U.S. TROOPS AND IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS

"... There is constant pressure to kill Iraqi civilians. At traffic stops we kill innocent people all the time. If you are fired on from the street, you are supposed to fire on everybody that is there. If I am in a market, I shoot people who are buying groceries... My buddies came back and said, ‘We killed a lot of people.’ About a hundred civilians. They were just people downtown. Killing downtown civilians is a typical incident."
--Darrell Anderson, a 22-year-old GI from Lexington, Kentucky, who won a purple heart after he was wounded.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0429-30.htm

ORIGIN OF SUNNIS AND SHIITES

"...the dispute that split Islam into Shiite and Sunni branches (occurred) 1,400 years ago. During that time, there was fierce debate over who was the legitimate successor to the Prophet Muhammad.

One side, eventually known as Sunnis, believed that Muhammad's successor should be Abu Bakr, Muhammad's dearest friend. Abu Bakr was followed by Omar, Othman and then Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali.

The other side, which eventually came to be known as Shiites, believed that the successor should be related to Muhammad and that Ali was the legitimate imam after Muhammad's death, followed by Ali's descendants..."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/14435662.htm

IRAQ OIL, WATER, ELECTRICITY LESS THAN BEFORE OCCUPATION

"In each of three key sectors -- oil, water and electricity - Iraqis have less capability and service than they did prior to the invasion...

Pre-war production capacity of crude oil was 2.6 million barrels per day. Production as of March 2006 was 2 million barrels per day...

Generation capacity prior to the war was 4300 megawatts. As of March, electrical generation was 4,092 megawatts...

National average of electricity per day was 12.3 hours in the last week of February 2006, and 11.7 hours per day in the last week of March. In Baghdad, the average was 8.1 and 5.7 hours, respectively. Those hours are not necessarily contiguous...

Potable water... 50 percent had it, and it has dropped now to 32 percent... 60 percent of the fresh water is lost due to leakage, contamination and illegal connections..."

http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=12118

IRAQ PROVINCES: 3 STABLE AND 8 UNSTABLE

"A Government Accountability Office report, based on recent State Department and U.S. military assessments in Iraq, suggests the country is on a downward slope... Eight of Iraq's 18 provinces are dangerously unstable and violent, not just the four usually cited.... According to the U.S. Embassy/Multinational Force Iraq National Coordination Team's Provincial Stability Assessment generated in March, just three of Iraq's provinces are stable, and all of them are in so-called Kurdistan in northern Iraq..."
http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=12118

U.S. JUNIOR OFFICERS DEBATE IRAQ WAR

"... The New York Times described an "extraordinary debate" now going on among younger American officers "in military academies, in the armed services staff colleges, and even in command posts and mess halls in Iraq." This debate is about the war in Iraq, about the tactics and prospects of the American forces there, and, most particularly, about Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1145875389128

"... Junior and midlevel officers are discussing whether the war plans for Iraq reflected unvarnished military advice, whether the retired generals should have spoken out, whether active-duty generals will feel free to state their views in private sessions with the civilian leaders and, most divisive of all, whether Mr. Rumsfeld should resign..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/washington/23military.html?ex=1161489600&en=b98655acc38693cb&ei=5087&nl=ep&emc=ep

IRAQI OPPOSITION TO OCCUPATION AT BREAKING POINT

"... the opposition to the US occupation among Iraqis is rising past the breaking point. This is the indisputable “secret” that the American media rarely reveals. The recently-leaked “Provisional Stability Assessment” reports “serious” or “critical” security situations in six of Iraq’s 18 provinces, including Baghdad and Basra. [NYT, April 8, 06], which means the invasion and occupation have failed to suppress the resistance in most of the country. More stunning, the percentage of all Iraqis favoring a timeline for US withdrawal has risen from thirty percent in February 2004 to 76 percent in February 2005 to 87 percent in February of this year. [NYT report of data collected by Brookings Institution, Mar. 19, 2006]..."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060425_tom_hayden_iraq_storm/

COURTS MARTIAL FOR SEDITIOUS U.S. GENERALS

"... the (April 18) pro-Bush Washington Times raised the prospect of sedition charges against active-duty military officers who – in collusion with the retired generals – might be considering resignations in protest of Bush’s war policies. “Can a series of lawful resignations turn into a mutiny? And if they are agreed upon in advance, have the agreeing generals formed a felonious conspiracy to make a mutiny?”... this possible “revolt” by the generals “comes dangerously close to violating three articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice,” including “mutiny and sedition” ... thus (is) raised the specter of courts martial against officers who resign rather than carry out orders from Bush..."
http://consortiumnews.com/2006/042306.html

