Not surprising. The “bomb proof trucks” merely result in a change in tactics by the insurgency. They develop a tactic, than we respond, and then they respond.
The way to get them to stop killing our troops is to get the hell out.
Category: Iraq
Meanwhile, In Iraq
Bush Administration Lied on Iraqi Reconstruction Spending
The GAOhas the details on Iraqi reconstruction spending, but the nickel tour is that Bush and His Evil Minions™ lied when they said that, “By July 2007, the administration said, Iraq had spent some 24 percent of $10 billion set aside for reconstruction that year”, as was stated in documents given by Crocker and Petraeus to Congress.
But in its report on Tuesday, the accountability office said official Iraqi Finance Ministry records showed that Iraq had spent only 4.4 percent of the reconstruction budget by August 2007. It also said that the rate of spending had substantially slowed from the previous year.
The reason for the difference, said Joseph A. Christoff, the G.A.O.’s director of international affairs and trade, was that few official Iraqi figures for 2007 were available when General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker went to Congress.
So the administration, with the help of the Finance Ministry in Baghdad, appears to have relied on a combination of indicators, including real expenditures, ministries’ suggestions of projects they intended to carry out, and contracts that were still under negotiation, Mr. Christoff said. But actual spending does not seem to have lived up to those estimates for spending on reconstruction, a budget item sometimes called capital or investment expenditures, he added.
“So it looked like an improvement, but it wasn’t an improvement,” he said.
Meaning that there was no data, and that they did not look for ways to get that data, because they were under orders to sell Bush’s endless war™.
This was not bad data, this was Crocker and Petraeus telling the Iraqis the numbers they wanted, and then getting those numbers.
BTW, the 2007 number on Iraqi spending is LESS than the 2006 number. It’s getting worse, not better.
Justice Deptartment Says State Department Offers of Immunity Make Prosecution Difficult
Gee, I wonder if those offers of immunity, which make complication prosecution because they, “might make it difficult to prove that evidence gathered by federal prosecutors did not stem from statements made by the guards after they were promised limited immunity,” have anything to do with the fact that this guy is a loyal Republican donor from a family of loyal Republican donors.
It certainly seems that Blackwater has been using State to run interference on drunken murder, fraudulent billing practices, and human sacrifice.
OK, the last one is pulled out of my ass, but I’m going BillO here.
Democrats Move to Prevent Bush From Encumbering Next President on Iraq
Honestly, I don’t see these going anywhere, because of the gutless leadership in the House and Senate, but Representative Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have introduced bills prohibiting the Bush administration from entering into a binding security arrangement with Iraq. They require the President to follow Article II of the constitution, and get the “advice and consent” of the Senate.
You can see the House version here.
FWIW, it should be introduced once a month leading up to election day, just to make Republicans vote for the war, over, and over, and over again.
For the life of me, with a substantial majority of Republicans wanting a pullout, and a president who is less popular than the idea of Britney Spears* as a baby sitter, that the Republican delegation continues to back this failed war of a failed president.
They are drowning, and they are throwing themselves an anvil, and calling it water wings.
*Yes, I know that I have promised not to mention They Who Must Not Be Named, but this is not a discussion of her, rather an invocation.
2018
That’s what the Iraqi Defense Minister said, he wants US troops in country until 2018.
To quote Ahnuld Schwartzenegger from Terminator 1, “F*^% You Asshole!”
Iraqi Bill to Reintigrate Baath Party Members Appears to Be a Fraud
It appears that the bill is, “ So riddled with loopholes and caveats to the point that some Sunni and Shiite officials say it could actually exclude more former Baathists than it lets back in, particularly in the crucial security ministries“.
So my previous report on the issue is wrong, and al-Malaki is acting true to form and doing his level best to ethnically cleanse Iraq’s Sunnis.
It’s a phony success to create a phony victory in a real war.
Bush is Going to Keep Troops in Iraq
Yes, he says that he he is open to the possibility of slowing or stopping plans to bring home more U.S. troops from Iraq, which means that he’s not going to bring them home.
He’ll make some announcements, but when the tire hits the road, they won’t be redeployed.
Why, because George W. Bush thinks that all that matters is “victory”, which he defines as staying in Iraq, no matter how many terrorists are created, or how many troops are lost, or how many unstable nations move toward nuclear weapons.
It’s all about him, and he needs to show that he’s “brave and resolute” with other people’s lives and other people’s money.
Finally, Some Political Progress in Iraq
The Iraqi Parliament has finally passed a law allowing for low level Baath party members to return to government jobs.
In a one party state, the bureaucrats will be members of that party, and banning them all from public service was just one of L. Paul Bremer’s many mistakes.
Of course, this should have passed in 2 weeks, but it took about a year and a half.
The $736 Million 1000 Man Stove on the Euphrates
Yes, after 736 million dollars, the State Department’s Baghdad Embassy is a fire hazard.
