British Military Command Negotiates A Truce With Afghan Resistance

[Thanks to Greathouse, who sent this in.]

October 01, 2006 Michael Smith, The Sunday Times [Excerpts]

BRITISH troops battling the Taliban are to withdraw from one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan after agreeing a secret deal with the local people.

Over the past two months British soldiers have come under sustained attack defending a remote mud-walled government outpost in the town of Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan. Eight have been killed there.

It has now been agreed the troops will quietly pull out of Musa Qala in return for the Taliban doing the same. The compound is one of four district government offices in the Helmand province that are being guarded by British troops.

Although soldiers on the ground may welcome the agreement, it is likely to raise new questions about troop deployment. Last month Sir Richard Dannatt, the new head of the British Army, warned that soldiers in Afghanistan were fighting at the limit of their capacity and could only “just” cope with the demands.

When British troops were first sent to Afghanistan it was hoped they would help kick-start the country’s reconstruction. But under pressure from President Hamid Karzai they were forced to defend Afghan government “district centres” at Musa Qala, Sangin, Nowzad and Kajaki.

The move, opposed by Lieutenant-General David Richards, the Nato commander in Afghanistan, turned the four remote British bases into what Richards called “magnets” for the Taliban. All 16 of the British soldiers killed in action in southern Afghanistan have died at Musa Qala, Sangin or Nowzad.

The soldiers risk sniper fire and full-scale assaults from experienced Taliban fighters who can then blend into the local population after each attack.

The peace deal in Musa Qala was first mooted by representatives of the town’s 2,000-strong population. About 400 people living in the immediate area of the district centre compound have been forced to evacuate their homes, most of which have been destroyed in the fighting.

Brigadier Ed Butler, the commander of the British taskforce, flew into Musa Qala 18 days ago, guarded only by his military police close-protection team, to attend a shura, or council of town elders, to negotiate a withdrawal.

Butler was taken in a convoy to the shura in the desert southeast of Musa Qala where the carefully formulated proposals were made. The British commander said that he was prepared to back a “cessation of fighting” if they could guarantee that the Taliban would also leave.

The deal, and the avoidance of the word ceasefire, allows both sides to disengage without losing face, an important aspect in the Afghan [translation: British ruling class] psyche.

There is frustration among many British troops that they have been unable to help on reconstruction projects because they have been involved in intense fighting. An e-mail from one officer published this weekend said: “We are not having an effect on the average Afghan.

“At the moment we are no better than the Taliban in their eyes, as all they can see is us moving into an area, blowing things up and leaving, which is very sad.”

The Ministry of Defence announced this weekend that 10 British soldiers had been seriously injured in fighting in the last few days of August, bringing the total number of troops seriously injured in the country this year to 23.

A total of 29 British servicemen have lost their lives in southern Afghanistan in the past two months, including 14 who died when their Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft crashed on September 2.

A new poll published last week revealed a lack of public confidence over the deployment of troops in Afghanistan. According to the BBC poll, 53% of people opposed the use of British troops in the region.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Two Soldiers Killed In Al Anbar

01 October 2006 Multi-National Corps Iraq PAO RELEASE No. 20061001-03

LSA Anaconda, Iraq: Two Soldiers assigned to the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) were killed Saturday by small arms fire while operating in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq.

Task Force Lightning Soldier Killed Near Mosul

01 October 2006 Multi National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20061001-01

BAGHDAD: A Task Force Lightning Soldier assigned to 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Lewis, Wash., died Saturday near Mosul as a result of a Humvee accident.

Jennings Soldier Killed In Iraq

9/22/2006 (AP)

A young soldier from Louisiana was killed by a roadside bomb last week in Baghdad, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed Friday.

Cpl. Marcus A. Cain, 20, of Jennings, was assigned to the 4th Support Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas and had recently re-enlisted. According to a DOD news release, Cain died Sept. 14 “after a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated in the vicinity of a West Baghdad Substation where they were located.”

His funeral was scheduled Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Jennings.

A procession in and around the city to the church was scheduled Monday before a planned memorial service at 6:30 p.m., officials with Raphael Funeral Home said. The public is encouraged to line the procession route to pay last respects to Cain, who enlisted shortly after graduating from Jennings High School.

In an interview with KATC-TV in Lafayette, Cain’s mother, Bennye Cain, remembered her last conversation with her son, the youngest of her four children.

“He was happy, you know, he was really happy,” she said. “He had big plans.”

Cain described her son, who was scheduled to leave Iraq in November, as “a kind fun-loving fellow, he didn’t have any kids. He lived a young youthful life — that was him. He was just a youthful person. Everybody loved him.”

Bennye Cain said one of the last things they spoke about were just how much he had learned while away.

“He said, ‘I thought about things, mama — everything you tried to teach me was right.’ He said, ‘You used to tell me this and tell me that and I’d say because the way the world is how you didn’t know what you were talking about. But I found out experience is the best teacher,’” she said.

