World-News

The editors of The New York Times write: "There are new signs that an American military in distress is reshaping itself to cope with the destructive fallout of Iraq - and to look beyond it, even as President Bush insists on dispatching Americans to go on fighting and dying there. Young officers have been offered big cash bonuses to stay in an Army struggling to retain them. The Marines, meanwhile, are trying to move out of Iraq and into Afghanistan, a more popular mission where they could focus on America's real enemies - al Qaeda and its allies, the Taliban - instead of trying to police a civil war."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101707N.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=leaving+Iraq

The Nation
by John Nichols

10/16/07

The occupation in Iraq will begin to end on the day that Democrats — and responsible Republicans — in Congress decide to stop meeting the demands of the Bush-Cheney administration for more money to fund their imperial endeavor along with the massive war-profiteering by administration-linked firms such as Halliburton and Blackwater. This is a simple reality. But it remains one that most members of Congress, including many Democrats who should know better, fail to recognize. The essential document in the current Iraq debate is a letter of commitment, now endorsed by 89 members of the House, that says the signers ‘will only support appropriating additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq during FY08 and beyond for the protection and safe redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq before the end of President Bush’s term in office’...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=243293


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=imperial
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=war+profiteering
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Halliburton
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troops+out+of+Iraq
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Nichols

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/16/4622/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater

"Curveball" author Bob Drogin talks about the Iraqi defector responsible for much of the CIA's bogus prewar intelligence about Iraqi WMD.

http://www.salon.com/books/int/2007/10/16/curveball/index_np.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Curveball
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=defector
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=WMD
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bob+Drogin

Abizaid has previously argued that the U.S. would need "to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq" in order to protect "the free flow of goods and resources" such as oil, but his Stanford comments go much further in pinning oil as a prime motivator for the war.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/15/abizaid-middle-east-gas-station/


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Abizaid
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+oil

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/27733


From Information Clearing House



http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=Butheina+Al-Nasiri&btnG=Google+Search

By 12 former Army captains

There is one way we might be able to succeed in Iraq. To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately. A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18563.htm

http://www.meta-info.de/?lid=30580



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Abizaid

LewRockwell.Com
by Karen Kwiatkowski

10/16/07

So far, we have spent, according to the National Priorities Project, about $460 billion on fighting in Iraq. That’s just the direct cost. We’ve racked up nearly two trillion in total costs of the war so far, including equipment and training losses, lifetime health care of the disabled soldiers, etc. We have sacrificed the lives of nearly 4,000 American troops, and injured, in many cases permanently, over 30,000 troops. So far, well over 100,000 American troops have persistent stress reactions or other mental disturbance as a result of their experience. We have weakened American defensive capability with multiple extended tours for both National Guardsmen and the active forces, years of reduced training and maintenance of equipment, and drastically lower standards for entry into the military. Why would any bright and principled young person want to enter the military today? I can’t think of many reasons...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski193.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/kwiatkowski