CORKSPHERE

Sunday, March 16, 2008

SEE VIDEO ABOUT HALLIBURTON SENDING CONTAMINATED WATER TO TROOPS IN IRAQ

A recent report by the Inspector General found KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton the company that Vice President Dick Cheney was CEO of at one time, has been delivering contaminated water to U.S. troops in Iraq.

On the video seen here, Senator (ND-D) Byron Dorgan talks about the Inspector General report and provides charts indicating how KBR was sending contaminated water to the U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1113&thisview=item

New Inspector General report finds that Halliburton delivered contaminated water to US bases in Iraq

Transcript:MATTHEW PALEVSKY, JOURNALIST: Senator Byron Dorgan held a press conference in the US Senate to discuss a recent report by the inspector general, a report that found that US contractors had been delivering contaminated water to US troops in Iraq. The report cited KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton.(CLIP BEGINS)March 10, 2008 BYRON DORGAN, US SENATOR (ND-D): So the Pentagon is saying, well, no, Senator Dorgan and those that are disclosing this are inaccurate. Halliburton is saying it's inaccurate; the Pentagon is saying it's inaccurate; everthing's just fine. Here's what the inspector general said.

Things aren't fine.

The water was not treated as it was supposed to have been treated. Contaminated water was provided to the troops. Some troops got sick. In some cases, this water that was twice as contaminated as raw water from the Euphrates River was flowing as non-potable water to these military bases. When we got the information from the Halliburton corporation whistleblowers, Halliburton denied it, and so too did America's military. Now we know that the inspector general says, no, no, that's exactly what was happening. Exactly what was happening is this corporation's being paid to provide good-quality, disinfected water to the troops, and the fact is they weren't doing the job.(CLIP ENDS)

While most of Senator Dorgan's complaints focused on private contractors, he also took issue with the Department of Defense.(CLIP BEGINS)DORGAN: Who's going to be standing up for American soldiers if it's not going to be the Pentagon? And who's going to be standing up for the American taxpayer's interest here? Who's going to stand up on behalf of the American taxpayer if this government doesn't? If we're paying a company to treat water and make certain that water's good quality water and they're not doing it, then there ought to be consequences. We're spending billions, tens and tens of billions of dollars on these kinds of contracts. And the question is: who's doing the oversight? Who's looking over the shoulders to find out (A) the taxpayer's being properly served and (B) someone's protecting American soldiers? In this instance, the answer is no one. No one seemed to give a damn.

DISCLAIMER:Please note that TRNN (The Real News Network) transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network http://therealnews.com/web/index.php cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.

NEW LIST OF NAMES OF GIS KILLED OR SERIOUSLY WOUNDED IN IRAQ

We have a list of the latest names of U.S. military personnel killed or seriously wounded in Iraq as well as a list of violence that swept across Iraq on Sunday.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

War News for Sunday, March 16, 2008
MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier by small-arms fire in a southwestern neighborhood of Baghdad on Saturday, March 15th.

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting the death of a Marine who died in his sleep in Camp Lejeune, N.C on Monday, March 10th.Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Scott Bachus was wounded in an explosion in Iraq and received a concussion, and he lost much of his hearing. He returned from Iraq last March 2007. The cause of his death is speculation at this point, his family said. It could take months for test results to come in. But the explosion might well have caused an undetected injury that led to his death, his brother said.

Casualty Reports:Army Sgt. Matthew Lammers, 25, of Olathe, Kan., had both legs and his left arm blown off June 10, 2007, in south Baghdad.

Ryan Kelly, 27, of Buda. Kelly lost his right leg in July 2003 to a roadside bomb in Iraq.Army Sgt. Robert Bartlett suffered brain injuries after being hit by improvised explosives in seperate incidents. Bartlett too says he often has times where he can't remember names like he did in the past.

Marine Sgt Kevin Denton suffered brain injuries after being hit by improvised explosives in seperate incidents. Denton says he still suffers headaches from the injury which happened in 2004. He also had trouble with short term memory.

Sgt. Maj. Diane Cochran of the U.S. Army career came to an abrupt halt when the Humvee ambulance she was in met head on with a Russian land mine left over from a previous war in Afghanistan. She was the only one in the ambulance who survived the explosion that was set off by a remote device. Her neck, hands and wrist were broken and her back was broken in two places and she was unconscious until after her rescue. She also suffers the residual effects of chemicals she came in contact with at the former Russian camp where her unit was assigned. She has blind spots in her right eye and a tumor behind it.

Sgt. Norris Galatas nearly three years and 19 surgeries after a bomb in Iraq sent shrapnel tearing through his abdomen in the explosion in April 2005. “He appeared to be dead “swollen and yellow” in a medically induced coma. it took nearly three months for him to become mobile.

Security incidents:Baghdad:#1: A civilian was killed and two others were injured when a car bomb detonated near a convoy of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in western Baghdad on Sunday, an Interior Ministry source said. "A car bomb parked on the al-Amirat Street in the upscale neighborhood of Mansour blew up in the morning near a convoy of SUVs believed to be affiliated to a foreign security firm was," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The attack resulted in the damaging one of the convoy's vehicles and a nearby civilian car, along with the killing of a bystander and the wounding two others, the source said.

Diyala Prv:Baquba:#1: Two policemen were killed and three others wounded in clashes that erupted between police forces and fighters believed to belong to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militias in Baaquba, an official security source said on Sunday. "The clashes, which broke out on Sunday morning in al-Huwayder village between policemen and Mahdi Army fighters, left two security personnel killed and three others wounded," Brig. Ragheb al-Umayri, the head of the joint coordination center in Baaquba, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of IraqNajaf:#1: Unidentified gunmen on Sunday kidnapped the headmaster of the al-Mustafa School in front of his house in eastern Najaf and led him to an unknown place, a local police source said.