In addition, the power plant and electrical has not been tested at all.
No surprise. A ¾ Billion contract handed out to a, “Contractor had never built an embassy and did not realize that under State Department rules it needed approval for substituting certain materials.”
But I’m sure that they have a long history of contributing to the Republican party.
Blackwater Destroys Physical Evidencem
Here’s a surprise, after flipping out and indiscriminately spraying civilians with bullets, the Blackwater mercenaries security contractorspatched and repainted their trucks almost immediately.
The repairs essentially destroyed evidence that Justice Department investigators hoped to examine in a criminal case that has drawn worldwide attention. The Sept. 16 shooting has strained U.S. relations with the Iraqi government, which wants Blackwater expelled from the country. It also has become a flash point in the debate over whether contractors are immune from legal consequences for their actions in a war zone.
They knew that there was going to be an investigation, and they knew that the physical evidence was important, and they still destroyed it.
This is a slam dunk for obstruction of justice.
Regardless of your position on mercenaries private security contractors, it’s clear that Blackwater conducts their business in such a way that they should be shut down.
Of course, unlike the scariest bitch you’d ever want to meet, Martha Stewart, the management of the firm is Republican, so there will probably be no legal repurcussions.
Damn
6 US soldiers killed by booby trapped house.
I want them home.
Pentagon Refused to Invesgigate KBR Rape Charges
Just lovely.
I guess that it might interfere with Dick Cheney’s deferred compensation package from Halliburton.
Bush and His Evil Minions™ Covering Up for Halliburton’s Rapists
Seriously, there should not be an issue here. This isn’t some obscure question of regulatory policy or philosophy. This is rape, and the Bush admin should not be covering it up.
100 Years in Iraq???? WTF!!!
H/t to GNB.
Yes, that is John McCain calling for 100 years in Iraq, and yes, that is Joseph Lieberman on stage with him, and yes, they are both batsh$# insane, and yes, he’s toast.
Most Republicans want out, and the number is overwhelming in New Hampshire, particularly when you consider the independents who might vote for him.
He is toast.
Tom Lantos Retiring
The reason given is esophageal cancer, but doubtless the challenge of Jackie Speier in the primary, where she was leading by 30% in the polls, had a lot to do with that too.
It comes down to the fact that he was a very strong hawk on Iraq, and any Iraq Hawk deserves to lose their seat.
FWIW, part of his statement is very disingenuous.
It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country.
Of course, Leon Blum (France), Bruno Kreisky (Austria), both of whom were holocaust survivors and not in America, and, of course, Menachem Begin in Israel were all PMs and Holocaust survivors. (H/t The Reality Based Community)
This kind of ahistorical American exceptionalism is de regeur in US politics, and dangerous, because it leads to things like invading Iraq.
Romney: Bush Mismanaged War
Well, well, well, it looks like Romney is saying that Bush mismanaged the Iraq war, when just 2 weeks ago, he was calling Huckabee a traitor for saying the same thing.
This is Romney as businessman. He’s trying to do what it takes to close the deal, in this case, flip-flopping.
Edwards Calls for Complete Pullout of Iraq
Edwards calls for a complete pullout, including training troops.
He’s right. The Iraqis already know the basics of combat, the finer points could be taught outside of the country to those select few who need this information, and the US military, particularly the army is hostile to the idea of teaching foreigners about civil society.
They see their role as engaging the enemy in the battle space, and destroying them, and that any peacekeeping or nation building is antithetical to their mission.
There is nothing to indicate any real rapproachment amongst the Iraqi factions, and our presence simply delays, and makes more bloody, any eventual resolution.
Having any number of trainers there entails logistics and security that would keep us militarily engage in Iraq for a very long time.
The Surge is Working!!!
A string of suicide bombings in has hit Iraq: (see also here)
- On Tuesday, a suicide bombing killed 36 and wounded at least 35 others in Baghdad’s Zayouna (the worst attack since August)
- A female suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint of neighbourhood patrol volunteers Wednesday morning in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, reports Reuters. The attack killed 10
- The abduction and killing of five relatives on Tuesday morning in Jalawla, one of the five killed was a policeman.
- fighters from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia kidnapped a farmer and killed his son in Dhuluiya, and stole 200 of the farmer’s sheep. (not going with the obvious comment)
- The severed head of a member of an called Awakening Council, the Sunni Militias created and armed by David Petraeus was found north of Muqdadiya.
- Gunmen killed three people in a village 40 miles south of Kirkuk.
We need to get out sooner, rather than later. We are doing no good there.
Military Engineering Kangaroo Court of Bilal Hussein
This guy is a Pulitzer prize winning photographer, and Scott Horton has the goods on the phony trial, designed to create a real conviction, that the US military has set up for him.
Go read, then go contact your congressman.