"GIVE PEACE A CHANCE: MUSICAL VIDEO STARRING JOHN LENNON

Whether it was the Vietnam War or the war with Korea or Iraq, the late John Lennon captures along with video the essence of "Give Peace a Chance."

It is worth watching again considering what has been happening in Iraq and how President Bush and the mainstream media have blocked out all coverage of the IRAQ WAR.

http://www.youtube.com/v/I-NRriHlLUk&hl=en

YOUTUBE MUSICAL VIDEO: "HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT MR. PRESIDENT?"

All the Bush administration, FOX NEWS and rest of the mainstream media can talk about is the success of "the surge," but they never bring to their readers or viewers the truth about the war in IRAQ like this musical video does.

It is appropriately titled "How do you sleep at night Mr. President?" With a sub-title of "When you know a mother never got to say good-bye to her son."

This blogger and military veteran is totally disgusted with the media in the United States for putting the Iraq War on the back burner just because most of the people in the media never wore the uniform of the United States military and haven't got a clue what it is like to be in combat.

THIS MUSICAL VIDEO SHOULD BE WATCHED OVER AND OVER AGAIN IF YOU CARE ABOUT OUR TROOPS IN IRAQ.

http://www.youtube.com/v/WGT0UOr8eTE&hl=en

YOUTUBE MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO OUR TROOPS IN IRAQ AND THE IRAQI CHILDREN THEY HAVE HELPED

This YOUTUBE musical video is a moving tribute to our troops in Iraq and how they have reached out to the children of Iraq to help them in this horrible war that never had to be fought because Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11 and didn't have weapons of mass destruction or the means to build a nuclear bomb.

This VIDEO will bring tears to your eyes and at the same time make you very, very proud of the young soldiers who represent the United States in Iraq.

http://www.youtube.com/v/kxLLCuzJjVA&hl=en

FANTASTIC MUSIC VIDEO: KOREA,VIETNAM AND IRAQ: WAR IS WAR

Many veterans like myself have claimed there is not an ounce of difference between the Korean War, Vietnam War and now the Iraq War and this tremendous musical video shows war up close in Vietnam, but it easily could have been war in Korea or Iraq.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, former Cpl. (E-4) Squad Ldr., U.S. Army Combat Engineers, Korean War veteran.

http://www.youtube.com/v/j8KfuwDXLSg&hl=en

YOU TUBE VIDEO TRIBUTE TO OUR TROOPS IN IRAQ

This YOUTUBE video is a tribute to our fighting forces in IRAQ. EXCELLENT with GREAT music.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Ev2Ud2XgfM4&hl=en

ALIVEINBAGHDAD SITE TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUT BAGHDAD AND NOT BUSH WH AND U.S. MEDIA "SPIN"

As a blogger here in the United States, I have learned you cannot trust either the Bush administration or the mainstream media in the USA to tell you the truth about what is happening in Iraq.

ALIVEINBAGHDAD http://aliveinbaghdad.org/ is a site published and edited by Iraqis who live in Baghdad and know the TRUTH about Baghdad.

The following story from the ALIVEINBAGHDAD web site paints an entirely different picture of life in Baghdad from what the Bush Administration and mainstream media outlets like FOX NEWS are telling Americans.

Baghdad/Adhamiya, Iraq - It became common in Baghdad that if a Sunni family lived in a Shia neighborhood they may be forced to leave and vice versa. Many families were forced by militias to leave their homes if they lived in a neighborhood that was predominantly made up of the other sect.

Some of them lost a family member by the hands of militias which pushed them to leave their neighborhood or fled to a nearby country such as Syria or Jordan.

The Iraqi government has been working on assisting some of these displaced families to return to their houses either by providing them an amount of money, or utilizing the growing Iraqi military and police to provide security in the neighborhoods they used to live in. So far the efforts of the Iraqi government have yielded only small results. It remains to be seen whether the current security situation will remain stable. Due to ongoing worries about their security, thousands of families are still living far from their neighborhood and many continue to reside outside of Iraq.

One of the many areas hit hard by internal displacement is Adhamiya. More than 1000 families have been displaced from this neighborhood under the threat of death. Most of them were Shia but some of them were Sunni. The Shia families there were given the choice to become Sunni or die. For some Sunni families the reasons were different. Perhaps one of their family members worked with the Iraqi government or the United States, in some cases simply working with any foreign NGO may cause displacement. Organizations such as the Muslim Scholar’s Association and the Sahwa or “Awakening” councils are endeavoring to find their own solutions to the problem in Adhamiya.

The Sahwa Councils are attempting to provide security and eliminate the control of other militias or insurgents within Adhamiya, in order to provide a safe place for displaced or threatened families and encourage them to return home.

The current situation in Baghdad appears to be better than it has been between 2006 and 2007, but continues to be haunted by the worries of its residents. After years of violence and uncertainty, it seems that many people simply don’t have much faith that their government or other groups, whether the United States, Sahwa Forces, or others will be able to keep the peace.

BUSH MAY SEND MORE TROOPS TO AFGHANISTAN AS TALIBAN BECOMES STRONGER

Afghanistan has become the new "hot spot" in the Middle East and U.S. forces in the country are in dire need of more troops to fight the resurgent Taliban.

Bush says he is weighing whether to send more troops to Afghanistan

DEB RIECHMANN
AP News
Jul 02, 2008 10:26 EST
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=236152

President Bush said Wednesday he is weighing whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. Bush said it has been a "tough month" in Afghanistan, where more U.S. and NATO troops died during the past two months than in Iraq.

The president told a Rose Garden news conference that one reason for the rising deaths "is that our troops are taking the fight to a tough enemy ... of course there is going to be resistance." It has also been a "tough month for the Taliban," he said.

WASHINGTON POST: U.S. DEATHS RISE IN AFGHANISTAN. TALIBAN IS GETTING STRONGER

There is a major problem for the U.S. military.

160,000 U.S. troops are stuck in Iraq doing "guard duty" and little else.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan has exploded with the Taliban making its mark all across the country and U.S. deaths during the month of June in Afghanistan topped U.S. deaths in Iraq.

The problem the U.S. military faces is should they continue to rotate troops out of Iraq, or should they deploy them to Afghanistan where the 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan need more support?

The media continues to talk about the success of Iraq, but they have conveniently overlooked how the Taliban is getting stronger in Afghanistan and violence is breaking out all across Afghanistan.