U.S. CHANGES THE ELECTED IRAQI PRIME MINISTER

"... Jawad al-Maliki... is prime minister only because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Iraq at the beginning of April and, in public, for all Iraqis to see, demanded that Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari step down.The U.S. pushed for elections... and then publicly challenged the chosen prime minister. The chaos now engulfing Iraq is a direct result of the Bush administration's policy of pushing democracy on the cheap and by the barrel of a gun..."
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/04/24/a_paper_lid_on_iraqs_volcano.php

SHOT BY AMERICANS - SORRY

"... Uncle S was dad's only uncle from his mother's side. A man in his late seventies, peaceful and young in the heart... Yesterday, he was shot by Americans on his way back home, and he died. Like many others, he died, left us clueless about the reason, and saddened with this sudden loss. He was shot many times, only three reached him: One in his arm, one in his neck and one in his chest. But they said they're sorry.. They always are."
-- Blog of Iraqi schoolgirl, A Star from Mosul, Thursday, March 09, 2006
http://astarfrommosul.blogspot.com/

THREE YEARS LATER

"... the country's deepening ethnic conflict is spreading tension across Iraq's borders, fueling terrorism and nurturing gloom about the future... Militancy is on the rise. Terrorists are using Iraq as a training base and potential launch pad for attacks elsewhere... Democratic reform remains largely stymied... The U.S. Army and Marine Corps... are feeling the strain of repeated deployments. Public support for the war is declining in America and almost nonexistent elsewhere. The war has cost more than 2,300 American lives, and the... cost may exceed $500 billion..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/third_anniversary/14115859.htm

BUSH ON SADDAM LINK TO AL-QAEDA

"First, just if I might correct a misperception, I don't think we ever said -- at least I know I didn't say that there was a direct connection between September the 11th and Saddam Hussein."
--President George W. Bush, Cleveland address, March 20, 2006
See video links to this part of his address at:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/03/20.html#a7595

"(The President) stands by saying that Saddam Hussein's regime had ties to... al Qaeda..."
--Scott McClellan, press briefing, June 17, 2004
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/06/20040617-5.html

"The use of armed forces against Iraq is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations or person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."
--President George W. Bush, Letter to Congress, March 21, 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030321-5.html

"Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda."
--President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 28, 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html

BIN LADEN TAPE

"... The war is still raging, and people are renewing their allegiance to their rulers and politicians, sending their sons to join armies to fight us... it is a Crusader-Zionist war against Muslims... "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4936490.stm

CIA WARNED BUSH - NO WMD IN IRAQ

"The CIA warned ... Bush before the Iraq war that it had reliable information the government of Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. But .., top White House officials simply brushed off the warning, saying they were "no longer interested" in intelligence and that the policy toward Iraq had been already set.... There was no immediate reaction from the White House to the latest charges."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0422-04.htm

DEMOCRATS TO BE LEFT WITH IRAQ

"... The United States will eventually have to leave Iraq... President Bush will likely hold firm and leave the painful decisions to a Democratic successor, who would then take the blame for not “finishing the job.”
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0422-20.htm

INDICATORS OF CIVIL WAR

"... four indicators... to conclude that the country is descending into civil war...
* collapse in the authority of the central government...
* accompanied by a rise in the power of local militias involved in sectarian violence...
* transfers of population or displacement...
* state institutions such as the police dividing along sectarian lines... "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4902888.stm

MASSIVE US EMBASSY IN IRAQ

The fortress-like compound rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water... 21 buildings on 104 acres... six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York, and two-thirds the acreage of Washington's National Mall... (with) 5,500 Americans and Iraqis working at the embassy... Security will be extraordinary: setbacks and perimeter no-go areas that will be especially deep, structures reinforced to 2.5-times the standard, and five high-security entrances, plus an emergency entrance-exit..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0415-07.htm

