Category: Iraq

This is stark, and it is maddening. This NY Times  article says it succinctly:

The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.

Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.

Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir’s projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year.

President Bush has never given a date for a military withdrawal from Iraq but has repeatedly said that American forces would stand down as Iraqi forces stand up. Given Mr. Qadir’s assessment of Iraq’s military capabilities on Monday, such a withdrawal appeared to be quite distant, and further away than any American officials have previously stated in public.

This means: US troops in Iraq until at least 2018.  That means: ten more years of Iraq occupation and ten more years of US troops in harm’s way and ten more years of death and maiming in Iraq.    

Friday is another Iraq Moratorium Day.  I hope you know what to do.

As if we needed another, here is reason Number 486,948,231 (and counting) to do something to end the war and occupation in Iraq:

A year after he ordered a large increase in American troops in Iraq, President Bush said Saturday that he was prepared to slow or even halt further reductions of forces there, emphasizing that any decision depended on security and the stability of the Iraqi government.

After meeting with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker here at a sprawling desert base in neighboring Kuwait, Mr. Bush noted the sharp reduction in attacks on American troops and Iraqi civilians in recent months, saying the decline in violence was too hard-won to be squandered.

So the surge, intended to buy time to allow for some political progress in Iraq — which has not happened — now must be sustained simply to maintain the status quo, it appears.

Is anyone surprised?  Even the Democrats who keep funding the war without demanding any plans for troop withdrawals?

More, on the anniversary of the “surge,” from the NY Times:

Mr. Bush said that additional withdrawals would depend solely on conditions in Iraq, which General Petraeus was reviewing. During an 80-minute meeting, the president instructed the general, who is due to report in the spring on suggested troop levels, to make no recommendation that would jeopardize improvements in security.

“My attitude is, if he didn’t want to continue the drawdown, that’s fine with me in order to make sure we succeed, see,” Mr. Bush told reporters inside a command center that oversees Army operations in a region stretching from Kenya to Kazakhstan. “I said to the general, ‘If you want to slow her down, fine.’ It’s up to you.”

Friday, January 18, is Iraq Moratorium #5.

If you like the way things are going, and will be content to keep US troops in Iraq as long as we’ve kept them in Korea, don’t do anything.

But if you thing there’s something rotten in Washington, not to mention Baghdad, please do something to turn up the heat on the President — and, more importantly, on the Congress and the presidential wannabes in both parties.

It’s got to stop, and we’ve got to stop it.

The New York Times, Sunday 1-13-08, has an ‘Eye Opening’ Report, Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles with this one only being Part 1 !!

By a Gold Star Mother, who lost a son in Iraq, writing on the Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus blog:

What did you do in 2007 to end the war? Did you act? Did you contact your legislator? Did you write a letter to the editor? Did you pick up the phone? Did you participate in a rally or a protest? Or were your days filled with inaction?

Were you indifferent when you heard of our young men and women’s souls were leaving this earth from the sands of Iraq? Were you affected by the death and displacement of so many Iraqi’s who never asked that this fight be brought to their land? What did you do to stop the war/occupation? Did you think it isn’t your problem? Did you think nothing you did would matter or did you just not care?

Were you silent about the injustice of this pointless and endless war? Were you silent when your voice could have been heard and counted? Were you silent because it was easier that way or did you just not care?

Ready for Iraq Moratorium #5?

The Raging Grannies of Mountain View CA will bring cookies and tea to “welcome” recruiters to a new Armed Forces Career Center to the neighborhood on Friday, January 18 – and to let the recruiters know they are moving into territory occupied by the Grannies, part of a national network of antiwar activists.

A vigil at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Maryland will call for money to be spent helping wounded veterans, not the war.  A march in Brattleboro VT will feature drummers, horns, bagpipes, and dancers.  A public forum in Duluth MN will feature Native American and African American leaders speaking against the war.  

Cross posted from sanchopress.com

Citizens and military combine forces to advocate for better care for troops and vets, for responsive government and for the Constitution

There is a you tube video below the fold of this article I write. It is about OUR troops. It is about our nation supporting them. It is about our obligation to help them with the multitude of problems they face.

Remember them. Remember they are not a number or a statistic. Remember they are not bad people. Remember they are not in Iraq because they support George Bush’s policies. Remember they raised their right hand and swore an oath to God, our nation, to me and to you. Remember that oath was most of all to themselves.

