Six years ago the lights went out in Iraq

Bush invaded Iraq six years ago today.From ICasualties.org:

U.S. Confirmed Deaths
Reported Deaths: 4259
Confirmed Deaths: 4258
Pending Confirmation: 1
DoD Confirmation List

From Just Foreign Policy.org


My video from last years anniversary:

Iraqi reporter hurls his shoes and insults at Bush..

He verbally bitchslaps da Shrub as well. From MSNBC via HuffPo:



From the HuffPo writeup:

McClatchy reports that the man who hurled his shoes at Bush during his press conference was an Iraqi journalist. CNN notes that this is considered an insult among Muslims:

An Iraqi television journalist hurled two shoes at President Bush on Sunday during a joint news conference Bush was holding with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to mark the signing of a U.S.-Iraq security agreement.


Bush had just finished his prepared remarks in which he said the security agreement was made possible by the U.S. surge of troops earlier this year, whhen the journalist, Muthathar al Zaidi pulled his shoes off and hurled them at the president. "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog," Zaidi shouted.

Bush dodged the shoes and was not struck. Bodyguards quickly wrestled Zaidi to the floor and hauled him, kicking and screaming, from the room. Two other Iraqi journalists were briefly detained after one of them called Zaidi's actions "courageous."

Maliki tried to confiscate all the video tape of the incident..the American government personnel intervened and all journalists were allowed to keep their video. As WaPo notes, tossing ones shoes at someone is the most extreme form of 'dissing':

Zaidi was seated in the second row of seats, about 12 feet from Bush's lectern. Zaidi, colleagues said, was kidnapped by Shiite militiamen last year and was later released. Throwing a shoe at someone is considered the worst possible insult in Iraq, and is meant to show extreme disrespect and hatred towards someone.

As the BBC notes:

With his second shoe, which the president also managed to dodge, Mr Zaidi said: "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq."

Bush is on his way to Afghanistan, wonder what treats await him there, ya know? ;)

Massive fraud and corruption in Iraq government-No kidding?

The post title is heavy on the sarcasm. We get little tidbits of news about the simply massive amount of fraud and corruption but then...it just fades away into the sunset.

I am tired of that bullshit. It's huge and its costing us, as in American's...Billions upon billions.

So, what does Maliki do? Why, according to a NYT writeup, he fires the folks charged with ferreting out the graft and corruption.

Reminds me of the Bush administration...how about you? From the NYT's link above:

The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is systematically dismissing Iraqi oversight officials, who were installed to fight corruption in Iraqi ministries by order of the American occupation administration, which had hoped to bring Western standards of accountability to the notoriously opaque and graft-ridden bureaucracy here.

The dismissals, which were confirmed by senior Iraqi and American government officials on Sunday and Monday, have come as estimates of official Iraqi corruption have soared. One Iraqi former chief investigator recently testified before Congress that $13 billion in reconstruction funds from the United States had been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste by Iraqi government officials.

The moves have not been publicly announced by Mr. Maliki’s government, but word of them has begun to circulate through the layers of Iraqi bureaucracy as Parliament prepares to vote on a long-awaited security agreement.

You know...if keeping our soldiers alive and in one piece isn't enough of a reason to bring them ALL home now...this fucking horseshit should be, even for the neocons and the extreme rightwing nutjobs for crying out loud.

And the secrecy..another ala BushCo bush league move. Also there is the fear of retaliation. To speak on the record about what happens in the Iraq government can cost one their life. Again from the NYT:

Senior Iraqi officials and four of the dismissed officials, many of whom asked not to be named for fear of government reprisals, said inspectors had already been removed in the Ministries of Water Resources, Culture, Trade, and Youth and Sport. In addition, inspectors have been removed from the cabinet-level Central Bank of Iraq, and from two religious offices, the Sunni Endowment and the Christian Endowment, whose leaders carry the rank of deputy minister.

One senior Iraqi official said that the list of ministries whose inspectors had been dismissed also included the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the ministry’s public affairs office denied that on Monday.

Sweet-friggin-Jesus, the inspector for the Central Bank has been shitcanned...what a fucking farce.

