Factcheck.org really rips Bush a new one..

Artwork by the Worried Shrimp

The linkage is here. Some highlights:

Lowering Expectations The president modified his own measurements for political progress, citing Iraqi actions in his speech last night that he didn't think were good enough a month ago. Bush: Yet Iraq's national leaders are getting some things done. For example, they have passed a budget. They are sharing oil revenues with the provinces. They are allowing former Ba'athists to rejoin Iraq's military or receive government pensions.

But Bush very recently used a different standard for measuring progress. In his Aug. 18 radio speech, he cited the passage of laws governing the sharing of oil revenues among Iraq’s provinces and de-Baathification as steps the Iraqi government needed to take in order to show progress. They are both among the benchmarks the U.S. set to measure success Forward March? Bush and others have always said that Iraqi security forces must get up to speed so coalition forces can hand things over to them. There has been progress. But Bush failed to note just how far these forces still have to go. Bush: According to General Petraeus and a panel chaired by retired General Jim Jones, the Iraqi army is becoming more capable, although there is still a great deal of work to be done to improve the national police. The Independent Commission on the Security of Iraq, led by retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, did say in its report dated Sept. 6 that the Iraqi Army is improving. But the Iraqi Security Forces, of which the Army is a major part, "will not be able to progress enough in the near term to secure Iraqi borders against conventional military and external threats," the report said. And further: Commission Report: The Iraqi Minister of Defense seemed to recognize both the progress the Iraqi Army has made and the remaining challenges when he predicted to Commissioners that the Army would be 60 percent capable of independently protecting Iraq from external threats by 2012 and entirely independent in this regard by 2018.

Ain't that some amazing facts? I think its bullshittery at its finest my dear reader. There are plenty more at the first Factcheck link.

Tags: Factcheck, Bush, The Surge Sucks

Iraq is-NOW-an Ally?

Anyone buying that bs? How about the 36 countries that are helping us in Iraq?

WTF?

This spin job sucked..Seriously..it sucked bad. If the 30% that still buy what BushCo is selling think anyone else will buy it..

They are as fucked up as he and his cadre of chickenhawks are.

Read his bullshittery here.

Return on Success..kiss my behind buddy. At least he finally admitted someone else will be cleaning up his shitstorm...its the only truthful thing he said in the whole 17 friggin minutes.

Tags: Presidents Address, Bullshit and Bravado

John Edwards to address the nation after Bush's speech tonight..

Just a short note to inform folks that have cable or satellite that John Edwards has bought airtime immediately following Bush’s Iraq speech tonight on MSNBC, he will rebut whatever points our Asshat-in-Chief attempts to make. Must see TV folks! I just got this as I laid down after a long and painful drive from SoCal and heard that “yahoo” Tucker Carlson mention it on his show. I swear I wasn’t dreaming, I sat up and heard him say they didn’t know what the text of his speech would be..but its his time! 2 minutes worth..short but…sweet? Here is the link to his website’s blurb on it. I still haven’t given up hope for Edwards..

The General Dave LapDog and Pony Show..co-starring Ambassador Crocker

First, I did love how the Rethugs kept mentioning that simply horrible atrocious ad MoveOn.org ran in the NYT. MoveOn can’t BUY that kind of publicity you nimrods! So, to Representatives Duncan Hunter, Saxon and Ros-Lehtinen a hearty THANK YOU to all of you for continually harping on the MoveOn full page ad!

The show in the House committee started out, General David Petraeus had to state he wrote his own opening remarks..Isn’t that just lovely? He also went on to say that the spin, er…the words were his own and he had not shared them with anyone in the Pentagon, White House or Congress. Boy, that was a huge load off my mind, lemme tell you!

I watched the hearing on MSNBC, which was kind enough to show most the protestors that were being hauled out constantly. It made my heart sing to know that many of our brothers and sisters didn’t give two shakes that the committee chair kept threatening them with the ‘full force’ of the DC law if they didn’t shut the hell up.

