The local KCMO Vet on the 2nd Iraq War

Link to original post:  I Dare You Watch This Clip From A Dying Veteran

The Iraq War, by the numbers

Number of years since the U.S. invaded Iraq: 10

Number of Iraqi civilians dead as a consequence: At minimum, between 123,000 and 134,000

Number of Iraqis internally displaced or who fled the country: 2.8 million (that’s one in 12 Iraqis)

Number of U.S. troop casualties: 4,484

Number of coalition troop casualties: 4,803

Number of U.S. troops wounded: 32,223

Number of non-Iraqi contractors killed: at least 463

Number of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnoses in U.S. service members: 103,792

Number of bombs dropped in Shock and Awe Campaign: 4,845

U.S. financial cost so far: $1.7 trillion

Amount owed to U.S. veterans in benefits: $490 billion

Predicted cost to U.S. over next four decades: $6 trillion

Cost of U.S. reconstruction efforts: $60 billion

Amount of reconstruction effort funds wasted: over $8 billion

Halliburton overcharges classified by the Pentagon as Unreasonable and Unsupported: $1.4 billion

Number of WMDs discovered: 0

Sources: Costs of War Project, Congressional Research Services, News Sentinel, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction .

With thanks to Matt Payton's Tumble-o-rama for bringing this to our attention.

Veteran from KCMO pens letter to Bush, Cheney

From The Huffington Post yesterday and TruthOut earlier:

Tomas Young, Dying Iraq War Veteran, Pens 'Last Letter' To Bush, Cheney On War's 10th Anniversary

Days after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Tomas Young, then a 22-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., made a decision repeated by many other Americans around the country: He was going to enlist in the military in hopes of getting even with the enemies who had helped coordinate the deaths of nearly 3,000 men, women and children.

Less than three years later, Young's Army service placed him not in Afghanistan -- where then-President George W. Bush had told the nation the terrorist plot had originated -- but in Iraq. On April 4, 2004, just five days into his first tour, Young's convoy was attacked by insurgents. A bullet from an AK-47 severed his spine. Another struck his knee. Young would never walk again, and in fact, for the next nearly nine years, he would suffer a number of medical setbacks that allowed him to survive only with the help of extensive medical procedures and the care of his wife, Claudia.

The incident turned Young into one of the most vocal veteran critics of the Iraq War. He has, however, saved his most powerful criticism for what he claims will be his last. Young says he'll die soon, but not before writing a letter to Bush and former Vice President Cheney on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War.

From Young's letter, published on TruthDig:

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Young goes on to attack the "cowardice" of Bush and Cheney for avoiding military service themselves, and to encourage them to "stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness."

(Read Young's entire letter here.)

Young was the subject of the 2007 documentary "Body of War," which was about his recovery process and the Iraq War. At a February screening of the film, Young told the audience that he planned to end his life in April.

According to the Ridgefield Press, Young announced that he would stop taking all nourishment and life-extending medications at that time. He's since said that the deterioration to his body from the injury and ensuing complications would make it physically impossible for him to commit suicide in any other way.

"It's time," he told the audience over Skype, while seated beside his wife. "When I go I want be alert and aware."

Young spoke more about his decision in a recent interview with journalist and Iraq War critic Chris Hedges.

“I made the decision to go on hospice care, to stop feeding and fade away," he said. "This way, instead of committing the conventional suicide and I am out of the picture, people have a way to stop by or call and say their goodbyes. I felt this was a fairer way to treat people than to just go out with a note."

For the rest of Hedges' interview with Young, click here. For the rest of The Huffington Post's coverage on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War, click here.

On the 10th Anniversary of George W Bush's Iraq War

President George W. Bush lied to us, ladies and gentlemen.

As did his Vice President Dick Cheney and now-former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, at minimum.

And the worst thing about it is that at least 4,488 Americans soldiers died because of it while a minimum of 32,021American soldiers were wounded. Added to that are the estimated 122,000+ Iraqis that were killed, let alone those wounded and/or made homeless.

It was and is a huge tragedy and debacle, besides being against our own, internal, national laws as well as against external, international laws.

It should never have happened and many, many lies were told and deceptions created in order to have it take place.

It happened. It took place.

And it took place on our watch.

We should absolutely explore who was responsible for it happening.

We should explore who lied.

And we should prosecute those that did, without question.

More than anything, we must make certain it and nothing remotely like it ever takes place again.

That's why this is so vitally important.

Links:  Iraq Body Count

Casualties in Iraq 

Casualties of Iraq war go beyond those who died in action

U.S. lacks mechanism to accurately track troops wounded in Iraq

One of the best, most important articles Americans will never read

It posted this week:

The Worst Mistake in U.S. History

America Will Never Recover from Bush's Great Foreign Policy Disaster  

       Ten years ago, George Bush made a decision that this country will regret for a very long time.

