it's one thing for you and i to read and understand

this. it's a totally different thing for king george and his court to read AND UNDERSTAND THIS. our congress and our senate have been sitting on their effing fat asses for more than five years. this war is wrong and it has been from day one. yet the shite keeps going on and on and on. more reports, more testimony more of this and that. while the people of iraq are killing themselves (and us). they don't have water and electricity and education. their country is in ruins and our troops are in ruins (as well as their families). when is someone going to say ENOUGH?
Exhausted, Overextended Troops Ready to 'Unravel'
By Bobby Muller, AlterNet.
A central theme of General David Petraeus' tour of Capitol Hill are his pleas for patience with the U.S. war in Iraq. He called for a "pause" against the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, citing the need to consolidate the gains that have been achieved over the past few months.
The crushing burden our military already endures ought to give serious pause to Members of Congress. The health of our military must be a top priority because current deployment rates are grinding up our military men and women, tearing at the bonds of families, eroding military readiness -- and leaving us less secure at home.
It is commonly known that a very small percentage of the American population has borne a disproportionate burden of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What is less commonly understood is that our Army's Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) -- a subset of this already small population -- have been repeatedly sent to the frontlines, enduring high-intensity combat for extended periods with inadequate time at home between tours. This has always been a problem during America's wars, but at least in previous conflicts the draft provided a pool of manpower resources that could be dipped into to provide rest for those who bore the greatest burden. That is no longer true.
Some Army BCTs have deployed four times since Sept. 11, 2001. Members of the 10th Mountain Division, one of the most heavily used in Iraq and Afghanistan, had a mere six months of dwell time between their second and third deployments since Sept. 11. Dozens of soldiers based at Fort Carson, Colorado, were recently sent back to Iraq despite having medical conditions that should have made them ineligible for continued deployments.........

whew!

we can ALL sleep soundly tonight! just in case...in CASE, mind you, YOUR king, king george, declares MARTIAL LAW, his friend lil' jesus will be there to console us

as i said, WHEW

Homeland Security Enlists Clergy to Quell Public Unrest if Martial Law Ever Declared

Could martial law ever become a reality in America? Some fear any nuclear, biological or chemical attack on U.S. soil might trigger just that. KSLA News 12 has discovered that the clergy would help the government with potentially their biggest problem: Us. Charleton Heston's now-famous speech before the National Rifle Association at a convention back in 2000 will forever be remembered as a stirring moment for all 2nd Amendment advocates. At the end of his remarks, Heston held up his antique rifle and told the crowd in his Moses-like voice, "over my cold, dead hands." While Heston, then serving as the NRA President, made those remarks in response to calls for more gun control laws at the time, those words live on. Heston's declaration captured a truly American value: An over-arching desire to protect our freedoms. But gun confiscation is exactly what happened during the state of emergency following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, along with forced relocation. U.S. Troops also arrived, something far easier to do now, thanks to last year's elimination of the 1878 Posse Comitatus act, which had forbid regular U.S. Army troops from policing on American soil............

one of the problems all along

has been we do NOT know who 'our enemies' are in iraq. we never will. MOST of whom WE created ourselves i might add. they didn't give a hoot about us (they were NOT going to attack us, they didn't attack us on 9/11, they were incapable of attacking us. terrorists were NOT training in iraq, etc). they didn't until we invaded their country. killed many, displaced many, maimed many. caused them to be without the basics of food, water, housing, electricty.

we don't belong there. we must bring our men and women home

'In the Land of the Blood Feuds'
South of Baghdad, U.S. Troops Navigate Fault Lines of Sect and Tribe


By Sudarsan Raghavan Washington Post Foreign Service

KHIDR, Iraq -- In the pre-dawn gloom, through weary villages shaded in gray, the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, searched for the enemy. An aerial drone had spotted men burying weapons in a nearby Sunni cemetery.
The soldiers walked along a thin ribbon of sandy road, flanked by tall reeds and palm trees, until they reached this forlorn place covered with crumbling gravestones. Silence mocked the unit, for the men had vanished. Soldiers pried open graves searching for the cache and 15 minutes later found four guns and some ammunition. Lt. Thomas Murphy, 32, wondered who the men had been. Members of al-Qaeda in Iraq? Loyalists of the former government? Tribesmen? "Here we have so many different enemies," he said.
On the unruly outer fringes of the Sunni area south of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death, American soldiers navigate more than a dozen battle zones straddling the fault lines of sect and tribe. Al-Qaeda in Iraq -- identified by President Bush and his generals as the main U.S. enemy -- is just one of myriad armed groups competing here for influence and authority. ........

i agree with the author (Shaun McCanna) of this article

it will be YEARS before this problem (and do NOT be fooled it IS going to be a MAJOR problem - and just the tip of the iceburg too) comes to the surface.
are we prepared to treat our veterans? are we prepared to treat everyone who has ptsd or will have it in the future? are we prepared to take care of them for years?

are we prepared to rehabilitate our veterans who have been wounded? are we prepared to give them therapy and to construct limbs for them?

are we prepared to take care of those who come back with ADDICTIONS?



