I've Heard That Song Before

The Star-Ledger - 12/15/06
by John Farmer

Troop buildup looks like a loser for Bush

The key decision facing President Bush on Iraq is whether to go for one more roll of the dice, a last-gasp gamble on "victory," however he might define it -- in short, whether to boost American troop strength dramatically in a bid to break the back of the violence in Baghdad.

More troops for Iraq are not what the American public, as expressed in last month's election and in more recent opinion polls, indicated it wants. Democrats, who'll control the new Congress in January, would go bananas at news of such a decision. And it would seem a slap in the face to the Baker-Hamilton panel [Iraq Study Group].

But it would be altogether in character for Bush, a famously stubborn guy who finds it difficult, nay impossible, to admit error.

Down deep, he really wants to "stay the course," though that unfortunate formulation has been rendered inoperative as an explanation of administration policy in Iraq. And he still has a cadre of die-hard neocons around the White House and a few in the Pentagon not yet willing to accept the reality that Iraq looks like a lost cause.

On the other hand, a decision not to commit more troops would be an implicit admission by Bush that his Iraq adventure -- the measure of his presidency -- is likely to fail.
Several uncertainties surround any decision to boost U.S. troop strength in Iraq. How many more would be needed to make a major dent in the violence? A force of 40,000 or more has been mentioned. Would that he enough to turn the tide? Who knows? Apparently not even the Pentagon.

The word from U.S. commanders has been confusing, some saying they have enough boots on the ground now, others hinting that a short- term "surge" in U.S. troop strength, coupled with more training for the Iraqi military, might just do the trick.

The psychological impact of news that Bush was about to up the American military ante in Iraq is equally uncertain. It undoubtedly would give a lift to the tottering Maliki government, which claims that, with a little more temporary help, it could be ready to shoulder more of the security burden by next summer. Good luck.

And what would be the reaction of the insurgents? More violence? Or despair induced by a conviction that the U.S. won't give up and go away? Who can say for sure?

The effect on the U.S. military could hardly be a plus. The Army and Marines are already under great strain, stretched to the limit and about to demand big appropriations increases in the next federal budget and a sharp boost in troop strength. Any expansion of the force in Iraq would involve deploying troops there for a third or even fourth tour -- not good for morale and re-enlistment rates -- or further drawing down National Guard units, a move likely to upset many governors.

The Baker-Hamilton panel's report is cited as a reason not to pour more troops into the morass but to seek diplomatic help instead. But that's not likely to deter Bush; he's been giving the report the back of his hand regularly since it was made public. The more probable deterrent is fear of an explosive public reaction that would further weaken Bush in his dealings with the new Democratic congressional majority.

Polls make it clear the public believes that we're losing the war in Iraq and that Bush has botched the job badly. With that as background, Democrats would have little trouble exploiting any decision to invest more American lives in Iraq and raising new questions about Bush's judgment [sanity].

The odds, in short, are against any troop buildup. The Joint Chiefs of Staff reportedly told the president Wednesday they oppose throwing more troops into the fray. And the smart money says Bush isn't so blind to reality that he'd risk a public uproar. But there's a wild card in this decision, someone who has consistently closed his eyes to reality -- Vice President Dick Cheney, a persistent voice for toughing it out in Iraq.

The conventional wisdom in Washington is that Cheney's influence has waned in the wake of the Republican defeat in November. Maybe so. Bush's decision whether to put more American boots on the ground in Iraq will test that belief.

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John Farmer is The Star-Ledger's national political correspondent. He may be reached at jfarmer@starled ger.com.

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Aljazeera - 12/03/06

Annan: Iraq worse than under Saddam

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, has said Iraq is in the grips of a civil war and many people are worse off now than under Saddam Hussein.

Annan, who leaves office on December 31, described Iraq as being in an extremely dangerous situation and again questioned the ability of Baghdad's leadership to solve the civil strife by themselves.

"When we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war -- this is much worse," Annan said in an interview with BBC television and radio to be broadcast on Monday.

Insecure life

Annan said he agreed with Iraqis who say that life is worse now than it was under Saddam.

"I think they are right in the sense of the average Iraqi's life," he said.

If I were an average Iraqi obviously I would make the same comparison -- that they had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying, "Am I going to see my child again?"

And the Iraqi government has not been able to bring the violence under control.

Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which was not approved by the UN Security Council and which Annan subsequently called "illegal", divisions among UN members have sharpened.

"I really believed that we could have stopped the war and that if we had worked a bit harder, given the inspectors a bit more time, we could have," Annan said.

He said that the US Iraq Study Group, which is about to release its report, recognised that "things are not working the way they had hoped and that it is essential to take a critical review -- take a critical look at what is going on and, if necessary, change course".

Website: aljazeera.net

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The US military has been conducting a number of investigations into incidents of alleged unlawful killings by US forces in Iraq.

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BBC - 11/17/06 HADITHA

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There are two investigations into events that took place in the town of Haditha in Anbar province north-west of Baghdad - one into the events themselves and the other into whether there was a cover-up.

The allegations are that on 19 November 2005 US marines shot dead 24 civilians, including seven women and three children.

The military's original claim that the civilians - initially said to be 15 - died in a roadside blast was disproved by an earlier investigation.

Investigators are looking at whether the civilians died in crossfire or were targeted deliberately in a potential war crime.

Haditha residents say the marines went on the rampage after one of their number was killed in a roadside blast and another two were injured.

In March 2006, the US military began a criminal investigation; no criminal charges have been filed.

In April, three officers in charge of troops in Haditha were also stripped of their command and reassigned.

In May, the Iraqi government said it would investigate the allegations.

US braced for Haditha effect

HAMDANIYA

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US marine Pte John Jodka received an 18-month prison sentence for his part in killing a disabled Iraqi man on 26 April 2006 in the central town of Hamdaniya.

Fellow marine Lance Cpl Tyler Jackson was jailed for 21 months after pleading guilty to reduced charges.

Five other marines have been charged over the man's death.

Three are to face a court martial on murder charges. The death penalty will not be sought if convicted.

Jodka, who apologised to the victim's family, is expected to give evidence against the other defendants, as is Jackson.

An eighth serviceman, US Navy medic Petty Officer Melson J Bacos, has admitted kidnapping in a plea bargain and will also testify about the death.

It is alleged that the 52-year-old victim was taken from his house and shot, with a rifle and shovel left by his body to make it appear as if he were an insurgent planting a roadside bomb.

Local Iraqis are said to have told marine leaders about the alleged shooting, which prompted an inquiry.

The accused were taken out of Iraq and are held at Camp Pendleton in California.

Marines face Iraq murder charges

ISHAQI

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In June, a US inquiry cleared US forces of blame for the deaths of 11 civilians in Ishaqi, north-west of Baghdad, in March.

Reports that troops "executed" a family during a raid on a house there and tried to cover it up were "absolutely false", the US military said.

A report filed by Iraqi police accused US troops who were trying to capture insurgents of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building.

Four bodies including that of an insurgent were found after the raid while up to nine "collateral deaths" resulted from the US raid, according to the investigation.

It added a precise death toll could not be determined because of collapsed walls and debris.

But leading figures in the Iraqi government are unhappy, and want a wider investigation.

Troops cleared of Iraq wrongdoing

TIKRIT

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Four soldiers from the 3rd Brigade of the elite 101st Airborne Division have been referred to a court martial on murder charges following the shooting of three male Iraqi prisoners near Tikrit, Salahuddin province, in northern Iraq.

They have also been charged over allegations they threatened to kill a fellow soldier if he spoke about the incident, the US military said.

The detainees died during a US military operation near the Thar Thar Canal near Tikrit in northern Iraq on 9 May.

The probe was triggered by soldiers who raised suspicions about the deaths.

A criminal investigation began on 17 May. No date has been set for the court martial.

US troops face Iraq death charges

MAHMUDIYA

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A criminal investigation began on 24 June into the alleged killing by US troops of an Iraqi family of four in their home in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad.

Four US soldiers from the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division are facing a court martial over charges of premeditated murder, as well as the rape of one of the family members, a girl of 14 years.

Specialist James Barker pleaded guilty to rape and murder on 15 November after agreeing to co-operate with prosecutors in an effort to avoid the death penalty.

Two of the soldiers could face the death penalty if found guilty, the other two could face life-long sentences.

The men are alleged to have helped a former private - who has since left the army - plan, carry out and cover up the attack.

The former soldier has pleaded not guilty in a federal court and will be tried separately in the US.

