Category: Iraq

Hi Folks.

Thought you should see this.

http://www.responsibleplan.com/

It seems that the democrats attempting to win seats have different priorities that those who already have them, and so are more likely to say the right things. Now, whether they mean it is a wide open question, but, when you hear what you want, you should say, “That’s what I want to hear!”…So perhaps you should do that.

I did.

Frosted Flake

PS : Thanks.

A story in today’s Los Angeles Times quotes U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocking Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. In Rice, in Iraq, lashes out at Muqtada al-Sadr, she said of al-Sadr:

“He is still living in Iran,” she said. “I guess it’s all-out war for anybody but him.

“His followers can go to their death and he will still be in Iran.”

Has George W. Bush served alongside American troops in Iraq, or can they go to their death while he is safe in the United States? Is Dick Cheney part of the “surge” in Iraq, or does he have other priorities? Is Rice going to be leading troops on the ground now in Iraq?

Of all the hypocritical things to have ever come out of Rice’s mouth, this is Hall of Shame worthy.  

A few weeks ago Sadr called on his followers to lay down their weapons in an effort to negotiate with the Iraqi Government and U.S. Coalition. Here’s a snippet from Reuters:

In his statement, Sadr called for an end to “random arrests” of his followers and for them to benefit from an amnesty law passed by parliament in February aimed at freeing thousands of prisoners from Iraqi jails.

The government welcomed Sadr’s statement but said it would press on with its campaign for control over Basra, which is divided up among various militias and criminal gangs.

The U.S Government has pressed on with their incarceration campaign and it has led Sadr to threaten another uprising.

From Raw Story:

“I am giving my last warning and my word to the Iraqi government to take the path of peace and stop violence against its own people, otherwise it will be a government of destruction,” he said in a statement issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf.

What does the U.S have to say about Sadr’s demands for peace and an end to incarcerating his followers? Time to get nervous:

A top US general on Sunday warned that the military would strike back after hardline Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr threatened to launch a new uprising by his militia.

“I hope Moqtada al-Sadr continues to depress violence and not encourage it,” said Major General Rick Lynch, commander of US forces in central Iraq.

The first part of this post is especially directed towards those, the greater majority of this country, who do not have any Direct Connection to the Ongoing Occupation Theaters of Iraq and Afganistan, certainly not the Connection of those Serving, Mutiple Tours, and their Families and Close Friends !

The second part will be a Shoutout, and partial repost, with updated information, to All !

Earlier this year I decided to take a break from the bullshit. This site and and a few others have been outposts of sanity in a medium literally choking in crap. Is it just me or has the level of all round mendacity reached the point where it all blurs into a numbing howl of white noise?

Anyway, as I understand it all opinions are welcome as long as nobody is intentionally trying to piss anyone off. If you’re looking for the same old screams about evil Republicans you won’t like this piece.

The candy and flowers that you envisioned, thrown at your feet as you walked through the streets of Baghdad as the Savior of the Middle East and the Man your Daddy never thought would amount to anything has turned to shit and dead bodies thrown at your feet, you incompetent dolt.  

Not only did you turn the tide from fighting the REAL terrorists in the War against Terror, you decided you were such a damned fine cowboy that you could pull our troops and fight the War for Oil instead.  

Incompetence be thy name.

Not only did you screw the pooch by your warmongering, balls to the wall (not your balls, of course) ridiculous attempt to make YOURSELF look like the bestest President since Abraham Lincoln, you bought into the lies and spin that was placed in front of you on a Silver Platter by the boot-licking-psychotic-thinking cronies that had your ear.  

Arrogance be thy name.

Just so you know it doesn’t snow year-round in Milwaukee, Friday’s Iraq Moratorium vigil was our largest rally since the first one in September, with 80 people of all ages on the four corners of downtown’s main intersection at rush hour.

It was very spirited, with large student contingents from Fratney Street Elementary School and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Progressive Students organization, and a few high schoolers, too.  Iraq Veterans Against the War, Peace Action Wisconsin, Veterans for Peace and Kids for Peace were all represented, with lots of creative signs.  A dog urging “Bones, not bombs” also joined us.