As has been the case with Iraq, the mainstream media appears to pay little or no attention to Afghanistan as the country spirals out of control.

The Washington Post is one of the few mainstream media outlets reporting on Afghanistan.

That in itself is an insult to every GI serving in both Afghanistan and Iraq and their families back in the United States.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE.

U.S. Deaths Rise in AfghanistanJune Is Deadliest Month for Troops as Country Sees Taliban Resurgence

By Josh WhiteWashington Post Staff WriterWednesday, July 2, 2008; A01
http://tinyurl.com/5rndty

June was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war there began in late 2001, as resilient and emboldened insurgents have stepped up attacks in an effort to gain control of the embattled country.

Defense officials and Afghanistan experts said the toll of 28 U.S. combat deaths recorded last month demonstrates a new resurgence of the Taliban, the black-turbaned extremists who were driven from power by U.S. forces almost seven years ago. Taliban units and other insurgent fighters have reconstituted in the country's south and east, aided by easy passage from mountain redoubts in neighboring Pakistan's lawless tribal regions.

The officials and experts said the spike in troop deaths should not be the only measure of the growing conflict in Afghanistan, but they acknowledged that the Taliban's persistent attacks on military units and civilians have frustrated U.S. and international efforts to help the Afghan government secure the country.

"What it points to is that the opposition is becoming more effective," said Barnett R. Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University. "It is having a presence in more areas, being better organized, better financed and having a sustainable strategy. In all, their strategic situation has improved."

Violence in rural areas controlled by the Taliban and in eastern provinces along the border with Pakistan has increased in recent weeks as insurgents have begun using more makeshift bombs, borrowing a tactic honed by insurgents in Iraq. According to top U.S. commanders, the number of violent incidents has risen nearly 40 percent during the first half of 2008 compared with last year.

REUTERS: LAST U.S. "SURGE" BRIGADE BEGINS LEAVING IRAQ

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military has begun withdrawing from Iraq the last of the five additional combat brigades that were deployed to the country in 2007, a U.S. military spokesman said on Tuesday.

Last U.S. "surge" brigade begins leaving Iraq
Tue Jul 1, 2008 8:46 AM ET
http://tinyurl.com/62ymdm

The final "surge" brigade would leave Iraq by the end of July, the spokesman said. That was in line with plans by General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, who has said lower levels of violence would allow the reductions.
U.S. troop levels are a key issue in the November presidential election.
The U.S. military had 20 combat brigades in Iraq at its peak in 2007, with troop levels around 160,000-170,000. Numbers will fall to about 140,000 once the final "surge" brigade departs.
"Elements of the fifth surge brigade have already begun redeploying, so, by the end of July, we will be at 15 combat brigade teams in Iraq," the military spokesman said.
He declined to identify the brigade or give its location for security reasons.
U.S. President George W. Bush sent an extra 30,000 soldiers to Iraq last year to stop savage sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs that threatened to tip the country into all-out civil war.
The troop buildup was credited with helping improve security. Other factors were a rebellion by Sunni Arab tribal leaders against al Qaeda and a ceasefire by anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

BBC REPORTS: BAGHDAD SHOWS SIGNS OF REBIRTH

The streets of Baghdad are back in business. The teashops are busy. The shops and markets are bustling.

By Nicholas Witchell BBC News, Baghdad
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7482307.stm

After years when there seemed to be no end to the city's trauma, people are feeling more confident.
Why, even property prices in Baghdad are rising. According to one estate agent we spoke to, they have doubled in the past four months.
Yes, things are better in Baghdad.
But before we get too carried away, it is important to stress that the improvements, while real, are plainly very brittle.
As US officials readily concede, comments about "breakthroughs" and "corners being turned" are premature.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
A view from a coffee shop on how life is changing
The gains are fragile and reversible.
Indeed, as an influential report from the US Congress stated a few days ago, Iraq's security environment "remains volatile and dangerous".
It is just not quite as volatile and dangerous as it was this time last year.

WASHINGTON POST REPORTS: SUNNI BLOC TO REJOIN IRAQI GOVERNMENT

Sunni Bloc to Rejoin GovernmentBoycott Would End With Assignment of Iraqi Cabinet Posts

By Sudarsan RaghavanWashington Post Foreign ServiceWednesday, July 2, 2008; A08
http://tinyurl.com/4pm249

BAGHDAD, July 1 -- Iraq's main Sunni Muslim political bloc is on the verge of rejoining the Shiite-led government after a nearly year-long boycott, a step widely seen as vital to reconciliation after years of sectarian conflict.

Sunni leaders said Tuesday they had submitted the names of candidates to fill at least five cabinet posts as well as the position of deputy prime minister to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Maliki plans to put the six names to a parliamentary vote as early as next week.

"As soon as they are approved, there's nothing stopping them from rejoining the government," Dabbagh said.

The bloc, known as the Tawafaq Front, withdrew from the government last August over demands for constitutional changes and the release of Sunni detainees from Iraq's prisons.

Sunni leaders now say the government has done enough to address their core conditions, including passing an amnesty law that has freed thousands of Sunni detainees this year. The leaders said they were also encouraged by the government's efforts in tackling Shiite militias, especially the Mahdi Army of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

MORE SIGNS OF INSTABILITY IN IRAQ: TRUCK BOMB WOUNDS 15 NEAR MOSUL, IRAQ

I'm totally sickened about how the anchors and reportes at FOX NEWS, CNN and MSNBC allow these right wing pundits to come on their shows and claim things are calm and getting better in Iraq.

Nothing could be further from the truth and the anchors and reporters at FOX NEWS, CNN and MSNBC should hang their heads in shame because by going along with the right wing pundits they are sticking it to the brave young men and women in our military in IRAQ.

Here is just ONE instance of what took place on Tuesday in Iraq.

Truck bomb wounds at least 15 near Mosul, Iraqi hospital officials say

SAMEER N. YACOUB
AP News
Jul 01, 2008 10:13 EST
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=234507

Hospital officials say a truck bomb has wounded at least 15 people near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Local police say the bomb was planted near the house of a Sunni sheik, Abdul-Razaq al-Waqaa, who had turned against al-Qaida.

Police say 40 people were wounded in the blast near al-Qayarra, 40 miles south of Mosul, including al-Waqaa and his wife.

The reason for the discrepancy in the number of wounded was not immediately clear.
Police say three houses collapsed in the bombing, and seven others were damaged. Authorities are searching through the rubble for those wounded or killed in the attack.

