Cost of the War, click HERE

Bush Off the Mark *

the administration badly under-estimated the financial cost of the occupation and seriously overstated the ease of pacifying Iraq and the warmth of the reception Iraqis would give the U.S. invaders. And while peace and democracy may yet spread through the region, some early signs are that the U.S. action has had the opposite effect . . .In testimony to Congress on March 27, 2003, Wolfowitz said Iraq "can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." In fact, the administration has already sought more than $150 billion for the Iraq effort. In its predictions a year ago, the Bush administration similarly underestimated the resistance the United States would face in Iraq. "I really do believe we will be greeted as liberators," Vice President Cheney said in a March 16 interview.  Dana Milbank and Robin Wright, 3/19/04

Why Did We Go to War?

Of course, if the [Downing Street] memo be true, and Bush knew there was not enough reason to justify the war, we are left with the numbing question: Why then did we go to Iraq? . . .Perhaps the simplest explanation for the war is to be found in a little-noted news release from the Exxon Corporation in which it has estimated that in five years cheap available oil production will have peaked in non-OPEC oil sites. Obviously, that would mean an increased emphasis on oil production in OPEC sites in the Middle East. Since America consumes 20 million barrels a day, and China is now demanding more oil, then staking out the second largest oil reserves in the world in Iraq might have been considered essential. Or to ask the hard, hard question: Would we have gone to war if Iraq possessed the world's second largest reserve of figs, rather than oil? RICHARD BABB, Daily Journal, NE Mississippi, 6/26/05 MORE

Pre-"Authorization" Attacks *

A SHARP increase in British and American bombing raids on Iraq in the run-up to war “to put pressure on the regime” was illegal under international law, according to leaked Foreign Office legal advice. The advice was first provided to senior ministers in March 2002. Two months later RAF and USAF jets began “spikes of activity” designed to goad Saddam Hussein into retaliating and giving the allies a pretext for war.  The Foreign Office advice shows military action to pressurise the regime was “not consistent with” UN law, despite American claims that it was. . .Democratic congressmen claimed last week the evidence it contains is grounds for impeaching President George Bush. . .The increased attacks on Iraqi installations, which senior US officers admitted were designed to “degrade” Iraqi air defences, began six months before the UN passed resolution 1441, which the allies claim authorised military action.  Michael Smith, Sunday Times - Britail, 6/19/05 MORE

Bush Demands War  *

President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and some media outlets, dismiss its importance, but the so-called 'Downing Street Memo' seems to be gathering increasing public attention. . .
[a memo] appears to accuse [Mr. Bush] of misleading Americans into backing the war with Iraq," as the CBC reports. . . The memo says: "Military action was now seen as inevitable." That "Terrorism and WMD [weapons of mass destruction]" would be used to justify the war. But, the memo says, "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." . . .Reuters reports on other aspects of the memo. It was produced July 21, 2002 by Blair's staff in advance of his meeting with his security staff two days later; Britain's top spy (Dearlove) said that "war was inevitable" because "Bush wanted to remove Saddam {Hussein} through military action"; and Foreign Minister Jack Straw "said the case for war was 'thin' because 'Saddam was not threatening his neighbors and his WMD (weapons of mass destruction) capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.'  Tom Regan, Christian Science Monitor, 6/16/05 MORE

Bush/Blair Illegal War *

MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.   The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.   The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal. . .The document said the only way the allies could justify military action was to place Saddam Hussein in a position where he ignored or rejected a United Nations ultimatum  Michael Smith, The Sunday Times (London) 6/12/05  MORE
SEE ALSO: The Downing Street Memo

Iraq Today *

THE WHITE HOUSE is searching for weapons of mass deletion.  On CNN's ''Larry King Live" on Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney said of the violence in Iraq, ''I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."  This is after May became the deadliest month for US forces since the January elections, with 76 US military casualties.  At a press conference on Tuesday, President Bush was asked about the US casualties and the deaths of 760 Iraqis since the new Iraqi government was named April 28. A reporter asked Bush, ''Do you think that the insurgency is gaining strength and becoming more lethal?"  Bush responded, ''I think the Iraqi people dealt the insurgents a serious blow when they, when we had the elections." . . . All that is missing is a banner behind them saying, ''Misinformation Accomplished."  Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe, 6/1/05 MORE