As expected Petraeus, in his opening statement, spun the decline in insurgent attacks on American soldiers on the fact that the US military forces are knocking the snot out of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He also had the nads to state there is a decline in Iraqi on Iraqi violence…to the tune of 55%! During questioning later, he was asked about his methodology and evaded that question by stating two different Intel groups support his numbers and how he arrived at them. The wonderful folks at DemocracyArsenal.org spent the day blowing Petraeus’ logic and spin out of the water. Their fact checking on Petraeus’ spin can be found here. I will briefly summarize their work by saying the military and Intel folks use some very strange ways to determine sectarian violence..among them, whether the bullet that killed an Iraqi entered the front or the back of the head. Interestingly enough Petraeus’ numbers don’t even come close to the Iraqi Governments numbers which show a 20% rise in sectarian violence since July of this year. Also the GAO report is way off when compared to Petraeus’ numbers..so I guess it just must be that everyone else in the world is wrong..and General Dave is right..right?

Petraeus had some very colorful charts and graphs made up for his show, most of which were useless if you don’t buy into his bs on how he arrived at his numbers.

Another highlight of the show was when Petraeus stated the US military is NOT arming the Sunni’s. He explained this by saying the US military isn’t directly providing weapons to the Sunni’s. This of course doesn’t match up with various reports which state the US is in fact paying the Sunni tribal leaders $10 per day per man..the money to be used however they see fit..as in buying weapons, vehicles or anything their little hearts desire to spend the money on.

Many of you might be asking, as I did whilst watching the Petraeus show..when will the surge end? Well, General Petraeus did address that...by asking that we put off answering that question for another six months..yes..you read that right..put it off another six months. He did offer an olive branch of sorts by stating he would advise that roughly 5000 troops be brought home by December of this year. See, his NEXT report is due in March of 2008..hence the six month window. Smooth no? By the end of next summer General Dave hopes to have our US troop levels down to ‘pre-surge’ strength of 130,000. Um..yeah…whatever.

Petraeus spent a good amount of his time reliving the history of the Iraq war with the House representatives. I don’t feel I should waste your time my dear reader with this lesson..we are all quite aware of the history of the Iraq occupation..sans the BushCo/Petraeus spin.

Lets move on to the co-star of the show, Ambassador Crocker. His spin…er..testimony was that the benchmarks are not the only way to measure success. Why, your not surprised are you? He then blabbered on about planting seeds.. and did drop in the BushCo spin about leaving too early will cause the deaths of thousands and the suffering of millions of Iraqi’s..guess they aren’t suffering at all now?

Crocker was actually trying to paint a rosy picture of the political climate in Iraq. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows the Iraq Government is so fragmented its sickening. Crocker kept saying there is positive change going on within the Iraq Government, and he said it as vaguely as possible.

He didn’t tell the House Rep’s how or what the positive changes were..when pressed for such information. He would speak in general terms and sometimes it seemed like he was giving a speech he had rehearsed in my humble opinion. Check out this quote from Monday’s House hearing:

"In my judgment, the cumulative trajectory of political, economic and diplomatic developments in Iraq is upwards, although the slope of that line is not steep."

Can anyone tell me exactly wtf that means??? Anyone?? What was the point of that statement other than to befuddle the House Reps..or to put it another way..Baffle them with bullshit.

When actually pressed for proof that things are working in Iraq..both men pointed with glee to Anbar Province. Anbar has been changing for almost a year now..its nothing new that has taken place since the ‘Surge’ began. Bear in mind that Crocker speaks Arabic fluently. Crocker kept trying to change the rules, by stating the ‘benchmarks’ weren’t the only way to measure progress in Iraq. When a House Rep would demand clarification of how to accurately measure Crocker’s brand of ‘success’ in Iraq, Crocker would than start backpedaling his behind off.

He finally admitted that Iraq will most likely never meet the majority of the 18 benchmarks.

The benchmarks were developed by Congress, not BushCo. This goes to the heart of the problem..Congress attempted to outline important steps that needed to be made by the Iraq Government..simple but vital steps that would build a competent government that could endure. Congress set the bar for success, not BushCo. So when Crocker admitted that most of the benchmarks might never be met, he admitted success as we know it will most likely never come to fruition.

