ANTI WAR.COM: 2 US SOLDIERS 27 IRAQIS KILLED, 18 AMERICANS, 55 IRAQIS WOUNDED

This blogger has found you have to have a long list of web sites from overseas to find out what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan because you will NEVER hear or read anything about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the mainstream media or on cable news in the United States.

The Anti-War.com web site is one of the best sources for documented evidence of what is happening in both war theaters.

Here is what happened on Sunday in Iraq as reported by Anti-War.com: http://antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=12960


Sunday: 2 US Soldiers, 27 Iraqis Killed; 18 Americans, 55 Iraqis Wounded

Updated at 7:00 p.m. EDT, June 8, 2008

A suicide bomber killed a U.S. soldier and wounded 18 more Americans in northern Iraq. Anoother U.S. soldier was killed during a roadside bomb blast in Baghdad yesterday.

At least 27 people were killed and 55 were injured across Iraq. Meanwhile, Turkey reported striking suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq.

In al-Rashad, a suicide car bomber attacked a U.S. base, killing one soldier and wounding 18 more. Two Iraqis were wounded as well when the bomber drove a bomb hidden under a pile of animal skins into blast walls protecting the base. Police added five civilians to the tally of wounded. A conflicting report said that more soldiers were killed.


Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited Iran and reassured the Iranians that a proposed security deal with the U.S. will not turn Iraq into a launching pad for a U.S. attack on their neighbor. However, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Taqqi al-Mudaressi said that the agreement could start a popular uprising within Iraq itself.

In Baghdad, a explosion killed four police recruits and wounded 23 others at recruitment center in Mansour's Nisoor Square, only a day after another blast left casualties there. Outside the Ministry of Defense in the Green Zone, a mortar explosion killed three people and wounded seven more.

Two policemen and three civilians were wounded during a blast outside the Turkish embassy in Waziriya. In New Baghdad, a bomb targeting a police patrol wounded two policemen and two civilians.

A grenade injured two defense employees in Atifiya. U.S. forces arrested two people suspected of being Iranian-backed militants. Iraqi forces arrested 27 suspects. No casualties were reported after a bombing in Baladiyat.

A body belonging to a policeman was found in Hurriya, while at least three others were found elsewhere.

In Mosul, gunmen killed three policemen and wounded five people, including civilians. Two women were injured when U.S. soldiers conducted a raid that netted six suspects. An al-Qaeda leader was detained as well.

Gunmen fired upon a marketplace in Khanaqin and killed five people.

Gunmen in Aziziya killed six shepherds and set fire to two vehicles.

A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded two others in Iskandariya.

In Baquba, gunmen killed an Awakening Council (Sahwa) member. Seven suspects were arrested in a separate event.

Gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier in Kut.

Ten rockets struck the British base in Basra but no casualties were reported.

THIS SUCKS! WAR BILL WILL HELP IRAQIS, BUT COULD IGNORE KATRINA VICTIMS

War bill helps Iraqis, may ignore Katrina victims

Congress' war bill helps Iraqi refugees, could ignore homeless Hurricane Katrina victims

JOHN MORENO GONZALESAP News
Jun 08, 2008 11:30 EST
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=203366

A long way from Iraq and the war debate in Washington, Herman Moore sat outside a tent in a downtown New Orleans homeless camp, trying to make sense of a proposal that helps Iraqi war refugees but will likely exclude Hurricane Katrina victims.

"Messed up is not the phrase. I think you know the phrase," Moore said. "This place has been forgotten, just forgotten."

The 56-year-old lifelong city resident is referring to Congress' plan to spend $212 billion to finance the war in Iraq. In the massive spending bill, $350 million is set aside to help Iraqi refugees while just $73 million has been allotted to help shelter physically and mentally disabled Katrina victims — and that money could be cut as early as Tuesday.

Along with funding the war through the first month of the next president's term, the bill provides Jordan's military $100 million and Mexico's armed forces $50 million. In response, lawmakers like Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu have attached over $30 billion to the proposal for what they see as domestic priorities.

However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must trim the bill or face a threatened veto from President Bush. While the California Democrat supports the housing money for 3,000 rent-aid vouchers, it is part of $2.9 billion in Katrina assistance that may end up being cut.

