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ENOUGH:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

U.S. soldiers provide first aid to their colleagues injured in an attack on their armored vehicle in central Baghdad, May 4, 2006. A roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy on a service road near the airport road. Witnesses said one soldier was wounded and evacuated by helicopter. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

“It’s Not Worth It”
“We’re Fighting And Dying For Nothing”

May 4, 2006 By Graham Rayman, Newsday

NEW YORK: When Jose Gomez was recalled by the U.S. Army last year and sent back to Iraq for a second tour, he knew his mother would be afraid for him. So he told her a story: He was attending school in Texas.

Last weekend, Maria Gomez, 54, learned the truth when two soldiers arrived at her Queens apartment and told her that her son had been killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.

“He didn’t want her to worry,’’ Gomez’s stepfather, Felix Jimenez, 45, said Tuesday.

On his first tour, his family said, Gomez lost his fiancee when she was killed while serving in Iraq in 2003.

Gomez, 23, a reserve sergeant with the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division, was killed April 28 by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. Gomez, manning the machine gun on a Humvee, survived one roadside bomb before bomb that would kill him detonated, Jimenez said.

In the modest two-bedroom apartment in Corona where the Dominican immigrant grew up, Maria Gomez paged through photos of her son and spoke of his conscientious nature. “He was simple, he was thoughtful, he was everything to me,’’ she said.

She said she earns $9 an hour packing air fresheners at a Long Island plant. “He never forgot my birthday, and always sent me flowers.’’

Jimenez, a truck driver for the city Department of Environmental Protection, spoke of his love for his stepson, but he also expressed strong views on the war.

“I don’t agree with it,’’ he said.

“It’s not worth it. We’re fighting and dying for nothing.’’

Hoping to raise money for a college education, Gomez joined the U.S. Army in 2000, soon after he graduated from high school.

“He wanted to study, and we were poor, so I thought that it was a good idea for him to join,’’ Maria Gomez said.

At basic training in Fort Hood, Texas, he met Ana Laura Esparza Gutierrez, 21, a private first class from Houston. The couple became engaged in 2003 while they were both serving in Iraq, where Gomez was a mechanic working on Bradley fighting vehicles and Gutierrez was a military police officer.

Oct. 1, 2003, Gutierrez was killed by a bomb blast, along with two other soldiers. Rather than attending a wedding, Gomez attended her funeral in Texas.

“He never talked about his feelings afterward,’’ Jimenez said, nodding at photographs of a smiling Gutierrez stacked on top of the television. “He kept them close to his chest. He was always very private.’’

It was in part the loss of Gutierrez that led Gomez to decide not to re-enlist in 2004 when his term was up and to pursue a career in accounting, his family said.

He left active duty and came home to Corona, where he met Marie Canario, 21, a student at Suffolk Community College, while they were both shopping in the Queens Center Mall.

In 2005, the Army recalled Gomez from reserve status and sent him back to Iraq, Canario said.

“He found out on a Thursday and had to go on a Monday,’’ she said. “He had to go, but I don’t think he wanted to go. I was crying and upset, but he said, `Don’t worry about me.’’’

Before he left, the couple became engaged. Gomez took Canario to a jewelry store where he showed her a selection of 14 rings and asked her to choose. “He never liked to make those kinds of decisions,’’ she said.

While in the Army, Gomez dutifully deposited money in his mother’s bank account, often his entire paycheck, his mother said. But she questioned why his checks still said `Army’ when she thought he was out of the service.

Not wanting her to worry, she said, her son had concocted the story that he was in school in Texas, when he was not only in the Army, but also serving in Iraq. It was only when the two soldiers came to the apartment to tell her that her son was dead that she learned the truth.

Canario said she spoke by phone with Gomez frequently while he was in Iraq. Last Thursday was their final conversation. “He said he was tired,’’ she said. “We talked about the flowers he wanted to get his mom for Mother’s Day.’’

While details are not finalized, Gomez’s funeral will likely be early next week, his family said. The family is awaiting the arrival of Gomez’s older brother, Severino Peralta, 27, of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

MND B Soldier Dies In Non-Combat Related Incident

May 3, 2006 MULTI-NATIONAL DIVISION BAGHDAD 4th Infantry Division Release A060503f

BAGHDAD, Iraq: A Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldier died in a non-combat related incident at 4:30 p.m. May 3.

