80 KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN BY SUICIUDE BOMBER: 2 U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ: FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 3

The violence has shifted back to Afghanistan where on Sunday 80 people were killed while attending a dog fight.

Meanwhile, in Iraq there is no sign of a letup in the violence that continues throughout the country.

Here is what happened on Sunday in Iraq:

TWO U.S. SOLDIERS ARE KILLED IN IRAQ. FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 3

Diyala Province, unspecified locationTwo U.S. soldiers killed by small arms fire, one injured and medically evacuated. No further details at this time.

BaghdadFemale suicide bomber kills three, injures 10. Attack in predominantly Shiite Masbah district appears to have been partially thwarted by police. I presume this is the same attack reported by VoI, in which a female suicide bomber targeting a police checkpoint is said to have injured four people in Karada. McClatchy apparently explains the contradiction by noting that MNF said there were only injuries, but Iraqi police reported three killed. MNF typically minimizes the casualties from these incidents. I can't find "Masbah" on my map of Baghdad, but perhaps it is part of Karada. For those who don't know, Karada is on the peninsula formed by a sharp bend in the Tigris, across from the Green Zone.

Two bodies found dumped on Saturday in different places.al-Khalidiya (near Ramadi)U.S. forces kill a cab driver who got too close to them at an intersection. No comment from MNF.

MosulRemotely detonated car bomb, apparently targeting police, kills one police officer and two civilians, two more civilians injured.Six civilians injured by mortar and small arms attack in al-Thawra neighborhood.

BaijiRoadside bomb kills three people in a market on Saturday.Reuters also reports a police officer killed by another bomb on the same day.Baqubaa 17-year-old girl named Nadia Jameel was killed near her house in Al-Katoon neighborhood, west Baquba, apparently by a stray bullet.


80 die in bombing at Afghan dog fight

By ALLAUDDIN KHAN, Associated Press Writer 56 minutes ago

http://tinyurl.com/2rmrwd

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide bombing at an outdoor dog fighting competition killed 80 people and wounded scores on Sunday, an Afghan governor said. It appeared to be the deadliest terror attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

A prominent militia commander who stood up against the Taliban was killed in the attack and officials said he may have been the target.

Several hundred people, including Afghan militia leaders, had gathered to watch the competition on the western edge of the southern city of Kandahar. Witnesses reported gunfire from bodyguards after the blast but it was not immediately clear how many of the casualties might have been caused by bullets.

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said 80 people had been killed in the attack. Abdullah Fahim, a Health Ministry spokesman, said 70 were wounded.

Khalid blamed the attack on "the enemy of Afghanistan," which typically means the Taliban. The attack's apparent target, Abdul Hakim Jan, served as a commander of an auxiliary police force, a government-backed security force made of area tribesmen that is often shorthand for a local militia operating with government approval.

IRAQI DEFENSE MINISTER WANTS MORE U.S. TROOPS

Just a couple of weeks ago President Bush and the Pentagon were saying they were going to drawdown the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.

However, the Iraqi Defense Minister wants more troops in Iraq and U.S. military people are saying the "surge" could end in July with more troops in Iraq than when it started.

Once again the troops and the American people are being given double-speak on the troop withdrawals from Iraq.

What is even more disquieting is the Iraqi Defense Minister is calling the shots on how many U.S. troops stay in Iraq.

Perhaps before President Bush leaves office next January he can just ONCE tell the American people the truth about Iraq.

It would be refreshing.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the blog that tells the TRUTH about what is happening with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq defence minister says in need of US troops
Senior Pentagon official says US 'surge' likely to end with more troops in Iraq than before.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=24366

DUBAI - Iraq's defence minister said on Saturday that his country needs US troops to protect its borders and also for "strategic deterrence."

"We need US troops... for the defence of the borders... I don't have anything I can use for strategic deterrence. I do not have intercepting aircraft," Abdel Qader Jassim al-Obaidi said on the sidelines of a conference in the United Arab Emirates.

"My need for them (US troops) is pressing in this regard," al-Obaidi said.

But the Iraqi official, who was in Dubai to attend a conference on Iraqi defence and security, said that Iraqi troops always replace US forces when the security situation improves and the latter withdraw from a certain area.

"Whenever the security situation seriously improves we replace them. We have a plan for this year but I cannot disclose the timetable," he said.

"Anyway, the Americans themselves are not willing to abandon Iraq unless they are confident that we are capable. This is an agreement," al-Obaidi added.

A senior Pentagon official said earlier this week that the US "surge" is likely to end in July with more troops in Iraq than the 132,000 who were there before five extra combat brigades were sent in more than a year ago.

Lieutenant General Carter Ham said that support forces and trainers who went in with the surge will still be needed to back up Iraq's expanding security forces after the last of the extra combat brigades leaves.

"It's likely that the number will be a little bit larger than the 132,000 or so that was the number of personnel on the ground pre-surge," said Ham, the operations director of the Joint Staff.
Currently there are about 158,000 US troops in Iraq, down from a high of about 170,000 at the height of the surge.

U.S. FORCES IN IRAQ KILL IRAQIS TRAINING FOR SECURITY JOBS

In still another demonstration of FUBAR (ask one of the members of your family who was in the military what that means if you don't know), the U.S. military in Iraq has KILLED dozens of Iraqis who were in training to takeover security operations in Iraq.

This is just another story that will NEVER be covered by the mainstream media in the United States, especially FOX NEWS which is the mouthpiece of the Bush Administration.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ the blog that tells the TRUTH about events in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraqi Sahwa fighters stage demonstration against U.S. forces in Iraq

Babel - Voices of Iraq
Saturday , 16 /02 /2008 Time 8:23:22

http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=69823&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

Babel, Feb 16, (VOI) – The Sahwa (Awakening) tribal fighters staged a demonstration and announced their withdrawal from any activities in Hilla after three of them were killed by U.S. fire during a landing operation north of Hilla, an official source from Babel police said.

"U.S. forces conducted a landing operation in the area of Abad Weis in Jerf al-Sakhr, (60 km) north of Hilla. The U.S. soldiers opened their fire at a gathering of Sahwa men, killing three of them without any apparent reason," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).

"The U.S. forces killed 19 Sahwa fighters and wounded more than 12 others in just one month and a half," Sabah al-Janabi, the chief of the Sahwa forces in the area, told VOI.

"After each incident, the U.S. forces claim that it occurred by mistake. The U.S. side promises to offer an apology and compensations for the victims' relatives but does not fulfill these pledges," said Janabi.

"Therefore, we announce our withdrawal from the Sahwa council and leave any duty assigned to the Sahwa fighters," he stressed.

Hilla, the capital of Babel, lies 100 km south of Baghdad.

