U.S EMBRACED SADDAM AFTER HIS CRIME

"... the crimes for which Saddam Hussein was convicted occurred before the United States, in the form of Donald Rumsfeld, embraced him. Those crimes were well known to have occurred 15 months before Rumsfeld visited Iraq to usher in an alliance between the United States and Saddam to defeat Iran..."

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061229_saddam_hussein_executed/

MONTHLY IRAQI DEATH TOLL = TOTAL U.S. DEATH TOLL

"... 3000 Americans dead over nearly four years? Really? That's the number of dead Iraqis in less than a month. The Americans had families? Too bad. So do we. So do the corpses in the streets and the ones waiting for identification in the morgue..."
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#116738820591750213

IRAQ TODAY

"... 2006 has been, decidedly, the worst year yet... A day in the life of the average Iraqi has been reduced to identifying corpses, avoiding car bombs and attempting to keep track of which family members have been detained, which ones have been exiled and which ones have been abducted... What does America possibly gain by damaging Iraq to this extent?... Al Qaeda? That's laughable. Bush has effectively created more terrorists in Iraq these last 4 years than Osama could have created in 10 different terrorist camps in the distant hills of Afghanistan. Our children now play games of 'sniper' and 'jihadi', pretending that one hit an American soldier between the eyes and this one overturned a Humvee.... Why make things worse by insisting on Saddam's execution now? Who gains if they hang Saddam? Iran, naturally, but who else? There is a real fear that this execution will be the final blow that will shatter Iraq..."
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#116738820591750213

SADDAM EXECUTION TO DESTABILIZE IRAQ

"Saddam Execution Set to Destabilise Iraq Further... Compared with the present scenario, many Iraqis have begun to see the Saddam days as a "golden time"... Iraqis felt proud of his policies against Iranian and American arrogance and greed. He managed to feed his people and provide them with security and basic services despite all the wars they fought, and the UN sanctions against Iraq."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36010

TRANSCRIPTS OF SADDAM EXECUTION

"... The execution took place... with a view to enraging Sunni Muslims against Shiite Muslims... as a psychological weapon, to usher in sectarian violence and division throughout the Middle East... The translated transcripts of Saddam Hussein’s last words, which had been scrupulously manipulated and distorted, were fed into the global news chain... Presented below is the Global Research translation from the Arabic original audio-video believed to have been recorded on a cell phone. Also presented for purposes of comparison are several other “translations” from the same Arabic original..."
http://www.rinf.com/columnists/news/saddam-hussein%e2%80%99s-last-words-what-the-media-has-deliberately-concealed

BASRA 2006 LIKE 2003

"... This week began with a story of British and Iraqi soldiers storming a police station that hid a secret dungeon in Basra. More than 100 men, many of them viciously tortured, were rescued from almost certain execution. It might have been a story from the final days of Baathist rule in March 2003, when British and U.S. troops entered Basra believing they were liberating the subjugated Shiite south. But it was December 2006, and the wretched men being liberated were prisoners of the new Iraqi Shiite authorities..."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/29/opinion/edsaddam.php

BAATHIST PARTY TO TARGET U.S. EVERYWHERE IF SADDAM EXECUTED

"Saddam Hussein has vowed to go the gallows as a "martyr"... Saddam’s Baath Party... threatened retaliation if the execution went ahead, warning in an internet posting that it would target US interests anywhere..."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-3-2520408-3,00.html

PRESIDENT FORD AGAINST IRAQ WAR

"Former president Gerald R. Ford said in an embargoed interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified... Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/27/AR2006122701558_pf.html

U.S. CONSIDERING RECRUITING IMIGRANTS FROM OVERSEAS

"... With severe manpower strains because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan... The armed forces... are considering expanding the number of noncitizens in the ranks -- including disputed proposals to open recruiting stations overseas and putting more immigrants on a faster track to US citizenship if they volunteer..."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/12/26/military_considers_recruiting_foreigners/

U.S. TO COMMIT HARI-KARI BY SURGE

"... the U.S. military is about to commit hara-kiri by "surge"... once an "all or nothing" offensive like the "surge" apparently contemplated has begun, there is no turning back. It will be "victory" over the insurgents and the Shiite militias or palpable defeat, recognizable by all in Iraq and across the world..."

