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To war or not to war: that is the Iraq question
- Your opinion could change someone's mind.
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- NON-PAID ASSIGNMENT
- FORMAT:
- ENDS: 21/10/2008 10:00 PM GMT
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Get Us Out!
We never should have been in Iraq, and we've been bungling things since we got there. The Iraqis want us out, Americans want us out, it's time to listen to the masses and get out of Iraq. We never should have been in Iraq, and we've been bungling things since we got there. The Iraqis want us out, Americans want us ... more
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Army's life-or-death drama: To combat suicides, service introduces interactiv...
Alarmed by a record rate of suicide in its ranks, the Army yesterday unveiled a unique prevention tool -- an interactive video to be mandatory viewing Army-wide -- in which soldiers will play the role of an anguished infantryman and make virtual choices that lead the character to get help or, in the worst case, shoot himself in the head.
"This is you: Specialist Kyle Norton," a male narrator begins, putting soldiers in the boots of a 19-year-old Midwesterner after a bomb-clearing mission in Iraq.
The video, titled "Beyond the Front," leads the viewer through a detailed drama in which Norton is hit by relationship troubles, financial problems and scrapes with the law -- what Army research shows are major events that precipitate suicide. Norton is blindsided by an e-mail from his fiancee, who has become pregnant by another man. He is devastated further when one of his best friends is killed in an ambush.
Questions pop onto the screen at key moments, prompting the viewer to decide whether to get help -- by opening up with buddies, Norton's sergeant or a chaplain. Depending on the choices, Norton edges toward recovery or sinks deeper into suicidal thoughts. The goal is to immerse the viewer into Norton's life in a way that makes preventive lessons stick, say Army officials and the video's creators.
The video is one of several initiatives launched by the Army to try to stem the suicide rate among active-duty soldiers. That rate increased from 12.4 per 100,000 in 2003, when the Iraq war started, to 18.1 per 100,000 last year.
This year, 93 active-duty soldiers killed themselves through the end of August, the latest data show. A third of those cases are under investigation by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office. In all of 2007, 115 soldiers committed suicide. Suicide attempts by soldiers have also increased since 2003.
If the trend continues, the death rate this year is likely to exceed that of a demographically similar segment of the U.S. population -- 19.5 per 100,000, Stephens said -- which has not happened since the Vietnam War Alarmed by a record rate of suicide in its ranks, the Army yesterday unveiled a unique prevention tool -- an interactive video to be m... more -
ACLU: Bush admin tried to create 'Gitmo inside the US'
The US military was using the same procedures employed at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison at other facilities inside the United States where US citizens and legal residents were detained, according to documents released Wednesday.
At least one Navy officer was concerned that a detainee was being slowly driven insane by the policies, which prohibited detainees from having items such as shoes or socks, according to 91 pages of e-mails between officers at military brigs in Virginia and South Carolina released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
"These documents are the first clear confirmation of what we've suspected all along, that the brig was run as a prison beyond the law. There was an effort to create a Gitmo inside the United States," Jonathan Hafetz of the ACLU's National Security Project in New York told the Associated Press, using the slang word for the U.S. naval facility in Cuba.
A pdf of the heavily redacted e-mails can be downloaded here. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request along with the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School to obtain the documents.
The obtained e-mails apparently were exchanged between brig officers and military higher-ups between 2002 and 2004. They discuss detentions of Yaser Esham Hamdi, Jose Padilla, both of whom were US citizens at the time, and Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who was a legal resident in the country when he was detained.
“Guantánamo was designed as a law-free zone, a place where the government could do whatever it wanted without having to worry about whether it was legal,” said Jonathan Freiman, an attorney with the Lowenstein Clinic at Yale. “It didn’t take long for that sort of lawlessness to be brought home to our own country. Who knows how much further America would have gone if the Supreme Court hadn’t stepped in to stop incommunicado detentions in 2004?”
The detainees apparently were not allowed to speak to family members or lawyers for years, and the e-mails suggest that Guantanamo standard operating procedures were being employed in the domestic brigs. An officer asked what to tell detainees about their legal status and received little guidance.
"Best not to discuss his status at all with him," wrote an unidentified superior, presumably a Pentagon or military lawyer. "Realize that's tough on a human level but realize anything you say becomes statement of US govt, at least potentially. Safest and honest answer is 'I don't know, sorry.'"
The documents also include "weekly updates" the brig officers were required to send on the treatment of the detainees, but the ACLU notes that the updates on Padilla and al-Marri were not released because the Navy said the documents were either being withheld or were missing. That the missing updates cover a period "during which the two were being detained incommunicado and interrogated," the ACLU says, suggests "the possibility that Guantánamo-like interrogations were taking place." The US military was using the same procedures employed at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison at other facilities inside the Unite... more -
Webb Urges Halt To U.S. Propaganda In Iraq
Saying the United States should not be spending hundred of millions to "… propagandize the Iraqi people," Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) today sent a letter asking Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to halt contracts that would pay civilian defense contractors $300 million to produce pro-American news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements inside Iraq.
"At a time when this country is facing such a grave economic crisis, and at a time when the government of Iraq now shows at least a $79 billion surplus from recent oil revenues, it makes little sense for the Department of Defense to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to propagandize the Iraqi people," said Webb, adding that Iraq is at this point "capable, both politically and financially, of communicating with its own people ... without being accused by adversaries of being a foreign government that is fulminating internal conditions through propaganda."
Webb has previously raised the issue to both Gates and Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the Department of Defense (DoD) using "general appropriations accounts" for such efforts because they avoid routine congressional scrutiny and award lucrative contracts to companies performing quasi-military functions such as Blackwater.
With a copy to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI), the Virginia Senator's letter said that he was alerted to the most recent contract in an October 3 Washington Post story.
"I have serious reservations about the need for this expenditure in today’s political and economic environment," wrote Webb to Gates. "Consequently, I am asking that you put these contracts on hold until the Armed Services Committee and the next Administration can review the entire issue of US propaganda efforts inside Iraq."
"There is now an elected government in Iraq, which is recognized to have the power and authority to negotiate a long-term security agreement with the government of the United States. Clearly that government is capable, both politically and financially, of communicating with its own people in the manner now contemplated by these DoD contracts – and without being accused by adversaries of being a foreign government that is fulminating internal conditions through propaganda."
According to the Post story, four companies will receive the $300 million, including the Lincoln Group, which in 2006 was revealed by the Pentagon's Inspector General to have produced "news items" for the Iraqi media and placed them without attribution to the U.S. government.
Webb, who also sits on the Armed Services Committee, has sent a second letter to Levin requesting hearings at the start of the new Congress to discuss the entire issue of the DoD's "strategic communications programs" and the civilian contractors used to support them Saying the United States should not be spending hundred of millions to "… propagandize the Iraqi people," Senator Jim Webb (... more -
State Department urged to boost hiringBy Alyssa Rosenberg arosenberg@govexec.com O...
If the State Department does not beef up its workforce, diplomatic programs will suffer and foreign policy will become more militarized, a new report warned.
"Today, significant portions of the nation's foreign affairs business simply are not accomplished," stated the report, released earlier this week by the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Stimson Center. "The work migrates by default to the military that does have the necessary people and funding, but neither sufficient experience nor knowledge. The 'militarization' of diplomacy exists and is accelerating... . The status quo cannot continue without serious damage to our vital interests." The report also studied staffing levels at the U.S. Agency for International Development. If the State Department does not beef up its workforce, diplomatic programs will suffer and foreign policy will become more militarize... more -
Meet the Texas Senator who couldn't care less about our vets
Health care. Mental health benefits. Adequate body armor and armored vehicles. A college education. These are just some of the necessities all of our service members deserve. But clearly, Senator John Cornyn doesn't think so.
Cornyn's rhetoric belies his appalling record in the Senate. The fact that Cornyn has stood with President Bush 95 percent of the time and has opposed our service members on more than 20 key issues proves he doesn't support our troops or veterans. It's a fact every Texan needs to know, now.
See his voting record or yourself @ http://txveterans.org Health care. Mental health benefits. Adequate body armor and armored vehicles. A college education. These are just some of the nec... more -
The Fall of America, Inc.
In an article for Newsweek, Francis Fukuyama writes that our financial meltdown has severely harmed two influential, fundamentally-American ideas: 1) "a certain vision of capitalism—one that argued low taxes, light regulation and a pared-back government would be the engine for economic growth", and 2) "America as a promoter of liberal democracy around the world, which was seen as the best path to a more prosperous and open international order."
Fukuyama explains:
"It's hard to fathom just how badly these signature features of the American brand have been discredited. Between 2002 and 2007, while the world was enjoying an unprecedented period of growth, it was easy to ignore those European socialists and Latin American populists who denounced the U.S. economic model as "cowboy capitalism." But now the engine of that growth, the American economy, has gone off the rails and threatens to drag the rest of the world down with it. Worse, the culprit is the American model itself: under the mantra of less government, Washington failed to adequately regulate the financial sector and allowed it to do tremendous harm to the rest of the society.
Democracy was tarnished even earlier. Once Saddam was proved not to have WMD, the Bush administration sought to justify the Iraq War by linking it to a broader "freedom agenda"; suddenly the promotion of democracy was a chief weapon in the war against terrorism. To many people around the world, America's rhetoric about democracy sounds a lot like an excuse for furthering U.S. hegemony."
On the economic front, Fukuyama argues that, just as FDR's New Deal government had a time when its policies greatly benefited this nation, Reaganomics had its time too, but that that era should have ended a long time ago. On liberal democracy, Fukuyama argues that the Iraq War has ruined our credibility as promoters of freedom; that "'democracy' [has become] a code word for military intervention and regime change" in others' minds.
The solution: "First, we must break out of the Reagan-era straitjacket concerning taxes and regulation. Tax cuts feel good but do not necessarily stimulate growth or pay for themselves... Deregulation... can become unbelievably costly, as we have seen. The entire American public sector—underfunded, deprofessionalized and demoralized—needs to be rebuilt and be given a new sense of pride. There are certain jobs that only the government can fulfill.
As we undertake these changes, of course, there's a danger of overcorrecting. Financial institutions need strong supervision, but it isn't clear that other sectors of the economy do... If tax cutting is not a path to automatic prosperity, neither is unconstrained social spending... An irresponsible fiscal policy could easily add to the problem."
Full article at link... In an article for Newsweek, Francis Fukuyama writes that our financial meltdown has severely harmed two influential, fundamentally-Ame... more -
Singer Songwriter Joshua Morrison discusses Iraq
Joshua Morrison is a singer songwriter and an Iraq War veteran. In this outtake, he talks about how his time in Iraq has affected his music. Joshua Morrison is a singer songwriter and an Iraq War veteran. In this outtake, he talks about how his time in Iraq has affected his ... more
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LA TRAGEDIA DEL 911 ANTICIPATA SEI MESI DA UNA SERIE TV!
LA TRAGEDIA DEL 911 ANTICIPATA SEI MESI DA UNA SERIE TV!
Il 4 Marzo 2001 (potete verificare la data ovunque) andò in onda sui network televisivi americani, il telefilm "The Lone Gunmen", i cui protagonisti principali sono i "consulenti" di Fox Mulder in "The X-Files", Langly, Byers e Frohike, i cosidetti "Pistoleri Solitari".
Ebbene in questo "spin-off" di X-Files, nella prima puntanta intitolata "Pilot" si trova la "profezia" di un atroce evento che sarebbe avvenuto qualche mese dopo. Nella puntata pilota si vede un Boeing 747 di una comune linea aerea, pieno di passeggeri, dirottato sul... Word Trade Center. Inoltre l’aereo è dirottato “da remoto” sfruttando il pilota automatico e la natura dei mandanti dell’attentato.
Nel telefilm l’attacco sarebbe organizzato da alcuni settori del Governo Federale allo scopo di “giustificare l’aumento delle spese militari e l’attacco ad un paese con un regime non affine agli Stati Uniti“.
E' solo una coincidenza oppure c'è davvero un sospetto (legittimo o meno che sia) che dietro le idee di Chris Carter (ideatore della serie "X Files" e di "The Lone Gunmen") ci sia la supervisione di qualche ente governativo e di "intelligence" USA?
Sopra alcuni spezzoni del telefilm RILEVANTI (in inglese con i sottotitoli in italiano) rispetto ai tragici eventi che sarebbero realmente accaduti 6 mesi dopo...
Commenti? LA TRAGEDIA DEL 911 ANTICIPATA SEI MESI DA UNA SERIE TV! ... more -
U.S. News & World Report: FCC Probes Pentagon Analysts
October 06, 2008 04:16 PM ET
The Federal Communications Commission has begun notifying several TV military analysts that it is probing congressional complaints that the pundits did not properly disclose their ties to the Pentagon when reviewing the war in Iraq on air. According to a copy of the October 2 FCC letter to one of the pundits, the probe was prompted by Reps. John Dingell and Rosa DeLauro, who filed a complaint with the agency after the New York Times reported that some of the pundits were working on or bidding on Pentagon contracts and had also taken free military trips to Iraq. "When seemingly objective television commentators are in fact highly motivated to promote the agenda of a government agency, a gross violation of the public trust occurs," the duo wrote to the FCC. Copies of their May 6 complaint, above, and the FCC letter were provided to Whispers. The Times story discussed the so-called military analysts program, where many former military officials were briefed about the war in Iraq by the Pentagon.
At issue is that some of them were also linked to Pentagon contracts, raising the issue of conflict of interest. In its letter signed by the chief of the investigations and hearings division enforcement bureau, the FCC suggests that TV stations and networks may have violated two sections of the Communications Act of 1934 by not identifying the ties to the Pentagon that their military analysts had. The FCC is so far reaching out to the analysts mentioned in the New York Times article and asking for each to respond to the allegations of wrongdoing within 30 days.
We wrote about this recently when we reported that the Defense Department's inspector general was looking into the program, also at the request of Congress. October 06, 2008 04:16 PM ET ... more -
Furor over pics of Taliban in dead soldiers' kit - CNN.com
Furor over pics of Taliban in dead soldiers' kit
Story Highlights
Photos of Taliban in the uniforms of dead French soldiers provokes outrage
Magazine Paris Match features photos of Taliban and their commander
10 French troops were killed and a further 21 injured in an ambush Furor over pics of Taliban in dead soldiers' kit Story Highlights ... more -
Afghan general: Politics needed to end war
Afghan general: Politics needed to end war
Story Highlights
Wardak: People need help to find work, and everyone must accept constitution
Wardak echoes British commander who tells Sunday Times war will not be won
British commander also reportedly says deal with Taliban might be on the table
Western leaders say reconciling with hardcore militants will be difficult Afghan general: Politics needed to end war Story Highlights ... more -
Lockbox: An Anarchist Tale
As the Republicans gathered last month in St. Paul to nominate John McCain for president, so did a group of protesters determined to stop them. We follow self-proclaimed anarchist Somorra and her friends as they successfully lockdown a highway off-ramp, blockade the streets, and clash with police in an attempt to shut down the Republican National Convention. Hear an insider's thoughts on anarchy, cops, and American culture and see why Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher called September 1 "eight hours of chaos." As the Republicans gathered last month in St. Paul to nominate John McCain for president, so did a group of protesters determined to s... more
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Where the news fails us.
Below is a link that shows a search on teenage driving deaths which there are only 167 results;
http://search.cnn.com/search?query=teenage+driving+deat...
http://search.cnn.com/search?query=iraq+war&type=ne...
here is one for the iraq war with over 12,343 results
http://search.cnn.com/search?query=Britney+spears&t...
or another with Britney spears with over 353 results on it
We lose any where from 4,000-5,000 teens a year in driving accidents in the US alone. we have lost a about 4,500 troops in the 7 year long war on terror. Now if we compare in that same time period we have lost around 28,000-35,000 teens do to driving. Yet Britney Spears has over twice the results of teenage driving deaths in the US on CNN.com.
Any one else see a flaw here? Below is a link that shows a search on teenage driving deaths which there are only 167 results; ... more -
11 killed during US raid in north Iraq
Eleven people were killed, including three women and three children, as a suicide bomber struck and a gunbattle broke out during a US raid on a house in northern Mosul on Sunday, the US military said. Eleven people were killed, including three women and three children, as a suicide bomber struck and a gunbattle broke out during a US ... more
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Fewer black funeral banners blanket Baghdad
This is the way almost all Iraqi families announce the deaths of relatives. When a loved one dies, hanging the banners is the first order of business.
If it was a violent death, as many here are, a banner is hung at the scene of the attack. Another is nailed up at the victim's house, another along the main road into his neighborhood and perhaps another at his mosque.
They are always made from black cloth, and the names of the dead are always painted in yellow. The other details — a list of relatives left behind and the place and dates of the funeral — are usually painted in white. Most banners are around four feet long and three feet wide.
It is a custom that existed here long before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, but over the last five and a half years, the banners have taken on new meaning. They are an informal measure of security, a way for residents to gauge whether their neighborhood is becoming more or less dangerous.
Between 2005 and 2007, at the height of violence, the banners blanketed Baghdad. They still hang on buildings and blast walls across the capital, but in far fewer numbers.
"There was a time when you could see one almost everywhere you looked," said Mohammed Hussein Abbas, a high school teacher from Baghdad. "The banners were everywhere."
About 350 Iraqi civilians were killed in violence across Iraq last month, half as many as a year ago.
"The walls of the hotel on the corner there used to be covered," said Abbas, pointing. "Of course people are still being killed, but not as many."
As soon as a family receives news of a death, one or two relatives are usually asked to handle the funeral banners, often cousins, nephews or uncles of the deceased.
Most banners are hand-painted by professional sign makers. Each one typically costs about $4; families who bring their own cloth are charged a dollar less.
Banners can be painted and dried while mourners wait, usually in less than half an hour.
"Even though my business has gone down, I am happy," said Ali Kasim Hashim, who earns his living painting funeral banners in a small Baghdad shop he shares with his father, a portrait artist. "Security is the most important thing for Iraq, so I don't mind having fewer customers." This is the way almost all Iraqi families announce the deaths of relatives. When a loved one dies, hanging the banners is the first or... more -
Afghan "Allies" And Bin Laden Video
Osama Bin Laden is on the radio and hailed as a great warrior and hero leader of the Jihad by the people whom we are considering our allies. Osama Bin Laden is on the radio and hailed as a great warrior and hero leader of the Jihad by the people whom we are considering our a... more
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Danger In Iraq: Marines Face Attacks Daily In Ramadi
In downtown Ramadi, the fight with the Iraqi insurgency is up close – and, as CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan reports, for one company of U.S. Marines, it's very personal.
In a Ramadi market, Lt. Carlos Goetz has found propaganda glorifying the killing of his fellow Marines.
"Close your store, and if you get froggy, I will kill you," he says to some men who are being cuffed and thrown into a Humvee. "Getting froggy" is Marine-speak for "don't try anythng."
