WHO ARE BUSH AND CONDI KIDDING? COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN

No wonder Russia is paying no attention to President Bush and Sec. of State Rice on their paper tiger threats about what the U.S. will do if Russia doesn't pullback on their invasion of Georgia.

The United States doesn't have a military that can do a damn thing about what Russia is doing.

The U .S. military is stretched way beyond their capabilities now and military commanders are crying for more troops for Afghanistan, but the U.S. doesn't have more troops.

Russia can and will tell the U.S. to go take a flying you-know-what at the moon because Russia knows the U.S. is now a PAPER TIGER.

The U.S. has 160,000 troops tied up in Iraq and 30,000 troops bogged down in Afghanistan and nothing in the military recruitment pipeline to take on Russia in Georgia.

I just saw Wendell Goler, the FOX NEWS White House Correspondent, say Russia does not want to take on the United States.

What the hell is Goler smoking?

The United States military couldn't take on a Boy Scout troop let alone the massive Russian military.

The mainstream media has to tell the truth about how the military is stretched to the breaking point, or U.S. cities will see Russian tanks rolling through them in a heartbeat.

The ONLY reporter I've seen so far tell the truth about the Russia/Georgia conflict is Shepherd Smith of FOX NEWS. He keeps asking meatheads from the right wing how the U.S. is going to take on the Russians and he gets nothing but BS from all the neocons FOX NEWS puts on the air.

If the U.S. peacekeepers and humanitarian helpers start getting their ass kicked by the Russians, the U.S. military's hand are tied because we just don't have the troops to do a damn thing about the situation and Russia knows it.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE

IRAQI STUDENTS ARE FAILING EXAMS IN RECORD NUMBERS

The fallout of invading and occupying Iraq continues way beyond what is being reported by the mainstream media.

The latest victims of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq are Iraq students who are failing exams and have resorted to cheating just to try and pass courses.

IRAQ: Students Fail, Like So Much Else

By Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail*
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43491

BAGHDAD, Aug 8 (IPS) - Living from one crisis to another, without electricity or freedom to move under a collapse of security, massive numbers of Iraqi students are failing their exams."It is a natural result of what is going on in Iraq under this U.S. occupation that so many Iraqi students failed the high school exams," Mahmood Jassim, a teacher in Baghdad told IPS. "How can a student pass such difficult exams feeling terrified, exhausted in the heat, in darkness without electricity, having to work in the absence of a dead or detained father, and all the problems of the world over his head." Jassim says about 75 percent of his students are failing their exams. "I am ashamed of the results my school achieved this year," a school headmaster in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "I cannot tell you what percentage we achieved because that will reveal me and my school. You do not really believe we are living in a democratic country, do you?"

Two headmasters, who also spoke on condition of anonymity given the prevailing atmosphere of fear, said school results showed sectarian divisions – and not for the best of reasons. Shia schools, they alleged, ran a loose invigilation system that allowed students to cheat. Some teachers believe most students who passed their exams did so by cheating. "Those who cheated have passed while the honest failed," Ghanim Jamil, a teacher in Baghdad told IPS.

"If a student is the son of a senior government official or of a member of an armed group, how can we stop them from cheating? We would be killed."

Click on link to read full story: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43491

CNN REPORTS: TROOPS CHARGED BAGGAGE FEES ON WAY TO WAR ZONES

Story Highlights
Commercial airlines charge troops fees for military kits
VFW asks industry to enact across-the-board waiver for military personnel
American Airlines says troops are allowed heavier, bigger bags
Reimbursement available, but can require forms filled out in war zones

From Deborah Feyerick CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/08/13/troops.baggage/index.html

(CNN) -- Some airlines are charging U.S. soldiers extra baggage fees to take their military kits with them as they set off for war.

Military personnel carry large, heavy kit bags containing boots, clothing and gear. In the past few months, airlines have instituted fees for all travelers ranging from $15 for one bag to $250 for a third bag.

"What we want to do is nip this in the bud by exempting the military personnel who are traveling under orders from having to pay a fee on their third bag," said Veterans of Foreign Wars spokesman Joe Davis.

The VFW sent a letter to the Air Transport Association of America, the aviation industry's umbrella group, asking that U.S. troops be exempt from any extra baggage fees.

Watch how troops are getting hit with fees »

"If you have a family at home and you stand at that airline counter and you have three bags in your hand, and they say you can't get on board unless you pay $100 up front right now, what are you going to do?" Davis said.

American Airlines, and others reached by CNN, say troops are allowed heavier and bigger bags and can check two for free, unlike commercial travelers.

Troops are allowed 190 pounds each free of charge, American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner said, adding: "If they pay, they get reimbursed, so at the end, they don't pay a dime."

That's not a good answer, the VFW's Davis said.

"These young troops are going to war," he said. "There's a lot more on their mind than to have to worry or try to remember to get a hundred dollars reimbursed to them when they get into a war zone."

The military usually issues vouchers authorizing extra baggage before a flight, but troops must pay up front if they don't have one.

And though reimbursement is likely, pending approval, as with any business expense, it is not guaranteed.

The Air Transport Association says it supports the troops, but baggage policies are "made independently by the individual airlines."

85 BILLION OF TAXPAYER MONEY GOING TO CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ

The Iraq War has cost U.S. taxpayers $85 BILLION in payoffs to contractors to rebuild the Iraq the U.S. military destroyed.

U.S. spending on contractors in Iraq reported to reach $85 billion

By James Risen
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/12/america/contractor.php

WASHINGTON: The United States has reached the $85 billion mark in spending on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, according to a new government report released Tuesday, a milestone that reflects the Bush administration's unprecedented level of dependence on private companies for help in the war.

The report by the Congressional Budget Office says that about one out of every five dollars spent on the war in Iraq has gone to contractors for the U.S. military and other government agencies. Employees of private contractors now outnumber U.S. troops in the war zone.
The numbers in the report provide the first official price tag on contracting in Iraq and raise troubling questions about the degree to which the war has been privatized, several outside experts on contracting said.

The Pentagon's reliance on outside contractors in Iraq is proportionately far larger than in any previous conflict, and it has fueled charges that this outsourcing has led to overbilling, fraud and shoddy and unsafe work that has endangered and even killed U.S. troops. The role of armed security contractors has also raised new legal and political questions about whether the United States has become too dependent on private armed forces on the 21st-century battlefield.

Contractors now employ at least 180,000 people in Iraq, forming what amounts to a private army, larger than the U.S. military force, whose roles and missions and even casualties have largely been hidden from public view.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/12/america/contractor.php