Just remember, this is YOUR money being squandered, or to be more specific...your children and grandchildren's money since we borrow it from fucking China and others. Oh and typical BushCo bullshit here too: The inspectors and investigators get no protection from the US who has demanded that they be put in place to begin with. Again the NYT piece:

But Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who leads an independent oversight office in Washington, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, and who is currently working in Iraq, said he knew of six of the dismissals. He said the inspectors general were vulnerable because once their offices were created, the United States provided little support and training..[]

This shit makes me crazy...or crazier..not sure which m'dear reader. The second page of the writeup is sure to jack your jaw...or you simply do not give a shit what is done with our billions. Check it out if you have the balls, or the medications to relieve the anxiety that will come with reading how Maliki is stacking the deck, allowing known graft and corruption and putting suceeding in putting all government actions in secret, without one friggin ounce of sunlight, oversight or accountability..Saddam Hussein-style.

I. Just. Love. The. Irony...don't you?

I hope Bush chokes on it like a pretzel...every remaining day of his miserable fucking life.

Crossposted, without all the vulgarity, at the UnCapitalist Journal. ;)

Ray McGovern to Colin Powell: Come clean dude

ConsortiumNews has an article up by the wonderful Ray McGovern. Ray is the man that spoke truth to power when BushCo was lying their way into the Iraq War. Ray spent an entire career working for the CIA as an analyst. He is also co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Ray has a few choice words for Colin Powell on how to restore his reputation. From the article:

Dear Colin,

You have said you regret the “blot” on your record caused by your parroting spurious intelligence at the U.N. to justify war on Iraq. On the chance you may not have noticed, I write to point out that you now have a unique opportunity to do some rehab on your reputation.

Ray then goes on to point out the obvious to Powell:

Your U.N. speech of Feb. 5, 2003 left me speechless, so to speak — largely because of the measure of respect I had had for you before then.

Outrage is too tame a word for what quickly became my reaction and that of my colleagues in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), as we watched you perform before the Security Council less than six weeks before the unnecessary, illegal attack on Iraq.

The purpose — as well as the speciousness — of your address were all too transparent and, in a same-day commentary, we VIPS warned President George W. Bush that, if he attacked Iraq, “the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic.”

Catastrophic is an understatement. What happened is beyond catastrosphic to me. McGovern then goes on to list each lie perpetrated by either Powell or the smarmy idiots in the Bush Administration. He doesn't mince words and he backs up what he says. Its worth a read, so check out the entire article. Here is what McGovern suggests Colin Powell do:

Let me suggest that you offer yourself as a witness to help clear the air on these very important issues. This would seem the responsible, patriotic thing to do in the circumstances and could also have the salutary effect of beginning the atonement process for that day of infamy at the Security Council.

If we hear no peep out of you in the coming weeks, we shall not be able to escape concluding one of two things:

(1) That, as was the case with the White House Situation Room sessions on torture, you were a willing participant in suppressing/falsifying key intelligence on Iraq; or

(2) That you lack the courage to expose the scoundrels who betrayed not only you, but also that segment of our country and our world that still puts a premium on truth telling and the law.

Think about it.

With all due respect,

Ray McGovern

Its simple and straightforward isn't it? McGovern suggests Powell appear before Conyer's committee and tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Any bets on whether Powell will do it? My guess is no..how about yours?

Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari: US must provide a "very clear timeline" to withdraw its troops from Iraq

I don't know how much clearer BushCo and John McCain need to hear this from the Iraq Government. From the Yahoo article:

In an interview with Reuters, Zebari said the agreement, including the timeline, was "very close" and would probably be presented to the Iraqi parliament in early September.

Asked if Iraq would accept a document that did not include dates for a withdrawal, Zebari said: "No, no. Definitely there has to be a very clear timeline."

BushCo is still pushing for immunity for US troops with regard to Iraqi Law prosecutions, which is going over like the proverbial lead balloon. Also being pushed by BushCo: the amount of power the American military will have to detain Iraqi citizens, and their authority to conduct military operations.

Frankly, I don't care what excuses or rationale are used...I want our troops home NOW.

Artwork by the wonderfully talented Mark Bryan.

Grandpa knows best...

Weathervane McCain seems to think he knows what is best for Iraq..not Maliki. Amazingly enough, some folks will buy this bullshittery.

BushCo will NOT sew up a permanent deal with Iraq

Seems part of Bush's legacy hit the skids today when it was announced that talks with the government of Iraq, regarding a long-term agreement, fell apart. From MSNBC:

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have abandoned efforts to conclude a comprehensive agreement governing the long-term status of U.S troops in Iraq before the end of the Bush presidency, according to senior U.S. officials, effectively leaving talks over an extended U.S. military presence there to the next administration.