This tells me we might be ‘there’ forever…a scary and horrifying prospect indeed. But a realistic one my dear reader that we as Americans must face and deal with by electing representatives that won’t tolerate this crap. Its up to us, as voters, to change the status quo and vote in representatives that will give us what the majority of Americans have wanted for years now..a timeline for withdrawing from Iraq sooner than later.

Crossposted at The Peace Train

MoveOn.Org runs full page NYT ad on Petraeus

Thank you to the Rethug idiots in the Congressional hearing this morning for informing the world about MoveOn's full page ad running in the NYT today. They gave them more publicity than MoveOn could ever hope for..lol..nitwits.

Here is the ad on MoveOn's site. The headline is: General Petraeus or General Betray Us? The sub-header is; Cooking the Books for the White House. Below is part of the supporting documentation MoveOn gives for citing Petraeus as Bush's lapdog:

General Petraeus is a military man constantly at war with the facts. In 2004, just before the election, he said there was “tangible progress“ in Iraq and that “Iraqi leaders are stepping forward.”
Washington Post, “Battling for Iraq,” by David H. Petraeus. 9/26/04 (see below)

And last week Petraeus, the architect of the escalation of troops in Iraq , said ”We say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously going to do everything we can to build on that progress.”
The Australian, “Surge Working: Top US General,” by Dennis Shanahan. 8/31/07

Every independent report on the ground situation in Iraq shows that the surge strategy has failed.
GAO report, 9/4/07
NIE report, 8/23/07
Jones report, CSIS, 9/6/07

Yet the General claims a reduction in violence. That’s because, according to the New York Times, the Pentagon has adopted a bizarre formula for keeping tabs on violence. For example, deaths by car bombs don’t count.
“Time to Take a Stand,” by Paul Krugman. 9/7/07

The Washington Post reported that assassinations only count if you're shot in the back of the head -- not the front.
“Experts Doubt Drop in Violence in Iraq,” by Karen DeYoung. 9/6/07 l

According to news reports, there have been more civilian deaths and more American soldier deaths in the past three months than in any other summer we’ve been there.
The Associated Press, “Violence Appears to Be Shifting from Baghdad.” 8/25/07
National Public Radio, “Statistics the Weapon of Choice in Surge Debate,” by Guy Raz. 9/6/07
Associated Press, “Key Figures About Iraq Since the War Began in 2003.” 9/5/07

Check out the MoveOn site for the rest of the ad..its quite good. You can't buy the kind of publicity the idiot Rethugs at the hearing gave MoveOn today..three cheers for the nimrods!!!

Ok..General Betray Us is now speaking..gotta go!

Iraqi Poll: The surge isn't working for them either.

A poll has been done of the Iraqi’s pov regarding “The Surge”. This poll was administered by ABC News, the BBC and the Japanese broadcaster NHK. What they found was, according to the ABC News writeup, a ” deepening dissatisfaction with conditions in Iraq, lower ratings for the national government and growing rejection of the U.S. role there.”
Sounds a lot like the way a majority of Americans think about things..only we aren’t occupied by a foreign military. For the full poll and questions asked, click here. For those that just want the ‘lowlights’, here you go:

More Iraqis say security in their local area has gotten worse in the last six months than say it’s gotten better, 31 percent to 24 percent, with the rest reporting no change. Far more, six in 10, say security in the country overall has worsened since the surge began, while just one in 10 sees improvement. More directly assessing the surge itself — a measure that necessarily includes views of the United States, which are highly negative — 65 to 70 percent of Iraqis say it’s worsened rather than improved security, political stability and the pace of redevelopment alike.

Petraeus will regale us with his pov this morning at 9:30 am left coast time on CSPAN 3. You can also watch it live online here.