COST OF WAR

"... According to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the United States spent $48 billion for Iraq in 2003, $59 billion in 2004, and $81 billion in 2005. The center predicts the figure will balloon to $94 billion for 2006. That equates to a $1,205 bill for each of America's 78 million families, on top of taxes they already pay... To fully reequip and upgrade the U.S. Army after the war ends will cost $36 billion over six years, and that figure assumes U.S. forces will start withdrawing from Iraq in July, and be completely out of the country by the end of 2008."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0421-09.htm

PERMANANT U.S. BASES IN IRAQ IMMORAL

"... the American people should question both the morality and the policy implications of what this sort of U.S. military presence brings... (Freedom and democracy) can not be achieved with a permanent American military presence. The people have no true freedom of choice... no mastery over their economy... And U.S. involvement in Iraqi politics has disrupted the formation of a government.... Three years of occupation violate the very principles the U.S. espouses by preventing the natural evolution of democracy.... More importantly, the people of Iraq want us to leave.... our moral obligation is to uphold the spirit of democracy that our nation was built upon. Closing the permanent bases honors that proud tradition and extends it to the open hand of Iraqis."
http://www.minutemanmedia.org/SHAMOO%20041906.htm

IRAQ WOMEN BETTER TREATED UNDER SADDAM

"According to... local rights NGOs, women were treated better during the Saddam Hussein era – and their rights were more respected – than they are now... women’s basic rights under the Hussein regime were guaranteed in the constitution and – more importantly – respected, with women often occupying important government positions. Now... they have lost almost all of their rights..."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52776&SelectRegion=Middle_East&SelectCountry=IRAQ

CONSEQUENCES OF IMPERIAL OVERREACH

"Our power, then, has the grave liability of rendering our theories about the world immune from failure. But by becoming deaf to easily discerned warning signs, we may ignore long-term costs that result from our actions and dismiss reverses that should lead to a re-examination of our goals and means.... A few brief years ago... our victory (was) engraved in unyielding stone, our pre-eminence garlanded with permanence. But... To allow our enormous power to delude us into seeing the world as a passive thing waiting for us to recreate it in an image of our choosing will hasten the day when we have little freedom to choose anything at all."
--Henry Hyde, Republican congressman, chairman of the House international relations committee
http://wwwc.house.gov/international_relations/109/Statement%20-%20HJH.pdf

HADITHA RETALIATORY MASSACRE

"... the Los Angeles Times reported... (that) after a roadside bomb killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 15 Iraqi civilians – including seven women and three children – were allegedly shot and killed by a unit of US Marines operating in Haditha, Iraq... ... video evidence shows that women and children were shot in their homes while still wearing nightclothes... "inside the houses…the walls and ceilings are pockmarked with shrapnel and bullet holes as well as the telltale spray of blood"... this past Friday, a battalion commander and two company commanders from the same unit were relieved of their duties."
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=76825

"... 23 people were killed. Eight were from Younes' family. The only survivor, Younes' 13-year-old daughter, said her family wasn't shooting at Marines or harboring extremists that morning. They were sleeping when the bomb exploded. And when the Marines entered their house, she said, they shot at everyone inside.... the Marines relieved of duty three leaders of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment... They are Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, and two of his company commanders, Capt. James S. Kimber and Capt. Lucas M. McConnell. McConnell was commanding Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, the unit that struck the roadside bomb..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/14298263.htm

65,000 INTERNAL REFUGEES FROM SECTARIAN VIOLENCE

"... At least 65,000 Iraqis have fled their homes as a result of sectarian violence and intimidation, according to new figures from the Iraqi government. And the rate at which Iraqis are being displaced is increasing... (UN) officials in neighbouring Jordan say they are trying to secure emergency funds because of expectations this internal refugee problem will grow.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4905770.stm

ITALY LATEST TO LEAVE CRUMBLING COALITION

"... The president makes few references to his "coalition of the willing" these days because the coalition has been crumbling. Among the countries that have exited the coalition are Singapore (in January 2004), Nicaragua (February 2004); Spain (April 2004); Dominican Republic (May 2004); Honduras (May 2004); Norway (June 2004), Philippines (July 2004); Thailand (August 2004); New Zealand (September 2004); Tonga (December 2004) Hungary (December 2004); Portugal (February 2005); Moldova (February 2005); Netherlands (June 2005), Ukraine (December 2005) and Bulgaria (January 2006)... The Italian exit is expected to come quickly..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0412-28.htm

