World-News

CounterPunch
by Jacob Hornberger

04/10/08

My hunch is that U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq who are experiencing despondency, depression, malaise, and disintegrating family life are suffering from much more than post-traumatic-stress-disorder arising from rough battlefield conditions. My hunch is that they are also suffering the consequences of severe guilt arising from being part of a military force that attacked another country needlessly. Every U.S. soldier knows that none of the people he killed (or maimed) ever attacked the United States and neither did their government or any of their countrymen. Deep down, every U.S. soldier in Iraq knows that he had no moral or legal right to kill the people he killed...

http://counterpunch.org/hornberger04102008.html



Iraq’s realities (whoever is president)

Christian Science Monitor
by staff

04/11/08

President Bush all but admitted Thursday that the US has hit another wall in Iraq. This time it’s Army overstretch. He cut future tours for soldiers from 15 to 12 months. And the troop surge? It’s over this summer, despite fragile security in Iraq. So what other walls still remain? Many. And they’re not all in Iraq. They range from war fatigue in the US to weak Iraqi government to the rogue militias of Muqtada al-Sadr. The difficult task of picking which “walls” to ignore and which to break through in order to achieve a US withdrawal was the broad topic this week in Congress over two days of grilling the top US military commander and senior US diplomat in Iraq. Most of the lawmakers’ questions (including those from the three presidential candidates) simply reinforced campaign positions. Indeed, voters have crisp choices on Iraq between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain. But unlike the last grilling of Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker six months ago, this one had an undertone of serious inquiry as the Bush era in Iraq draws to a close...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0411/p08s01-comv.html



Phil Donahue’s “War”

The Nation
by John Nichols

04/10/08

During the week that George W. Bush — with an assist from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker — began demanding another $100 billion or so for his Iraq War, Phil Donahue began presenting the real face of the conflict. The daytime television pioneer, who from the 1960s to the ’90s taught America how to discuss uncomfortable topics, was doing it again with a remarkable antiwar documentary, Body of War, which went into national distribution just as Petraeus was telling Congress to forget about the ever mounting human and economic toll and give the war more time. Donahue was not just using his considerable prominence to pitch a project...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080428/nichols


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Army+overstretch
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=PTSD
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Muqtada
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdraw
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Petraeus
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ryan+Crocker
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Phil+Donahue
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Body+of+War
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jacob+Hornberger
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Nichols

Amid this political atmosphere, dockworkers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have decided to stop work for eight hours in all U.S. West Coast ports on May 1, International Workers' Day, to call for an end to the war occupation.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/ED8L101F5U.DTL


From Information Clearing House

There is one important decision-maker that Petraeus and Bush don't seem to be listening to: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The AP reports that Maliki told Bush yesterday that he "disagrees" with Petraeus's recommendation "citing the growing capabilities of Iraq's own security forces".

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/10/maliki-disagrees-petraeus/



Gen. Petraeus insists U.S. needs to stay in Iraq indefinitely

Gen. David Petraeus said Tuesday that at least 140,000 U.S. troops should remain indefinitely in Iraq - and also appeared to move the goalposts for defining the success of their mission.

http://tinyurl.com/65o8to



Troop Levels Harming Military, Powell Says

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday that President George W. Bush's successor will have to come to grips with the reality that the United States cannot continue to keep such large numbers of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.wftv.com/politics/15845597/detail.html

From Information Clearing House

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troops+pull+out
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Maliki
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Petraeus
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Powell

By Nathan Gonzalez

Neither John McCain, nor the media for that matter, seem to know what a preemptive war actually is. The Iraq War, for one, was not a preemptive war, but a preventive one. There is a big difference.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19710.htm

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=preemptive
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McCain

Noah Barkin reports for Reuters, "President George W. Bush on Thursday announced a suspension of US troop withdrawals from Iraq this summer to allow the military to reassess the security situation, as US air strikes killed 10 people in a Baghdad slum where dozens of people died in clashes this week."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041008R.shtml

 

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

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/7334/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news



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

Military Families Speak Out Rejects 12 Month Tours of Duty As Solution to an Unjustifiable War.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0410-09.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=military+families
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=unjustifiable

Steve Lannen reports for McClatchy Newspapers: "Barefoot in his yellow jumpsuit, the young detainee's eyes welled up as he described in a shaking voice how he landed in an Iraqi army detention facility on the outskirts of Baghdad. He was visiting his mother in the hospital when Iraqi soldiers raided the hospital and detained him and several others, said Thamer Hamed, 22. They handcuffed and blindfolded him and took him to a holding cell at a former US military base, ironically named Camp Constitution, that's been handed over to the Iraqi army. There, he was told that he was accused of murder. That was 45 days ago, and he still hadn't seen a judge, he said."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041008L.shtml

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Iraq: Detainees Describe Torture in Secret Jail

Detainees in a secret Baghdad detention facility were hung upside-down, deprived of air, kicked, whipped, beaten, given electric shocks, and sodomized, Human Rights Watch said today. Iraq should thoroughly investigate and prosecute all government and security officials responsible, Human Rights Watch said.

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/04/27/iraq-detainees-describe-torture-secret-jail


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detainee
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=secret+jail
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Steve+Lannen

http://groups.google.de/group/freepage-news/t/96f22f42bc144c3c?hl=en



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=endless+occupation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Petraeus