Two U.S. Soldiers Killed By Bomb In Baghdad

U.S. soldiers provide first aid to their colleagues injured in an attack, as smoke rises from their armored vehicle in Baghdad, Thursday, May 4, 2006. A roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy on a service road near the airport road. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

May 4, 2006 BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)

A roadside bomb killed two U.S. Army soldiers in Baghdad on Thursday, the military said.

The Multinational Division-Baghdad soldiers died at about 11:45 a.m. when their vehicle was struck by the bomb in south-central Baghdad.

NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER
Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers. www.traveling-soldier.org/ And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! (www.ivaw.net)

Suffield Native Killed In Iraq

Stephen Bixler of Suffield, Conn. was killed in Iraq May 4, 2006, while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps on his second tour of duty in Iraq. (AP Photo/Bixler Family)

05/04/2006 By: Jennifer Hoyt, Journal Inquirer

SUFFIELD: “Devastated,” is the only way to describe the community today, residents said, after news spread that Suffield native Stephen Bixler was killed while serving with the Marine Corps in Iraq.

No details were available this morning on how or when Bixler was killed, but friends say his family was informed of his death by the Marines today.

Administrators and students at Suffield High School, where Bixler graduated in 2003, were extremely shaken by the news this morning, said Officer Peter Osowiecki, a police officer stationed at the school.

In addition to being an Eagle Scout, Bixler was a top track star when he was at the high school. He joined the Marines right after completing high school, said Donald Miner, a family friend.

Miner said Bixler’s recent tour of duty was his second in Iraq.

Bixler is survived by his parents, Linda and Richard Bixler, and his sister, Sandra Bixler.

Meanwhile, students at the high school are reeling from the incident, which has made the seemingly distant war painfully personal, Osowiecki said.

“A lot of people don’t really know what’s going on over there, but this hits close to home,” he said. “They all woke up.”

Soldier From Lexington Killed

Apr. 26, 2006 By Jillian Ogawa, HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

A Kentucky soldier was among three from the Army’s 4th Infantry Division killed in a roadside bombing in Iraq, the Army said.

Sgt. Robert W. Ehney, 26, of Lexington, was killed Sunday when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee near Taji, Iraq.

Sgt. Ehney was serving his second tour, which started in December, his father, Harry Ehney, said.

“I am very proud of the man he became,” Mary Beth Ehney said of her son. “He was proud of being a good soldier, he was a good father, he was a good son, a good brother.”

Robert Ehney moved to Lexington six years ago with his parents, who relocated from Casper, Wyo. He had been in the Army for three years.

His parents described their son as a caring person, especially for the soldiers he led.

“He told my wife and I that he was concerned about the young guys,” Harry Ehney said.

“He wanted to be all macho on the outside but a marshmallow on the inside,” Mary Beth Ehney said. “He was just a kind person.”

Family members were able to speak with Sgt. Ehney over the phone once or twice a week in the past few months, Harry Ehney said.

“He always had a dry sense of humor,” Harry Ehney said. “That’s the thing we try to remember the most about him.”

Killed in the same attack were Cpl. Jason B. Daniel, 21, of Fort Worth, Texas; and Cpl. Shawn T. Lasswell Jr., 21, of Reno, Nev.

All three were assigned to the 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Hood, Texas.

Funeral arrangements are being made at Kerr Brothers Funeral Home on Harrodsburg Road.

Sgt. Ehney is survived by a son, William Jacob Ehney, 4.

He had proposed to his fiancee, Amanda Applegate of Maysville, in October and planned to be married after he finished his deployment.

Sgt. Ehney is the fourth Lexington soldier to be killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO COMPREHENSIBLE REASON TO BE IN THIS EXTREMELY HIGH RISK LOCATION AT THIS TIME, EXCEPT THAT A CROOKED POLITICIAN WHO LIVES IN THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU THERE, SO HE WILL LOOK GOOD.
That is not a good enough reason.