Police and hospital officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Source: AP News

IRAQ VETERANS SAY GENERAL WESLEY CLARK WAS RIGHT ABOUT SEN. JOHN McCAIN

I get cranky when Democrats tuck tail on issues related to the military. As Brandon Friedman states eloquently on the Vote Vets blog, there is no reason to cede authority on military matters just because of John McCain's service during Vietnam. Republicans sure didn't respect John Kerry's service during Vietnam. Wes Clark came home from Vietnam wounded, too. Let's respect his view, not only as a wounded vet, but also as a senior commander who handled the Balkans and Kosovo.

Submitted by rocketsquirrel on Tue, 2008/07/01 - 8:47am. http://www.knoxviews.com/node/8312

More from votevets: votevets.org blog, vetvoice.: (sorry, can't make links into the specific blog post work.)

Brandon Friedman:We've heard from the pundits, the "strategists," and the politicians all day long on Wesley Clark's recent comments.That said, I've been terribly disappointed by the Democratic "strategists" who've fallen all over themselves in order to talk about how sacred military service is--specifically John McCain's--and how awful General Wesley Clark's comments were, even though not one "strategist" that I've listened to today has ever served a minute in uniform.

These ignorant, knee-jerking consultants on TV have been in an apparent race to concede ultimate authority on military matters to John McCain and the Republican Party since Sunday night. It's disgusting. And these concessions have been so over-the-top destructive to our long-term plans for running the country, that I'm not even sure where to begin.

The bottom line is this: If Democrats tuck tail and run from Republicans in this instance, we run the risk of ceding authority on military issues to John McCain for the rest of the campaign. Whether you like Clark or not, everyone has an interest in defending him vigorously in this case. We cannot allow the Right and the media to get away with trashing the first guy to come out in prime time to slam McCain's military "expertise." If our organizations don't defend Clark as being right in this case, we give in to the idea that Republicans are the parents in terms of national defense, and Democrats are the children--something those on the Right will be more than happy to reinforce.

This idea that we can't question someone's expertise on military matters simply because they served could very easily become the next "whoever is against the war is unpatriotic" mantra. And that's not something I'm prepared to accept.

Here are a handful of the messages we've received at VoteVets.org since this morning. Judge for yourselves what the troops who are left-of-center think about this whole deal.

General Clark was right. Service as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is only one of the roles of a president. General Clark did not attack Senator McCain's ability to be president, he simply pointed out that his military service does not inherently qualify him for that role.Chris LeJeuneSalt Lake City, UTIraq VeteranArmy2003-04

General Clark is right. We should honor the service of any veteran who has suffered in war, but I don't think that in itself qualifies one to be the Commander-in-Chief. And that's the point General Clark was making. He wasn't attacking Senator McCain personally, and anyone who says otherwise is being disingenuous.Patrick AlmandDallas, TXIraq VeteranArmy2004-05

General Clark is on point in his comments about Senator McCain. There are many fine leaders in the military. Some--like Senator McCain--have persevered through the most terrible of circumstances. They are all heroes, but they do not necessarily possess the skills to lead the free world. If Senator McCain really wants to show his Commander-in-Chief credentials, perhaps he should start advocating for a sound national security strategy, rather than marching in the proverbial formation of eight years of failed Bush administration policy.Richard SmithHuntsville, ALAfghanistan VeteranArmy2007-08


Combat veterans understand that General Clark did not denigrate Senator McCain's honorable service to this nation. In fact, it's Senator McCain's lack of support for the troops--like his opposition to the new GI Bill until recently--which dishonors and dismisses the selfless sacrifices made by our brave men and women in uniform. General Clark understands these things and is never hesitant to speak out about them. General Clark has our back and I have his.Ernesto EstradaSan Francisco, CAIraq VeteranMarine Corps2003


General Clark's criticism is accurate and well-founded. No one is disputing the fact that Senator McCain served his nation with honor, and I am forever grateful for his sacrifice. That being said, the question at hand is whether the senator's military service alone qualifies him to serve as Commander-in-Chief. Despite Senator McCain's horrific experiences in Vietnam, during his tenure in the Senate, he has been a staunch advocate of the disastrous war in Iraq and the Bush administration's failed foreign policy. Senator McCain did not support the Webb-Hagel G.I. Bill or the dwell-time amendment, either of which would have reduced some measure of the emotional and financial stress on active duty service members and veterans.


General Clark was not attacking John McCain's military service--he was questioning whether he learned anything from that experience.Casey HowardColorado Springs, COIraq VeteranArmy2005-06


In no way has General Clark questioned the honorable service or the patriotism of Captain McCain. Rather, he questioned the judgment of Senator McCain who has foolishly endorsed the failed neo-conservative foreign policy of the Bush administration.Peter GranatoWashington, DCIraq VeteranArmy2003-04


PERSONAL COMMENT: As a veteran of the Korean War myself, I will state without fear of contradiction that just serving in the military does not qualify a person for President of the United States. We found that out with U.S. Grant.
Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE and former Cpl. (E-4), U.S. Army Combat Engineers.

U.S. CONTINUES TO BRUTALIZE IRAQIS IN THE NAME OF "THE SURGE"

On March 19, 2003, as his shock-and-awe campaign against Iraq was being launched, George W. Bush addressed the nation. "My fellow citizens," he began, "at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger." We were entering Iraq, he insisted, "with respect for its citizens, for their great civilization and for the religious faiths they practice.

By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.comPosted on June 30, 2008, Printed on June 30, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/89840/

We have no ambition in Iraq, except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people."Within weeks, of course, that "great civilization" was being looted, pillaged, and shipped abroad. Saddam Hussein's Baathist dictatorship was no more and, soon enough, the Iraqi Army of 400,000 had been officially disbanded by L. Paul Bremer, the head of the occupying Coalition Provisional Authority and the President's viceroy in Baghdad.

By then, ministry buildings -- except for the oil and interior ministries -- were just looted shells. Schools, hospitals, museums, libraries, just about everything that was national or meaningful, had been stripped bare.

Meanwhile, in their new offices in Saddam's former palaces, America's neoconservative occupiers were already bringing in the administration's crony corporations -- Halliburton and its subsidiary KBR, Bechtel, and others -- to finish off the job of looting the country under the rubric of "reconstruction."

