, and 10 percent in bad. ‘The media is magnifying the 10 percent, ignoring the 90 percent,’ Yawer said. He said the scandal surrounding detainee abuses at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison is a perfect example. The issue is clearer to people like him who have lived in the United States and understand American values, he said. ‘I know this is outrageous to the American public (and) to the American administration as much as it is outrageous to the Iraqis,’ Yawer said.” Why is the Armed Forces Information Service propagating this drivel? Wounded soldiers. “For those survivors, their tours of duty were jolted to a sudden halt with bright flashes, searing heat and noises drilling into their heads. Some had limbs blown off, internal organs shredded. Some lost their hearing or sight. Some had brain damage. The aftermath of surviving such an attack has many complexities, according to Associated Press interviews with survivors and the medical specialists who are treating them.” Saddam’s pistol. “’It's the phallic equivalent of a scalp - I mean that quite seriously,’ said Stanley A. Renshon, a psychoanalyst and political scientist at the City University of New York who has just completed a book, to be published by Palgrave/Macmillan in September, called ‘In His Father's Shadow: The Transformations of George W. Bush.’” Some people might call this stealing. “The spending program, which was started unannounced, has been undertaken in consultation with Iraqi ministers, despite misgivings that the oil revenue belonged to Iraq and that it should be set aside for use when Iraq's sovereignty is restored, scheduled for June 30.” Mortar attack. “Insurgents lob mortar rounds and launch rockets at U.S. camps throughout Iraq almost daily. It can happen at any time at any camp. Wednesday, a rocket hit the PX at Balad, killing three troops. Even the coalition’s headquarters in Baghdad, known as the Green Zone, comes under frequent attacks.” Blame anything except a failed ideology. “Agresto, a lifelong Republican and political conservative, does not regard himself as a turncoat. He still believes in the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Despite his disappointment with the lack of reconstruction, he is proud of the changes the Coalition Provisional Authority instilled in Iraq's universities, including the promotion of academic freedom and a purge of senior officials of Hussein's Baath Party. He says he feels the CPA accomplished ‘a lot of good under very difficult conditions.’ While acknowledging American mistakes, Agresto aimed some of his most pointed criticism at Iraqis. In his view, the Americans toppled a dictator and prepared the ground for democracy, but Iraqis have not stepped up to build on that start. ‘They don't know how to be a community,’ he said. ‘They put their individual interests first. They only look out for themselves.’” Good article on how a conservative ideologue rationalizes failure. Commentary Editorial: “Some reports suggest that al Qaeda wants President George W. Bush in the White House for another four years. Why? Well, for starters, Mr Bush’s Middle East policy is providing a bonanza of new funding and new recruits for al Qaeda. Almost three years after the September 11 atrocity, al Qaeda is flourishing. Instead of being pounded into dust, it’s stronger. Another reason for al Qaeda to back the Republican ticket is the gulf emerging between Europe and the United States.” Editorial: “It is true, as the President stressed last week, that he never flat-out said Saddam Hussein helped plan the Sept. 11 attacks. It is also beside the point. He said many other things, misleading things, to plant the idea that invading Iraq was a logical extension of - rather than a fatal distraction from - the effort to dismantle al-Qaeda…Now, ask yourself, along with those 27 American diplomats and warriors: Have the last two years made America more secure, more respected? The answer is obvious and appalling. The answer is no.” Analysis: “The Justice Department memo assured the Bush administration of three things: First, that interrogators could cause a lot of pain without crossing the line to torture. Second, that even though the United States criminalizes torture and has signed a treaty outlawing it, interrogators could torture prisoners as long as the president authorized it. Third, that even if those interrogators were later prosecuted for engaging in torture, there were legal defenses they could use to avoid accountability. Bybee's conclusions rest upon three stunning legal contortions, requiring no less than an entirely new definition of torture, a distortion of fundamental constitutional law and a new approach to the application of international law.” Editorial: “Since Mr. Rumsfeld referred directly to The Post, we believe we owe him a response. We agree that the country is at war and that we all must weigh our words accordingly. We also agree that the consequences of the revelations of prisoner abuse are grave. As supporters of the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have been particularly concerned about the ways that the scandal -- and the administration's continuing failure to come to terms with it -- could undermine the chances for success. We also have warned about the uses that might be made of it by captors of Americans. What strikes us as extraordinary is that Mr. Rumsfeld would suggest that this damage would