Category: Iraq

I went over to ABC News to see if they had posted a video report that I caught last night, never got to that as this is what I found, and will be airing this morning on GMA.

Exclusive: ‘It Hurts,’ Says First Lady of Military Families on Food Stamps

First lady Michelle Obama wants military families to know they have a friend in the White House, she told “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview today at Fort Bragg, N.C. — her first network television interview since her husband took office.

“It hurts. It hurts,” the first lady said of hearing about military families on food stamps. “These are people who are willing to send their loved ones off to, perhaps, give their lives — the ultimate sacrifice. But yet, they’re living back at home on food stamps. It’s not right, and it’s not where we should be as a nation.”

 

“It’s such a disservice to everyone else, that a few bad apples can create some large problems for everybody.” – Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, May 4, 2004.

The war in Iraq has brought much shame and dishonor to the United States. The Bush administration, for example, blamed the prisoner abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib on a “few bad apples”. While the evidence shows that senior officials in the Bush White House planned and authorized the use of torture, only those “few bad apples” have been held accountable.

Another such alleged “bad apple” is now on trial in Portland, Oregon. This time the trial is for theft.

The Oregonian reports U.S. Army Capt. Michael Dung Nguyen is accused of stealing more than $690,000 in cash from the Commander’s Emergency Response Program while stationed in Iraq between April 2007 and June 2008. Nguyen is 28 years old and a 2004 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

How is it that our government is able to hold men and women lower down on the chain of command responsible for their actions, but not hold accountable the men and women who are responsible for sending more than $690,000 in cash to Iraq in the first place?

AP

FILE: U.N. General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto

Brockmann accused the U.S. of committing inhuman

“atrocities” in a fiery speech before the U.N. Human

Rights Council

The Obama Administration joined the Human Rights Council to take up observer status on March 4, 2009, “which the Bush administration had boycotted because it was unable to crack down on despots and human rights abuses.”  

That very day, H.E. Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, President of the United Nations General Assembly gave an impassioned speech before the Human Rights Council, in Geneva, wherein he “accused the United States of committing inhuman ‘atrocities’ in Iraq and Afghanistan.”  

(quotes  posted here

From the Speech (PDF)

Mr. President, Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi,

Excellencies,

Dear Friends,

Sisters and Brothers All,

1. I am very pleased to be able to join you here today as the first General Assembly President to formally address the Human Rights Council since its inception three years ago. This is especially appropriate because the Council, as you all know, was established by the General Assembly following the World Summit of 2005 to give higher visibility and importance to human rights alongside with peace, security and development.

2. At that Summit, world leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to the principles of universal human rights that the United Nations has painstakingly created over the past 60 years. These are commitments that we all must monitor closely. For, as we know, most gross violations of human rights are committed by our very own Member States. This vigilance must be particularly strong within the Human Rights Council itself if we are to maintain its current, reinvigorated momentum and strengthen the protection of our most vulnerable citizens.

3. As a new body, the world is watching the Council as it undergoes a paradigm shift from the culture of confrontation and mistrust that pervaded the Commission in its final years.  We are confident that the Council is now achieving a new culture inspired by strong leadership and guided by principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, constructive international dialogue and cooperation. These principles will enhance the promotion and protection of all human rights.

. . . . .  

Iraq, Rapidly becoming the Forgotten War!!

There have been 4,572 coalition deaths — 4,255 Americans, 2 Australians, 1 Azerbaijani, 179 Britons, 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 and 18 Ukrainians — in the war in Iraq as of January 6, 2008, according to a CNN count. { Graphical breakdown of casualties }. The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose deaths have been reported by their country’s governments. The list also includes seven employees of the U.S. Defense Department. At least 31,089 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. View casualties in the war in Afghanistan.

Crossposted from Antemedius

Yesterday we saw historian and US foreign and military policy analyst Gareth Porter talking with The Real News about Obama’s Plan For Not Leaving Iraq and the President’s announced intentions of leaving 50,000 troops in Iraq while trying to sell it as a withdrawal.