"It will be a matter of win or die in the attempt... (troops) will commit every ounce of their being to "victory" and few measures will be shrunk from.... It will be total war with the likelihood of all the excesses and mass casualties that come with total war."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1224-22.htm

IRAQ AL-QAEDA OFFERS U.S. A SAFE EXIT

"... an al-Qaeda-backed group has offered US forces safe withdrawal from Iraq within a month if they left their heavy weapons behind... (they) claimed that Washington had tried to open a channel of negotiation with (their) group through the Saudi government. But... (they) rejected the initiative (saying) "The giant has started to fall. It is looking for an escape and seeking to negotiate with all the other groups and parties..."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/618367A6-71F9-43D8-BEC4-1D14DE93345E.htm

DOUBLE-DOWN SURGE OF 50,000 TROOPS PLANNED

"... the No 1 issue... in early January is the White House's apparent "urge to surge" as many as 50,000 new troops into Iraq for up to two years in a last-ditch effort to claim... "victory"... it represents one final effort by neo-conservatives to convince the president that, by "doubling down" on his gamble on Iraq, he can still leave the table a winner and "transform" the entire Middle East... the former chief Middle East analyst at the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency... warned that... it would likely lead to "Stalingrad on the Tigris".
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HL22Ak01.html

FALLUJAH HOSPITAL RAIDED, CLOSED

"... U.S. soldiers raided the (Fallujah General Hospital ) "as if it were a military target"... kicking open doors and blasting locked ones... Doctors and medical staff were arrested and insulted, and some were called terrorists, witnesses said. The hospital was then closed... Lt. Col. Bryan Salas, spokesperson for the Multi-National Forces in Iraq, told reporters: "Coalition forces searched the hospital to ensure that it continues to be a safe place for the citizens of Fallujah to receive the medical treatment they deserve."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35847

PLAN FOR NEW IRAQI GOVERNMENT - NATIONAL SALVATION FRONT NSF - FAILS

December 21
"Iraq's national reconciliation conference held on the weekend highlights the gap between the country's various political groups and their lack of consensus on a common basis for reconciliation..."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35902

December 4
"A number of Iraqi political groups are planning to announce a broad national front in the next few days aiming to correct the falling political process... the National Salvation Front that will be announced soon will include the National Dialogue Front, the National Iraqi List led by Allawi, the Reconciliation and Liberation Front led by Meshaan alJuburi, and the Sadr movement... the front will work to set a timetable (or time limit) for the U.S. presence in Iraq, which is an important condition that will convince the Iraqi resistance to stop fighting... the NSF will take over the current Iraqi government either by pulling out from the current parliament and creating a new government, or through holding an international conference..."
--Raed in the Middle, December 4, 2006
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

SCHOOLS IN IRAQ

"Two in three children in Iraq have simply stopped going to school... a mere 30 percent of Iraq's 3.5 million students are currently attending classes. This compares to roughly 75 percent of students who were attending classes the previous year... Just before the U.S.-led invasion in spring 2003, school attendance was nearly 100 percent...

"... Education today presents a quite different picture... Contracts have been handed out for refurbishment (of schools)... (but) "they just paint the walls and fix some cheap accessories to collect their cash, and go."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35884

IRAQ OIL LOSES $700 MILLION PER MONTH, NEEDS $80 BILLION TO FIX

"... Iraq is producing about 2 million barrels per day, down from 2.6 million barrels before the war, despite having the third-largest reserves in the world. It exports about 1.7 million bpd... (but) a growing petroleum smuggling racket... is draining chances of rebuilding after nearly four years of war... With nearly its entire federal budget dependent on oil revenues, the $700 million a month the Oil Ministry estimates is lost to oil and petroleum products smuggling is a major loss... Iraq's electricity and oil infrastructure -- which also depend on each other -- need at least $80 billion to fix..."
http://www.upi.com/Energy/view.php?StoryID=20061212-081324-7320r

ISG REPORT NOT AN EXIT STRATEGY

"... the ISG report is not an "exit strategy"; it is a new plan for achieving the Bush administration's imperial goals in the Middle East... As its report states: "We agree with the goal of US policy in Iraq" ... the report essentially demands that the Iraqi government pursue policies shaped to serve "America's interest and values in the years ahead"... is more likely a threat of a coup d'etat than a withdrawal strategy - a threat that the facade of democracy would be stripped away and a "strong man" (or a government of "national salvation") installed..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HL16Ak08.html