Bush will recommend "Stay the Course" in Iraq tomorrow

This comes to us from Politico.com..who is funded by rich rightwingers..so take it for what it's worth;

President Bush plans to send an increasingly hostile Congress a report on Thursday showing mixed results for the administration’s “surge” strategy in Iraq, but concluding the current approach should be given more time to work, White House officials said Wednesday.

*snip*

The administration, in an eagerly anticipated assessment, plans to declare that is has found “satisfactory” progress on roughly half of the 18 benchmarks, the officials told The Politico.

*snip*

"Whatever we’re doing is working. It may not be working fast enough. But it’s still the right mode to be taking to get the result we’re looking for. The overall message is that there is progress in a lot of areas, and there’s not as much progress as we would like in other areas.”

And we save the best for last...

“There is no one internally advocating any precipitous change in course at this time,” the official said. “A lot of things will be talked about down the line. But this week was a make-or-break week, and there’s no one who believes the president needs to do something dramatic to stem this tide now."

As usual..Bush will lie through his teeth and try to tell us the sun is blue and the oceans are a charming color of pink...I think you get my drift.

Tags: Politics, benchmarks, Bush, Iraq fails all benchmarks

Commanders refuse military Drs advice for troops in action.

After my Sunday post about Army Spec. Jeans Cruz and his PTSD, this morning I got to read how the military continues to put the war before the troops mental health:

U.S. commanders in Iraq are rejecting a recommendation made by Army health experts that troops receive a one-month break after they spend three months in a combat zone. U.S. troops in Iraq are spending more time in combat than those who fought in Vietnam or World War II, and experts say continuous exposure can lead to more mental health problems.

So, Army health experts can kiss off? WTF here? Army psychologists say continual combat may cause more mental health problems. Their research, conducted in Iraq last year, shows that 30% of troops experiencing high levels of combat demonstrate signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress.

This research was conducted last year..it has to be worse now..judging by the violence and deaths spiraling up as the "Surge" has led to worsening numbers in dead and injured troops.

30% of our troops IN THE COMBAT THEATRE show high levels of anxiety,depression and stress....yet we can't do shit to fix it? How effective can they be working at that level?

Are the military commanders fucking nuts or is it that the war is more important than the lives and health of our troops?

Great way to support the troops gents..fucking awesome. You vile pricks.

Tags: War on Terror, Iraq+War, Troops Health Issues

GIs in Iraq are no longer true believers

As we all know, the war isn’t going so well to put it mildly. We keep telling ourselves that somehow this nightmare will come to a screeching halt sooner or later. The odds are this war won’t end until a new President is sworn into office, but in the mean time…

What about the soldiers that are there now? What about those in the midst of being sent back or training for their first trip into the bowels of hell?

There was an IHT article I read late Sunday evening when my spine was screaming at me to take a pill and lay down. The article was from the soldier’s perspective; soldiers that are there now and are on deployment number two or three. It broke my heart. They are now losing patience and faith in the “mission” and not because of anything our dear leaders are or are not doing. They are losing faith in the Iraqi’s that are supposed to have their backs..the ones they have been training and arming. The Iraqi army is trying to kill them. I am sure this isn’t news to some, but when you actually hear it from the mouth of one of our own…it takes your breath away.

The article started out with the story of an insurgent who was killed as he attempted to plant a road side bomb. As they went through his clothing, looking for identification, they came across a badge…a badge that identified him as sergeant in the Iraqi Army. As one soldier put it:’

"We're helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us." "If we stayed here for 5, even 10 more years, the day we leave here these guys will go crazy," he said. "It would go straight into a civil war. That's how it feels, like we're putting a Band-Aid on this country until we leave here."

This soldier is in Delta Company. I have heard many times how Delta Company is the cream of the crop, the A-team so to speak. The article goes on to state that of the soldiers they interviewed for the story, they gleaned this pov from the majority of them:

“But in interviews with more than a dozen soldiers over a one-week period, most said they were disillusioned by repeated deployments, by what they saw as the abysmal performance of Iraqi security forces and by a conflict that they considered a civil war, one they had no ability to stop.”

