THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THEM HOME:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

A Marine honor guard carries the body of Cpl. Ryan Cummings, who was killed in Iraq, in Elwood, Illinois, June 13, 2006. REUTERS/John Gress (UNITED STATES)

Deployment Refuser Receives Support From Troops “Thanking Him For Speaking Up”

June 14, 2006 By Michelle Tan, Army Times staff writer

First Lt. Ehren Watada doesn’t regret publicly announcing that he will not deploy to Iraq because he believes the war is illegal and immoral.

“I know there are a lot of people, especially in the military, who hate me, who think I’m a traitor, think I’m a coward, think I should spend the rest of my life at Leavenworth and I should be taken out on the street the shot,” Watada told Army Times. But “there are a lot of people in the military who are supporting me.”

On June 7, the day first went public about refusing to deploy to Iraq, Watada said three noncommissioned officers walked up to him and shook his hand. He said he has received e-mails from NCOs and field grade officers thanking him for speaking up.

Soft spoken and articulate, Watada said he hasn’t experienced open hostility from his fellow soldiers. “There’s no one waiting to smash my windows in or slash my tires, but there’s definitely tension.”

To his critics, Watada has this to say: “Put yourself in my shoes. Go in front of the country and do what I did and have to face the consequences of those actions. If they call me a coward, I want to see them do that. It’s definitely scary and terrifying, but it’s easier to do something when everyone’s doing it too. It’s a lot more terrifying doing it alone.”

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

First Female Iowan Killed

Seabee Reservist Jaime Jaenke SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER

June 8, 2006 By JARED STRONG, REGISTER STAFF WRITER

An Iowa Falls sailor is the first female Iowan to die in the war in Iraq.

Seabee Reservist Jaime Jaenke, 29, was killed in a roadside bomb attack Monday. She is the forty-second Iowan to die in Iraq and Afghanistan since March 2003.

Jaenke, 29, a Petty Officer 2nd Class, and an Illinois sailor were killed when the bomb exploded near their Humvee in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. J.G. Carlos Kirby said. Also killed was Petty Officer 1st Class Gary Rovinski. They were assigned to the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 25 at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

The Navy identified Jaenke as being from Bay City, Wis., but an Iowa Falls funeral director said he is handling the funeral arrangements for her. Jaenke had ties to Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, according to Minneapolis television station KARE.

Before joining the Naval Reserves, Jaenke worked as an emergency medical technician in Ellsworth, Wis., where her former colleagues say she was a great service to the community and will be sorely missed, the station reported.

Jaenke was activated in January and had been overseas for a few months before the attack.

Jaenke was a Seabee reservist who provided infrastructure support for combat officers, such as building airstrips and housing. Kirby said he didn’t know what the sailors were doing at the time of the attack.

School officials in Iowa Falls said Jaenke’s 9-year-old daughter Kayla has been enrolled at Rock Run Elementary School since spring 2004. They said Jaenke lived in Iowa Falls during her early childhood but graduated from a high school in Wisconsin.

She had only recently returned to Iowa after living for years in Minnesota and was excited about starting an equestrian business in Iowa Falls when she returned from Iraq.

Local Soldier Killed His First Week In Iraq:
“I Think It’s Time For Them To Come Home, Each And Every One Of Them”

Pfc. Brett L. Tribble was riding as a gunner in a Humvee when a bomb went off. KHOU

June 6, 2006 By Amy Tortolani, 11 News

A grieving family shared memories with 11 News of a local soldier killed in Iraq.

The 20-year-old from the Angleton-Danbury area in Brazoria County had been in Iraq less than a week.

His parents said they are understandably proud of who Private Brett Tribble was and what he stood for.

“He had a lot to give,” said Tracy Tribble.

Tracy Tribble proudly remembered the 20 short years she had with her oldest son Brett who was in Iraq less than one week when he was killed.

“At least I know he was happy he didn’t have any regrets doing what he was doing and he was ready to go you know. He was ready,” she said.

The military family said they prayed its son would fulfill his dreams of five years in the Army.

“He was gunner in an armored Humvee,” said Alan Tribble, soldier’s father. “He was sitting up there on top of that machine gun and some kind if IAD explosive device went off.”