Somehow, these "administrators" managed to "spend" $20 billion of Iraq's oil money, already in the "Development Fund for Iraq," even before the first year of occupation was over -- and to no effect whatsoever. They also managed to create what Ed Harriman in the London Review of Books labeled "the least accountable and least transparent regime in the Middle East." (No small trick given the competition.)

Before the Sunni insurgency even had a chance to ramp up in 2003, they were already pouring billions of U.S. tax dollars into what would become their massive military mega-bases meant to last a millennium, and, of course, they were dreaming about opening Iraq's oil industry to the major oil multinationals and to a privatized future as an oil spigot for the West.On May 1, 2003, six weeks after he had announced his war to the nation and the world, the President landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier returning from the Persian Gulf where its planes had just launched 16,500 missions and dropped 1.6 million pounds of ordnance on Iraq.

From its flight deck, he spoke triumphantly, against the backdrop of a "Mission Accomplished" banner, assuring Americans that we had "prevailed." "Today," he said, "we have the greater power to free a nation by breaking a dangerous and aggressive regime.

With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against civilians." In fact, according to Human Rights Watch, the initial shock-and-awe strikes he had ordered killed only civilians, possibly hundreds of them, without touching a single official of Saddam Hussein's "regime."

Who's Counting Now?Since that first day of "liberation," Iraqis have never stopped dying in prodigious numbers.

Now, more than five years after the U.S. "prevailed" with such "precision," a more modest version of the same success story has once again taken the beaches of the mainstream media, if not by storm, then by siege. When it comes to Iraq, the good news is unavoidable. It's in the air. Not victory exactly, but a slow-motion movement toward a "stable" Iraq, a country with which we might be moderately content.

The President's surge -- those extra 30,000 ground troops sent into Iraq in the first half of 2007 -- has, it is claimed, proven the negativity of all the doubters and critics unwarranted. Indeed, it is now agreed, security conditions have improved significantly and in ways "that few thought likely a year ago."

You already know the story well enough. It turns out that, as in Vietnam many decades ago, the U.S. military is counting like mad. So, for instance, according to the Pentagon, attacks on American and Iraqi troops are down 70% compared to June 2007; IED (roadside bomb) attacks have dropped almost 90% over the same period; in May, for the first time, fewer Americans died in Iraq than in Afghanistan (where the President's other war, some seven-plus years later, is going poorly indeed); and, above all else, "violence" is down. ("All major indicators of violence in Iraq have dropped by between 40 and 80 percent since February 2007, when President Bush committed an additional 30,000 troops to the war there, the Pentagon reported.")Think of this as the equivalent of Vietnam's infamous "body count," but in reverse.

In a country where the U.S. generally occupies only the land its troops are on, the normal measures of military victory long ago went out the window, so bodies have to stand in. In Vietnam, the question was: How many enemy dead could you tote up?

The greater the slaughter, the closer you assumedly were to obliterating the other side (or, at least, its will). As it turned out, by what the grunts dubbed "the Mere Gook Rule" -- "If it's dead and it's Vietnamese, it's VC [Vietcong] " -- any body would do in a pinch when it came to the metrics of victory.

ABC NEWS: PENTAGON OFFICIAL WARNS OF ISRAELI ATTACK ON IRAN

President Bush, Vice President Cheney and FOX NEWS have been looking for any excuse to get into war with Iran and it appears as though Israel is going to give them the excuse.

Pentagon Official Warns of Israeli Attack on Iran

U.S. Offical Sees Two 'Red Lines' That Could Prompt Strike

BY JONATHAN KARL
WASHINGTON, June 30, 2008—
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/US/story?id=5281043&page=1

Senior Pentagon officials are concerned that Israel could carry out an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities before the end of the year, an action that would have enormous security and economic repercussions for the United States and the rest of the world.

A senior defense official told ABC News there is an "increasing likelihood" that Israel will carry out such an attack, a move that likely would prompt Iranian retaliation against, not just Israel, but against the United States as well.

The official identified two "red lines" that could trigger an Israeli offensive. The first is tied to when Iran's Natanz nuclear facility produces enough highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon. According to the latest U.S. and Israeli intelligence assessments, that is likely to happen sometime in 2009, and could happen by the end of this year.

"The red line is not when they get to that point, but before they get to that point," the official said. "We are in the window of vulnerability."

The second red line is connected to when Iran acquires the SA-20 air defense system it is buying from Russia. The Israelis may want to strike before that system -- which would make an attack much more difficult -- is put in place.

Some Pentagon officials also worry that Israel may be determined to attack before a new U.S. president, who may be less supportive, is sworn in next January.

NEW STUDY SHOWS "SURGE" HAS NOT BROUGHT STABILITY TO IRAQ

Iraq Contractor Security Assessment Differs From Bush/McCain

By Spencer Ackerman 06/30/2008 12:11PM
http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/iraq-contractor

Whenever Bush administration or Sen. John McCain campaign officials open their mouths about Iraq, they portray the country as on a continuous path of Surge-based stabilization. "As security has improved, the environment has changed for the better," Amb. Ryan C. Crocker told Wolf Blitzer on Sunday. "I, of course, am encouraged... The progress has been significant but the progress is also fragile," said a more-intellectually-honest-but-not-by-much Sen. John McCain.

And the latest Pentagon Iraq security report (PDF) to Congress reported that improvements in the security environment have been substantial over the past nine months but significant challenges remain."But rather than security improvements being "substantial over the past nine months," an assessment today from a leading private security and intelligence contractor in Iraq shows that the security picture hasn't changed significantly since October 1, 2007.

GardaWorld is a private intelligence firm advising corporations doing business in Iraq. Its website explains: "In Iraq, through strategic local partnerships and the expertise of expatriate specialists and resident security personnel, who are fluent in Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish, French, Russian, and English, GardaWorld is able to provide high-quality, tailored solutions. We are formally registered with Ministry of Interior and have all necessary operating licenses."The following charts appeared in GardaWorld's June 30 intelligence briefing for its clients and were obtained by The Washington Independent. On page 2 of the briefing, GardaWorld prints two charts tracing the trajectory of security both Iraq-wide and in Baghdad specifically.

Take a look at the Iraq-wide chart: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/iraq-contractor


As you can see, the incident level spikes and ebbs, but responsible statisticians will see -- as signified by the black bar -- that the daily incident frequency is basically flat since October 1. If anything, it's ticked up somewhat, from about 50 daily security incidents in October to about 70 through the winter and coming in at around 60 presently.Now take a look at the Baghdad chart: Similar deal. The black line that cuts through the spikes and ebbs shows another slight increase in daily security incidents in Baghdad, from 10 in October to about 25 today. (For the full page of the GardaWorld report, click here.)

