On your Independence Day it might be worth giving a few minutes thought to those your nation and mine occupy in Iraq and Afghanistan. They've been reduced to the role of "collateral damage", told they should be greatful for being bombed into submission to our edicts, denied basic rights such as habeas corpus in our foreign prisons, tortured and abused, exposed to our dumb belief in The White Man's Burden.

First of all, Cheney didn't make any sacrifices in Iraq.

According to Private First Class Clifton Hicks, who served in Iraq with the First Cavalry from October 2003, only six months after Baghdad was occupied by American troops, until July 2004, search and avoid missions began early and always had the backing of a senior non-commissioned officer or a staff sergeant. "Our platoon sergeant was with us and he knew our patrols were bullshit, just riding around to get blown up," he explained. "We were at Camp Victory at Baghdad International Airport. A lot of the time we'd leave the main gate and come right back in another gate to the base where there's a big PX with a nice mess hall and a Burger King. We'd leave one guy at the Humvee to call in every hour, while the others stayed at the PX. We were just sick and tired of going out on these stupid patrols."

Before he was hanged, Saddam Hussein told the FBI that he let the world believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction because he didn't want his greatest enemy, Iran, to discover Iraq's weaknesses, according to newly released FBI interview notes.

Refusing to Comply: The Tactics of Resistance
in an All-Volunteer Military
Dahr Jamail, July 1, 2009
On May 1st at Fort Hood in central Texas, Specialist Victor Agosto wrote on a counseling statement, which is actually a punitive U.S. Army memo: "There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan. The occupation is immoral and unjust. It does not make the American people any safer. It has the opposite effect."
"If we want soldiers to choose the right but difficult path, they must know beyond any shadow of a doubt that they will be supported by Americans." So said First Lieutenant Ehren Watada of the U.S. Army, the highest ranking enlisted soldier to refuse orders to deploy to Iraq.

Strategic aims dominate tactical aims. If tactical aims do not aid in the achievement of a strategic goal, than tactical success is irrelevant at best if not seductively counter-productive. and by that metric, there is no such thing as success in Iraq

It began with George W. Bush standing before both houses of Congress and an international television audience for his January 2003 State of the Union address and stating that Iraq was in possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons - which is one million pounds - of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent, 30,000 missiles to deliver the stuff, mobile biological weapons labs, al-Qaeda connections and uranium from Niger for use in a robust nuclear weapons program.

There are dozens of boilerplate propaganda stories floating around today about Iraqis regaining their sovereignty because U.S. troops are being pulled out of Iraqi cities. This, of course, is ludicrous.

Within the first hour of my first International Relations class in college, I came away with an understanding of the word sovereignty that was similar to these interpretations below:

Sovereignty (Stanford): Sovereignty, though its meanings have varied across history, also has a core meaning, supreme authority within a territory.

Sovereignty (Wikipedia): An important attribute of sovereignty is its degree of absoluteness. A sovereign power has absolute sovereignty if it has the unlimited right to control everything and every kind of activity in its territory.

it's still only a withdrawal in name only with 131,000 troops still in the country.

It's been too long coming, and it's still only a withdrawal in name only with 131,000 troops still in the country. But the pro-war boosters who told us the Iraqis wanted to be occupied were oh-so wrong.

June 30th has been declared "National Sovereignty Day" by the Iraqi government.

The next time we see the grinning William Kristol on Newsnight, serenely explaining why the 'international community' may have to take military action against Iran, we should remember we've been here before, and - to paraphrase John McEnroe - remind ourselves such men should not be taken seriously

Latha Jishnu: Order 81 and the plunder of farming
New Delhi April 1, 2009, 0:52 IST
...the focus of the revival strategy that is under way in Iraq is intended not to help its farmers so much as to allow multinational seed companies to capture the market.
... the seeds that American and European seed giants are actively pushing in Iraq will, of course, qualify since Order 81 is designed to specifically to protect their interests.
...Worse still is the injunction against farmers using their own seeds. ...Five years after Order 81 was passed, farm activists across the world have got together to mark April 26 as International Seeds Day to help Iraqi farmers to break the vice-like grip of the global seed companies.