Marine Rejoins, Is Killed In Iraq;
Son Loved Cars, People, Dad Says

Chris Zimmerman

Sep 22, 2006 Matthew Eisley, Staff Writer, The News & Observer

Chris Zimmerman grew up loving cars and people. Cars he made faster. People he made happier.

Joining the Marine Corps after high school, the gifted artist and natural mechanic fixed helicopters and nurtured friendships.

Zimmerman left the Marines after five years, joined the Marine Reserves and thought about college. But nothing else fit.

After terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, Zimmerman rejoined the Marines. He served in Afghanistan and then in Iraq.

“When he decided to go into the military, I said, ‘Why are you going into the Marines?’ “ recalled his father, Mike Zimmerman of Stephenville, Texas. “He said, ‘Because they’re the best.’ “

Sgt. Christopher M. Zimmerman on Wednesday gave his last to the best. He was killed in a midday gunbattle near Fallujah, his father said. He was 28.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Zimmerman was a member of a reconnaissance unit based at Camp Lejeune near Jacksonville.

Sgt. Zimmerman didn’t talk much about the Iraq war or his role in it, said his father, a police officer at Tarleton State University in Stephenville.

“He said that they were accomplishing their mission quite well,” the elder Zimmerman said in a phone interview Thursday night.

Growing up near Round Rock, Texas, Chris Zimmerman tinkered with cars.

“He worked on ‘em, tried to make ‘em faster or sound better or whatever he could do to, in his mind, improve ‘em,” his dad said.

And Zimmerman was always eager to lend friends a hand.

When Zimmerman left the Marines after his first stint, his superior officers spoke highly of him, his father said. But what really impressed Mike Zimmerman was what those who had worked under his son thought of him.

“I’m pretty much like anybody else who’s lost a son or daughter. I don’t think it matters how they die.”

Iraq Bomb Seriously Injures Two British Soldiers

10-01-2006 BAGHDAD (AFP)

A roadside bomb has seriously injured two British soldiers when their supply convoy was attacked in southern Iraq, military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge said.

“A logistics convoy was conducting a routine resupply task when a roadside bomb was detonated. The soldiers concerned were evacuated by helicopter. Both are assessed to be seriously injured,” he told AFP Sunday.

The booby trap severely damaged the troops’ unarmoured truck as is passed along a major highway in Meysan province near the restive southeastern town of Amara, a hotbed of Shiite militia groups.

Burbridge said it was not yet known which group planted the bomb, and added: “We have to accept that there are armed groups operating in Meysan who still think they can attack multinational forces.” [Huh? “Think” they can attack the British occupiers? Isn’t that what they just did? Another idiot in command.]

FUTILE EXERCISE:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW!

US troops patrol a deserted Baghdad street Sept. 30, 2006. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed )

U.S. Occupation Recruiting For The Armed Resistance:
As Usual

10.1.06 Reuters

The U.S.-Iraqi Joint Coordination Center in the northern oil refining town of Baiji said U.S. troops killed three people and wounded another as they were driving their car close to a U.S. patrol there.

This Isn’t Vietnam;
This Is Worse:
“Only 14,000 GIs Spread Over A Sprawling Metropolis With A Population Exceeding 7 Million”

October 16, 2006 by RICHARD J. WHALEN, The Nation [Excerpt]

In August the Army announced an urgent transfer of American forces from insecure western Iraq to the capital in preparation for that coming battle.

The move barely doubled the number of troops in Baghdad, to only 14,000 GIs spread over a sprawling metropolis with a population exceeding 7 million.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Italian Soldier Dies Of Afghan Wounds

10/01/06 Esercito Difesa

Oggi alle ore 12.30, il Caporal Maggiore Vincenzo Cardella è deceduto presso il Reparto di Terapia Intensiva del Policlinico Militare del “Celio” dove era stato ricoverato in gravi condizioni a seguito dell’attentato avvenuto nei pressi di Kabul il 26 settembre, nel quale aveva perso la vita il Caporal Maggiore Capo Scelto Giorgio Langella.

Il Caporal Maggiore Cardella era giunto in Italia lo scorso 27 settembre a bordo di un velivolo tedesco dopo aver ricevuto le prime cure ed esser stato stabilizzato presso l’ospedale da campo francese di Warehouse sito nella capitale afgana.

Il Caporal Maggiore Cardella Vincenzo era nato a Santa Maria Capua Vetere il 11-11-1982, ed era effettivo presso la 22ª Compagnia del 2° Reggimento Alpini di stanza a Cuneo.

Le condizioni del Maresciallo Cirmi Francesco permangono serie e non consentono ancora di scioglierne la prognosi.

L’Esercito tutto si stringe intorno ai familiari di Vincenzo e di Francesco.

