GI SPECIAL 3D35:

Americans Welcome Iraqi Troops

(AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)

An American man speaks to his son while Iraqi Marines watch in the courtyard of his house in El Paso, Texas, eight miles from New Mexico, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2005.

Americans thank the Iraqi soldiers every day for liberating them from the Bush regime. Although they have occupied the United States for nearly three years, most Americans do not wish them to leave, fearing that Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and other Americo-fascist terrorist gangs fighting the occupation will seize the country if they withdraw too soon, leading to a bloodbath of sectarian violence and civil war.

Elsewhere in America, nine Iraqi soldiers were killed and four wounded by an IED near Amarillo, Texas. Although a video tape from the Patrick Henry Brigade claimed responsibility, General Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, Commander of the Multi-National Liberation Forces, said that the Charles Manson terrorist organization, made up of foreign fighters, had organized the attack.

The Manson Network has been blamed for most of the terrorist attacks launched against Iraqi soldiers. His primitive fanatical fundamentalist followers believe that if they die fighting Coalition forces, they were be taken to heaven on the wings of an American bird called a "dove" and welcomed there by Jesus. There is a reward of 25,000,000 dinars offered for Mansons' capture.

General al-Hakim noted that "This is really about a clash of civilizations. The Anglo-Saxon culture, which dominates in America, is directly descended from the Vikings, who looted, raped, burned, slaughtered the innocent, and spread terror throughout the civilized world. Nothing has changed since. We are here on a civilizing mission. Someday they will thank us. And their children are so cute. They just love the candy, pencils, and soccer balls we give them."

Commenting on recent news stories, the General denied that American prisoners were being tortured in Coalition detention centers. "Of the 6,495,000 American now detained, only a few have complained about their treatment. What would you expect terrorists to say? Ha ha."

The General admitted that nearly 18,000 Americans have been killed at Coalition checkpoints, but said that "they have all been warned, and only crackheads and drunks" have been shot. When asked about children killed at checkpoints, he noted that "in America, even children become crackheads and drunks." "It is regrettable, but this is war, and the American terrorists are responsible for every death," he said.

"If they would only accept reality, and stop their attacks on Coalition forces, there would be no casualties."

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Florida Marine Killed

Marine Sgt. Daniel J. Clay, 27, of Pensacola, Fla., was killed, Dec. 1, 2005, in the explosion of a roadside bomb during a foot patrol near Fallujah, Iraq. (AP Photo/Department of Defense, Helene C. Stikkel)

Texas Marine Killed

Marine Lance Cpl. Robert A. Martinez, 20, of Splendora, Texas, was killed by a roadside bomb while on foot patrol Dec. 1, 2005, near Fallujah, Iraq. (AP Photo)

California Marine Killed

Sgt. Andy A. Stevens 29, of Tomah, was killed in Fallujah. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Twentynine Palms, Calif. Stevens, who joined the Marines in June 1995 and was serving as a scout sniper, deployed to Iraq with his unit in July, the Marine Corps said. (AP Photo/U.S.M.C.)

Two U.S. Soldiers Killed In Baghdad Suburb

Dec 4 (Reuters)

BAGHDAD - Two U.S. soldiers were killed and several others wounded when their convoy was attacked in a roadside bombing in a south eastern suburb of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. A military spokeswoman said that two Humvees were destroyed in the ambush.

West View Soldier Killed

December 4, 2005 By Luis Fabregas, TRIBUNE-REVIEW

A West View soldier killed in Iraq last week had been traveling in a six-vehicle convoy when it was ambushed by insurgents, military officials said Saturday.

Sgt. 1st Class Brent A. Adams was the driver of a 5-ton reinforced truck that was hit by a rocket at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, said Lt. Col. Chris Cleaver, a Pennsylvania National Guard spokesman.

Adams served as a motor sergeant, supervising maintenance men who work on military vehicles.

Adams was six months into a one-year deployment. Before arriving in Iraq in June, he had spent six months training at Camp Shelby, Miss.

A 1995 graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Adams had spent 18 years in the military after enlisting in Ford City in 1987.