VIDEO RE DEFECTIVE HELMETS FOR TROOPS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

BREAKING NEWS: Vice President Dick Cheney is asked about the Pentagon awarding a new $74 million dollar contract to Sioux Manufacturing, which just settled a lawsuit for providing faulty Kevlar helmets for our troops in Iraq & Afghanistan. Sign the petition demanding an investigation at the VoteVets.org website.

http://www.headzup.tv/wuhzup/index.php

MARINE DEATHS IN IRAQ CAUSED BY LACK OF BOMB-RESISTANT VEHICLES

According to a new study, hundreds of U.S. Marines have been killed in Iraq because Marine bureaucrats refused to approve the armor needed to protect them while on patrol in MRAPs, the 40-ton truck used so often when Marines go out on patrol in Iraq.

The study is just another example of the foot-dragging that has been going on with the Defense Department when it comes to protecting soldiers and Marine in the field of combat in Iraq.

Not long ago it was reported the soldiers and Marines were not getting the new Kevlar helmets so badly needed to protect them from the IED's and other explosive devices used by the insurgents and Al Queda.

President Bush and his propaganda branch, FOX NEWS, can boast all they want about the success of the "surge" but in reality the equipment U.S. forces are using in Iraq is outdated and in many cases just worn out.

The United States has 160,000 troops in Iraq and there are now reports the scaling back of troops will be put on hold as violence all across Iraq begins to show signs of increasing.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, a blog devoted to telling the TRUTH about conditions in Iraq and not Bush White House and FOX NEWS spin.


Lack of MRAPs cost Marine lives

Study Says Refusal to Send Bomb-Resistant MRAPs to Iraq Led to Marine Deaths

RICHARD LARDNERAP News
Feb 15, 2008 15:37 EST

http://tinyurl.com/237doa

Hundreds of U.S. Marines have been killed or injured by roadside bombs in Iraq because Marine Corps bureaucrats refused an urgent request in 2005 from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, an internal military study concludes.

The study, written by a civilian Marine Corps official and obtained by The Associated Press, accuses the service of "gross mismanagement" that delayed deliveries of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected trucks for more than two years.

Cost was a driving factor in the decision to turn down the request for the so-called MRAPs, according to the study. Stateside authorities saw the hulking vehicles, which can cost as much as a $1 million each, as a financial threat to programs aimed at developing lighter vehicles that were years from being fielded.

After Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared the MRAP (pronounced M-rap) the Pentagon's No. 1 acquisition priority in May 2007, the trucks began to be shipped to Iraq in large quantities.
The vehicles weigh as much as 40 tons and have been effective at protecting American forces from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the weapon of choice for Iraqi insurgents. Only four U.S. troops have been killed by such bombs while riding in MRAPs; three of those deaths occurred in older versions of the vehicles.

The study's author, Franz J. Gayl, catalogs what he says were flawed decisions and missteps by midlevel managers in Marine Corps offices that occurred well before Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld in December 2006.

Among the findings in the Jan. 22 study:

_ Budget and procurement managers failed to recognize the damage being done by IEDs in late 2004 and early 2005 and were convinced the best solution was adding more armor to the less-sturdy Humvees the Marines were using. Humvees, even those with extra layers of steel, proved incapable of blunting the increasingly powerful explosives planted by insurgents.

_ An urgent February 2005 request for MRAPs got lost in bureaucracy. It was signed by then-Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, who asked for 1,169 of the vehicles. The Marines could not continue to take "serious and grave casualties" caused by IEDs when a solution was commercially available, wrote Hejlik, who was a commander in western Iraq from June 2004 to February 2005.

Gayl cites documents showing Hejlik's request was shuttled to a civilian logistics official at the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in suburban Washington who had little experience with military vehicles. As a result, there was more concern over how the MRAP would upset the Marine Corps' supply and maintenance chains than there was in getting the troops a truck that would keep them alive, the study contends.

_ The Marine Corps' acquisition staff didn't give top leaders correct information. Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, was not told of the gravity of Hejlik's MRAP request and the real reasons it was shelved, Gayl writes. That resulted in Conway giving "inaccurate and incomplete" information to Congress about why buying MRAPs was not hotly pursued.

_ The Combat Development Command, which decides what gear to buy, treated the MRAP as an expensive obstacle to long-range plans for equipment that was more mobile and fit into the Marines Corps' vision as a rapid reaction force. Those projects included a Humvee replacement called the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and a new vehicle for reconnaissance and surveillance missions.

The MRAPs didn't meet this fast-moving standard and so the Combat Development Command didn't want to buy them, according to Gayl. The study calls this approach a "Cold War orientation" that suffocates the ability to react to emergency situations.

_ The Combat Development Command has managers — some of whom are retired Marines — who lack adequate technical credentials. They have outdated views of what works on the battlefield and how the defense industry operates, Gayl says. Yet they are in position to ignore or overrule calls from deployed commanders.

An inquiry should be conducted by the Marine Corps inspector general to determine if any military or government employees are culpable for failing to rush critical gear to the troops, recommends Gayl, who prepared the study for the Marine Corps' plans, policies and operations department.

More than 3,900 U.S. troops, including 824 Marines, have been killed in action in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. An additional 30,000 have been wounded, nearly 8,400 of them Marines. The majority of the deaths and injuries have been caused by explosive devices, according to the Defense Department.

Congress has provided more than $22 billion for 15,000 MRAPs the Defense Department plans to acquire, mostly for the Army. Depending on the size of the vehicle and how it is equipped, the trucks can cost between $450,000 and $1 million.

Click on link above to read the full account of how Marines have died because of the lack of bomb-resistant vehicles.

LIFE IN IRAQ IS ANYTHING BUT STABLE

Is Iraq as stable as the Bush White House and FOX News are saying?

Not at all.

Read this full account of what life is like in Iraq. It is not what the Bush White House and FOX NEWS are saying.

Iraq: They Call This Stability?

By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent UKPosted on February 15, 2008, Printed on February 16, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/77146/

People in Baghdad are not passive victims of violence, but seek desperately to avoid their fate. In April 2004, I was almost killed by Shia militiamen of the Mehdi Army at a checkpoint at Kufa in southern Iraq. They said I was an American spy and were about to execute me and my driver, Bassim Abdul Rahman, when they decided at the last moment to check with their commander. "I believe," Bassim said afterwards, "that if Patrick had an American or an English passport [instead of an Irish one] they would have killed us all immediately."

In the following years, I saw Bassim less and less. He is a Sunni, aged about 40, from west Baghdad. After the battle for Baghdad between Shia and Sunni in 2006, he could hardly work as a driver as three-quarters of the capital was controlled by the Shia. There were few places where a Sunni could drive in safety outside a handful of enclaves.

What happened to Bassim was also to happen to millions of Iraqis who saw their lives ruined by successive calamities. As their world collapsed around them they were forced to take desperate measures to survive, obtain a job and make enough money to feed and educate their families.
In the US and Europe, the main measure of whether the war in Iraq is "going well" or "going badly" is the casualty figures. The number of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians being killed went down to 39 US soldiers and 599 Iraqi civilians in January.