be caused by newspaper editorials rather than by his own actions and decisions and those of other senior administration officials.” I'm impressed. WaPo's editorial board finally administered Rummy a well-deserved bitch-slap. I guess the editors are finally reading their own news articles. Awards and Decorations Local story: Massachusetts sailor decorated for valor in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 20, 2004 Bring ‘em on: City councilman assassinated in Tikrit. Bring ‘em on: Ten Iraqis killed in firefight with US troops near Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi policemen killed in Baghdad bombing. Bring ‘em on: Ten Iraqi Arab taxi drivers kidnapped by Iraqi Kurds near Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqis wounded by roadside bomb in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqis killed in mortar attack near Diyalah. Bring ‘em on: Five Iraqi police officers killed in US airstrike in Samarra. Bring ‘em on: British troops foil attempted car bombing near Basra. Bring ‘em on: One US Marine killed in action in al-Anbar province. Bring ‘em on: Seventeen Iraqis killed in attempted assassination of Health Minister in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: British troops engaged in firefights near Amarah. Ethnic cleansing. “The Kurdish migration appears to be causing widespread misery, with Arabs complaining of expulsions and even murders at the hands of Kurdish returnees. Many of the Kurdish refugees themselves are gathered in crowded camps. American officials say as many as 100,000 Arabs have fled their homes in north-central Iraq and are now scattered in squalid camps across the center of the country. With the anti-American insurgency raging across much of the same area, the Arab refugees appear to be receiving neither food nor shelter from the Iraqi government, relief organizations or American forces.” Insuring contractors in Iraq. “Federal law requires government contractors to take out some death, disability and medical insure for workers assigned overseas, and reimburses insurers if a worker is killed or injured. Mounting deaths and injuries to contract workers in Iraq threaten to cost the federal government far more than the $1 million to $2 million it usually pays out per year under the law. But some contractors also are footing much larger than expected bills. Many have taken out more insurance than required by law as a way to attract and reassure workers, and then were forced to keep workers in the country months longer than planned because of circumstances including violence and sabotage.” Reporter in ambush near Fallujah. “The point of this or almost any story from Iraq these days is how completely the conflict between the United States and the violent opponents of U.S. occupation is closing in on anyone who lives here. For a long time, rebel targets have included Iraqis who work for the foreigners, who work in government and even who labour for Iraqis in business or government. For the past few months, Americans and other foreigners working in Iraq have also been victims of ambush. There is virtually no discrimination, and the narcotic sense of immunity that gave reporters the notion they could go into a war zone, talk to people and get back safely has been shattered.” Lieutenant AWOL’s fantasy world. “Two days later, Bush dismissed a wave of violence and sabotage that has killed more than 180 people this month and halted oil exports for at least five days, saying US-led forces were "making progress" towards a democratic Iraq.” Spencer Ackerman at TPM has some insightful observations on the demise of the CPA. “A consequence of all this is something that undercuts an implicit premise of the Post’s excellent coverage: That the occupation is in a significant sense ending. What appears more likely to happen is abdication. The U.S. will be declaring that it's not responsible for the deteriorating course of the country while Iraqis suspect (with significant foundation, as Brown points out) that the U.S. is the real power broker in Iraq. As retired State Department official Richard Murphy writes in his Post article, ‘Washington has oversold the significance of the June 30 handover.’ All this makes the actual fulfillment of our strategic objectives increasingly remote. Which is a euphemism for failure.” Commentary Editorial: “The ceremonial passage of power on June 30 is unlikely to usher in any immediate improvement in the security situation. With millions of Iraqis resentful of American occupation and attendant horrors like Abu Ghraib, residential neighborhoods terrorized by kidnappers and other criminals, another stifling summer under way without adequate electric power and economic revival a distant dream, it takes only a few thousand armed insurgents to generate an atmosphere of random carnage and rampant anarchy. With this in mind, the Pentagon now plans to keep 138,000 troops in Iraq indefinitely, almost 25,000 more than it was projecting a few months ago. Even more may be needed, although the idea of a larger and more visible American military presence will not be popular with Iraqis. According to a recent poll commissioned by the occupation authorities, increasing numbers of Iraqis would like to see American troops go home.” Editorial: “In short, the Iraq war was fought on bogus grounds. It never was about fighting 9/11 terror. If anything, it was a distraction. Nearly three