Adams is survived by his wife, Marilyn, a 4-year-old son, Daniel, his parents and a sister.

U.S. Soldier Wounded Near Balad

Dec. 4 (UPI)

The U.S. military said one of its soldiers was injured and two insurgents killed in clashes near the town of Balad, in which U.S. F-16 jet fighters launched laser-guided missiles on the area.

Three U.S. Soldiers Wounded By Southern Baghdad IED

Dec. 4 (UPI)

Three U.S. soldiers were also injured by an explosive device targeting a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol in southern Baghdad.

Two U.S. Soldiers Wounded By Western Baghdad IED

12.5.05 AFP

US forces reported a roadside bomb attack on one of its convoys in Khadra, a neighbourhood in western Baghdad.

Master Sergeant David Abrams, a military spokesman, said: "It looks like there were two wounded who were taken to a nearby medical treatment facility."

LETHAL ENVIRONMENT:

NO HONORABLE MISSION:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

Two U.S. soldiers walk among the rubble of collapsed building in central Baghdad after two early morning explosions November 18, 2005. REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz

"Measuring Dead Or Captured Iraqis Has No Relevance"

November 21, 2005 By Adil Shamoo, Foreign Policy In Focus [Excerpt]

In the wake of the 2,000th U.S. soldier dying because of the Iraq War, the Bush administration has begun to count the number of Iraqi dead and captured.

These metrics, reminiscent of those used in the Vietnam War, will be touted by the administration as an indicator of success for military operations and to give the impression that the insurgency can be neutralized.

The Bush administration continued focus on killing and detaining of Iraqi insurgents clearly is not working. The numbers suggest that every insurgent killed or captured results in new recruits.

Even if the 160,000 U.S. and British soldiers in Iraq could figure out a way to kill every insurgent, it is the occupation of the country that is breeding new recruits. Iraqis have no tradition of suicide bombing but the recent Iraqi suicide bombers in Amman, Jordan is a good example of the new challenges that are arising from the war.

Compounding the problem, the U.S. has ignored the voices from Iraqi people calling for ending the occupation.

Over the last eighteen months, Iraqi voices for U.S. withdrawal have become louder. They are now reaching a crescendo that if unheeded, may breed a new nationalistic and expanded insurgency born solely as a result of our continued occupation of Iraq.

If this happens, the new insurgency will be wider and stronger than the present one.

Its focus, in most parts, will not be directed against Iraqis; rather it will be directed against the U.S.

All of the ingredients for such an insurgency to occur exist.

First, the overwhelming majority of Iraqis opposes occupation. Second, most Iraqi households possess arms.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Resistance Attacks "Near Daily"

December 1, 2005 By Griff Witte, Washington Post

In the past two weeks, Afghanistan has experienced near-daily attacks.

The recent attacks -- including at least nine suicide bombings -- have shown unusual levels of coordination, technological knowledge, and blood lust, according to officials. Although military forces and facilities have been the most common targets, religious leaders, judges, police officers, and foreign reconstruction workers have also fallen prey to the violence.

Attackers have also shown a growing appetite for strikes in cities, particularly Kabul, setting residents' nerves on edge and leading them to take new security precautions at work, home, and social events.

"Patience Is Running Out"

[Thanks to JM, who sent this in.]

01 Dec 2005 By Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters [Excerpts]

KABUL: Nearly four years after the Taliban were forced from power, the country remains mired in poverty and corruption, and frustration with the government is growing.

While some main provincial road links have been rebuilt and new buildings, including shopping centres and a luxury hotel, have gone up in the capital, prices have also been rising fast and many people feel their lives have not improved.

A problem for President Hamid Karzai, a year after he formed a new government following a sweeping election victory, is that people's expectations have been raised, but not met.

"Only make promises you can fulfil," said an old man who approached Karzai while he was on a recent visit to Herat, Afghanistan's most prosperous city, near the border with Iran. Just before that encounter, Karzai had made a speech to Herat citizens in which he spoke of his government's determination to improve the economy, the livelihoods of the people, and to rebuild roads, schools and hospitals.