It's true that this level of violence is lower than that of the bloody spring and summer of 2006, but it's also true that the trajectory of violence is increasing, not decreasing.

Not that you'll ever hear Bush or McCain acknowledge this.

THE TRUTH ABOUT VIOLENCE IN IRAQ FOR CONSERVATIVE RADIO'S HUGH HEWITT

Conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt told a nation-wide ABC NEWS audience on Sunday's "This Week with George Stephanopolous" that Iraq is peaceful and quiet as the result of the success of "the surge."

If that is so, why is this happening in Iraq on Sunday and Monday?

Source: http://antiwar.com/
Click on BLUE for more details on each violent incident


Monday: 14 Iraqis Killed, 12 Wounded
An intimidation campaign against Iraqi judges resumed today when a series of bombs targeted a number of them at their homes in eastern Baghdad. Across Iraq, at least 14 Iraqis were killed and 12 more were injured during the latest round of violence.

The handover of security to Iraqi forces in the province of Qadisiyah was delayed due to bad weather. The Polish Press Agency reported that terrorism concerns were behind the delay as well.

In Baghdad, a series of five separate bombs targeted the homes of several Iraqi judges in eastern Baghdad, at least one of their wives was injured. Conflicting reports have noted more casualties.

A bomb in Waziriya injured one judge, his wife, and one of their sons. In what may be the same incident, another judge, his wife and his daughter were injured in Binouk. Another judge was injured when a bomb planted in his car blew up. A judge was gunned down only a few days ago.

Also in the capital, Iraqi forces killed two gunmen during a security operation.

A bomb in Kadhimiya killed one civilian and wounded three others. Gunmen raided a Minister's Council employee, but no casualties were reported. A car blew up in Adhimiya, then a body was discovered in it.

In Mosul, gunmen killed two Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint. Two bodies, one belonging to a soldier, were discovered separately. Also, three Iraqi soldiers were wounded in an IED explosion.

A man was wounded in Mahaweel when gunmen opened fire on him.


Sunday: 39 Iraqis Killed, 20 Wounded
Updated at 6:09 p.m. EDT, June 29, 2008

A mass grave gave up 20 more bodies a day after its discovery near Lake Tharthar. Overall, at least 39 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 20 more were wounded in attacks. No Coalition deaths were reported.

Twenty more bodies were recovered from a mass grave discovered in the Lake Tharthar region. The total is now up to 50 dead.

A suicide bomber in Duluiya killed seven people and wounded three more.
Seven people were wounded in Kirkuk when a bomb targeting a police patrol blasted a minibus instead. Six of the dead were policemen and the seventh was an Awakening Council (Sahwa) member.

Gunmen wounded three farmers walking to their orchard in Khalis.

A female suicide bomber injured three Sahwa members in Muqdadiyah.

In Baquba, a roadside bomb injured the driver of a vehicle that struck it. Four dumped bodies were found.

An off-duty policeman was shot and killed outside his home in Mosul. Also, over 1200 detainees were released, but the time period in which the prisoners were freed was not reported. The majority of the prisoners were innocent of charges.

In Baghdad, gunmen killed the head of Basra intelligence department. A bomb planted on a vehicle in Habibiya was successfully defused. Three security personnel were injured during operations.

In Udhaim, a mortar shell killed two women and a child. U.S. forces discovered two buildings rigged to explode elsewhere. The buildings were safely brought down.

U.S. forces killed two suspects and arrested 15 more across central and northern Iraq.
In the Tigris River Valley, nine suspects were detained.

A curfew is in effect for Diwaniya as they prepare to accept responsibility for security from U.S. forces.

So, MR HEWITT, why don't you ask George Stephanopolous if you can go on his ABC NEWS "This Week" show next Sunday to spread more LIES.

BOMB ATTACKS TARGET IRAQ JUDGES: RIGHT WING RADIO HOST HUGH HEWITT MISLEADS ABC "THIS WEEK" AUDIENCE ABOUT IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

Last Sunday I watched in total disbelief as right wing radio host Hugh Hewitt told the ABC "This Week with George Stephanopolous" audience that both Iraq and Afghanistan have been brought under control.

I was stunned that Stephanolpolus or none of his guests challenged Hewitt's outlandish statement which was a flat out LIE.

Day after day on this blog I report acts of violence that are taking place every single day in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What bothers me the most about Hugh Hewitt's statement is that not ONE person on the ABC Sunday morning panel challenged him with facts which would show he was lying through his teeth.

Hewitt is like FOX NEWS, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage and the rest of the right wing blowhards who continue to LIE to their audiences about conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When is the mainstream media going to point out people like Hugh Hewitt haven't got a clue what they are talking about?

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE

Bomb attacks target Iraqi judges in Baghdad

www.chinaview.cn 2008-06-30 16:12:07
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/30/content_8465617.htm

Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

BAGHDAD, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Three bomb attacks targeted Iraqi judges on Monday morning, wounding one of them while two others escaped unhurt, an Interior Ministry source said.
"Judge Ghanim Abdullah al-Shimmary, his wife and daughter were wounded when a bomb detonated inside his house in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Bunoog," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Shimmary is working in the court of the Sadr City neighborhood, the Shiite stronghold of Mahdi Army militia loyal to the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the source said.
All the wounded, including Shimmary, were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment, the source said.
Another bomb attack occurred when a roadside bomb detonated outside the house of Judge Ali al-Allaf, near the Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, the source added.
Allaf escaped unhurt, while the blast caused minor damages to his house, he said.
A third bomb blast occurred near the house of Judge Alla Hussein Salih in Baghdad's southern neighborhood of Ghadeer, causing damages to his house and several nearby civilian cars, he added.
It was the fourth attack in less than a week against Iraqi Judges when unknown gunmen shot dead judge Kamel al-Shewaily, head of the al-Rasafa court of appeal, on Thursday in eastern Baghdad.

U.S. IS PAYING $500.000 A MONTH TO LOCAL IRAQI TRIBESMAN TO KEEP PEACE

You will NEVER hear FOX NEWS or the rest of the right wing media talk about how the U.S. government is paying local Iraqi tribesman $500,000 a month to try and keep peace in Anbar Province and in Baghdad.