The White House is promoting the idea that the United States is finally on the road to success, if not victory, in Iraq.

On the back of this renewed optimism about the war, Senator John McCain, the premier hawk among the Republican candidates for the presidency, has been able to revive his foundering campaign and is set to be his party's nominee. Despite the scepticism of many US journalists permanently stationed in Iraq, television and newspaper newsrooms in New York and Washington (in London they are more skeptical) have largely bought into the idea that "the surge" -- the wider deployment of 30,000 extra US troops since February 2006 -- has succeeded.

But any true assessment of the happiness or misery of Iraqis must use a less crude index than the number of dead and injured. It must ask if people have been driven from their houses, and if they can return. It must say whether they have a job and, if they do not, whether they stand a chance of getting one. It has to explain why so few of the 3.2 million people who are refugees in Syria and Jordan, or inside Iraq, are coming back.

Go back to link to read the full story....

FOX NEWS BRAGS ABOUT CALM IN FALLUJA, IRAQ, BUT IGNORES VIOLENCE ALL ACROSS IRAQ

FOX NEWS is doing their level best to try and sell their audience on the idea that the "surge" has been a roaring success. On Friday, FOX NEWS had one of their reporters touring a market in Falluja, Iraq with a U.S. Army General. The point of the news piece was to give the impression that Iraq is a "sea of calm."

However, FOX NEWS conveniently overlooked what was taking place in the rest of Iraq and Afghanistan in their rush to judgement.

Iraq and Afghanistan are anything but a "sea of calm," and violence continues all across both countries.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, the blog devoted to telling ALL the facts about Iraq and not Bush White House and FOX NEWS spin.

POTPOURRI OF VIOLENCE AND MAYHEM IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN


War News for Friday, February 15, 2008

The DoD is reporting the death of a soldier previously not reported by CENTCOM. Staff Sgt. Javares J. Washington died in a vehicle accident in at Camp Buehring in Kuwait City, Kuwait on Monday, February 11th. No other details were released and the incident is under investigation.

Security incidents:Baghdad:#1: An IED attached to a civilian car exploded targeting a Sahwa checkpoint in Ghazaliyah this afternoon, killing 2 people, one of which was a Sahwa member and injuring 4, 2 of which were Sahwa members.

#2: 4 bodies were found in Baghdad by Iraqi Police today. 1 in Qahira, 1 in Binook, 1 in Hurriyah and 1 in Saidiyah.Diyala Prv:#1: Diyala Police found 5 bodies in one place in al-Salam neighbourhood, 20 km to the north of Baquba. They were found on the side of the road.

There was evidence of torture and each had several gunshot wounds in the head.Balad Ruz:#1: Gunmen in a police uniforms manning a fake checkpoint kidnapped four people from one family on Friday, including two women, near the town of Balad Ruz, about 70km (45 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Police found the body of a man with gunshot wounds on Friday, a day after he had been reported kidnapped in Balad Ruz, police said.Hawija:

#1: Raids on al-Qaida forces in northern Iraq have left seven insurgents dead, the U.S. military said. But local police said Friday that two women and two U.S.-allied fighters were among those killed. An Iraqi police officer in the area, however, said a house that was bombed belonged to a Sunni Arab and tribal leader, and that six family members died. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said the bombing occurred about 33 miles southwest of Kirkuk and two of the victims were women. Another two of those killed, he said, were part of an Awakening Council, one of the Sunni groups that last year abandoned their support for al-Qaida and began joining the U.S. in its effort to clear out insurgent forces.

Two U.S. helicopters opened fire at a house in al-Zab area, al-Huweija district, (70 km) south of Kirkuk, killing eight civilians of the same family who were inside the house at the time," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq. " Unidentified persons opened fire at the two U.S. helicopters, which fired back," the source said, not determining whether the attacked house was the source of the fire. "So far we are not certain whether the fire opened at the U.S. helicopters were from that house or another nearby place," indicated the source, adding the fatalities were two men, a woman and five children.

Mosul:#1: in an operation Wednesday in southeast Mosul, the U.S. military said it killed an insurgent wearing a suicide belt who shot at troops as they were targeting the building of an alleged al-Qaida supporter.Tal Afar:#1: At least four people were killed and 13 wounded in northern Iraq when two suicide bombers with explosive vests blew themselves up at the entrance to a Shi'ite mosque during Friday prayers, police said. The bombers struck in the afternoon in Tal Afar, 420 km (360 miles) northwest of Baghdad.#2: A few minutes later, the second attacker ran toward people who were busy in the aftermath of the first explosion. "But police opened fire on him before he reached the people," the mayor said. A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release information, said the second attacker blew himself up without causing casualties.

Afghanistan:#1: Insurgents ambushed a police vehicle in southwest Afghanistan, and the three-hour gunbattle that followed left four policemen dead. Two other police officers were wounded in Thursday's clash in Nimroz province, said Gen. Mohammad Ayub Badakhshi, the provincial police chief.Taliban fighters attacked a police patrol, killing four policemen, wounding two others and taking away two more in southwestern Afghan province of Nimruz, provincial governor said Friday.

Casualty Reports:Pfc. Wes Hixon of Cody, 22, is in critical condition after his vehicle was struck by a bomb Feb. 8 near Baghdad.Four other soldiers with him in the cab of the vehicle died. Six others who were in the vehicle's transport area are in critical condition, according to family friend Brenda Marchese and other members of Families on the Frontline. As a member of the 25th Infantry Division, he was driving a Stryker on patrol five miles outside Baghdad when it ran over an improvised explosive device that blew the 8-ton vehicle in half.

They may be shopping in Falluja, but the rest of Iraq is a "sea of violence" instead of a "sea of calm."

U.S. HAS PAID $38M TO IRAQIS IT KILLED

You won't hear FOX NEWS or the Bush administration talking about this, but the U.S. has shelled out $38M to Iraqis it has killed.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the blog of the truth about what is REALLY happening in Iraq.

U.S. has paid $38M to Iraqis it killed

Published: Feb. 13, 2008 at 11:29 AM

http://tinyurl.com/2y8vkt

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- In its efforts to win support from Iraqis, the U.S. military has made $38 million worth of payments to the families of civilians they have killed since 2004.

Most of the money has been distributed in the areas of the country where Iraq's Sunnis live, and some Shiite dominated areas in the south have not received any funds.

The cash handouts, known as condolence payments, are made at the discretion of mid-ranking U.S. officers in local areas and come from a special military fund called the Commanders' Emergency Response Program.

A recent audit of the program carried out for Congress by the Special Inspector General for Iraq found that, of the $38 million paid out since 2004, more than half, $21.35 million, was distributed in Anbar province; $5.5 million was given out in Baghdad, but none was spent in Basra.Pentagon officials budgeted $10.8 million for the payments in 2007 -- an increase of nearly one-third over 2006.

The Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, a non-profit that advocates compensation for civilians harmed or killed by U.S. military operations, supports the condolence program but says more information should be collected about the process of distribution.

The payments "aren't just handouts," said CIVIC Executive Director Sarah Holewinski. "They're necessary strategy in a place where the United States needs the support of the population."

Holewinski called the program "a tremendous opportunity to create goodwill among Iraqis" but added that the accounting for the payments was "so vague as to be irrelevant in determining success or failure.""Who was paid? How much? Importantly, who wasn't paid and why?" asked Holewinski."Inadequate records on civilian harm -- and help -- deny the military the chance to prove effective implementation and ultimately the success of the condolence system."

READ IT AND WEEP: 2 MILLION IRAQI CHILDREN ARE UNDERNOURISHED

The Bush Administration and their mouthpiece FOX NEWS can continue to brag about the success of the "surge" and how the Iraqi government is coming together, but the truth is over 2 million Iraqi children lack adequate nutrition.

Bill Corcoran, editor, of CORKSPHERE. http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the blog that tells the inside story of what is REALLY happening in Iraq.

Iraq's children 2007: a year in their life

State of Iraq's Children 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2mozaf

At least 2 million Iraqi children lacked adequate nutrition (according to the WFP assessment of food insecurity in 2006) and faced a range of other threats including interrupted education, lack of immunization services and diarrhoea diseases.Only 28% of Iraq's 17 year olds sat their final exams in summer, and only 40% of those sitting exams achieved a passing grade in South and Central Iraq.

Early estimates from the Ministry of Education show that net primaryenrolment rates may have fallen from 86% in 2004 to 46% in 2006 (although the estimated 2 million refugees and the lack of a current census may have contributed to this decline).

However, millions were able to return to school in November, despite the many challenges.Many of the 220,000 school-aged internally displaced children had their education interrupted, adding to the estimated 760,000 children out of primary school in 2006.One third of children in remote and hard-to-reach areas (28 out of 117 districts) were cut off from health outreach services, including immunization, as a result of insecurity.Only 40% of children nationwide had reliable access to safe drinking water, and only 20% outside Baghdad had a working sewerage serviceAn estimated 600,000 children had been displaced since 2006, the vast majority unable to return home.

By the end of the year, approximately 75,000 children and their families were living in temporary shelters. A fewfamilies did begin to return: 50,000 refugees and 10,000 IDPs were registered between September and December 2007, according to the Iraq Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM) and InternationalOrganization for Migration (IOM).

Hundreds of children lost their lives to violence and thousands fell into poverty after their main family wage-earner was kidnapped or killed. A drop in violent incidents was reported by the UN from July 2007,particularly around Baghdad.Approximately 1,350 children were detained by military and police authorities, many for alleged security violations (this includes a small number of detentions that may have occurred in 2006 or previously).

ARMY OFFERS $40,000 DOWN PAYMENT ON HOUSE FOR NEW RECRUITS

The U.S. Army is stretched so thin with deployments to Iraq that recruiters in three states are now trying a new tactic to lure young men and women into the Army.

They are offering up to $40,000 in a down payment for a house if the person enlists in the Army.

The new Army slogan could be: "Be All You Can. Join the Army. Get a House."

It continues to baffle this blogger how the media in the United States avoids writing about the war in Iraq and the long deployments our troops face.

This story from the ARMY TIMES http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_armydownpayment_080213/ is living proof the United States Army is suffering for new recruits and will do anything and pay anything to get someone to sign on the dotted line.

By Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ a blog that tells the TRUTH about conditions in Iraq with the U.S. military.

Recruiters try offering home down payments

By Michael Hill - The Associated PressPosted : Thursday Feb 14, 2008 13:06:07 EST

ALBANY, N.Y. — How’s this for a recruiting slogan? Join the Army, Buy a House.

Faced with the challenge of expanding the Army in wartime, the military is testing an incentive program that pays enlistees up to $40,000 toward a home or a startup business after their commitment. The “Army Advantage Fund” program is being tested here and four other areas —Cleveland, Seattle, San Antonio and Montgomery, Ala., — for the next six to nine months.

Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, in Albany Wednesday to promote the pilot program, said it will help the Army compete for high school graduates and recognize soldiers in a time of conflict.

“The Army Advantage Fund will ensure that the quality of life of our soldiers and their families equals the substantial quality of service that they give to the nation,” said Freakley, who is responsible for recruiting as head of the Army Accession Command.

Under the program begun Feb. 4, enlistees who commit to five years of active service are eligible for $40,000, while reservists can receive $20,000 for five years. Lesser cash incentives are being offered for three- and four-year enlistments.

The premium is being rolled out as recruiters face challenges attracting enlistees during the war in Iraq. While the Army met its goal of recruiting 80,000 new soldiers in the past fiscal year, officials have acknowledged they face challenges trying to increase active-duty Army, National Guard and Reserve rosters by 74,000 within the next four years.

The Army is already moving ahead with enticements like accredited college hours for training programs so soldiers can earn associate’s or bachelor’s degrees.

Freakley said the Army needs to be creative to compete with businesses and schools for high school graduates, and providing money for housing or entrepreneurship scored high with focus groups. He declined to provide a cost estimate for the pilot program, which will be evaluated later this year to determine whether it will be rolled out nationwide.

On hand for Freakley’s luncheon speech to local leaders were two new recruits who are in line for the money. Armando Rodriguez, of Springfield, Mass., said he would have signed up anyway. But the 22-year-old recruit said he and his wife could use the $40,000 toward a house when they settle to raise a family after his service.

“It’s definitely going to make our lives a lot better,” Rodriguez said, “instead of living from paycheck to paycheck.”

Freakley and other proponents likened the pilot program to the GI Bill of Rights, which has helped veterans pay for higher education since the end of World War II.

“An additional $40,000 can help ensure that the veterans have a place to call home,” said John Brown, national commander of the veterans support organization AMVETS, in a prepared statement.

The GI Bill has become a political issue in recent years, with critics claiming its benefits are not keeping up with the costs of college. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has promised to update the bill to keep pace with inflation as needed if he is elected. Democrat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says she wants to expand benefits such as education and housing for service members.

MORE PROOF BAGHDAD "SURGE" IS NOT WORKING: BUS BOMB KILLS 5, INJURES 25

Just how much more violence is it going to take in Baghdad before the Bush administration and their puppet mouthpiece, FOX NEWS, admit the "surge" is falling apart in Iraq?

Bus blast leaves 30 casualties in eastern Baghdad

Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Thursday , 14 /02 /2008 Time 8:35:29

http://tinyurl.com/35x3yf

Baghdad, Feb 14, (VOI) - At least five persons were killed and 25 more were wounded on Thursday in a booby-trapped bus explosion in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, a police source said.

“A small bus bomb, parked in al-Muredi popular market in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, went off, killing five civilians and injuring 25 others,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq - (VOI).“Police cordoned off the area, while ambulances rushed the wounded to nearby hospitals,” he added.