Afghan Man Freed From “Secretive” U.S. Occupation Prison;
“He Had No Protection And No Rights”

Capt. Amanullah, who was imprisoned in Bagram, the U.S. prison in Afghanistan, poses for a photograph at his home in Kabul Sept. 7, 2006.

Like many who have passed through the secretive jail set up after the fall of the Taliban regime, Amanullah found himself entangled in a system where he had no protection and no rights, and not even the pressure of public scrutiny that helped inmates at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or Abu Ghraib, Iraq.

Amanullah insists he was imprisoned because Afghan rivals lied about him to the U.S. Army. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

TROOP NEWS

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

[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.]

Most Americans Got That Right

CNN 9.30.06

The latest CNN television poll showed 61 percent of Americans now believed the war in Iraq was going either “very badly” or “moderately badly,” compared with 38 percent who thought it was going “very well” or “moderately well.”

“Some Active-Duty Officers Are Working Behind The Scenes To End The War And Are Preparing For The Inevitable US Withdrawal”

October 16, 2006 by RICHARD J. WHALEN, The Nation [Excerpt]

I speak regularly to retired generals, former intelligence officers and former Pentagon officials and aides, all of whom remain close to their active-duty friends and protégés.

These well-informed seniors tell me that whatever the original US objective was in Iraq, our understrength forces and flawed strategy have failed, and that we cannot repair this failure by remaining there indefinitely. Fundamental changes are needed, and senior officers are prepared to make them.

According to my sources, some active-duty officers are working behind the scenes to end the war and are preparing for the inevitable US withdrawal.

“The only question is whether a war serves the national interest,” declares a retired three-star general. “Iraq does not.”

“I Damn The Leaders Who Make Children Hold On To Cardboard Cut-Outs While Their Fathers And Mothers Are Sent To An Illegal And Unjust War”

Linda Coan O’Kresik for The New York Times

From: Andrew Sapp [Veteran; Iraq]
To: GI Special
Sent: September 30, 2006
Subject: Flat Daddies & Mommies

This is surreal.

Cardboard cutouts of deployed Guard soldiers.

I don’t fault the families for wanting something to hang on to, but I damn the leaders who make children hold on to cardboard cut-outs while their fathers and mothers are sent to an illegal and unjust war.

Peace,
Andy

*****************************************************

When Soldiers Go To War, Flat Daddies Hold Their Place At Home

September 30, 2006 By KATIE ZEZIMA, The New York Times [Excerpt]

HERMON, Me.: It was the first day of school, and distance not withstanding, 9-year-old Baylee Smith wanted to take a picture with her father, Mark, who is stationed with a National Guard unit in Afghanistan. Real daddy was not available, but Sergeant Smith’s doppelgänger was.

“Where’s Flat Daddy?” an excited Baylee asked as her stepmother, Jennifer Smith, pulled a large cardboard picture of Sergeant Smith, in his uniform, out of her Chevy Blazer and propped him on the bumper. The two, along with Ms. Smith’s young sons, Alec and Derek, posed for a picture with their Flat Daddy, who promptly fell down.

“Stop it Dad, that’s not funny. It’s not a joke,” Baylee said with a laugh.

The Maine National Guard is giving life-size from-the-waist-up pictures of soldiers to the families of deployed guard members. Guard officials and families say the cutouts, known as Flat Daddies or Flat Soldiers, connect families with a relative who is thousands of miles away. The Flat Daddies are toted everywhere from soccer practice to coffee shops to weddings.

Candidate For Congress Demands Immediate Withdrawal Of All Troops From Iraq

“Our troops and all veterans have taken an oath to support and protect our Constitution and our Commander-in-Chief has been relentlessly attacking our Constitution. We know who the enemy is, and we support our friends.”

Bill Perry, executive director of Delaware Valley Veterans For America told John Murphy “we wholeheartedly agree with your position of supporting our troops by immediately withdrawing them from the Iraq Civil War.

October 2, 2006 UICNoWarIraq

DELAWARE VALLEY VETERANS FOR AMERICA PRAISE JOHN A. MURPHY’S “OUT OF IRAQ” POSITION

CHESTER COUNTY, PA: On Tuesday, September 26 John Murphy addressed an audience in Philadelphia prior to the appearance of Cindy Sheehan.

There were many antiwar organizations on hand including the Granny Peace Brigade and the Delaware Valley Veterans for America. Michael Berg the Green Party candidate for House of Representatives from the State of Delaware who earlier endorsed John Murphy for Congress was also present.

In his address Mr. Murphy said, “I don’t mess around when it comes to my position on Iraq. The Democrat against whom I’m running agrees with Carl Rove and actually quoted Mr. Rove in characterizing my position on the immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq as ‘cut and run’ yet many people in the local peace movement are supporting this pro war Democrat who also is on record as supporting the ‘Bush Doctrine’.