It's easy for soldiers to score heroin in Afghanistan
Simultaneously stressed and bored, U.S. soldiers are turning to the widely available drug for a quick escape.

By Shaun McCanna

Aug. 7, 2007 BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- Just outside the main gate to Bagram airfield, a U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, sits a series of small makeshift shops known by locals as the Bagram Bazaar. For Afghans, it is the place to buy American goods, but the stalls that make up the heart of the bazaar are also well known for what they provide American soldiers stationed at Bagram. Walking through the bazaar it takes less than 10 minutes for a vendor in his early 20s to step out and ask, "You want whiskey?" "No, heroin," I tell him. He ushers me into his store with a smile.
The shop is small, 9 feet wide by 14 feet deep, and dark. The walls at the front are lined with dusty cans of soda, padlocks and miscellaneous beauty supplies. As we enter, a teenager is visible at the back, seated in a chair next to a collection of American military knives and flashlights. The shopkeeper speaks to him in Dari. The teen stands and heads for the door, where he stops and asks my Afghan driver a question. My driver translates, "He wants to know how much you want? Twenty, 30, 50 dollars' worth?" From past experience, for I have arranged this same transaction a dozen times in a dozen different Bagram Bazaar shops, I know that the $30 bag will contain enough pure to bring hundreds of dollars on the streets of any American city. Afghanistan, after all, is the source of 90 percent of the world's heroin. I say 30 and the teen jogs off. .......

september is even closer now

than it was when i mentioned it last week.

five more cabinet ministers have quit. more children are dead. the country is in ruins. the water is hard to come by as is electricity. people have been forced (those still alive that is) to become refugees. oh and we've lost more of OUR troops as well.

and why?

i don't know. i can't answer that (except to say king george, big dick and the rest of the cabint have big wood over this war)

Iraqi Crisis Deepens as 5 More Ministers Quit Cabinet Meetings


By Sudarsan Raghavan Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Aug. 6 -- Iraq's political crisis deepened Monday as five more ministers withdrew from cabinet meetings, delivering a major blow to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's fractured unity government and efforts to reconcile Iraq's warring parties.
Hours earlier, a truck bomb in a Shiite village near the northern city of Tall Afar killed 31 people and wounded scores more, striking an area that was once hailed by President Bush and U.S. military commanders as an oasis of stability, following U.S. operations against insurgents there. Six children were among the dead, police said.
The U.S. military also announced the deaths of six American soldiers, including four killed in an explosion Monday in volatile Diyala province, where U.S. forces are engaged in a major offensive against Sunni insurgents. The blast injured 12 other U.S. soldiers, the military said in a statement. One soldier was killed by a sophisticated roadside bomb in west Baghdad on Monday, and another was killed during combat in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, the military said...........

if we did our homework

which we did NOT do, we would have known about the troubles we would be causing when we unjustly, illegally and immorally invaded iraq. of course iraq NEVER did anything to provoke us. they didn't fly planes into a field in pa, or the pentagon or the world trade center. they didn't have weapons of mass destruction. they really didn't have any terrorists. well they do now and WE helped to create them.

look at the mess that CONTINUES to happen. this is going to go on for GENERATIONS

As British Leave, Basra Deteriorates
Violence Rises in Shiite City Once Called a Success Storya


By Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks Washington Post Staff Writers

As British forces pull back from Basra in southern Iraq, Shiite militias there have escalated a violent battle against each other for political supremacy and control over oil resources, deepening concerns among some U.S. officials in Baghdad that elements of Iraq's Shiite-dominated national government will turn on one another once U.S. troops begin to draw down.
Three major Shiite political groups are locked in a bloody conflict that has left the city in the hands of militias and criminal gangs, whose control extends to municipal offices and neighborhood streets. The city is plagued by "the systematic misuse of official institutions, political assassinations, tribal vendettas, neighborhood vigilantism and enforcement of social mores, together with the rise of criminal mafias that increasingly intermingle with political actors," a recent report by the International Crisis Group said............

