SHIITES TAKE BLOOD OATHS TO FIGHT U.S. OCCUPATION

"... Shiite radicals scrambled on Friday to sign blood oaths to continue their fight against US forces in Iraq... to create a special unit of fighters who would continue the armed resistance against coalition forces..."
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gM8XiW7sV5geqmUzh-bIVdGyOVuA

IRAQ MAKES $3 BILLION OIL DEAL WITH CHINA
(A fee for service deal. US companies are losing out by insisting on unacceptable production sharing deals, i.e. the proposed "Iraqi Oil Law".)

"China and Iraq have signed a $3 billion deal... for China's biggest oil company to help develop the Ahdab oil field..."
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08241/907686-28.stm?cmpid=business.xml

"... the Chinese company will provide technical advisers, oil workers and equipment to help develop the Ahdab oil field southeast of Baghdad... Iraq had agreed to provide security for Chinese workers... China will be paid for its services but will not share in profits..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/world/middleeast/29iraq.html?ref=world

McCAIN TO END VA CARE FOR SOME IRAQ VETS

"... If I'm driving a Humvee in Iraq and a roadside bomb explodes and I veer off the road and crush my arm and end up losing it and needing a prosthetic, is that a combat wound according to Sen. McCain?... Official Pentagon policy calls such an incident a non-combat injury. Technically speaking, the only soldiers "wounded" in combat are those hit by direct enemy fire... McCain has never spelled out what he means by a "combat injury"... (but McCain has) argued that veterans with non-combat medical problems should be given vouchers to receive care at private, for-profit hospitals -- in other words, an end to the kind of universal (VA) health care the government has guaranteed veterans for generations..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43626

GREEN ZONE MORTARED
(This happens frequently but is not reported in the US unless there are casualties.)

"Baghdad - Mortars hit the International Zone (Green Zone) in downtown Baghdad. No casualties reported..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/212/story/50618.html

IRAQ SEEKS PULLOUT BY 2011

"Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has spoken in detail about a deal to bring an end to the foreign combat troop presence in the country. He said the agreement would lead to the withdrawal of the troops by 2011, but he added that no specific timetable had been agreed with the US... Any agreement will have to be approved by the Iraqi parliament and presidency...."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7580968.stm

One-Fifth of Iraq Funding Paid to Contractors

"... a new report forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighbouring countries will cost U.S. taxpayers more than 100 billion dollars by the end of 2008... 6-10 billion dollars has been spent on security contactors thus far in 2008 and estimated that about 25,000-30,000 employees of security firms were in Iraq as of early this year. It estimates that, if spending for contractors continues at about the current rate, 100 billion dollars will have been paid to military contractors for operations in Iraq... about 20 percent of funding for operations in Iraq has gone to contractors... there are at least 190,000 contractors in Iraq and neighbouring countries -- a ratio of about one contractor per U.S. service member..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43565

COST OF VICTORY FOR U.S. AND IRAQ

"... About 5,000 Americans have been killed, including military personnel, contractors, and aid workers. Another 30,000 or more are wounded, and estimates of those with post-traumatic stress disorder are as high as 300,000. The financial costs are estimated to reach $3 trillion eventually..."

"For Iraqis... the numbers (of war dead) range from 200,000 to one million, and very likely a mid-range estimate is correct. The Iraqi government reports one million or more war widows. About 3.5 million Iraqis have been displaced by the war, most of them living in difficult circumstances in Jordan and Syria... a "looming crisis" for the entire region. More than half the school-age children in Iraq cannot attend school, due to a lack of security, and 40 percent have no access to safe water. A survey conducted in 2006 by the Ministry of Health found a doubling of mortality, much of it due to violence but about an equal amount to disease and accidents, indicating a gradual collapse of the healthcare system... The actual political results for Iraqis remain doubtful.. (and) the war is not over... To a dispassionate observer, this does not look like "victory."

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/08/15/what_counts_as_success_in_iraq/

IRAN SUPPLYING POWER TO IRAQ

"The Bush administration and western companies like Bechtel have failed to deliver on promises to improve infrastructure... "Now, the (Diyala) province gets power from Iran under a contract signed about two years ago between the Iraqi government and Iran," Naseer Milmy, an employee with the directorate-general of electricity told IPS... Through the difficulties, people look now to Iran, not the U.S., for a better life."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43477

U.S. LET IRAN INTO IRAQ

"... Badr (is) the armed wing of the Dawa Party of U.S.-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The Badr militia was based in Iran for 20 years during the rule of Saddam Hussein. It comprises largely Iraqi exiles, refugees and defectors who fought alongside Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. The U.S. allowed the militia to return to Iraq after the invasion of 2003... "The Badr militia and all their political and religious leaders entered Iraq on the backs of the American tanks," said (a) teacher. "Until the Americans came, there was no way they (Badr and Iranian-backed politicians and religious leaders) could set one foot in this country."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43537

$100 BILLION FOR 190,000 CONTRACTORS WITH NO OVERSIGHT

"... by the end of 2008, spending is likely to top $100bn, a review by the Congressional Budget Office found... According to CBO estimates, the US currently employs 190,000 contractors in Iraq and neighbouring countries, a ratio of one contractor per member of the US armed forces.

"... Senator Byron Dorgan... wants a panel similar to one set up by Senator Harry Truman in 1941 during the build-up to WWII. "The Truman Committee held 60 hearings on waste, fraud and abuse," Mr Dorgan said. "It's unfathomable to me that we don't have a bipartisan investigative committee on contracting in Iraq."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7557995.stm

U.S. ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN IRAQ

"... the US has:
* weakened and misdirected its security assets — since 2004 the Army has been at an unsustainable operational tempo with accumulating harm to that service;
* severely damaged its reputation, especially in the Muslim world;
* damaged its alliances;
* created a catalyst for communal conflict and provided a recruiting gift to Iraqi extremists;
* provided a motivator for jihadism and for terrorist tactics worldwide;
* handed Iran strategic and economic benefits which accrue every day US troops remain in Iraq;
* tarnished the meaning and the promise of democracy — and undermined efforts to promote it..."
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/11/10931/

1/3 OF IRAQI WORKERS IN GOVERNMENT

"Iraq’s private sector... has so far failed to flourish... In its absence... the number of government employees has nearly doubled, to 2.3 million from 1.2 million... In 2006, 31 percent of Iraq’s labor force was working in the public sector... that figure to reach 35 percent this year..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/world/middleeast/11baghdad.html?hp