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While St. McCain runs around patting himself on the back for supporting the Bush/McCain Surge, here’s what’s really happening in Iraq:
Newly declassified statistics on the frequency of insurgent attacks in Iraq suggest that after major security gains last fall in the wake of an American troop increase, the conflict has drifted into a stalemate, with levels of violence remaining stubbornly constant from November 2007 through early 2008.
The new figures, presented Tuesday at a Senate hearing in Washington by David M. Walker, the top official at the Government Accountability Office, emerged a day after eight American soldiers were killed in bomb attacks, five in downtown Baghdad and three in Diyala Province. And the trend appeared to continue Tuesday, as bombings and small-arms attacks led to casualties among Iraqi civilians and security forces in or near at least eight cities.
…
In a report presented to the Senate Appropriations Committee, Mr. Walker, the comptroller general, acknowledged that the insurgent attacks tallied by the American military had decreased to an average of about 60 a day in January, in the latest available count, from about 180 a day in June 2007.
But that lower number, which is roughly equivalent to the levels of violence in the spring of 2005, has remained essentially unchanged since the last significant decrease between October and November.
Funny, when the Bush/McCain Surge was announced, I don’t recall the stated goal being reducing the level of violence in Iraq to 2005 levels, while the Mahdi army takes a breather.
Meanwhile, in the Republicans’ other lost war:
Insurgent and terrorist violence in Afghanistan increased sharply in 2007, with over 8,000 conflict-related deaths and an average of more than 500 incidents per month, according to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
In a report to the U.N. Security Council on Monday, Ban said that while the insurgency draws strength from some Afghans, "the support of foreign-based networks in providing leadership, planning, training, funding and equipment clearly remains crucial to its viability."
Insurgent violence in Afghanistan is at its highest level since U.S. forces invaded the country in 2001 to oust the hard-line Islamic Taliban rulers, who harbored al-Qaida leaders blamed for planning the attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
7 years after 9/11, no victory in Afghanistan, no victory in Iraq.
No end in sight.
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Mornin BT
I’m off, back to that place again, see you all in a half hour.
That’s what we call “spreadin freedum”
Prof. Juan Cole has an article on Bush/McBush over @ Salon today:
John McCain Runs for Bush’s 3rd Term
Digg it!
BT, in that picture,
is that the light at the end of the tunnel?
OT: Here’s why Admiral Fallon opposed war with Iran: http://www.agoracosmopolitan.c…..01932.html
The oncoming train…
America is a Warfare State. We the people expendable. Wars are not. Money makes the world go round, world go round, world go round….
And of course, they always cite the decline in violence compared to June 2007 the absolute peak, just like they carefully choose dates like “since June 2003″ for their economic statistics to make themselves look as good as possible.
Figures don’t lie, but liars can figure.
I don’t know how Condi Rice sleeps a night and looks in the mirror in the morning. She and McBush are reflections of each other. No conscience. Twisted souls.
OT – Safety of the food supply hearing on C-SPANIII today at 10:45 PT. Topics included food processing technology, recent incidents of contamination, and proposed changes to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
We may have less control over fresh produce but we, as consumers, have great control over processed foods. Don’t buy them unless you are 100% certain the country of origin has very strict laws in their own country.
Ahem, You might be saying more than you realize here…*g*
She sleeps in a big and fluffy comfortable bed. She sleeps deeply. Just like Shotgun Dick, Chimpy, Pickles and the girls, Kristol, Friedman, and the rest of the plutocrats.
Bush feels just fine about himself because, as Bob Geldoff will tell he’s done a lot for Africa.
Kinda like Columbian drug lords who build clinics and soccer fields.
They don’t need to witness the dirty work that happens in their name…Unless they want to see a video tape, which can easily be gotten for thrills.
-G
Well, at least the drug lords build clinics and soccer fields.
from your link -
I of course spewed at the “making accountable”
all we have left is that those skippers now deployed are in lockstep with the current Chair of the JCS
and that all the players really get the level of recklessness they are dealing with
The media blackout on showing coffins coming home and the horrors of the wounded has inured this country to the actualities of the consequences of war.
No one is being bombarded every night on the news of footage of gun battles and roadside bombs going off, the images of children missing limbs, the real victims, so no one gives a fuck. it isn’t in their thought stream.Instead everyone is concerned that gas prices are going up again.
Hope to catch a rerun of that hearing after the “bidness” of Congress is over today. I HATE how little the dims have managed to accomplish since 2006 but the one silver lining is at least there *are* hearings being held (regardless of the outcome) vs. the fact the thugs almost never held one. :-( Think about how little we would know about what’s been going on; may be one of the reasons more people are voting dem.
Have you read the book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan? He recommends buying as few foods from the interior of the store (which is where all the processed stuff hangs out) vs. around the edges. Makes excellent sense.