HOSTAGES SEIZED AS SENATORS McCAIN AND LIEBERMAN VISIT GREEN ZONE

"Scores of Baghdad businessmen kidnapped by heavily-armed gang as US senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman visit Green Zone... Around 100 gunmen in police uniforms brandishing rifles and Glock pistols issued by the US military to Iraqi forces went from shop to shop Thursday, Dec. 14, stealing cash and seizing hostages. The two influential senators called for another 15-30,000 troops to be sent to Iraq..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), Friday, December 15, 2006
http://www.debka.com/index.php

ISG BAKER REPORT REALLY ABOUT STAYING NOT WITHDRAWING

"Most striking is the report's 21st (of 79) recommendations, aimed at describing what the United States should do if the Iraqis fail to satisfactorily fulfill the many tasks that the ISG has set for them (which says:)

"If the Iraqi government does not make substantial progress toward the achievement of milestones on national reconciliation, security, and governance, the United States should reduce its political, military, or economic support for the Iraqi government."

"... this passage is more likely a threat of a coup d'état than a withdrawal strategy -- a threat that the façade of democracy would be stripped away and a "strong man" (or a government of "national salvation") installed, one that the Bush administration or the ISG believes could bring the Sunni rebellion to heel..."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1213-30.htm


"... while the ISG would be filled with notable movers and shakers from numerous previous administrations, no one on it, nor any expert "team" advising it would represent the one point of view that a majority of Americans have by now come to support -- actual withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq on a set timeline..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1213-29.htm

TOO LATE TO BUILD IRAQI ARMY

"... It may be too late to count on building an Iraqi army to defend and hold a unified Iraq together, and the American presence itself is a major incentive for insurgency. Iraqi soldiers fighting in the service of a puppet government will seem like puppets even to themselves, and their very association with the US occupation limits their effectiveness. They will be branded as collaborators in the pay of infidels. I am haunted by the remark Iraqi soldiers made..."We know we are bad Muslims but we need the money."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/12/12/bushs_sinking_ship_of_fools/

IRAQ WAR: $450 BILLION SPENT OFF-BUDGET

"... the almost fraudulent way in which the war is financed. The $450 billion spent so far on the Iraq and Afghanistan military operations has not come out of the regular Pentagon budget. It has been treated instead as an “emergency”—and still is, more than three years into the conflict in Iraq and two years after the government of Hamid Karzai took the reins in Afghanistan.

"The spending isn’t subject to the usual reviews by congressional committees meant to find error, waste, duplication and other budgetary funny business. The Republican-run House rarely even held hearings on these “emergency” billions before they zoomed to approval. Since no offsetting spending reductions were made—and taxes weren’t raised—the tab became part of the federal government’s long-term debt....

"Congress earlier this year demanded that Bush stop paying for the wars with emergency spending bills. The president, in one of his signing statements, effectively said he would ignore the instruction..."

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061211_marie_cocco_fraudulently_financed_war/

THREE LESSONS FROM VIETNAM

"... Former LBJ special assistant Valenti also saw clear connections between the wars — The primary thing Valenti learned during Vietnam was as simple as it was crucial: "You cannot fight a war without public support.

"The second thing is, you cannot, no matter what mighty army you have, conquer a foreign land, you cannot win against an insurgency that springs from the population with their traditions and their religion and their culture. It has never been done in history, in Afghanistan, in Dien Bien Phu (France's defeat in Vietnam) or in the American colonies — you name it. There has never been an insurgency that didn't prevail against a mighty power.

"The third thing I learned was that if you're going to fight an enemy, you've got to know who they are. You've got to know their ancestral rhythms and their traditions, their mores, their customs."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1165705809371

SECRET U.S. TALKS WITH INSURGENTS BREAK DOWN

"Secret talks in which senior American officials came face-to-face with some of their most bitter enemies in the Iraqi insurgency broke down after two months of meetings, rebel commanders have disclosed..."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2496369.html

