Bush's Civil War

New Contracts Reflect Continued Presence in Iraq
Washington Post

The depth of U.S. involvement in Iraq and the difficulty the next president will face in pulling personnel out of the country are illustrated by a handful of new contract proposals made public in May.

The contracts call for new spending, from supplying mentors to officials with Iraq's Defense and Interior ministries to establishing a U.S.-marshal-type system to protect Iraqi courts. Contractors would provide more than 100 linguists with secret clearances and deliver food to Iraqi detainees at a new, U.S.-run prison.

The proposals reflect multiyear commitments. The mentor contract notes that the U.S. military "desires for both Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense to become mostly self-sufficient within two years," a time outside some proposals for U.S. combat troop withdrawal. The mentors sought would "advise, train [and] assist . . . particular Iraqi officials" who work in the Ministry of Defense, which runs the Iraqi army, or the Ministry of Interior, which runs the police and other security units.

The mentors will assist an U.S. military group that previously began to implement what are described as "core processes and systems," such as procurement, contracting, force development, management and budgeting, and public affairs.

Mentors would have to make a one-year commitment, with options for two one-year contracts after that. As a reminder of what they are getting into, the mentors must supply their helmets, protective body armor and gas masks, according to the announcement.

If Obama gets into office he will discover many, man of these types of deals in place. Attempts to abrogate the contracts will result in U.S. corporation suing to get paid for their mercenary work.

Of course, this would be less of a problem if Reid and Pelosi had done what the voters sent them them to do: Defund Bush's illegal war. Instead, they to co-ownership of it and allowed him to make all these lucrative deals for his corporate masters.

Basra fight widens rift among Shiite factions
Christian Science Monitor

Moqtada al-Sadr's powerful Shiite movement upped the ante Thursday in its battle with Iraqi government forces. Militiamen loyal to the young cleric refused to back down in their fight in the southern oil-rich city of Basra and his foot soldiers in Baghdad took to the streets in a show of force, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The clock continues to tick away on Mr. Maliki's 72-hour ultimatum for Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army militia to lay down its weapons in Basra or face all-out assault. At the moment, witnesses in Basra say there appears to be no sign of any letup in fighting between government forces and the Shiite gunmen, who are said to still control 75 percent of the city.

The fight in Basra is also having global implications. After news broke that one of Iraq's main oil export pipelines from Basra exploded, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city that provides 80 percent of the government's revenue, oil prices jumped more than $1 a barrel, Reuters reported.

Oil exports are still flowing but they are less than a few days ago," he said adding that oil exports from Basra, Iraq's main outlet, had been averaging 1.5 million barrels a day before the start of fighting.

Fraih also said the company is bracing for the worst. He said all administrative offices, including the headquarters in the city, were closed with extra security forces mobilized to protect them. "Yes there is a great risk that company property maybe attacked or looted."

Elsewhere in Basra, one of Saddam Hussein's former regime palaces – occupied by British forces until September when they pulled out to an airbase on the outskirts of the city – now serves as one of the main bases of Iraqi government forces and was hit with heavy mortar fire.

Meanwhile...

Diplomats told to take cover in Baghdad
Associated Press

The State Department has instructed all personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad not to leave reinforced structures due to incoming insurgent rocket fire that has killed two American government workers this week.

In a memo sent Thursday to embassy staff and obtained by The Associated Press, the department says employees are required to wear helmets, body armor and other protective gear if they must venture outside and strongly advises them to sleep in blast-resistant locations instead of the less secure trailers that most occupy.

"Due to the continuing threat of indirect fire in the International Zone, all personnel are advised to remain under hard cover at all times," it says. "Personnel should only move outside of hard cover for essential reasons."

Is 'success' of U.S. surge in Iraq about to unravel?
McClatchy News Service

A cease-fire critical to the improved security situation in Iraq appeared to unravel Monday when a militia loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr began shutting down neighborhoods in west Baghdad and issuing demands of the central government.