Landrieu said the housing assistance funds are vital to a city that has seen its homeless population double to an estimated 12,000 since the 2005 disaster.

WASHINGTON POST: IRAQ, NOT THE ECONOMY, WILL FRAME POLITICAL DEBATE

The Iraq war has been shoved to the sidelines for over six months now, but today the Washington Post reports Iraq is going to be back center stage when the race for the White House kicks into high gear after Labor Day.

Iraq, Not Economy, Frames the Presidential Debate-

By Perry Bacon Jr.Washington Post Staff WriterSunday, June 8, 2008; A11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/07/AR2008060702124.html

With the country confronting a rising jobless rate, soaring gas prices and a shaky stock market, voters say their biggest concern is the economy. But it is the debate over Iraq that could define the contest between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama.

While pocketbook issues worry many Americans and will be a recurring theme in the campaign, the sharp differences between the two candidates on the war provides the kind of contrast that each would like to emphasize in making his case to be president. The Democratic senator from Illinois is casting a McCain presidency as the third term of George W. Bush; the Republican senator from Arizona argues that Obama does not have the experience or the judgment to be commander in chief.

As Obama was still engaged in his primary contest against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), McCain was hammering at him over Iraq -- criticizing his proposed timetable for withdrawing troops, his opposition to the "surge," his not having visited the country since January 2006 and his not having held one-on-one meetings with Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces there.

In turn, Obama has sharply criticized McCain for his willingness to commit U.S. troops indefinitely in Iraq, and Obama aides consistently speak of the "Bush-McCain" view of foreign policy.

"What's so interesting is, usually in presidential politics, there is some agreement between the parties as to which issues are good for which party," said William Galston, a former domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton. "What you have this time is two candidates, each of whom believes they can win the argument over defense and foreign policy."

Susan Rice, an Obama foreign policy adviser, said that "national security is a debate the Obama campaign welcomes," adding: "John McCain is a poster child for the Bush administration's failed foreign policy."

Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, said Obama's positions on Iraq showed "weak judgment" and that he is "just not ready to be commander in chief."

Obama has called for withdrawing most troops from Iraq in his first two years in office, bringing home one or two of the more than 15 brigades there each month. He says he would leave some troops there to defend the U.S. Embassy and to form a special strike force to carry out anti-terrorism missions, although he has not detailed how many troops those initiatives would require.

McCain, in contrast, has adamantly opposed any kind of timetable, arguing that any troop withdrawal from Iraq should depend on the country's security and that setting a timeline would weaken the U.S. effort there.

For McCain, elevating security issues could be crucial to his chances. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll last month, 36 percent of voters said the economy was the top issue in the election, and 6 percent named health care, while about a quarter cited Iraq or national security and the fight against terrorism.

Polls show that voters favor Obama's positions over McCain's on the economy, health care and other domestic issues but that they view McCain as the stronger candidate for combating terrorism. And in last month's Post-ABC poll, 71 percent of voters chose McCain as the candidate with "better experience to be president" while 18 percent chose Obama. The poll showed McCain with a 41-percentage-point advantage on "knowledge of foreign affairs."

On the other hand, more than 60 percent of voters agree with Obama's position that the war in Iraq was not worth fighting. They are about evenly divided, however, about who would handle the war better once in office.

Both candidates seem aware of their vulnerabilities on the issue. In a recent speech, McCain made his first mention of a date for withdrawal, suggesting that he wants a large reduction of troops in Iraq by 2013. Obama has suggested that he will make a trip to Iraq before the election.

The willingness to engage on Iraq does not mean pocketbook issues will not be in the forefront of the campaign. McCain has already run television ads in Ohio touting his economic and health-care plans, while Obama has accused McCain of being out of touch with concerns of people at home and of offering discredited policies from the Bush administration to deal with them.

