The Bush administration and their television parrot FOX NEWS have been bragging about how wonderful things are going in both Anbar Province and Mosul.
But now the Iraqi Vice President has issued a statement saying conditions in both Anbar and Mosul are much too fragile to do any boasting.
Security condition still fragile – VP
Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Friday , 27 /06 /2008 Time 7:21:00
http://tinyurl.com/3jrm4h
Baghdad, Jun 27, (VOI)- Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said on Friday that the military operations in Mosul and Anbar yesterday proved that security condition still fragile.
“The recent operations in Mosul and Anbar proved that security condition still fragile and more measures are still needed to limit casualties in the war-ravaged Iraq,” Al-Hashemi said in a statement received by Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq (VOI).
“The situation also needs an immediate revision of security measures which prove they still incapable of facing challenges facing Iraq,” the statement added.Anbar and Mosul witnessed two armed attacks; the first took place in Anbar when a suicide bomber blew himself up amid a meeting of chieftains and Sahwa Council’s leaders, while a car bomb went off in Mosul.
The two operations killed more than 40 and injured more than 90.Al-Hashemi condemned the two operations
Friday, June 27, 2008
DESPITE BRAVADO FROM BUSH ADMIN AND FOX NEWS, IRAQI VP SAYS CONDITIONS IN MOSUL AND ANBAR ARE VERY FRAGILE
IRAQ COSTS $12 BILLION A MONTH---HUFFINGTON POST
The flow of blood may be ebbing, but the flood of money into the Iraq war is steadily rising, new analyses show. In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the "burn" rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.
Studies: Iraq Costs US $12B Per Month
CHARLES J. HANLEY
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/10/studies-iraq-costs-us-1_n_90694.html
Beyond 2008, working with "best-case" and "realistic-moderate" scenarios, they project the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion _ or more _ by 2017.
Interest on money borrowed to pay those costs could alone add $816 billion to that bottom line, they say.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has done its own projections and comes in lower, forecasting a cumulative cost by 2017 of $1.2 trillion to $1.7 trillion for the two wars, with Iraq generally accounting for three-quarters of the costs.
Click here to read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/10/studies-iraq-costs-us-1_n_90694.html
FORMER UN AMBASSADOR JOHN BOLTON ARGUES WITH RADIO HOST OVER NEED FOR WAR WITH IRAN
Bolton Bristles When Challenged On Getting It Wrong On Iraq: That’s ‘An Ad Hominem Attack’
Former UN Ambassador John Bolton has been intensifying his calls for a war with Iran, telling Fox News last weekend that Israel may attack Iran before the inauguration of a new U.S. President.
LISTEN TO BOLTON ARGUE WITH RADIO HOST HERE: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/26/bolton-iraq-ad-hominem/
He added that Arab states “would be delighted” if this happened.
Bolton appeared on XM radio’s Potus ’08 earlier this week to talk about an Iran war. He argued this issue “goes fundamentally to your tolerance for the risk of radical Islamists holding nuclear weapons.” Host Tim Farley interrupted and asked, “It also goes, does it not, to the credibility of those making the argument?”
Bolton bristled at the accusation:
Absolutely not! And by the way, the credibility point is an ad hominem reference. … But to address the merits of the argument requires a response on the merits, not an ad hominem attack.
Farley tried to interject, but Bolton demanded, “Let me finish my answer!” The host later followed up by noting that the credibility of the argument is lacking when war advocates like Dick Cheney and President Bush “tell you one thing and the truth turns out to be something else.” Bolton responded by complaining to the host that you’re “debating with me.” Listen here:
George Monbiot, a columnist for the Guardian, has charged that Bolton was “instrumental in preparing and initiating the Iraq war by disseminating false claims through the State Department” while he was under-secretary of state for arms control.
Before the war, Bolton orchestrated the removal of the head of a global arms-control agency, Jose Bustani, because the Brazilian was trying to send chemical weapons inspectors to Baghdad. In Feb. 2003, Bolton orchestrated the removal of State Department official Rexon Ryu because Ryu “had been instrumental in getting the most controversial allegations” out of Colin Powell’s U.N. speech.
But Bolton would prefer all these acts are washed away with history so that he can have a clean slate to make his pitch for a new war.
HADITHA KIN OUTRAGED AS MARINES GO FREE
WATCH VIDEO AND READ FULL STORY HERE: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/41817.html
Leila Fadel McClatchy Newspapers
HADITHA, Iraq — Khadija Hassan still shrouds her body in black, nearly three years after the deaths of her four sons. They were killed on Nov. 19, 2005, along with 20 other people in the deadliest documented case of U.S. troops killing civilians since the Vietnam War.
Eight Marines were charged in the case, but in the intervening years, criminal charges have been dismissed against six. A seventh Marine was acquitted. The residents of Haditha, after being told they could depend on U.S. justice, feel betrayed.
"We put our hopes in the law and in the courts and one after another they are found innocent," said Yousef Aid Ahmed, the lone surviving brother in the family. "This is an organized crime."
No one disputes that Marines killed 24 men, women and children in this town in four separate shootings that morning. Relatives said the attack was a massacre of innocent civilians that followed a roadside bomb that killed one Marine and injured two. Marines say they came under fire following the bomb.
Nonetheless, military prosecutors filed charges that ranged from murder to covering up a crime. Three Marines were relieved of their duties then, and U.S. Rep. John Murtha, a former Marine, famously called the incident "murder" on television.
One by one, the cases fell apart. American and Iraqi witnesses provided conflicting accounts. The investigation began months after the incident, and many Iraqis who could have testified were unable to travel to the United States. Furthermore, several Marines were granted immunity.
Last week, a judge dismissed charges of dereliction of duty and failure to investigate filed against the highest ranking officer implicated, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. The Marine Corps plans to appeal.
The dismissals have deepened the victims' relatives' grief. Many say they feel deceived after having collaborated with U.S. investigators who came into their homes, collected evidence, took testimony, and ultimately failed to hold the Marines accountable.
"Right now I feel hatred that will not fade," said Ahmed. "It grows every day." Charges against two Marines who allegedly killed his brothers were dropped in August 2007.
All charges of murder in this case were dropped and at least seven Marines were given immunity to allow them to testify against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the squad leader. His charges now include voluntary manslaughter of at least nine people.
Wuterich has always maintained that he made the right decision, believing his Marines were under threat.
While other Marines' accounts have differed from his, Wuterich told the CBS News program 60 Minutes last year that he shot at five unarmed men outside a white car because he believed they were a threat when they started to move away from the car. At the first home they raided, where women and children were inside, he said he told his men to "shoot first and ask questions later", because he believed the Marines were coming under "sporadic" fire from the dwelling.
WATCH VIDEO AND READ FULL STORY HERE: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/41817.html