Simultaneously, in the strategic southern port city of Basra, where Sadr's Mahdi militia is in control, the Iraqi government launched a crackdown in the face of warnings by Sadr's followers that they'll fight government forces if any Sadrists are detained. By 1 a.m. Arab satellite news channels reported clashes between the Mahdi Army and police in Basra.

The freeze on offensive activity by Sadr's Mahdi Army has been a major factor behind the recent drop in violence in Iraq, and there were fears that the confrontation that's erupted in Baghdad and Basra could end the lull in attacks, assassinations, kidnappings and bombings.

As the U.S. military recorded its 4,000th death in Iraq, U.S. officials in Baghdad warned again Monday that drawing down troops too quickly could collapse Iraq's fragile security situation.

Pentagon officials said that military leaders are watching for any signs of backsliding as they consider whether to keep drawing down troops below pre-surge levels.

Just what BushCo needs to keep from pulling troops out. I wonder how long it will take them to blame Iran, and use that justification to expand the war?

13 Iraqis Killed by Shells Fired at the Green Zone
New York Times

As many as 20 mortar shells were fired Sunday at the heavily fortified Green Zone, one of the fiercest and most sustained attacks on the area in the last year.

The shelling sent thick plumes of dark gray smoke over central Baghdad and ignited a spectacular fire on the banks of the Tigris River. It ushered in a day of violence around the country that claimed the lives of at least 58 lraqis and four American soldiers. According to a tally by The Associated Press, those military deaths pushed the number of American service members killed in the five-year-old Iraq war to 4,000.

American military officials said the soldiers were killed by a homemade bomb about 10 p.m. as they patrolled southern Baghdad in a vehicle. Another soldier was wounded in the attack.The intensity of the violence added to the sense that insurgent and sectarian attacks had been on the rise in recent weeks.

My congratulations to George Bush, DICK Cheney, Donnie Rumsfeld, and of course, all of the Vichy Democrats like Pelosi and Reid who have helped keep the war going.

'50,000 Iraqi refugees' forced into prostitution
The Independent (UK)

It's Monday night in a dingy club on the outskirts of the Syrian capital. Two dozen girls are moving half-heartedly on the dance floor, lit up by flashing disco lights.

They are dessed in tight jeans, low-cut tops and knee-high boots, but the girls' make-up can't disguise the fact that most are in their mid-teens. It's a strange sight in a conservative Muslim country, but this is the sex business, and it's booming as a result of the war in Iraq.

Backstage, the manager sits in his leather chair, doing business. A Saudi client is quoted $500 for one of the girls. Eventually he beats it down to $300. Next door, in a dimly lit room, the next shift of girls arrives, taking off the black all-covering abayasthey wear outside and putting on lipstick and mascara.

To judge from the cars parked outside, the clients come from all over the Gulf region - many are young Saudi men escaping from an even more conservative moral climate. But the Syrian friend who has brought me here tells me that 95 per cent of the girls are Iraqi.

It is also the legacy of EVERY person, Democrat or Republican who continues to vote for this war.

Most are unwilling to talk, but Zahra, an attractive girl with a bare midriff and tattoos, tells me she's 16. She has been working in this club since fleeing to Syria from Baghdad after the war. She doesn't like it, she says, "but what can we do? I hope things get better in Iraq, because I miss it. I want to go back, but I have to look after my sister". Zahra points to a thin, pubescent girl with long black hair, who seems to be dancing quite happily. Aged 13, Nadia started in the club two months ago.

As the girls dance suggestively, allowing their breasts to brush against each other, one winks at a customer. But these girls are not just providing the floor show - they have paid to be here, and they need to pick up a client, or they'll lose money. If successful, they'll earn about $60, equivalent to a month's wages in a factory.

There are more than a million Iraqi refugees in Syria, many are women whose husbands or fathers have been killed. Banned from working legally, they have few options outside the sex trade. No one knows how many end up as prostitutes, but Hana Ibrahim, founder of the Iraqi women's group Women's Will, puts the figure at 50,000.