Iraq Declassified *

An accidentally declassified Pentagon report about a killing on the road to Baghdad airport at the beginning of March shows quite clearly how much worse the overall situation is than the Bush administration would like us, . . to believe. . . .“From July 2004 to late March 2005,” says the document, “there were 15,527 attacks against Coalition Forces throughout Iraq.” Then comes one of several paragraphs marked S//NF (secret, not for distribution to foreign nationals): “From 1 November 2004 to 12 March 2005 there were 3306 attacks in the Baghdad area. Of these, 2400 were directed against Coalition Forces.” In a span of four and a half months, which included the election turning point, that’s not only a hell of a lot of hits in the capital city, it’s just pure hell.  Christopher Dickey, Newsweek 5/13/05 MORE

Impeach the U.S. Press *

Here it is. The smoking gun. The memo that has, "IMPEACH HIM" written all over it.  The top-level government memo marked "SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL," dated eight months before Bush sent us into Iraq, following a closed meeting with the President, reads, "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WDM. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." Read that again: "The intelligence and facts were being fixed...." . . .The New York Times covers this hard evidence of Bush's fabrication of a causus belli as some "British" elections story. Apparently, our President's fraud isn't "news fit to print."  My colleagues in the UK press have skewered Blair, digging out more incriminating memos, . . . Greg Palast, Buzzflash, 5/4/05 More

Brits find Iraq "Smoking Gun"*

Documentary evidence has emerged showing that the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, changed his mind about the legality of the Iraq war just before the conflict began. The damning revelation is contained in the resignation letter of Elizabeth Wilmshurst, a legal adviser at the Foreign Office, in which she said the war would be a "crime of aggression". She quit the day after Lord Goldsmith's ruling was made public, three days before the war began in March 2003. . .Clare Short, who resigned from the Cabinet after the invasion, said last night: "I think the Government had to try and cover it up because it's so devastating.. . . he gave his advice to the Cabinet when he just said, unequivocally, 'My view is the legal authority for war' and kept from the Cabinet any suggestion that he had had doubts about it."  Colin Brown, The Independent, 3/24/05 MORE

Odor of Failure *

With the insurgency becoming both stronger and bolder, and the chances of conducting a legitimate election growing grimmer by the day, a genuine sense of alarm can actually be detected in the reality-resistant hierarchy of the Bush administration. . .Military officials are routinely talking about a major U.S. presence in Iraq that will last, at a minimum, into the next decade. That is not what most Americans believed when the Bush crowd so enthusiastically sold this war as a noble adventure that would be short and sweet, and would end with Iraqis tossing garlands of flowers at American troops. . . Mr. Bush's so-called pre-emptive war, which has already cost so many lives, is being enveloped by the foul and unmistakable odor of failure. That's why the Pentagon is dispatching a retired four-star general, Gary Luck, to Iraq to assess the entire wretched operation.  Herbert, NY Times, 1/10/05  MORE

Rumsfeld, What's the Truth?

Q Sir, my unit, the 2nd Brigade -- (inaudible) -- Cav, we have five out of the six red zones in this country. . . . The question is, are we going to get more up-armored humvees? . . . GEN. MYERS: . . . It's not a matter of resources, it's a matter of how fast can we build these things and get them over here. . .I understand exactly everything you said, and we'll do our best.  And that's our responsibility.  Gen. Myers and Sec. Rumsfeld, 5/13/04 MORE
You have to go to war with the Army you have,'' Rumsfeld replied, adding that about 400 Humvees, . . . are being equipped with armor every month. That's as fast as the military can work ``at this moment,'' he said.  Bloomberg, 12/8/04 MORE
The Army entered negotiations with an armor manufacturer Friday to try to accelerate production and delivery of armored versions of the Humvee, Army and company officials said. John J. Lumpkin, AP 12/11/04 MORE

Bad Bush Decisions Punish Our Troops*

[T]he Pentagon announced Wednesday that some 10,000 troops serving in Iraq would have their tours of duty extended for several months, . . . But on an Army base here in this northern Iraq city, soldiers were focused on the smaller, more personal effects Washington's decision had for the boots on the ground. Their reaction was mostly one of resignation, not anger.  "I had a son in October. I haven't met him yet," said Sgt. Eric Wing, 24. "I was mostly wanting to get home for him."  . . .Even worse, because the bulk of their replacements will be in Iraq within weeks, there will be a shortage of living space. As a result, the soldiers of the 2nd Brigade are to be kicked out of the comfortable two-person trailers where they have been living and sent to cots in crowded tents, just as the cold, wet winter settles into this region of Iraq.  Kirsten Scharnberg, Chicago Tribune 12/3/04  MORE

