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‘As Iraqis Stand Up, We Will Stand Down,’ Bush Tells Nation

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2005 – On the one-year anniversary of the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq to a transitional Iraqi government, President Bush tonight promised that U.S. forces would remain in Iraq until the job is complete, “but not one day longer.”

“The principal task of our military is to find and defeat the terrorists,” he said. “And that is why we are on the offense. And as we pursue the terrorists, our military is helping to train Iraqi security forces so that they can defend their people and fight the enemy on their own. Our strategy can be summed up this way: As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.”

American Forces Press Service, June 28, 2005

They still are not standing up nearly three years later.  The New York Times today reports that Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions in Sadr City, “defying American soldiers who implored them to hold the line against Shiite militias.”

More after the fold

Also in orange: http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

The retreat left a crucial stretch of road on the front lines undefended for hours and led to a tense series of exchanges between American soldiers and about 50 Iraqi troops who were fleeing.

Capt. Logan Veath, a company commander in the 25th Infantry Division, pleaded with the Iraqi major who was leading his troops away from the Sadr City fight, urging him to return to the front.

“If you turn around and go back up the street those soldiers will follow you,” Captain Veath said. “If you tuck tail and cowardly run away they will follow up that way, too.”

NY Times, Iraqi Unit Flees Post, Despite American’s Plea

American soldiers are more then fed up:

Tuesday’s desertions in Sadr City, although involving a particularly hesitant Iraqi unit, left many of the Americans soldiers wondering about the tenacity of their Iraqi allies.

“It bugs the hell out of me,” said Sgt. George Lewis, Captain Veath’s platoon sergeant in Company B, Third Platoon, First Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment. “We don’t see any progress being made at all. We hear these guys in firefights. We know if we are not up there helping these guys out we are making very little progress.”

NY Times, Iraqi Unit Flees Post, Despite American’s Plea

How many more must die for Bush and Cheney’s lies and dreams of empire?

At least 4037 fatal American military casualties.

Casualties in Iraq

Roadside Bomb Takes American Death Toll in Iraq To 4,000, March 2008

The reason is that the frequently reported number of the wounded in action (29,320 as of March 1) does not include everyone who’s been hurt.

The complete number of nonfatal casualties in Iraq is 60,645. Most assume the wounded number includes all, but it does not. It leaves out another 8,273 injured and 23,052 who became ill and required medical air transport from the war zone. The Department of Defense releases two reports: one with the weekly numbers of those wounded and killed, and then another monthly report with the complete numbers. After five years, it is time for respected news organizations to use the complete number.

John Edwards, letter to editor in NY Times

The financial cost:

At the outset of the Iraq war, the Bush administration predicted that it would cost $50 billion to $60 billion to oust Saddam Hussein, restore order and install a new government.

Five years in, the Pentagon tags the cost of the Iraq war at roughly $600 billion and counting. Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and critic of the war, pegs the long-term cost at more than $4 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office and other analysts say that $1 trillion to $2 trillion is more realistic, depending on troop levels and on how long the American occupation continues.

NY Times,March 19, 2008.

John Edwards in February:

“People don’t understand why we’re spending $500 billion and counting in Iraq when at the same time we’ve got 40-plus million Americans with no health care coverage, 37 million-plus living in poverty. It doesn’t make sense to them.”

John McCain will continue this occupation indefinitely:

Bolster Troops on the Ground

A greater military commitment now is necessary if we are to achieve long-term success in Iraq. John McCain agrees with retired Army General Jack Keane that there are simply not enough American forces in Iraq. More troops are necessary to clear and hold insurgent strongholds; to provide security for rebuilding local institutions and economies; to halt sectarian violence in Baghdad and disarm Sunni and Shia militias; to dismantle al Qaeda; to train the Iraqi Army; and to embed American personnel in Iraqi police units.

Accomplishing each of these goals will require more troops and is a crucial prerequisite for needed economic and political development in the country. America’s ultimate strategy is to give Iraqis the capabilities to govern and secure their own country.

John McCain campaign website

Or, as said by George Bush in 2005:  “Our strategy can be summed up this way: As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.”  They’re still are not standing up.  They are turning tail and running away.

How  many more deaths, wounded, and money must we pour into the Iraq occupation and Bush’s failed dreams of empire?

The Iraq occupation is the defining issue between the two Democrats candidates and John McCain.  

John Edwards:

“There is great concern, anxiety and angst out there among most Americans about their economic security.  They are worried about a lot of things.  They are concerned about the cost of a health care system that is broken and needs to be fixed.  They are worried about how to pay to send their kids to college.  The mortgage and foreclosure crisis is now becoming central to the economic insecurity an awful lot of Americans are feeling.  All of these things are made much worse due to the war in Iraq. The American public sees a direct connection between the spending in Iraq and the economic anxiety caused by the price of oil and gasoline. They want to see this war brought to an end.”

Elizabeth Edwards:

“If the economy is your number one issue when you’re voting, the war is, too.”