In place of the formal status-of-forces agreement negotiators had hoped to complete by July 31, the two governments are now working on a "bridge" document, more limited in both time and scope, that would allow basic U.S. military operations to continue beyond the expiration of a U.N. mandate at the end of the year.

This breakdown warms the cockles of my little black heart don't cha know? It means that no matter how hard Bush's negotiators pushed, Iraq refused to cow to their demands. What IS important is that Iraq is demanding a timeline, as I stated in a post last week. The MSNBC writeup has the following about Iraq's demands for a US withdrawal schedule:

Although President Bush has repeatedly rejected calls for a troop withdrawal timeline, "we are talking about dates," acknowledged one U.S. official close to the negotiations. Iraqi political leaders "are all telling us the same thing. They need something like this in there. . . . Iraqis want to know that foreign troops are not going to be here forever."

New document to contain timeline
Unlike the status-of-forces agreements between the United States and countries such as South Korea and Japan, where large numbers of U.S. troops have been based for decades, the document now under discussion with Iraq is likely to cover only 2009. Negotiators expect it to include a "time horizon," with specific goals for U.S. troop withdrawal from Baghdad and other cities and installations such as the former Saddam Hussein palace that now houses the U.S. Embassy.

So, instead of admitting that Iraq wants a timetable for withdrawal of US forces..its being called..a..cough..time horizon.

Jesus H. Christ, won't anyone admit to anything in BushCo?

Iraqi government wants a timetable..nothing less.

oh yeah..how is BushCo going to deal with this? He said it yesterday..another Iraqi official said the same damn thing today. The top Iraqi security adviser said the same fucking thing today:

Iraq will not accept any security agreement with the United States unless it includes dates for the withdrawal of foreign forces, the government's national security adviser said on Tuesday.

McCain is scrambling for a response to this..seriously..the old bag of batshit had this to say today:

McCain was silent on the comments Monday. But today, his top foreign policy adviser declined to criticize Maliki or distance McCain from him. And they sought to portray Maliki's comments as consistent with the Republican nominee's long-standing position.

"Senator McCain has always said that conditions on the ground -- including the security threats posed by extremists and terrorists, and the ability of Iraqi forces to meet those threats -- would be key determinants in U.S. force levels," said adviser Randy Scheunemann, who criticized Sen. Barack Obama's "constantly shifting positions" on Iraq.

More bullshit and bravado from the reichwing nutjobs people..sick bastards.

"Joseph never came home."

The Iraq soldier in the photo to the right died of a drug overdose last week. In 2003 that picture was splashed across the MSM, his name was Joseph Patrick Dwyer. From the Editor and Publisher article:

Dwyer served with the 3rd Squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of Fort Stewart, Ga. He earned the Combat Medical Badge and other military awards.

His mother said the military could have done more to help with post-traumatic stress. "He just couldn't get over the war," Maureen Dwyer said. "He just couldn't do it. Just wasn't Joseph. Joseph never came home."

More soldiers are going to die not from physical wounds but from the emotional and psychological wounds they received from multiple tours of duty and just the carnage of war in general. Again from the E&P writeup:

The day he died, Dwyer apparently took pills and inhaled the fumes of an aerosol can in an act known as “huffing.” Thomas said Dwyer then called a taxi company for a ride to the hospital...

When he returned from war after three months in Iraq, he developed the classic, treatable symptoms of PTSD. like so many other combat vets, he didn’t seek help. In restaurants, he sat with his back to the wall. He avoided crowds. He stayed away from friends. He abused inhalants, he told Newsday. In 2005, he and his family talked with Newsday to try to help other service members who might need help. He talked with the paper from a psychiatric ward at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he was committed after his first run-in with the police.

There are more invisibly wounded soldiers than dead soldiers right fucking now m'dear reader. And their numbers will only increase as this madness known as the Iraq War continues. PTSD is a silent killer. I dealt with my former husbands PTSD for almost 20 years. He never received proper treatment for it as a Vietnam Veteran. Last I knew, he was living homeless in AZ. He fiinally walked away from life and our family never to return.

I want these Iraq War Vets to get the treatment and help they deserve. I demand it of our government.

All of us should.

