Timing Is Everything

Security in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, where a brutal insurgency once ruled, has improved so drastically that the United States is about to return it to Iraqi control — opening the door to possible further cuts in U.S. troop levels, officials said Wednesday.

[...]

A ceremony marking the Anbar turnover is expected to be held Monday, several U.S. and Iraqi officials said. Each spoke on condition of anonymity because the Iraqi government has not yet announced it.

  AP (Will I be sued?)

Monday – the first day of the GOP convention (Labor Day: another bit of sad irony - or black is whitism - on their part).

But then, Gustav is scheduled to smack down here on the Gulf Coast on Monday, too.

Support Our Troops

The stories are not uncommon: soldier serving in Iraq comes home and falls apart. They don't get the help they need. That help could take lifetimes and tens of thousands of dollars. So I guess we just leave them to their tragedies. This weekend I asked my son if the Army had any counseling or classes to prepare them for tours of duty in Iraq, and he said, "Well, my sergeant said, 'Okay, you have 207 days until you're deployed to Baghdad. Get your mind ready."

I guess that's not enough for soldiers like Joseph Dwyer, who recently died at home in his own feces and urine. You probably remember him from this 2005 photo that the Army/US Government/Media used as PR for our "Mission" in Iraq.

Keepin' Us Safe

Intelligence reports for more than a year had been streaming in about Osama bin Laden’s terrorism network rebuilding in the Pakistani tribal areas, a problem that had been exacerbated by years of missteps in Washington and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, sharp policy disagreements, and turf battles between American counterterrorism agencies.

[A] new plan, outlined in a highly classified Pentagon order, was intended to eliminate some of those battles. And it was meant to pave a smoother path into the tribal areas for American commandos, who for years have bristled at what they see as Washington’s risk-averse attitude toward Special Operations missions inside Pakistan.

[...]

But more than six months later, the Special Operations forces are still waiting for the green light. The plan has been held up in Washington by the very disagreements it was meant to eliminate. A senior Defense Department official said there was “mounting frustration” in the Pentagon at the continued delay.

[...]

American intelligence officials say that the Qaeda hunt in Pakistan, code-named Operation Cannonball by the C.I.A. in 2006, was often undermined by bitter disagreements within the Bush administration and within the C.I.A.

[...]

Current and former military and intelligence officials said that the war in Iraq consistently diverted resources and high-level attention from the tribal areas.

[...]

[It] is increasingly clear that the Bush administration will leave office with Al Qaeda having successfully relocated its base from Afghanistan to Pakistan’s tribal areas, where it has rebuilt much of its ability to attack from the region and broadcast its messages to militants across the world.

[...]

Just as it had on the day before 9/11, Al Qaeda now has a band of terrorist camps from which to plan and train for attacks against Western targets, including the United States. Officials say the new camps are smaller than the ones the group used prior to 2001. However, despite dozens of American missile strikes in Pakistan since 2002, one retired C.I.A. officer estimated that the makeshift training compounds now have as many as 2,000 local and foreign militants, up from several hundred three years ago.

  More – much more – at the NYT

Nice goin’ BushCo. And thanks.

Those Who Don't Learn from the Past

Are doomed to repeat it.

U.S. congressional leaders agreed late last year to President George W. Bush's funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.

The article by reporter Seymour Hersh, from the magazine's July 7 and 14 issue, centers around a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which by U.S. law must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees.

"The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change," the article cited a person familiar with its contents as saying, and involved "working with opposition groups and passing money."

[...]

Funding for the covert escalation, for which Bush requested up to $400 million, was approved by congressional leaders, according to the article, citing current and former military, intelligence and congressional sources.

[...]

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. U.S. Special Operations Forces have been conducting crossborder operations from southern Iraq since last year, the article said.

[...]

But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which include the Central Intelligence Agency, have now been significantly expanded, the article said, citing current and former officials.

[...]

Among groups inside Iran benefiting from U.S. support is the Jundallah, also known as the Iranian People's Resistance Movement, according to former CIA officer Robert Baer. Council on Foreign Relations analyst Vali Nasr described it to Hersh as a vicious organization suspected of links to al Qaeda.

[...]

None of the Democratic leaders in Congress would comment on the finding, the article said. The White House, which has repeatedly denied preparing for military action against Iran, and the CIA also declined comment.

  Raw Story

Recipe for disaster. Let’s use it again.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Good. God. Just, Good God.

[The] Pentagon is working to bring Disneyland to Baghdad. Well, not literally Disneyland, but a massive, Disney-like amusement park to be named the Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience, featuring hotels, lagoons, rides, skateboarding, animals, and… Mickey Mouse?