Baiji:#1: A power cut shut down operations at Iraq's largest oil refinery on Sunday, officials at the plant said, adding it was unclear when work would resume. Officials said exports were not affected by the incident. "This morning at 8:15 work at the refinery was stopped completely because of the shutdown of electricity," said a senior official at the refinery. An engineer at the plant said it was unclear when operations would resume.

Tikrit:#1: Two Iraqi soldiers from the 14th brigade 4th Iraqi army division were kidnapped on Tikrit_ Toz Street about14 miles east of Tikrit on Saturday evening.Hawija:#1: A car bomb exploded on Sunday morning in Hawija district, 70 km southwest of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk with no casualties reported, a police source said.

Mosul:#1: At least nine people were injured Sunday in a suicide bombing in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said. A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up near the offices of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan in Mosul, police told the Voices of Iraq VOI news agency. Two policemen and seven civilians were wounded.

Afghanistan:#1: At least 16 people have been killed in a missile strike on a building near Pakistan's northern border with Afghanistan, state television has said. The attack took place in the South Waziristan region, where tribal militants are based, Reuters news agency reported residents as saying. The Pakistani state TV report said several missiles destroyed the house of a suspected militant leader. Reuters reported the military saying seven militants were among the dead.On the home front:

VIDEO OF ANGELINA JOLIE TALKING ABOUT HER CONCERNS ABOUT IRAQI REFUGEES TO CNN'S ARWA DAMON

Actress Angelina Jolie visited Iraq about a month ago and she sat down with CNN's Arwa Damon to talk about her concerns for the four million Iraqi refugees. Since taping this interview, Jolie has expressed in a Washington Post editorial how she feels the United States military should stay in Iraq until the mission is accomplished and how she feels "the surge" is working.

Watch the CNN interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX6K9a0KIZE

Saturday, March 15, 2008

DREAMS OF TEENAGE IRAQIS SHATTERED BY POVERTY AND TRAUMA OF U.S. OCCUPATION

The are many stories which are not getting told anymore by the press in the United States who have placed Iraq on the back burner.

One story going untold is how Iraqi teenagers now live in poverty and trauma as their dreams have been destroyed by the occupation of Iraq by the United States military.

This Reuters feature tells of the plight of Iraqi teenagers. Their dreams are now only a dream and their lives have been ruined by the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Feature: Trauma, poverty shred young Iraqis' dreams

By Aseel Kami

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LSGZ-7CQHVC?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=irq

BAGHDAD, March 14 (Reuters) - As a teenager, Mazin Tahir dreamt that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq would bring new freedoms and democracy with the fall of Saddam Hussein.

As a young adult, his hopes have been replaced by despair after five years of unremitting violence.

"It's sad, or funny. The Iraqi dream has turned into a nightmare," said Tahir, who was 15 when the Americans came.

"When I was young I dreamt of getting rid of the dictatorship and replacing it with democracy. Saddam has gone but Iraq is in worse shape. There are killings every day, politicians are like thieves ... it's like a curse from God."

Tahir had his life before him when the invasion started and his heart was full of hope. Now, like many others who grew from teens to adults during the occupation, he just wants to get out.
Fatma Abdul-Mahdi was 17 at the time of the invasion.

"When Saddam was ousted I thought the doors of happiness would be opened, I thought I could stop wearing second-hand clothes and I could be like the girls I was watching on TV," the 22-year-old said.

Fatma now works as a teacher in the southern oil hub of Basra but, like so many of her peers, she says her life is worse and her family is poorer after five years of instability and hardship.

"I still wear second-hand clothes. If I could find a job, even in Sudan or Somalia, I would flee Iraq as soon as possible. I wish I had never been born in Iraq," she said.

Psychiatrists fear that young Iraqis, so badly disillusioned after their teenage hopes and dreams were dashed, might turn to more drastic measures than just seeking to leave.

TEENAGERS AN EASY TARGET

Haider Abdul-Muhsin, a psychiatrist at Baghdad's Ibn Rushid hospital, said that disillusionment -- and poverty -- force many teenagers and young adults to leave school and university early.
Bitter and without direction, young people then become easy targets for exploitation by militants whose violence has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis since the invasion began.
"That is the start of their suffering. They leave because they think their studies will not guarantee them a bright future," Abdul-Muhsin told Reuters.
"Some of them are then exploited by armed groups into conducting violent acts. Teenagers are an easy target," he said.

Young Iraqi adults suffer in other ways, too, when they see the way their peers live in richer, more stable Arab states and in the West. Security fears mean it is hard to keep up social networks and there are few entertainment options.

While no statistics are available, he says he is seeing far more patients now than before 2003.
"Mostly their families come to my clinic complaining that they suffer from insomnia, or they are taking drugs or they have psychiatric problems," Abdul-Muhsin said.

Of course, the pain is even more acute for the many thousands of Iraqis who have lost family members in the violence.

Sabreen Jawad, a 21-year-old Sunni Arab, left school after her father, a member of Saddam's elite Republican Guard, was killed during the invasion.
"Can you imagine my feelings? A girl my age adores her father, he was always pampering me," she said.

"From having a social life and luxury and servants we became a displaced family," she said. Her family fled to Syria before returning to Baghdad recently.
Abdul-Muhsin said many young Iraqis have become reserved and introspective while the more resilient take a pragmatic approach to what has happened.

Nooreldin Ibrahim, from the ethnically and religiously mixed city of Baquba north of Baghdad, was also 15 and in high school when U.S.-led forces invaded.
He, too, had dreams of liberties unthinkable under Saddam, like mixing freely with girls. Those dreams started to fade after about a year when shops slowly began to close as Baquba became a hotbed of insurgent and sectarian fighting.

Now studying for an Arts degree in Baghdad, he says he has come to terms with the constant interruptions to his studies since universities became frequent targets for attacks.

"One day we'll study and then we'll have to stay home for 10 days. I love football so that means I am able to play my favourite sport," he said.