BUSH TURNS U.S. SOLDIERS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN INTO MURDERERS

The repeated return of U.S. troops to Iraq and Afghanistan for sometimes as many as four or five tours, plus the extension of their tours in both war zones, have had a telling affect on U.S. troops who have turned into murderers.

There are also signs the problem is only going to get worse as U.S. troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan find little relief in the way of new recruits to replace them.

Meanwhile, the "surge" appears to be imploding as more and more suicide bombers strike in Baghdad and elsewhere around Iraq.

Iraq's government is virtually worthless and many Iraqi citizens are without water and electricity.

In Afghanistan, there are signs the Taliban is growing again and there have been repeated attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The idea that the U.S. could force-feed a democracy on two Middle East countries was not only poorly thought out, but was in itself an idea that had no precedence in any part of the Middle East.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of this blog and a former reporter and columnist for 40 years for a syndicated chain of newspapers and a former member of the United States Army Combat Engineers.

LONG AND REPEATED DEPLOYMENTS TO IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN HAVE TURNED U.S. SOLDIERS INTO MURDERERS.

By Robert Parry Created Feb 13 2008 - 9:22am

http://www.smirkingchimp.com

By forcing repeat combat assignments to Iraq and Afghanistan and by winking at torture and indiscriminate killings George W. Bush is degrading the reputation of the U.S. military, turning enlisted soldiers and intelligence officers into murderers and sadists.

For instance, on Feb. 10 at Camp Liberty in Iraq, Army Ranger Sgt. Evan Vela was sentenced by a U.S. military court to 10 years in prison for executing an unarmed Iraqi detainee who &ndash along with his son had stumbled into a U.S. sniper position last year.

After letting the 17-year-old son go, Vela's squad leader, Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley ordered Vela to use a 9-millimeter pistol to shoot the father, Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi, in the head, an order that Vela carried out.

It was murder, plain and simple, military prosecutor, Major Charles Kuhfahl, told the court.
Janabis son, Mustafa, was allowed to make a statement, explaining how his fathers death had devastated the family and how one of his four younger brothers now avoids their home because he cant stand the sight of his fathers empty room.

Please don&rsquot forget about us, Mustafa told the court.

But Vela's guilty verdict was a rare case of holding a U.S. soldier accountable in the killing or abusing of an Iraqi. Among the infrequent cases that have been brought, most end in acquittals or convictions only on minor charges.

Last November, for example, another military jury acquitted Hensley in the same murder of Janabi as well as in the killing of two other Iraqi men south of Baghdad in the early days of Bush's troop surge. That jury ruled that Hensley was following the approved "rules of engagement," though it did convict him of planting an AK-47 on one victim.

Some of Vela's military comrades complained that it was unfair to single any of them out for punishment because these killings are so common in Iraq.Vela's former platoon commander, Sgt. First Class Steven Kipling, said that if all U.S. combat soldiers in Iraq were subjected to the same scrutiny applied to Vela, we would have thousands of cases. [NYT, Feb. 11, 2008 [1]]

Indeed, the evidence does suggest that the handful of homicide cases from Iraq and Afghanistan that reach military trial represent only a small fraction of the unprovoked killings of locals at the hands of U.S. soldiers.

In another incident near the town of Iskandariya, Iraq, on April 27, 2007, Army sniper Jorge G. Sandoval, Jr. received an order from Sgt. Hensley to kill a man cutting grass with a rusty scythe because he was suspected of being an insurgent posing as a farmer.

Like Hensley, Sandoval was acquitted because the military jury accepted defense arguments that the killing was within the rules of engagement. (Sandoval was convicted of a lesser charge of planting a coil of copper wire on a slain Iraqi, and was sentenced to five months in prison.)

The Sandoval case also revealed a classified program in which the Pentagons Asymmetric Warfare Group encouraged U.S. military snipers in Iraq to drop bait such as electrical cords and ammunition and then shoot Iraqis who pick up the items. [Washington Post, Sept. 24, 2007 [7]]

The U.S. counterinsurgency and security operations in Iraq and Afghanistan also have been augmented by heavily armed mercenaries, such as the Blackwater security contractors who operate outside the law and were accused by Iraqi authorities of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in a shooting incident on Sept. 16, 2007.Though most media criticism has focused on trigger-happy Blackwater security contractors, Bush's military strategy has employed its own indiscriminate firepower from the loose rules of engagement for U.S. troops, to helicopter gun ships firing on crowds, to jet air strikes, to missiles launched from Predator drones.

For instance, the U.S. military acknowledged on Oct. 23, 2007, that an American helicopter killed 11 people, including women and children, after someone allegedly shot at the helicopter as it flew over the village of Mukaisheefa, north of Baghdad.Iraqi police and witnesses said 16 people died, apparently as some rushed to help a wounded man, the New York Times reported.

The helicopter gunners presumed the wounded man to be an insurgent and thus opened fire on the locals who came to his aid, according to witnesses.

The locals went to check if he was dead and gathered around him, said Mohanad Hamid Muhsin, a 14-year-old who was shot in the leg. But the helicopter opened fire again and killed some of the locals and wounded others.

When Iraqis carried the wounded into houses to administer first aid, the helicopter fired on the houses, killing and wounding more people, said Muhsin, who added that the dead included two of his brothers and a sister.

A local police official said the 16 dead included six women and three children, while 14 other Iraqis were wounded.

The incident followed on the heels of an Oct. 21 gun battle in which 49 people died when U.S. forces attacked alleged Shiite militiamen in Sadr City, a crowded slum in eastern Baghdad. Local authorities said the dead included innocent bystanders. [NYT, Oct. 24, 2007 [10]]

Another account of the Oct. 23 incident in the Los Angeles Times quoted residents saying the men who were killed were farmers irrigating their fields in the pre-daylight hours.

Abdul Wahab Ahmed, a neighbor, said the U.S. attack also involved jets that conducted two bombing runs. The dead included two toddlers and four teenagers, he said. [Los Angeles Times, Oct. 24, 2007 [11]]

The U.S. military said one of those killed in the Oct. 23 attack was a known member of an I.E.D. cell, referring to improvised explosive devices that Iraqi insurgents have made their weapon of choice in fighting the U.S. occupation.The American statement added that four other military-age males were killed along with five women and one child. U.S. military spokesmen often justify killings in Iraq and Afghanistan by noting that the dead are military-age males (or MAMs), slain in the vicinity of a firefight.

Vietnam EchoThe shoot-to-kill strategy toward MAMs has a resonance back to the Vietnam War when U.S. helicopter-borne troops sometimes would spot a MAM working in a rice paddy, fire a shot near him and then interpret his running as an aggressive act justifying his killing.