On November 17, 2008, when Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker signed an agreement for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, citizens from both countries applauded. While many were disappointed about the lengthy timeline for the withdrawal of the troops, it appeared that a roadmap was set to end the war and occupation. However, the first step — withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009 — is full of loopholes, and tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers will remain in the cities after the "deadline" passes.

The failure to fully comply with the withdrawal agreement indicates the United States is looking to withdraw from Iraq in name only, as it appears that up to 50,000 military personnel will remain after the deadline.

6/24/09 Kurds are claiming Kirkuk as their own

6/24/09 Large car bomb in Sadr City kills at least 50

6/24/09 5 seperate fatal or multi-casualty incidents in Mosul

6/23/09 Kurds declare central government control over Kurdish oil reserves unconstitutional

6/21/09 9 police in Baghdad are killed in clashes

6/21/09 More fighting in Mosul

6/20/09 Large truck bomb kills at least 60 in northern Iraq

Senior Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has accused “the occupier forces” of being behind the recent escalated violence in the war-torn country. Sadr called the Saturday blast in Taza, south of the northern oil hub of Kirkuk, as a “terrorist attack carried out by the Americans”,

Iraq, Afghanistan wars coordinated from afar
by Staff Writers
Tampa, Florida (AFP) June 19, 2009
In a windowless room at the sprawling MacDill Air Force Base, home to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), several dozen officers monitor developments across the Middle East, the Gulf and Central Asia 24 hours a day.
Despite all the high-level coordination, there are sometimes mistakes -- mistakes that often prove costly in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the US air strikes are deeply unpopular.
US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have their own command posts and operations centers, but personnel at Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas, in the western US state of Nevada, maneuver the pilotless Predator and Reaper drones that fly over Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Jamie Doward, Gaby Hinsliff and Mark Townsend
The Observer, Sunday 21 June 2009

A confidential record of a meeting between President Bush and Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq, outlining their intention to go to war without a second United Nations resolution, will be an explosive issue for the official inquiry into the UK's role in toppling Saddam Hussein.

The memo, written on 31 January 2003, almost two months before the invasion and seen by the Observer, confirms that as the two men became increasingly aware UN inspectors would fail to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) they had to contemplate alternative scenarios that might trigger a second resolution legitimising military action.

Iranians do not need or want us to teach them about liberty and representative government. They have long embodied this struggle. It is we who need to be taught. It was Washington that orchestrated the 1953 coup to topple Iran’s democratically elected government, the first in the Middle East, and install the compliant shah in power. It was Washington that forced Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, a man who cared as much for his country as he did for the rule of law and democracy, to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. We gave to the Iranian people the corrupt regime of the shah and his savage secret police and the primitive clerics that rose out of the swamp of the dictator’s Iran. Iranians know they once had a democracy until we took it away.

Looks like things are heating up in Iraq and Afghanistan!

Friday, June 19, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, the VA backlog continues and will continue for some time judging by a Congressional hearing, Gordon Brown continues to be a newsmaker of the week (not a good thing for Brown), Iraqi refugees continue to struggle, and more.

Soldier's crime met with clemency
He admits to executing Iraqis who were bound, and his family fought for leniency
By Joel Hood | Tribune reporter
June 18, 2009
When Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr. was sentenced to life in prison this year for his role in the grisly, execution-style slayings of four bound Iraqi prisoners, the Downers Grove soldier's supporters banded together.
In Iraq, reports of abuses and extrajudicial killings by U.S. soldiers have been met with outrage and demands for severe punishment.
...Family members say they remain unashamed by Leahy's role in the crime.

The Iraq War was Britain's worst foreign policy disaster in 50 years. The fact that, six years on, the public is being denied the truth about what led to this catastrophe is nothing less than an outrage.