"I don't have any more dreams now, just finish my studies and become a civil servant," he said.

NEW WAVE OF IRAQI REFUGEES EXPECTED IF U.S. ATTACKS MOSUL

The United States military and the Iraqi Army, such as it is, are making plans to attack Mosul, a city of 3.8 million people.

Red Crescent, the humanitarian organization in Iraq, says if the U.S. and Iraqi troops go ahead with an attack on Mosul there will be an unprecedented number of Iraqi civilians displaced during the attack.

The reason given by the U.S. military for an attack on Mosul is because it is expected many insurgents and terrorists live inside the city.

There are already about three million Iraqi refugees in neighboring states and more than two million others are displaced as a result of ongoing U.S. military operations and sectarian strife.

Red Crescent warns of a new wave of Iraqi refugees

By Salem Areef

Azzaman, March 15, 2008

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2008-03-15%5Ckurd.htm

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society is warning of a massive exodus if U.S. and Iraqi troops go ahead with plans to attack Mosul, the country’s second largest city with nearly 3.8 million people.

The northern city which is the capital of the Province of Nineveh has turned into a major stronghold for forces resisting U.S. occupation and elements of the al-Qadeda organization.

Tensions are high and violence has gripped the city in the past few months with at least one hundred houses destroyed and hundreds of people killed or injured.

Certain quarters are so violent that neither U.S. troops nor Iraqi forces are capable of entering.

But the society said it feared a joint attack in which units of Kurdish militias are to take part will lead to one of the largest waves of internally displace people the country has seen since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Hard pressed ethnic and religious minorities in the city have been leaving either to the Kurdish north or neighboring Syria.

Mosul is a predominantly Sunni Arab city and residents are apparently unhappy with the role U.S. occupation troops have given to Kurdish militia fighters.

The Arabs see Kurdish involvement in areas which have traditionally not been part of Iraqi Kurdistan with suspicious eyes.

Kurdish militias are now present in most villages and towns which are administratively part of Mosul as the center of Nineveh Province.

Some of these areas hold huge oil reserves like Ain Zala.

NAMES OF LATEST GIS KILLED IN IRAQ

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO OF IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR PRESS CONFERENCE

The most disgusting thing about all of this is not what these brave warriors talked about, but the fact the mainstream media in the United States chose to not even cover the event. No wonder only 28 percent of those polled by the Pew Research Center knew that almost 4,000 Americans have been KILLED in Iraq.

Nobody cares. Not President Bush. Not Vice President Cheney, Not Fox News and their ilk and now it appears three-fourths of the people of the United States haven't even a passing interest in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What a sad, sad commentary on the United States of America.

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) hold press conference in Washington, DC

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1122&thisview=item

MISSION STATEMENT OF IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR

This month, for four days in Washington, DC, beginning on March 13, there will be a second Winter Soldier gathering – 37 years after the first. Organized by the protest group Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan since the 9/11 attack on New York will testify about their experiences.

They will present photographs and videos, recorded with mobile phones and digital cameras, to back up their allegations – of brutality, torture and murder.The veterans are not against the military and seek not to indict it – instead they seek to shine a light on the bigger picture: that the Abu Ghraib prison regime and the Haditha massacre of innocent Iraqis are not isolated incidents perpetrated by “bad seeds” as the military suggests, but evidence of an endemic problem. They will say they were tasked to do terrible things and point the finger up the chain of command, which ignores, diminishes or covers up routine abuse and atrocities. (From the London Sunday Times, see full article in context link below)

Kelly Dougherty is the Executive Director of IVAW. She served as a Military Police Officer in Iraq, she will testify about her experiences working at check points in occupied Iraq. She will also discuss leading the IVAW organization through exponential growth in the last year.

Captain Luis Montalvan is the highest-ranking IVAW member. He served in the US Army for 17-years and will be testifying about accountability and corruption in the US military. CPT Montalvan is from Brooklyn, New York. Jason Hurd was born in Kingsport, TN and enlisted in the US Army in 1997 at 17. In 2004 he deployed to central Baghdad with Bristol, Tennessee’s Troop F 2/278th Regimental Combat Team after a 5-month long train-up. He served as a medic in Baghdad. He will testify about the practice of shooting civilians from convoys, as well as the abduction of young male Iraqis. He is the president of IVAW’s Ashevile, NC chapter.

Selena Coppa is a Military Intelligence Sergeant in the US Army and a mother. She will be testifying at Winter Solider about the breakdown of the military in recent years due to mismanagement in Iraq and beyond. She is in charge of active duty outreach and blogs from Activedutypatriot.blogspot.com

VIDEO OF FORMER MARINE DESCRIBES HOW "RULES OF ENGAGEMENT" WERE THROWN OUT THE WINDOW IN IRAQ

Adam Kokesh was a United States Marine serving in Falluja, Iraq and in this video he says the "rules of engagement" were changed in Iraq more often than you change your underwear.

Even though Kokesh and other Marines were supposed to follow the little card with the printed "rules of engagement," they were constantly changing the "rules" to the situation on the ground in Iraq.

In this video, you can see and hear Kokesh describe several incidents he was involved in during his tour in Iraq: http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1141&thisview=item

The testimony was part of the Iraq Veterans Against the War press conference which has been going on for three days in Washington, D.C. More than 800 Iraq Veterans Against the War attended the event.

ONE-THIRD OF WOMEN IN U.S. MILITARY SEXUALLY HARASSED

The dirty secret the American public never hears about is how one-third of the women in the United States military have been sexually harassed.

The Associated Press and New York Times detail the sexual harassment cases in a story that should be must reading for every woman considering a career in the United States military.

Military Women Report Harassment

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/NEW YORK TIMES

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Military-Sex-Assaults.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- One-third of women in the military and 6 percent of men said they were sexually harassed, according to the latest Pentagon survey on the issue.

The figure for women was worse than the previous finding several years ago but better than a similar survey taken in 1995, the Defense Department said in a report Friday.