U.S. soldiers of the 101st Airborne’s 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, scan streets for insurgents from a rooftop in Ramadi ahead of a gunbattle April 22, 2006. U.S. soldiers patrolling in Ramadi say that enemy contact is so regular, they can make accurate estimates of how long it will take to be shot at after the start of their patrols. Estimates range from 45 minutes for one company to just 8 minutes for another. (AP Photo/Todd Pitman)

Ramadi Air Raid Butchers 13 More Civilians

May 04, 2006 News Limited

AT least 13 people were killed in an air assault by US forces on a house in Ramadi today, medics said.

“US planes bombed a house in Aziziyah area of Ramadi city centre, killing 13 civilians,” Ali al-Obeidi, a medic at the Ramadi hospital said, adding that four people were wounded.

The US military confirmed it had conducted the assault but did not give casualty figures.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

“A Point Of No Return”

March/April 2006 By Sarah Chayes, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [Excerpts]

Last fall, an elderly gentleman came by my house, located on a dirt street near the Kandahar bazaar. His eyes were a little rheumier than I remembered, his white beard wispier. A shawl was draped across the top of his turban and around his shoulders to protect against the autumn chill.

He is the village elder of a hamlet I used to visit regularly, located in a tangle of pomegranate orchards just beyond a line of rocky hills that looks like the crenelated back of a dinosaur. The dairy cooperative I was running then used to collect milk there every morning, two liters from one family, five from another, carried to our truck by children and oldsters in a riot of receptacles. Now, in fulfillment of a year-old promise, I wanted to buy pomegranates from this village.

I apologized to the old man for sending my staff to fetch him. “I didn’t want to come see you myself,” I said, “for fear of causing you trouble.”

“No, no,” he answered with a frank smile. “I wouldn’t have given you permission to come.”

This is the second Kandahar-area farmer who has broken with the deep-rooted local tradition of hospitality—as well as the lure of a higher price for his produce—and asked me not to approach his village, for fear of retaliation once I leave.

Even more than the frequent explosions aimed at U.S. or Canadian military convoys, the ambushes, and the murders in mosques, these polite refusals of concrete assistance by struggling villagers signal how far the security situation has deteriorated in the past year.

In reality, the four years since the Taliban’s demise have been characterized by a steady erosion of security in distinct phases.

The most recent phase, signaled by the rebuffs I received from the farmers, may represent a point of no return.

These rebuffs are the consequence of a highly effective intimidation campaign that has been carried out in tightening circles around Kandahar by, for lack of a better term, resurgent Taliban. Handbills appear in village mosques threatening anyone who dares collaborate with foreigners or the Afghan government. Homes receive armed visitors, demanding provisions or other assistance.

One of my farmer friends, afraid even to pronounce their name, refers to them as “fairies who come at night.”

The Afghan government’s response to these developments has been characteristically weak.

Despite a change in governors in Kandahar, provincial officials and security forces continue to act as predators, amassing money and power, treating inhabitants like dirt rather than serving and protecting them.

[T]he Afghan security forces have adopted a war-fighting mentality from their American mentors and sally forth on occasional raids, the soldiers sporting dark glasses and hostile attitudes. Then they return to town, leaving the people alone to deal with the consequences, at the hands of the “fairies who come at night.”

U.S. officials are practically ignorant of this silent advance of fear.

And their response to the exposed tip of the iceberg—open violence—has been misguided. Despite tough proclamations and battles against so-called insurgents in isolated valleys, U.S. military and civilian officials remain obsessed with “Al Qaeda” and any possible manifestations of an Osama bin Laden-style, ideological confrontation. This concern acts as a set of blinkers, blinding Americans to the real problems in Afghanistan and vastly contributing to the Afghans’ disillusionment.

Even the “suicide bombings” in Afghanistan that have garnered mentions in the Western press of late are often something else.

In one case I investigated carefully—the target, an Afghan official, was a friend of mine—much evidence contradicted the notion that the attack was a suicide bombing, as it was immediately labeled: the condition of my friend’s body, the type and location of the survivors’ wounds, and eyewitness descriptions.