"People have become fed up with promises and not seeing much improvement practically," said Wadir Safi, a law professor of Kabul University.

While foreign aid workers and top government officials drive around Kabul in luxury cars and live in smart houses, some costing $5,000 or more a month, rebuilding has been slow and even non-existent in many places while corruption is rampant, critics say.

Kabul has endured intermittent blackouts for weeks -- not a problem for those with generators and money to fuel them but infuriating for most people.

The government recently announced the fulfilment of one of Karzai's long-awaited promises; increasing salaries of civil servants and teachers.

The pay rise of nearly 40 percent sounds impressive but for most it worked out to a pittance -- just $7 a month -- taking an average salary for a civil servant to just over $20 a month, according to officials.

Many of those who got the pay rise ridiculed it and the next day, dozens of women teachers from Zarghona High School, a famous Kabul school, protested over the paltry raise in a rare display of assertiveness by women in the conservative Muslim country.

"Karzai promised to raise government employees' salaries more than three years ago," said a woman teacher Nadira Ahmadi from another school.

"But with this rise you can hardly pay for one meal a day for our small family."

Accommodation costs in the capital have skyrocketed in the past four years. Rent for a three room mud-built house is at least $200. Commodity and transport prices have also soared.

Many people make ends meet by taking up second jobs, such as running market stalls, at least part time.

Patience is running out, another government worker said.

"The rise is like giving chocolate to a crying baby to calm him down, but without thinking whether he is sick or wants milk," said an information ministry official.

"We are being treated like kids and the situation is getting intolerable for people. It is more than enough".

In this year's $678 million budget, police and law enforcement agencies got $157 million, defence spending totalled $126 million and education was allocated $117 million.

TROOP NEWS

We Gotta Get Out Of This Place:

Insider Says Troops Want Out of Iraq Now

Nov 27, 2005 by egrass, Stevegilliard.blogspot.com [Excerpt]

I'm back from Thanksgiving with my wife's family and I've got some first-hand feedback from the troops on Iraq, leaving Iraq, and Murtha.

You see, my wife is a former military officer and her brother is an active-duty Major, decorated Army Ranger, and West Point graduate with more than 15 years in and about to ship out to Afghanistan. My wife is a good liberal on military issues, while my brother-in-law has always been a thoughtful and nice guy, but very conservative, especially on military issues. We've always gotten along well and been very respectful of each other, but totally disagreed on Republicans and military issues.

My brother-in-law thinks that Murtha is 100% right and that we should pull back in Iraq to forward operating bases in Kuwait, if not leave entirely. Even more interesting, my brother-in-law says that ALL of his officer friends in the 10th Mountain (a real front-line outfit) and around the military agree as well.

My brother-in-law is a gregarious, well-connected guy and literally has hundreds of well placed friends at the rank of Major and above. He says that ALL of his military friends feel Iraq is a "mistake" and a "meatgrinder" that serves no purpose anymore if it ever did.

They would all be perfectly willing to serve and even die there if some good might come of it, but they all see that it makes no sense at this point. (My brother-in-law is no pacifist. He fought in Somalia and Haiti and killed several people there. He thought both missions were important and the right thing to do).

Apparently, one key thing that has really pissed off my brother-in-law and his friends is that young guys like them are being thrown into the position of making foreign policy on the ground.

He said that his buddies around his level are being given entire towns to run in Iraq and essentially told to make up what to do. From what he hears, there basically is no overall strategy, just a bunch of LTs, CPTs, and Majors making it up as they go.

My brother-in-law laughed off as ludicrous the claim that troops are somehow undercut by people debating the usefulness of their mission and questioning whether to pull out of Iraq. I told him the liberal comment (I think by Atrios) that if liberals really didn't support the troops they would lie the country into a war, send troops to war without proper equipment, and then keep them there to die for no apparent reason. He got a kick out of that and said he would tell some of his buddies.

I told my brother-in-law that I regularly read message boards like Kos and others populated by liberals and that the vast majority of people here (and elsewhere) wish him all the best in his mission in Afghanistan and a safe and speedy trip home. He has a wife and two young daughters. Your prayers will be appreciated.