This technique was described approvingly by retired Gen. Colin Powell in his widely praised autobiography, My American Journey.I recall a phrase we used in the field, MAM, for military-age male, Powell wrote. If a helo spotted a peasant in black pajamas who looked remotely suspicious, a possible MAM, the pilot would circle and fire in front of him.

If he moved, his movement was judged evidence of hostile intent, and the next burst was not in front, but at him.Brutal? Maybe so. But an able battalion commander with whom I had served at Gelnhausen [West Germany], Lt. Col. Walter Pritchard, was killed by enemy sniper fire while observing MAMs from a helicopter. And Pritchard was only one of many. The kill-or-be-killed nature of combat tends to dull fine perceptions of right and wrong.


While its true that combat is brutal and judgments can be clouded by fear, the mowing down of unarmed civilians in cold blood doesn't constitute combat. Under the laws of war, it is regarded as murder and, indeed, a war crime. Neither can the combat death of a fellow soldier be cited as an excuse to murder civilians. [For more on Powells justification for war crimes, see Chapter 8 in Neck Deep [12].]

In effect, Bush's global war on terror has reestablished what looks like the Vietnam-era Operation Phoenix, a program that assassinated Vietcong cadre, including suspected communist political allies.

The troubling picture is that the U.S. chain of command, presumably up to Bush, has authorized loose rules of engagement that allow targeted killings as well as other objectionable tactics including arbitrary arrests, enhanced interrogations, kidnappings in third countries with extraordinary renditions to countries that torture, secret CIA prisons, and detentions without trial.

This anything-goes approach has been conveyed down to soldiers in the field who believe they have wide discretion to kill Iraqis and Afghanis on the slightest suspicion. With rare exceptions like the conviction of Sgt. Vela the U.S. military has become a law onto itself, an extension of President Bush's megalomania.

Click on link above to read the full story.

Posted on the blog CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ by Bill Corcoran, editor of the blog which brings readers the truth about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan sans the prism of spin by the Bush White House and their propaganda mouthpiece FOX NEWS.

About authorRobert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com [14]. It's also available at Amazon.com [15], as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'Robert Parry's web site is Consortium News [16]

WHY AREN'T AMERICAN JOURNALISTS COVERING IRAQ ANYMORE?

Why don't American journalists cover the Iraq war anymore? Is it "Iraq Fatigue," as so many say? Or is it because the big corporate owners of the major media in the United States have collectively decided the Iraq war is not "newsworthy"anymore?

Why does it take a journalist from a newspaper in Great Britain to report on Fallujah, Iraq where U.S. troops are trying to restore some kind of order to the city?

This blogger has found he can't depend on the U.S, media for anything that is happening in Iraq. To find out what is happening in Iraq, you have to have a long list of foreign web sites who everyday publish reports on what is taking place in Iraq.

These are legitimate news stories, but the mainstream media in the United States has turned their back on events in Iraq.

The sad part of it is the United States is now carrying the ball virtually all alone in Iraq and the U.S. still has 160,000 troops in Iraq. Virtually all of the "coalition of the willing" have pulled up stakes and headed home.

So a story like this one from The Independent in Great Britain http://tinyurl.com/2toxfd is especially interesting on two fronts. The first is it is news and the second is not a single American journalist ventured into Fallujah, Iraq to find out firsthand what is going on in the Iraqi city.

We will continue to bring readers of our blog, CORKSPHERE http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ stories and news accounts of what is happening in Iraq.

It seems like the only real AMERICAN thing to do inasmuch as so many young American lives are invested in Iraq.

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

Return to Fallujah

Three years after the devastating US assault, our correspondent enters besieged Iraqi city left without clean water, electricity and medicine

http://tinyurl.com/2toxfd

By Patrick Cockburn
The U.K. Independent

The last time I tried to drive to Fallujah, several years ago, I was caught in the ambush of an American fuel convoy and had to crawl out of the car and lie beside the road with the driver while US soldiers and guerrillas exchanged gunfire. The road is now much safer but nobody is allowed to enter Fallujah who does not come from there and can prove it through elaborate identity documents.

The city has been sealed off since November 2004 when United States Marines stormed it in an attack that left much of the city in ruins.

Its streets, with walls pock-marked with bullets and buildings reduced to a heap of concrete slabs, still look as if the fighting had finished only a few weeks ago.

I went to look at the old bridge over the Euphrates from whose steel girders Fallujans had hanged the burnt bodies of two American private security men killed by guerrillas – the incident that sparked the first battle of Fallujah. The single-lane bridge is still there, overlooked by the remains of a bombed or shelled building whose smashed roof overhangs the street and concrete slabs are held in place by rusty iron mesh.

The police chief of Fallujah, Colonel Feisal Ismail Hassan al-Zubai, was trying to show that his city was on the mend.

As we looked at the bridge a small crowd gathered and an elderly man in a brown coat shouted: "We have no electricity, we have no water."

Others confirmed that Fallujah was getting one hour's electricity a day. Colonel Feisal said there was not much he could do about the water or electricity though he did promise a man that a fence of razor wire outside his restaurant would be removed.

Fallujah may be better than it was, but it still has a very long way to go. Hospital doctors confirm that they are receiving few gunshot or bomb blast victims since the Awakening movement drove al-Qa'ida from the city over the past six months, but people still walk warily in the streets as if they expected firing to break out at any minute.

Click on link above to read the full account.

"OUR CRIMES IN IRAQ MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN:" U.K INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER

This blogger has been writing for months about how the mainstream media has turned away from covering the Iraq war, and now comes word out of The Independent in Great Britain that we are not alone in our observations.

It is a sad, sad commentary on the state of journalism in the United States when reporters and editors can spend more time on the latest on the trivial "hi"jinks of Britney Spears rather than devoting a few lines of copy to the war in Iraq where 160,000 young Americans are bogged down in a giant foreign policy mess.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, writing for the U.K. Independent, http://tinyurl.com/2q4l33
spells out in perfectly clear language the mess that has been created in Iraq and how the mainstream media has elected to bury the Iraq war.

If you read nothing else on my blog, CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ I would urge everyone who cares about the United States and the 160,000 troops in Iraq to read this account.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, a blog dedicated to telling the TRUTH about the war in Iraq because nobody in the mainstream media is doing it anymore.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Our crimes in Iraq must not be forgotten

http://tinyurl.com/2q4l33

If the alliance was arrogant at the time of the invasion, it is even more so today

The people responsible for the war have, of course, moved on, and we must follow their fine example. Still they rise, praise be to them. Such self-belief, such resilience, no sign of weakness, no dribble of an apology. Awesome. Instead of being marched off to face war crimes tribunals they are forgiven their trespasses and rewarded generously.

The Catholic Church blesses and receives the deceiver (Mr Blair); fat banks and oil companies welcome them on boards (Jonathan Powell, Mr. Blair et al); they are called to make peace in the Middle East and lecture us on ethics ( Mr Blair and Mr Campbell) and invited in to the Cabinet (Jack Straw).