This is what Bush has done with his illegal war. This is his legacy.

The Surge's Short Shelf Life
Time

Hospital officials in northwestern Iraq have told TIME that the death toll from Tuesday's blasts in Qahataniya may exceed 300, making the multiple suicide bombings the deadliest terrorist operation in the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein. One hospital is saying that there are at least 500 bodies and that 375 people are injured. That report, however, cannot yet be verified. The only previous occasion when the toll from concerted attacks has exceeded 200 was last November, when six car-bombs in Baghdad's Sadr City killed 215 people. If the toll in the Qataniya incident grows, it could become the worst terrorist incident since al-Qaeda's September 11, 2001 attack on the U.S. (The Beslan massacre in Russia in September 2004 came to approximately 330, about half of the total children).

Since then, the massive "surge" of U.S. and Iraqi troops in and around Baghdad has made the Iraqi capital safer than before from such bombings - but terrorist groups have stepped up attacks elsewhere. There have been a number of attacks in northern Iraq, which had enjoyed a long spell of peace before the start of the "surge."

But, remember, violence is down. You have to believe us, not your lying' eyes.

Bush could double force by Christmas
Hearst Newspapers

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.

Meanwhile, our leaders continue to dilly-dick around and ignore the pile of corpses Bush is racking up.

And exactly WHERE are the extra soldiers coming from? From the Air Force:

The Air Force has long billed itself as the most glamorous of the service branches.

Nowadays, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the shortage in infantry manpower, the Air Force is marching to a different beat.

At Fort Dix in New Jersey, members of the Air Force are training to fight on the ground.

Travis Neely signed up for the Air Force fresh out of high school in his hometown of Greenback, Tenn. He's an air transporter by training, which means he moves cargo and passengers, and rigs air drops.

Or as he whimsically describes it, "I tie knots and string all day long and make parachutes."

But within 10 days, Neeley and 200 other airmen at the Air Force Expeditionary Center at Fort Dix will become expert marksmen on the M-4 rifle. In short, they'll become urban warriors.

The Expeditionary Center is now retraining about 5,000 airmen per year, preparing them to fight on the ground in Iraq.

More under-trained and ill-equipped canon fodder for the Bush meat grinder.

Like most high-ranking airmen, Gray is a pilot by training, but he's now overseeing the largest Air Force retraining center in the United States. The Iraq war has strained the Army and the Marine Corps. The Air Force is increasingly helping fill the gaps.

"The Army has felt some pressure, there's no doubt about it," Gray says. "So the fact that we can aid the Army and Marines — I see that personally as a good thing."

Spoken like a man who will be nowhere near combat risking his pasty-white ass.

Since 2003, more than 30,000 airmen and sailors have been retrained to do things they normally wouldn't be called on to do, like run vehicle convoys, take part in street patrols, and get used to the sound of an AK-47 — the weapon of choice for insurgents in Iraq.

During the two-week course at the Expeditionary Center, the airmen will hear thousands of rounds of AK-47 blanks. They'll also receive hand-to-hand combat training and will be shot at by semunitions, or rubber bullets.

Wow! Two WHOLE weeks of training in which they get to LISTEN to guns being fired and get shot at with weapons that the enemy will never use.

"These rounds travel at 300 feet per second, which is about a third of a speed of a real bullet," says Staff Sgt. Daniel Williamson. "They won't pierce you … but they will tear your skin off."

As opposed to the real stuff that will tear your legs off, your arms off, or your head off.

Williamson trains his fellow airmen on how to clear a village. They haven't been trained in infantry tactics like their counterparts in the Army and Marines, so Williamson makes sure that each airman gets hit by a rubber bullet at some point.

"We believe pain is an excellent teacher, so if they make a bad tactical mistake — they're not behind cover or if they tuck their elbows out or flag their weapon or maybe they don't take cover — they're actually gonna get hit and they're gonna remember it because it actually stings a little bit," Williamson says.

Williamson, who is NOT an Army infantryman, is suddenly an expert on infantry tactics.