"This election is going to be dominated by the issues of Iraq and the economy," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

NEWS ALERT: US SOLDIER KILLED AND, 17 WOUNDED IN SUICIDE BOMBING IN KIRKUK

U.S. soldier killed, 17 wounded in suicide bombing in Kirkuk

Kirkuk - Voices of Iraq
Sunday , 08 /06 /2008 Time 11:42:37
http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=81811&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

Kirkuk, Jun 8, (VOI)- U.S. army and Iraqi police said a U.S. service member was killed and 17 more wounded as well as seven Iraqis on Sunday afternoon, when a suicide bomber detonated a car crammed with explosives inside a residential compound near Kirkuk, northern Iraq.

“A U.S. soldier was killed and 17 more were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated a car rigged with explosives near their patrol in al-Rashad district, southwest of Kirkuk,” U.S. media adviser Abdellatif Rayan told Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI).Ryan added “Two Iraqi contractors were also wounded in the attack.”Meanwhile, Brigadier Sarhad Qader of Kirkuk police said that a suicide bomber detonated a car rigged with explosives, this afternoon, targeting two Iraqi-U.S. bases inside al-Noor residential compound at al-Rashad district, 30 km southwest Kirkuk.“The explosion wounded five Iraqi civilians and left unidentified number of casualties among the U.S. troops,” Brigadier Qader said.Kirkuk is 250 km northeast of Baghdad.

WHY DO BUSH AND MEDIA TELL AMERICANS THINGS ARE BETTER IN IRAQ WHEN ALL THIS IS HAPPENING?

The Bush administration and their puppet mouthpiece, FOX NEWS, have long contended things are better in Iraq, but what bothers this blogger is why are the rest of the media going along with this BS when it is obvious to anyone who can read and knows how to do research re conditions in Iraq that Iraq is still a hotbed of violence.

Another U.S. soldier was killed on Sunday in Baghdad and violence and car bombings are going on in virtually every province in Iraq.

The mainstream media in the United States has totally sold out to the Bush administration and the people that are suffering the most for the lack of Iraq war coverage are the 160,000 troops in Iraq and their families back in the United States.

I count 6 bomb or mortar attacks on government forces in Baghdad today, all of them quite effective, plus one fatal attack on U.S. forces, yet the media continues to discuss the "lull in violence" in Iraq. (See below.) One has to wonder what a resurgence in violence would look like. -- C.

The mainstream media in the United States is a total disgrace.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE

Reported Security IncidentsUpdate:
SOURCE: http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/
NOTE: Click on BLUE for additional details of each death or incident of violence.

Rashad (near Kirkuk): Suicide truck bomb attack on a U.S. patrol base kills 1 U.S. soldier, injures 18.
BaghdadU.S. soldier killed by roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad. No further details at this time.

Mortar attack on Iraqi Defense Ministry compound inside the Green Zone kills 3, injures 7.Bomb planted near the entrance to a police recruiting center in al-Nosoor square, western Baghdad, kills 4 recruits and injures 23.Roadside bomb attacks on two separate police patrols injure 9 people.

First bomb in al-Jadidah, southeastern Baghdad, injures 2 police and 2 civilians. Second bomb in al-Waziriyah, central Baghdad, injures 2 police and 3 civilians.

Suicide car bomber attacks a police patrol in Nisoor square, killing 1 police officer and 1 civilian, and injuring 5 civilians. As far as I can tell this AP report does not correspond to any other incidents reported elsewhere. I'm not sure whether "Nisoor square" is the same as "Nosoor square," but in any case the events described are very different.

Bomb attack on the convoy of police Brig. Gen. Nazar Majeed kills 3 police and 1 civilian, injures 18 people including Gen. Majeed. Again, this does not appear to the correspond to the attack in Al-Jadidah reported by VoI.


U.S. says it has captured a "special groups" leader from Basra, in Baghdad. They claim he was sending "criminals" to Iran for training.Four bodies dead of gunshot wounds found in various places.

KutUnknown gunmen kill an Iraqi soldier. (Kut is the capital of Shiite Wassit province, in the south of Iraq.)AziziyaGunmen kill 5 shepherds and burn two of their vehicles. Not clear what this is all about -- could be sectarian violence, or a clan feud, or common criminality, e.g. an extortion racket. VoI says the attackers were riding on motorcycles, identifies the location as "al-Nahrawan area," northern Wassit.