The Iraqi security forces are militias beholden to local leaders, not the Iraqi government. They most likely signed up to get a paycheck to feed their families and possibly to provide Intelligence to the insurgents leadership. One soldier was quoted as saying he thinks over half the Iraq army personnel are insurgents in his estimation.

The rightwingers will tell you that the soldiers are proud of the job they are doing, they care about upholding our government’s goals, they care about the ‘mission’. The sad truth, which we won’t hear about on the evening news, is that the soldiers are only beholden to their brethren. They just want to keep each American soldier safe until his or her tour is over and they can go back to their lives as Americans. They no longer believe in the mission or trust the Iraqi that is standing at their side. In the words of one soldier interviewed for the story:

"I don't want any more of my guys to get hurt or die. If it was something I felt righteous about, maybe. But for this country and this conflict, no, it's not worth it."

tags: Politics, Iraq War, The Surge Sucks

The 'second surge' is coming..get ready

From SFGate:

(05-22) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.

The little-noticed second surge, designed to reinforce U.S. troops in Iraq, is being executed by sending more combat brigades and extending tours of duty for troops already there.

The actions could boost the number of combat soldiers from 52,500 in early January to as many as 98,000 by the end of this year if the Pentagon overlaps arriving and departing combat brigades.

Separately, when additional support troops are included in this second troop increase, the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000 now to more than 200,000 -- a record-high number -- by the end of the year.

The numbers were arrived at by an analysis of deployment orders by Hearst Newspapers.

"It doesn't surprise me that they're not talking about it," said retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, a former U.S. commander of NATO troops in Bosnia, referring to the Bush administration. "I think they would be very happy not to have any more attention paid to this."

The first surge was prominently announced by President Bush in a nationally televised address on Jan. 10, when he ordered five more combat brigades to join 15 brigades already in Iraq.

The buildup was designed to give commanders the 20 combat brigades Pentagon planners said were needed to provide security in Baghdad and western Anbar province.

Since then, the Pentagon has extended combat tours for units in Iraq from 12 months to 15 months and announced the deployment of additional brigades.

Taken together, the steps could put elements of as many as 28 combat brigades in Iraq by Christmas, according the deployment orders examined by Hearst Newspapers.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Carl S. Ey said there was no effort by the Army to carry out "a secret surge" beyond the 20 combat brigades ordered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

"There isn't a second surge going on; we've got what we've got," Ey said. "The idea that there are ever going to be more combat brigades in theater in the future than the secretary of defense has authorized is pure speculation."

Ey attributed the increase in troops to "temporary increases that typically occur during the crossover period" as arriving combat brigades move into position to replace departing combat brigades.

He said that only elements of the eight additional combat brigades beyond the 20 already authorized would actually be in Iraq in December.

The U.S. Joint Forces Command, based in Norfolk, Va., that tracks combat forces heading to and returning from Iraq, declined to discuss unit-by-unit deployments.

"Due to operational security, we cannot confirm or discuss military unit movements or schedules," Navy Lt. Jereal Dorsey said in an e-mail.

The Pentagon has repeatedly extended unit tours in Iraq during the past four years to achieve temporary increases in combat power. For example, three combat brigades were extended up to three months in November 2004 to boost the number of U.S. troops from 138,000 to 150,000 before, during and after the Jan. 30, 2005, Iraqi national elections.

Lawrence Korb, an assistant defense secretary for manpower during the Reagan administration, said the Pentagon deployment schedule enables the Bush administration to achieve quick increases in combat forces in the future by delaying units' scheduled departures from Iraq and overlapping them with arriving replacement forces.

"The administration is giving itself the capability to increase the number of troops in Iraq," Korb said. "It remains to be seen whether they actually choose to do that."

Nash said the capability could reflect an effort by the Bush administration to "get the number of troops into Iraq that we've needed there all along."

McCain sees progress in Iraq

Right..and I see my deceased dog in my dreams occasionally. Is this man friggin nuts?