Anna Burger, Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU:

“For [SEIU] this is about the war in Iraq and the war on the middle class.   As we see jobs hemorrhage, as we see wages frozen, and as we see people losing their health care, we see first hand the impact of wasting $10 billion a month on spending in Iraq when we should be investing in our kids, investing in health care and investing in the infrastructure of our country.”

Iraq/Recession Campaign

Both Clinton and Obama offer a major change from Bush/McCain on the Iraq occupation.  Neither Obama nor Clinton move out of Iraq fast enough for me, but they at least will be moving in the right direction: home.

This issue is far more important than bowling, drinking shots and beer, and all the other bs that the MSM and many in the “progressive blogosphere” seem to be fixated on.

It is time for us to tell Obama and Clinton: talk to Americans about issues, talk about about the occupation and its costs to us.  Keep talking.  Draw the contrasts with McCain.  It is time for the occupation of Iraq to end.  The lives of many depend on it.    

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Amnesty International reported yesterday that China is the world’s top executioner. From ITN News in the UK:

But as with everything else in life, there are unseen ties that link China’s use of the death penalty with the United States’ use of torture in conducting the “war on terror”.

But first, some facts. From The Press Association:

Amnesty’s UK director Kate Allen said: “As the world’s biggest executioner, China gets the ‘gold medal’ for global executions. According to reliable estimates, on average China secretly executes around 22 prisoners every day – that’s 374 people during the Olympic Games.”

She added: “Everyone involved in this year’s Olympics, especially the IOC, should be pressing China to reveal the extent of its use of the death penalty, to reduce the 60-plus crimes for which it can be imposed and to move toward abolition.”

Chinese criminal law professor Liu Renwen estimated in 2006 that 8,000 executions take place annually in China, which hosts the 29th Olympiad in Beijing from August 8 to 24. And the US-based Dui Hua Foundation estimated that 7,500 to 8,000 executions took place in the same year.

Nearly 70 crimes can carry the death penalty in China including tax fraud, stealing VAT receipts, damaging electric power facilities, selling counterfeit medicine, embezzlement, accepting bribes and drugs offences.

link: http://ukpress.google.com/arti…

Al Jazeera highlights the number of countries in the world who still use the death penalty:

The Amnesty report said 88 per cent of all known executions take place in just five countries, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States.

link: http://english.aljazeera.net/N…

From the article, it also covers the calls from Amnesty International to remove secrecy from the process:

The organisation called on all governments that allow the death penalty to lift what it called the “veil of secrecy” over the practice.

Bannister said: “We need to see that the borders of execution-free Europe and the Americas are pushed back into the Middle East and Asia until we see a world free of executions.”

Secrecy. Quiet use of the ultimate form of violence the state can impose on the individual. Violence and secrecy are deadly combinations. In China, as reported by ITN, the use of the death penalty is considered a state secret, therefore it is impossible to gauge exactly how many people are put to death.

And here, the use of torture by our government has been shrouded in secrecy.

This interview with Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights reveals not just how the use of torture has been covered by a veil of secrecy, but also how our independent judiciary has been compromised by our government’s insistence on using torture to conduct their “war on terror”:

The United States and China have both made the decision that the state can use the death penalty, the ultimate form violence against the individual.

Any further discussions about what other forms of violence are acceptable to use are just dancing around matters of degrees. And that discussion can be pretty macabre, as WaPo points out:

The Post reported that the methods discussed included open-handed slapping, the threat of live burial and waterboarding. The threat of live burial was rejected, according to an official familiar with the meetings.

link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

People sat in a White House and had meetings about whether the threat of live burial would be acceptable. Let me say this again: Dick Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (all of whom ABC News reports as being involved in these meetings) sat in a room and asked the question whether or not the threat of live burial would be acceptable.

How was the question brought up? Was it a bullet-point on the meeting minutes? Or was it approached more trepidatiously? Did someone just “throw this out there” to “run it up the flag pole and see if anyone salutes”?

But we rejected that particular form of violence. Good. for. us.

China shrouds its use of the death penalty in secrecy. Our government, which already has laws legalizing the death penalty on the books, held secret meetings where the prospect of threatening people with being buried alive was discussed and rejected, but the practice of making someone feel like they’re drowning seemed kind of okay by comparison.

And we are two of five nations in the world that finds it acceptable to put criminals to death.

Once you believe that it’s acceptable to kill someone, using other forms of violence is just a matter of degrees. I don’t think it’s just coincidence that this same President who has approved the use of torture was governor of the one state in our union that far outpaced all of the others in terms of the number of criminals it killed.

Accept the ultimate form of violence, and all other forms start to seem more acceptable.

All justifications – that these are “evil people”, that “they are only the most deserving of criminals”, that “we’re protecting the security of our nation” – are only justifications. Violence begets violence. A state that kills people, that tortures people and that discusses whether or not it’s okay to threaten someone with live burial instead of making them feel like they’re drowning cannot claim the high ground. It cannot make the argument that this injustice actually helps its citizens. This includes China. This includes the United States.