Everything pointed to a remote-controlled mine planted ahead of time. But no Afghan or U.S. official bothered to collect this evidence or to examine it seriously when it was presented to them.

Why such sloppiness?

Because the terrorist suicide bombing explanation suits everyone. Americans are comfortable spending their resources searching for the Al Qaeda bogeyman; the real perpetrators take cover behind the Al Qaeda label; and Afghan officials are absolved of complicity or incompetence and the responsibility to properly investigate.

U.S. personnel cling to the fictions that Afghans are responsible for the local officials who rule over them—despite the overwhelming moral and material support the United States has provided these officials—and that the Pakistani government is cooperating in the war on terror.

And so the Afghan villagers, frightened, vulnerable, and disillusioned, are obliged to come to terms with the “fairies who come at night.”

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

TROOP NEWS

“CID Is A Joke And A Pawn Of The Army Leadership”

April 25, 2006 by Dave DeBatto, Davedebatto.com [Excerpt]

The New York Times today reported that Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, an Army reserve officer and former director of the Joint Interrogation Facility (JIF) at Abu Ghraib, is going to face several charges in relation to the ongoing abuse probe at the prison.

According to the NYT story, those charges will include: Dereliction of Duty; Lying to Investigators and Conduct Unbecoming and Officer. All of those charges, especially the latter one, are serious charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The possible penalties for Lt. Col. Jordan if he is found guilty range from a letter of reprimand to incarceration and a bad conduct discharge with loss of all benefits. It is serious stuff, no doubt about it.

And it’s about time.

If the charges are actually filed, Jordan would become the first commissioned officer charged in the Abu Ghraib case. In fact, he would be the only commissioned officer charged from the detainee abuse investigations at either Abu Ghraib or GITMO. And it has only taken 2/12 years to get to this point.

The wheels of injustice sure spin very slowly at the Pentagon, don’t they?

In all that time, only seven lower ranking enlisted reservists have been charge in either investigation, despite testimony in ever case that went to trial about complicity by higher ranking commissioned officers in the abuses.

One of the central figures in the whole Abu Ghraib case, Col. Thomas M. Pappas, was only given a letter of reprimand and an $8,000.00 fine.

Pappas was in command of the entire prison in addition to being commander of the Intelligence unit there.

As such, and by ever manual, regulation and tradition of the United States Army, he is responsible for all actions committed under his command: no exceptions.

Yet, he has been given immunity in order to testify at trial, he remains of active duty (in Germany I believe) and he will probably finish out his career and receive his full pension and benefits.

In the meantime, several of low ranking enlisted soldiers under his command are serving hard time in prison right now for their actions at Abu Ghraib and will be given a dishonorable discharge upon their release with resultant loss of all benefits. Some have already been dishonorably discharged.

I don’t want to hear from any officer apologists about what a “career ender” a letter of reprimand is either. A letter of reprimand versus prison and a dishonorable discharge: there is no comparison, sorry.

I’m sure any one of the Abu Ghraib seven would gladly change places with Pappas in a heartbeat, don’t you?

To be honest, I sick of reading and hearing about Abu Ghraib and all the foot dragging going on by the DoD investigators in this case. Even the Keystone Cops would have wrapped this thing up long ago.

In my opinion, CID is a joke and a pawn of the Army leadership. They investigate as much or as little as their handlers allow them to investigate.

It has gotten so bad as a matter of fact, that I am calling for an independent office to investigate serious crimes such as detainee abuse and war crimes committed by Army personnel.

The Department of the Army has proven time and time again both through their Office of Inspector general and the CID that the political wind at the Pentagon blows them in whatever direction covers their tracks more efficiently and completely.

And if you think that ain’t so, try reporting an incident of detainee abuse or any serious wrong doing by a commissioned officer through your Army chain of command and see what happens to you.

I’ll be here waiting to hear from you.

“400 Soldiers Killed In Action Were Listed As Owing Money To The Government”
“A Soldier’s Family Had No Money To Pay Bills And Had To Send An 11-Year-Old Daughter To Live Out Of State”

[Thanks to Phil G and PB who sent this in.]