A separate report on sexual assaults showed that fewer cases were reported among military personnel -- 2,688 cases reported last year by people in uniform compared with 2,947 reported the year before. But officials said they haven't been collecting the data long enough to determine whether a downward trend in assaults was developing.

Both reports are mandated by Congress. The finding on sexual harassment was from the Defense Manpower Data Center, which is to report every four years and in for the latest report surveyed more than 23,000 people in 2006. The one on sexual assaults is taken from reports of actual incidents reported in 2007.

Officials said that overall, the survey showed both men and women polled think the climate on sexual relations is better in the military than it is in the nation as a whole. And the survey found that a majority of those surveyed believe the military's training on sexual harassment is effective.

Among the findings:
--In 2006, 34 percent of women surveyed said they had been sexually harassed.

Rachel Lipari, senior scientist with the data center, said that included a wide range of problems from crude and offensive behavior -- ''your basic locker room talk'' -- to unwanted sexual attention, ''which is being repeatedly asked for dates even though you said no or ask to enter into a sexual relationship even though you said no, and then your classic sexual coercion, your classic quid pro quo.''

The 34 percent figure for women who reported harassment compared with 24 percent in 2002 and 46 percent in 1995.

--About 5 percent of women said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact, ranging from unwanted touching, attempted sexual intercourse and completed sexual intercourse. That compared with 2.7 percent in 2002 and 6.2 percent in 1995.

Officials say the huge dip in problems reported in 2002 might have been an anomaly. The survey was taken only months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on American soil, and Lipari said officials believe 9-11 had an effect on how people responded to the survey.

Click on link above to read full Associate Press/New York Times investigative report.

VIEW VIDEO OF IRAQ WAR VET DESCRIBE HOW WAR DESTROYS SOLDIERS' HUMANITY

There is so much the Winter Soldiers, or Iraq Veterans Against the War, have been talking about at a press conference held in Washington the past three days, but the mainstream media, as one might expect, has ash canned any reference to these brave warriors and their stories.

Here in this one video, a former member of the United States Army describes what the vague "rules of engagement" were for himself and his platoon in an urban area of Iraq.

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1139&thisview=item

SEE VIDEO OF IRAQ WAR VETS TELL OF INDISCRIMINATE KILLINGS OF IRAQI CIVILIANS

The Iraq Veterans Against the War are winding up their three-day press conference in Washington on Saturday. Their testimony as to what they saw and were involved in as GIs of the United States Army in Iraq is chilling.

In this video you will see two former Privates describe how they indiscriminately killed Iraqi civilians.

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1138&thisview=item

Winter Soldiers: Clifton Hicks and Steven Casey
Hicks and Casey: Indiscriminate killings in Iraq
Saturday March 15th, 2008

Go also to http://ivaw.org/index.php to see another gripping video titled "Rules of Engagement." Warning: Due to heavy traffic there may be a delay in viewing this video.

WATCH VIDEO OF IRAQ WAR CAPTAIN DESCRIBE HOW MEDIA IS MISLED IN IRAQ

Iraq War veteran, Captain Luis Montalvan, describes how the American public is misled by a unit called "the robust information cell" formed by General David Petraeus, who is in charge of U.S. forces in Iraq, to pump out only "feel good" information to the press who are stuck inside the Green Zone in Baghdad.

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1123&thisview=item

Winter Soldier: Captain Luis Montalvan
Captain Luis Montalvan on the media, propaganda and uncovering the whole story in Iraq

The video is part of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IAVA) http://ivaw.org/index.php. You may have trouble accessing this page due to the inordinate amount of heavy volume.

TWO OPPOSING VIEWS ON IRAQ WAR FROM VETERANS

The Iraq War has always stirred controversy among Americans and it is no different with active duty and veterans of the Iraq war.

This week the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) have been holding hearings in Washington where they have been relating stories about the atrocities they saw committed to Iraqi civilians when they were deployed to Iraq. The video of their testimony can be seen here: http://therealnews.com/web/index.php.

On the other side of the Iraq war fence is a group called Vets for Freedom who have launched a 22-city tour to tell citizens of the heroism they have seen in Iraq.

Whether it is the Iraq Veterans Against the War or the Vets for Freedom, the sad part is the mainstream media in the United States has turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to what each veterans group is attempting to accomplish.

Veterans groups offer different views of conflict

By Leo Shane III, Stars and StripesMideast edition, Saturday, March 15, 2008

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53321

WASHINGTON — A pair of veterans groups on opposite sides of the country this week are offering drastically different views of the war in Iraq and the future of U.S. troops there.
In Washington on Thursday, Iraq Veterans Against the War launched its four-day Winter Soldier event, which organizers promise will show evidence of systemic war crimes, war profiteering and mismanaged strategy that has cost troops’ lives.

In San Diego on Friday, Vets for Freedom launched a month- long, 22-city tour to highlight stories of heroism from Iraq, and to encourage communities to continue their support of the mission overseas.

Both groups say they hope their efforts will help educate the public about the truth surrounding U.S. operations there.

IVAW, which claims about 800 veterans of operations in Iraq, named its event after the 1971 summit held by Vietnam veterans pushing for an end to that war.

Kelly Dougherty, executive director of the group, called current operations in the Middle East a similar “unjust and illegal occupation” by the United States.
“As we enter the sixth year in Iraq, the voices of veterans and servicemembers must be heard,” said Dougherty, who served as a military police officer in Iraq in 2004. “We represent a legacy of servicemembers speaking out against policies that hurt our country and our military.”
Organizers said that as part of the event they will make public photos, videos and documents of deteriorating conditions in Iraq and possible war crimes committed by U.S. troops under orders. That information has been corroborated through interviews with speakers’ fellow troops and via military documents, they said.