All the phony right wing "news organizations" like FOX NEWS do is talk about the success of the "surge" in Iraq.

If someone held a .45 to the head of every news editor, producer and anchor person at FOX NEWS they still couldn't tell the truth about IRAQ.

The FOX NEWS sycophants march in lockstep with Bush and Cheney never telling the TRUTH about what is REALLY happening in IRAQ.

Here is just one example of what we mean:

Program in Iraq against al-Qaida faces uncertainty

US program to sponsor fighters in Iraq against al-Qaida faces uncertain future

HAMZA HENDAWIAP News
Jun 29, 2008 14:50 EST
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=232119

Capt. David N. Simms wanted the tribal sheiks to have no doubts — the $500,000 his unit spends every month to pay and equip local tribesmen to keep peace here will soon run out and they had better be ready when it's gone.

Simms handed the sheiks 600 applications for a vocational school in nearby Baghdad. It's one option, he said, to prepare the men for life after he stops giving them salaries.

The "Sons of Iraq" are the estimated 80,000 fighters — mostly Sunni tribesmen and former insurgents — recruited and paid by the U.S. military to help fight al-Qaida and maintain security in neighborhoods, including this Sunni farming community west of Baghdad.

The program has been a remarkable success, helping reduce violence across the country by 80 percent since early 2007 at the cost of $216 million to date.

Nearly two years into the program, however, the U.S. is gradually handing over responsibility for the Sons of Iraq to the Shiite-led government. By January, the military hopes to turn the entire program over to the Iraqis.

But the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been reluctant to absorb large numbers of armed Sunnis into the Shiite-dominated security forces. American officials fear that many of the U.S.-backed fighters may turn their guns on the government unless jobs can be found for them.

"If we don't find work for the men, it will work against us," said Asaad Nawar al-Ameen, a retired general in Saddam's army who heads the Sons of Iraq in Radwaniyah. "Al-Qaida can get them."

The government already has accepted nearly 20 percent of Sons in Iraq members in the security forces and is pledging to find civilian jobs for most of the rest.

Meanwhile, it has introduced "support councils" made up of trusted tribal chiefs and their followers to support the security forces.

But that move is seen by leaders of the Sons of Iraq as an attempt to sideline them at a time when some of them are complaining that the Americans are abandoning them to a government they don't trust.

CNN REPORTS: U.S. "PREPARING BATTLEFIELD" FOR WAR WITH IRAN

This CNN report dovetails with the post just below this on my blog where I report on how Iran is digging 320,000 graves in preparation for war with the United States.

It is no longer a question of whether we will be going to war with Iran, but when.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney continue to reject every possible way to avoid war with Iran just as they did with Iraq and before leaving office in January Bush and Cheney are going to see to it that the United States goes to war with Iran.

CNN is reporting the following:

Report: U.S. 'preparing the battlefield' in Iran
Story Highlights
New Yorker article says Congress authorized up to $400 million for covert ops in Iran
Journalist Seymour Hersh says program is being staged from Afghanistan
U.S. officials decline comment, deny the U.S. is launching raids from Iraq
Iranian general says troops are building graves for invaders in the event of war

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/29/us.iran/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has launched a "significant escalation" of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country's nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic's government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.
White House, CIA and State Department officials declined comment on Hersh's report, which appears in this week's issue of The New Yorker.

Hersh told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents.

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and "do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program," Hersh said.

"They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program," Hersh said.

The new article, "Preparing the Battlefield," is the latest in a series of articles accusing the Bush administration of preparing for war with Iran.

Click on link to read more....

IRAN IS DIGGING 320,000 GRAVES FOR INVADERS-MILITARY OFFICIAL

TEHRAN, June 29 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian military official said on Sunday the Islamic republic is digging some 320,000 graves in its border provinces for future slain invaders, Iran's English-language satellite channel Press TV reported.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/30/content_8459225.htm

Iran's Armed Forces headquarters has approved the plan to dig graves for enemy forces in case of any attack on its territory, said Brigadier General Mir-Faisal Baqerzadeh, head of the Foundation for the Remembrance of the Holy Defense.

"We do not wish the families of enemy soldiers to experience what Americans had to go through in the aftermath of the Vietnam War," said Baqerzadeh, who is also head of Iran's search committee for missing soldiers.

The preemptive measures would decrease the time during which slain soldiers would be buried, the Iranian military official said, adding "the burial of slain soldiers will be carried out decently and in little time."

Click on link above to continue reading.

Thanks to Lori Price at http://www.legitgov.org/ for heads up on this story

WASHINGTON POST IS REPORTING SUNDAY IRAQ OFFICIALS FURIOUS WITH U.S. OVER RAID THAT KILLED RELATIVE OF PRIME MINISTER AL MALIKI

Reported U.S. Raid Triggers Outrage

By Ernesto Londoño and Saad SarhanWashington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 29, 2008; A13

BAGHDAD, June 28 -- Iraqi officials in the home town of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki are calling for an investigation into a reported raid by the U.S. military early Friday that resulted in the death of a man identified by some Iraqi officials as a relative of the prime minister.

The raid was carried out shortly after midnight in the town of Hindiyah, 50 miles southwest of Baghdad in Karbala province. According to Iraqi officials in Karbala, a team of about 60 U.S. soldiers traveling in four helicopters descended on a sparsely populated area a few miles from the town, where the prime minister owns a villa.

"We are shocked by the news of the raid," Karbala Gov. Aqeel al-Khazaly said at a news conference Friday afternoon. "The aerial landing and subsequent operations led to the death of an innocent civilian and the arrest of another."

Karbala is one of nine Iraqi provinces where the U.S. military has handed over responsibility for security to local officials. Khazaly, who has been a U.S. ally, said Iraqi officials were not notified about the operation and called it a violation of the handover agreement.

WAR WITH IRAN IS GETTING CLOSER. U.S. STEPS UP COVERT OPERATIONS AGAINST IRAN

U.S. escalating covert operations against Iran: report

Sunday, June 29, 2008

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. congressional leaders agreed late last year to President George W. Bush's funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.

The article by reporter Seymour Hersh, from the magazine's July 7 and 14 issue, centers around a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which by U.S. law must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees.

"The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change," the article cited a person familiar with its contents as saying, and involved "working with opposition groups and passing money."