For some (still) enthusiastic warmongers – boys who never forgot the excitement of running around shooting their toy guns at strangers – the invasion and colonisation is the best thing ever.

The "surge" has worked, they declare – our boys and American soldiers are not dying in the numbers they were, and look!, Iraqis are coming out to play, buy and sell, smoke their pipes in tranquillity, and thousands are returning from exile in Syria. Hip hip hooray. For we're the jolly good fellows.

In the US with the primaries going full blast, John McCain is anointed as the noble saviour, the man who promises to crush all those aliens out there who are plotting to kill the US of A. I attended the BBC Radio 4 Alistair Cooke Lecture delivered by McCain, and what I heard was a man who uses his terrible experiences in Vietnam to justify all future wars he wants his country to wage.

Bill and Hillary both actively and tacitly supported the invasion of Iraq and never once defended the UN route. These candidates are "liberals", we are told. Only in America. None of the above are exactly in the habit of mentioning the caged of Guantanamo or the anguish of Iraqis. Obama did fleetingly touch on these ugly American transgressions, but not for long, and not with intense moral purpose. At least the guy tried, and had the guts to vote against the invasion. The others still seem to believe fervently that the attacks on 9/11 outweigh all other acts of political violence.

If the alliance, its leaders and brass bands were imperiously arrogant when they went into Iraq, they are even more so today. Failure has given them no humility at all and completes the cycle of villainy. They lied and broke international law and appear to have no duty of care towards the innocent inhabitants of that blighted land.

Iraqi deaths are now calculated at around one million. According to international organisations monitoring migrations, Iraq is going through one of the largest and most serious humanitarian crises in the world, with population displacement within and from Iraq.

Last November, cholera figures were the worst for 40 years, says an Iraqi health minister. Childhood diseases are rampant. There are relentless bombardments across the country, for reasons not given, on people unseen and labelled al-Qa'ida.

The current hand-wringing about British journalistic standards concentrates entirely on small, domestic matters.

The real shame and scandal is that air attacks on Iraq go on and on and get hardly any serious coverage. In 2006, there were 229 such raids; in 2007 there were 1,447 raids (dead uncounted and unidentified).

The ghastly, ruthless General David Petraeus says they have now reached a "sustainable level of violence". That is, at least, a truthful assessment and one that explains why we went into Iraq.

If the allies allow Iraqi Sunnis, Shias and Kurds to carry on murdering each other day after day, not so many that it turns into a full-blown civil war, we can steal their oil and control the place.

Meanwhile, here Lord Guthrie, once Chief of Staff, and others of his ilk are furious with Gordon Brown for promising that the consent of Parliament will be sought before any future war is launched by the Government. These generals have become extraordinarily bullish after the lamentable collapse of all their strategies in Iraq – thereby fending off any accountability and reasonable interrogation as to why even Basra became disillusioned with our presence.

There are, thank God, people who keep alive truth and awaken our collective conscience.

On Tuesday there is a public meeting in London (courtesy of the Stop the War Coalition) organised by Phil Shiner, public interest lawyer and an indefatigable campaigner for justice. For years he has tried to expose the brutality of some of our soldiers in Iraq who have committed heinous crimes against the populations and got away with it. At the meeting, which all good people should attend, Shiner will be talking about the British state and how it tolerates the torture, mutilations and killings of Iraqi civilians.

This Thursday the Jordanian Jamil el-Banna and Libyan Omar Deghayes go to court to argue against extradition to Spain to face charges of terrorism. These are the two men who were last year released from Guantanamo Bay, where they were caged and tortured for five years. Imagine the state of their minds and bodies, their fears of incarceration.

Here they were interrogated by our spooks and police officers, and released without charge. Yet Spain clamours for them and we will deliver them into yet another jurisdiction unless the lawyers can win the case. Helena Kennedy and Geoffrey Bindman have spoken up to defend these poor men; journalist Victoria Britten has investigated charges against them for four years and tells me she is absolutely sure they are innocent. Great Britain, Mr Brown? Tell me about it.

Just released too is the film Battle for Haditha by the exceptionally diligent director Nick Broomfield (I must remember him in my prayers). He has bravely brought to the screen an untold story of the war – the massacres of innocents by the allies in Hathida, a middle-class Sunni city where he says "couples would honeymoon on the Euphrates". Fallujah was similarly "punished". Both places at first supported the invasion and learnt to their cost that their saviours had dark intent and too many had lost their own humanity.

If Blair is elected President of the EU and either Clinton or McCain get the US presidency, the final insults will be added to the endless injury suffered by the Iraqis. They will know conclusively that there ain't no justice in the world. And some of them will turn to terrorism. And the peace we hope for will never come.
y.alibhaibrown@independent.co.uk

SUNNI MILITIAS CLASH WITH U.S. BACKED GOVERNMENT IN IRAQ

In still another sign the "surge" is crumbling, the U.S. backed Sunni militias are fighting with the U.S. backed Iraqi government.

The fragile peace process in Iraq is getting more complicated each day as various members of the warring tribal groups battle with each other and with the U.S. led Iraqi government.

There has also been an increase in the number of suicide bombings in Baghdad and even Anbar Province which not long ago was being hailed by President Bush, the U.S. military and FOX NEWS as a model of how well the "surge" is working.

Two suicide car bombings took place in Anbar Province on Tuesday killing 30 Iraqis and injuring scores of others.

U.S.-Backed Sunni "Awakening" Militias Clash with U.S.-Backed Government

By Dahr Jamail and Ahmed Ali, IPS News

Posted on February 12, 2008, Printed on February 13, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/76781/

U.S. backed Sunni militants have challenged the U.S.-backed Iraqi government in Baghdad, and demanded political power after two women were killed by government forces.

Tensions rose earlier this month when men dressed in Iraqi security personnel uniforms kidnapped two women. Their naked bodies were found later.

After the incident, the 'Awakening Groups' in Baquba, 40 km northeast of Baghdad, gave Shia police chief Gen. Ghanim al-Qureyshi until mid-day Friday to apologize and to arrest the men responsible.

"We hereby declare suspension of all co-operation with U.S. military, Iraqi security forces and the local government," Abu Abdullah, spokesman for the Awakening Council in Diyala province announced after the deadline passed.

On Saturday hundreds of members of the Awakening Council shut their offices and held three separate demonstrations in Baquba. The government in Baghdad promised to send a committee to investigate the incident, following which the Awakening Council of Diyala resumed security of the city.

Click on link above to read the full story.

VA; MORE THAN HALF OF SUICIDES WERE RESERVES AND NATIONAL GUARD FROM IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN

The alarming rate of suicide with members of the National Guard and Reserves who served in Iraq and Afghanistan is just another reminder of the tragedy of both wars.


