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Showing posts with label Iraq Occupation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq Occupation. Show all posts
60 Minutes did a segment last year, A Fighting Chance, on the field medical hospital at Balad AB, Iraq, its personnel, and the CCATT missions to Landstuhl, Germany. I know some of the people in the segment and as a result of being married to a CCATT doctor for the last several years, I understand the anguish. A fact to keep in mind:
"Many hospitals in the United States treat perhaps three or four trauma patients a month. Balad handles 246 monthly, with 150 evaluated for traumatic brain injuries, from admissions totaling 500."
Please watch it and let yourself feel about the people who show up everyday to save lives and those they care for. These medical personnel make the horror of this misbegotten war/occupation a tiny bit easier to bear because of the care these brave people provide. Watch it here.
A little interruption in what was a perfectly nice day. From VetVoice:
When two deaths in Iraq were announced late Sunday, something didn't sound right. It wasn't combat, there was no mention of a vehicle accident, and with two dead, it clearly wasn't a suicide...
It seems as if yet another neocon-bush-flunky has had a visit from his conscience or at least a lawyer. In an effort to either extricate himself from the bush-designed web of deception that leads to a war crimes tribunal, or at least repentant enough in an effort to attain his golden ticket to heaven, Joseph Collins, former Rummy aide, Pentagon official and DoD kiss-ass, decries the "we are winning" strat-er-gee in Iraq.
McClatchy News reports:
The war in Iraq has become "a major debacle" and the outcome "is in doubt" despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon's premier military educational institute.
An interesting tidbit about the American perspective in Iraq, Life During Wartime, from someone I never quote from, The Cunning Realist
Pollution index: Horrible dust year-round plus additional junk in the air in the winter when everything that can be burned for fuel is. During my winter there, a visitor asked, “What's that smell like sh** burning?” The answer was, “Sh** burning.” If you exercise outdoors, you're likely to cough up black gunk afterwards.
Security concerns: Rocket attacks, IEDs, suicide bombers—your basic war zone.
Housing: Huge inequites. Either you will live in a large one-bedroom apartment in a reinforced building or you will live in a 10-by-15-foot non-reinforced hooch (trailer) and listen to your colleagues complain about everything they think is wrong with their apartments.
Is this a good city for families/singles/couples? It's currently an unaccompanied post. Spouses are allowed only if they're employed at the embassy. It's a good post for anyone who doesn't mind spending a year in a minimum security prison.
Interesting/fun things to do in the area: Check how many days are left on your tour tracker.
Items you would ship if you could do it again: As many dirt-colored clothes as I could find. The dust and dirt are unrelenting. It's impossible to keep anything clean. I threw away lots of clothes and shoes at the end of my tour.
English-language newspapers and TV available? Cost? Does Stars & Stripes count as a newspaper?
Is high speed internet access available? Cost? Internet service is provided free in all apartments and hooches, though the system is frequently overloaded and slow. Sometimes it goes down completely when it rains or snows…or when someone in Poland sneezes in the wrong direction.
Entertaining/social life: The “drink a lot/sleep around” contingent (made up of singles and marrieds alike) appeared to be quite active.
Clearly, Iraq under occupation is a terrible place to be. I wish the American public would care enough to actively pursue the end of this debacle.
AND THE 4000 DEAD SOLDIERS...not quite a fairytale
Darth Cheney is the real bionic man with his implanted electronic pacemaker and all the human warmth of an oil derrick, but between him and Chimpy, the true estimated cost of the war/occupation will be six trillion dollars. And how many more dead soldiers?
Economist Joseph Sitglitz latest book gives details, conservative estimates on,
"...the economic cost of the war to the U.S. to be $3 trillion, and the costs to the rest of the world to be another $3 trillion – far higher than the Bush administration's estimates before the war.
The Bush team not only misled the world about the war's possible costs, but has also sought to obscure the costs as the war has gone on."
The Toronto Star has an article by Dr. Stiglitz detailing some of those costs.
To make matters worse, Iraq and its human costs have fallen off the radar for the majority of Americans. The Pew Research Center's latest survey finds that only 28% of Americans know the American military death toll which today stands at 3993 according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.
Ranger Against War has posted on this as well, and it's worth a read.
Lifted from Think Progress:Three-Tour Iraq Vet: ‘Our Troops Need To Come Home Now’
At tonight’s CNN Democratic debate, the candidates heard a strong warning against U.S. military action against Iran from Christopher Jackson, a Marine who served three tours of duty in Iraq:
I feel that if we continue on the path we’re at, that’s where we’re going to end up — in Iran. And that’s not what our troops need. Our troops need to come home now.
The entire audience, including the candidates, stood and gave Jackson a rousing ovation. Watch it:
Jackson’s mother, who was standing next to her son at the event, went on to say that after she “finally got her son home” from Iraq, “members of the Bush administration and neoconservative members of Congress are beating the drums of war again.”
She said her son is still a member of the Marines Individual Ready Reserve and could be called up again. She concluded by asking the candidates, “How are you going to show us your leadership on this issue now?”
As seen through the eyes and experiences of 12 Army Captains who served in Iraq. WaPo posts an OpEd in the vein of the seven enlisted members of the 82nd Airborne's, The War As We Saw It.
As Army captains who served in Baghdad and beyond, we've seen the corruption and the sectarian division. We understand what it's like to be stretched too thin. And we know when it's time to get out.
America, it has been five years. It's time to make a choice.