And any state that feels it must shroud its use of violence away from the eyes of its citizens knows that what it is doing is wrong. It is wrong for the Chinese government to keep journalists and international observers out of Tibet. It is wrong for the United States government to still keep this part of their “war on terror” plans a secret:

The department issued another still-secret memo in October 2001 that, in part, sought to outline novel ways the military could be used domestically to defend the country in the face of an impending attack. The Justice Department so far has refused to release it, citing attorney-client privilege, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey declined to describe it Thursday at a Senate panel where Democrats characterized it as a “torture memo.”

link: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics…

Free Tibet. Free China. Free the United States.

Free the World.

Please keep all sides of these conflicts in your thoughts, prayers and meditations.

UPDATE  Students for a Free Tibet are calling on folks to call Coca-Cola during their shareholders meeting to ask that they put pressure on the IOC to stop the Olympic torch from traveling to Tibet, which will only worsen the situation there and open the door to more suppression and violence:

Coca-Cola is holding its annual shareholders meeting in Delaware today. As an official sponsor of China’s global torch relay, and one of the most influential corporations in the world, Coca-Cola has the power to pressure the International Olympic Committee to stop the torch from going to Tibet in May and June. Tibetans and their supporters are at the meeting right now to speak out and demand Coca Cola’s executives use their influence to save Tibetan lives.

Please make sure Coca-Cola feels the pressure today; send the letter below and phone their corporate headquarters at 1-800-GET-COKE (1-800-438-2653). As a signatory to the U.N. Global Compact, Coca-Cola has promised to “support and respect the protection of international human rights” and ensure that Coca-Cola is “not complicit in human rights abuses.” Tell Coke that it will have blood on its hands for any Tibetan lives lost as a result of the torch going to Tibet and to use its influence now to do the right thing. ***Please be polite but firm when you call.

link: http://actionnetwork.org/campa…

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Please do what you can to help stop this injustice.

UPDATE (2) H/T to buhdydharma. Brave New Films is calling for the immediate resignation of Condoleezza Rice for misleading Congress about the use of torture by the United States government:

Link to sign the petition: http://condimustgo.com/

Sometimes, I just have to go to The Good News Network and see if anything positive is actually happening in the world.  Just one of their current stories:  

Somalia Once Again Polio-Free, Declares UN

Apparently, no new cases have been reported in over a year, after an outbreak believed to have been carried from Nigeria in 2005 created an epidemic.  Without a functioning government or reliable health services, the people were basically at the mercy of the disease.

More than 10,000 Somali volunteers and health workers repeatedly vaccinated more than 1.8 million children under the age of five by visiting every household in every settlement multiple times.  

I know in the scope of things…not only globally, but for Somalia itself, this is really just the tip of the iceberg….however, a polio epidemic causing long-term health needs across such a poverty-stricken and underdeveloped nation, especially in the face of the global food emergency knocking on our global door, would have exacerbated things mightily.    

~73v

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Very exciting times here at the the bustling blog offices!

Last night, yours-truly opened the front door to find a phalanx of high-powered corporate executives in even HIGHER powered suits standing expectantly on my stoop.

Well, these executives wined and dined and seventy-two’d me (that’s three better then sixty-nine) and as the caviar and truffles settled in my befattened tummy… I made the morally difficult decision to accept corporate sponsorship for my ongoing efforts.

Now, I understand how you might worry that the influence of multinational conglomerates (specifically the bags of cash, the bright red porsche, and the women of extremely low morals) might change the very nature of this blog, but let me tell you… NAY, PROMISE… as sure as the delicious Whopper™ I’m eating has a third less fat than the Big Mac… I CANNOT be corrupted!

Besides, I’m telling you, as I sip down my frosty, refreshing Pepsi™ from its environmentally conscious soft-drink delivery container, the link between money and ethical lapses in judgement is HIGHLY EXAGGERATED.

Moreover, as the sweet Pepsi™ nectar drips down my parched throat, I wonder if those who suggest a writer or, say a politician, cannot see beyond the first class airfair and the mounds of cocaine the size of a wombat… isn’t really just pushing a distinctly anti-American agenda!

I mean, seriously, am I less authentic just because my behind is now being lovingly caressed in a new pair of four-hundred dollar Louis Vuitton man panties? And am I less a straight-shooter because my wrist sports a seven-thousand-dollar, one-of-kind, hand-crafted Louis Vuitton, diamond-studded bracelet now reduced 30%?

Come on, folks… are you really THAT shallow?

        I know in my soul that I would NEVER censor myself…

        never alter my agenda… never write so much as an

        insincere syllable to please my new masters. How do

        I know this? Well, I stayed at a Holiday Inn™ last night!

So, fear not dear reader… my integrity is untouched… my muse unaffected…

my purpose clear as my skin washed with Clearpores™.

Just feel free to sit back and enjoy continued unblemished humor…

while enjoying a juicy, low-in-fatty-acids Chicken Naturals Eater!