SUNDAY MORNING BREAKING NEWS: TRUCK BOMB KILLS 7 NEAR BAGHDAD

Truck bomb kills 7 in Iraq

The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 06/29/2008 01:29:34 AM PDT

BAGHDAD—Police say a truck bomb has killed seven people in Iraq.
Police Col. Mohammed Khalid says the truck was detonated by remote control Sunday when police and security guards went to check the vehicle. The truck had been parked along the side of a road in Duluiyah, about 45 miles north of Baghdad.
Six of the dead were policemen and the seventh was a member of the local awakening council—volunteers who have turned against the insurgents.

WASHINGTON POST: ARMY'S POST-SADDAM PLAN IS WRECKING ARMY NATIONAL GUARD AND ARMY RESERVES

Army's History of Iraq After Hussein Faults Pentagon

By Josh WhiteWashington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 29, 2008; A03
http://tinyurl.com/4ja8tm

A new Army history of the service's performance in Iraq immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein faults military and civilian leaders for their planning for the war's aftermath, and it suggests that the Pentagon's current way of using troops is breaking the Army National Guard and Army Reserve.

The study, "On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign," is an unclassified and unhindered look at U.S. Army operations in Iraq from May 2003 to January 2005. That critical era of the war has drawn widespread criticism because of a failure to anticipate the rise of an Iraqi insurgency and because policymakers provided too few U.S. troops and no strategy to maintain order after Iraq's decades-old regime was overthrown.

Donald P. Wright and Col. Timothy R. Reese, who authored the report along with the Army's Contemporary Operations Study Team, conclude that U.S. commanders and civilian leaders were too focused on only the military victory and lacked a realistic vision of what Iraq would look like following that triumph.

"The transition to a new campaign was not well thought out, planned for, and prepared for before it began," write Wright and Reese, historians at the Army's Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. "Additionally, the assumptions about the nature of post-Saddam Iraq on which the transition was planned proved to be largely incorrect."

The results of those errors, they add, were that U.S. forces and their allies lacked an operational and strategic plan for success in Iraq, as well as the resources to carry out a plan.

Continue reading story here: http://tinyurl.com/4ja8tm

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN IRAQ FRIGHTENED AS VIOLENCE INCREASES

Too bad FOX NEWS and the rest of the mainstream media don't try telling the college students of Iraq how violence is down.

They might get and earful or worse.

University students in Ninewa frightened as violence increases

Ninewa - Voices of Iraq
Saturday , 28 /06 /2008 Time 1:09:22
http://tinyurl.com/3u3ypu

Mosul, Jun 27, (VOI) – Operations conducted by gunmen or security forces that target university students in Ninewa province have recently increased.

This phenomenon made university professors, governmental officials, as well as students themselves fear the violence that target this social category.

Within 10 days, two students were killed inside the Mosul University's compound by security forces, claiming that the two were important wanted elements. On last Monday, another student was killed by unknown gunmen when he was on his way out of Mosul University.

Four students were kidnapped by unknown gunmen, when the students were on their way to take the final exams at Mosul University (al-Majmoaa al-Thaqafia neighborhood in northern Mosul).

Continue reading story here http://tinyurl.com/3u3ypu

U.S. PAYS RAG-TAG FORCE $300 A MONTH TO GUARD SADR CITY

Rag-tag force watches over Iraq militia hotspot

U.S.-funded patrols feature ex-militants, AK-47s, vodka-branded ball caps

The poor, east Baghdad slum of two million people has largely been outside the government's control for years.

U.S. forces are paying local residents $300 a month to guard their area and search vehicles for guns or explosives.

The neighborhood guard in Sadr City is the first attempt to set up such a force in the Baghdad stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25384295/

BAGHDAD - A rag-tag band of men toting AK-47s at a checkpoint in Baghdad's Sadr City forms part of a plan to strengthen the Iraqi army's hold over a bastion of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The men, wearing tan uniforms and baseball caps with "Smirnoff" inexplicably blazoned across them, belong to one of the first groups of a new neighborhood guard to take to the streets of the sprawling district under a U.S.-funded program.

U.S.-backed neighborhood patrol units, sometimes called "Sons of Iraq", have spread in mainly Sunni Arab areas of Iraq to beef up security and combat al-Qaida insurgents.
The U.S. military says such groups helped cut violence in Iraq to its lowest level in more than four years in May.

WE HAD TO GO TO GREAT BRITAIN TO FIND OUT IRAQI PARLIAMENT IS NOT MEETING THE BUSH BENCHMARKS, AND WON'T BY THE TIME HE LEAVES OFFICE

As we have been reporting on this blog for months, the mainstream press in the United States has put the Iraq War on the back burner and in so doing they are covering for the Bush administration and the failure of the Iraqi Parliament to meet any of the benchmarks set down by President Bush months and months ago.

In fact, the Guardian U.K. newspaper is reporting in their Saturday edition that three of major benchmarks Bush wanted will not be met by the time he leaves office in next January.

The only time the media, especially FOX NEWS, gets around to reporting on Iraq is when some military action has liberated a town or city in Iraq, but the Iraq war is no longer a military action but one of reconciliation of the Iraqi government and that is still a pipe dream.

So FOX NEWS and the others can prattle on about how wonderful things are in Anbar Province, but none of that means a thing because the Iraqi government is a government in name only and has yet to accomplish anything significant.

The following story from the Guardian U.K. spells out the problems the next President of the United States is going to have because President Bush is going to leave in his lap a total mess in Iraq when it comes to reaching any of the benchmarks.

Iraqi MPs stall deals on Bush benchmarks

Provincial elections likely to be delayed until 2009 · Suspicion of foreign firms slows progress on oil

Jonathan Steele
The Guardian,
Saturday June 28, 2008
Article history

Three key US-backed measures on oil, provincial elections and the future of US troops are mired in the Iraqi parliament, raising doubts as to whether they can come into effect before George Bush leaves office.

Once listed as a crucial "benchmark" allowing the US president to claim success in Iraq, the provincial elections look likely to be delayed until next year. The oil law, which nationalist MPs blocked last summer over fears that foreign companies would take over Iraq's major resource, is facing the same problem again.