April 27, 2006 By Donna St. George, Washington Post Staff Writer

Nearly 900 soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan have been saddled with government debts as they have recovered from war, according to a report that describes collection notices going out to veterans with brain damage, paralysis, lost limbs and shrapnel wounds.

The report from the Government Accountability Office, to be released at a hearing today, details how long-recognized problems with military computer systems led to the soldiers being dunned for an array of debts related to everything from errors in paychecks to equipment left behind on the battlefield.

“We found that hundreds of separated battle-injured soldiers were pursued for collection of military debts incurred through no fault of their own,” the report said.

Last fall, the Army said 331 soldiers had been hit with military debt after being wounded at war. The latest figures show that a larger group of 900 battle-wounded troops has been tagged with debts.

“It’s unconscionable,” said Ryan Kelly, 25, a retired staff sergeant who lost a leg to a roadside bomb and then spent more than a year trying to fend off a debt of $2,231. “It’s sad that we’d let that happen.”

Kelly recalled the day in 2004 when, months after learning to walk on a prosthesis, he opened his mailbox to find a letter saying he was in debt to the government — and in jeopardy of referral to a collection agency.

“It hits you in the gut,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Thanks for your service, and now you owe us.’ “

The computer system is so broken that 400 soldiers killed in action were listed as owing money to the government, although no debt notices were sent, the report said.

A total of $1.5 million in debts has been linked to the 400 fallen soldiers and 900 wounded troops. Of the total, $124,000 has been repaid. The government has waived $959,000, and the remainder of $420,000 is still owed.

Michael Hurst, a former Army finance officer in Arlington who has studied the issue, said the military should have taken action years ago to prevent the debts from being created.

“It’s a complete leadership failure,” he said. “We can’t expect the soldiers to notice mistakes in their pay that the paid professionals have failed to notice and correct.”

Although the GAO report focuses on battle-wounded soldiers who have separated from the military, there are probably others who were still on active duty when their debts caught up with them, Hurst said. Factoring those in, “I would say thousands” are affected by the problem, he said.

In one case cited in the GAO report, the debts meant that a soldier’s family had no money to pay bills and had to send an 11-year-old daughter to live out of state.

“Stink Hanging Over The Military Establishment”
“The Conduct Of The Officers Can Only Be Described As Swinish”

April 26, 2006 by Nicholas von Hoffman, The New York Observer [Excerpts]

The newest fall guy for the brass is U. S. Army dog handler Sgt. Michael J. Smith, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Found guilty by a court martial, the young sergeant will spend six months in jail, be demoted and then thrown out of the service with a dishonorable discharge.

The New York Times reported that Sergeant Smith’s defense was that “he was merely following interrogation procedures approved by the chief intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib, Col. Thomas M. Pappas.

In turn, Colonel Pappas had said he had been following guidance from Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, commander of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.”

General Miller visited Iraq in September 2003 to establish conditions for what was called “enhancing prison interrogations.” General Miller had been dispatched to Gitmo by Donald Rumsfeld and his superior officers.

Throughout the months of the torture-abuses scandals, the conduct of the officers responsible for what happened can only be described as swinish.

Sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly, these men (and possibly a few women) failed to oversee what was happening and/or ordered it and, when the disgusting details came out into the open, denied authorship or even any connection.

You need more than a clothespin over the nose to avoid the stink hanging over the military establishment-which, if not taken care of soon, will besmirch the honorable along with indecent.

The smell in question concerns more than torturing Arabs.

Wafting up from all kinds of dark, humid places are questions about how money has been handled, bribe-taking and the suspicious death in Afghanistan two years ago of Cpl. Pat Tillman, the Army Ranger who forsook a professional-football career to serve a nation that has not reciprocated.

After no less than three investigations by the Army, countless official lies, fuzzinesses and the destruction of evidence relevant to the case, yet another investigation is underway.

From the service-academy rapists to the Secretary of Defense, there appears to be too many people in positions of command who should not be leading others into combat.

Army Corps Of Engineers Officers Destroy Records Of Their $147 Million Iraq Fraud

May 2, 2006 By T. Christian Miller, L.A. Times Staff Writer [Excerpts]

WASHINGTON: An American initiative to use private security companies to protect Iraq’s oil and power infrastructure collapsed amid reports of possible fraud, missing weapons and destroyed documents, according to a federal audit released Saturday.

Under a program named Task Force Shield, the U.S. paid two security firms $147 million to train and equip tens of thousands of Iraqis to safeguard oil pipelines and transmission towers, the audit found.

The U.S. government’s efforts “ultimately proved to be unsuccessful,” says the report by the Special Inspector General for the Reconstruction of Iraq, a U.S. government watchdog agency.

“The lack of records and equipment accountability raises significant concerns about possible fraud, waste and abuse of Task Force Shield program by U.S. and Iraqi officials.”

Task Force Shield was disbanded in April 2005. Its former commanders could not be reached for comment Saturday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also blocked efforts by the inspector general to obtain documentation on the program, the audit found. An unnamed Army officer who ran the task force destroyed some documents, the report says.

Under the oil contract, Erinys-Iraq was paid $104 million to train at least 14,400 guards. Government auditors could find evidence of only 11,400 guards who had been trained. They could not determine the location of more than 6,000 AK-47s purchased for the guards.

The company was financed with the help of A. Huda Farouki, a Virginia businessman and close friend of Ahmad Chalabi, the former Pentagon favorite linked to faulty intelligence that helped lead the U.S. into the war.

ASARS was paid $42.8 million to train and equip 6,000 guards to protect Iraq’s electrical infrastructure. The audit found that it could not be determined whether any of the objectives were met because the “program barely got started before it was canceled” in March 2005.

The audit report criticizes the company’s construction of what was supposed to be a classroom and auditorium for the security guards at the Taji military base outside Baghdad.

Instead, the company erected an open-air pavilion and charged the government $1.4 million. The audit said the pavilion should have cost $50,000 to $100,000.

Pentagon Fights Oil Exploration In Virginia
[So More Troops Be Trained To Die Fighting For Oil Overseas]

4.27.06 Norfolk Virginian-Pilot

The Pentagon wants oil and gas drillers to stay out of waters off the Virginia coast, where it says energy exploration would interfere with weapons tests and the training of thousands of service member each year.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

Bodies of Iraqi police are seen on a street after they were killed by insurgents in Ramadi, May 3, 2006. REUTERS/Ali Mashadani

May 4 By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer & (CNN) & Al Jazeera & AFP & (KUNA) & (Reuters)

A bomber attacked a crowd of people waiting outside a heavily guarded court building in Baghdad on Thursday, killing 10 Iraqis and wounding dozens, police said.

Brigadier General Mohammed Raza Abdellatiff, who was in charge of logistics for the Iraqi army in Baghdad, was shot dead as he was driving to work.

Iraqi police said on Thursday that a high ranking official from the Iraqi oil ministry has been assassinated by unknown persons south of the capital.

A police source said the armed men killed the general director of the heavy Equipment and Engineering department Wadie’ Yahya Saleh.

“Armed men have stormed his car with gunfire while he was on his way to work,” source added.

Guerrillas also killed a driver working with Baghdad’s human rights ministry.

In Tikrit, resistance partisans shot and killed a police officer in a drive-by shooting. Another police officer was wounded in the incident. They also killed an Iraqi soldier on Wednesday near Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, said the Joint Coordination Centre run by the U.S. and Iraqi militaries.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“The U.S. Has Suffered A Major Strategic Defeat In Iraq By Failing To Achieve Its Political Objective Of Turning It Into An Obedient Colony”

April 24, 2006 Eric Margolis, Lewrockwell.com [Excerpt]

Having served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era, I recall vividly how another arrogant secretary of defense with a poor understanding of military science, Robert McNamara, led America to a humiliating defeat in Indochina. The generals should have taken him on then, but remained mute.

Today, no Washington official will yet admit it, but the U.S. has suffered a major strategic defeat in Iraq by failing to achieve its political objective of turning it into an obedient colony.

The generals’ revolt reflects this unspoken fact and is clearly intended to lay blame for the Iraq fiasco where it belongs: the White House. These patriots are not going to suffer another Robert McNamara in silence.

Once the “who lost Iraq?” cry goes up, the White House will try to blame the military, just as it sought to lay blame on the CIA for so-called “intelligence failures” over Iraq’s non-existent WMDs.

America’s soldiers are not going to be framed for a war many opposed.

Rumsfeld has become a lightning rod for military opponents and the fast-growing numbers of Americans fed up with Bush’s war.

Republicans and military men who cannot bring themselves to openly criticize Bush and Cheney’s policies in Iraq find Don Rumsfeld a handy whipping boy.

So they rebuke Rumsfeld for failing to provide enough U.S. troops to pacify Iraq, and lack of post-invasion plans. He is guilty, on both counts. But these are lesser failings.

As a longtime admirer of Rumsfeld, I was deeply dismayed he did not refuse to send American soldiers into an illegal and calamitous colonial war.

How It Is

[Thanks to Mary R., who sent this in.]

A driver is stuck in a traffic jam on the highway. Nothing is moving.

Suddenly a man knocks on the window. The driver rolls down his window and asks, “What happened?”

“Terrorists have kidnapped Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.”

“They are asking for a $10 million ransom. Otherwise they are going to douse them with gasoline and set them on fire.

“We are going from car to car, taking up a collection.”

The driver asks, “How much is everyone giving, on average?”

“About a gallon.”

OCCUPATION REPORT

U.S. OCCUPATION RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR;
RECRUITING FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS

An Iraqi citizen holds his child while U.S. Marines search his house in Fallujah May 3, 2006. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)

[Fair is fair. Let’s bring 150,000 Iraqis over here to the USA. They can kill people at checkpoints, bust into their houses at gunpoint, overthrow the government, put a new one in office they like better and call it “sovereign,” and “detain” anybody who doesn’t like it in some prison without any charges being filed against them, or any trial.]

[Those Iraqis are sure a bunch of backward primitives. They actually resent this help, have the absurd notion that it’s bad their country is occupied by a foreign military dictatorship, and consider it their patriotic duty to fight and kill the soldiers sent to grab their country. What a bunch of silly people. How fortunate they are to live under a military dictatorship run by George Bush. Why, how could anybody not love that? You’d want that in your home town, right?]

“In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit,” said Wood, 42, from Iowa, who did not accompany Halladay’s Charlie Company, from his battalion, on Thursday’s raid. “Here, there are no lawyers. Their resources are limited, so they plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) instead.”

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

RETIRED OIL EXECUTIVES VOICE SUPPORT FOR RUMSFELD
Chauffeur-Driven March On Washington Draws Hundreds

April 25, 2006 The Borowitz Report

Responding to the chorus of retired generals who have recently called for his ouster, hundreds of retired oil company executives marched on Washington today to show their support for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The former executives, members of the Retired Petroleum Titans of America, massed on the nation’s capital in what was believed to be the largest chauffeur-driven protest march in American history.

With their chauffeurs holding protest signs reading “Support Our Crude,” the former oil bigwigs demonstrated their support for the man they believe to be the greatest defense secretary ever.

Champ Greeley, chairman of the retired oil executives group, said that his fellow petroleum eminences took time out from their annual golf outing in the Virgin Islands to show their support for the embattled Mr. Rumsfeld.

“I know that the retired generals aren’t happy with the job Secretary Rumsfeld is doing, but there are two sides to every story,” Mr. Greeley said. “As far as we retired oil executives are concerned, things just couldn’t be going any better.”

Mr. Greeley said that many of the oil executives spent their entire careers working to raise gas prices to stratospheric levels, something Mr. Rumsfeld has helped accomplish in a matter of a few short years.

“Donald Rumsfeld hasn’t brought peace to the Mideast, but he has brought three-dollars-a-gallon gas to the Midwest,” he said. “For that alone, he deserves our unwavering support.”

Elsewhere, President Bush said today that immigrants should be permitted to work in America on a temporary basis, much as he does at the White House.

[Thanks to David Honish, Veterans For Peace, who sent this in.]