Jason Hurd, an Army medic who served in Iraq in 2005, said his unit was routinely instructed to fire on Iraqi cars, buses and civilians to keep them away from explosive ordnance disposal teams, even if they posed no real threat to the U.S. bomb squads.

“My unit began firing randomly at civilians who were outside our 50-meter bubble,” he said. “They’d come back bragging about how they fired into the grills of cars and watched radiator fluid explode all over the place. And that kind of behavior was encouraged.”

Organizers at Vets for Freedom, which claims 11,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans as members, called the IVAW event full of lies and “propaganda for the enemy.”

They said their tour was planned because too often stories of positive work in Iraq — schools being built, neighborhoods becoming safer — aren’t well-covered.
“This is really something that hasn’t been done yet,” said Pete Hegseth, an Army National Guardsman and executive director of the group. “We want to bring these stories of sacrifice directly to the American people, and emphasize to them that their military is committed to completing the mission.”

The bus tour will feature a handful of Silver and Bronze Star recipients from Iraq operations appearing with local veterans from each city in hometown TV interviews, town hall meetings and debates on college campuses.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Steve Russell, whose battalion captured Saddam Hussein in 2003, said many civilians he speaks with about Iraq are surprised to hear the positive news from his travels and contacts there.

“Ninety-nine percent of our military want to stay and want to succeed in Iraq, but people don’t always hear that,” he said.

“No one cares for the Iraqi and Afghan people like we do, because we’ve served side-by-side with them. And we see that a better future is possible for them.”
Vets for Freedom organizers hope the tour will encourage citizens to push lawmakers away from plans for a rapid drawdown of forces overseas.

IVAW is asking citizens to support an immediate withdrawal of all troops from Iraq and reparations for Iraqi citizens harmed by the U.S. occupation.Veterans groups offer different views of conflict By Leo Shane III, Stars and StripesMideast edition, Saturday, March 15, 2008

Friday, March 14, 2008

WE HAVE VIDEO OF IRAQ VETS AGAINST WAR TESTIMONY

The mainstream media has turned their backs on coverage of the Iraq Veterans Against the War testimony before Congress yesterday, today and Saturday, but we have obtained a video of the coverage.

Click here http://therealnews.com/web/index.php to see and hear Iraq veterans talk about what they saw with their own eyes when they were in Iraq.

Warning: It is very graphic and the Iraq war veterans don't hold anything back in telling members of Congress about the atrocities they saw committed by U.S. troops in Iraq against innocent Iraqi citizens.

Judging by the "hits" to this blog in the past two days, there are hundreds if not thousands of Americans who would like to know what the Iraq Veterans Against the War are testifying about in Washington, D.C.

Incidentally, the Iraq Veterans Against the War web site http://ivaw.org/ws_live.html has been overwhelmed with traffic and at times has had to shut down due to the volume.

There is hope Americans still care about what is happening to our troops and judging by the "hits" to my blog there are plenty of Americans who care about our troops and what happened when they were deployed to Iraq.

FOOTBALL COACH GUNNED DOWN IN BAGHDAD

The killings, violence and mayhem continue in Baghdad and all across Iraq. The latest fatality was the coach of one of the most popular football teams in Baghdad. He was gunned down in front of his house in Baghdad.

Elsewhere in Baghdad and across Iraq the following took place Friday.

Baghdad:#1: A group of armed men gunned down al-Karkh club's football coach, Munther Khalaf, a former international player, in front of his home in al-Yarmuk, Baghdad, a source from the club said. Khalaf received several bullets in his abdomen. He passed away on Friday morning from the wounds he had sustained in Thursday's attack," Saleh Hamid, al-Karkh club board member, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq. Meanwhile, a physician said that Khalaf was "in a very critical condition because he bled profusely after one of his two kidneys received more than one bullet.

#2: An improvised explosive device went off near a U.S. army convoy on the main street linking the southern Baghdad suburbs of al-Dora and al-Jadiriya on Friday, an Iraqi police source said. "An IED planted by unidentified gunmen went off on Friday morning near a U.S. army convoy, setting one of the U.S. military vehicles ablaze," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

#3: Five Katyusha missiles landed on a U.S. army base in al-Dora district, southern Baghdad, on Friday, an Iraqi police source said. "Unidentified gunmen fired five Katyusha missiles at the U.S. base of al-Saqr in al-Dora, but no information could be reached on possible casualties due to the security siege imposed by U.S. forces around its bases," the source, who did not want his identity revealed, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI). "Plumes of smoke were seen rising from within the base," the source added.

#4: U.S. soldiers killed two suspected al Qaeda militants and arrested 24 others during operations in central and northern Iraq on Wednesday and Thursday, the U.S. military said.Najaf:#1: Gunmen killed a policeman on Thursday in a drive-by shooting outside his house in northern Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, police said

Kut:#1: One person was killed and six wounded when a bomb on a parked motorcycle exploded near a municipal council building some 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad.#2: 11 Katyusha rockets launched by gunmen hit several neighbourhoods in Kut, amongst which are Haideriyah and al-Shuhadaa, killing 2 civilians, injuring 4 and burning 2 civilian cars. The rockets were most probably aimed at the security forces’ bases near by, but incompetence and lack of experience on part of the gunmen caused the rockets to hit residential neighbourhoods instead, said Iraqi Police.

Suweira:#1: Two civilians were killed and four more were injured on Friday by unknown gunmen in north of Wassit, a police source said.“Unidentified gunmen killed two civilians and injured four in al-Radisiya region, north of al-Suwiera,” the source, who asked for anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq

Samarra:#1: A 15 year-old girl was killed on Thursday when police opened fire on her family's car when it failed to stop at a checkpoint in Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, police and hospital officials said.

Ninewa Prv:#1: A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt attacked the border checkpoint of Rubaiaa, 120 km west of Mosul, on Friday but the casualties could not be known so far, a security source in the Ninewa police said. "The U.S. forces imposed a security cordon on the area and no word yet about casualties," the source, who asked not to be named, told Aswat al-Iraq.