The BZEE is the brainchild of Llewellyn Werner, head of a Los Angeles based private equity outfit called C3. Investors will put up $500 million to build the enterprise on a 50-acre plot adjacent to Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone. Werner himself informed the Iraqi people last month about the splendiferous playground he’s planning to bring to them. “It’s going to have a huge psychological impact,” Werner said with grandiose Western confidence.

  Jim Hightower

Oh, no doubt.

Maybe he should check with the State Department to see how their humble Hi magazine venture went over first.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Better Off Without Saddam

Basra turned into a battleground between warring Shiite factions vying for control of the country's oil-rich south after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Basra's streets teemed with Shiite militias armed with weapons, mostly from Iran, according to the Iraqi forces and the U.S. military

For four years after the invasion, Basra was under the control of British forces, but they were unable to contain the violence and withdrew in September last year.

Women bore the brunt of the militias' extremist ideologies. The militants spray-painted threats on walls across Basra, warning women to wear headscarves and not to wear make-up. Women were sometimes executed for the vague charge of doing something "un-Islamic."

[...]

Inside her rundown home, Sabriya's watery eyes peer out from under her robe. She points to the first photo of one of her sons on the wall.

"This one was killed because he was drinking," she says.

She draws her finger across her neck and gestures at the next photo.

"This one was slaughtered for his car."

"This one the same," she adds, looking at the third.

Her three sons, her daughter and her sister were all killed by the hard-line militia. Her sister was slaughtered because she was a single woman living alone, Sabriya says.

"They came in at night and put a pillow on her face and shot her in the head," she says.

  CNN

Did He Or Didn't He?

When we last left the escalating Quran shooting incident, we heard that Iraq’s al-Maliki was saying that Bush’s apology was insufficient. It turns out that, in fact, there wasn’t even an apology.

The White House is directly contradicting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki who told Iraqis that President George Bush had apologized for the use of the Quran for target practice. While the distinction may be lost on many between “deep concern” and an “apology,” it will not likely be lost on the Iraqis who are likely to see the distinction as an added insult.

  Jonathan Turley

National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday in one of their regularly scheduled secure video teleconferences.

"President Bush expressed his deep concern over the incident and told Prime Minister Maliki that the soldier has been reprimanded by his commanders and removed from Iraq," Johndroe said.

  CNN

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Escalation

Bush apologized on the phone to Maliki for the U.S. soldier who used the Koran as target practice. Maliki's spokesman says an apology is not enough. Your court.

The pretense of respecting other religions and in particular the one in the country we occupy isn't fooling anybody, is it? Especially not the soldiers who've been enlisted for the crusade.

Put Up Or Shut Up, Condi

Or both.

Keith Olbermann on MSNBC:

"There is no draft, no forced service, right? [...] Tell that to the kids who are stop-loss into their third, fourth, fifth tours in Iraq."

"Tell that now again to the State Department for the second consecutive year, the State is warning its diplomats that there are about 300 openings in Iraq and apparently the number of volunteers is down to roughly zero."

"They may be forced to go there or quit. [...] Secretary of State Rice said that those staffers who have protested the involuntary assignments are offensive to her and cast a very bad light on the Foreign Service."

[...]

"Well, here‘s the suggestion, Madam Secretary, your term is expiring in no more than nine months and four days, why don‘t you show your devotion to the country and that department you‘ve headed and show those who‘ve made those offensive remarks what you‘re made of. [...] Why don‘t you ask the next administration to let you continue to serve to at State at one of those great jobs in Iraq."

  Raw Story

Indeed!

So?

That was a very significant moment at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings with Amb. Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus. Joe Biden asked Amb. Crocker where it would be better for American national security interests to eliminate Al Qaeda in Iraq or Al Qaeda along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Crocker had nowhere to hide with that question. Spencer Ackerman describes the outcome.

Crocker, in an impossible political position -- give the correct answer and humiliate the Bush administration; give the administration's answer and look like a fool -- dodged as much as he could. Then Biden forced him down. Crocker: "I would therefore pick Al Qaeda on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border."

Game over.

  Hullabaloo

He's only an ambassador. What does he know?

Hat tip Maru.

Pentagon Issues Pocket Lie Detectors

I’d like to say they must be kidding, but I’m afraid it’s only par for the course.

The Pentagon is planning to give US troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan "hand-held lie detectors" aimed at rooting out potential insurgents and terrorists. But polygraph experts doubt the system's accuracy and Defense Department memos show results of the few tests that were run were manipulated to demonstrate more success with them than was achieved, according to an MSNBC investigative reporter.

  Raw Story

Of course.

”The portable lie-detectors are far less accurate than a typical polygraph,” which we can’t even use for court trials here, much less throwing somebody into Gitmo – or worse.