OT-but thought you might be interested in my Congresscritter’s position on FISA:
With a mindset like this, where do you even begin?!! My fellow citizens here actually elected this fellow!
Why trouble our beautiful minds when we can watch Brittany Spears suffering from mental illness or speculate on Eliot Spitzer’s penis?
-G
Why is congress person a propaganda tool?
Why do I have a hunch that the WH blast-faxed all their Congressminions this text to use in constituent letters…. maybe we should compare notes district to district….
The UAE may take Alan Greenspins advice and unpeg from the US dollar. While the US dollar hits record lows against the Euro.
-G
that would be informative. wonder who wrote the draft.
I like that! It can be a simple shopping plan anyone can use. I just realized that is basicaly what I do and never realized it.
At the ballot box was my first (flippant) thought but maybe earlier than that wold be good. Find a viable candidate in opposition to the twit and send her/him some money or volunteer or both. We have to drag these bastards out by their roots. Good luck
Eat organic and buy local
OT–
Slida with Eliot as he leaves his 5th Avenue apartment en route to announce his resignation…
Now on topic, great post Blue Texan. I am supposed to go to a party for a soldier on leave and returning home for 18 days. He is my niece’s step-son. When I talked to my niece, she says he hears the bombs “all the time!” He is stationed between the airport and Baghdad proper. I said I thought the surge was supposed to be working, but she said the bombing continues and it’s always in and around Baghdad. I told her I thought it was supposed to be even worse around Tikrit.
When I asked her whether he’s home for good, she said no, but he said he’s not going to re-up. She said she’s just hoping that they don’t extend his stay there to fifteen months; I said she ought not to worry about that; instead she should worry that they don’t send him back, since some soldiers are sent back for two or three tours or more. She said she realizes that they could keep him there regardless that he doesn’t re-up, but she’s hoping for the better. I’ve mentioned before, this young man has only one kidney, and he married a young woman with a pre-school child just before he left for basic. I hope he makes it through this period. I wish I could understand why young people would volunteer for this mess to begin with.
Other Pollan suggestions:
Repugnican talking points in action! You might say they are walking Rethug talking points!
Sounds good to me! This was my contribution.
Have to leave for work just as Spitz takes the long walk to the podium.
After his presser & the talking heads aftermath will it be possible to get this story onto the backburner of the news cycle? I’m holding the thought.
Read you all later.
kinda like a chain store, just fill up the space and sell the goods.
The best option of all! I’m fortunate. I moved to an area that has many small organic farmers so I buy direct such items as local honey, local produce and can enjoy the good life. This is a lot harder for people who live in cities, work, rear kids and do all the things it takes to run a home. They are stuck with Whole Foods. Their grocery bill knocks me for a loop.
The grocery stores here also buy from local farmers if they want to stay in business. This is a unique situation. When I lived in Reno I didn’t have much in the way of options. In fact, my options were zilch. The produce in the couple of “organic” markets looked like Safeway’s throwaways. That’s hard on people.
An army officer (has a wife and two kids) developed a serious type of cancer. He received treatment and his cancer went into remission. He had a few years to go til retirement. He reenlisted for a couple years more, believing he would not be sent back to Iraq after his recovery from cancer. He’s currently in the Green Zone. Many officers end up there. A friend of his was recently shot in the head and killed by a stray bullet that went into his tent while he was exercising.
If our kids were still young & in school, I’d avoid school lunches and send ‘em from home. I’d fear the school lunch food sources, being subsidized, more likely to end up being from unreliable sources. Maybe I’m wrong. But it’s hard to trust as much as we once did.
back again pups
(get ready for the understatement of the day)–> man, our country is in a world of hurt.
contaminated water and food sources, ever growing social divide, countless men, women and children losing their lives over a senseless war, a totally witless, souless administration, etc.
Not even like shooting fish in a barrel — ducks in a bathtub, more like. Never did see the sense of pouring an openwater fleet into a salt lake. Weren’t there examples going back to the ’60s and even to WWII about scheming to see what events could be put together that would incite a desired war; something in the threads a few months ago. Sacrifice a plane supposed to be full of students in order to justify an invasion of Cuba? This would be kind of a variation on a false flag op. Yeah, the Iranians sank the carrier group, but what choice did we give them?
The New York Times does not quite have this right.
The “major security gains” came about from bribing the Sunni warlords, the after-effects of ethnic cleansing, and Sadr’s cease-fire. The additional troops were not the primary reason for the reduction in violence. In fact all the increase in troop strength managed to accomplish was to defer the violence. And in doing so the total violence and deaths will be greater than if there had been no increase in troop strength.
The only way to peace in Iraq is to withdraw the US occupying forces.
yup
no country wants foreigners occupying their land
corrected.
It’s been said before, but I’ll repeat it here again: The battle for the control of Bagdad (Sunni vs shiite) has only begun. Much, much more of this to come.