years after 9/11, bin Laden is still on the loose. Al Qaeda still threatens the continental U.S. and the group continues to attack U.S. interests in Iraq and elsewhere.” Analysis: It is still unclear why Mr Bremer and the CPA showed such poor judgement. The swift overthrow of Saddam Hussein showed few Iraqis supported him. But Mr Bremer disbanded the army and persecuted the Baath party pushing their members towards armed resistance. By last summer he had alienated the Sunni Arabs (20 per cent of Iraqis) and by this spring he had infuriated the Shia (60 per cent). He turned the hitherto marginal Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr into a respected martyr and the hillbilly city of Fallujah into a patriotic symbol. Many able and intelligent CPA officials are mystified by the extent of the failure, perhaps the greatest in American foreign policy. ‘Bremer stuffed his office full of neo-conservatives and political appointees who knew nothing of the country or the region,’ one said. ‘They actively avoided anybody who did.’” Casualty Reports Local story: New Jersey Guardsman wounded in Iraq. Local story: South Carolina Guardsman wounded in Iraq. Local story: Nebraska soldier wounded in Iraq. Monkey Mail! From: xxxx@rjia.net To: yankeedoodle@gmail.com Subject: you need to put our country down It would seem to me that you should live elsewhere. This is our country, our President and our code of living standards. If you do not like it....leave it. Our president needs us now and it is really like a spiritual war. We will win, but whose side will you end up on? Those people come over here, use our resources, thanks to people like you, get an education and turn it against us. You apparently are so busy kissing foreign butt that you can't see that will be your permanent job in hell. Learn to defend what you have. They came over here with their ideas of grandiosity and now, they and their tribes are going to reap the benefit of some good ol American kick-butt. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 18 and 19, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Car bomb kills 35, wounds 141 in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed in firefight near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: One Portuguese contractor, one Iraqi policeman killed by roadside bomb near Basra. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed, civilian contractor wounded in mortar attack near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqis killed, three US soldiers wounded in coordinated ambush near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: One British soldier, two Filipino contractors wounded in mortar attack near Amarah. Bring ‘em on: US troops attacked at Samarra police station. Bring ‘em on: Two US soldiers wounded in fighting near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqi civilians wounded in roadside bomb ambush near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqi policemen killed by bomb in Nasiriyah. Bring ‘em on: Hungarian soldier killed in ambush near Hillah. Bring ‘em on: Three US soldiers killed, 23 wounded in rocket attack near Balad. Bring ‘em on: Twenty Iraqis killed in US airstrike in Fallujah. RPG Alley. “Scores of U.S. military convoys and Western contractors have been hit in sophisticated guerrilla ambushes that have claimed dozens of lives along the thoroughfare. ‘According to the latest information, there is one successful attack every two days on that road. It is a high risk area,’ said one of the hundreds of Western security consultants hired to protect foreigners in Iraq.” Axis of deceit. “On balance the strong, unambiguous language contained in the case for war seemed more the work of salespeople than professional intelligence officers. The claims that the repeated assertions reflected accurately the views of national intelligence agencies are plainly wrong. They were simply too much at odds with the piles of intelligence material I was privy to. In all the material I saw on Iraq, never did I see such a string of unqualified and strong judgements as was contained in the official case for war presented by Bush, Blair and Howard.” Ingrates. “From Iraq's new president to the men who stand guard at the Martyrs' Monument to the country's war dead -- itself taken over as a US base until last month -- Iraqis are irritated at the prospect of US diplomats occupying their country's equivalent of the White House. The dispute is becoming a test of how strongly the new Iraqi state can assert its will against a country that will retain great power here even after the occupation formally ends, because the 138,000 US troops remaining far outnumber Iraq's military and the United States controls $18 billion in reconstruction aid.” Freedom and liberation. “Iraq's caretaker government weighed imposing emergency powers to conquer a wave of violence and sabotage that has killed more than 180 people this month and halted oil exports for at least five days. Justice minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan said the government may resort to ‘exceptional’ laws imposed by former dictator Saddam Hussein after it takes power on June 30.” Catch of the Day. "Over the course of the occupation, the relationship between the CPA and the military has become increasingly bitter. Soldiers have blamed civilians for not performing enough reconstruction to pacify the country, while civilians have blamed the military for not providing enough security to enable the rebuilding. In the view of several senior officials here, a shortage of U.S. troops allowed the security situation to spiral out of control last year. Attacks on U.S.