Mosul:#1: Two explosive vehicles driven by suicide bombers went off successively on Friday noon near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Sinaat Wadi Akkab area, western Mosul, leaving three soldiers killed and 10 others, including five civilians near the blast site, wounded," Brig. Khaled Abdul-Sattar told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.#2: The incident was followed by clashes between gunmen and security forces that were still going on as of Friday afternoon.

Afghanistan:#1: Afghan and foreign troops clashed with Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan on Friday, leaving three suspected militants dead and two wounded, an official said.Militants ambushed the security forces in Zabul province before troops returned fire, said district chief Mohammad Younus Akhunzada. No troops were hurt but a police vehicle was damaged

NAMES AND HOMETOWNS OF 4 MORE GIS. KILLED IN IRAQ. 9 MORE WAITING DOD CONFIRMATION

The Department of Defense (DoD) has released the names and hometowns of four more U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. There are nine more U.S. deaths in the past two days waiting confirmation by the DoD.

President Bush, Vice President Cheney and FOX NEWS continue to mislead the American public that all if going well in Iraq.

Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/

U.S. Deaths Confirmed By The DoD:
3978
Reported U.S. Deaths Pending DoD Confirmation:
9
Total
3987

DoD Confirmation List

03/13/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualties (3 of 3)
Sgt. Phillip R. Anderson, 28, of Everett, Wash...assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas...died Mar. 10 in Balad Ruz, Iraq, of wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

03/13/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualties (2 of 3)
Spc. Donald A. Burkett, 24, of Comanche, Texas...assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas...died Mar. 10 in Balad Ruz, Iraq, of wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

03/13/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualties (1 of 3)
Capt. Torre R. Mallard, 27, of Oklahoma...assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas...died Mar. 10 in Balad Ruz, Iraq, of wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

03/13/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Cpl. Jose A. Paniagua-Morales, 22, of Bell Gardens, Calif., died March 7 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered in Samarra, Iraq, when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment...

6 SIGNS U.S. MAY BE HEADED FOR WAR WITH IRAN

There are many signs the United States is preparing for war with Iran. The resignation/firing of Admiral William Fallon, who was head of CentCom and opposed "the surge" in Iraq, is just one of them.

The constant saber-rattling of President Bush and Vice President Cheney is another, and then, of course, there is the Bush White House propaganda machine, FOX News, which keeps bringing up reason why the U.S. should go to war with Iran.

Published on Thursday, March 13, 2008 by US News & World Report

http://www.commondreams.org/

6 Signs The US May Be Headed for War in Iran
by Terry Atlas

Is the United States moving toward military action with Iran?

The resignation of the top U.S. military commander for the Middle East is setting off alarms that the Bush administration is intent on using military force to stop Iran’s moves toward gaining nuclear weapons. In announcing his sudden resignation today following a report on his views in Esquire, Adm. William Fallon didn’t directly deny that he differs with President Bush over at least aspects of the president’s policy on Iran. For his part, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it is “ridiculous” to think that the departure of Fallon — whose Central Command has been working on contingency plans for strikes on Iran as well as overseeing Iraq — signals that the United States is planning to go to war with Iran.

Fallon’s resignation, ending a 41-year Navy career, has reignited the buzz of speculation over what the Bush administration intends to do given that its troubled, sluggish diplomatic effort has failed to slow Iran’s nuclear advances. Those activities include the advancing process of uranium enrichment, a key step to producing the material necessary to fuel a bomb, though the Iranians assert the work is to produce nuclear fuel for civilian power reactors not weapons.
Here are six developments that may have Iran as a common thread. And, if it comes to war, they may be seen as clues as to what was planned. None of them is conclusive, and each has a credible non-Iran related explanation:

1. Fallon’s resignation: With the Army fully engaged in Iraq, much of the contingency planning for possible military action has fallen to the Navy, which has looked at the use of carrier-based warplanes and sea-launched missiles as the weapons to destroy Iran’s air defenses and nuclear infrastructure. Centcom commands the U.S. naval forces in and near the Persian Gulf. In the aftermath of the problems with the Iraq war, there has been much discussion within the military that senior military officers should have resigned at the time when they disagreed with the White House.
2. Vice President Cheney’s peace trip: Cheney, who is seen as a leading hawk on Iran, is going on what is described as a Mideast trip to try to give a boost to stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. But he has also scheduled two other stops: One, Oman, is a key military ally and logistics hub for military operations in the Persian Gulf. It also faces Iran across the narrow, vital Strait of Hormuz, the vulnerable oil transit chokepoint into and out of the Persian Gulf that Iran has threatened to blockade in the event of war. Cheney is also going to Saudi Arabia, whose support would be sought before any military action given its ability to increase oil supplies if Iran’s oil is cutoff. Back in March 2002, Cheney made a high-profile Mideast trip to Saudi Arabia and other nations that officials said at the time was about diplomacy toward Iraq and not war, which began a year later.

3. Israeli airstrike on Syria: Israel’s airstrike deep in Syria last October was reported to have targeted a nuclear-related facility, but details have remained sketchy and some experts have been skeptical that Syria had a covert nuclear program. An alternative scenario floating in Israel and Lebanon is that the real purpose of the strike was to force Syria to switch on the targeting electronics for newly received Russian anti-aircraft defenses. The location of the strike is seen as on a likely flight path to Iran (also crossing the friendly Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq), and knowing the electronic signatures of the defensive systems is necessary to reduce the risks for warplanes heading to targets in Iran.
4. Warships off Lebanon: Two U.S. warships took up positions off Lebanon earlier this month, replacing the USS Cole. The deployment was said to signal U.S. concern over the political stalemate in Lebanon and the influence of Syria in that country. But the United States also would want its warships in the eastern Mediterranean in the event of military action against Iran to keep Iranian ally Syria in check and to help provide air cover to Israel against Iranian missile reprisals. One of the newly deployed ships, the USS Ross, is an Aegis guided missile destroyer, a top system to defense against air attacks.