Website: bbc.co.uk

itv.com - 10/13/06

Army chief calls for Iraq pullout

The new head of the British Army has said troops in Iraq are making the security situation worse and that they should be withdrawn "soon".

In an unprecedented attack on Government policy, General Sir Richard Dannatt blames British troop presence in Iraq for turning tolerance there into "intolerance".

And he blames the Iraq war for driving the problems associated with the wider war on terror. He said: "I don't say that the difficulties we are experiencing round the world are caused by our presence in Iraq but undoubtedly our presence in Iraq exacerbates them."

Gen Dannatt, who became Chief of the General Staff in August, said:

We are in a Muslim country and Muslims' views of foreigners in their country are quite clear.

As a foreigner, you can be welcomed by being invited in a country, but we weren't invited certainly by those in Iraq at the time. The military campaign we fought in 2003 effectively kicked the door in.

Whatever consent we may have had in the first place, may have turned to tolerance and has largely turned to intolerance.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: "It's important that people remember that we are in Iraq at the express wish of the democratically elected Iraqi government, to support them under the mandate of a UN resolution."

A Ministry of Defence spokesman added: "We have a clear strategy in Iraq.

"We are there with our international partners, in support of the democratically elected Government of Iraq, under a clear UN mandate."

Andrew Burgin, of the Stop the War Coalition, said:

He has articulated what we have been saying for a long period now: that the presence of the British forces is exacerbating the security problems in Iraq itself.

We would be honoured to invite him to speak at the next Stop the War demonstration.

He has made a very powerful case for the troops to be withdrawn from Iraq and he is exactly right.

Website: itv.com

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Iraqi speaker decries US butchery of Iraqi people -- US troops are condemned in his speech.

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Al Jazeera - 07/22/06

US forces have committed butchery in Iraq and should leave, the speaker of the country's parliament has said.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was speaking on Saturday at a
UN sponsored conference on transitional justice and reconciliation in Baghdad. As the conference opened, he said:

Just get your hands off Iraq and the Iraqi people and Muslim countries, and everything will be all right . . . What has been done in Iraq is a kind of butchery of the Iraqi people.

Al-Mashhadani also criticised US support for Israeli attacks against Lebanon.

He told the audience of UN officials, foreign experts, Iraqi politicians and civil society representatives that the Iraqi people had little use for foreign advice on running the country or for foreign-sponsored conferences.

If a reconciliation project is going to work it has to talk to all the people. It must go through our Iraqi beliefs and perceptions. What we need is reconciliation between Iraqis only, there can be no third party.

The UN official who opened the conference referred to al-Mashhadani's speech as "spirited".

Meanwhile on Saturday, the US moved to bolster American troop strength in Baghdad to cope with the escalating violence as seven Shia workers were shot dead in west Baghdad and explosions in the heart of the capital shattered a one-day calm after a ban on private vehicles expired.

The ban had kept down violence on Friday after one of the most violent weeks in the capital this year. It expired on Friday evening, and within hours, heavy bursts of automatic weapons rang out.

A senior US defence official said the Pentagon was moving ahead with scheduled deployments to Iraq next month and was moving one battalion to Baghdad from Kuwait, where it was in reserve.

Read Article

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Investigators believe American soldiers spent nearly a week plotting an attack in which they raped
an Iraqi woman, then killed her and her family near Mahmoudiya. One of the victims was a child.

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MyWay News 07/01/06
by Ryan Lenz

A U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attack appeared "totally premeditated" and that the soldiers apparently "studied" the family for about a week before carrying out the attack.

The Sunni Arab family had just moved into a new home in the religiously mixed area near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. The Americans entered the home, separated three family members from the woman, then raped her and set fire to her body. The three family members were also slain.

A senior Army official, who also requested anonymity, said one of the victims was a child.

The incident was first revealed by a soldier during a routine counseling-type session. A second soldier, who also was not involved, said he overhead soldiers conspiring to commit the crimes and then later saw bloodstains on their clothes, the Army official said.

Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of U.S. forces in the Baghdad area, has ordered a criminal investigation into the slaying of the four family members.

Iraqi media sources, several of which have previously accepted payment to disseminate U.S. military propaganda, have so far paid little attention to the crimes. It is not known whether these media sources are continuing to accept such payments.

