Walter Cronkite after the Tet Offensive, 1968
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Contents Pages by Subject
WAR: About that War
The War as We Saw It
• NY TimesVIEWED from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population.
Two Of Seven Soldiers Who Wrote New York Times Op-Ed Die In Iraq
• Think ProgressOne of the surviving five authors, Staff Sgt. Jeremy Murphy, was shot in the head while the article was being written. He is expected to recover.
Admiral Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge
• IPS NewsPetraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of Central Command, derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March. Fallon told Petraeus he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" an
'Six Months' Without End
• Washington PostThe next six months in Iraq are crucial -- and always will be. That noise you heard was the can being kicked further down the road leading to January 2009, when George W. Bush gets to hand off his Iraq fiasco to somebody else.
Surging Toward Iran
• AntiwarSen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) at the Petraeus-Crocker hearings: "Where is this going? … Are we going to continue to invest American blood and treasure at the same rate we are doing now. For what? The president said let's buy time. Buy time? For wh
After two days, no answer to 'how this ends'
• McClatchy NewsThere was one question Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, couldn't, or wouldn't, answer. It was the question Petraeus posed rhetorically back in 2003 when he led the
Troop blogs show increasing criticism of war
• APIn the past year, as soldiers and Marines return for the second, third or even fourth deployments, and the death toll approaches 4,000, some soldiers began questioning the war.
Americans are now in a familiar tight spot
• Toronto SunMany of the same mistakes made in the Vietnam War are being repeated in Iraq and Afghanistan, but neither the White House, Pentagon, nor U.S. field commanders seem to recognize or understand them. Gen. Petreaus will issue a report on the "progre
US officials begin crafting Iran bombing plan
• Faux NewsA recent decision by German officials to withhold support for any new sanctions against Iran has pushed a broad spectrum of officials in Washington to develop potential scenarios for a military attack on the Islamic regime
Instead of going home, British troops headed to Iranian border:
• Raw StoryAs tension between the United Sates an Iran increases, military action along the Iran-Iraq border intensifies. Ostensibly to guard against importation of Iranian weapons and fighters targeting Western troops in Iraq, the UK is sending up to 350 tro
Why wasn't General Betrayus sworn in before CONgress?
• AntiWarIt dawned on me when House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) invited Gen. Petraeus to make his presentation, Skelton forgot to ask him to take the customary oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I had
Bob Schieffer: Is it worth the cost?
• Crooks & Liars (video)We haven’t lost this war, but we’re not winning it. We’re hanging on. Victory would be obvious, Iraqi families would be strolling the streets of Baghdad and Osama Bin Laden would be walking out of a cave somewhere with his hands up. Instead of that q
A Month of Malarkey
• AntiWarThe reports can be summed up as we are making some progress here, not so much there, and we need more time. And, of course, more money. The rhetoric will be like the wind, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Bush people lie like a drunken fis
Gen. Jones: US occupation of Iraq appears permanent
• Raw Story"The notion that we're not going to be there forever flies in the face of what we see on the ground," Jones adds.
Thousands of GIs Cope With Brain Damage
• APThousands of troops have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, or TBI. These blast-caused head injuries are so different from the ones doctors are used to seeing from falls and car crashes that treating them is as much faith as it is science.
Damn, It’s Nam – Again!
• Eric Margolis for LewRockwell.comThe "successes" being reported from Iraq and Afghanistan are illusory. We heard exactly the same story during the Vietnam War, when US military spokesmen trumpeted glowing daily reports about enemy body counts....
New Twist In Saga Over ‘Petraeus Report’: There Will Be No Report
• Think ProgressIn the latest twist to the ongoing saga over the Petraeus White House report, a senior military official tells the Washington Times today that there will actually be no report at all:
Cheney: No more troops needed for Iraq
• APEven in 2003, top generals predicted we would need to keep a large combat force in Iraq for years after toppling Hussein’s government. Dick Cheney, Vice President and former Secretary of Defense, did not agree with the generals…but the generals were
Czech body armour found with Iraqi insurgents
• Sunday Herald(Scotland)Hundreds of Iraqi insurgents killed or captured in battle by American-led coalition forces have been found to be wearing state-of-the-art Czech-manufactured body armour. The latest findings have added to mounting concern about the quantity
New armor-piercing grenade causing US casualties in Iraq
• Raw Story (video)The Russian-made device is light enough to be thrown by a single insurgent standing alongside a road and is equipped with a parachute so that it falls vertically on its target and can take out even armored vehicles.
Bush's War Saves 300,000 Iraqi Lives!
• Don PolsonThe recent collapse of the real estate market has taken its toll on some who earn their living there. Here a realtor has gone off the rails and taken up neocon statistics. Faux News breeds Faux Statistics! If ignorance is strength, then Mr. Polson is
CRS find Al-Qaeda violence limited in Iraq
• Think ProgressBut in a new report, the Congressional Research Service notes that attacks from al Qaeda are only a small percentage of the violence in Iraq, criticizing the Bush adminstration's statistics and noting that this false reporting on AQi has increase
Iraq Debate is a Sea of Statistics
• APIn vertical bars of blue, green, gray and red, a briefing chart prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency says what Gen. David Petraeus won't. Insurgent attacks against Iraqi civilians, their security forces and US troops remain high
US bribe insurgents to fight Al-Qaeda
• Times OnlineAmerican forces are paying Sunni insurgents hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to switch sides and help them to defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The tactic has boosted the efforts of American forces to restore some order(Can you say blowback)
US auditor queries military Iraq casualty figures
• AFPAn independent US government auditor on Friday cast doubt on US military statistics expected to show a huge dip in sectarian violence in Iraq under the current troop surge strategy. Comptroller General David Walker said there was a
Olbermann: Surge debate already over, Bush wins 'shell game'
• Raw Story (video)Since last spring, the White House has been saying the nation should reserve debate about America's presence in Iraq and the possibility of withdrawal until after Gen. Petraeus delivers his report on the effectiveness of the surge. Today we learn
DEMOCRATIC RETREAT ON IRAQ?
• NBCIt's clear now that Democratic leaders on both sides of the Capitol are moving towards dropping their insistence on a end date deadline for completing troop withdrawal from Iraq. Senate leaders are likely to move a defense measure on the week of
Will the Press Again Serve as 'Surge Protectors'?
• Editor & PublisherEveryone remembers the media failures in the run-up to the war. But nearly as tragic was the performance by the press in the weeks before the "surge" was announced in January. Now what will happen over the next few days?
Don't believe the surge hype
• SalonThe Petraeus road show will roll into Washington with dubious claims that troop increases have reduced violence.
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