UPDATE: The Patriots over at Comments From Left Field have added Roselle to their tribute for Fisher House. I posted on this here. If you want to really support the troops, real people not just faceless numbers, give what you can to support Fisher House, the organization that houses military family members while their loved one is treated in a military hospital. It's gotten a bit viral and they have raised over $5,000 and are trying to raise five more over the next 5 days. Read all about it and give what you can, it may make the difference between someone making it to recovery or someone dying alone. I guarantee it will do more than that ribbon magnet made in China.
The Blackwater/private contractor fiasco is a story that has barely cracked the headlines in the MSM, but is arguably one of the most important features of BushCo's strategy to undermine our democracy. The possibility exists that Blackwateris the private BushCo army created to keep us peaceniks in line. This is a chapter of American history I wish to soon be over.
Scott Ritter's essay on the nail-bitingly slow lack of action by congress on the Iraq occupation:
The ongoing hand-wringing in Congress by the newly empowered Democrats over what to do about the war in Iraq speaks volumes about the level of concern (or lack thereof) these “representatives of the people” have toward the men and women who honor us all by serving in the armed forces of the United States of America. The inability to reach consensus concerning the level of funding required or how to exercise effective oversight of the war, both constitutionally mandated responsibilities, is more a reflection of congressional cowardice and impotence than a byproduct of any heartfelt introspection over troop welfare and national security.
Nominating myself for 'understatement of the year' with that one...Patrick Colburn of The Independent gives us a special report on the "results" after six months of surging.
The war in Iraq passed a significant but little remarked anniversary this summer. The conflict that President George Bush announced was in effect over on 1 May 2003 has now gone on longer than the First World War. [ ] Like that great conflict almost a century ago, the Iraqi war has been marked by repeated claims that progress is being made and that a final breakthrough is in the offing.The surge is now joining a host of discredited formulae for success and fake turning-points that the US (with the UK tripping along behind) has promoted in Iraq over the past 52 months. [ ] Six months after the surge was actually launched, in mid- February, it has failed as dismally as so many First World War offensives. The US Defense Department says that, this June, the average number of attacks on US and Iraqi forces, civilian forces and infrastructure peaked at 177.8 per day, higher than in any month since the end of May 2003.
, Iraq — The sign taped to the men's latrine is just five lines:"US MILITARY CONTRACTORS CIVILIANS ONLY!!!!!"It needed only one: "NO IRAQIS." Remind you of anything?
The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, report shows. The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, the GAO said, including at least $2.8 billion to buy and deliver equipment. But the GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when security training was led byGen. David H. Petraeus, who now commands all U.S. forces in Iraq.
Of course we know Betray-us is now LEADING the US troops as CenCom commander. Petraeus wrote the book , literally, on how to defend against an insurgency and has thrown out that manual in favor of whatever little Georgie says.
This comes on the heels of the 13 billion dollar Saudi Arabian weapons deal and the folding of the chickenshit congress giving the president broader powers to wiretap the American public without a warrant. Did I mention Gonzo has the last word about whether the tap is legal or not? The hits just keep on coming.
Listen to the interview Thom Hartman does with Congressman Jim McDermott of Washington state. Rep. McDermott has many insights into the situation in Iraq and how our continued occupation only exacerbates the the danger to Iraqis and American soldiers.
I have been busier than I ever wanted to be. I'm anxious to return to a normal schedule rather than this 'Farmer John' dawn-to-dusk thing.
Meanwhile, back at the illegal occupation of Iraq, Dr. Dahlia Wasfi joins Robert Scheer and James Harris of Truthdig to discuss the past, present and future of the Iraq war. This piece is interesting and thought-provoking. Give this 30 minute interview a read or a listen.
With all the supplemental bills and Pentagon’s baseline budget of $500 billion and everything that’s been appropriated for continuing our occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite all that money floating out there, in 2005 the Veterans Administration healthcare budget came up $1 billion short. The only people who are not supporting the troops are the ones who’ve been delegated the responsibility to do so, and that’s our government. That is unacceptable that the troops who come home can’t get access to healthcare for six months. It is unacceptable that one-third of the homeless on the streets today are veterans. And there’re already Iraq war veterans showing up homeless on the street. It is unacceptable that after we put them in a war zone, when they come home we don’t take care of their psychological trauma.
Getting a jump on the day...finally. Today I start blogging again.
I present here a video by Chalmers Johnson, the foremost expert on American hegemony and the dangers of "blowback". He presents a stunning report on the status of the permanent military bases being constructed in Iraq. Six different mini-cities, American style. From the documentary, The Bases Are Loaded:
"...Clearly, what went into the thinking of the war against Iraq was to conquer it..." "Whoever controls Iraq, controls the world. Iraq sits n the largest world reserves of oil. When Saudi oil has long run out, when all nations are without petroleum resources, Iraq would still sit on a sea of oil. The country that controls Iraq is the country that will essentially dictate the world economy for the next generation and possibly longer"
The lies that brought us into this conquering of Iraq and subsequent occupation have continued unabated. These bases are being constructed with American tax dollars; no-bid, cost-plus contracts that DIRECTLY benefit members of the Bush crime family. These are the facts. There is no dispute about them. The Dems in congress do nothing but make empty threats to an out-of-control regime bent on the destruction of America as we know it. Do your homework, find out for yourself. This is the beginning of the end and still impeachment is "off the table." Watch this 30 minute video and make your own decision.
Former DJ, contractor, and USAF officer who grew up in a San Francisco bar, loves music, girls and beer (not necessarily in that order) and looks forward to all that life has to offer.
60 Minutes did a segment last year, A Fighting Chance, on the field medical hospital at Balad AB, Iraq, its personnel, and the CCATT missions to Landstuhl, Germany. I know some of the people in the segment and as a result of being married to a CCATT doctor for the last several years, I understand the anguish. A fact to keep in mind:
