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POPSWhere are the Republicans? Only .5% of Americans fighting in Iraq.
By Cptenaud. There's no vacation for our troops in Iraq, Joe Galloway writes that as we are, "hard upon the dog days of August. Members of the U.S. Congress and the Iraqi parliament will soon slither away to the shade of cooler rocks, and President Bush will no doubt head off to Crawford to take his frustrations out on some brush with a chainsaw. Meanwhile, in Iraq, the 60,000 American combat troops who daily patrol the most dangerous streets and roads in the world will carry on fighting, dying and bleeding in the broiling sun where temperatures nudge the 130-degree mark and 40 pounds of body armor and Kevlar helmet plus weapon and ammunition weigh more with every step an Infantryman takes. The politicians in Washington and Baghdad will take their summer breaks, happy to postpone any further thought of Iraq at least until September, when the U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus makes his progress report on the American troop surge to Congress, as though that may make some dif
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POPS4,000 GI's Dead - I Ain't No Senators Son, Son Some folks are born made to wave the flag, Ooh, theyre red, white and blue. And when the band plays hail to the chief, Ooh, they point the cannon at you, lord, It aint me, it aint me, I aint no senators son, son. It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, no, Yeah! Some folks are born silver spoon in hand, Lord, dont they help themselves, oh. But when the taxman comes to the door, Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes, It aint me, it aint me, I aint no millionaires son, no. It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, no. Some folks inherit star spangled eyes, Ooh, they send you down to war, lord, And when you ask them, how much should we give? Ooh, they only answer more! more! more! yoh, It aint me, it aint me, I aint no military son, son. It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, one. It aint me, it aint me, I aint no fortunate one, no no no, It aint me, it aint me, I aint no fortunate son, no no no,
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POPSSimpsons take on Iraq war Anyone who thinks Hollywood is run by a liberal cabal won't change his mind after watching The Simpsons' annual Halloween special. The episode, which airs Nov. 5, concludes with an Iraq war satire that may rank as the most pointed political statement the show has ever made. In the segment, aliens invade Springfield to prevent mankind from obtaining "weapons of mass disintegration," but their mission, called "Operation Enduring Occupation," turns into a quagmire. "You said we would be greeted as liberators!" accuses one alien. ...but in the past, the show's writers have usually been careful to maintain an ironic distance from the hot-button issues they've tackled, including abortion and evolution. The Halloween segment, in contrast, feels remarkably earnest, right up to its final line: "This sure is a lot like Iraq will be."...Jean makes no apologies for the sobering tone of the segment: "When you read the headlines, it's just so sad for everybody over there."
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POPSBlackwater draws guns on U.S. Soldiers More: Testifying before Congress last week, 38-year-old Blackwater chief Erik Prince vigorously defended his company's "dedicated security professionals" In deflecting questions about a drunken Blackwater operative who allegedly shot and killed a bodyguard for Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi in the Green Zone on Christmas Eve last year, Prince said that the employee, later identified as Andrew Moonen, had been fined and fired. But on Friday House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman released a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recounting evidence that Moonen was able to return to Iraq and worked there for another company.
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POPSGen. David Petraeus beats megastar Angeline Jolie.... People in the *real* world know who is truly important. No disrespect to Ms. Jolie, but her influence is minimal when it comes to life & death issues. This is also true of Crews, Baldwin, Franken, Hayden, etc..... Celebrities are useless when it comes to getting things accomplished. Nice article that gives credit where credit is due.
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POPSUSA: Drowning in Pretend Patriotism? Any doubts as to this later governing impulse of our imperial ambitions were shattered with the recent news that U.S. advisers to our puppet government in the Green Zone of occupied Iraq have worked out agreements for American oil companies to gain control of Iraqi oil fields. But, then again, what did we expect when we elected a Texas oil hustler, and a failed one at that , to be our president? ... AlterNet
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POPSIraq’s Curse: A Thirst for Final, Crushing Victory A bloodthirsty sectarian war centuries in the making has only just begun. It's going to get much worse before it gets better. Caught in the middle of the civil war are the Americans. To Iraq’s factions, they are the weakest of all the armed groups in one crucial respect: their will is ebbing and their time here is limited. That leaves Iraqis more motivated than ever to cling to their weapons, preparing for what many see as an inevitable plunge into the abyss. “Everyone — the Sunni, the Shia — is playing the waiting game,” an Iraqi leader told me over dinner at his home in the Green Zone. “They’re waiting out the Americans. Everyone is using time against you.”
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POPSBlackwater likely to be reassigned "There is a mutual feeling that the Sept 16 shooting deaths, mean the company cannot continue in it's current role"US officials said. "No diplomats have died while riding in Blackwater's heavily armed convoys."(Surprise?) They are unlikely to be fired, but are likely to be reassigned-and kept on the payroll.
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POPSHow Blackwater Sniper Fire Felled 3 Iraqi Guards Of course the U.S. goverment made a half hearted counterclaim. From the article: "The U.S. government reached a different conclusion. Based on information from the Blackwater guards, who said they were fired upon, the State Department determined that the security team's actions "fell within approved rules governing the use of force," according to an official from the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Neither U.S. Embassy officials nor Blackwater representatives interviewed witnesses or returned to the network, less than a quarter-mile from Baghdad's Green Zone, to investigate."
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POPSThe Press Photographer's Year 2008: Guardian winners Sean Smith winning the multimedia category to add to his successes in the British Press and Royal Television Society journalism awards. Smith's winning entry consisted of stills and video from his time spent with US troops in Baghdad last year. The Press Photographer’s Year, organised in association with the British Press Photographers' Association, is a competition for photographers working around the world
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POPS"Could we bring in nuclear material... pretend [it's] Iraqi?" Wow! Along the lines of the forged letter claiming WMD were in Iraq: Former Marine Intel specialist and chief weapons inspector for the UN in Iraq Scott Ritter, tells a story from a trusted Iraqi insider about an interrogation shortly after the US invasion. Spirited into the Green Zone, "Mohammed" is interviewed by a Army LTC identified only as "Dave."
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POPSWhen will they ever Learn, when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn Previously, I've offered the Bush gang some undeserved advice. It was simple and even more obvious with time. Whatever instinct they have to do something, then don't. Do the opposite or do nothing. Everything they touch turns to dust. Just a few: Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Iran, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, waterboarding, rendition, POWs, Dollar, Oil, Economy, Hamas, Gaza, West Bank, Katrina, civil rights, prisons, racism, FEAR. Only one state has prospered and at the US expense. It's economy roars ahead based on false security and terrorism. Iraq's government partly rules Baghdad's Green Zone. Now Lebanon's government may in time rule a Beirut Green Zone. Only Israel benefits. Bush ignored the democratically elected Hamas in Gaza. Then the US provoked a Hamas military takeover. Why? So Israel could practice judicial assassination and Hamas wouldn't talk peace? Never. And when Hamas through Carter offered the peace to the Zionists? The lamest excuse ever?
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POPSIraq War Purpose Revealed: War for Permanent Bases It was not about 'terrorists", it was about the neoconservative blueprint for a "new middle east" that required permanent millitary bases. This shows the pretext was a lie, and consistent with the Project for New American Century's own policy paper written in Sept. 2000.
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POPSThe Poison Arrow: Corn-Based Ethanol The government seeks policy that stimulates industry, growth, wealth creation; corn production is near, easy, and most importantly: large-scale. Can we keep trying to fuel an ever-upward curve of consumption with fragile oil replacements like food crops? So far, the answer seems a resounding no. Meanwhile, we’re turning the Pacific into a garbage dump, and hoarding seeds for “doomsday”.
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POPS"Rockets are hitting the Green Zone!" US employees protest The assassins of democracy are now trying to force foreign service employees to work in Iraq, but running into this unheard of resistance from government employees. Another 'unheard of,' fact: "Rockets are hitting the Green Zone!: This might become a new catchphrase of the day, like: "Don't taser me, bro; don't taser me!"
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POPSStraight Talk? "At his Green Zone press conference, I asked McCain if he was planning on attacking Iran and if so would it be another "blunder" like the attack on Iraq, to which he answered, "I have no response." That's Straight Talk? Not."
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POPSGreen Zone looking like Sitting Duck
I was just thinking how the recent fighting in Baghdad, focused around the Green Zone and Sard City, had comparisons to the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, and those pictures of the US helicopters fleeing of the roof of the Hanoi US embassy. As a sidenote, It is interesting how an indigenous force uses the terrain and the weather while an occuping army fights against it. Could you imagine the US Army planing actions around sandstorms? I read that in Vietnam the Vietnamese quickly realized US actions, especially air strikes, always took a break for lunch. The USA should negotiate some final political settlement and get out of Iraq. I note there is a lot of the now-common propaganda between the lines involving latest battles, such as the idea the US is battling an "army." It is not an "army." It is a militia. It's made up of citizen soldiers mainly from their own neighborhoods. Compared to the US Army they are like fleas on the back of a dog; fleas that are apparently hard
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