Most vet suicides among Guard, Reserve troops
New government report raises alarm, calls for long-term mental services

The Associated Press
updated 3:39 p.m. CT, Tues., Feb. 12, 2008

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23132421/

WASHINGTON - More than half of all veterans who took their own lives after returning from Iraq or Afghanistan were members of the National Guard or Reserves, according to new government data that prompted activists on Tuesday to call for a closer examination of the problem.

A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis of ongoing research of deaths among veterans of both wars — obtained by The Associated Press — found that Guard or Reserve members accounted for 53 percent of the veteran suicides from 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began, through the end of 2005.

The research, conducted by the department's Office of Environmental Epidemiology, provides the first demographic look at suicides among veterans from those wars who left the military.

Joe Davis, public affairs director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the Pentagon and VA must combine efforts to track suicides among those who have served in those countries in order to get a clearer picture of the problem.

"To fix a problem, you have to define it first," Davis said.
At certain times in 2005, members of the Guard and Reserve made up nearly half the troops fighting in Iraq. Overall, they were nearly 28 percent of all U.S. military forces deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or in support of the operations, according to Defense Department data through the end of 2007.

Many Guard members and Reservists have done multiple tours that kept them away from home for 18 months, and that is taking a toll, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement Tuesday.

"Until this administration understands that repeated and prolonged deployments are stretching our brave men and women to the brink, we will continue to see these tragic figures," Murray said.

Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the military's effort to re-screen Guard and Reservists for mental and physical problems three months after they return home is a positive step, but a more long-term, comprehensive approach is needed to help them.

Click on link above to read the rest of the story.

By Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ the blog that tells what is really happening in Iraq and Afghanistan and with our troops returning from the wars.

U.S. MILITARY FACES UPHILL BATTLE TO STOP VIOLENCE IN IRAQ

According to this YouTube video there are over 130 militias in Iraq's Diyala Province alone who are now rebelling against the U.S. military.

The situation is grim and the prospects for peace are growing more dire as each day goes by.

As we have been mentioning on our blog, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ there has been a resurgence of violence in Baghdad and all across Iraq as the Iraqi people become more and more discontent with the inability of the Iraqi government to provide even basic services like water and electricity to Iraq.

This YouTube video explains in detail what lies ahead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dA3U6C6e7E&eurl=http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ a blog that provides the latest news from the Iraq war zone.

FOX NEWS SAYS IRAQI INSURGENTS USING "PREGNANT" GIRLS AS SUICIDE BOMBERS

You know things are heating when the "surge" in Iraq is showing signs of collapsing because FOX NEWS, the propaganda branch of the Bush White House, starts licking their chops at the "news" there is a "terror alert" because the insurgents in Iraq are supposedly using young female suicide bombers who wear fake "belly bomber" gear to make them appear to be pregnant.

John Gibson of FOX NEWS' "The Big Story" was practically ecstatic at the thought female "belly bombers" might move from Iraq to the United States.

FOX NEWS has a long history of cranking up scare tactics when things start going "south" for President Bush and the Republicans.

There have been a series of reports indicating the "surge" in Iraq is imploding. Two bombs went off in Anbar Province on Tuesday. Anabar Province was hailed by the Bush adminsitration, the U.S. military and FOX NEWS as a model for the effectiveness of the "surge."

There has also been an uptick in the deaths of U.S. troops in Iraq. Five U.S. troops were killed outside of Baghdad on Monday, and the total for February is 23 U.S. deaths and 80 wounded.

You can expect to hear about more "terrorist alerts" from the Bush administration and FOX NEWS as the race for POTUS (President of the United States) heats up, and the "surge" in Iraq cools down.

The Bush administration used scare tactics to lead the U.S. into war with Iraq. The original "scare tactic" was Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and Saddam Hussein was connected to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.

Neither, of course, proved to be true so the Bush adminsitration and their mouthpiece FOX NEWS started announcing "terror alerts" as a way of keeping the American public on edge.

When the "surge" showed signs of working, the "terror alerts" disappeared. But now that the "surge" is collapsing (see video below in another thread) and so it was expected the Bush White House and their Ministry of Propaganda, FOX NEWS, would come up with female "belly bombers" in Iraq even though there isn't any independent proof there are female "belly bombers."

Remember, a few weeks ago a U.S. General in Iraq said the insurgents were using young girls with Downs Syndrome as suicide bombers, but when the doctors in Iraq took a closer look at the bodies of the victims it became obvious the U.S. General was a little hasty in his announcement that the suicide bombings were carried out by young females with Downs Syndrome.

You are going to be hearing more and mor about "terror alerts" and you are also going to be hearing more and more about how the insurgents are using Iraqi females wearing fake padding to make them appear to be pregnant, but is a way to hide an explosive belt.

The Bush adminstation and FOX NEWS have honed the art of scaring Americans to a fine science and there is every indication they have started the propaganda again.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ the blog that tells the truth about what is happening in Iraq and not Bush White House and FOX NEWS spin.

SURGE IN IRAQ IS TEMPORARY (VIDEO)

Click on link provided below to see and hear a video interview with Joost Hiltermann.

Joost Hiltermann is the Deputy Program Director, Middle East and North Africa for the International Crisis Group. He writes policy-focused reports on the factors that increase the risk of and drive armed conflict. His specialty is the crisis in Iraq.

J. Hiltermann: Surge may keep Iraq "stable" till US elections but policy leads to more violent civil war

Here is the video of an interview with Joost Hiltermann:

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=961&thisview=item#

IRAQ CAR BOMBS KILL MANY: TWO CBS NEWSMEN KIDNAPPED

Conditions in Iraq continue to spiral out of control.

At least 22 have been killed in two separate car bombings in Anbar Province, the Province that President Bush, General David Petraeus and FOX NEWS claims is a model of how well the "surge" has been working.

Two CBS Newsmen have also been kidnapped from a hotel in the Southern city of Basra, Iraq.

The events on Tuesday underscore again how violence in Iraq is on the upswing and all the boasting about how well the "surge" ia doing was overblown at best and most certainly premature.

Reported by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the blog that brings readers the latest from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

IRAQ CAR BOMBS KILL 22 IN ANBAR PROVINCE. TWO CBS NEWSMEN KIDNAPPED

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=326586

Big News Network.com

Attackers have managed to penetrate heavy security in Iraq to leave two car bombs near a group of Sunni tribal leaders belonging to the Awakening Council.22 people were killed at the meeting of the U.S allies, in the western Anbar province, where the so-called Awakening Council movement against al-Qaeda emerged last year.

The blasts were also near the offices of one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite politicians, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. But Iraqi authorities said the apparent target was the Sunni tribal heads.

Meanwhile, two journalists working for CBS News have been kidnapped by gunmen from the Palace Sultan Hotel in the southern Iraq city of Basra.Hotel staff say they were forced at gunpoint to leave the hotel by a gang of about 10 gunmen.The men in civilian clothes arrived at the hotel during the day and made inquiries about who was staying there, returning later to take away the journalists.

The Association of Iraqi Journalists has appealed to the kidnappers to release the two men.