FEMA SENT TO IRAN TO SLOW DOWN NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Agency Uses Bureaucracy, Red Tape to Hamstring Nukes

May 1, 2006 The Borowitz Report

In what some in the nuclear anti-proliferation movement are already calling a masterstroke, the United States has dispatched the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Iran to slow down that nation’s development of nuclear weapons, the White House confirmed today.

With diplomacy yielding few results and military action deemed too risky, sending FEMA to throw a monkey-wrench in Iran’s nuclear program may have been just the “third way” that the Bush administration has been seeking, according to White House spokesman Tony Snow.

“We had been looking for a way to slow the Iranians down,” Mr. Snow said. “And we all looked at each other and said, ‘No one slows things down better than FEMA.’”

According to Mr. Snow, FEMA officials began infiltrating Iran’s nuclear program early last week and started inundating the Iranians with unnecessary levels of bureaucracy and mind-numbing red tape.

The enrichment of uranium, which had been well underway before FEMA’s arrival, now requires no fewer than twenty separate departmental approvals and the completion of over forty hard-to-fill-out forms.

Speaking from his presidential residence today, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that while he had originally hoped to have uranium enriched by 2007, that projection has now been pushed back until at least 2019.

White House spokesman Snow said that given FEMA’s success in slowing Iran’s nuclear program, it would soon move on to other missions, such as slowing Tom DeLay’s prosecution.

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this E-MAIL along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send requests to address up top.

CLASS WAR REPORTS

Guess Who Profits Because War Fucked Up Iraq’s Oil Production:
Chevron Earnings Soar 49 Percent to $4 Billion

Apr 28 By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, The Associated Press & By Steven Mufson and Shailagh Murray, The Washington Post

SAN RAMON, Calif.: Chevron Corp.’s first-quarter profit soared 49 percent to $4 billion, joining the procession of U.S. oil companies to report colossal earnings as lawmakers consider ways to pacify motorists agitated about rising gas prices.

Chevron released its results Friday after two of its biggest rivals, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp., already provoked public outrage with similarly large first-quarter profits. Combined, the three oil companies earned $15.7 billion during the first three months of the year.

Investors cheered the results as Chevron shares gained $1.22, or 2 percent, to $61.20 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

As it was, the performance marked the fourth consecutive quarter that Chevron has earned at least $3.6 billion as the company continued to capitalize on oil prices that have climbed above $70 per barrel since the first quarter ended.

In many countries, sliding-scale tax rates rise as prices do; Norway taxes some portion of output at rates as high as 70 percent, and Libya’s effective tax rates can go as high as 90 percent, analysts said.

Wall Street analysts discounted the likelihood of congressional action against oil companies. “As someone in the industry for more than 25 years, I’ve seen it before,” said Fadel Gheit, an oil company analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.

MORE:

Bush Rejects Calls For Tax On Oil Profits

Apr 28 By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

President Bush said Friday that taxing enormous oil industry profits is not the way to calm Americans’ anxieties about pain at the gas pump, and that his “inclination and instincts” are that major oil companies are not intentionally overcharging drivers.

Bush’s remarks suggested the former Texas oilman is unlikely to take harsh action against oil companies despite public anger about the rising cost of fuel. Gasoline is averaging $2.92 a gallon across the country, up 69 cents from a year ago, according to AAA’s daily fuel gauge report.

“I have no evidence that there’s any rip-off taking place,” Bush said.

Cost Of Iraq War So Far To U.S. Citizens:
$12 Per Gallon Of Gas

April 26, 2006 Mike Whitney, Uruknet.info

Consider this: the United States has spent roughly $300 billion on the war so far.

At 1.1 million barrels per day (396 million barrels per year) we are currently spending $274 per barrel which translates into $12 per gallon at the pump.

$12 per gallon!!!

This represents the greatest surcharge on petroleum the world has ever seen. Think of it as the Bush Gas Tax, a boondoggle that quadruples the price of gas while killing 2,400 American servicemen and 100,000 Iraqis in the process.

Bush’s ruminations on “price gouging” are ludicrous. It was Bush who spearheaded this monstrous rip-off, now he’s pretending to defend the common man by playing “consumer-advocate”.

What fakery.

NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER

Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers.  www.traveling-soldier.org/  And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! www.ivaw.net

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