Naomi Klein's 4th of July message-Its a doozey

It's a good read,entitled "Bush-Led 'Disaster Capitalism' Exploits Worldwide Misery to Make a Buck" and Naomi nails it. From Alternet via The Nation, a passage:

And the disaster capitalists have been busy -- from private firefighters already on the scene in Northern California's wildfires, to land grabs in cyclone-hit Burma, to the housing bill making its way through Congress. The bill contains little in the way of affordable housing, shifts the burden of mortgage default to taxpayers and makes sure that the banks that made bad loans get some payouts. No wonder it is known in the hallways of Congress as "The Credit Suisse Plan," after one of the banks that generously proposed it.

It would of been nice to have our National Guard here in Cali to fight the 1700 fires we got going on...but alas, most of them are fighting Bush's war in Iraq or Afghanistan. Ms. Klein then goes after Iraq and the OIL ministry:

But these cases of disaster capitalism are amateurish compared with what is unfolding at Iraq's oil ministry. It started with no-bid service contracts announced for ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and Total (they have yet to be signed but are still on course). Paying multinationals for their technical expertise is not unusual. What is odd is that such contracts almost invariably go to oil service companies -- not to the oil majors, whose work is exploring, producing and owning carbon wealth. As London-based oil expert Greg Muttitt points out, the contracts make sense only in the context of reports that the oil majors have insisted on the right of first refusal on subsequent contracts handed out to manage and produce Iraq's oil fields. In other words, other companies will be free to bid on those future contracts, but these companies will win.

Such crap. Utter crap and fuckwittery our government pulls m'dear reader. For more 'straight talk' check out her piece here.

Holy Joe's fearmongering Sunday

From C&L a Face the Nation stump for Liebermann. Holy Joe is fearmongering his ass off.



Well thank God Iran isn't running Iraq as Holy Joe swears they would be if we had left Iraq a couple of years ago. And remember, the surge is working and soon, very soon, all of Al-Qaeda will be run out of Iraq on a fucking rail..and life will be simply wonderful for the remaining Iraqi's.

It's a two minute video..and thankfully that is about all I can take of this bag of batshit.

TomsDispatch has a realistic view of the war in Iraq. You can check it out here.

KO's special comment tonight..Bush, Golf and our war dead

It was so good, I was applauding in my own fucking living room. God damn it was good.. And to catch Bush in an insincere lie to boot...priceless!

A kiss, a Hat Tip and a big cyber hug to John Amato, Silent Patriot and all the folks at Crooks and Liars that keep us informed and make sure we have the video asap. I heart all of you :)

Branding the war on Terrah....

KO has a great Special Comment tonight..watch it if you can. If not, I will put it up here as soon as it comes available. Fucking spot-on.

Motorcade of Iraq's First Lady bombed..

She was going to a cultural event when her motorcade was nailed. She was unhurt, but four of her body guards were injured.

Meanwhile, in the slums of Sadr City, two children were killed along with eight adults. 2.5 million Iraqis live in that squalor. Cultural events are something they don't think about, at least I would hazard a guess on that one.

And four more American Soldiers were killed too.

But the asshole "military spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll told reporters on Saturday that attacks carried out by al-Qaida declined last month after increasing earlier this year.

He said there was "no place for al-Qaida" to hide in Iraq and U.S. troops were continuing to hunt them down in Diyala province and the city of Mosul, where many are believed to have fled north from Baghdad."

Right pal..whatever you say, you lying bag of batshit.

Soldier death toll in Iraq hits 7 month high..

So much for Petraeus' bullshit that deaths are down and things are better since "the surge" started. This article gives the numbers, which don't lie...unlike General Petraeus:

The U.S. military death toll hit a seven-month high of 50 on Wednesday — with more than half the losses in Baghdad as American forces wage growing street battles against Shiite fighters.

Iraqi civilian deaths also remained high following the Iraqi government crackdown on Shiite militia factions — accused by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of using residents as human shields during close combat in the teeming Sadr City slum.

The clashes in Sadr City — a base for the powerful Mahdi Army militia — show little sign of easing as Iraqi and U.S. troops try to exert control over an area containing nearly half of the Baghdad's population.

It makes me wonder outloud..would General Davy sell his soul to the devil? Or has he already done that? Rat bastards.Tomorrow is the anniversary of Mission Accomplished...yeah...a real treat to celebrate that one...

Loyal Bushies get insider info..no..really?

The fuckwits at the Pentagon have been feeding retired military officers information, which they in turn use as pundits and talking heads on various tv and radio news shows.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Come on...there is no way that anyone should be freaked by this disclosure. From the NYT article:

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration's wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

Now what does bug the hell out of me is the link between these retired officers and those carpetebaggers known as military contractors. That is total and complete bullshit. As the NYT states, that relation is hardly, if ever, disclosed to the public. Once again, our MSM is playing with the truth by refusing to provide full disclosure. As this section states:

...several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration's war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.