IRAQ SURVEY GROUP CONFIRMS OIL GOALS

"Recommendations 62 and 63 (of the Iraq Baker Survey Group Report) confirm that control of Iraqi oil is a fundamental premise of Administration policy...
* Recommendation 62 says the US government should help draft an oil law that “creates a fiscal and legal framework for investment.”
* Recommendation 63 says the US should “assist” Iraqi leaders in privatizing the national oil industry into a “commercial enterprise” to encourage investment by the multi-national oil companies.
... this suggests that the ideological goal of the US invasion was not simply to displace Saddam Hussein but to dismantle the Arab nationalist state as a whole, opening the oil fields to private penetration..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1208-31.htm

IRAQ STUDY GROUP SAYS BUSH ADMINISTRATION UNDERREPORTED ATTACKS IN IRAQ

"The Bush administration routinely has underreported the level of violence in Iraq in order to disguise its policy failings, the Iraq Study Group report said.

"... the tracking system was designed in a way that minimized the deaths of Iraqis. The standard for recording attacks acts a filter to keep events out of reports and databases. A murder of an Iraqi is not necessarily counted as an attack. If we cannot determine the source of a sectarian attack, that assault does not make it into the database. A roadside bomb or a rocket or mortar attack that doesn't hurt U.S. personnel doesn't count.

"... The bipartisan group called on the Pentagon and the director of the U.S. intelligence community to immediately institute a new reporting system that provides "a more accurate picture of events on the ground."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16179553.htm

IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT: THREATS WRAPPED IN MISUNDERSTANDINGS

"Iraqi politicians and analysts said... the (Iraq Study Group) report is a recipe, backed by threats and disincentives, that neither addresses nor understands the complex forces that fuel Iraq's woes... the report's authors did not grasp, or refused to acknowledge, the diverse ambitions, rivalries and weaknesses that plague the government... (It has been described) as a strategy largely to help U.S. troops return home... having the U.S. threaten to take its ball and go home if the Iraqi children do not play the game our way..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/06/AR2006120602235.html

"... The most contentious of the ISG recommendations is to put pressure on the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. It stated, "If the Iraqi government does not make substantial progress toward the achievement of milestones on national reconciliation, security and governance, the United States should reduce its political, military or economic support for the Iraqi government."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HL08Ak05.html

BAKER REPORT SETS UP EXIT

“... You could call it ‘blame and run’... The more we blame it for doing things it cannot do, the more impotent it will become. ‘Blame and run’ is self-fulfilling... blaming Baghdad for lack of progress will reduce its capacity to act even further. “The more we blame the Iraqis, the less political space Mr Maliki will have to act. He cannot be seen to be implementing a long shopping list of items out of Washington.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4fce695e-894a-11db-a876-0000779e2340.html

"... By setting Maliki up for failure, the Baker Report is giving Bush a way out...."
http://www.progressive.org/node/4287

THE HORROR OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION POLICY IN IRAQ

"... the fundamental horror of Bush administration policy in Iraq: American troops are not quelling violence; they are creating it. Instead of entering a violent city and restoring order, they enter a relatively peaceful city and create violence... the most hostile anti-American cities like Tal Afar and Ramadi have generally been reasonably peaceful when U.S. troops are not there. They are ruled by local leaders in league with local guerilla fighters. The insurgents -- most often organized into armed militias -- provide policing functions, as well as enforcing the (usually fundamentalist) religious laws that are currently dominant in both Sunni and Shia areas of Iraq.

"These cities do not accept the sovereignty of the Iraqi government or of the American occupation, and therefore when the Americans seek to impose an outside government and root out the insurgency's military leaders, the cities explode. On hitting the streets, American troops usually seek to arrest or kill local militia leaders, while the insurgents begin to set IEDs or mount sniper attacks to prevent the U.S. from controlling the town. Because the insurgents are usually supported by many in the community and U.S. tactics are generally destructive, American military "successes" produce new insurgents, recruited to avenge the deaths of friends and relatives..."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1206-25.htm

BUSH AND MALIKI IRRELEVANT IN IRAQ

"... both Bush and Maliki are absolutely irrelevant in Iraq. Neither one of them has any power. Maliki has no militia to speak of. Bush has militia, the American army, one of the many militias operating in Iraq. But the American Army is lost in Iraq, as it has been since it arrived. Striking at Sunnis, striking at Shias, striking at mostly innocent people. Unable to distinguish between anybody, certainly unable to wield any power, except on the immediate street corner where it’s located..."
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/27/1447216