“I call for the immediate and unconditional return of our troops from Iraq unlike the Democrat and Republican who say we must stay the course. I call for the complete cessation of the bombardment of Iraq whether based in Iraq or elsewhere. I also call for the immediate return home of all employees of US corporations and all US contractors”.

Bill Perry, executive director of Delaware Valley Veterans For America told John Murphy “we wholeheartedly agree with your position of supporting our troops by immediately withdrawing them from the Iraq Civil War.

“Our troops and all veterans have taken an oath to support and protect our Constitution and our Commander-in-Chief has been relentlessly attacking our Constitution. We know who the enemy is, and we support our friends.”

Murphy added, “I am overjoyed to have the support of so many people who are truly against this war. Being supported by this veteran’s organization should send a strong message to the voters in Lancaster, Chester and Berks County.

“I have spelled out my position clearly on my web site www.johnmurphyforcongress.org/iraqwar.htm where I have answered all of the objections which the Democrats and Republicans have raised with respect to the immediate return of our troops”.

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward GI Special 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 or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

(Graphic: London Financial Times)

Assorted Resistance Action

Oct 1 (AFP) & Reuters

A policeman was killed by a sniper in the northern city of Mosul.

Police found the body of a policeman a day after he was captured in the town of al-Shirqat, 80 km (50 miles) south of Mosul, local authorities said.

Guerrillas killed Sheikh Numan al-Nassri, the head of a civilian organisation funded by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution In Iraq (SCIRI) [collaborator party], on Saturday, in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

Several mortar rounds landed on a police station wounding four policemen, in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

A policeman was killed after he clashed with insurgents in Mosul, police said.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

[Thanks to Phil G. who sent this in. He writes: The sign that says it all.]

“We Don’t Need To Rush Out To Tell The Few That They Are Abusing The Many”
“They Already Know That”

We’re like angry but terrorized children, anxiously scolding our stern, all-powerful parents. And, in the end, we look to the Democrats or to some congressional panel or to the Supreme Court and demand that they come to our aid.

November 2, 2005 by Joe Carpenter, Dissident Voice [Excerpts]

But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no reason to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves, like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose, they could blow the party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely, sooner or later, it must occur to them to do it? And yet . . . George Orwell, 1984

****************************************************

I’ve never understood the idea of speaking truth to power. The truth, surely, is that in almost all countries of the world, political and economic systems are designed to benefit only the rich and powerful, at the expense of those with less money and power.

This is how the world works, and I see no reason to think that the powerful don’t already understand that. After all, they designed it; they maintain it.

They steal our money, sacrifice our children in their wars, send the poorest and most victimized among us off to jail for petty mistakes, and crush those of us who might present a real threat to the arrangement.

They know we don’t like it. They don’t care. They don’t need to care.

Meanwhile, we get angry and toddle off to tell the truth to the powerful. We have been telling them the truth for centuries. We travel to their great palaces by the hundreds of thousands, to express our anger and despair. We shout and sing and stomp and whine. We threaten. We plead.

Sometimes we’re beaten up, or sent to jail. It’s a tradition of great courage and personal sacrifice, no doubt.

We go to tell them to stop using our money and our children and our energy and intelligence to further rob and rape and murder us. We tell them to be more respectful and compassionate.

We’re like angry but terrorized children, anxiously scolding our stern, all-powerful parents.

And, in the end, we look to the Democrats or to some congressional panel or to the Supreme Court and demand that they come to our aid.

As my friend Harry puts it: “We’re left in the terrible position of trying to decide which elite group will be less likely to prey on us.”

Well, the government and their pals are not going to stop using and abusing us.

They’re not going to stop preying on us.

They cannot stop!

Republican or Democrat, they are rich and powerful precisely because they prey on us. They are rich because they rob us. They’re robbing us right this minute.

They are powerful because they dominate every aspect of our lives, because they’ve taken control of all the major social, political, economic, and communication systems in the world. These systems were designed to increase their wealth and power by taking both from all the rest of us.

But, we are not children, and they are not our parents. We’re not little people and they are not big people. We’re not insignificant and they are not significant. In fact, we do not need them.

They are very few and we, here in the US alone, are roughly 300 million.

We don’t need to rush out to tell the few that they are abusing the many.

They already know that.

We need to look to our next door neighbors, and to their next door neighbors and to the folks all along the block.

We need to tell the truth to each other — for we are the answer

Most Americans live in my neighborhood, or in your neighborhood. Most Americans eat breakfast right next to you in the local cafe. Most Americans get their car fixed at the same garage as you and I do. Most Americans visit my library, my bookstore, my grocery store, my local park — or yours.

But the rich and powerful have convinced us that we cannot — we must not — communicate with the people we can see and hear and touch, right here, right now.

