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After reading Sy Hersch's story in the New Yorker about General Taguba's forced retirement and subsequent questioning by the Senate, it's again made perfectly clear how obvious and putrid this Bushwar is.Taguba clearly states that the higher highers in both civilian and military leadership had to know about the activities at Abu Graib. Since you can't get a hell of lot higher in the Army than Major General, this would suggest the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Congress, not to mention the White House.
Now we hear people in the Congress whining about the Iraqi's lack of effort to rebuild their own country after Americans blew it up. Killed close to a million Iraqis now, and God only knows what the REAL number of US casualties is.
This totally sidesteps the 3 or so million returnees with mostly loss of limbs and minds. The Iraqi's have made great use of Improvised Explosive Devices. I can't begin to count the number of times I've heard about a Humvee being blown to hell by a roadside bomb (IED).
All of this alleged advanced technology and fancy training seems to be largely a myth. It doesn't matter how you slice it, Americans in Iraq are continuing to commit any number of a HUGE litany of crimes. How is impossible to "support" people that willingly continue to behave in this way?
Raw sewage still flows through streets in Baghdad and other cities and towns. Electricity is a luxury, as is clean drinking water. People can't go to markets for fear of being killed by Iraqi insurgents. That's right, IRAQI insurgents.
Despite the Bush Cartel's continuing attempt to foist this catastrophe (as well as anything else world wide) on Al Qaeda, the insurgents are largely pissed off Iraqis. Al Qaeda never counted for more than 4 or 5 percent of the "illegal enemy combatants." Another comical phrase coined by the Bush people.
The US military continues with insane zeal to return Iraq to the desert from which it arose, then head off to another fight leaving the newly leveled city or town to the insurgents. They end up taking and retaking the same real estate! A country with a few thousand years history laid waste by America!
Only an idiot repeats failed behavior expecting different results. There is nothing patriotic about this war, and ABSOLUTELY nothing to celebrate. No yellow ribbons, no medals, not a single thing but disgust is warranted here.
These American soldiers are not children. They are old enough to vote, and procreate. Even the dumbest fools don't leave these sorts of tasks to children, or shouldn't anyway. Further, if you continue to "support the troops," one has to assume they are not bright enough to realize they are committing colossal crimes. There are such things as unlawful orders. This time in the US military's history would be an excellent example of the continued issuance of unlawful orders.
Kind of hard to avoid this given the fact that the "president" is yet to be elected legally and therefore is not the commander in chief of anything except the boats in his bathtub. George claims to be a "commander guy" since Rumsfeld was fired. He listens to his battlefield commanders, or so he says, then fires them one by one for disagreeing with him.
Are American troops unaware of what they are doing? Shooting women and children? Is this the American way? Raping women, girls and boys? Is this part of military training? How many more excuses will the American people make for their lack of action to stop this by requiring en masse, the resignation of the Bush People, and their surrender to custody?
Tony Blair is walking around London with a size 15 in his ass! No Confidence! Why not George et al? It isn't proper to call American troops "victims" of this war, nor is it correct to require the Iraqi's to take responsibility for the largest US screwup in American History.
Even the puppet government assembled by the Bush Crew is revolting against US occupation. Some might say the Iraqi's voted for these miscreants, however, they were picked by the Bush Cartel and foisted on the Iraqis. Most Iraqis that voted, and this number is smaller than Rumsfeld suggested, didn't have any idea who these stooges were.
So, no, there is no democratically elected government in Iraq. None the less, Mr. Maliki is very disappointed in his boss, George Bush.
America wrecked Iraq and Afghanistan. It follows then, America is directly responsible for restoring these countries to at least, prewar conditions. Instead, the largest US embassy in the world is being built as well as Military bases in a country it is hated by.
There are, I suppose, still American people who'll still expectorate "well, at least Hussein is gone!" I'd suspect, though, that many of Hussein's detractors in Iraq would pay to have him back.
Despite the trashing of two sovereign countries by the US, a violation of International Law, the American people will continue, without abatement to do nothing to stop this instrument of crime against humanity until they get yet another chance to see how dead the American system of government is in '08