U.S. NOT WINNING IN IRAQ

"US Defence Secretary nominee Robert Gates has told a Senate committee that the US is not winning the war in Iraq..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6209356.stm

SHIAS LOSE FAITH IN IRAQI GOVERNMENT

"The noisy demonstration that greeted Iraqi Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki on his visit to Sadr City last week... meant that the leader of a Shia-dominated government was being rejected by an angry and influential group of Shias. Maliki's heavily guarded convoy was pelted with stones and with shoes -- a grave insult in Iraq. And this happened in a Shia area..."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35697

ANNUAL COST OF WAR RISES 60% = $200 BILLION FOR 2007

"... President Bush will be asking Congress in January for $124 billion for the war. Add in the $70 billion Congress has already approved for the year and the tab nearly reaches $200 billion for the fiscal year - a 60 percent increase from the previous year. Put in perspective, spending on the Iraq War in 2007 will equal that for the U.S. departments of health, education, international affairs, and veteran's affairs combined.
The long-term financial picture is grim. Because the funds have been borrowed and we have a moral and medical obligation to care for the 20,000 wounded veterans over their lifetimes, taxpayers can expect to shell out between $1 trillion and $2 trillion over the next decade."
http://www.minutemanmedia.org/LEAVER%20112906.htm

THE BEST IRAQI ARMY DIVISION

"Iraqi army's 9th Mechanized Division... is considered Iraq's best hope for an eventual U.S. troop withdrawal... (but) Iraq's best trained and equipped division is far from having the ability to operate independently... attrition and liberal leave policies meant that only 68% of the 9th division is even on duty at any given time... (and) the division had only 65% of the weapons and other equipment that it had been allocated by the U.S... Despite efforts to get more financial support from the Iraqi Defense Ministry, the division stays operational only with help from the U.S. military, which provides everything from food to batteries... (in one battle) "Fear took over" among the Iraqis. They refused to move. We were yelling at them to move".
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-fadhil4dec04,0,2673509.story?page=2&coll=la-home-headlines

IRAQ AN OIL WAR

"... on January 26, 1998, Mr. Rumsfeld and 17 others, members of the Project for a New American Century, wrote a letter to President Clinton, urging the military overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime. If we fail to do so, they were candid in asserting, “a significant portion of the world’s supply of oil will be put at hazard.”... (In addition to Mr. Rumsfeld, 10 others of the signatories would serve in the Bush Administration: Elliott Abrams, Richard Armitage, John Bolton, Paula Dobriansky, Robert Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad, Richard Perle, William Schneider, Jr., Robert Zoellick, and Paul Wolfowitz.)

"... In his second week in office, President Bush appointed Vice President Cheney to chair a National Energy Policy Development Group... The supersecret “Energy Task Force”... apparent to the Task Force: in the Caspian Basin, and beneath the Iraqi deserts there are 125 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, and the potential for 433 billion barrels more. Anyone controlling that much oil could break OPEC’s stranglehold overnight. By early March, 2001, the Task Force was poring over maps of the Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, tanker terminals, and oil exploration blocks..."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1203-21.htm

DEMOCRATS WILL INCREASE FUNDING IRAQ WAR

"Once they take over both houses of Congress on January 3, the Democrats will have the responsibility to get American troops out of Iraq as soon as practicable.... Congress holds the power of the purse. The House and Senate could force the withdrawal of American troops by withholding funding for U.S. military operations in Iraq after a certain date... However, Democratic Senator Harry Reid, slated to become Senate Majority Leader, explicitly stated on November 15 that the Democrats would not cut funding for the war, a position reiterated by other Democratic leaders. Indeed... Reid has promised to increase military spending by an additional $75 billion..."
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3747

IRAQ'S PRESIDENT AND ARMY

"... Iraq has no real government or army... Iraq’s hapless “president,” Nuri al-Maliki, presides only over Baghdad’s U.S.-protected Green Zone... What western reporters and Pentagon spinners term the Iraqi Army is really a collection of Shia militias, death squads and mercenaries, many former convicts. The U.S. occupation’s extensive use of Shia death squads to fight the Sunni resistance has played a key role in igniting Iraq’s current sectarian bloodbath... So much for Iraq “democracy.” Washington may be headed towards installing a ruthless Saddam clone, either some brutal CIA “asset” or iron-fisted general..."
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2006/12/03/2606176.html