5. Israeli comments: Israeli President Shimon Peres said earlier this month that Israel will not consider unilateral action to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. In the past, though, Israeli officials have quite consistently said they were prepared to act alone — if that becomes necessary — to ensure that Iran does not cross a nuclear weapons threshold. Was Peres speaking for himself, or has President Bush given the Israeli an assurance that they won’t have to act alone?
6.Israel’s war with Hezbollah: While this seems a bit old, Israel’s July 2006 war in Lebanon against Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces was seen at the time as a step that Israel would want to take if it anticipated a clash with Iran. The radical Shiite group is seen not only as a threat on it own but also as a possible Iranian surrogate force in the event of war with Iran. So it was important for Israel to push Hezbollah forces back from their positions on Lebanon’s border with Israel and to do enough damage to Hezbollah’s Iranian-supplied arsenals to reduce its capabilities. Since then, Hezbollah has been able to rearm, though a United Nations force polices a border area buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

Defense Secretary Gates said that Fallon, 63, asked for permission to retire. Gates said the decision, effective March 31, was entirely Fallon’s and that Gates believed it was “the right thing to do.” In Esquire, an article on Fallon portrayed him as opposed to President Bush’s Iran policy and said he was a lone voice against taking military action to stop the Iranian nuclear program. In his statement, Fallon said he agreed with the president’s “policy objectives” but was silent on whether he opposed aspects of the president’s plans. “Recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my views and the president’s policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time and hamper efforts in the Centcom region,” Fallon, said in the statement issued by Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Fla.

“And although I don’t believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command area of responsibility, the simple perception that there is makes it difficult for me to effectively serve America’s interests there,” he said. Gates announced that Fallon’s top deputy, Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, will take over temporarily when Fallon leaves. A permanent successor, requiring nomination by the president and confirmation by the Senate, might not be designated in the near term.

TWIN CAR BOMBINGS IN IRAQ

When is the Bush administration and their puppet mouthpiece, FOX NEWS, going to stop LYING to the American public about how well things are going in Iraq?

There was another twin car bombing in Iraq on Friday morning that killed three Iraqi service personnel and left 13 people injured.

Twin car bombing leaves 13 casualties

Ninewa - Voices of Iraq
Friday , 14 /03 /2008 Time 3:57:43

http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=72837&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

Ninewa, Mar 14, (VOI) – Three Iraqi army servicemen were killed and 10 others, including civilians, wounded in two successive car bombing attacks in western Mosul, on Friday, the official spokesman for the Ninewa operations command said.

"Two explosive vehicles driven by suicide bombers went off successively on Friday noon near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Sinaat Wadi Akkab area, western Mosul, leaving three soldiers killed and 10 others, including five civilians near the blast site, wounded," Brig. Khaled Abdul-Sattar told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI)."Three civilian vehicles were also damaged in the explosions," the source said, not giving more details.Mosul, the capital of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad.

ARMY STUDY CONFIRMS ONE IN THREE GIS WILL RETURN FROM IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WITH MENTAL ILLNESS

The United States of America has sent young men and women off to war in Iraq and Afghanistan without looking ahead to the mental illness they will sustain and without any way of treating the mental illness suffered by the combat troops.

The ARMY has now confirmed one out of every three returning veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be suffering from mental illness and the Veterans Administration is not prepared to handle the cases of PTSD.

Military Stigmas Treat War Trauma as Admission of Weakness

By Penny Coleman, AlterNetPosted on March 14, 2008, Printed on March 14, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/79130/

The seven qualities of leadership itemized in Army Field Manual (FM) 22-100 are loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. Nowhere in that list is there any reference to heartlessness, lack of compassion and a cavalier disregard for the well being of one's troops. And there is certainly no reference to posturing, denial or dissembling. Leading by example trumps mindless stoicism every time.

Back in 1974, when Betty Ford was diagnosed with breast cancer, mastectomy was still considered a taboo topic, too shameful and frightening to be openly discussed. "Too many women are so afraid of breast cancer," she told a gathering of the American Cancer Society, "that they endanger their lives. These fears of being 'less' of a woman are very real, and it is very important to talk about the emotional side effects honestly. They must come out into the open."
Ford's courageous decision to use her position as First Lady to set a visible example for other women made a significant impact on public attitudes. According to the New York Times, "Within weeks, thousands of women who had been reluctant to examine their breasts inundated cancer screening centers. One of those following Mrs. Ford's example was Happy Rockefeller, the wife of the Vice President, Nelson A. Rockefeller. She, too, had breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Mrs. Rockefeller and many others said Mrs. Ford's example gave them the courage to discuss their experiences openly."

Researchers have since dubbed that phenomenon the "Katie Couric Effect" in honor of the co-anchor of NBC's "Today Show" who, in March 2000, underwent a colonoscopy on live TV. Couric, who lost her husband to colorectal cancer in 1998, decided to undergo the procedure on-air to "further the science being done on all aspects of colon cancer and increas(e) awareness about the critical role screening plays in combating the nation's number two cancer killer." According to Mark Fendrick, one of a team of University of Michigan doctors who studied the public response to the Couric demonstration, in the days and months following, the number of Americans who signed up for the exam rose by more than 20 percent. "This test," said Fredrick, "which requires healthy people to undergo an invasive, uncomfortable and often embarrassing exam, especially needed a celebrity advocate to reduce the stigma and fear, and thereby increase participation."

Interesting. A celebrity advocate to reduce stigma and fear.

In our military today, the stigma and fear that attach to post-traumatic stress injuries is a contributing factor to the current epidemic of suicides among American soldiers and veterans, 120 a week according to the recent study by CBS news. The stigma attaches to any admission of weakness, especially weakness of mind. The fear is of being shunned, shamed, punished or encumbered by a health record that might compromise future employment options. That stigma and fear might be profoundly challenged by an officer willing to go public with his -- and I use the male pronoun intentionally -- post-traumatic stress.