They have convinced us that we need to travel to some government office to persuade elected officials and bureaucrats to change our world for us.

The government and media drone on, endlessly, hypnotically, and convince us that if we just elect the right leaders, they’ll talk to our next door neighbor for us.

The elites are too busy dividing us, setting us against each other, exacerbating every animosity, every misgiving, every anxiety, however slight.

“There oughta be a law,” says the old complaint. Well, there will be, to be sure — but it will just make things worse.

We’re all looking in the wrong place for reason and compassion and justice. It’s not anywhere to be found in Washington, DC. It’s not in governments or state houses. It’s not there in that prestigious gathering of experts and big brains.

It’s right here. It’s wherever you are, and it’s right next door and it’s everywhere along your street and all around your neighborhood.

It’s in the cars that pass you on the roadways and in the shops where you buy your dog or cat food.

There’s no need to travel a thousand or even a hundred miles. It’s not necessary to make the climb up to the penthouse. Our hope, our possibility — our only hope, our only possibility, lies in the ordinary people who compose our world, who are the very stuff of our lives.

Want to change the world? Tell the truth to the plumber. Begin with the lady who hands you the stamps at the post office. Talk with the checkout people at the grocery store. Chat with the waiter at your favorite cafe.

Gab for a few minutes with the guy who changes your oil or with the elementary school teacher with whom you’ve been discussing your child’s future. Lean out of your window while stopped at the light and tell the truck driver some truth he’s certain to recall and ponder.

Blab and babble and blunder and tell the truth, one ordinary person at a time. We’re all ordinary people, and we are our only hope. Tell the truth to the guy who pumps out the septic tank – he’s one of us! Forget about telling the government, forget about the hot shots.

To the extent that we believe we need them, exactly to that extent will we continue our dependence upon ruthless, murderous plunderers, people entirely opposed to our needs and deepest longings.

The depth of our apparent need is the measure of their height above us. The nightmare of our poverty is our dream that they have a right to take our money. The illusion of our impotence is the chimera of their monstrous strength. We shall be slaves as long as we’re convinced that we have masters, and not one moment longer.

Time to wake up, time to grow up. We’re not children. We do not need to ask permission to live like sane, reasonable, thoughtful, compassionate human beings. We do not need to beg or bow or kneel.

We do not need to look to government or to experts or to the rich and famous. Whatever we need, we can get it ourselves. Whatever we want to stop, we can stop it ourselves.

Whatever must be done, we can do it ourselves.

We do not need them; we need each other.

All else is distraction and delusion.

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head. The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.

Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
December 13, 2004

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to contact@militaryproject.org or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential.

Bullshit Detection

Comment: T

There are endless thousands of words circulating daily.

To save time, watch for these tip-offs that what follows isn’t worth your time and effort.

The words and expressions below find a home in the chattering class, where they serve as recognition signals that the individual using them is a fellow member of that very elite, very exclusive club: the self-promoting, self-adoring wing of the intelligentsia.

For the “I’m the center of the universe” crowd, they are the equivalent of gang signs.

They are most often used by people who see words as unconnected to action and who therefore find no virtue in directness or economy of written production.

In the academic circles in which most of the chatterers move, it is a law of life that nothing is to be said in one page when it can be expanded to three, and no one or two syllable word is to survive that can be replaced by a longer, vaguer word.

Here they are, just for you:

“Narrative” As in, “The Zionist narrative about the intervention of the Israeli government in Lebanon……”

Stop reading. The rest is bullshit. Zionists lie about the intervention of the Israeli government in Lebanon…” They do not stand about “narrating.”

“Narrative” is used to say “Look at me me me. I use words like this to show who I am.”

Words like this may also be used to show the user is calm, thoughtful, reflective, superior in intellect, and definitely not someone who would be so crude as to say that the Israeli government is made up of a pack of racist terrorist rats.

Oh no, they would never use language like that! Instead, they talk about an Israeli “narrative,” as if mass murderers are reading story books to children.

“Nuanced” Gives away the rest is bullshit. People who use this word have no interest in being clear and direct. Fuck ‘em.

“Discourse” Gives away the rest is bullshit. People who use this word have no interest in being clear and direct. Fuck ‘em.

“Meme” Oozed up late this summer via academia: an in-word that has no reason to be used other than empty pretension. The minute you see this one, hit the delete key. You’re dealing with a bullshitter who doesn’t care whether you understand the content, but hopes you will be suitably impressed by the fancy new secret word. Do not apply directly to the forehead, or brain.

“Talk about…”

This bizarre instruction isn’t used in ordinary human conversation, it’s used by interviewers and directed toward whoever is being interviewed.

As in “Talk about Iran.”

First, it’s snotty. Sort of like telling a dog to go fetch a stick.

Second, it tells you either the interviewer is brain dead and can’t think of an intelligent question, or hasn’t bothered to do the work necessary to prepare some sharp questions for the interview, or is simply ass-kissing the person being interviewed.

