Iraq

Insurgent Bombs Directed at G.I.’s Increase in Iraq

“The insurgency has gotten worse by almost all measures, with insurgent attacks at historically high levels,” said a senior Defense Department official who agreed to discuss the issue only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for attribution. “The insurgency has more public support and is demonstrably more capable in numbers of people active and in its ability to direct violence than at any point in time.”

After three years it's worse than ever- exactly how long do we need to keep sending kids and money to "help" people that clearly don't want us there. And you've just got to love this:

“Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy"

The Age, Australia

About 6,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the last two months alone as casualties continued an "upward trend", the United Nations said.

Bush, Congress and the US media all agree, we must stay the course, we can't leave now, that'd be bad for the Iraqis.... these same people lied to start the war, why would anyone believe them now? It makes no sense!

Recently President George W. Bush flew to Iraq, wasting more fuel to try to convince our troops that they were winning the war on terrorism. The truth is that no matter how many terrorist leaders we kill or capture, the conflict will continue as Bush is fighting the systems and not the causes.

Why are there so many in Iraq willing to die to bring us harm? Could it be our foreign policies that exploit their resources and establish military bases in 120 countries? Perhaps they see us as a bully trying to police the world, forcing our government, religion and way of life on them.

It would be better to correct the causes, which are illiteracy, disease and poverty. With these corrected, individuals would have something to live for and be less likely to give their life to harm us. By killing innocent civilians in Iraq in a misguided war and our inhumane treatment of prisoners, we have caused hate throughout the world. Much of the world sees Bush as the biggest terrorist of all. We have no intention of pulling out of Iraq as we are building a $1.5 billion permanent base there.

The reason we went into Iraq is the same reason for staying there: to protect the oil supply. It’s time we developed our own fuel. In the meantime, we could get cheaper oil from Venezuela. However, Bush doesn’t like their president because he and the rest of South America protested his war with Iraq. How much blood must we trade for oil?

Louis Anesi

This was a letter to the editor of the Columbia Tribune

This brave citizen is 100% correct, but you probably won't hear this point of view from any talking heads on tv.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon reported yesterday that the frequency of insurgent attacks against troops and civilians is at its highest level since American commanders began tracking such figures two years ago, an ominous sign that, despite three years of combat, the US-led coalition forces haven't significantly weakened the Iraq insurgency.

by Drew Brown, Knight-Ridder News

WASHINGTON - Military interrogators posing as FBI agents at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, wrapped terrorism suspects in an Israeli flag and forced them to watch homosexual pornography under strobe lights during interrogation sessions that lasted as long as 18 hours...

FBI agents working at the prison complained about the military interrogators' techniques in e-mails to their superiors from 2002 to 2004, 54 e-mails.. showed. The agents tried to get the military interrogators to follow a less coercive approach and warned that the harsh methods could hinder future criminal prosecutions of terrorists because information gained illegally is inadmissible in court.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who was in charge of the prison at the time, overrode the FBI agents' protests..

[Ed Note: Miller was then sent to run Abu Ghraib. The sent this torture freak General to Iraq on purpose!]

The memos offer some of the clearest proof yet that the abuses and torture of prisoners in U.S. military custody weren't the isolated actions of low-ranking soldiers but a result of policies approved by senior officials.

There is absolutely no good reason to continue this war.

Pro-War Arguments and the buried stories that prove them wrong. The troops want to come home, the iraqis want us to leave- the only ones that want us to stay are those raking in a Billion Dollars of our money every 5 days - oops, make that - your grandchildren's money.

The US is "aware" of torture taking place in Iraqi prisons, according to the outgoing Maltese UN human rights chief in Iraq.

"Yes, torture is happening now, mainly in illegal detention places. Such centres are mostly being run by militia that have been absorbed by the police force," says John Pace, who retired last week as human rights chief for the UN assistance mission in Iraq.

In a frank interview with The Times, Dr Pace says photos and forensic records have proved that torture was rife inside detention centres. Though the process of release has been speeded up, there are an estimated 23,000 people in detention, of whom 80 to 90 per cent are innocent.

(Reuters) The US Army has forced about 50,000 soldiers to continue serving after their voluntary stints ended under a policy called 'stop-loss,' but while some dispute its fairness, court challenges have fallen flat.

The policy applies to soldiers in units due to deploy for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Army said stop-loss is vital to maintain units that are cohesive and ready to fight. But some experts said it shows how badly the Army is stretched and could further complicate efforts to attract new recruits.

'As the war in Iraq drags on, the Army is accumulating a collection of problems that cumulatively could call into question the viability of an all-volunteer force,' said defence analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute think tank.

'When a service has to repeatedly resort to compelling the retention of people who want to leave, you're edging away from the whole notion of volunteerism.'

"The area in the south and the west and the north that the coalition forces control is substantial. It just happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are, they're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and uh east, west, south and north somewhat."

"I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR (Kellogg Brown and Root) represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career," said Greenhouse, a procurement veteran of more than 20 years.

Surely we caught the crooks that fixed the books bilking US taxpayers from a Billion dollar, (actually it's $1.5 Bil now)... no, we didn't catch the crooks, we gave them a $60 million bonus!