MosulGunmen attack a police patrol, killing 3 police and injuring 2 police and 3 civilians.

IskandiriyaRoadside bomb kills 1 person, injures 2. The Reuters report does not characterize the target. BaqubaSahwa fighter killed in a drive-by shooting.

Basra British base at the airport attacked with 10 Katyusha rockets, no casualties.

MORE VIOLENCE IN IRAQ. BRITISH BASE IN BASRA HIT BY ROCKET ATTACK

Once again violence is on the rise in Iraq. The Iraq Defense Ministry in the fortified Green Zone was hit by a mortar attack Sunday morning, and also on Sunday rockets were fired into the British base in Basra. No reports of injuries in the Basra attack so far, but three people were killed and seven injured in the Green Zone attack in Baghdad.

British base at Basra airport rocketed

Basra - Voices of Iraq
Sunday , 08 /06 /2008 Time 3:31:28
http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=81747&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

Basra, Jun 8, (VOI)- British forces’ base at Basra airport came under Katyusha rocket attack on Sunday morning with no reports of casualties or damage, a British spokesman said.

“The British base at Basra International Airport was attacked this morning with ten Katyusha rockets,” Captain Chris Ford told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq- (VOI).Captain Ford added “the rockets, which were launched from an area south of Basra, left no casualties or damage.”This is the second time the British base came under attack since 25 March 2008, a day that a large-scale military operation, dubbed Charge of Knights, started in the Shiite predominantly city of Basra with the aim of hunting down “outlaws”, a term used by the Iraqi government to describe the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militiamen.Basra is 590 km south of Baghdad.

MORTAR ROUND KILLS THREE IN GREEN ZONE AND INJURES SEVEN. SHARP RISE IN VIOLENCE IN IRAQ

Mortar kills 3, wounds 7 at entry to Iraqi Defense Ministry building

Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Sunday , 08 /06 /2008 Time 3:31:28
http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=81760&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

Baghdad, Jun 8, (VOI)- At least three people were killed and seven more wounded on Sunday when a mortar round fell near the gateway to Iraqi Defense Ministry building in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, a police source said.

“A mortar fell onto the Defense Ministry compound inside the Green Zone, today, killing three persons and wounding seven,” the source, who spoke on anonymity condition, told Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI).The fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad is the seat to Iraqi government, parliament and some ministries as well as the foreign embassies in Iraq including the U.S. and British.SK

A PHOTO YOU JUST HAVE TO SEE

Well, well, well. Look who Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is meeting with in Tehran, Iran.

They say a photo is worth 10,000 words and this photo bears out the truth of the old bromide.

One can only wonder if Iraqi PM al-Maliki demanded pre-conditions be met before meeting with the Iranian leader.

http://article.wn.com/view/2008/06/08/Iraqs_Maliki_says_wants_stronger_ties_with_Iran/

CHENEY WANTED TO BOMB IRAN BUT PENTAGON NIXED THE IDEA

Vice President Dick "Darth Vader" Cheney isn't happy that he helped start one war, the Iraq War that so far has cost 4,090 American lives, he wanted to launch an air strike on Iran last summer but the Pentagon put their foot down and stopped the madness.

Cheney, who used six deferments to avoid military service during the Vietnam War, is only to eager to send young Americans into the Middle East in some cockamamie idea of his that we can establish a democracy in the Middle East.

Apparently Cheney never reads the foreign press which shows most of the Iraqi people want the U.S. military OUT of Iraq ASAP, and the plan to set up permanent U.S. bases in Iraq has been met with loud screams from not only members of the Iraqi parliament, but from the Iraqi public as well who do not want the U.S. occupying Iraq forever.

Cheney is a warmonger who ran from putting himself in the uniform of the military of the United States, but he is eager and willing to send as many young people as possible to die or end up wounded in either Iraq or Iran.

BTW: When was the last time Vice President Dick Cheney visited Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital to see what his handiwork has done? You never read about Cheney going to visit the wounded troops. He ONLY makes appearances before troops who have yet to be sent into combat in Iraq or Afghanistan and they are prompted to applaud him on cue.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE

US/IRAN:Fearing Escalation, Pentagon Fought Cheney Plan

Analysis by Gareth Porter*
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42696

WASHINGTON, Jun 6 (IPS) - Pentagon officials firmly opposed a proposal by Vice President Dick Cheney last summer for airstrikes against Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bases by insisting that the administration would have to make clear decisions about how far the United States would go in escalating the conflict with Iran, according to a former George W. Bush administration official.