If a reporter at a press conference said to Bush “Talk about Iraq,” these same chatterers would be screaming for blood. Rightly so.

“Only…”

As in “Only the Blatherers League can lead…” or “Only resistance from the Grommet Gathers will…”

Given there is no certainty the sun will rise in the morning, but a very high probability at best, when you find the “Only” leading a sentence, move on to something else to avoid further contamination by a vacant mind, or a mind blinded by arrogant self-infatuation, or both at once.

“I, I, I, me me me, my. my, my.”

Recently six pages against the war used the “I” and “my” and “me” 22 times. “I was shaken when…” “It seemed to me…” “My first thought was……” “I wonder why people don’t see…” “I have called for…” “I have long suspected Bush…” “When I thought about…”

The message here is that what’s important about the war on Iraq are the inner workings of this individuals precious mind.

Are there exceptions? Sure. For instance, a troop writing what he or she saw in Iraq is a perfect exception, “I served with…” etc. Autobiography. Duh

But when somebody who has never been arrested, writing about why it’s wrong to torture prisoners, plasters the writing with “I” and “my” and “me,” that turns the whole thing into being about the writer, rather than the torture.

Not worth another wasted minute. Hit the delete key.

Written work that has moved millions to act against tyrants and oppressors is remarkably short on “me,” “my,” and “I.”

Love it or hate it, the Communist Manifesto was and is one of the most powerful books ever written, having moved hundreds of millions to action. And there is not one personal pronoun in it.

OCCUPATION REPORT

“EVEN COLLABORATORS ARE SURROUNDED BY THEIR ENEMIES AS BODYGUARDS”

[Thanks to Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier, who sent this in. He writes: WHEN EVEN COLLABORATORS ARE SURROUNDED BY THEIR ENEMIES AS BODYGUARDS, YOU KNOW THERE’S NO HOPE OF WINNING THIS WAR.]

Sep 30 By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer

The U.S. military said a captured al-Qaida suspect and members of his cell were “in the final stages” of planning an attack on the Green Zone. An unprecedented curfew prompted by the arrest left millions of Baghdadis stranded at home on Saturday without supplies during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The U.S. military said the suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member was arrested late Friday at the home of senior Sunni Arab political leader Adnan al-Dulaimi, where he was working as a personal bodyguard.

Al-Dulaimi is a member of the Iraqi Accordance Front, the largest Sunni coalition in the 275-member parliament, where it holds 44 seats, and the military was quick to distance the politician from the raid, stressing that he was “not the target.”

As a bodyguard for al-Dulaimi, Farhan could have had access to the parliament, often attended by the prime minister and his staff, and possibly to offices used by Cabinet members.

Farhan also was suspected of having links to a car bomb network operating in the southern area of Baghdad, the military said.

The U.S. command said al-Dulaimi “did meet the force and offered his home to be searched, which was declined as the operation had no association with him. They only searched the security trailer and the suspect’s vehicle.” [And had he not been a collaborating traitor, but an average Iraqi citizen, is there a sane person on the face of the earth that thinks he would have gotten such kind, thoughtful treatment? He’d still be picking the splinters from the busted down door out of his ass.]

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

Legal Experts Question Selection Of Kangaroo As Saddam’s New Judge

September 28, 2006 The Borowitz Report

Two weeks after the judge in Saddam Hussein’s trial for crimes against humanity was dismissed for displaying leniency towards the former Iraqi dictator, the proceedings became embroiled in controversy once again as legal experts questioned the selection of a kangaroo as the judge’s replacement.

While the dismissal of the previous judge, Abdullah al-Amiri, raised eyebrows in legal circles because it suggested to some that the Iraqi government was trying to predetermine the results of the trial, the selection of a kangaroo from the Sydney Zoo in Australia did little to allay those concerns.

“The new Iraqi government is already facing an uphill struggle to gain any kind of credibility for the trial of Saddam Hussein,” said Hassan El-Medfaai, president of the Iraqi Bar Association. “It is hard to see how putting a kangaroo in charge helps achieve that goal.”

The kangaroo, who was known as Annette during her tenure at the Sydney Zoo, received mixed reviews on her first day in the Baghdad courtroom where Mr. Hussein is being tried.

After one of the former dictator’s trademark outbursts, the kangaroo appeared alarmed, jumped from the bench, and had to be subdued with a tranquilizer dart before the proceedings could continue.

At the White House, President Bush praised Saddam’s new judge and said that he would consider appointing a kangaroo to the U.S. Supreme Court, so long as the kangaroo agreed with him on abortion and prayer in schools.

Elsewhere, a team of French doctors made history by performing surgery in zero gravity on an airplane, but were then arrested for bringing liquids and sharp objects onboard.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

[Thanks to David Honish, Veteran, who sent this in.]