The pact to permit US troops to remain in Iraq is equally sensitive, and was described by the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, this month as being in stalemate. Intensive US-Iraqi talks on new drafts have resumed and, after meeting Bush in the White House this week, President Jalal Talabani tried to sound optimistic. "We have very good, important steps towards reaching to finalise this agreement," he said. Many MPs complain that it will give the US excessive rights.
David Satterfield, the US state department's senior adviser for Iraq, refused to put a date on finishing the talks. "No agreement will be reached unless it meets Iraq's requirements with respect to sovereignty, authority and decision, and unless Iraq's leaders believe this is an agreement they can defend to their people," he said.

He appeared to confirm Iraq's oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani's disclosure to the Guardian last week that Iraq was insisting on a veto of US military operations, including the arrest of Iraqis. "We respect, we acknowledge the primacy of that Iraqi sovereignty, that Iraqi national decision ... They certainly inform the context of the Iraqi positions."

The pact will allow US bases in the country, even though they may fly the Iraqi flag. Many Iraqis fear that the US wants a long-term presence. "We very much see these arrangements as transitional," Satterfield said.

Meanwhile, chances for the provincial polls to take place this year hang in the balance. Satterfield said: "The elections law really must be complete by the end of July because there's a specific timeframe for other steps that must be taken."

Unlike the closed lists used in 2005, which helped big parties, a consensus is emerging for a hybrid system. Voters will be able to elect independents and rather than selecting an entire party list, they will have to mark each preferred candidate so the top names have no advantage.

Elections in the disputed city of Kirkuk are likely to be deferred. Kurds, Arabs, and Turkomans cannot agree on registration lists because Saddam Hussein displaced thousands of Kurds and brought in Arab settlers. Each community claims to have a demographic majority. The Kurds control the council so deferral helps them.

The Kurds have reluctantly agreed to postpone again the referendum on self-determination, required by Iraq's constitution, in Kirkuk and other regions with large Kurdish populations. Iraq's Arab parties and western diplomats argue that a referendum could spark new inter-communal violence.

Rows between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government, which has defied the federal government by signing oil deals with small foreign companies, are making the passage of a new oil law difficult.

About this articleClose
This article appeared in the Guardian on Saturday June 28 2008 on p20 of the International section. It was last updated at 00:08 on June 28 2008.

BERLIN-TYPE WALL DIVIDES BAGHDAD IN HALF. RESIDENTS SAY THEY FEEL LIKE THEY ARE IN PRISON

The mainstream media in the United States has once again failed to explain fully why there is relative peace and quiet in Baghdad.

Huge concrete walls have been erected walling off parts Baghdad much like the Berlin Wall divided Berlin.

The United States military quietly constructed the Berlin-type wall as a means of holding down violence in Baghdad.

The residents of Baghdad are not happy with the walls and are now making their feelings known.


Baghdad's walls keep peace but feel like prison

By HAMZA HENDAWIAssociated Press Writer
http://www.thestate.com/372/story/445389.html

Baghdad hasn't been this quiet in years. But the respite from bloodshed comes at a high price.
Up to 20 feet high in some sections.

Rows after rows of barrier walls divide the city into smaller and smaller areas that protect people from bombings, sniper fire and kidnappings. They also lead to gridlock, rising prices for food and homes, and complaints about living in what feels like a prison.

Baghdad's walls are everywhere. They have turned a riverside capital of leafy neighborhoods and palm-lined boulevards into a city of shadows that separate Sunnis from Shiites.

The walls block access to schools, mosques, churches, hotels, homes, markets and even entire neighborhoods - almost anything that could be attacked. For many Iraqis, they have become the iconic symbol of the war.

"Maybe one day they will remove it," said Kareem Mustapha, a 26-year-old Sadr City resident who lives a five-minute walk from a wall built this spring in the large Shiite district.
"I don't know when, but it is not soon."

Indeed, new walls are still going up, the latest one around the northwestern Shiite neighborhood of Hurriyah, where thousands of Sunnis were slaughtered or expelled in 2006. They could well be around for years to come, enforcing the capital's fragile peace and enshrining its sectarian divisions.

Some walls are colorful, painted by young local artists with scenes depicting green pastures or the pomp and glory of Iraq's ancient civilizations.

Others are commercial, plastered with fliers advertising everything from the local kebab joint to seaside vacations in Iran or university degrees in Ukraine.

Still others are religious or political, with posters of popular clerics or graffiti hostile to the United States, Israel or - most recently - Iraq's prime minister.

Most are just bleak and gray, a reminder that danger lurks on the other side.

AP BREAKING NEWS: 30,OOO MORE TROOPS HEADING TO IRAQ IN 2009

The Pentagon is preparing to order roughly 30,000 troops to Iraq early next year in a move that would allow the U.S. to maintain 15 combat brigades in the country through 2009, The Associated Press has learned.

APNewBreak: Officials say Pentagon to order 30,000 troops to Iraq in 2009
LOLITA C. BALDOR AP NewsJun 27, 2008 20:05 EST

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=230626

The deployments would replace troops currently there. But the decisions could change depending on whether Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, decides in the fall to further reduce troop levels in Iraq.

Several officials familiar with the deployments spoke on condition of anonymity because the orders have not yet been made public.

According to the officials, three active-duty Army brigade combat teams, one Army National Guard brigade and two Marine regimental combat teams are being notified that they are being sent to Iraq in early 2009. Officials would not release the specific units involved because the soldiers and Marines and their families have not all been told.

The Guard unit, however, is the 56th Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, from the Pennsylvania National Guard. Members of that unit — a large brigade with heavily armored Stryker vehicles — were told last October that they should be prepared to deploy to Iraq early in 2009.

The order this week is the formal notice that includes a more specific time frame.

Currently, the final brigade involved in the military buildup in Baghdad last year is pulling out of Iraq. That departure will leave 15 combat brigades there — compared to a high of 20 for much of the past year. Other smaller units are also there, including troops doing security, logistics, air assaults, intelligence and medical aid.

Overall, there are about 146,000 forces in Iraq, and that number is expected to dip to about 142,000 by mid-July when that last unit is all out. That total is at least 7,000 more than the number of troops in Iraq before the buildup began early last year.

Petraeus told Congress in May that he is likely to recommend further troop reductions in Iraq, but he did not provide any details. If he decides in the fall that fewer brigades will be needed in Iraq during the next year, there is the chance that brigades could simply be directed to the war in Afghanistan instead.

There is a broad consensus that more troops are needed in Afghanistan, to both train the security forces and fight the insurgents. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President Bush, earlier this year, told NATO allies that they would increase troop levels in Afghanistan in 2009 in response to the growing violence.