The need for service members to forego notions of manliness intrinsic to traditional military culture, to "come out of the closet" as it were, was raised poignantly by Mike Bowman, the father of Tim Bowman, when he testified before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs in December. Tim, a Specialist in the Illinois National Guard, suffered from post-traumatic stress and took his own life after returning from Iraq.

Bowman made the point that, like most of the rest of the guys in his unit, Tim refused to go to the VA for help when his symptoms became invasive. Instead, they seek "counseling of some form or another -- privately - away from the military, away from the V.A., some as far as 100 miles away from home, to make sure that that information does not get back to their unit." In his statement, Bowman emphasized the courage and clarity evidenced by a soldier admitting a psychic injury. Instead of punishing or decrying such a soldier, Bowman insisted, "Grab that soldier and thank him for saying, 'I'm not OK,' and promote him. A soldier that admits a mental injury should be the first guy you want to have in your unit because he may be the only one that really has a grasp on reality."

Unfortunately, a soldier who has such a grasp on reality, a soldier who has the insight and education to understand that his or her ability to function reliably in a combat situation is compromised, currently faces a very different scenario, in which the convenience and judgment of commanding officers are prioritized. As of December 2006, new Pentagon guidelines give commanders the right to decide whether or not a soldier with a "psychiatric disorder in remission, or whose residual symptoms do not impair duty performance" may be sent back to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Aside from the obvious question of commanders' qualifications to make decisions about the mental health of the soldiers in their charge, there is something truly insidious lurking behind the new guidelines. According to Dr. Katherine Scheirman, a retired Air Force colonel who served as chief of medical operations in the Air Force's European headquarters from July 2004 to September 2006, a medical discharge can take months, sometimes longer, and all the while the commander is stuck with an undeployable soldier. An administrative separation usually takes a few weeks, at most. So commanders have a choice. They "can send him to the hospital and say, 'Hey, this guy isn't able to do his work. Would you look at him for PTSD?' Or they can just kick the guy out. If you kick the guy out, you'll get somebody to replace him. So that's the incentive for the commanders."

That incentive conveniently merges with beliefs of the many "traditional" officers who continue to insist that PTSD is just an excuse for cowardice, weakness, or the old stand-by, malingering. "I've never had a guy in my unit develop PTSD," one senior general from Iraq recently told CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier. "It's nonsense." Such Neanderthal attitudes are encouraged by a cabal of conservative culture warriors in Congress who believe that PTSD is faux science, touted only by a bunch of anti-war activists to justify their liberal politics. And they are using that reasoning to justify this administration's astonishingly callous health care policies for active and veteran service members.

According to the Army's own studies, one in three soldiers will return from Iraq with significant mental health problems. Like Tim Bowman, far too many are still ashamed to ask for the help they need and, if the CBS report is read as a cautionary tale, far too many will end up as suicides. The lives and futures of every soldier who might be moved by example, who might be saved by the "Couric Effect," should be reason enough for senior officers to finally and definitively disown the stubborn machismo that sustains the stigma, and visibly demonstrate their belief that post-traumatic injuries are not a sign of weakness or cowardice. Such injuries cannot and should not be sucked up. Even by the manliest. Where are they?

I call on our generals and other senior officers to lead by example. And lest your mottos take on a hollow tone: "Leave no man behind." "Be all you can be." "Do Something Amazing. Aim High." "Honor. Courage. Commitment." And "Semper Fi."

Penny Coleman is the widow of a Vietnam Veteran who took his own life after coming home. Her latest book, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War, was released on Memorial Day, 2006. Her blog is Flashback.

CNN: PENTAGON SAYS ADMIRAL'S RESIGNATION DOESNT MEAN WAR WITH IRAN

Is there anyone in their right mind who believes anyone in the Bush administration anymore after they lied to the American public about the reasons for going to war with Iraq?

Now, the same Bush administration, only this time through Defense Secretary Robert Gates, are saying the resignation of U.S. Navy Admiral William Fallon, who had been in charge of Centcom, does not signal we are going to war with Iran.

As the proverbial saying goes, if you believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you.

Every single indicator is pointing to war with Iran around or right after Labor Day. Just in time to influence the upcoming Presidential election.

The Bush administration has ALWAYS used the U.S. military as pawns in their political chess game and there is no reason to believe they would change their game plan now.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE http://corksphere.blogspot.com/

U.S.: Resignation doesn't mean Iran war

Story Highlights
Pentagon: Resignation of Mideast military chief does not mean war with Iran
Esquire magazine portrayed Adm. William Fallon as resisting pressure for war
Fallon had said U.S. must exhaust diplomatic options in disputes with Iran
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he accepts the resignation with regret

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has dismissed as "ridiculous" any suggestion that the resignation of America's military chief in the Middle East signals the United States is planning to go to war with Iran.

Adm. William Fallon resigned Tuesday as chief of U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia after just a year in the post, citing what he called an inaccurate perception that he is at odds with the Bush administration over Iran.

Fallon, the head of U.S. Central Command, was the subject of a recent Esquire magazine profile that portrayed him as resisting pressure for military action against Iran, which the Bush administration accuses of trying to develop nuclear weapons.

In a written statement, Fallon said the article's "disrespect for the president" and "resulting embarrassment" had become a distraction. Watch why some believe Fallon was forced to resign »
"Although I don't believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command area of responsibility, the simple perception that there is makes it difficult for me to effectively serve America's interests there," Fallon said.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Gates told reporters at the Pentagon he accepted Fallon's resignation "with reluctance and regret."

But, he added, "I think it's the right decision."

"Admiral Fallon reached this difficult decision entirely on his own. I believe it was the right thing to do, even though I do not believe there are in fact significant differences between his views and administration policy," Gates said.