Remember that this oath was to follow any lawful order of those of higher rank. Remember that even when they disagree with what they are told to do or where they are told to go or why they are there, they are soldiers and THEY DO IT, THEY MUST. Remember they are bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Remember they do it because it is their job. Remember they do it because they swore they would. Remember they do it because they are men and women of their word. Remember they are men and women of honor. Remember that when they signed up to serve our nation, you and me, they knew it was possible they would have to do things, go places and fight wars they may not agree with.

Remember many die in the sands of Iraq. Remember many are permanently physically wounded in the sands of Iraq. Remember even many more will be mentally scarred for the remainder of their life with PTSD and TBI and Depression and mental health problems and more. Remember that 20 or 30 and even 40 years from now, many will wake at night from horrendous memories, awful demons and things most of us can not imagine in our worst nightmares.

Remember they swore an oath. Remember they were doing their job. Remember they are soldiers. Remeber THEY MUST DO WHAT THEY DO. Remember they don’t deserve the things described above.    

MOST OF ALL; Remember they are husbands, fathers, sons and brothers. Remember they are wives, mothers, daughters and sisters. Remember they are away from those they love and those that love them.

THAT IS WHAT THE VIDEO BELOW IS ABOUT. I LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG BUT YOU WILL STILL WATCH IT.

Aside from Iraq and our troops and our veterans, I NEED to express my feelings about the paragraph you will read just below the fold.

This paragraph below the fold was written by the author of the video. It is just above the video you will watch.

Regarding what the author had to write, I am outraged, disgusted, amazed and astounded. I am God damn pissed off and outright fucking angry. I can not believe she had to do what she had to do and write this to her audience. Please read what she had to write and watch the video below the fold and then please read my closing comments.

Aside from Iraq and our troops and our veterans, I NEED to express my feelings about the paragraph you will read just below the fold.

This paragraph below the fold was written by the author of the video. It is just above the video you will watch.

Regarding what the author had to write, I am outraged, disgusted, amazed and astounded. I am God damn pissed off and outright fucking angry. I can not believe she had to do what she had to do and write this to her audience. Please read what she had to write and watch the video below the fold and then please read my closing comments.        

On January 2nd, it was revealed that the Iraqi Government is considering releasing 5000 prisoners from its jails in a move toward amnesty but has explicitly excluded homosexuals from any possibility of such release.

Earlier in 2007, it was revealed that death squads, possibly with the sanctioning of elements of the government of Iraq, were targeting gay men and women and believed to be killing them.

In June of 2007, the United States military acknowledged that it was aware of the actions being taken against gay Iraqi people by other Iraqis.

I would like to highlight the following paragraph in the last mentioned article:

“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, when we’re in a fledgling time like this, to go in and say, ‘Here’s these issues that are going to repel 80 percent of the population and this is what we want to inflict on you,'” he said. “We’re trying not to get into too many values judgment type issues and just do the right thing.”

–Army Maj. Joseph Todd Breasseale, chief of the Media Relations Division of the Multinational Corps in Iraq

Just discovered that Major Andy Olmstead has been killed in Iraq and wanted to put this up here.

He was the first casualty for 2008 in Iraq. And a small part of Maj. Andrew Olmsted likely would’ve chuckled at that fact. It would be droll and play into his sense of self-deprecation.

But for everyone else, the news would be devastating.

Amanda Wilson, his wife of 10 years, could barely talk Friday. The notifying officers came to her door in Colorado Springs on Thursday to tell her that Olmsted’s unit had been ambushed and that he was dead. Also killed was Cpt. Thomas J. Casey, 32, of Albuquerque.

It was small arms fire, they said. The gaping blackness after that moment seemed to suck away all the words, leaving only soft sobs in their wake.

“I know,” she said quietly when condolences were passed on to her. Her mother, who was flown in Friday to help, was also having trouble with the news. “She’s trying to be brave,” Wilson’s soft voice said.

Olmsted, however, asked everyone to avoid being maudlin. And he asked everyone via a blog, of course. The 38-year-old soldier based out of Fort Carson was a prolific blogger – including one he did steadily for the Rocky Mountain News dating back to his deployment in July.

His final posting where he speaks to us from beyond the grave is at Obsidian Wings.

It’s hard for me NOT to make something of this nature political because I see everything concerning Iraq as political.  Andy Olmstead though has asked us all not to do this while observing his death.  He is asking us to participate in observing a tradition of excellence that has been lately ignored in the military of this democracy and that is THE ALWAYS APOLITICAL MILITARY OFFICER IN SERVICE TO THIS NATION!

That image, courtesy of the Defense Department, is just a reminder of what’s happening on the other side of the world as we count the caucus votes in Iowa.