This past week saw more dead Iraqi's than any time in the last year. Even this article quotes an Iraqi spokesman saying something different contrary:

An Iraqi military spokesman said, meanwhile, that militants fleeing the crackdown have made areas outside the capital "breeding grounds for violence," spreading deadly bombings and sectarian attacks to areas once relatively untouched.

So how does Johnny see progress if we are merely moving the insurgents into otherwise calm and non-violent areas?

Fuck, I am so tired of the rhetoric. This delusional fuckwit is borrowing a page from the Shrub's playbook. Keep saying it, and folks will eventually buy it.

Except they don't any longer..they been down this road lots of times in the last 4 years.

The deal is that a covey of Repubes went over to Iraq to see what's up. That idiot Lindsey Graham had this to say:

"It will be a huge mistake to set a deadline. It (the U.S. troop surge) is working. We are doing now what we should have done three years ago. ... The Iraqi people want their own destiny but they don't have the capabilities yet," he said.--Oh yeah its working..people who were living fairly civil lives are now getting to experience what the folks in Baghdad have dealt with for a couple of years now.

And thats success. Oh fuck yeah..sure..and I got a bridge I would like to sell ya boys.

Let the pissing contest begin!

The Senate Republican's said screw it..they let the Iraq Funding Bill go through without a filibuster. Either they are tired of supporting BushCo or they are thinking of their home districts and how they will explain that they keep propping up the President even after the majority of the people have spoken. From an MSNBC writeup:

WASHINGTON - Defying a veto threat, the Democratic-controlled Senate narrowly signaled support Tuesday for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by next March.

Republican attempts to scuttle the non-binding timeline failed on a vote of 50-48, largely along party lines. The roll call marked the Senate’s most forceful challenge to date of the administration’s handling of a war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,200 U.S. troops.

Three months after Democrats took power in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the moment was at hand to “send a message to President Bush that the time has come to find a new way forward in this intractable war.”

The Prez will of course veto and piss and moan and threaten the Democrats. They need to send him the same damn bill every week until he figures it out. Thats my story and I am sticking to it.

Words to live by: I'D RATHER HAVE A PRESIDENT WHO SCREWED HIS INTERN THAN ONE WHO SCREWED HIS COUNTRY

Tags: Politics, Bush, Iraq War spending, Bureaucratic Bullshit

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs: Our military capability is eroding

Strained by the demands of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is significant risk that the U.S. military won't be able to quickly and fully respond to yet another crisis, according to a new report to Congress.

The assessment, prepared by General Peter Pace, is significantly worse than last years assessment of our military readiness. Per an AP article:

"Pace's report comes as the U.S. is increasing its forces in Iraq to quell escalating violence in Baghdad. And top military officials have consistently acknowledged that the repeated and lengthy deployments are straining the Army, Marine Corps and reserve forces and taking a heavy toll on critical warfighting equipment."

Another thing to note: This report was prepared prior to BushCo's decision to send over 20,000 more troops into Iraq. Here is a quote attributable to Pace regarding our level of readiness:

"may take several years to reduce risk to acceptable levels."

All this, and the Jackass in the Oval office,his buddy the Big Dick Cheney and the SOS Condo Rice still posture and run their pieholes about Iran, and that ALL options are still on the table. Its another game of....wait for it... you ready?

FEAR FACTOR with your host's George Bush and Dick Cheney.

Of course the fear is that we will stretch everything and every military branch to the breaking point so that IF the terrorists actually attack America..we can't mobilize quick enough to deal with it.

Ain't this some bat guano my dear reader....and while Bush and his boy Cheney fiddle and spin...it all turns to crap before our very eyes.

Tags: Politics, Bush, Iraq,War on Terror, Military Strength Assessment, Peter Pace

This just into the Newsroom: Terrorists bomb Afghan base where the Big Dick Cheney was holed up..they missed him, but the number of casualties is unknown.