i was just listening to npr for a few minutes

(in the car and i got where i was going so that's why i'm not listening now). they were talking (i think it was the bbc world news) about how many iraqis were displaced (approximately FOUR MILLION with a possibility of it going up to EIGHT MILLION very soon. i think they said that came from oxfam) and how many iraqis lacked the basics of life (food, shelter, water, electricty, etc). that is approximately ONE THIRD of iraqis.

who is responsible for this? saddam hussein? no. osama? no. al queda? no. it's king george and his court. it is beyond my comprehension how we let this happen AND how we are CONTINUING TO LET IT HAPPEN. what's even MORE beyond my comprehension is king george and his court think they are saints. they think they are saving the cosmos.

Bush and Counterfactual Confidence
By Shankar Vedantam

In the face of mounting public and political opposition to the war in Iraq, recent reports from the White House suggest that President Bush remains serenely confident.
Bush's confidants report that the president believes he will be vindicated by history. He keeps Churchill and Lincoln close at hand. No matter how tough the situation in Iraq, Bush remains confident about his decision to go to war because he believes that things would have been much worse otherwise.
"Obviously, it was a difficult decision for me to make -- to send our brave troops, along with coalition troops, into Iraq," Bush said at a recent press briefing about the Iraq situation, where he faced a barrage of questions about flagging support for the war. "I firmly believe the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power."........

not only are king george and his court

sending our men and women into imminent danger, the rest of the court (jesters) aren't allowing them to get a MUCH NEEDED break now and again.

king george threatens vetos for this and that. why isn't king george veto-ing this? why isn't he INSISTING our men and women get breaks?

why? i'll tell you. because HE and EVERY OTHER ONE OF THOSE ASS WIPES DON'T GIVE A SHITE that's why.

i do. i care and i want our men and women home safe. their job is to defend america. iraq NEVER attacked america nor did it have plans to do so. we don't belong there.

at the VERY LEAST let our men and women rest now and again. get them OUT of harm's way for a bit

Iraq commanders say no to breaks in combat

By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today

WASHINGTON — U.S. commanders in Iraq are rejecting a recommendation by Army mental health experts that troops receive a one-month break for every three months in a combat zone, despite unprecedented levels of continuous fighting and worsening risks of mental health problems.
Instead, commanders are trying to give troops two to three days inside heavily fortified bases after about eight days in the field, said Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief aide to the ground forces commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno.
“We would never get the job done of securing [of Baghdad] if we went out for three months and came back” for one, Anderson said.
U.S. forces in Iraq spend more time in continuous combat without a break than those who fought in Vietnam and World War II, according to Army psychologists who studied troops in Iraq.
U.S. commanders can’t match the World War II policy, Odierno said in a news conference late last month. “Even in World War II and other times ... we would pull forces off the line and bring them back on. Here we don’t do that,” Odierno said. “They [U.S. troops] are out there consistently every single day. So you have to be mentally and physically tough.”.....

andrew j bacevich tells us how much his son was worth

no, not to him and his family and the tens of thousands of other families with sons and daughters serving in the middle east. he tells us how much he was worth to the king and his court (his court now includes most democrats by the way), to the oil companies, to the ceos of big companies and to the rest of the good ol' white boy network

well mr bacevich, i don't think for one second you contributed to your son's death. my thoughts and prayers are with your family. i am so very sorry for your loss

and i do thank you for speaking from your heart

I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty

By Andrew J. Bacevich

Parents who lose children, whether through accident or illness, inevitably wonder what they could have done to prevent their loss. When my son was killed in Iraq earlier this month at age 27, I found myself pondering my responsibility for his death.
Among the hundreds of messages that my wife and I have received, two bore directly on this question. Both held me personally culpable, insisting that my public opposition to the war had provided aid and comfort to the enemy. Each said that my son's death came as a direct result of my antiwar writings...................

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April Toll Is Highest Of '07 for U.S. Troops
Over 100 Killed in Month; Iraqi Deaths Far Higher


By Sudarsan Raghavan and Karin Brulliard Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, May 1, 2007; Page A01
BAGHDAD, April 30 -- The deaths of more than 100 American troops in April made it the deadliest month so far this year for U.S. forces in Iraq, underscoring the growing exposure of Americans as thousands of reinforcements arrive for an 11-week-old offensive to tame sectarian violence.
More than 60 Iraqis also were killed or found dead across Iraq on Monday. Casualties among Iraqi civilians and security forces have outstripped those of Americans throughout the war. In March, a total of 2,762 Iraqi civilians and policemen were killed, down 4 percent from the previous month, when 2,864 were killed. Iraq's government has yet to release any monthly totals for April...............

b o b

an unusual and VERY disturbing story

it doesn't have a fairytale storybook ending. it's just sad and odd and most likely run of the mill for those in iraq.