-led forces and foreign civilians now average more than 40 a day, a threefold increase since January. Assassinations of Iraqi political leaders and debilitating sabotage of the country's oil and electricity infrastructure now occur routinely." If you only read one article today, read this one. It's a comprehensive analysis of the chronic bungling that has distinguished the Bush administration's Iraq policy. "Wartime president," my Polish ass. These people couldn't organize a latrine detail. Commentary Editorial: “Mr. Cheney said he had lots of documents to prove his claims. We have heard that before, but Mr. Cheney always seems too pressed for time or too concerned about secrets to share them. Last September, Mr. Cheney's adviser, Mary Matalin, explained to The Washington Post that Mr. Cheney had access to lots of secret stuff. She said he had to ‘tiptoe through the land mines of what's sayable and not sayable’ to the public, but that ‘his job is to connect the dots.’ The message, if we hear it properly, is that when it comes to this critical issue, the vice president is not prepared to offer any evidence beyond the flimsy-to-nonexistent arguments he has used in the past, but he wants us to trust him when he says there's more behind the screen. So far, when it comes to Iraq, blind faith in this administration has been a losing strategy.” Editorial: “The Bush administration has misled the American people. It has isolated the US, as American diplomats and commanders pointed out this week. And its bungling in Iraq has given new and terrifying life to the cult of death sponsored by Osama bin Laden. Above all, it inspires little confidence it is capable of defeating the spreading al-Qaeda franchise, which always was the clear and present danger.” Casualty Reports Local story: Colorado soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Illinois soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Virginia soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Florida soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Four Pennsylvania Guardsmen wounded in Iraq. Local story: Texas contractor killed in Iraq. Local story: Maine contractor killed in Iraq. Local story: Florida contractor wounded in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 16, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Two oil pilelines sabotaged near Basra. Bring ‘em on: Oil pipeline near Kirkuk sabotaged. Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi killed in car bombing at US base near Hilla. Bring ‘em on: Two contractors killed in ambush near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Oil company security chief assassinated near Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi police official assassinated near Hilla. Bring ‘em on: US patrol ambushed near Kut. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqis killed by Ramadi car bomb targeting Iraqi police. Thailand to withdraw troops from Iraq by September. Poll results. “President Bush is fond of telling Americans they have liberated Iraq and that the country's future generations will be thankful. The current generation, however, overwhelmingly views U.S. forces as occupiers and wishes they would just leave, according to a poll commissioned by the administration.” Finders keepers. “U.S. President George W. Bush, careful to protect his biggest catch in his 15-month war, has made it clear he is in no hurry to hand Saddam Hussein over to the uncertain security overseen by an interim Iraqi government. Bush said yesterday it was in everyone's best interests to ensure the former Iraqi dictator faces justice for atrocities committed against his citizens and doesn't somehow avoid trial as Washington passes sovereignty to Iraqis in two weeks.” I’m sure Lieutenant AWOL has directed his elite legal team to prepare a brief explaining why the Geneva Convention doesn’t apply to his pampered ass. After all, we're a nation of laws. Wolfie’s back in Baghdad for “consultations.” Something you won’t see in the mainstream media. “Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., introduced legislation Monday he said would improve the system that allows worried families to track service members wounded overseas. Pryor said 44 of the 3,000 Arkansans deployed to Iraq in March as part of the 39th Infantry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, have been listed as "seriously injured" or "very seriously injured" and have been evacuated from the combat zone.” Commentary Opinion: “All of this is a ghastly scandal, one of the worst in American history. It is evident cause for impeachment of this president, if Congress has the courage to do it, and for prosecution of cabinet figures and certain commanders. However in view of the partisan alignment in Congress, quite possibly nothing will happen before the November election. What then? It also is quite possible that George W. Bush will be elected to a second term. In that case, the American electorate will have made these practices its own. Now that is something for our children to think about.” Opinion: “The key question is how high up the responsibility goes for these abhorrent acts. The War Crimes Act covers government officials who give the orders for inhuman treatment as well as those who carry them out. Since the War Crimes Act punishes for inhuman treatment alone, prosecutions under that act can by-pass any disagreement over the exact meaning of torture - and whether the Justice Department's absurdly narrow definition is correct. In addition, under international law, officials who know about the inhuman treatment and fail to stop it are also liable.” Opinion: “Bush was elected to lead the American people. With his arrogant conviction in the truth of his personal vision of God's will, he has led us into international and domestic disaster - the daily deaths of Americans in Iraq a year beyond his declaration of victory, revelations that reports of weapons of mass destruction were lies deliberately designed to justify a grab for power, graphic tapes and photos of grotesque American abuse of Iraqi Prisoners of War, the restriction of basic American freedoms at home and soaring oil prices affecting our local gas pumps. Our religious president should not only be asking God for forgiveness, he should also be asking the American people. He should ask us to forgive him for not being a better president.” Casualty Reports Local story: Two New York Guardsmen wounded in Iraq. Off Topic The Anti-Christ. “According to freelance journalist Wayne Madsden, ‘George W Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs and his constant references to 'evil doers,' in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations--the anti-Christ.’” And Lieutenant AWOL recently asked the Pope to help him get re-elected and complained that “not all the bishops are with me.” 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 15, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Five Kurdish Iraqi Army recruits killed near Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Anti-US rioting follows Baghdad car bombing. Bring ‘em on: US troops under mortar fire near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: One civilian contractor killed by roadside bomb in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqis killed, four wounded by roadside bomb near Salman Pak. Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi policeman killed in attack on Mosul police station. Bring ‘em on: Four ICDC members killed by roadside bomb near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: US convoy ambushed by roadside bomb near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Five Iraqis killed in fighting with US troops near Ramadi. Bring ‘em on: Bomb explodes at intersection near Baghdad airport. Bring ‘em on: US troops under mortar fire near Karbala. US forces arrest al-Sadr aide in Karbala. Abu Ghraib. “In the interview with BBC radio on Tuesday, Karpinski said Geoffrey Miller, a two-star general sent to Iraq from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, had ordered new procedures in cell blocs where Iraqis were interrogated. ‘He said, at Guantanamo Bay we've learned that the prisoners have to earn every single thing they have,’ Karpinski said. ‘He said they are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe at any point they are more than a dog then you've lost control of them.’ The United States has charged low-ranking military police officers commanded by Karpinski with abuse after several of them appeared in photographs abusing detainees...‘The intelligence operation was directed. It was under a separate command and there was no reason for me to go out to look at Abu Ghraib at cell bloc 1a or 1b or visit the interrogation facilities.’” Iraqi interim government wants custody of Saddam Hussein and other detainees by June 30th. Congenital liar. “Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that Saddam Hussein had ‘long-established ties’ with al-Qaida, an assertion that has been repeatedly challenged by some policy experts and lawmakers.” PTSD. “The 2nd Infantry Division is experiencing a surge in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among soldiers who rotated here from assignments in Iraq or Afghanistan, says a senior health official…’By June, 50 to 60 percent of NCOs (noncommissioned officers) in the division will have come directly from combat theater. The majority of my caseload is NCOs with PTSD,’ she said.” Bring THIS on: “Private Lynndie England was seen in photographs pointing at naked Iraqi detainees, at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad, and even holding one on a leash. She has insisted that she was acting on orders and her lawyers may call defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and vice-president Dick Cheney to give evidence at her forthcoming court martial. Other possible witnesses are deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz and the commander of US forces in Iraq Lieutenant General Ricardo, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. According to the report, lawyers intend to defend 21-year-old England on the grounds that she was following orders to “soften up” detainees before interrogation. They are expected to argue that top Bush Administration officials are implicated in the affair.” Commentary Editorial: “Confidence is one thing. Competence is another. Before Rumsfeld and President Bush move to change the face of the American military overseas, Congress must ask some hard questions. Shouldn't the failures in Iraq and the antipathy of our allies toward the United States raise serious questions about Rumsfeld's understanding of military and geopolitical strategy?” Editorial: “The actual figures suggest the United States isn't prevailing at all in that fight. Why does it matter? Because for two years, critics of the Bush administration's war in Iraq have argued that it was a serious diversion from the war on terror, an unnecessary war that may benefit the people of Iraq but has made safeguarding the United States more difficult, rather than less. In effect, critics of the administration have argued consistently that President Bush's determination to be hard on Saddam Hussein inevitably meant he would be soft on the global threat from terrorism. The figures for 2003 bear out the criticism.” Opinion: “You know, just because you put some rules to abuse or torture doesn't mean that you're then playing patty-cake. In any case, torture-lite is a lot like being a little pregnant. There may be degrees of torture, but it's still torture even if you're not ripping out fingernails or using hot pokers.” Analysis: “What ultimately matters is whether the resolution gives the interim government the authority it needs to gain Iraqis' approval. The new resolution is vague on the government's powers, portending continued confusion. In the end, how the new Iraqi government, the UN and the US handle issues of security, resources and a governing legal framework will be critical.” Casualty Reports Local story: Oregon Guardsman killed in Iraq. Local story: Oregon Guardsman wounded in Iraq. Local story: Oregon Guardsman wounded in Iraq. Local story: Oregon soldier injured in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for June 14, 2004. Bring ‘em on: Car bomb in Baghdad kills 13, including five contractors. Bring ‘em on: Former Ba’athist assassinated in Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: Civilian convoy ambushed by car bomb near Iskandariyah. Bring ‘em on: Former Ba’athist assassinated near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: Two employees of US-funded al-Iraqiya television killed in western Iraq. Bring ‘em on: New Zealand troops under mortar fire near Basra. Bring ‘em on: Five Iraqis killed in fighting in Sadr City. Failure in Fallujah. “’This was a noble experiment that may not work out,’ Col. Larry Brown, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force's operations officer, said this weekend. ‘The brigade has not performed as well as we had hoped.’ His comments were the strongest indication from the U.S. military that the effort to contain the insurgency by depending on the Fallujah Brigade was failing. It also was a sign that the model — turning to former Iraqi military including those who served Saddam Hussein — would not solve security problems after the U.S.-led coalition hands sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.” License to kill. “In an early test of its imminent sovereignty, Iraq's new government has been resisting a U.S. demand that thousands of foreign contractors here be granted immunity from Iraqi law, in the same way as U.S. military forces are now immune, according to Iraqi sources. The U.S. proposal, although not widely known, has touched a nerve with some nationalist-minded Iraqis already chafing under the 14-month-old U.S.-led occupation. If accepted by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, it would put the highly visible U.S. foreign contractors into a special legal category, not subject to military justice and beyond the reach of Iraq's justice system.” Oregon National Guard infantry battalion suffers 10 casualties in less than two months in Iraq. Army retention problems. “Since Fort Carson units began coming home in April, post recruiters have met only 57 percent of their quota for re-enlisting first-term soldiers for a second hitch, according to an Army report. More disturbing, recruiters say, is they're re-enlisting only 46 percent of the quota for ‘mid-career’ noncommissioned officers. These are the young sergeants with four to 10 years of experience who are the backbone of the Army - its skilled soldiers, mentors and future senior NCOs.” Cheney and Halliburton. “Pentagon officials have acknowledged that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and other Bush administration political appointees were involved in a controversial decision to pay Halliburton Inc. to plan for the postwar recovery of Iraq's oil sector, a Democratic lawmaker said yesterday. The decision, overruling the recommendations of an Army lawyer, eventually resulted in the award of a $7 billion no-bid contract to Halliburton, which Cheney ran for five years before he was nominated for vice president.” Maybe the Bushies have a legal memo prepared to subvert this law, too. “Saddam Hussein must either be released from custody by June 30 or charged if the US and the new Iraqi government are to conform to international law, the International Committee of the Red Cross said last night. Nada Doumani, a spokeswoman for the ICRC, told the Guardian: ‘The United States defines Saddam Hussein as a prisoner of war. At the end of an occupation PoWs have to be released provided they have no penal charges against them.’” Electricity shortages. “The American-led occupation missed its goal by as much as 30 percent, starving air-conditioners, lights, factories and oil pumps. That has damaged the occupation's efforts to foster stability and good will among a populace