What the average person thinks of us in Iraq...

[glenn-k]

Well, PEG, I had that little talk with Fred---- told him you thought he should try spenders.

He said "If I do that how will I get to show off this sexy a$$?"  

He is quite proud of it I think  ---as demonsrated by his little display over the jobsite Security Camera.  He once mooned me going down the freeway as he and his buddies passed my truck.

Sorry - I tried --- he is incorrigible.  :-/

[glenn-k]

No matter what the average person thinks of us there, why we are there or how we got there, having just passed memorial day, we don't want to forget the cost.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/

Women pioneer new territory.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/17/AR2006041701618.html

[jraabe]

This is reprinted from the Daily Reckoning today.

Good writing, as usual, with an economic/philosophic focus...

Every great public spectacle begins with a lie, develops into a farce, and
often ends up a tragedy. We read the newspapers and wonder where the war
in Iraq stands in the sequence. Certainly, the lies are behind it. The
Bush administration told the lies it needed to tell to get the war
underway. Now, no more lies are needed. But, does that mean we are in the
farce stage? Or have we already moved to tragedy?

"When you open up the strategy for victory, there is nothing inside," said
Representative John Murtha, Democrat from the great state of Pennsylvania.
Murtha has seen this show before, in Vietnam. That, too, had to work its
way through the three stages. The lies: that Americans should care what
kind of misgovernment the Vietnamese had...and that if they "went
communist," the whole of Southeast Asia would fall "like dominoes."

Then came the farce - in which hundreds of thousands of American boys were
"sent to do the fighting that Asian boys should do," in Lyndon Johnson's
words...sent off with an empty strategy and no real knowledge of whom they
were fighting or what they were fighting for, other than slogans as empty
as a George Bush speech. And finally, came the tragedy, not so much the
American retreat, which was still in the bloody farce stage, but the
victory of the reds, who were every bit as asinine and murderous as their
enemies made them out to be. But finally, when Vietnam did "go communist,"
the whole of Southeast Asia yawned. Nobody cared. The Vietcong had won.
And the whole country suffered its victory, like a war wound, for the rest
of the century.

There were no real winners in Vietnam. The president says he has a Plan
for Victory in Iraq, but there will be no winners there either.  

Who will be the biggest loser? We cannot know. It is not given to man to
know his fate. All we can do is to try to peek around the corner.

The world was a much different place in 1966 than it is in 2006. Forty
years ago, the United States was the world's undisputed economic power,
and still a growing power with a positive trade balance, a net creditor to
the rest of the world, and a dollar still convertible into gold, albeit
indirectly. Americans still paid off their mortgages. Credit cards were
still in the future...along with reality TV and "neg am" mortgages. The
generation in command still remembered the lessons of the Great
Depression, and World Ware II. They made mistakes - big ones - but they
still expected to pay their bills and balance their budgets. What's more,
their largest potential competitors - Russia, China, India - still hobbled
themselves with Marxist claptrap that kept them out of world markets for
much of the 20th century. In other words, America could still afford to
make grandiose mistakes.

The United States is, of course, an imperial power. It is also the world's
largest debtor. Its role in the world is to maintain order. But it can
only do so by borrowing money from its former and future enemies! And now,
the empire wastes its military resources in a fight that can do it no
good, and squanders its borrowed money trying to secure a part of the
imperial periphery that can do it no harm; Russia is building up piles of
dollars by exporting energy. China is building up mountains of dollars by
exporting consumer-manufactured goods. India is coming on strong, too, by
offering English-language information processing to the rest of the world.

At some time in the future, these lenders will surely want more for their
money than 5%. Already, we read in last week's paper that China's key
advisors are urging the government to take its dollars and buy oil and
gold. At some point, they might want to suggest changes in the trade
relationship, or changes in the décor of the White House...or changes in
the U.S. Constitution itself. Who knows?

The dollar is, after all, a currency of no fixed value. Both lenders and
borrowers are aware that it floats on the wind like odor from a public
dump. And when the lenders decide the time is right, they will make a
flap. Then, the borrower will find he or she is on the wrong side of the
breeze.

Osama bin Laden wasn't born yesterday. He, too, knows which way the wind
blows. His publicly stated strategy is to bleed the empire dry - forcing
it to spend $100,000 for every 50 cents his terrorists lay out. It is
simple enough to understand the math, but who would have thought that the
empire would be stupid enough to fall into the trap?

A "war on terror" is in many ways the perfect war for a bankrupt empire.
Perfect for its enemies, too. It allows the homeland team to marshal
resources it does not have for a war it cannot lose. Terrorists can only
irritate the great empire; they cannot bring it down. No, the empire will
have to bring itself down. And for that, we don't need terrorists. We have
Congress and the White House.

[Amanda_931]

I hadn't run into the Daily Reckoning before.  But I have been thinking about the economy how it relates to war, depression and collapse.