Ramadi has become the operational center of al Qaeda and the symbolic heart of the Iraqi insurgency. So Kilo company has taken the fight to the most dangerous city streets in all of Iraq, hunting their enemy where they hide — among the population.
"We're not out with snipers hitting people a click away," says Marine 2nd Lt. Brian Wilson. "We're opening a door and there's a guy 15 feet away."
Lt. Wilson lost four of his men just over five weeks ago. The day after CBS News joined his platoon on this patrol, he nearly lost two more.
"Something hit me in the back; it felt like a sledgehammer," says Pfc. Charles Mitchell. "It just spun me around."
The plates in their body armor saved Mitchell and Lance Cpl. Sean Madison. But it was the second ambush in two days, so Lt. Doug Hsu, about to head out on patrol, made a critical call.
"We're gonna bring out the gun trucks because we've been taking a lot of contact on the egress routes back into the (government) center," he says.
It's a decision that would save his men's lives.
Hsu's first squad heads down some busy streets to take up lookout positions in a house less than a mile from their base.
At the same time, a few streets away, a sniper began targeting his second squad.
Hsu senses growing signs that the enemy may be planning something bigger.
"The people are getting off the streets," he says, "so basically the thinking is they're trying to maneuver in on us."
The tension is written on the men's faces as they plan their route back to base.
"We’ll probably get hit when we're going back to friendly lines," Hsu says.
As the Marines start to head out, they eye Iraqi men huddled just off the street watching them pass.
On the final approach to the base, they find that the shopkeepers have fled, their goods still on display. Then it begins. Out of nowhere, the first shot slammed into a Marine.
On the way back into the base, the firing started. One Marine was wounded in the leg.
Marines rushed into the kill zone to help 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Phillip Tussy. Under constant fire from both sides, they get him to one of the gun trucks and begin emergency treatment.
Heavy machine guns pounded the insurgent positions as automatic rounds and small arms fire hissed. The covering fire from the Humvees continued as the Marines pushed through, finally making it to base.
Cpl. Tussy survived, but there was no rest for his platoon. Hours later, they were on their next operation.
"We expect those sorts of things," says Hsu. "We suck it up and go on with our mission.
It's a mission that's seen some progress — with the Iraqi security forces beginning to share some of the burden. But the challenges are still huge: U.S. commanders admit Ramadi is just as violent today as it was a year ago. In downtown Ramadi, the fight with the Iraqi insurgency is up close – and, as CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan reports,... more -
Debate Over Terrorist Links Video
The Debate over American Intelligence in Iraq is questioned, reminding us that the rest of the world won't sweep our lies under thier rug. They felt more than accomadating after 9/11 and thier patience is worn thin of U.S. policy. The Debate over American Intelligence in Iraq is questioned, reminding us that the rest of the world won't sweep our lies under t... more
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Last days of the American Republic?
Chalmers Johnson: USA must cut back on military spending and build green infrastructure or face ruin. Part 2
Chalmers Johnson: "Something has happened to us comparable to what happened to the former USSR after 1989 ... And that led finally to the dissolution of the USSR."
Chalmers Johnson taught from 1962 to 1992 at the Berkeley and San Diego campuses of the University of California. From 1968 until 1972 he was a consultant to the Office of National Estimates of the Central Intelligence Agency. He has written 17 books. His most recent releases are “Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire” (Metropolitan Books, 2000) and “The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic” (Metropolitan, 2004) and his newest book, “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic" (Metropolitan, 2007). Chalmers has been a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times, the London Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, and The Nation among others, he appears in the 2005 prize-winning documentary film "Why We Fight".
See Part 1 at: http://current.com/items/89370666_massive_us_military_b...
See Part 3 at: http://current.com/items/89378191_the_encirclement_of_r... Chalmers Johnson: USA must cut back on military spending and build green infrastructure or face ruin. Part 2 ... more
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