Category: Iraq War

The ever loyal to President George Bush one General David Petraeus is named as the next U.S. Central Command Chief, in a statement by Robert Gates, US Secretary of Defense.

General Petraeus, age 55, will replace the outspoken and talented Admiral William Fallon. Admiral Fallon retired last month after a running dispute with the Bush administration over perceived policy differences on Iran hit the fan with a Fallon interview article that was published in Esquire Magazine.

In the article Fallon stated that he thought having dialogue with Iran would be more constructive at relaxing tensions with Iran rather than continuing with the Bush approach of issuing a series of threats. This line of thinking did not go over at all well with the Bush Whitehouse.

In addition, there were rumors that Fallon had clashed with Petraeus over whether to draw down troop levels in Iraq. Even thought Fallon was his boss Petraeus had the full backing of the Bush Whitehouse on carrying out the surge policy in Iraq. Petraeus was probably effective at making an end run around Fallon and communicating directly with Robert Gates and President Bush on this issue.

Petraeus is probably best known to most Americans from his appearances on national TV and the C-Span Channel in testifying before the US Senate about conditions in Iraq. Petraeus testimony said almost exactly what the Bush administration wanted to hear about the surge and the “improvement” in conditions in Iraq. Petraeus appeared with Robert Gates with a multitude of colored charts showing how well the surge was working.

Some might say that Petraeus’s testimony was a bit too accommodating to the Whitehouse. But what is an ambitious General to do when placed in such a situation? His testimony was politicized from the get go as he became in effect the President’s waterboy before congress. Petraeus had the credibility that the President’s civilian cabinet members and staffers did not have.

One might argue about the wisdom of politicizing the testimony of a career military officer in such a manner but for General Petraeus, the loyal trooper, it has certainly paid off. Bush does not like to hear opinions that are not in line with his own. So Petraeus has his reward and Admiral Fallon, said to have been one of the brightest strategic thinkers and planners in the US military, is in early retirement.

Carrying the President’s water does have its privileges and benefits. General Petraeus is a smart ambitious career Army officer and had that figured out long ago.

Tweet This Post

12 good reasons to get out of Iraq that every American should consider.

TomDispatch is a website that has provided the best read on what has and is actually going on in Iraq that I have come across on or off the Internet. Tom Engelhardt is a gifted writer and as editor of TomDispatch often uses the services of other gifted and informed writers to discuss the Iraq war and the nature of the American Empire.

Most of his guest writers have actually been to Iraq or still work there and have the type of information that you just don’t see in the mainstream, read that as controlled even if it is by their own editors, press.

It is amazing to me as to just how far Iraq has fallen off the radar screen. After five years it is almost like the war has just faded away when in truth the really hard part is just about to get under way. American troops fighting in an Urban environment are what the military planners were fearful of in 2003. Now it is becoming a reality and American troops KIA are likely to be on an upward track as long as we take on the Iraqi militias. As the following article makes very clear there is no exit plan for Iraq because the Bush administration never planned to exit.

The following is taken from today’s TomDispatch. It is a long article but well worth reading as is every issue of The TomDispatch.

==============================================

Unraveling Iraq: 12 Answers to Questions No One Is Bothering to Ask about Iraq
By Tom Engelhardt

Can there be any question that, since the invasion of 2003, Iraq has been unraveling? And here’s the curious thing: Despite a lack of decent information and analysis on crucial aspects of the Iraqi catastrophe, despite the way much of the Iraq story fell off newspaper front pages and out of the TV news in the last year, despite so many reports on the “success” of the President’s surge strategy, Americans sense this perfectly well. In the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, 56% of Americans “say the United States should withdraw its military forces to avoid further casualties” and this has, as the Post notes, been a majority position since January 2007, the month that the surge was first announced. Imagine what might happen if the American public knew more about the actual state of affairs in Iraq — and of thinking in Washington. So, here, in an attempt to unravel the situation in ever-unraveling Iraq are twelve answers to questions which should be asked far more often in this country:

The following video showing the generation chickenhawks brave college Republicans at a national convention was originally produced by Max Blumenthal and posted at the HuffingtonPost.

In my view it offers a sad commentary on the mental health of and the ability to reason by a good many of our elitist college chickenhawk generation. These are the type of people who are being groomed to show leadership ability and to lead our nation within a few years. Yet, all they can manage to do when asked questions about the war in Iraq is to spit out Republican talking points.

I heard the same simple minded reasoning about the war in Vietnam. “If we don’t fight them there (the Vietcong) we will fight them here”. Like the poor Vietnamese had the means to invade the US. All they wanted was to have their own country back and to run it their own way. Isn’t that what the Iraqis and Afghans want?

God help us all. The United States is in big trouble from the rot within. Perhaps a return of the draft would bring a good dose of reality back into the American “homeland”. I confess that without the draft I would have never served in Vietnam. But because I did serve I know first hand that war is an ugly business that destroys and ends a lot of lives. Armed with that deep understanding I believe that if I ever had the responsibily for war planning, unlike chickenhawks Donald Rumsfield and Dick Cheney, I would do all in my power to prevent a conflict, not fire one up just because I could.

And most wars are fought for what? So that a few well connected war profiteers can become even more wealthy? Few wars have served any real purpose except for that sad reason. Take World War One, for example, the “war to end all wars”. All that war accomplished, at the expense of over 50 million dead, was to set the stage for World War two.

As long as the majority of the generation chickenhawk elitist young men and women get a free ride when it comes to actually serving their country in the military we Americans will never correct our tendency to bring so much misery and suffering to the peoples of third world nations. All in the name of national security and freedom and democracy, of course.

Watch the video and you will see exactly what I mean.

===== Originally posted on the HuffingtonPost =====

Originally posted on the HuffingtonPost.

On July 13, 2007, I visited Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where the bodies of American soldiers killed in Iraq were freshly interred. Afterwards, I headed across the street to the Sheraton National Hotel, owned by right-wing Korean cult leader Sun Myung-Moon, to meet some of the war’s most fervent supporters at the College Republican National Convention.