Partly because the audio book of the moment is Jonathan Alter's book about FDR and the first hundred days.  Fascinating to compare and contrast then and now.

[glenn kangiser]

What our guys are asking in Iraq.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15160357/

[Sassy]

Weapons of Mass Destruction

[Amanda_931]

The quip in 2003 was "Of course we know they have WMD.  We've got the invoices showing what we sold them"

And then Scott Ritter (among others) pointed out how readily they disintegrated.

[glenn kangiser]

You've got it, Amanda.  More and more people are catching on now.  Finally I don't feel so much like the Lone Ranger.  I can be happy knowing I will get to be in the new KBR camps for dissidents with lots of like minded individuals.

[glenn kangiser]

The links below tell of the massive rocket attack that destroyed much of Camp Falcon and its ammo dump.  The name list from the hospital claims over 300 casualties.  DOD does not list them as part of that event perhaps because many times they don't consider them dead until recorded at another location.  The size of the event indicates the list should be credible.  It will be interesting to see what comes out in the near future.

http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/106318

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2547.htm#001

Although official U.S. DoD statements indicated that there were no deaths; that only a hundred men were inside the base guarding billions of dollars of vital military equipment and that there were "only two minor injuries to personnel," passes belief and certainly reality is more painful than propaganda.

Not only has the U.S. military machine lost much of its armor and transport, and its entire reserves of ammunition and special fuel, but the casualty list for only the first day is over 300..

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/com/221735790.html

[Amanda_931]

Oh, dear.  We don't do inflated body counts of the enemy killed any more, so instead we have to minimize our own casualties?

I hope not.

I guess the immediate solution is if anyone knows anyone on the list, to try and contact them.

[glenn kangiser]

They did it in Viet Nam as you mentioned.  

Looks like more than small ammo going off here.  Small ammo doesn't make blinding white light and mushroom clouds that I know of.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7500391660672808417&q=camp+falcon+ammunition&hl=en

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=99999&l=e&size=1&hd=0

[Sassy]

Remember Pat Tillman, the football player who was killed in Iraq?  The following link is to an article his brother wrote that was published in the Air Force Times in memory of Pat...  I was surprised they posted this article!  

http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2310513.php

[Amanda_931]

That's right amazing.

Although Air Force Times is a .com and not a .gov.

[glenn-k]

It is also the magazine that published that there were substancially more injuries than officially reported from the Iraq war.

It is the report that got Sassy's dad to realize we were being lied to, big time.  He's Air Force, retired.

[Sassy]

It is estimated that 80% of the injured troops returning from Iraq have some level of brain injury - some severe, some slight.  The severely brain injured get immediate attention, not so with the mild injuries as they are not always apparent at 1st, until the family & friends notice GI Joe is acting a little weird, forgetting more than normal, flying into rages... not to mention the PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).  

I spoke at length to a nurse who was the head nurse at one of the 4 "brain injury" units in the Veteran's Admin hospitals.  She said it was tragic, she cried everyday.  She was instrumental in getting some liaison between the DOD (dept of defense) & the Veteran's Affairs.  You would think they would be working close together, but not so.  Once there is an injury the DOD deems too severe for the military, the person is discharged (this is more true with the army than the other branches).  

It is too expensive for the military to keep them on duty as they would have to pay for Tricare (health insurance for the family), housing etc.  Discharging them leaves the injured veteran basically out in the streets - if he/she has family, spouse - great, if not  :-/ .  The funding for the Veteran's Affairs gets cut more & more while the # of veterans needing medical care keeps increasing.  This fiscal year the funding for the brain injured medical units was cut in half.

The nurse I was talking about earlier really cared about what was happening with these vets & their families.  She called commanders, generals, senators, representatives etc & got them involved.  She was appalled that there was no communication between the DOD & VA after a wounded vet was discharged - she insisted on meeting with the people "in charge" - she went to Washington DC, she insisted they come to her hospital & meet with the Chief of Nursing & the Director of the hospital.  She got things MOVING!  Hurrah for her!

Anyway, another situation that she dealt with was the families.  She ended up being a counselor to the spouses, patients, parents... working at getting the injured veterans the help & benefits they should be able to receive after putting their lives on the line for our country & basically having their lives destroyed.  These vets have to learn to talk, walk, use the toilet, brush their teeth, etc etc - many of them are like infants.  With today's incredibly efficient medical units on site & the ability to airvac the injured - we are able to save lots of lives - but with the majority of injuries being caused by IED's the brain injuries are astronomical.

This nurse was able to get together one of the wives & a wealthy businessman who had come to the VA hosp to volunteer - and they were successful in raising the private funds for a "Fisher House" so that the families would have a place to stay while their loved ones were in the hospital so that they can participate in the daily rehab, which is so vital for the brain injured veteran.  