BASRA CHILD MORTALITY UP 30% SINCE SADDAM ERA

"A European aid agency (Saving Children from War) has reported a rise in child mortality in the southern Iraqi city of Basra... One Basra doctor said child mortality had risen by 30% since the invasion. A US military internal report has described the overall situation in Basra as "serious"... "The mortality of children in Basra has increased by nearly 30% compared to the Saddam Hussein era," said Dr Haydar Salah, a paediatrician at the Basra Children's Hospital..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4900174.stm

U.S. MAGNIFIES ZARQAWI'S ROLE

"The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents... One internal briefing, produced by the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq, said... "The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900890.html

A GENERAL'S COMMENT

"... a fundamentally flawed plan was executed for an invented war, while pursuing the real enemy, Al Qaeda, became a secondary effort."
--Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, director of operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2000 through the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the war in Afghanistan, who left military service in late 2002, as the Defense Department was deep into planning for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0410-06.htm

IRAQI OFFICIALS CALL IT CIVIL WAR

"... A senior government official has, for the first time, said Iraq is in a state of undeclared civil war. "Iraq has actually been in an undeclared civil war for the past 12 months," Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Ali Kamal told the BBC's Arabic Service... Similar views were expressed in March by Iraq's former interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4891008.stm

EMBASSY REPORTS WORSENING SITUATION SINCE ELECTIONS

"Since the Iraqi elections in January, US foreign service officers at the Baghdad embassy have been writing a steady stream of disturbing cables describing drastically worsening conditions... Bush's strategy of training Iraqi police and army... is perversely and portentously accelerating the strife. State department officials in the field are reporting that Shia militias use training as cover to infiltrate key positions... So far, two top attaches at the embassy have been reassigned elsewhere for producing factual reports that are too upsetting..."
hehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1747665,00.htmlre

PROBLEMS WITH IRAQI GOVERNMENT

"... three points... about the current American scramble to put Humpty Dumpty back together again in Baghdad...
* the government of Iraq will remain weak, divided, and isolated inside Baghdad's well-fortified Green Zone. It is and, until the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, will remain a collection of charlatans and quislings, leavened with separatist warlords...
* the imperial treatment of Jaafari by the (US) ambassador has shocked and stunned Iraqis... His public humiliation has been a blatant exercise of sheer American muscle, and... makes a mockery of President Bush's alleged commitment to democracy...
* there is virtually no one in the ranks of the Shiite religious bloc who is any better than Jaafari..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0406-34.htm

86 PERCENT OF CLINICS TO BE ABANDONNED UNCOMPLETED

"A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says... the Corps will walk away from more than 120 clinics that on average are two-thirds finished... the 86 percent shortfall of completions dismayed the World Health Organization's representative for Iraq... Auditors say the project serves as a warning for other U.S. reconstruction efforts due to be completed this year..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/02/AR2006040201209.html

ENDURING BASES FOR THE LONG TERM

"... The Pentagon says it has already reduced the number of US bases from 110 a year ago to a current total of around 75. But at the same time it is expanding a number of vast, highly defended bases... spending millions of dollars establishing at least six "enduring" bases in Iraq... four of which are US (and two British)... it has become increasingly clear that the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence are preparing to retain some forces in Iraq for the longer term.... "
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article355178.ece

AL-ASAD SUPERBASE

"... the American air war against Iraqi cities quietly ratchets up and, amid the ruins, huge permanent American bases like the 19 square-mile Al-Asad airbase in Anwar Province -- with its 17,000 troops, Burger King, Pizza Hut, car dealership Yellow and Blue bus routes, and "PX jammed with customers" -- thrive. Only recently, the administration requested from Congress hundreds of millions more dollars to construct stronger perimeter defenses, better runways with permanent lighting, more permanent dining facilities and the like at the largest of these bases..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0402-27.htm

BASIC SERVICES WORSE NOW THAN BEFORE INVASION

"... virtually all basic services are in a worse state now than they were before the invasion. There is less clean water, less sewage control, less gas, less petrol, less power. Baghdad now has an average of only 5.8 hours of electricity a day. At present Iraq is producing 1.8 million barrels of oil a day; just before the invasion the figure was 2.5 million barrels a day... here is a real, abiding anger that the richest nation on Earth should have taken over their country and made them even worse off in so many ways than they were before."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4825200.stm