Back in January, before the Bush troop surge began, about the progress in Anbar Province:
You’ve seen it, I know, in Anbar province, where it has sort ofgone back and forth. And right now there appears to be a trend in thepositive direction where sheikhs are stepping up and they do want to beaffiliated with and supported by the U.S. Marines and Army forceswho are in Anbar province. That was not the case as little as perhapssix months ago, or certainly before that. [Senate Armed ServicesCommittee hearing, 1/23/07]
Oh, and by the way, we are anyway. So that pretty much puts a dent in the claim that sending more troops into Anbar calmed the situation. Anbar was a tactical success, not a strategic success.
Not a mention of during the hearing or on any news network:
Seven U.S. soldiers were killed and 11 injured in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad on Monday, the U.S. military said.
Still, today that security in Baghdad is better since the troop surge began:
Coalition and Iraqi operations have helped reduce ethno-sectarianviolence as well, bringing down the number of ethno-sectarian deathssubstantially in Baghdad and across Iraq since the height of thesectarian violence last December.
Actually, that is not true. As far as civilians in Baghdad were concerned, the last have been bad:
428 Iraqis were murdered in Baghdad in August, their bodies dumped inthe streets. In July, 612 Iraqis were murdered, according to theInterior Ministry.
I don't believe a word of what was said today by Petraeus and Crocker.
The Petraeus-Crocker hearing is coming back from intermission. I caught most of it. For the most part, I was unimpressed with some of the questioning on the part of the Democrats. They could have done a better job of putting their foot down and challenging some of David Petraeus' vague statements.
Crocker and Petraeus cited gains in certain areas, such as Anbar and Northern Iraq, yet left out the fact that the security situation has gone backward in , West Baghdad and even certain portions of .
Also, it was either Petraeus or Crocker that bragged about Iraq's electricity coming back up to speed, despite clear evidence that shows otherwise.
I will post clips from the hearing later today. Feel free to comment and give your take.
For the millionth time, we are not surging in Anbar. We are surging in Baghdad, with little success. The Anbar Province is safer today because Sunni tribes made the political decision to oppose foreign al Qaeda fighters. I alluded to this point yesterday.
takes it one step farther:
When are the people in the media going to grow a brain? Thisso-called surge is a disaster, with zero results. Yes, I said zero.
Now let me say something that is going to sound contradictory totheir small, little viewpoints (let's call it that, to be generous).Our strategy in the Anbar province is working. But wait, I just saidthe surge isn't working. How can that be?
That's because our strategy in the Anbar province has NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING to do with the surge. It doesn't involve more US troops. It involves less US troops!
Can someone please use their minds? Has anyone thought for more thanthree seconds about what our strategy in Anbar is? It is to turn theSunni insurgency from our enemies to our allies - so that they do thefighting for us! We do not have more troops fighting in the Anbarprovince now, we have less.
Also, the Sunni tribes began fighting al Qaeda .
Regardless of the facts, General Petraeus will try to connect the surge to the successes in Anbar. It is sad how the only proof that the Administration can give that the surge is working is based on flawed reasoning.
What a wild rhetorical ride this has been over the last few days!
Late last week, I cited evidence that the Bush Administration encouraged looting after the fall of Saddam Hussein in order to help downsize government and privatize it for defense contractors.
According to a on newsstands starting today, Bush said his policy all along was "to keep the (Iraqi) army intact" -- in other words, Bush was never kept in the loop about de-Baathification.
That turns out to be a lie. Paul Bremer, the former had of the Coalition Provisional Authority, saw Bush's quote and disputes it. Bremer says to fracture the remaining elements of the Baath government:
A previously undisclosed exchange of letters shows that President Bush was told in advance by his top Iraq envoy in May 2003 of a plan to “dissolve Saddam’s military and intelligence structures,†a plan that the envoy, Paul L. Bremer, said referred to dismantling the Iraqi Army.
Mr. Bremer provided the letters to The New York Times on Monday afterreading that Mr. Bush was quoted in a new book as saying that Americanpolicy had been “to keep the army intact†but that it “didn’t happen.â€
“We must make it clear to everyone that we mean business: that Saddamand the Baathists are finished,†Mr. Bremer wrote in a letter that wasdrafted on May 20, 2003, and sent to the president on May 22 through Donald H. Rumsfeld, then secretary of defense.
One day later, Mr. Bush wrote back a short thank you letter. “Yourleadership is apparent,†the president wrote. “You have quickly made apositive and significant impact. You have my full support andconfidence.â€
In the end, both Bush and Bremer are guilty. But by leaking this information to the New York Times, Bremer is reminding everyone that this was Bush's decision too. He had complete control over what happened, and was in constant contact with Bremer. It was not as if Bremer screwed him over.
Lastly, the words, "You have my full support and confidence" really underscore Bush's indifference to detail. Disbanding the Iraqi army was a huge decision. Where were the tough questions?
The Bush Administration is latching onto any talking point that will keep Congress from ending the war. One of their claims is that the troop surge is responsible for the progress in Anbar Province. But actually, according to the , western Iraq began to see the results even before the troop increase was implemented:
In truth, the progress inAnbar was initiated by the Iraqis themselves, a point Gates himselfmade, saying the Sunni tribes decided to fight and retake control fromal-Qaida many months before Bush decided to send an extra 4,000 Marinesto Anbar as part of his troop buildup.
So much for that argument.
Besides, the Republican rhetoric on the surge has been lop-sided ever since February. Before June, the Administration told Democrats to not judge the surge until all additional troops were in place. Then in July, only two weeks after all the extra soldiers reached Iraq, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went on and suddenly proclaimed that Anbar was saved because of the troop escalation. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) reminded him that the change in Anbar happened over a longer period of time, before the surge began.