Nor has there been any comment from members of Iraq's democratic government, many of whom acquired their present jobs largely through U.S. political intervention.

The satellite channel Al-Jazeera has given wide coverage to the rape-slaying, which threatens to stoke public anger in the wake of a series of other cases of U.S. troops killing and abusing Iraqi civilians. At least fourteen U.S. soldiers have thus far been convicted of such crimes.

Last week, seven Marines and one Navy medic were charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of an Iraqi man near Fallujah west of Baghdad.

In Haditha, U.S. officials are investigating allegations that Marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians on Nov 19 in a revenge attack after a fellow Marine died in a roadside bombing. Other war crimes being investigated include:

--- In Salahuddin province, the deaths of three male detainees in May.

--- Near Ramadi, the shooting death of an unarmed Iraqi man in February.

--- At a detention camp in Qaim, the death of an Iraqi soldier in 2003.

Mohammed al-Shekhli of the Transitional Justice Studies Center has called for international intervention:

What happened in Mahmoudiya and Haditha are extreme violations of human rights.
We call on the international community to intervene immediately.

Website: myway.com

Reuters, 06-02-06; 06-06-06
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has strongly condemned the killing of civilians in the western Iraq town of Haditha last November in which U.S. Marines are accused of deliberately killing two dozen Iraqis including men, women, and children.

Although this incident is still under investigation, it has been alleged that some officers attempted to cover up the killings by giving false reports to their superiors.

Last week, Maliki demanded the United States share its files from the investigation with Iraqi authorities. Maliki called the Haditha killings a terrible crime and not merely an unfortunate incident.

President Bush has said he is troubled by news stories about the killings at Haditha. A general at the Pentagon said the incident could complicate the job for the 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

The State Department does not believe the impact of the Haditha incident will compare to the scandal involving torture, humiliation, and other abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, in which photographs showing inhumane treatment of prisoners were published worldwide.

The U.S. government often holds up its own human rights record as an example for other countries. U.S. diplomacy efforts and U.S. credibility have been seriously damaged by the Abu Ghraib scandal. Eleven U.S. soldiers have been convicted so far in connection with the abuse.

The Abu Ghraib incident resulted in public opinion in the United States and throughout the world becoming less supportive of the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

Some U.S. media have compared the Haditha killings to the 1968 My Lai massacre in the Vietnam War, when U.S. soldiers ran amok in the village. That incident also eroded trust in the U.S. forces both in the United States and around the world.

Several days ago Iranian president Mahmood Ahmadinajad wrote a letter to U.S. president George Bush. BBC says the letter "attacks" Bush. CNN says the letter "blasts" Bush. Well I just read the letter and I didn't notice any attacking or blasting.

In his letter, Mr. Ahmadinajad asks valid questions and makes truthful statements about human rights, government, September 11, Christianity, Israel, terrorism.

Maybe they mean Ahmadinajad is attacking Bush with the truth, blasting Bush with the truth?
Yes, that must be what they mean. In fact, I'm sure it is.

Excerpts fron Iran letter:

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There are prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that have not been tried, have no legal representation,
their families cannot see them and are obviously kept in a strange land outside their own
country. There is no international monitoring of their conditions and fate. No one knows
whether they are prisoners, POWs, accused or criminals.

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Mr President,
I am sure you know how – and at what cost – Israel was established:
- Many thousands were killed in the process.
- Millions of indigenous people were made refugees.
- Hundred of thousands of hectares of farmland, olive plantations, towns and villages
were destroyed.

This tragedy is not exclusive to the time of establishment; unfortunately it has been ongoing
for sixty years now.

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The newly elected Palestinian administration recently took office. All independent observes
have confirmed that this government represents the electorate. Unbelievingly, they have put
e elected government under pressure and have advised it to recognise the Israeli regime,
abandon the struggle and follow the programs of the previous government.

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In media charters, correct dissemination of information and honest reporting of a story are
established tenets. I express my deep regret about the disregard shown by certain Western
media for these principles. The main pretext for an attack on Iraq was the existence of
WMDs. This was repeated incessantly – for the public to, finally, believe – and the ground
set for an attack on Iraq.

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In countries around the world, citizens provide for the expenses of governments so that their
governments in turn are able to serve them.

The question here is “what has the hundreds of billions of dollars, spent every year to pay for
the Iraqi campaign, produced for the citizens?”

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