Dissention In The Ranks:

"I Find It Easier To Make Contact With Soldiers And Marines In Uniform And Harder To Get Permission To Quote Them By Name"

24/11/2005 Reporter: Tony Jones, Australian Broadcasting Corporation [Excerpts]

Tony Jones interviews JAMES FALLOWS, AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST. James Fallows, author of a detailed investigation published in this month's Atlantic Monthly

JAMES FALLOWS: There's been, for me as a reporter, there's been a fascinating evolution in the last three years that I've been working on stories like this, which is that the members of the sort of the - not at the general level or even the colonel level but every rank below that - there's a real sense of concern about the direction of the policy about the welfare of the American forces and about the mission they're on.

And, so, with each passing month I find it easier to make contact with soldiers and marines in uniform and harder to get permission to quote them by name, because there's more and more of these disaffected reports.

But there's a large network of people I talk to on the phone, I have email exchanges with, I meet in off-the-record conversations, and there is a sense the military itself is in trouble.

TONY JONES: And, in general terms, then, who are these people who are speaking out? Are they people involved - I know you can't name them, obviously - but are they people involved in the training program itself or who historically have been?

JAMES FALLOWS: Yes. There are several cadres.

One is a group of sort of senior advisers who have either personal or memory experiences of Vietnam. They can say, "Yes, we've seen this pattern before," and it's surprising how often they make flattering comparisons to the army of South Vietnam, saying, well, that at least with that army we had this or that advantage.

And then there are those on combat missions in Iraq trying to maintain the peace and they're talking about how, basically, the fabric of the US military is essentially being chaffed and worn out in a way that may not be sustainable for the long run.

TONY JONES: Now, one of the other strange things was that the general who in charge of the invasion, Tommy Franks - you report sources saying that after the invasion, in the critical early stages of the occupation, he was more interested in writing his memoirs than doing anything else.

JAMES FALLOWS: Well, there was a larger pattern here in that there was much more glamour for the military in general in the so-called 'kinetic phase' of action, that is combat, than in the past...

TONY JONES: That's what they call it now? The "kinetic phase" is it?

JAMES FALLOWS: Yes. (Laughs) What you and I might call combat action is now called 'kinetic action' or the 'kinetic phase', and what comes after that is phrase four, which we would call the occupation. So, there was this general pattern.

But General Franks, in particular, I heard from countless people, just lost interest once the battle for Baghdad was over, and was ready to get home and write his memoirs. I tried many times to contact him, but to no avail.

TONY JONES: How did this glamour thing, this kinetic versus reconstruction, how did that play out when it came to training troops? When it came to the critical reconstruction phase?

JAMES FALLOWS: People often described this to me as the 'Team B' phenomenon, that if you were a real 'comer' in the US Military, if you were somebody with real ambitions, what you wanted was a combat command - you wanted to be leading those tank units leading the paratroop units.

What you didn't want was to command a training unit - that had no glamour, that was like a supply depot job.

The Revolt Of The Generals

December 3, 2005 ALEXANDER COCKBURN, CounterPunch [Excerpt]

The immense significance of Rep John Murtha's November 17 speech calling for immediate withdrawal from Iraq is that it signals mutiny in the US senior officer corps, seeing the institution they lead as "broken, worn out" and "living hand to mouth", to use the biting words of their spokesman, John Murtha, as he reiterated on December his denunciation of Bush's destruction of the Army.

It's true. Even in the US Senate there's no one with quite Murtha's standing to deliver the message, except maybe for Byrd, but the venerable senator from West Virginia was a vehement opponent of the war from the outset, whereas Murtha voted for it and only recently has turned around.

So the Four-Star Generals briefed Murtha and gave him the state-of-the-art data which made his speech so deadly, stinging the White House into panic-stricken and foolish denunciations of Murtha as a clone of Michael Moore.

It cannot have taken vice president Cheney, a former US Defense Secretary, more than a moment to scan Murtha's speech and realize the import of Murtha's speech as an announcement that the generals have had enough.