Mr Brown should be ashamed of himself.

Tony Blair is set to be quizzed as part of an inquiry into the Iraq War announced by his successor Gordon Brown.

The former Prime Minister, who led Britain to war, said that if asked he would 'of course' appear before the panel.

But Mr Brown has been accused of an 'Establishment stitch-up' after announcing the inquiry will meet in secret and blame no one.

It will also have no legal powers to demand documents, compel anyone to attend or require witnesses to swear an oath.

The Prime Minister today announced his inquiry into the Iraq war would be held in private - to the dismay of campaigners.

...

"The primary objective of the committee will be to identify lessons learned. The committee will not set out to apportion blame or consider issues of civil or criminal liability."

Imagine my shock.

See also: Iraq WMD Lies: The Words of Mass Deception

In this deeply disturbing interview, the trailer trash torturer who appalled the world by appearing in shocking 'souvenir' photographs remains utterly unrepentant and says she has 800 MORE torture photos that could rock the White House

Note: This essay is more appropriately titled something like "Send This to Everyone Who Still Believes that We Need Torture to Keep Us Safe". But if I used that title, no one who supports torture would read it.

Gordon Brown is set to announce the long-awaited inquiry into the 2003 Iraq War within weeks, Downing Street insiders have claimed.

Ministers have been resisting calls for a public inquiry for years, claiming it must wait until British troops have withdrawn from Iraq.

Now with that process almost complete, the Prime Minister is understood to want to set out the terms and timetable for an inquiry before parliament breaks for the summer - hoping to gain some credit with backbenchers and millions of voters who opposed the war.

But last night campaigners warned him not to hold it in secret by appointing a group of Privy Councillors to sift through sensitive papers behind closed doors - as ministers suggested.

Five American security contractors have been detained in connection with the killing of another American contractor last month inside Baghdad's Green Zone, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad confirmed Sunday morning.

The five men work for Corporate Training Unlimited, sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN Saturday.

I wonder what was the motive behind the owner and his son killing the guy. If the owner is ready to commit murder himself, against a fellow American in Iraq, what makes us believe that his company puts any value on the lives of Iraqis? This just shows that these "security" firms do commit crimes in Iraq. The only reason we hear about this is because the victim is American.

Iraq’s New Death Squad
New America Media, News Report, Shane Bauer, Posted: Jun 06, 2009
The Iraq Special Operations Forces (ISOF) is probably the largest special forces outfit ever built by the United States, and it is free of many of the controls that most governments employ to rein in such lethal forces. The project started in the deserts of Jordan just after the Americans took Baghdad in April 2003. There, the US Army's Special Forces, or Green Berets, trained mostly 18-year-old Iraqis with no prior military experience. The resulting brigade was a Green Beret's dream come true: a deadly, elite, covert unit, fully fitted with American equipment, that would operate for years under US command and be unaccountable to Iraqi ministries and the normal political process.

Why are the Congressional leadership of both parties bizarrely silent now....

Because they were there then -- saw it -- all of it -- at a weirdly perverse, practically red-carpet, private snuff-film screening -- and they evidently went along with it.....

George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, was indicted Monday on charges of high treason. The charges, filed by Attorney General Russ Feingold late in the evening, allege that Mr. Bush, knowing full well that Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction, falsified information in order to pursue the disastrous Iraq War. (See “U.S. Knew No W.M.D.s in Iraq,” on Page A1, and the petition at www.democrats.com/pardon.)

Two years before the 9/11 attacks on America, George W. Bush told a Houston journalist if elected president, “I’m going to invade Iraq.”

Bush made the comments about starting an aggressive war to veteran Houston Chronicle reporter Mickey Herskowitz, then working with Bush on his book “A Charge To Keep,” later brought out by publisher William Morrow.