already traumatized by the failure to guarantee their security. The goal, one of the American-led civilian administration's highest priorities, was set soon after occupation forces overran the country in the spring of 2003. It seemed within reach, but with little progress so far, the occupation is now talking about succeeding well into this summer.” Nice going, Bremer. Is there anything you haven't fucked up yet? DailyKos has an excellent round-up of the latest developments in the Abu Ghraib case. Commentary Editorial: “Washington is hoping to cut its military presence in Germany — a little more than 70,000 soldiers — roughly in half. Two heavy divisions now based there, and the soldiers' families, would return to the United States. They would be replaced by a much smaller light combat brigade, while other units would be rotated in and out, at considerable cost, for short-term exercises. The Air Force is also thinking of moving some of its F-16 fighter jets from Germany to Turkey, where they would be closer to Middle East trouble spots but subject to restrictions by the host government. The large American military presence in Germany has long symbolized the understanding at the heart of NATO — Washington's commitment to remain permanently engaged in Europe's security and to integrate its military operations with those of its major European allies. Recent history has only reinforced how important that relationship is to the United States. NATO is the only alliance capable of sharing some of the global military burdens that have now overstretched America's ground forces. Many Germans, remembering Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's scornful ‘old Europe’ put-downs of their country last year, will see these withdrawals, and the accompanying German job losses, as payback for Berlin's diplomatic opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Washington denies that. But the Pentagon does seem to have a growing preference for stationing troops either at home or on the territories of allies ready to embrace President Bush's notions of unilateral preventive war.” Analysis: However, it seems that the decision in Washington to invade Iraq was made in a vacuum, and in an environment where the neo-cons were scornful and contemptuous of the necessity of acquiring legitimacy for the US actions from the world body. They envisioned America's military power as being able to conquer even the hearts and minds of the global community, as if the latter had no mind or analytical capability of its own to judge between right and wrong. In the strange thinking of the neo-cons, the dilemmas and mental reservations about such blatant US action as the decision to invade Iraq without UN sanction were not even considered worth pondering or second thought. But when the international community showed its contempt for such an action through the strength of its non-involvement, and through stern denunciation of America, that very action - ie, the US invasion of Iraq - became snarled in a quagmire of its own making. Analysis: “Yes, it is conceivable that Bush did not have accurate information about whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. But under the international rules that the US is supposed to follow, wars should not be undertaken based on the judgment of one individual and his cabal. The judgment of the world was that the evidence was not there -- and the world was right. Had Bush only gone along with the democratic processes enshrined in the UN Charter, the trauma of Iraq need not have occurred.” Rant of the Day Larry the Liar, in a letter published in today's New York Times:. “Secretary Rumsfeld has said time and again that the number of troops is based upon the professional military judgment of commanders. Gen. Tommy Franks fashioned brilliant war plans, based upon force levels he determined were needed. The plans were reviewed and supported unanimously by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.” You lie, Larry. Before this war even started, General Shinseki warned that you and your boss had dramatically underestimated the troops required for a successful occupation of Iraq. You chose to ignore and humiliate that officer. General Franks was successful in the initial ground campaign in spite of your meddling, not because of your support. The disorders that followed the collapse of the Ba’athist regime were a direct result of your fiddling with a force structure required by Army doctrine in favor of a force structure dreamed up by your neo-con ideologues and based on fantasy planning. Worse, you refuse to accept responsibility for your miserable failures by hiding behind the uniforms of officers who are forbidden by law to criticize their civilian superiors. Many retired flag officers, no longer bound by that prohibition, have repeatedly criticized your handling of the war in general and your reluctance to adequately resource the occupation forces with appropriate troop levels. Those officers include General Zinni, General McCaffrey, General Hoar and General Clark. In response, you and your minions in the GOP slime machine have attacked the motives, competence and patriotism of those officers. In addition to being a bald-faced liar, you are a cowardly chickenshit, Larry. The Times should be ashamed of itself for printing your mendacious and self-serving drivel. Happy 229th birthday to the United States Army. 86-43-04. Pass it on.