And Now, A Word From The Army War College

2005-11-29 By Stephen Collinson  WASHINGTON, Middle East Online

How many, and when? -- the raging political argument on US policy in Iraq is throwing up two key questions over the much awaited return home of US troops.

"We can't stay, we can't leave, and we can't fail," was how a recent report by the US Army War College summed up the situation.

"No Words Came"

[This is from a very long story in the Los Angeles Times, 12.4.05, by P.J. Huffstutter, Times Staff Writer, about a family with two Marines; father, Kendall Phelps, 58, and his son, Chris, 35, both veterans of the Iraq War, and both for the war.

[Chris Phelps visits an elementary school to tell the children all the good things the U.S. occupation is doing in Iraq.

[And then.....]

On a recent evening inside an elementary school cafeteria near his home in Shawnee, Chris talked to several dozen Cub Scouts and their parents about his experiences.

He told them how the Iraqis were excited about the idea of holding elections. How Iraqi children attend schools with no blackboards, no books and no playgrounds. How children played in the streets, despite the danger of sniper fire.

"We promised these people that we would help them change their country," Chris said.

"When you make a promise, it's important that you keep it. We need to be there and finish what we've started."

"Chris' style was relaxed and warm. As a father, he understood how to captivate the imaginations of boys: On a nearby table, he put out military helmets and an Iraqi police flak jacket they could try on.

As Suicides Spread, VA Appointments Cancelled For Returning Iraq Vets

December 4, 2005 By DAVID McLEMORE, The Dallas Morning News

Since combat operations began in Iraq in March 2003, 45 soldiers have killed themselves in Iraq, and an additional two dozen committed suicide after returning home, the Army has confirmed.

And while no one knows precisely what pushes someone over the edge, the unresolved stresses of combat on the soldier's heart and mind are a factor.

Veterans in several states have found that Veterans Affairs had to stop scheduling appointments because of a lack of staff or a shortage of funds, said Mr. Robinson of the National Gulf War Resource Center.

"For the Guard and reserve, it's particularly bad," he said. "Their soldiers are separated from the Defense Department support system almost immediately after deployment and sent home to VA hospitals and clinics that are already overwhelmed and backlogged.

"We have to recognize the need and provide help, not wait for the veterans to ask."

Harassment Of Military Bloggers Stepped Up:

[And How To Evade It]

November 28, 2005 By Kelly Kennedy, Army Times staff writer [Excerpts]

One year ago, 1st Lt. Neil Prakash decided to brag about his tank crew on his blog, "Armor Geddon."

"I wanted to get out the picture that most combat isn't that scary," said Prakash, who served as a tank platoon leader in Iraq with 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. "It's fun. And these soldiers love their job."

One month ago, the Silver Star recipient found out the Army was using his blog as an example of bad operations-security practices.

The OpSec lessons are part of the Army's new campaign to tighten online security.

The Army now requires that all soldiers in Iraq register their Web logs with their commanders. Mobile training teams are being sent out to train soldiers down to the brigade level to make sure everyone knows the rules about the Internet.

"None of it's new," [Capt. William Roberts, Army spokesman in Iraq] said. "It's just being strictly enforced."

Soldiers also must clear all photos through their unit public affairs representative, Roberts said.

Enforcing blogging registration could be tough because bloggers are often anonymous and can post to their sites from Internet cafes set up in Iraq or from laptop computers in their rooms.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

The body of a slain Iraqi guard is loaded in the back of a police vehicle in Baghdad, Dec. 4, 2005. Insurgents opened fire on 5 people working for Al-Nissor private security Company in Al-Amiryaa neighborhood, killing one and wounding four others. (AP Photo/Asaad Muhsin)

December 4, 2005 AP & Reuters & Aljazeera & By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer & Agence France-Presse

Insurgents killed an Iraqi police commander. In two cars, they opened fire on police commander Lt. Col. Abdul-Razaak Abdul-Jabbar as he was heading to work in western Baghdad, police Capt. Talib Thamir said.

AHMAR - Two Iraqi policemen were killed when armed fighters attacked their patrol in Ahmar village, about 40 km (25 miles) east of Baquba, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - Five members of the Iraqi security forces were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. Reports conflicted about whether they were members of the army or police and one source said one wounded man later died.