A Grisly Problem, Grateful Iraqis and a Grim Outlook
Unit Planning Outpost Confronts an Obstacle Known as 'Bob'


By David Finkel Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, April 25, 2007; Page A01
BAGHDAD, April 24 -- The soldiers called him Bob, and for the past several weeks, until Tuesday morning, he was the biggest obstacle to the success of an important mission in a small but crucial corner of the Iraq war.
"We can't get anybody to get Bob out. No one wants to do it," Army Maj. Brent Cummings, executive officer of the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, said with worry one recent morning as Bob's story began unfolding. Cummings was looking at an aerial photograph of an area in east Baghdad called Kamaliya, where there was an abandoned spaghetti factory with a hole in the courtyard, a hole in which some of his soldiers had discovered Bob...........

we should NOT have to be reading this

Iraq Blast Kills 9 GIs, Injures 20 At Outpost
Suicide Attack in Diyala Among Deadliest of War

yet, we ARE reading it. i cannot believe ANYONE thinks this war is 'justified'. i cannot believe ANYONE thinks we entered into this war for a 'good cause'.

sure, they're killing us now but they sure as heck weren't killing us BEFORE we started this war


BAGHDAD, April 24 -- A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-rigged truck into a U.S. military outpost near Baqubah on Monday, killing nine soldiers and wounding 20 in one of the deadliest single ground attacks on U.S. forces since the start of the war in Iraq, military officials said early Tuesday. Suicide attackers rarely penetrate defenses that surround American troops, but a 10-week-old U.S. counterinsurgency strategy has placed them in outposts and police stations that some soldiers say have made them more vulnerable.........

........As fighters have fled an ongoing security crackdown in Baghdad, attacks have risen against American and Iraqi forces in Diyala, where the U.S. military is sending more than 2,000 additional troops to battle the insurgency. U.S. soldiers have recently moved into at least seven small outposts in and around Baqubah.........

just imagine this: stray rockets hitting YOUR child's school

imagine living like this day to day. sending your babies off to school and not knowing if they will come home or not

What police described as a stray Katyusha rocket struck a schoolyard in eastern Baghdad, killing a 6-year-old boy.
Photo Credit: Photos By Adil Al-khazali -- Associated Press Photo

Troops Backed by Helicopters Battle Insurgents in Baghdad
Fighting in Sunni Enclave Is Heaviest of Security Offensive

By Sudarsan Raghavan Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD, April 10 -- With attack helicopters firing into the streets below, U.S. and Iraqi forces fought Sunni gunmen in a densely packed downtown enclave on Tuesday, the heaviest fighting seen in the capital since the launch of a security offensive eight weeks ago.
The U.S. military said four Iraqi army soldiers and three insurgents were killed and 16 American soldiers were wounded in a street battle that raged throughout the day in the Fadhel neighborhood. The military reported one civilian casualty, an injured child, but witnesses said that they saw at least 18 bodies, including those of civilians, and that a dozen people were injured.................

they got this right - we are in a DEATH SPIRAL

and i'm not sure we can ever recover. how and why the people are not up in arms over what king george and his court have done is beyond me. they have chipped away at everything we hold dear from our constitution to the lives of our sons and daughters and husbands and wives.

they have ignored laws and lied and made new laws ONLY to help themselves. some believe in the rapture, some just believe in lining their pockets.

stand up and be heard. don't let them get away with ONE more thing.

oh and think about this, WHO is going to defend us if we really DO need defending?

Military Is Ill-Prepared For Other Conflicts


By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, March 19, 2007; Page A01
Four years after the invasion of Iraq, the high and growing demand for U.S. troops there and in Afghanistan has left ground forces in the United States short of the training, personnel and equipment that would be vital to fight a major ground conflict elsewhere, senior U.S. military and government officials acknowledge.
More troubling, the officials say, is that it will take years for the Army and Marine Corps to recover from what some officials privately have called a "death spiral," in which the ever more rapid pace of war-zone rotations has consumed 40 percent of their total gear, wearied troops and left no time to train to fight anything other than the insurgencies now at hand...........