Bush's Iraq Unilateralism *

More than 20 months after the United States unilaterally assumed responsibility for Iraq's future by invading without the support of the Security Council or most neighboring countries, it still finds itself largely on its own, with much of the rest of the world watching skeptically from the sidelines.  This is not a healthy situation - for Iraq, for the United States, for the Middle East or for the international community. . . .[Things] are unlikely to go very well unless all, or at least most, of the governments represented at Sharm el Sheik begin actively working together.  But don't expect that to happen any time soon. The newly re-elected Bush administration seems more determined than ever to rely on military force to crush the Sunni insurgency,  NY Times Editorial, 11/26/04  MORE

Bush Bombs Around the Clock*

[F]amed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh called Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi a "straw man" and a "criminal" and said the key story the press is missing in Iraq is the recent upsurge in U.S. bombing -- even before the Fallujah operation. "One story the press doesn't touch is this criminal -- this straw man that's been put in -- Allawi, this ridiculous figure that we've installed as the prime minister," Hersh said. "To keep him in power, we've exponentially increased the bombing. ..."The bombing of Iraq has gone up extraordinarily, by huge numbers. It's now a daily occurrence, around-the-clock on some occasions.   Editor & Publisher, 11/11/04  MORE

Danger from Bush Incompetence*

The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations. . . American weapons experts say their immediate concern is that the explosives could be used in major bombing attacks. . .The explosives could also be used to trigger a nuclear weapon . . .The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly warned about the danger of these explosives before the war, . . on Oct. 10, Dr. Mohammed J. Abbas of the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology wrote a letter to the I.A.E.A. to say the Qaqaa stockpile had been lost. . . his ministry had judged that an "urgent updating of the registered materials is required." GLANZ, BROAD and SANGER, The NY Times, 10/25/04 MORE

Insurgents funded by Saudis

Iraq's new security forces are heavily infiltrated by insurgents, and the guerrilla groups have access to almost unlimited money to pay for deadly attacks, according to a U.S. defense official . . .A significant part of the insurgents' money is coming from sympathizers in Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi government is neglecting the problem, said the official . . .The official pointed to a mortar attack Tuesday on an Iraqi National Guard compound near Baghdad as a probable inside job. The attackers apparently knew precisely when and where the unit's members were gathering and dropped mortar rounds in the middle of their formation. John J. Lumpkin, AP, 10/22/04 MORE
 

Cheney's Iraq Flip Flop*

In an assessment that differs sharply with his view today, Dick Cheney more than a decade ago defended the decision to leave Saddam Hussein in power after the first Gulf War, telling a Seattle audience that capturing Saddam wouldn't be worth additional U.S. casualties or the risk of getting "bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq." . . "And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth?" Cheney said then in response to a question.  "And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."    CHARLES POPE, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 9/29/04  MORE

Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction Found (and They are Ours)*

Welcome to the big city where all the Pentagon suits lie about uranium oxide! I don’t expect them to stop now. This practice of using uranium oxide is flat out wrong and they all, from President Bush on down, richly deserve a long term in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.  Did you know the uranium penetrator bombs are patented? Private contractors make a buck every time the 2,000-pound penetrator bombs, containing 1,100 pounds of radioactive uranium, explode. The explosion forms poisonous uranium oxide gas. . . famed former Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab scientist Leuren Moret stated, “The answer is that there is no protection possible to prevent exposure to DU* from the battlefield - and that means the global pollution also is now spread around the world.”  Bob Nicols, SF Bayview, 9/22/04  MORE

Letter to Congress on D.U.