ZARKUUSH - Two people were killed, including a policeman, when a bomb planted on the side of the road exploded in Zarkuush, a village 70 km (43 miles) east of Baquba, police said.

Iraqi police sources said a roadside bomb exploded in Alexandria in southern Baghdad targeting a police patrol, killing one of its members and injuring three others.

A soldier was shot dead as he left his home in Hay al-Amin, in the southeast of the capital, while another was killed in Al-Bayyaa, in southern Baghdad.

Angry Iraqis Stone CIA Collaborator

Dec 4, 2005 By Khaled Farhan, Reuters & By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer

A crowd hurling shoes, rocks and tomatoes forced former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to cut short a visit on Sunday to Iraq's holiest Shi'ite shrine during a campaign trip to the city of Najaf, police officers said.

A police captain, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a large crowd of worshippers at the Imam Ali mosque hurled sandals and shoes at Allawi -- a grave insult in Iraqi culture.

A second police officer said some of Allawi's bodyguards fired in the air to disperse the crowd and that also threw rocks, sticks, tomatoes and other projectiles. Police also intervened to break up the disturbance, he said.

"His American and Iraqi guards fired in the air when everyone started throwing shoes and sandals at him."

Allawi, who spent three decades in exile working partly with British and U.S. intelligence after breaking with Saddam Hussein and his Baath party, was named prime minister in mid-2004 by U.S. occupation authorities.

In August 2004, when Allawi was prime minister, Iraqi and U.S. troops took over Najaf from firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's followers after heavy fighting. Many Shiites have not forgiven Allawi for his role in the assault.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

"Betrayal" Should Be A Psychiatric Diagnosis

Mike Hastie

Vietnam Veteran

December 4, 2005

Mike Hastie in Vietnam 1970

While American soldiers and civilians are dying every day in Iraq, most Americans do not want to know or see the details, because it would upset them. When I came back from Vietnam, most of the people I encountered wanted to talk about nice things. When I tried to tell them the truth, they often turned and walked away. Thirty years later, their grandchildren are dying or getting wounded in Iraq. I was a pearl they threw away.

Mike Hastie

Vietnam Veteran

December 1, 2004

The Harder They Fall

From: Z

To: GI Special

Sent: December 04, 2005

Subject: the harder they fall

ogoreru hito mo hisashikarazu

tada haru no yo no yume no gotoshi

takeki mono mo tsui ni wa horobinu

hitoeni kaze no mae no chiri ni onaji

The arrogant ones as well will not continue long,

only like a night in spring, when dreams are short.

The high and mighty too are brought down in the end

and are blown away like dust before the wind.

from The Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari)

14th century Japanese war chronicle

Solidarity,

Z

Exactly

December 1, 2005 From New York Times Editorial

Mr. Bush's vision of the next big step is equally troubling: training Iraqi forces well enough to free American forces for more of the bloody and ineffective search-and-destroy sweeps that accomplish little beyond alienating the populace.

Want To Boost Troop Morale?

"Remember, This Country Was Born In Revolution"

November 21, 2005 Tibor R. Machan, Orange County Register [Excerpt]

Does President Bush believe that by his announcing that critics of the Iraq war dampen our troops' morale he will prevent such criticism? Does he believe his words will silence critics and raise troop morale?

This is America, and if Americans share a common trait, it's rebellion at those who wield power. Well, they used to, anyway - most of them.

Remember, this country was born in revolution.

No, Mr. President, it is not a wise thing to tell us all to shut up to suit your likely embarrassment over an impossible situation from which you will not likely emerge with a swell presidential legacy.

The troops, by the way, will do just fine. They may even be proud knowing that citizens back home haven't gone to sleep on their citizenship job of taking government to task when it's justified.

They Never Learn

From: D

To: GI Special

Sent:, November 30, 2005

Subject: They Never Learn

"But there have been signs of disenchantment within the (Zarqawi) organization. An intercepted letter from a top Zarqawi lieutenant in Mosul complained about a lack of money and experienced terrorists. U.S. military commanders have said that some of those captured say they were misled by recruiters about what America is trying to accomplish in Iraq."