Flags, signs, banners, music from a boom box and a return of the chaing gang — Bush, Cheney and Rice in their prison suits — all added to the upbeat atmosphere.  Fifty degree weather, the warmest in months, didn’t hurt either. Huge positive responses from passers-by who honked their horns, waves and yelled encouragement, with rarely a discouraging word.  After a long, cold, dark winter of monthly vigils, this was rejuvenating.

The UW-Milwaukee contingent.

More reports about other actions are beginning to trickle in to the Iraq Moratorium website

The Big Lie is a propaganda technique that comes in different sizes. This essay is about the Bush size Big Lie. I’ll get around to The Really Big Lie another time. The Bush Big Lie is just a distraction to keep people’s attention away from The Really Big Lie. But it’s big enough in its own right.

The Bush Big Lie is everything he’s done and said for the last seven plus years. The biggest part of his lie is the war in Iraq. It’s so obvious on the face of it that he lied us into the war, he lied us into escalating it and he’s lying us into staying there forever while he lies about the great progress we’re always making. The amazing thing about this is that over half of the American people actually know he’s been lying. But hey, what can one person do about it? A significant percentage of Uhmericans still believe that Saddam had WMDs; that he was complicit in 9/11; and that he gave shelter to al-Qaeda. We have some of the most unquestioning, incurious, gullible people on the planet. These Uhmericans think we’re doing the right thing and stopping the terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them here.

Bush is too dumb to have invented the Big Lie. A European guy came up with that concept in 1925:

The Big Lie is a propaganda technique. It was defined by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf as a lie so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously”.

Hitler blamed the Jews for being the Big Liars which was a bit of evil genius. He accused his victims of being the crime. Hitler’s propagandist, Joseph Goebbels attributed the Big Lie to Churchill and the English leadership in 1941:

That is of course rather painful for those involved. One should not as a rule reveal one’s secrets, since one does not know if and when one may need them again. The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.

Hmmm. During the war – the Big One – our OSS, precursor to the CIA, came up with a psychological profile of Hitler. They derived yet another example of the Big Lie:

His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

I don’t know about the rest of the country but if someone handed me a sheet of paper that had the last blockquote written on it and asked me who I thought might have these qualities I’d have a ready answer. Actually, it would be three people: Cheney, Bush and Rove – the father, the son and the evil spirit of the Big Lie, Bush-sized.

And almost all of America is focussed on the Bush Big Lie while the pickpockets work the crowd. More later.

(All quotes from Wiki – Big Lie)

Shanti.

He says we need to be told by the Pope that people are precious, that right and wrong matter!

And, it’s just a “tough” patch we’re going through. Bush just said so. here. But worse:

Listen up, you utterly deprived (not-fit-to-be) lying president, because you caused a great deal of the pain and suffering Americans are right now encountering. You have caused a war that was unnecessary that killed hundreds of thousands of people and wounded many more. Millions are refugees because of your war. Talk about precious life? “Sacred” life? You don’t know the meaning of the word.

Famines may occur because you were unwilling to act on climate change because you wanted to help the rich get richer. Don’t tell me the Pope needs to talk to me about right and wrong!!!!!

Don’t you hate being lectured by an idiot?

~~cross-posted at orange~~

Not even General Petraeus can see any light at the end of the tunnel.

There’s no exit plan, no timetable, not even any criteria to know when we’ve achieved the “victory” that George Bush keeps promising.

The Pentagon keeps sending the same troops into the combat zone, over and over and over.

And as long as that continues, the antiwar effort must continue just as doggedly, month in and month out, over and over and over.  There is no other choice except to surrender to the warmongers.

Friday is Iraq Moratorium #8, a day to do something to show that you want the war and the occupation to end.  Please do something.  

Posted, with sadness, anger and frustration:  A just released study from RAND reports more about the costs of our continuing wars.  The mounting cost of war include this:   Study: 300,000 US troops from Iraq, Afghanistan have mental problems, 320,000 brain injuries:

“…Some 300,000 U.S. troops are suffering from major depression or post traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 320,000 received brain injuries, a new study estimates….Only about half have sought treatment, said the study released Thursday by the RAND Corporation.”

There’s more….

Let me get this straight, we invaded a Country for No Reason At All, or if you are to believe the civilian and some military leadership a Number of Reasons that Kept Changing!

We’re now into the Sixth Year and We’re Training{?} a new Iraq Military Force as well as a Police Force!