Today Porter, again talking with Paul Jay, talks about the geopolitical realities of the situation viv a vis Iraq, the entrenched vested interests of Petraeus and Odierno who both seem more interested in their own egos and legacies than anything resembling reality, and says that in spite of the U.S. efforts to create a U.S. – friendly regime, he concludes that history has already bypassed Obama’s plans for Iraq as much as five or six years ago and the undeniable geopolitical fact of Iraq is that the US will have to leave Iraq to a government that tilts more to Iran than to the US.

Real News – March 5, 2009 – 12 min 38 sec

The Geopolitical Fact Of Iraq

Porter: The US will have to leave Iraq to a government that tilts more to Iran than to the US

War, And Results Of, Fast Becoming A Non-Issue!!

US Withdrawing as Media Retreat from Iraq – 03.03.2009

 

As one of MoveOn’s 3.2 million members and a participant of some years’ standing in MoveOn vigils, living room events, online activities, etc., I opened yesterday’s MoveOn email from Nita Chaudhary with considerable interest. It was entitled, simply, “Iraq.”

My interest quickly turned to shock and then anger.

Your letter does a grave, grave disservice to the anti-war movement in this country. And it does so just when the movement, already fatigued after six years of protest, is facing a whole new set of challenges and not having an easy time adjusting.

One big problem with your letter is that it treats a Presidential promise to have all troops out of Iraq by the beginning of 2012 (almost three years from now) as a clear sign that the war is all but over, even though not a single soldier has been withdrawn yet and the killing and dying continue apace. Accompanied by a slide show of images of anti-war protest, it is valedictory in tone:

We wanted to take a moment to reflect on the work that you’ve done over the last six, dark years–trying first to prevent the war before it happened and then working tirelessly to end it–to thank you, sincerely, for all you have done.

This moment is possible because of you, and millions of people like you across our movement.

The email immediately goes on to urge us to contribute to a fund to help injured veterans, as if that was the main thing left to worry about. Yes, there’s a vague cautionary note further in: “Of course our troops aren’t home yet” and a grudging recognition that Congress is right to “raise questions” about the pace of withdrawal.

It’s so good to finally be able to listen to policy being discussed that can be understood, put to words and thoughts that don’t make a mockery of the Presidential Office and Country!

Obama Assesses Iraq Strategy, Challenges of New Presidency, this brings up the video’s.

After a major policy announcement that the U.S. combat mission in Iraq will end next year, President Obama spoke with Jim Lehrer about Iraq, Afghanistan and the challenges of his new presidency. Watch the full interview on Friday’s NewsHour.

Newsmaker: Obama Outlines Goals for Afghanistan, Iraq

In a speech Friday at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, President Barack Obama set a timetable for U.S. combat troop withdrawal in Iraq by 2010. The president discusses his military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan with Jim Lehrer.

Full Transcript

Almost completely forgot about this, they’re airing some of it now!

This is worth reading and thinking about.  It’s good were going, but three years is a long time to stay.  I see Senators willing to speak up, where so many who claim to be gate crashers are silent.

MERKLEY STATEMENT ON OBAMA PLAN TO

WITHDRAW TROOPS FROM IRAQ

Washington, DC – Today, President Barack Obama outlined a plan to begin a phased withdraw of troops from Iraq, winding down active military engagement in that nation.  Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley issued the following statement:

“Our national interests are not served by the war in Iraq.  I applaud President Obama’s commitment to a solid plan for withdrawing our troops and ending the war.

“However, I have reservations about the extended 19 month schedule for the draw down and I am very concerned that the size of the remaining force would still be too great.  It will be hard to argue that our military presence is ‘residual’ when it is comprised of as many as 50,000 Americans.  

“I hope to work with the Obama Administration to truly end this war and bring our sons and daughters home safely.”

Thank you, Senator Merkely.  Someday this man may lead a real movement for progressive change in America.      

Not even waiting for the debacles to end and all the soldiers to come home, where have I seen this All before!

I get a newsletter, many ‘Nam Vets and now OIF and OEF Active and Vets are on his list, from a brother ‘Nam Vet that started in the drum roll of War and has continued these last 7plus years. It’s called the “Military Project” and is based on the Underground GI Newspapers during the Vietnam War, sans online technology, that were started on Military Bases around the World and In-Country Vietnam as the Military troops started organizing against our countries failed policies and devastating Conflict and Occupation.

This was in the recent news letter: Veterans groups want cap on tuition aid under new G.I. bill