16+ Iraqi Resistance Groups*

After the fall of Baghdad into the hands of the Anglo-American occupation on 9 April 2003, as a natural reaction, several sectors of Iraqi society confronted the occupation. Resistance cells were formed, the majority of which were of Islamic Sunni and pan-Arab tendencies. These cells started in the shape of scattered groups, without a unifying bond to bind them together.  These groups and small cells started to grow gradually, until they matured to some extent and acquired a clear personality that had its own political and military weight. Then they stated to pursue combining themselves into larger groups.  The majority of these groups do not know their leadership, the sources of their financing, or who provides them with weapons. . . The following is a review of the resistance groups and the armed groups in Iraq:  Samir Haddad and Mazin Ghazi Al Zawra (Baghdad) September 19, 2004 MORE

What Bush Hides*

“The fact is we’re in trouble. We’re in deep trouble in Iraq" Hagel (R-Neb). . . "Well, this is incompetence in the administration. That's why both of us said as critics of, we're in fact the most constructive critics. We want the Iraqis to have a democracy. We want the president and Allawi to have a great meeting in which they can consolidate forces, we cheer Allawi and the congress. We push on against the terrorists, against all who would try to undermine this as well as the Afghanistan situation or the windup of Kosovo. We have a lot at stake in this world.” (Lugar (R. Ind. emphasis added) . . .: “It was a mistake to launch that military action.” Bereuter (R-Neb.) www.scoop.co.nz 9/21/04 MORE

The British are . . . Leaving*

The British Army is to start pulling troops out of Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security situation in much of the country, The Observer has learnt. The main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be reduced by around a third by the end of October during a routine rotation of units. The news came amid another day of mayhem in Iraq, which saw a suicide bomber kill at least 23 people and injure 53 in the northern city of Kirkuk. . . The forthcoming 'drawdown' of British troops in Basra has not been made public and is likely to provoke consternation in both Washington and Baghdad. Many in Iraq argue that more, not fewer, troops are needed. Last week British troops in Basra fought fierce battles with Shia militia groups. . .'Whatever they say, fewer troops mean less capability,' a military expert told The Observer . 'You need as many boots on the ground as you can get for low-intensity warfare and peace-keeping operations.'  Jason Burke, The Observer, 9/19/04  MORE

Bush Dishonest About War*

Senior Iraqi officials, American generals and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan all have warned in recent days that nationwide elections won't be possible in the present conditions. Iraqi insurgents effectively control several large towns, and a daily barrage of car bombs, ambushes, kidnappings and mortar attacks makes peaceful political activity impossible in Baghdad. . . President Bush must soon make tough decisions about whether to launch potentially costly military operations . . .  Yet Mr. Bush, who spent the week campaigning for reelection, has offered scant acknowledgment . . . of the worsening state of a mission that has dominated more than half of his first term. His description of Iraq is bland to the point of dishonesty: "Despite ongoing acts of violence," he repeated Friday, "that country has a strong prime minister, they've got a national council and they are going to have elections in January of 2005." Washington Post Editorial, 9/19/04 MORE

The Bush Abyss*

Where freedom was promised, chaos and carnage now reign. A suicide bomber in a car blows himself up in the heart of Baghdad killing 13 people. Air raids by US near the city of Fallujah kill scores more. And so ends one of the bleakest weeks in Iraq's grim recent history.  Between them, suicide bombers targeting Iraqi police and US air strikes aimed at rebels have killed some 300 Iraqis since last Saturday - many of them were civilians. The escalating violence throws into doubt the elections planned for January and the ability of the US and interim Iraqi government to control the country. . .And, of course, Iraqis suffer. . . A health ministry spokesman, Saad al-Amili, said that 44 people were killed and 27 injured in the Fallujah attacks with 17 children and two women among the wounded. The floor of the Fallujah hospital was awash with blood. Relatives cried out with grief and called for vengeance.  Patrick Cockburn, The Indempendent, 9/18/04 MORE

Wrong Way Bush

President Bush and Vice President Cheney are framing the election as a choice between playing "defense" and going on "offense" in the war on terror. The attacks of 9/11 presented the United States with a grave new challenge. Bush picked up this football and started running with it—toward Iraq. But Iraq wasn't among the states closely linked to 9/11 or al-Qaida. Nor did it have the weapons of mass destruction Bush advertised. We've spent more than 1,000 American lives and close to $200 billion running the wrong way. . .In the Bush-Cheney worldview, all foreign adversaries blur into one: "the enemy." All U.S. options simplify to two: "offense" or "defense." Going on offense shows "strength" and defeats the enemy. If the president starts running with the ball, and you criticize him, you show "weakness" and invite terrorism. But what if there's more than one enemy? William Saletan, Slate, 9/9/04  MORE 