Duh!
“Why You Would Take Advice From Someone Who Totally Lost A War About A War That You Are Losing And Copy Their Strategy Is Beyond Me”

[Thanks to Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier, who sent this in. He writes: See the very last lines. Why you would take advice from someone who totally lost a war about a war that you are losing and copy their strategy is beyond me.]

September 29, 2006 By William Hamilton, Washington Post Staff Writer [Excerpt]

Woodward writes that former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger has played a key role as an outside adviser to Bush on the Iraq war.

Kissinger, according to Woodward, sees the Iraq war through the prism of his own experience in the Nixon administration during Vietnam, and has counseled Bush to “stick it out” and not even entertain the idea of withdrawing troops.

GEORGE BUSH: POLITICAL GENIUS
The Commander-in-Chief Speaks

Bush is obsessed with “score cards” and body counts, even though veteran generals know the number of enemy dead says little about who’s winning. “They killed three of ours, how many did we kill of theirs?” is the type of question Bush often asks the military. September 29th, 2006 RICHARD SISK and HELEN KENNEDY, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

DONALD RUMSFELD: POLITICAL GENIUS
The Secretary Of Defense Speaks

[Thanks to Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier, who sent this in.]

September 29th, 2006 RICHARD SISK and HELEN KENNEDY, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS [Excerpt]

At one point Rumsfeld dismissed a question about the rapidly rising number of monthly insurgent attacks by saying the reporting of incidents was merely improving.

And he affected not to know much about a May 24 intelligence report from the Joint Chiefs saying the violence would get much worse in 2007.

“When was this? Gosh, I don’t know,” Rumsfeld told Woodward. “I read so many of those intelligence reports and they are all over the lot.”

Report:
Iranian Science Teachers May Be Enriching Students

1. Low-grade students bond and expend energy outside core curriculum
2. Facility-contamination expert’s office, stocked with bucket, trash bags, mop
3. Cache of classified 2-page reports
4. Buses transporting loads of bright, glowing new students to facility

[Thanks to Phil G, who sent this in.]

September 26, 2006 The Onion

WASHINGTON, DC: A recently released Pentagon report is raising new worries that Iran has been operating several large facilities designed solely for the purpose of enriching mass quantities of high-grade students.

“We have reason to believe that specially trained Iranian science teachers are taking raw, unrefined brain power and bombarding it with knowledge at accelerated levels,” said U.S. Undersecretary Of Defense For Intelligence Stephen Cambone at a Tuesday press conference. “If current levels of student concentration remain this high, Iran could be a mere five to eight years away from developing an atomic scientist.”

Leading analysts believe that the teachers are using a widely applied enrichment process in which students are isolated from such elements as family, play, and cartoons, and are rotated through seven separative work units over the course of each day. This cycle is repeated for months, until the students are made highly reactive to reading matter, which enables them to absorb large amounts of information in short periods of time.

The students are then continually exposed to heavy material, taught to achieve critical thought, and finally graduate to a state of explosive productivity.

Hard evidence that would support the Pentagon’s findings includes a top-secret syllabus, acquired by the CIA, which indicates that Iran may begin testing their students, possibly without warning, as early as next Friday. Reconnaissance-satellite images also reveal the presence of two Tehran–area facilities identified by intelligence sources only as “P.S. 235" and “H.S. 238.”

Despite the Pentagon’s announcement in mid-June that Iran had halted its nuclear-science program, additional satellite photos taken in early September clearly show 40-foot-long buses transporting multiple loads of students to these facilities in the morning hours between 7 and 8 a.m. Some images also reveal a short, 20-foot-long bus thought to contain a smaller number of highly volatile, non-reactive, and extremely dense students.

“While we believe that a majority of these students were developed within Iran’s borders anywhere from 13 to 17 years ago, there is also evidence that they are importing older students from former Soviet republics and Pakistan in what officials have dubbed an ‘exchange program,’” CIA Director Michael Hayden said.

Although no one is sure exactly what is being conducted inside the accelerated core curriculum, a team of UNESCO inspectors who visited suspected Iranian enrichment facilities in 2004 found a number of microscopes, Bunsen burners, centrifuges, and reference materials, including a stockpile of instructional materials and textbooks covered in brown paper wrapping intended to obscure the material’s subject matter.

In a nationally televised Oval Office address Tuesday, President Bush expressed the concern that if Iran is allowed to enrich its students unchecked, many of them could end up anywhere, with some potentially landing in major university centers in New York and Los Angeles.

“The U.S. stopped enriching its students decades ago, and we call upon Iran to do the same,” Bush said. “If the Iranians do not put an end to this program by the middle of December, and impose final examinations, they could face further isolation from the international community.”