The Air Force has more than 350,000 active-duty airmen, and though many aren't yet trained in ground combat, it's manpower the Pentagon is after now.

And after they run out of airmen, they'll come for the sailors, and once they're depleted, they'll draft the Coast Guard. Hey, don't we have over 800,000 Boy Scouts who are just screwing around earning merit badges? And what about the 1.7 million Cub Scouts and Webelos? Isn't time those little cry babies earned their cupcakes?

Of course, you'll see Cub Scouts in combat long before you see this crew:


(Please note that NONE of the fellows in the picture are members of the Young Republicans)

Bush would veto Democrats' new Iraq bill
Associated Press

President Bush would veto a bill drafted by House Democratic leaders that would fund the Iraq war only into the summer months, his spokesman said Wednesday.

And the Pentagon said the funding plan would be "massively disruptive."

The Democrats' proposal would pay for the war through July, then give Congress the option of cutting off money after that if conditions do not improve. Bush requested more than $90 billion to fund the war through September.

"There are restrictions on funding and there are also some of the spending items that were mentioned in the first veto message that are still in the bill," White House press secretary Tony Snow said on Air Force One traveling with Bush.

Asked directly if Bush would veto the House bill in its current form, Snow said, "Yes."

You would think a man facing death from a horrible wasting disease might actually develop a conscience, or some minor sense of morality, but not our Tony Snow. He wishes to go to Hell with the blackness of his soul completely unmarred by any taint of humanity.

Shame there is no Hell.

Commander Guy's latest action underscores the depths of his messianic delusions. He will accept NO rebuke of his orders from "God". He is willing to veto money for our soldiers because Congress dares to not give him what he commanded them to give him.

Iraq lawmakers' vacation plans draw fire
Associated Press

Lawmakers divided over whether to keep U.S. troops in Iraq are finding common ground on at least one topic: They are furious that Iraqi politicians are considering a lengthy break this summer.

"If they go off on vacation for two months while our troops fight — that would be the outrage of outrages," said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn.

Kind of like how Bush took month long vacations at Crawford and ignored intelligence reports about imminent attacks on America?

President Bush this week vetoed $124.2 billion legislation ordering troops to begin leaving Oct. 1. Failing on Wednesday to gain a two-thirds majority needed to override the veto, Democrats were expected to begin negotiations Thursday with top White House aides on the next step.

Numerous possible compromises are being floated on Capitol Hill, all involving some combination of benchmarks. The key impasse, however, is whether to require redeployments of U.S. troops if the benchmarks are not met.

There are no compromises. If the Democrats cave in ANY way to Bush's demands then they are helping him murder our own soldiers.

Democrats send Iraq timeline to Bush
Associated Press

Congress ignored President Bush's certain veto Tuesday and sent him legislation ordering troops out of Iraq, underscoring the action with a Capitol ceremony on the fourth anniversary of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech on the war.

Even as they urged the president to change his mind and sign the bill, Democratic leaders quietly considered what might be included or kept out of their next version.

In a day of high-stakes political theater, Democrats held an unusual signing ceremony of the $124.2 billion bill before sending it to the White House.

"The president has put our troops in the middle of a civil war," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "Reality on the ground proves what we all know: A change of course is needed."

For his part, Bush flew to Florida to meet with military commanders and said the Democratic proposal would turn Iraq into a "cauldron of chaos."

Bush makes impassioned plea for war cash
Associated Press

U.S. President George W. Bush issued an impassioned plea to Congress on Monday for emergency cash to boost efforts in the Middle East.

In an emotive speech, Mr. Bush said the consequences of failure in Iraq “would be death and destruction in Iraq” and in the United States.

“Congress needs to put partisanship on hold. Send me an emergency spending bill that I can sign that gives our troops the support they need and gives the commanders the tools they need to complete this mission,” Mr. Bush said.

The call came on the same day that England distanced itself from Mr. Bush's “war on terror” mantra.

Too late. You can't distance yourself from your Master.