Private First Class Officer Brett Tribble was the only one who died in Friday’s incident.

The opinions of the soldiers’ mother and father now vary on whether other families should have to make the same sacrifice.

“I think it’s time for them to come home, each and every one of them,” Tracy Tribble said. “I think we’ve done our time there.”

“If we just pull out now then they’ve died for nothing,” the soldier’s father said. “We got to we got to finish the mission over there. He was there for a reason.”

Tribble left behind a 2-year-old son and two younger brothers.

In Brett Tribble’s honor, his uncle lowered the family flag.

British Mercenary Killed

06/14/06 Ananova Ltd

A security guard has been killed and another person injured following an explosion in Iraq.

Married father-of-two Kenneth Clarke, 39, of Gilwern, near Abergavenny, south Wales, died following the blast on Sunday, a friend said.

The Foreign Office confirmed that the second person injured is also a British national.

Mr Clarke’s friend, local councillor Anthony Carrington, said the former soldier was travelling near Tikrit when the incident occurred.

He said: “We know he was part of a convoy which came under attack and was hit by a road side device which killed him.”

REALLY BAD IDEA:
NO MISSION;
HOPELESS WAR:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

U.S. soldiers inspect the inside of the bakery May 31, 2006, after a bomb hidden in a plastic bag detonated in the New Baghdad neighborhood of Baghdad. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Resistance Ambush Traps Resupply Convoy;
One U.S. Soldier Killed, Two Wounded

[This is the tactic that played a major role in destroying the Russian occupation. T]

06/14/06 By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

The American soldier was killed when a coalition patrol on a resupply mission came under attack Tuesday afternoon in the Sangin district of Helmand province, said Lt. Col. Chris Toner.

The assailants fired on the 10-vehicle convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, disabling three vehicles and forcing the U.S. troops to spend the night where they were attacked, Toner said.

British forces air-dropped about 100 troops for backup after the attack, and an American team on Wednesday was sent to recover the three damaged vehicles, Toner said.
“That is a bad area. There is no doubt about that,” he said.

U.S. Soldier Killed In Kunar

06/14/06 By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

MUSA QALA, Afghanistan

A U.S.-led coalition soldier was killed in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the military said.

The soldier was killed while fighting enemy forces in eastern Kunar province Tuesday, the U.S. military said in a statement.

No details were released on the soldier’s nationality, but U.S. troops have been fighting alongside Afghan forces against Taliban militants in the remote region bordering Pakistan.

Henniker Soldier Dies

06/14/06 Union Leader, HENNIKER

Sgt. Russell M. Durgin, 23, a 2001 graduate of John Stark Regional High School, has been killed in Afghanistan.

His mother confirmed his death this morning when reached by telephone.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Jean Durgin. “I’m not sure I can hear what happened because I don’t think I can handle that.”

Durgin had completed tours of duty in South Korea and Iraq and had been stationed at Fort Drum, his mother said.

Army National Guard spokesman Maj. Greg Heilshorn said Durgin was killed by small arms gunfire.

Durgin is the fifth New Hampshire serviceman killed in the last six weeks.

“The Hamid Karzai Government Would Be Dead By Sunset”

[T]he central government struggles to maintain control of just Kabul. Both Afghans and foreigners agree that without the nearly 30,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, the Hamid Karzai government would be dead by sunset. Stewart Nusbaumer, 14 June 2006, Truthout Perspective

TROOP NEWS

“An Increasing Number Have Been To Iraq And Are Refusing To Go Back”

“An increasing number have been to Iraq and are refusing to go back. I’ve got interrogators and military police officers who will not go back,” Hildes said.

June 14, 2006 Associated Press, EUGENE, Ore.

After deserting her Army unit in January to avoid a second tour of duty in Iraq, Eugene solider Suzanne Nicole Swift was to be returned to Fort Lewis, Wash. Tuesday.

According to the Pentagon, the number of soldiers absent without leave is less than 1 percent of the total. In 2005, 2,011 soldiers were reported AWOL, down from 4,483 in 2002, the spokesman said.

Larry Hildes, a Bellingham, Wash., attorney representing Swift is part of a National Lawyers Guild task force on military law, said those figures don’t add up.

He said there are hundreds of lawyers around the nation representing deserting soldiers. He said he has handled a dozen such cases since the Iraq war began.

A national hotline dealing with rights of servicepeople gets a minimum of 2,000 calls a month, Hildes said, mostly from soldiers who don’t want to return to war.

“An increasing number have been to Iraq and are refusing to go back. I’ve got interrogators and military police officers who will not go back,” Hildes said.

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.

“The Story Of The Rebellion Of Thousands Of American Soldiers Against The War, Has Never Been Told In Film”

June 14, 2006

If you ever wanted to end war…

SIR! NO SIR!

The suppressed story of the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam:

In the 1960s an anti-war movement emerged that altered the course of history.

A major but often-forgotten part of this movement didn’t take place on college campuses, but in barracks and on aircraft carriers.

It flourished in army stockades, navy brigs and in the dingy towns that surround military bases. It penetrated elite military colleges like West Point. And it spread throughout the battlefields of Vietnam.

It was a movement no one expected, least of all those in it. Hundreds went to prison and thousands into exile. And by 1971 it had, in the words of one colonel, infested the entire armed services. Yet today few people know about the GI movement against the war in Vietnam.

The Vietnam War has been the subject of hundreds of films, both fiction and non-fiction, but this story, the story of the rebellion of thousands of American soldiers against the war, has never been told in film.

Sir! No Sir! has won numerous international film festival awards including winner of the best documentary in the Hamptons International Film Festival.

7pm Friday, June 16 (cheap meal available at 6.30pm)

Resistance Centre, 15/5 Aberdeen St. East Perth (opp. McIver train station)
Perth, Western Australia

Entry: $10 waged / $7 concession. Ph. 9218 9608
A Fundraiser for Green Left weekly

Sir! No Sir!:
At A Theatre Near You In The USA!
To find it: www.sirnosir.com/

Thousands Resign From Britain’s Reserve Army Amid Concern Over Iraq

06/14/06 AFP

Nearly 16,000 troops have quit Britain’s reserve army since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, a newspaper reported.

The Daily Telegraph report, which was based on a Freedom of Information Act request, said there was a feeling that dangerous operations in Iraq and other places played a role in making soldiers decide to leave the Territorial Army.

The figures obtained by the Scottish National Party show that between October 2003 and October 2005, the Territorial Army lost 15,670 soldiers who have been replaced by 13,570 new recruits, a shortfall of 2,100.

The figures show that a disproportionate number of officers have left, with 1,280 resigning their commissions, it said.

Christine Grahame, an SNP member of the Scottish parliament, said: “This is a clear signal of the crisis the armed forces are facing as a result of this hugely damaging Iraq war and a defense and foreign policy which is storing up massive problems.”

TALES OF IRAQ WAR by Latuff

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

(Graphic: London Financial Times)

“Iraq Is For Iraqis”
“No, To The Occupation”

Hazem al-Araji, an aide of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, speaks to some 2,000 at a demonstration to protest the surprise yet brief visit Tuesday by U.S. President George Bush, in the Kazimiyah area of Baghdad June 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

6/14/2006 The Associated Press

Some 2,000 followers of a radical Shiite cleric staged a noisy demonstration Wednesday in Baghdad to protest the surprise visit to Iraq by President Bush.

Protesters raised Iraqi flags and pictures of the anti-U.S. [translation: anti-Bush’s Imperial occupation of his country] cleric Muqtada al-Sadr while chanting “Iraq is for Iraqis” and “No, to the occupation.”

They also demanded the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from Iraq as they marched through the northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah.

Hazem al-Araji, an al-Sadr aide, condemned the “ill-fated visit made by the leader of the occupation” in an address to the crowd.

Assorted Resistance Action

June 14 (KUNA) & (Reuters) & UPI

An Iraqi police officer was injured when a booby-trapped vehicle blew up targeting a passing police patrol in the center of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, an Interior ministry source said.

The injured policeman was wisked off to a hospital for treatment.

Guerrillas killed a construction contractor near his house in Najaf on Tuesday evening. The man, working for the Iraqi government as well as for U.S.-led forces in Iraq, was the brother of a member of Najaf’s provincial council.

Iraqi insurgents in a car killed an Iraqi journalist who they had warned against publishing pro-U.S. coalition in his newspaper.

Fallujah police Lt. Mohammed Ali said the shooting occurred Tuesday night, and targeted Ibrahim Seneid, an editor at the al-Bashara newspaper.

Ali said pamphlets had been distributed around the city last week, accusing Seneid of using the newspaper to publish U.S. propaganda, and demanded either the newspaper stop, or shut down, CBS News reported.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“How Many Died For Meaningless Words?”
“The Secret Service Keeps The President Miles Away From Any Armed Troops For The Obvious Reasons”

I hope that nobody died because they lacked air cover that was some place else supporting the President’s photo op? Is a feeble attempt to boost the President’s sinking approval rating back above 30% worth a life?

From: David Honish, Veterans For Peace
To: GI Special
Sent: June 14, 2006
Subject: How many died for meaningless words?

I watched the President on the PBS News Hour Tuesday evening. He was in Iraq, reading lines written for him by somebody smarter than he is. He probably had the ear piece in again too, so somebody could help him with the correct pronunciation of the big words of three or more syllables?

This was nothing other than a staged media event.

Anyone who was in the military knows how these things work.

Who among us has not been ordered to be an audience for a retirement parade or change of command ceremony? It does not matter that we did not know the individuals concerned, or that they were not even in our chain of command. All that matters is that we were ordered to be somewhere as chair fillers.

Once in the Texas National Guard this happened with no prior notice. A weekend drill that was supposed to be our annual range qualification was instead spent rehearsing and attending a change of command ceremony.

The problem with that was that it was supposed to be the single day of the year that we actually had a bolt in our rifle, and we got 42 real bullets for very little range time. Instead of weapons training that year, we got a lot of practice with the set up and removal of folding chairs.

I thought about those folding chairs as I watched the President recite words with no meaning for a command audience of HQ REMF’s that “spontaneously” applauded at the times they were ordered to do so by the HQ public affairs officer.

The public saw only what they were supposed to see, a crowd in BDU’s applauding the President.

The public doesn’t have to know that the audience was under orders to be there.

The public doesn’t have to know that these troops, like the President, will never set foot outside the heavily fortified green zone.

We will never see the President visit a Marine in Falluja.

We will never see the President speak to a stop lossed Pfc that is still patrolling Sadr City in an unarmored humvee, instead of a tank.

The Secret Service keeps the President miles away from any armed troops for the obvious reasons.

Unarmed HQ REMF’s in the green zone will be the only uniformed backdrop for the President’s photo ops.

I wondered what essential activities were left undone in Iraq Tuesday to accommodate the President’s photo op?

How many convoys and patrols were denied needed air support, while every Apache gunship in Iraq was elsewhere keeping heads down along the President’s helicopter route between the airport and the green zone?

I hope that nobody died because they lacked air cover that was some place else supporting the President’s photo op?

Is a feeble attempt to boost the President’s sinking approval rating back above 30% worth a life?

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to contact@militaryproject.org. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential.

Dunkirk In The Desert?
“For Three Years Our Troops Have Been In A Foreign Land Fighting God Knows Who For God Knows Why For God Knows How Long And God Knows How Many Times”

The New York Times’s John Burns, a good-to-go-to-war man from before the first American smart bomb fell on Baghdad, was on the air the other night warning that, in effect, the invading army had lost both the initiative and control.

June 12, 2006 by Nicholas von Hoffman, The Nation

Is the badly outnumbered American expeditionary force in Iraq in trouble? Is it in danger of being trapped? With all our firepower, are we looking at the possibility of some kind of a military defeat?

As the bad news continues to seep in, debates about exit strategies are going out of date. Another year like the last three and the deteriorating military situation will have us debating what tactics will be necessary to extract our people with a minimum of loss.

We could be moving toward an American Dunkirk. In 1940 the defeated British Army in Belgium was driven back by the Germans to the French seacoast city of Dunkirk, where it had to abandon its equipment and escape across the English Channel on a fleet of civilian vessels, fishing smacks, yachts, small boats, anything and everything that could float and carry the defeated and wounded army to safety.

Obviously, our forces in Iraq will not be defeated in open battle by an opposing army as happened in 1940, but there is more than one way to stumble into a military disaster.

Fragmented reports out of Iraq suggest we may be on our way to finding one of them. Defeat can come from overused troops.

It does not help that one by one, the remaining members of the Coalition of the Willing give every appearance of sneaking out of town.

We know that US Marines accused of the Haditha massacre should not have been in Iraq.

According to the Chicago Tribune, “Many of the US troops in Iraq are now on their second or third tour of duty in a conflict that has stretched beyond original expectations… The Marine unit in Haditha was on its third rotation in Iraq when the incident allegedly occurred Nov. 19. The same month a year earlier, on a previous tour of duty, the unit had been engaged in fierce house-to-house fighting in the battle to retake Fallujah from insurgents.”

Filtering out from Iraq are indicators of a military organization in danger of creeping disintegration.

For three years our troops have been in a foreign land fighting God knows who for God knows why for God knows how long and God knows how many times.

This now well-quoted paragraph from the June 12 edition of Newsweek hints at the price paid in order and morale: “The wife of a staff sergeant in the 3/1 battalion—members of which are currently accused of murdering Iraqi citizens in Haditha—says that there was ‘a total breakdown’ in discipline and morale after Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani took over as battalion commander when the unit returned from Fallujah at the start of 2005… ‘There were problems in Kilo Company with drugs, alcohol, hazing, you name it,’ she tells Newsweek…’I think it’s more than possible that these guys were totally tweaked out on speed or something when they shot those civilians in Haditha.’”

As awful as the killing of the twenty-four civilian Iraqis is, at this hour Haditha’s importance is as an indicator of what’s happening inside the American military organization there.

The Internet is alive with pessimistic stories and opinions about what may be happening, one of which informs its readers, “Military commanders in the field in Iraq admit in private reports to the Pentagon the war ‘is lost’ and that the U.S. military is unable to stem the mounting violence killing 1,000 Iraqi civilians a month.

Even worse, they report the massacre of Iraqi civilians at Haditha is ‘just the tip of the iceberg’ with overstressed, out-of-control American soldiers pushed beyond the breaking point both physically and mentally.”

The New York Times’s John Burns, a good-to-go-to-war man from before the first American smart bomb fell on Baghdad, was on the air the other night warning that, in effect, the invading army had lost both the initiative and control.

Readers of Juan Cole’s authoritative Informed Comment blog get a daily summing-up of deaths, murders and atrocities not available to TV viewers and ordinary newspaper readers. The simple numbers tell the story of a large and growing bloodbath.

People here in the United States get only fragments of news that are difficult to make sense of, due to the sheer difficulty of reporting on the war. Journalists, even the credulous rah-rah by-jingo types, cannot be faulted, since they take their lives in their hands when they venture out from their bunkers to attempt to cover a story. The recent deaths and maimings of CBS and ABC journalists should have brought home to the public that getting the full story is not possible and getting half or a quarter of a story is problematic.

The Defense Department is not telling what it knows but no wartime government ever, ever tells the truth. Even Abraham Lincoln did not let on how badly things were going, even when they were very bad indeed.

In the south of Iraq, in the Basra region, the British who occupy that sector have all but given up aggressive patrol. They are holed up in their encampments on the defensive. Some reports have it that it is now too dangerous for them to fly helicopters by day.

At the point when they must choose between being overrun or withdrawing, the small contingent of British troops facing unknown numbers of militia hidden in and among a hostile population should be able to evacuate the port of Basra even under fire.

The situation for American troops may be even more precarious. While our forces are still able to carry out aggressive patrolling, it nets little except to increase popular hostility, which, of course, makes it yet easier for the various insurgents and guerrilla groups to operate against us.

It appears that in many places our people may have simply hunkered down to stay out of trouble. The vast construction projects of a few years ago are all but closed down, too, as the American forces appear to be doing less and less of anything but holding on and holding out.

The shortage of troops, which three years ago was a restraining factor, has become a potential disaster, with the ever-rising level of hostility to the American presence. To stay the course, to win, to realize our objectives, we need a half-million soldiers to pacify that country.

If the force levels remain the same for another year and a half, this small, exhausted and overused American force may become so unglued that staying in Iraq will be come impossible. There may be no choice but retreat.

No, that’s wrong. There is another choice. Americans can try to make up for their lack of numbers with firepower. Blow what’s left of the country to smithereens. The political effects would be unspeakable and the ground troops might well still have to be extracted from their plight.

A half-million pair of boots on the ground can only be gotten by conscription. The chances of reactivating the draft for Iraq are nil. If our political leaders have to choose between a new conscription and risking a defeat, there is no question about what they will do.

Should discipline continue to break down at the platoon and company level, pulling the scattered American forces together and getting them out may be a harrowing experience. Retreat under fire, even if it’s harassing guerrilla fire, is difficult even for an army without internal problems.

Air evacuation would mean abandoning billions of dollars of equipment. There is no seaport troops could get to, so the only way out of Iraq would be that same desert highway to Kuwait where fifteen years ago the American Air Force destroyed Saddam Hussein’s army.

Dunkirk in the desert.

OCCUPATION REPORT

How Can You Tell When An Occupation Is Defeated And A War Is Lost?

6.12.06 Detroit Free Press

The Pentagon has stopped releasing its assessment of the number of Iraqi army units deemed capable of battling insurgents without U.S. military help.

U.S. officials had been releasing a tally every three months of Iraqi military units that were sufficiently trained to operate by themselves, without the aid of U.S. firepower, logistics or transportation.

The decision to stop making the information public came after reports showed a steady decline in the number of qualified Iraqi units.

So Much For That “Sovereignty” Bullshit:
“Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, Who Is In Charge Of Police Affairs In Kirkuk”

June 14 (KUNA)

Kirkuk witnessed five booby-trapped car explosions yesterday killing at least 14 individuals and injuring 41 others, most of them civilians.

The police were able to diffuse the sixth bomb.

Kirkuk’s governor Abdulrahman Mustafa held a meeting today to investigate the reasons for the explosions yesterday, a statement by the province of Kirkuk said.

The meeting was attended by senior security officials and multinational forces including Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, who is in charge of police affairs in Kirkuk, it said.

The meeting discussed the series of booby-trapped car attacks yesterday, ways of barring such criminal acts from reocurring and ensuring firm control on all of the region.

“Bush Never Set Foot In Baghdad Because Baghdad And All Of Iraq Are Under The Control Of The Resistance”

June 14, 2006 By Ibrahim Ebeid, Al-Moharer [Excerpt]

President Bush never set foot in Baghdad.

He does not dare because Baghdad and all of Iraq are under the control of the Resistance.

He went to the Green Zone to instruct his stooges confined to a four square miles around the Palace of the Republic of Iraq. This Palace, which is the symbol of Iraq and its sovereignty was robbed by the United States and became the residence of Khalilzad, the true ruler of occupied Iraq.

Maliki and the other stooges are no more than puppets controlled when instructed and to repeat Bush’s words when needed. These puppets live in the Green Zone and do not dare to mix with the Iraqi people.

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

“Hardly A Picture Of An Independent And Sovereign Nation Able To Defend Itself”

June 14, 2006 William M. Arkin, The Washington Post Company [Excerpts]

It is very nice of the President of the United States to drop in on the new Iraqi leader, to lend his support, to “look him in the eye,” to urge the Iraqis on to American victory.

But you could hardly call the trip a state visit?

Unannounced, Air Force One touched down at an airport closed by American edict, the President was whisked away on American equipment, American guns ready to blaze, to an American village in the center of the capital, secured by American soldiers, who closed bridges and barricaded streets.

Poor al-Maliki.

The Iraqi leader and his new cabinet had the indignity of being summonsed to Saddam’s old Republican Palace, America’s Embassy and main command center in the “green zone,” ostensibly to attend what they thought was a video teleconference with the President of the United States only to arrive and meet the boss.

No doubt the Iraqi leader was let in on the plan earlier than anyone else was and knew what to expect in the American lock-down, but it is hardly a picture of an independent and sovereign nation able to defend itself or guarantee security, even for a few hours.

Al-Maliki himself was given minimal notice of the visit, American officials told the news media yesterday, which means that all of the preparations, closing airspace and airports, clearances, security, etc., was really solely in the hands of the United States, the occupier.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

The Traitor Rumsfeld Orders Reporters Expelled From Guantanamo

13 June 2006 By Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald [Excerpt]

Also Tuesday, the military ordered all independent news media off the base by 10 a.m. Wednesday, and had arranged a flight to Miami to expedite their departure.

A two-sentence email to reporters for The Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times, citing a directive from the Office of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, stated: “Media currently on the island will depart on Wednesday, 14 June 2006 at 10:00 a.m. Please be prepared to depart the CBQ at 8:00 a.m.”

The correspondents came down to the base on Saturday to cover the aftermath of the suicides, at the invitation of the admiral in charge of the prison. The Pentagon canceled the invitation Tuesday night, despite protests from the newspapers.

CLASS WAR REPORTS

1974-2006:
30 Years Of Falling Income For Working Class Americans

12/06/06 by Rick Wolff, Monthly Review [Excerpt]

Real wages in the US rose during every decade from 1830 to 1970.

Then this central feature of US capitalism stopped as the figures below show:

1964 — $302.52
1974 — 314.94
1984 — 279.22
1994 — 259.97
2004 — 277.57

Source: Labor Research Associates of New York based on data from the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics; wages expressed in constant 1982 dollars.

No comparable steady rise in real wages has occurred since.

The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate real weekly wages declined again over the last year (2005-2006).

American workers’ reactions to this downtrend in real wages have profoundly shaped the nation’s economy and society for the last thirty years.

Stagnant or falling real wages undermine workers’ basic expectations of rising levels of consumption. Those expectations had become key parts of what it meant to be “an American.” Rising consumption has long functioned as the evidence of success in achieving the American dream.

The key questions for many now are (1) how much longer can the combination of real wage decline, rising work effort, debt, and family stress, and deepening social inequalities continue; (2) what might enable Bush & Co. nonetheless to continue the economic direction they champion; and (3) how fast and how far will the backlash proceed if they cannot do so?

For socialists, the key political question is different. When private capitalism a la Bush hits its crisis, will the chief socialist response be (as it mostly was after 1929) to support a government intervention aimed to save the system by making it more worker-friendly for a while till the crisis passes?

Or will they demand far more basic economic change?

Received:

Ending The War In Iraq

Anthony Arnove and Etan Thomas on C-Span Book TV this weekend Saturday at 11pm ET and Sunday at 4pm ET (C-SPAN 2).

Etan Thomas and Anthony Arnove talk about the Iraq War and the politics of the Bush administration.

Mr. Thomas, who plays center for the Washington Wizards basketball team, is the author of a book of political poetry titled “More Than an Athlete.” During the event he recites two of his poems from the book – one about conservative politics and another about the Bush administration’s justification for the invasion of Iraq.

Anthony Arnove, author of “Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal,” explains why he thinks the best solution for Iraq is a complete and immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the country.

This event was hosted by Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC. Both authors answer questions from the audience following their remarks.

Etan Thomas joined the Washington Wizards in a 2000-2001 mid-season trade. He was a speaker at the September 2005 anti-war rally in Washington, DC, where he recited one of his poems, and has been involved with organizations like the ACLU, the Congressional Black Caucus, and Rock the Vote. For more on Mr. Thomas and his work, visit: www.mooreblackpress.com.

Anthony Arnove, former editor/publisher at Sound End Press, is the editor of “Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War” and “Terrorism and War,” a collection of interviews he conducted with historian Howard Zinn.

He is also the co-editor, with Howard Zinn, of “Voices of a People’s History of the United States.”

For more on his latest book, “Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal,” visit: www.endthewartour.org.

Publisher: (Etan Thomas) Moore Black Press: www.mooreblackpress.com (Anthony Arnove) New Press: www.thenewpress.com

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

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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