i disagree

the LAST thing we actually need is yet ANOTHER report on iraq. we don't need one. we KNOW the situation there (and here). we know it's destroying human life here and there. we know it's costing billions (yes and the report will cost money as well) here and there. it's unnecessary. it's redundant. even if we DO spend the millions on the report. IT WILL EFFING BE IGNORED OR LIED ABOUT JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER EFFING REPORT THESE DAYS (on ANY subject)
Kennedy and Levin Want New Report on Iraq Released

By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer
A new intelligence report on the situation in Iraq is "essential" to upcoming debates on the war, and its judgments should be publicly released, Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said yesterday in a letter to the head of the nation's intelligence agencies.
Levin and Kennedy asked Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to release an unclassified summary of the latest National Intelligence Estimate before Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the ambassador to Iraq, testify April 8 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Levin chairs.
Without the NIE, Levin and Kennedy wrote, "Congress and the American people will not have the essential information needed for an informed public debate." The document, an update of two previous assessments publicly released last year, was completed and delivered to Congress on Tuesday.
Several lawmakers familiar with its conclusions declined to provide specifics but said it contained little information beyond public accounts of recent events in Iraq. "The stuff that was positive, they emphasized. The negative, they stated, but deemphasized," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.). Biden chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was briefed on the intelligence estimate early this week. ......

because my lil' friend JESUS told me to kill kill kill

that's why i did it! that's EXACTLY what king george would have us believe
Citing Faith, Bush Defends War Actions
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
NASHVILLE — President Bush delivered a rousing defense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday, mixing faith and foreign policy as he told a group of Christian broadcasters that his policies in the region were predicated on the beliefs that freedom was a God-given right and “every human being bears the image of our maker.”
In a 42-minute speech to the National Religious Broadcasters convention, Mr. Bush called upon European allies to step up their efforts in Afghanistan, and conceded that recent security gains in Iraq “are tenuous, they’re reversible and they’re fragile.” Still, he insisted his troop buildup there is succeeding.
“The decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency,” Mr. Bush said, to a standing ovation. “It is the right decision at this point in my presidency, and it will forever be the right decision.”
The speech, coming a week before the fifth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq, is the first of three talks on terrorism and war policy that Mr. Bush will give before next month’s Congressional testimony by the top American military commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, and the senior diplomat there, Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker.
General Petraeus is widely expected to recommend a temporary pause in troop withdrawals from Iraq, although at least one senior administration official said the president envisions further reductions this year. With the nation’s attention turned to the race to succeed Mr. Bush, White House aides say the speeches are a way for the president to frame the Iraq discussion, taking it back from the presidential candidates and Democrats on Capitol Hill.........

the faster they go

the behinder they get

bring our men and women home. they don't deserve to be in harm's way they're not defending our freedoms. they're helping (though no choice of their own) to line the pockets of some good old white boys.

thousands of our men and women ripped to shreds. tens of thousands of THEIR men, women and children ripped to shreds. no end in sight. we're tossing money over there like it's being printed on a photocopier.

this MUST stop now

Mahdi Army, Not Al-Qaeda, is Enemy No. 1 in Western Baghdad


By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD -- The lights were on in Baghdad. Something was wrong.
Two platoons were creeping through the southwestern neighborhood of al-Amil well past midnight last week. Headlights snapped off, night vision lenses lowered into place, they maneuvered their Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles down narrow streets, angling for surprise. As they approached the suspected homes of the militia leaders they were hunting, their cover of darkness disappeared, fluorescent bulbs on the houses and street lights casting a glow on their vehicles. At 3 in the morning in a city notoriously hard up for power, these blocks were strangely bright.............

.............West Rashid confounds the prevailing narrative from top U.S. military officials that the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq is the city's most formidable and disruptive force. While there are signs that the group has been active in the area, over the past several months, the Mahdi Army has transformed the composition of the district's neighborhoods by ruthlessly killing and driving out Sunnis and denying basic services to residents who remain. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, described the area as "one of the three or four most challenging areas in all of Baghdad."................