This disclosure was uncovered by Russ Baker, an award-winning investigative reporter when he interviewed Herskowitz for his own book, “Family of Secrets” (Bloomsbury Press) about the Bush dynasty. However, Baker says, when he approached The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times with the potentially devastating story to President Bush prior to the 2004 presidential election, they declined to publish it.

Repudiated at the polls, they're back – in a new liberal guise

Fatal shooting shows stress risk facing U.S. troops
By Tim Cocks Tim Cocks – Mon Jun 1, 10:08 am ET
COMBAT OUTPOST COBRA, Iraq (Reuters) – Experts say the risk of soldiers suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) goes up substantially on their third tour of duty. Sergeant Joseph Huiet is on his sixth.
"Troops say causes of combat stress are many. The most obvious are danger, trauma of friends dying, frequent roadside bombs and other sneak attacks common in Iraq's guerrilla war."There's the stress of not knowing who your enemy is half the time. You probably saw him in the street and didn't know.""

So much for the surge!

The Islamic culture does not appreciate or allow public sexual displays to begin with. Now the American embassy is going to display sexuality in a way that will do nothing but offend the host population, needlessly complicating an already sensitive situation. The question becomes, who is going to suffer? Our embassy officials, or our soldiers on the ground who will endure the increased outrage when events such as this occur?

January 4, 2007
Iraq Vets Come Home Physically, Mentally Butchered
by Aaron Glantz
"Dr. Imbascini just returned from a four-month deployment to Germany, where he treated the worst of the U.S. war wounded. He said that an extremely high number of wounded soldiers are coming home with their arms or legs amputated. Imbascini said he amputated the genitals of one or two men every day."
"New guidelines released by the Pentagon released last month allow commanders to redeploy soldiers suffering from traumatic stress disorders."

U.S. military: Heavily armed and medicated
Prescription pill dependency among American troops is on the rise
By Melody Petersen, Tues., May 19, 2009
"Sending a person back to combat duty still under the influence of psychoactive drugs may be dangerous," he wrote."
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/11079
U.S. troops in Iraq taking drugs to cope with stress, trauma
Steve Hammons, June 30, 2006
"In addition to psychotropic drugs, most troops are given the anti-malaria drug Lariam, which is known to cause severe psychiatric problems including suicidal and homicidal behavior."
"Like the scourge of methamphetamine use in the U.S. population, military personnel taking amphetamines risk impaired judgment, psychotic reactions, paranoia and homicidal behavior."

Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged.

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

He has worked with the Iraqi security forces identifying the members of the militia, operating with them on raids. And he has come face to face with some of his son's killers. And he asked them why.

"They said, 'We had orders to kill. For each person we killed they gave us $10,000,' " Abu Wissam says. "Their families are still defending them, saying our sons didn't do anything."

The Pentagon is prepared to remain in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between Washington and Baghdad that would bring all American troops home by 2012, according to the US army chief of staff.

The Pentagon is prepared to leave fighting forces in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between the United States and Iraq that would bring all American troops home by 2012, the top U.S. Army officer said Tuesday.

Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, said the world remains dangerous and unpredictable, and the Pentagon must plan for extended U.S. combat and stability operations in two wars. "Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction," Casey said. "They fundamentally will change how the Army works."

Change hu?

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Nuremberg set a valid precedent for trials of war-crime suspects in Iraq's destruction
By CESAR CHELALA
Benjamin Ferencz, also a former chief prosecutor for the Nuremberg Trials, declared that "a prima facie case can be made that the United States is guilty of the supreme crime against humanity — that being an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation."

They got it right he says...

This is one of the most powerful poignant ways I´ve seen yet of showing who died where and when and where they lived.

This Memorial Day I would like to share with you a personal project of mine that uses Google Earth to honor the more than 5,700 American and Coalition servicemen and women that have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have created a map for Google Earth that will connect you with each of their stories—you can see photos, learn about how they died, visit memorial websites with comments from friends and families, and explore the places they called home and where they died.

http://www.mapthefallen.org/2009/05/for-past-two-years-ive-been-workin...