By Robin Wright and Thomas E. Ricks
The former U.S. official who governed Iraq after the invasion said yesterday that the United States made two major mistakes: not deploying enough troops in Iraq and then not containing the violence and looting immediately after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.
Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, administrator for the U.S.-led occupation government until the handover of political power on June 28, said he still supports the decision to intervene in Iraq but said (...)
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Bremer Criticizes Troop Levels: Ex-Overseer of Iraq Says U.S. Effort Was Hampered Early On
5 October 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
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Arlington West Shows Tragedy of Iraq War
4 October 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
by Judy Ettenhofer SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Every Sunday morning at 8, a squad of volunteers fans out across a section of beach next to the famous Santa Monica Pier.
In the shadow of the Ferris wheel and the trinket stands, they carefully push more than 1,000 white crosses into the sand, methodically placing them in straight rows, using a string grid system as their guide.
After the crosses are planted, they set out a flag-draped coffin with an empty pair of combat boots in front and (...) -
Tweedledumb and Tweedlephony Iraqi Security Forces: the Grand Illusion
4 October 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
By WILLIAM S. LIND
When asked for their solution to the mess in Iraq, both of America’s presidential candidates—Tweedledumb and Tweedlephony—advance the same line: "train more Iraqi security forces." Once enough Iraqis have been trained, they suggest, American troops can be withdrawn and our puppet Iraqi government can stand on its own six legs.
Unfortunately, the problem is not training, but loyalty. All the training in the world is worthless if the people being trained have no reason (...) -
Kucinich Calls for Open Hearings on Iraq Intelligence- Before the Election
4 October 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
1 commentMounting evidence points to Iraq as a collosal failure with little hope for improvement. Dennis Kucinich has called for the House Subcommittee to hold hearings in open session to investigate the lies before the war, and those affecting current policies in iraq.
Make a difference- Write one email and have it faxed to the entire subcommittee. Demand accountability. Click Read More and Email them now, it only takes a second to contact 6 congresspeople today.
Kucinich Calls for Open (...) -
Freed Italian Hostage Says Iraq Rebels ’Justified’
4 October 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
ROME (Reuters) - An Italian aid worker held hostage last month in Iraq said guerrillas there were right to fight U.S.-led forces and their Iraqi "puppet government."
In comments that were bound to annoy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government, Simona Torretta also called on Rome to withdraw the troops it sent to Iraq to support its U.S. ally.
"I said it before the kidnapping and I repeat it today," she told Corriere della Sera newspaper in an interview published Friday.
"You (...) -
Powell Regrets Iraq Weapons Claim for War
4 October 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
By BARRY SCHWEID
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell ventured into the thick of the presidential campaign Friday by challenging John Kerry’s attacks on President Bush’s leadership of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
At a news conference in Atlanta, Powell disagreed with the Kerry’s contention in Thursday night’s presidential debate that Bush missed an opportunity to capture terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.
He also dismissed the Democratic candidate’s suggestion that (...) -
More Troops to Iraq ...After the Election
1 October 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
By RAY McGOVERN
Former CIA Analyst
It’s not an "if." It’s a "when." Pentagon officials have indicated that they plan to send as many as 15,000 additional troops during the first four months of 2005, and the President George W. Bush continues to insist "we will stay the course" until Iraq is stabilized. (I do wish his advisers would provide a different vocabulary so that those of us steeped in the mistakes regarding Vietnam could be spared painful flashbacks.)
Where will the (...) -
Bush Ignored Warnings On Iraq, NY Times Says
1 October 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
1 commentU.S. President George W. Bush was warned in two intelligence reports before he invaded Iraq that his war could produce a chaotic guerrilla conflict involving terrorists. Yet, critics say, Mr. Bush didn’t use the information to alter his policy or plan for escalating bloodshed that’s threatening chances for democratic elections in Iraq in January. A senior U.S. intelligence official was also quoted this week as saying Mr. Bush disregarded high-level warnings that a war could (...)
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Families of Iraq War Dead Target Bush in Ads
1 October 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
by Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON - Angered by President Bush’s policy in Iraq, a group of military families whose relatives died there is targeting the president in new television ads to be aired ahead of the Nov. 2 election.
"I think the American people need to know that we have been betrayed in this rush to war," said Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey is among the more than 1,000 U.S. troops who died in the war.
Sheehan is joining a small group of military families in Washington on Wednesday (...) -
U.S. casualties grim cost of Iraq war. Human tragedies take toll on medics
30 September 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
6 commentsby SANDRO CONTENTA
LANDSTUHL, Germany?At the U.S. military hospital on a wooded hilltop here, the cost of the Iraq war is measured in amputated limbs, burst eyeballs, shrapnel-torn bodies and shattered lives.
They’re the seriously wounded U.S. soldiers who arrive daily at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a growing human toll that belies American election talk of improving times in Iraq.
They’re the maimed and the scarred that hospital staff believe are largely invisible to an (...)