As the U.S. awaits a response to the ultimatum, American intelligence continues to monitor a rumored late-afternoon summit, consisting of a series of secretive bilateral meetings between parents and a female science expert known as Mrs. Bakhtiari.

CLASS WAR REPORTS

The Super-Rich Get Richer:
Forbes 400 Are All Billionaires;
Income? $1 Million An Hour

[Thanks to D, who sent this in.]

September 22, 2006 By Frank Ahrens, Washington Post Staff Writer

It’s not news that Bill Gates is the richest person in America, according to Forbes magazine’s annual list of the nation’s 400 richest people, released yesterday. He has been for 13 years. Barring a second Stone Age in which computers are good only for hurling at other cavemen, Gates will always be rich.

The news is: On this list, $999 million is chump change.

For the first time, all 400 Gotbucks on the Forbes tally are billionaires, from Gates (worth $53 billion) down to the bottom, Los Angeles semiconductor magnate Sehat Sutardja ($1 billion).

It’s not just the accumulated wealth that draws attention to the list; it’s the eye-popping numbers that show the speed with which wealth is gained and lost at the dawn of this millennium. For instance, according to Forbes:

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson (No. 3, $20.5 billion) has made $1 million per hour over the past two years.

Google Inc. founders Sergey Brin (No. 12, $14.1 billion) and Larry Page (No. 13, $14 billion) have each made $13 million per day over the past two years.

Forbes has been publishing the much-ballyhooed list — which relies on research and estimates and rounds net worth to the nearest $100 million — since 1982.

The inaugural list contained only 13 billionaires.

Even after the technology crash at the beginning of the century, a three-year war and a jumpy economy, the wealth accumulation among the richest Americans continues unabated and has risen to historic proportions, even if measured by an arbitrarily arrived-at number (400, the number of swells who could fit into the Victorian New York ballroom of Caroline Astor).

“I think it’s very bad,” said Dean Baker, a macroeconomist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.

“If the U.S. had experienced really extraordinary growth, then maybe that would be the reason” for all the billionaires. Baker pointed out that U.S. economic growth in the past 25 years — the period that hatched this crop of billionaires — is actually slower than in the preceding quarter-century, which produced only 13 billionaires.

“If these people pull away so much wealth,” he said, “that means everyone else has less.”

The growth in the number of billionaires has been significantly aided by cuts in U.S. tax rates that allow the wealthy to keep more of their money, said Harvard University economics professor Larry Katz.

Today’s marginal tax rate for the richest Americans is 35 percent, down from more than 60 percent 25 years ago.

One-third of the Forbes 400 is concentrated in two places: California, which has 89 billionaires, and New York City, with 44.

The billionaire-free states are West Virginia, Vermont, Alaska, Maine, Delaware, Mississippi, Iowa, New Mexico, Kentucky and North Dakota. (South Dakota has one.) Even Wyoming, the least populous state, has a billionaire — Christy Walton (No. 7, $15.6 billion), one of eight Wal-Mart family members on the list, four of whom are in the top 10.

The billionaire-free states are West Virginia, Vermont, Alaska, Maine, Delaware, Mississippi, Iowa, New Mexico, Kentucky and North Dakota. (South Dakota has one.) Even Wyoming, the least populous state, has a billionaire — Christy Walton (No. 7, $15.6 billion), one of eight Wal-Mart family members on the list, four of whom are in the top 10.

MORE:

While Billionaires Grab It All, Very Old And Very Young Dying For Lack Of Health Care

20 September 2006 By Larry Wheeler, Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON – The nation’s youngest and oldest citizens are suffering the most from a fragmented, wasteful and in some cases dangerous health care system, according to a new study.

When compared to nearly two dozen other industrialized countries, the U.S. has the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy for people who have reached the age of 60.

Nearly one in four U.S. adults reported having to wait at least six days to receive care when they needed medical attention.

Hispanics are far more likely to lack health insurance than other ethnic and racial groups.

The mortality rate among black Americans is significantly higher at infancy and for those with heart disease or diabetes. Blacks also have considerably lower rates of cancer survival.

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

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

All GI Special issues achieved at website
www.militaryproject.org/
The following have also posted issues; there may be others:

gi-special.iraq-news.de
www.notinourname.net/gi-special/
www.williambowles.info/gispecial
www.traprockpeace.org/gi_special/
www.albasrah.net/maqalat/english/gi-special.htm
www.uruknet.info/

GI Special distributes and posts to our website copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. We believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law since it is being distributed without charge or profit for educational purposes to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for educational purposes, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.  GI Special has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor is GI Special endorsed or sponsored by the originators. This attributed work is provided a non-profit basis to facilitate understanding, research, education, and the advancement of human rights and social justice Go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml for more information. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. 

If printed out, this newsletter is your personal property and cannot legally be confiscated from you. “Possession of unauthorized material may not be prohibited.” DoD Directive 1325.6 Section 3.5.1.2