J. Scott Carpenter, who was then deputy assistant secretary of state in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, recalled in an interview that senior Defence Department (DoD) officials and the Joint Chiefs used the escalation issue as the main argument against the Cheney proposal. McClatchy newspapers reported last August that Cheney had proposal several weeks earlier "launching airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iran", citing two officials involved in Iran policy.

According to Carpenter, who is now at the Washington Institute on Near East Policy, a strongly pro-Israel think tank, Pentagon officials argued that no decision should be made about the limited airstrike on Iran without a thorough discussion of the sequence of events that would follow an Iranian retaliation for such an attack.

Carpenter said the DoD officials insisted that the Bush administration had to make "a policy decision about how far the administration would go -- what would happen after the Iranians would go after our folks."

The question of escalation posed by DoD officials involved not only the potential of the Mahdi Army in Iraq to attack, Carpenter said, but possible responses by Hezbollah and by Iran itself across the Middle East.

REUTERS REPORTS: IRAQI PM AL MALIKI MEETS WITH LEADERS OF IRAN WITHOUT ANY PRE-CONDITIONS

The Republicans have been screaming their heads off that Barack Obama should not meet with anyone from Iran without some pre-conditions in place, but the puppet Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has flown to Iran to meet with the leaders of Iran and try to cement ties between the two countries and there wasn't even a hint of any pre-conditions before the meeting.

So while all our young men and women are dying in Iraq in hopes of establishing some kind of democracy for Iraq, the leader of the Iraqi government (if you can call it a government) Prime Minister al-Maliki flys off to Tehran, Iran to ass kiss the Iranian leaders.

Will somebody please tell Sen. John McCain and the Republicans to knock off all the talk about not sitting down with Iranian leaders unless pre-conditions have been made because al-Maliki, who the United States place in charge of the lackey Iraqi government, takes off and meets with Iranian leaders with zero pre conditions.

Does anyone else see what a fool the United States is played for by al-Maliki and now Iran?

It isn't bad enough Iraq wants to limit U.S. troop movements in Iraq (see post below on this blog) but now the puppet Prime Minister of Iraq goes behind the backs of the Bush administration and GOP candidate for President, John McCain, and meets with the leaders of Iran to insure both countries are on the same page.

The United States had been made to look like a fool----AGAIN!

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE

Iraq's Maliki says wants stronger ties with Iran

REUTERSReuters North American News Service
Jun 07, 2008 15:53 EST
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=202608

TEHRAN, June 7 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday that Iraq wanted to strengthen ties with Iran, a news agency reported.

Maliki arrived in Tehran on Saturday evening for a three-day visit. Iran is accused by the United States of supporting Shi'ite militias in Iraq.
"All groups ... in Iraq emphasise strengthening ties with Iran in all fields," state broadcaster's Web site IRIB quoted Maliki as saying after a meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

"We will not allow Iraq to become a place (used) for harming Iran's ... security." Maliki is scheduled to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday, according to Iranian media, and he last travelled to the Islamic state in August.

Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war in the 1980s that left about a million dead. Relations have improved, and Iran's influence in Iraq has risen, since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The United States has accused Iran of trying to destabilise Iraq by funding, training and equipping Iraqi militias. Iran blames the presence of U.S. troops for the instability.

Iraq's government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said last month Maliki had ordered the formation of a committee to compile evidence of Iranian "interference" in Iraq that would then be presented to Tehran. It is not clear if that evidence will be handed over during Maliki's visit to Tehran.

A delegation from Iraq's ruling Shi'ite alliance went to Tehran at the start of May to show Iranian officials evidence of the Islamic Republic's backing for Shi'ite militias in Iraq.

The Iraqis have repeatedly said they do not want their territory to become a battleground for a proxy war between the United States and Iran, which are also at loggerheads over Iran's nuclear ambitions.