Sound familiar? This one could be applied to the US troops--complaining about a lack of training and about being "misled by recruiters" about "what America is doing" in Iraq

*******************************************************************

"A U.S. intelligence official said, "A lot of these people should not be called foreign fighters. They should be called 'foreign ordnances' because they blow themselves up. They don't fight."

Imperial arrogance... I guess they'll never learn.

[Quotes from THE WASHINGTON TIMES, November 29, 2005]

The Great Iraq War "Phased Withdrawal" Fraud

Nov 29, 2005 By Mark Rothschild, Asia Times Online Ltd. [Excerpts]

The various phased withdrawal plans proposed by Congress and the Pentagon would permit a steady withdrawal of US troops over time as Iraqi government forces increase their fighting abilities.

According to this approach, a strengthened Iraqi government force would suppress and contain the Sunni insurgency as American troops come home.

It is hard not to conclude that withdrawal would leave Iraq with a ground-only military completely dependent on US air power for its survival.

Indeed, there are signs that the Pentagon is prepared for this contingency.

New military communication systems are now being deployed that point to a permanent US presence in Iraq - after an ostensible phased withdrawal.

The semi-permanent communications systems deployed prior to the battle for Fallujah are now being augmented with a permanent enduring communications infrastructure. This new permanent communication infrastructure will provide commanders with secure video, voice and data communications via satellite, microwave and fiber throughout the Iraq-Kuwait theater of operations.

The system, which will crisscross Iraq and connect more than 100 bases, is projected to cost $4 billion - although the Pentagon has been leaking the story that just four stay-behind US bases will remain in Iraq after withdrawal.

From the foregoing, it is hard not to conclude that phased withdrawal is being utilized as a slogan under which military operations will continue - and that thousands of American combat troops may still be in Iraq for many years to come.

Those Democratic members of Congress who think well of themselves for now advocating phased withdrawal are either deluding themselves, or they are continuing to play the same double game many of them began playing when they originally voted to authorize the use of force - and then sniped at the Bush administration over the subsequent conduct of the war.

Phased withdrawal is an empty slogan that can only result in prolonging the war. It is knowingly advocated by those who wish to prolong the war, and naively advocated by some who earnestly oppose the war.

To the limited extent that a phased withdrawal does result in a draw-down of the number of American combat troops, the pernicious policy will place those troops remaining in ever-greater danger and thereby increase the number of dead and maimed American soldiers.

This is because under a phased withdrawal, Iraq would become progressively more dangerous for American troops, more lawless, and then eventually fall under the sway of the most ruthless and violent of the insurgent and paramilitary forces.

From a military-political point of view, the Iraq war is unsustainable. It will not change the facts to point out that the US could defeat the insurgency over time. There is no more time.

The American people will not abide Iraq for 10 more years. In fact, the longer American forces are in Iraq, the more impatient Americans have become. As the months go by without visible progress, it becomes more and more clear that time is not the problem - nor the solution.

There is no military problem on Earth that the US armed forces cannot resolve, but Iraq is not a military problem - it is a political problem, and the root political problem of Iraq is the widespread perception among Iraqis that its government is politically illegitimate.

The perception that the Iraqi government is illegitimate does not stem from the government's inability to establish basic civilized living conditions for it citizens; rather, its illegitimacy stems from the government's origins in invasion and occupation - and from its continued dependency on the US.

Blinded by hatred of an anti-American regime and their ignorance of an exotic culture, US decision-makers have plunged the American people into a quagmire.

Cowardice In The Face Of The Enemy:

Leading Organizations And Figures In The Antiwar Struggle Are Retreating Into Talk Of 'Exit Strategies' And 'Responsible Withdrawal'

December 2, 2005 LANCE SELFA and ELIZABETH SCHULTE, Socialist Worker [Excerpts]

REP. JOHN Murtha's (D-Pa.) November 17 press conference was, if nothing else, a wake-up call to the Washington establishment from one of its own. The U.S. "cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily," Murtha said. "It is time to bring them home."