BushCo again seeks to get their propaganda straight to the people..via the easiest way possible..the airwaves. Some of the retired mouthpieces now question the information they were given by the pricks in the Pentagon. They realize that they too were duped. Here is one of the 'analyists' take on the bullshit they were fed:

Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who has taught information warfare at the National Defense University, said the campaign amounted to a sophisticated information operation. "This was a coherent, active policy," he said.

As conditions in Iraq deteriorated, Mr. Allard recalled, he saw a yawning gap between what analysts were told in private briefings and what subsequent inquiries and books later revealed.

"Night and day," Mr. Allard said, "I felt we'd been hosed."

We were all hosed Mr. Allard..every one of us that watched or listened to you jerkoffs spouting the BushCo line. Once again...BushCo politicized a process. But the Pentagon has taken some major heat this week on their spoon-feeding of bullshit to the retired military minds. They are going to....this is rich...stop and reconsider the practice:

Hastings said he is concerned about allegations that the Defense Department's relationship with the retired military analysts was improper.

Of course it's improper..how could it not be?

Artwork by the talented Worried Shrimp

We could of gotten here by doing NOTHING.

It's funny, but then..its not.

Iraq Me Dave Petraeus..Ethno-Sectarian Competition?

I think I like Jon Stewart's take on the Dog and Pony show that just took place in DC

It's all I have today..two Dr appts took the wind out of my sails..and I really can't get into serious politics today..but one thing..

Ethno-Sectarian Competition????? WTF is that shit?

Talk about double-talking jive..He is the best bullshitter around..General Davy folks..without a friggin doubt. And they say Jon Stewart doesn't give us any real news..

Another anniversary in Iraq!!!!

Today is the day on which the huge statue of Saddam Hussein was torn down in Baghdad. The anniversary will be marked in Baghdad by an all day curfew on vehicles. It’s been five long arduous years since the troops entered the city of Baghdad. What exactly has been accomplished? Oh plenty..

We have spent a boatload of money. We have managed to bring down the bulk of Iraq’s infrastructure. We have built, sometimes with slave labor, a huge American Embassy that is grossly overbudget.

Lets not forget that the Iraqi’s have been able to vote democratically! The fact that the government they elected can’t get squat done is but a small footnote..right? The Green Zone, once considered the safest place in Iraq, is being shelled almost daily by mortars and deaths are a fact of life within those walls these last two weeks. The benchmarks set for the government of Iraq have not been met by and large, but hey..according to Petraeus..its all coming together nicely..but he needs more time.

How do you plan on celebrating another war milestone in Iraq? Have a houseparty? Make sure to invite General Davy over..oh wait..I think he’s busy with the Congress critters again today.

UPDATE: The curfew did not stop squat today in Baghdad. From IHT via TO:
At least a dozen people were killed in Baghdad's Shi'ite slum of Sadr City on Wednesday, despite vehicle bans aimed at preventing unrest from spreading on the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

Police said six people died in clashes overnight, and an explosion in the morning hit a funeral in the slum, killing six more and wounding 14 people.

Dr Qasim al-Mudalla told Reuters 11 bodies and 54 wounded had been brought to the Imam Ali hospital he manages in Sadr City, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have battled militia loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr since Sunday. The dead included four children and two women, he said.

Ah yes General Davy..its going so damn well over there!!! How much more money do ya need dude to keep this going in perpetuity?

Crossposted at Bring It On!

Conyers schedules hearing with Yoo as the star.

I doubt that Yoo will appear..after all, executive privilege is one of the buzz phrase's of the Bushie Adminstration..but here is the writeup by TPM muckraker:

House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers (D-MI) wants to former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo to discuss his now-infamous March 14, 2003 memo that broadly authorized the use of torture by military interrogators of unlawful combatants.

Conyers has gone ahead and scheduled a hearing for May 6th on the memo and invited Yoo in a letter today. But it's apparent from the letter that Yoo is not too enthusiastic about the prospect of testifying to Congress. He's apparently raised concerns to committee staff that the topics covered might "implicate executive confidentiality interests" and generally indicated that he'd rather not appear.

Considering how little press this memo(here's Part I and Part II) has received, I wonder how much press the hearing will get.

Tags: John Yoo, Torture memo