Ap reports:Democrats plan bill to limit U.S. war mission

Wow wee, they couldn’t get a consensus on a non-binding resolution but AP is reporting that ’sources’ have told them, per this writeup:

Senate Democrats are drafting legislation to limit the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq, effectively revoking the broad authority Congress granted in 2002, officials said Thursday. While these officials said the precise wording of the measure remains unsettled, one draft would restrict American troops in Iraq to combating al-Qaida, training Iraqi army and police forces, maintaining Iraq’s territorial integrity, and otherwise proceeding with the withdrawal of combat forces.

These are of course..anonymous sources..stay tuned..might get interesting..and Cspan will be worth watching again.

Tags: Politics, Iraq War, Dems rent a set of Nads

Small U.S. towns bear scars from Iraq

This AP article is quite depressing. It made me seriously mad. It shows, once again, that the poor are the ones paying the bulk of the price for Bush’s War in Iraq and there is a 'backdoor draft'. Small towns are never ‘middle class’, they are very seldom self-sufficient.

“Across the nation, small towns are quietly bearing a disproportionate burden of war. Nearly half of the more than 3,100 U.S. military casualties in Iraq have come from towns like McKeesport, where fewer than 25,000 people live, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. One in five hailed from hometowns of less than 5,000.”

“The AP analysis found that nearly three quarters of those killed in Iraq came from towns where the per capita income was below the national average. More than half came from towns where the percentage of people living in poverty topped the national average.”

Many of these soldiers believed in what they were doing. I do not question that. What I question is how the military offers opportunities for advancement and education as an enticement to these young men and women. When an individual lives in a dying steel town for instance, the opportunities for a decent life are far and few between. College is too expensive for even middle class families, and student loans will eat you alive after you graduate. Many of our best and brightest minds went into the war to pay off their student loans…ask tammara about that.

The AP article also brings up the financial burden of being a member of the National Guard or Reserves in the War in Iraq. Soldiers who were previously entrepreneurs are going bankrupt or losing their businesses. Families that were dependent on one spouse as sole income provider are experiencing a nightmare all their own.

The final blow is how the military delivers the bodies of military personnel killed in Iraq only to the nearest major airport. This is also a burden felt by the rural or small town inhabitants. It’s not only cruel, it is immoral to expect these grieving families to get the soldiers remains back to their hometown AND bear the cost of doing so. A bill has been introduced to cure this disgusting habit by a Democrat. Yes, I said a Democrat. Where are the Republican representatives on this issue? Will they fight this extra cost being added to the military budget?

Bastards better not. Our fallen soldiers and their families deserve better.

"The surge"...how is that going George?

As I sat and wrote up an article for The Blue Republic, the local news was on the TV. It was more background noise, but I did occasionally perk up and pay attention..like when I heard this phrase:

The War in Iraq is making a turn for the better.

I damn near shat myself as I sat there, listening to the talking heads tell me how things are going great in the Baghdad suburbs since the "crackdown".

I guess they didn't get the memo about the 'brazen' attack on a US base north of Baghdad.

Two suicide car bombers tore through the main gate and detonated their explosives, destroying part of the building, which the U.S. military took over after Iraqi policemen abandoned it last summer because they were threatened by Sunni extremists who control that area.

A gun battle between U.S. troops and armed men raged for about 20 minutes after the initial explosions, as helicopters from the large U.S. military base nearby in Taji rushed to the scene.

The WaPo article goes on to point out that this type of attack is unheard of..until now. Usually mortars or rockets are lobbed at the bases, but actual coordinated attacks show the insurgents are getting bolder and bolder..no shit you say?

The abandoned police station should of been a clue, I think. An Iraqi police unit trained in Jordan deserted last year after being threatened by insurgents.

The US military refused to provide much info on the attack. They also refused to confirm the Iraqi version of what happened.

The U.S. military on Monday reported the deaths of seven other service members killed in recent days, including three soldiers who died Monday when a roadside bomb exploded while they were on patrol southwest of Baghdad. Also, three Marines and a soldier were killed in the western province of Anbar in fighting since Saturday, the military said.

But..its going swimmingly over there..just ask the talking heads here in the reddest city in the reddest county in California.

Tags: Iraq, War on Terror,