GRAHAM: The surge has been in place for two weeks, and we have done more in Anbar in --
WEBB: We didn't do that in two weeks.
The military stability in Anbar was caused by political stability, not visa versa. There is political stability because local insurgents are tired of al Qaeda foreigners, and they want to flush them out. It is not because we sent more US forces there.
If just sending more US forces into a particular area is a precursor to political stability, then how come political stability is still a problem in Baghdad, Diyala and up north?
Two years after hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, there are still so manypeople without homes. Robert Greenwald has a new video and message abouthurricane Katrina, and what you can do to help.
Below is quoted from an email sent by Jamiah Adams and Paris Marron of
Tomorrow marks the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and still thereare tens of thousands of families without homes. 30,000 families are scatteredacross the country in FEMA apartments, 13,000 are in trailers, and hardly any ofthe 77,000 rental units destroyed in New Orleans have been rebuilt. To sharesome of these people?s stories, we have put together a short film, "Whenthe Saints Go Marching In."
During the making of this video, we heard the heartbreaking stories of goodpeople unable to return home. We have heard the story of the Aguilar family wholost their home to the storm and only received $4,000 in payments from theirinsurance company. We have met Mr. Washington, an 87-year-old man and formercarpenter, who owned three homes prior to the storm. He is still living in aFEMA trailer today. And we've met Julie, who could have returned to her job andnormal life, if the government had opened up the public housing units that shehad lived in prior to the storm
is a site dedicated to helping the victims of Katrina.
'Two years after Katrina and thousands are still w/o homes'
I don't understand how some of our politicians sleep at night, knowing theconditions others are in...and not only in New Orleans, but throughout Our Country.
You can sign a petition for Senator Dodd.
We, the undersigned, urge the United States Senate to pass (S1668) to assist the Gulf Coast region in rebuilding the infrastructure lost after the Katrina and Rita disasters.
Passage of this bill is an important step towards returning the Gulf Coast residents to their homes.
The signing of the petition consists of Name, email and Zip Code.
With the news that Michael Chertoff may be Bush's top choice to replaceAlbert Gonazales, I thought it would be appropriate to post this video of his(what I believe to be) incompetence. So sit back and watch the show, then askyourself "is this the guy that deserves or is qualified to be the next AttorneyGeneral of The United States"? I'm sure if he is chosen, the petitions will start flying again (hopefully).
Tim Russert exposed the lies that came from the administration after Katrina
Well another Bushee has left the building! I'd like to think I helped by signing a few of the many of petitions out there calling for Gonzales's resignation. "I can't recall" exactly how many I did sign, but as they popped up, I signed.
''
WACO, Tex., Aug. 27 — Attorney General ,whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjurybefore Congress, announced his resignation in Washington today,declaring that he had “lived the American dream†by being able to leadthe Justice Department
Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation for months,submitted it to President Bush by telephone on Friday, a senioradministration official said. There had been rumblings over the weekendthat Mr. Gonzales’s departure was imminent, although the White Housesought to quell the rumors. ...
was a major player in getting the word out.
'The President Won't Fire Him -- But You Can'
'New Impeach Gonzales Video. Part 2: The Crimes'
'' was also another big player in getting the word out.
I am sure this will be an interesting week of news. I suppose we'll have FNC(Fox) telling us "come on, the guy wanted to spend time with hisfamily", then go into a few rants about some of the fallen Democrats.
I saw a segment on MSNBC's Countdown about Jimmy Justice, a "regularJoe" Brooklyn resident that was fed up with the double standards of the NYCtraffic agents. I am sure this is not isolated to NYC, and I am sure we have allexperienced this type of behavior and hypocrisy in our towns and citiesUSA.
J.J. (Jimmy Justice) keeps an eye out for the traffic agents breaking lawsand video tapes the crime in progress i.e. parking their official vehicle infrot of a fire hydrant to run in and grab a cup of coffee or lunch. Trafficagents play an important role in society, and ticket individuals that break thelaw. Naturally no one wants a ticket and we tend to get angry when we do getone, but that's life and the law. Actual Police Officers get away withtheir minor crimes, and that's been the way it's been since the beginning oftime and will continue to be that way, but traffic agents are not even close torealizing that status.
Anyone who has experienced dealing with the NYC 'personality-less, I have aticket pad cockiness' of one of these agents know exactly the frustration we experience.
On August 17, 2007 'Live From Studio 1A' Dick Gregory interviewed JimmyJustice in a piece called '' with video
J.J. currently has 11 videos posted on his YouTube account ''.and you wouldn't believe some of the responses he receives. You would think thelaw breakers would be humble and friendly in order to squelch the controversyand not act like 'holier than thou' on a video camera.
Here are a couple of examples:
NYC Board of Ed "teaches" its employees to break the law
Traffic Enforcement Agent Blocks Fire Hydrant During A Fire (She responds with "don't you think there's something wrong with filming somebody?" LOL...that's funny)
traffic cop Anderson breaks the law & has a message for NYC (This one is classic, the agent gets "back-up")
**** CAUTION: Adult Content Vulgarity Used. ****
Local NYC Contacts:
Quick Story: One of our company delivery trucks were double parked early one morning (delivering office supplies and very light traffic) when a traffic agent approached. I was outside smoking a cigarette and before the agent stated writing, I told him the driver is going to get fired if he receives another ticket, I also mentioned the driver had a family and was going through some hard times. The agent wrote him the ticket. The good news is I was lying about the driver getting fired.
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