 

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but the invasion of Iraq turned out to be a joke. Not for the Iraqis, of course, and not for American soldiers, and not the ha-ha sort of joke either. And here’s the saddest truth of all: on March 20th as we mark the 10th anniversary of the invasion from hell, we still don’t get it. In case you want to jump to the punch line, though, it’s this: by invading Iraq, the U.S. did more to destabilize the Middle East than we could possibly have imagined at the time. And we -- and so many others -- will pay the price for it for a long, long time."

 

A mistake for the nation, a mistake for the Middle East, a mistake for the world.

 

It's a great read.  Americans would do well to familiarize themselves with it so more of us learn what we did, so we also learn better where we are now because of it.

 

And why we need to make sure we don't let this or anything like it happen again.

The Iraq Documentary Americans need to see

Rachel Maddow and MSNBC created a documentary based on the book by the same name by Michael Isikoff and David Corn:

'HUBRIS: SELLING THE IRAQ WAR'

In their book review, The New York Times tells a bit about the book:

In “Hubris,” Michael Isikoff and David Corn chronicle the Bush administration’s delusional march to war. Though there has been a deluge of works denouncing the follies of the military and the administration, Isikoff and Corn cover somewhat different terrain. They offer the most comprehensive account of the White House’s political machinations, aimed at convincing Congress and the public that Iraq posed a dire threat. Isikoff is an investigative correspondent for Newsweek and the author of “Uncovering Clinton,” and Corn is an editor at The Nation and the author of “The Lies of George W. Bush.” The authors, who have interviewed key politicians and government officials, supply a lot of new information. They show that in many ways the administration became the dupe of its own propaganda. Though their narrative spins out of control by the end, much of the book makes for fascinating reading.

As Isikoff and Corn demonstrate, the administration’s first mission was to snow Congress. At every step, Cheney took the lead, convincing the four top leaders of Congress — Dennis Hastert, Richard Gephardt, Trent Lott and Tom Daschle — that war was unavoidable. Together with George Tenet, the director of central intelligence, Cheney and the lawmakers gathered in the House Intelligence Committee briefing room, where they examined photos of what looked like new construction at what Cheney declared were Iraqi nuclear weapons sites. “When the Congressional leaders departed that briefing,” Isikoff and Corn write, “they looked grim.”

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

When it comes out, please don't miss it. We let these people have their way with us, with the nation, and with the Iraqi people and really, the world, to all their peril and our own. We owe it to them--and to ourselves--to know and get out the truth. It premieres February 19 at 8 pm Central Time.

There are a great deal of people in the world who would be only too happy if former President George W. Bush and his Vice President, Dick Cheney, at the very least, were charged with war crimes.

The rest of the Times review is here:  Winds of War - The New York Times

Whole sections of the world seem a lot brighter than the good old US

A few notes from the news in the last 24 hours:

First, Ann "the man" Coulter was told she couldn't be coming up to Canada to give a speech at Ottawa University and spew hate speech because they have laws against it.

Wow. How refreshing is that?

Imagine--rules against hate speech. One step further--enforceable rules on hate speech.

Then, as an additional bonus, it turns out 2,000 Canadians came 'round to rather vehemently demonstrate against her.

Who said Canadians are sissies?

So check this out---Ms. (Mr.?) Coulter cancelled her trip and speech.

Score one for the right thing happening.

Love those Canadians.

Second, according to the After Downing Street blog, "A journalist tried to arrest Tony Blair for 'crimes against peace' as the former prime minister arrived to give a speech at the European Parliament in Brussels."

Again, how cool is that? Someone standing up for justice in the world, even if it was just a symbolic gesture.

It seems the reporter attempted to make a citizen's arrest, right there on the street.

It wasn't successful, of course (unfortunately) but the article went on, "As Mr Cronin was pushed away on Monday, he shouted 'Mr Blair, you are guilty of war crimes' referring to the Iraq invasion."

Wouldn't it be great if this happened here in the States, to the person who's really responsible for the debacle and crime known as the current Iraq War, Former President George W. Bush?

For that matter, with Former Vice President Dick Cheney and/or Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld?

One last good thing that's happening in this regard is the ongoing investigation in the British government as to what happened, when and by whom, prior to the start of the Iraq War.

It seems the British have enough guts , intelligence and determination to see what happened in their government at the time and to see if it was all legal and proper. (Oh, and the Dutch also have enough fortitude to calmly and fairly see what happened in their government before the start of this stupid, misbegotten war, too).

Some terrific, strong examples of how Europe and Canada, at least, seem to have far more, again, intelligence, courage and determination in running their respective countries.

Don't accuse me of saying this isn't a good place, the US.

I'm just saying we could make some pretty significant improvements.

On the anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war

What lessons have we learned?

What do we do now?

More bad news leftover from the previous administration and their horrific leadership

There is a Congressional oversight report that is to come out this Wednesday, detailing the waste in spending in Iraq and Afghansistan.

