just so we know iraq still exists

and what we did not only to the iraqis but our OWN MEN AND WOMEN, i wanted to post this. remember too, their health care down the road is the responsibility of all of us as well (and no, i'm not complaining about that part. we OWE these heroes. but we also owe them not to knowingly put them in cancer causing conditions)

Pentagon knowingly exposed troops to cancer-causing chemicals, document shows
John Byrne

A newly leaked military document appears to show the Pentagon knowingly exposed US troops to toxic chemicals that cause cancer, while publicly downplaying the risks exposure might cause.

The document, written by an environmental engineering flight commander in December of 2006 and posted on Wikileaks (PDF) on Tuesday, details the risks posed to US troops in Iraq by burning garbage at a US airbase. It enumerates myriad risks posed by the practice and identifies various carcinogens released by incinerating waste in open-air pits.

Because of the difficulties in testing samples, investigators could not prove that chemicals exceeded military exposure guidelines. But a military document released last December found that chemicals routinely exceeded safe levels by twice to six times...........

this isn't the first time

this has happened nor will it be the last time. i'm not faulting the iraqis. i'm faulting king george and his court. we invaded THEIR country. we then decided who to give guns to and set 'em loose. why should they fight? for us? for our embassy? for the oil pipelines going directly into the pockets of big bid-nez (that's big AMERICAN bid-nez). why are we surprised?

why are we ALLOWING this illegal unjust and immoral war to continue?
Iraqi Unit Flees Post, Despite American’s Plea
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
BAGHDAD — A company of Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions on Tuesday night in Sadr City, defying American soldiers who implored them to hold the line against Shiite militias.
The retreat left a crucial stretch of road on the front lines undefended for hours and led to a tense series of exchanges between American soldiers and about 50 Iraqi troops who were fleeing.
Capt. Logan Veath, a company commander in the 25th Infantry Division, pleaded with the Iraqi major who was leading his troops away from the Sadr City fight, urging him to return to the front.
“If you turn around and go back up the street those soldiers will follow you,” Captain Veath said. “If you tuck tail and cowardly run away they will follow up that way, too.”
Captain Veath’s pleas failed, and senior American and Iraqi commanders mounted an urgent effort to regain the lost ground. An elite Iraqi unit was rushed in and with the support of the Americans began to fight its way north.
This episode was a blow to the American effort to push the Iraqis into the lead in the struggle to wrest control of parts of Sadr City from the Mahdi Army militia and what Americans and Iraqis say are Iranian-backed groups.........

oh yeah, around every corner

we can ALL see (though it seems most of the american public, well at least our congress and senate) choose to keep their heads in the sand, so to speak.
americans vs. iraqis
sunnis vs. shiites
now shiites vs. shiites

shite

yup,

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Between Iraqi Shiites, a Deepening Animosity
Basra Offensive Inflamed Long-Standing Rivalry, Redefining Nature of Conflict

By Sudarsan RaghavanWashington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, April 6 -- As verses from the Koran floated from a loudspeaker, the Shiite militia commander's face glowered. Inside the cavernous funeral tent, a large portrait of his 16-year-old son, Mustafa, hung over the mourners. Abu Abdullah, who fought U.S. troops and Sunni insurgents for five years, never expected his son to die before him. Now, he said, his anger was directed at other Shiites.
An Iraqi soldier, he said, had shot Mustafa two days earlier as he approached a checkpoint in Sadr City, where Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army rule. Abu Abdullah blamed Sadr's Shiite rivals, who lead the Iraqi government.
"What do I feel inside me?" asked Abu Abdullah, dressed in black. "I want to do to them exactly what they did to my son, and even more."
In this volatile Shiite redoubt, animosity toward Prime Minister Nouri-al Maliki and his allies has deepened in the aftermath of Iraq's worst violence in months, threatening to escalate a conflict among Shiites that could further draw in U.S. troops. ..........

a day in the life...

this is NOTHING. wait until 5, 10, 15 years from now. those that actually survived are going to need a LOT of treatment (and it DAMN WELL better be forthcoming from the va). king george and his court will be long gone by the time the real shite hits the fan. and guess what? THEY DON'T CARE. they don't give a flying yoo hoo about our deployed troops NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY.

can you imagine the tens of thousands of cases of ptsd in the future?

Fatigue cripples US army in Iraq

Exhaustion and combat stress are besieging US troops in Iraq as they battle with a new type of warfare. Some even rely on Red Bull to get through the day. As desertions and absences increase, the military is struggling to cope with the crisis

Peter Beaumont in Sunday August 12, 2007 The Observer

Lieutenant Clay Hanna looks sick and white. Like his colleagues he does not seem to sleep. Hanna says he catches up by napping on a cot between operations in the command centre, amid the noise of radio. He is up at 6am and tries to go to sleep by 2am or 3am. But there are operations to go on, planning to be done and after-action reports that need to be written. And war interposes its own deadly agenda that requires his attention and wakes him up.


When he emerges from his naps there is something old and paper-thin about his skin, something sketchy about his movements as the days go by.
The Americans he commands, like the other men at Sullivan - a combat outpost in Zafraniya, south east Baghdad - hit their cots when they get in from operations. But even when they wake up there is something tired and groggy about them. They are on duty for five days at a time and off for two days. When they get back to the forward operating base, they do their laundry and sleep and count the days until they will get home. It is an exhaustion that accumulates over the patrols and the rotations, over the multiple deployments, until it all joins up, wiping out any memory of leave or time at home. Until life is nothing but Iraq..............