Simply insane.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Isn't Freedom Great?

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the the US State Department had renewed the contract of private security company Blackwater USA without the approval of the Baghdad government.

  Raw Story

And what? He was surprised? Surely he can’t believe he’s actually in charge.

I Dares Ya T' Step Over This Line!*

Okay, this line.

The prime minister issued his strongest warning yet to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to disband his Mahdi Army militia or face political isolation. The Sadrists said Monday a move to ban them from elections would be unconstitutional.

  Yahoo

That’s a variation on democracy, guys. We have many.

*Reference

Bubble, Bubble

Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Thursday for a million Iraqis to march against U.S. "occupiers", threatening a massive show of strength a week after his Mehdi Army militia battled U.S. and government troops.

[...]

A statement released by Sadr's office in the holy city of Najaf called on Iraqis of all sects to descend on the southern city, site of annual Shi'ite pilgrimages that attract hundreds of thousands of worshippers.

[...]

"If his intention is to get a whole lot of people together and go and make trouble in Najaf, I don't think that is going to be very popular," U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker told a briefing.

  Reuters

Popular with whom? The US? It might be extremely popular with Iraqis.

Officially, the Iraqi government is sanguine about the march. Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf told Reuters: "The right to hold a peaceful demonstration and express opinions is guaranteed by the constitution."

Yeah, well, we’re about to see.

Looking for Some Reality

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Thursday not to "put a shine on recent events” in Iraq when they testify before Congress next week.

“I hope we don’t hear any glorification of what happened in Basra,” said Pelosi, referring to a recent military offensive against Shiite militants in the city led by the Iraqi government and supported by U.S. forces.

  Politico

She especially doesn’t want them to leave out the part about Iran’s influence in brokering a ceasefire agreement between al-Sadr and the Iraqi government. Something tells me they might be forced to acknowledge it, but they’ll still be polishing that shine.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Bush Junior

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday he planned to launch more security crackdowns like the one in Basra against "criminal gangs" in Baghdad.

  Yahoo

Because the "crackdown" in Basra went so well?!?!?

Even the Bushies are trying to distance themselves from that fiasco. But it gets better.

"We did not make mistakes, but we had points of weakness," al-Maliki said of the performance of the security forces. "We discovered that we have a shortage of appropriate weapons for the fight in Basra which we will work quickly to end."

Has al-Maliki been injecting Botox, too?

This is really quite funny in a pathetic way. You discover your shortage of weapons after you attack? Great planning, dude.

I wonder how he plans to quickly end the fight now that he got it started. Leave?

And his remarks of course precisely describe the entire U.S. situation in Iraq, except that mistakes were definitely made. And al-Maliki’s confidence aside, mistakes were made in his Basra fiasco, too. In fact, in both situations, the first mistake was going in at all.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." --Mark Twain

Had he lived till now, he no doubt would have stopped wondering.

FUBAR

Of the two cities [Basra and Baghdad], Basra is more vulnerable. If Basra falls, then US troops will be forced to move into Basra. Basra is the only port in Iraq - oil gets transported out of there, and it’s also an extremely important supply route for US troops - equipment, food, materials = incredibly vulnerable. This seems to be the plan - draw US troops out of Baghdad to defend Basra. Next: al Sadr supporters storm the Iraqi Government. Declare victory. Demand that the U.S. get out immediately.

  comments at Feral Scholar

We shall see.

SNAFU

President Bush is saying that Iran is, in the words of the Times, "arming, training and financing the militias fighting against the Iraqi forces." Perhaps that's true. But it's hard not to note that the Badr Organization (formerly the Badr Corps), which Maliki has allied himself with, is the outfit that was actually created in Iran under the tutelage and financing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

  TPM

Iran, Iraq. Sadr, Badr. It’s just too much to keep straight for the Little Prince who’s just looking forward to getting to the end of his term so he can go back to the party.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Did I Say Three Days?

Ah, the fine art of the empty threat.

Iraq's PM, who said that militants had three days to disarm and renounce violence, or else, now says they can have until April 8, and he'll pay them for their weapons.

Giving Congress a run for their money on the empty threat award.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

A Ray of Sunshine

Speaking to the Times of London in an interview published Thursday, President George W. Bush declared that the latest wave of violence in Iraq yielded "a very positive moment in the development of a sovereign nation that is willing to take on elements that believe they are beyond the law."

  Raw Story

Jesus Harold Christ on a rubber crutch.

....but hey, say what you want....you will anyway.

Update: And US embassy personnel at Baghdad headquarters have been told to stay indoors, wear protective gear, including helmets, if they must go outside, and sleep in "blast resistant locations."