"In its first report to Congress, the Wartime Contracting Commission presents a bleak assessment of how tens of billions of dollars have been spent since 2001. The 111-page report, obtained by The Associated Press, documents poor management, weak oversight, and a failure to learn from past mistakes as recurring themes in wartime contracting."

But wait! There's more!

"U.S. reliance on contractors has grown to "unprecedented proportions," says the bipartisan commission, established by Congress last year. More than 240,000 private sector employees are supporting military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands more work for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development."

"But the government has no central data base of who all these contractors are, what services they provide, and how much they're paid. The Pentagon has failed to provide enough trained staff to watch over them, creating conditions for waste and corruption, the commission says."

I could go on.

The point is, all Americans agree--left, right, Liberal, Conservative, everyone--that we need to cut wasteful spending in our government. This is one perfect, easy place to start.

Link to story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090608/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_wartime_contracting_report

A new poll out right now and more from "W", the Chief Knucklehead

There's so much information coming out right now, about this last nightmarish 8 years of the Bush Administration it's dizzying.

Truly.

If only Molly Ivins were here to write about it--she was so right about this idiot.

Get this:

It seems "W" said "So what?" when told that there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq before he invaded that country in 2003. (Link to story and video here:
http://crooksandliars.com/cernig/bush-admits-al-qaeda-wasnt-iraq-invasion-so)

So what??

Are you effin' kidding me?

So what, George?

SO MORE THAN 4,219 AMERICAN SOLDIERS WOULDN'T BE DEAD!

So more than 100,000 Iraqis wouldn't be dead.

So thousands of American soldiers wouldn't be crippled by your stupid war.

So many more thousands of American soldiers wouldn't be suffering from PTSD.

So thousands of Iraqis wouldn't be crippled by your illegal, invasive, tragic war.

So we wouldn't still be in Iraq.

So we wouldn't have squandered the heretofore good American name and reputation if we didn't go in.

So there wouldn't be 2 million Iraqi refugees in the Middle East right now because their home country was blown apart, completely in violation of international law.

So there wouldn't have been an Abu Graib.

So there wouldn't have been all these pointless tragedies, stemming from this clusterbuck you created.

Anyone can go on and on here.

So what?

So we've squandered how much American capital on this mess so now we're in the largest debt of our country's history, just when we need money and infrastructure and jobs and much, much more, at home?

Holy cow.

How flip can one get?

Answer: "George Bush flip", that's how, and it's the worst, ever, like his Presidency.

And how does the American people feel about the "Knucklehead in Chief" now, at the end of this hellish nightmare?

Sure, most want him out of office.

According to a just-released poll from CNN, 75% of us want him out. (Link to original story here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/26/bush.poll/index.html)

And that stands to reason.

But, get this--only 28% think he's the worst President ever.

Further proof, ladies and gentlemen, that Americans just don't know history--even their own.

3 Movies all Americans should see

Last evening, I finally got to watch the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?".

It immediately made clear to me that this one, along with 2 others, are three simple, important, informative movies that, like it says above, all Americans should see.

And they should see them not because we need to blame anyone (George W. Bush), or because we need to punish anyone (George W. Bush), but because it's important to know what happened in our recent past so we also know where we are now, what we can do--what we're capable of--and where we should go and what we should do, as a country.

Last night's movie told of the magnificent, simple electric "EV" car (electric vehicle) General Motors was, at first, required by California to build and its temporary, short-lived success in California and Arizona and expedient, diabolical demise, due to both GM and the oil companies, with the help of local and state government.

It's fascinating, not well-known, sad, frustrating and, again, important.

The second movie we all should see is "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room". It told of the financial and economic raping of America by one group of people from one corporation, with the complete and total backing and support of our very own President at the time, one George W. Bush. (Sound familiar?). There's so much more here that happened that we all need to know about, before, during and after this debacle.

The last film that should be required viewing for us is "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War".

This should be self-explanatory but actually, most Americans think they know what happened to get us to where we are now when, in fact, the buildup to this Iraq War has many details and components to it most don't know. Also, after we invaded Iraq, it was found we didn't really have a plan for its occupation, making an even larger, greater mess and causing many more casualties.



What's sad is that precious few Americans have seen these films.

What's sadder is that so few will--or want to.

Again, how can we know where to go and what to do if we don't even know our recent past?



We're going to be paying for this Administration for years--both for this war and the economy.

If there's a hell--and I don't think there is--there would be a special place for this President in it, surely.

What would YOU do?

Check this out

Did you know that your own--our own--government, the United States government, is paying--yes, paying--Iraqis, regularly, "in exchange for not fighting" in Iraq?

If not, then, do you know how may Iraqis we are paying to not fight?

It's hard to believe.

91,600 Iraqis.* Regularly.



Thank you, once again, George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and all others involved and responsible.

Good plan, guys.

*Harper's Magazine, June, 2008, P. 15 (Multi-National Force, Iraq, Baghdad)