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended" W. (Just Kidding)*The number of soldiers and Pentagon civilians who have died in Iraq topped the 1,000 mark yesterday, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declared that the insurgency is likely to turn even more violent in coming months as the fledgling nation heads toward democratic elections. . .The attacks over the past week reflect a determined opposition to U.S. and coalition forces that threatens to extend a war that U.S. officials once estimated would long be over by now.  Josh White and Bradley Graham, Wash. Post 9/8/04 MORE

About 1,100 U.S. soldiers and Marines were wounded in Iraq last month, by far the highest combat injury toll for any month since the war began and an indication of the intensity of battles flaring in urban areas.  Karl Vick, Wash Post, 9/8/04 MORE

Troubled Gen. Franks*

[Senator]Graham also revealed that Gen. Tommy Franks told him on Feb. 19, 2002, just four months after the invasion of Afghanistan, that many important resources -- including the Predator drone aircraft crucial to the search for Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida leaders -- were being shifted to prepare for a war against Iraq.  Graham recalled this conversation at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa with Franks, then head of Central Command, who was ``looking troubled'':  ``Senator, we are not engaged in a war in Afghanistan.''  ``Excuse me?'' I asked.  ``Military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq,'' he continued.  Graham concluded: ``Gen. Franks' mission -- which, as a good soldier, he was loyally carrying out -- was being downgraded from a war to a manhunt.''  Frank Davies, Knight Ridder, 9/5/04  MORE

Bush Says He Miscalculated*

President George W. Bush has acknowledged for the first time that he made a "miscalculation of what the conditions would be" in postwar Iraq. . . Bush, speaking Thursday on the first leg of a multistate tour in advance of the Republican convention, argued that the 17-month-long insurgency that has upended the administration's plans for the country was the unintended by-product of a "swift victory" against Saddam Hussein's military. . . .Bush deflected efforts to inquire further into what went wrong with the occupation, suggesting that such questions should be left to historians, and insisting, as his father used to, that he would resist going "on the couch" to rethink decisions.  David E. Sanger and Elisabeth Bumiller NYT in International Herald Tribune, 8/28/04

Read:  Bush is incompetent by Richard Reeves United Press Syndicate, 8/28/04

Rumsfeld Fears Shia-Led Iraq*

From the start, the biggest obstacle to the creation of a compliant, pro-American regime in Iraq has been the fact that the Shias, who make up about 60 per cent of Iraq's population, could elect a majority government that could, and probably would, defy U.S. wishes if they voted as a bloc. . ..Rumsfeld was worried that an elected Iraqi government would resist mass privatization of the economy, but he was equally worried that such a government would be Shia-dominated, and insist on an Islamic state. . .Last March, Bremer made a deal with Sistani. The ayatollah guaranteed that the Shiites would remain quiet this year (until George W. Bush's re-election bid in the U.S. is safely past, in other words), in return for free elections in Iraq early next year. And then, seeking to insure against the risk that Sadr would try to spoil the deal, Bremer did something very foolish: He attacked Sadr directly.  GWYNNE DYER, Toronto Star, 8/17/04

Bush's Mission in Iraq*

Four months into their tour of duty at one of the most dangerous American bases in Iraq, young Marines say the slow pace of progress is shaking their faith in their mission.  Playing cards one recent evening while on call to respond to any outburst of violence, Lance Corporal David Goward and the rest of his squad expressed two growing concerns: that the US military will linger here indefinitely and that the troops' very presence is provoking the fighting it is meant to stop. They are ready for any battle, they said, but a pervasive sense that Iraqis do not want their help has destroyed their enthusiasm for the larger goals of launching democracy and rebuilding the country . . "Last year . . . kids ran up to us and waved," [Corporal Jaime Duenas, 23] said. "Here, kids throw rocks."  Anne Barnard, Boston Globe, 8/12/04

Iraq -- Worse Than Reported *

More U.S. soldiers died in July (38) than in June (26), but that didn't make the nightly newscasts, either.  The U.S.-led effort to restore basic services has become a story of missed goals and frustrations. Hoped-for foreign investment in Iraq's economy hasn't materialized - what company is going to risk seeing its employees beheaded on television?  Simply by staving off stability and prosperity, the insurgents are winning. . . I learned this summer that the insurgency has been far more successful than I would have imagined at sowing instability and halting progress. Most Iraqis aren't seeing the improvements they had hoped for, and they're not blaming the guerillas - they're blaming the Americans. Sovereignty seems to have had zero effect on this equation. Ken Dilanian, Philadelphia Inquirer 8/1/04