The raising of funds & building the 21 bedroom suite house took less than a year.  It is beautiful.  Stephanie (the nurse) was on CNN & several other news shows (can't remember the names).  But she is very humble about it - I had to keep asking her about it - she still tears up when she talks about the situation.  She said she had to leave there as she has 2 small children & she would be called night & day - she was so emotionally involved - she needed to focus on her family & give herself some time to heal.  

Once she got the liaison support, the Fisher House built etc, she knew that she could leave - that her work was done there.  I was in tears as she was telling me the story - she showed the videos of the interviews & of many of the brain injured veterans.  I was so impressed with her empathy & the power of one woman who cared enough to fight the odds & the status quo to ensure that our veterans received the care & support they were promised when they joined the military service to "fight for our freedoms".  Whether we may agree or disagree with the premises of the war in Iraq, the casualties to these young men are the reality & Stephanie was one person who truly has made a difference in their lives & the lives of their families.  

[Amanda_931]

Whether we may agree or disagree with the premises of the war in Iraq, the casualties to these young men are the reality & Stephanie was one person who truly has made a difference in their lives & the lives of their families.

Yes.

[Sassy]

here's a link to a report from the Veterans Affairs   http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20061010/index.htm
from the National Security Archives:

 VA Takes Nine Months to Locate Data on Disability Claims by Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

Report Indicates that 1 in 4 Veterans of the
Global War on Terrorism Claim Disabilities

[Amanda_931]

One in four sounds way too high, like there are a lot of slackers out there trying to rip off their government in its time of trial....

[size=20]Until[/size]

you realize that a lot of the people who used to be army--cooks, a large portion of the transport people, construction, and more--are no longer in the army or marines but are contract workers--in the name of economy, of course.

I think I read somewhere that there were almost as many contract workers as regular military in Iraq--maybe 80 per cent of the military total.

[Sassy]

I think you are right, Amanda, from what I've read.  The gov't uses creative budgeting - sorta like Enron... but then so do our banking institutions & including the Federal Reserve, the United States private central bank... to pay for the contractors so it doesn't look like we have such a BIG budget for the military branches - although, remember, on the eve of 9/11 Rumsfield admitted that the Pentagon couldn't account for 2.3 trillion $$$!!!

Of course I see slackers in the VA health system, you see them everywhere, but then you've got to realize that these veterans have all been exposed to depleted uranium (DU) as have the Iraqi's, Afgan's, Kuwaiti's & even Europe... & of course, the 100's (1,000's) of tons of the aerosolized DU has been breathed in, touched, eaten etc.  Think radiation poisening?  :-/  Could that stuff floating around the world affect "global warming"?

That was another reason that the nurse I spoke about earlier felt she had to leave... there was so much they were not allowed to talk about ie DU among other things... she said she knew too much.  I don't want to say too much as I don't want it to come back on her.  

But now we have the Federal Reserve producing the financing so that our gov't will have endless funds to promote war that our children will have to fight, and that we all pay for through the IRS - oops, actually all our taxes to the IRS pay for is the interest to the international bankers who own & control the Federal Reserve   !  And the Federal Reserve produces the money out of, lets take a guess, thin air???    There's not even fractional banking anymore.  When the Federal Reserve prints up the money to pay for the US Treasury bills or other debts the gov't has to borrow on, the Feds consider that an asset in their accounting world - go figure (actually all the banks do) because the United States citizen is going to have to pay taxes to pay the interest on the debt that was purchased out of - uh, you guessed it, thin air!  

That is another reason the 3rd world countries default on so many loans - yet again, a huge banking entity called the "World Bank" finances the loans out of, guess again, "thin air" & now the 3rd world country is saddled with not only the debt but the interest... usually they can only pay the interest, if that, but the international bankers want the interest so they are nice enough to "roll over" the loan.  After that has been done countless times - the 3rd world country can no longer pay even the interest, so they default on the loans... mind you, the international bankers do not lose, the generous United States citizens & citizens of other countries have guaranteed the loans & pay the international bankers out of their taxes - some of which goes to the World Bank!  Think Russia, Mexico, Brazil among many other countries... who have defaultd on their loans in the past few years - but good United States citzens as we are - we make sure that the international bankers are paid their due!  Aren't we generous   ...

Well, enough of my rant - this may be basic economics to most of you - I've just been studying it over the past couple years, although I worked in a bank for 10 years, I didn't really get into the nitty gritty of how our banking system works...

It may sound like I got off the subject of the Iraq war, but I didn't really - wars need to be financed - so there has to be a system in place to finance them & someone makes money off those wars... it's certainly not the unfortunate soldier  :-/ Think The Carlyle Group (daddy Bush among others) Halliburton (Cheney), pharmaceutical companies - vaccines (Rumsfield), big oil (Rice & Bush, among others), Kellogg Brown & Root... anyway, I guess that's enough of a rant...  :-/

[Sassy]

"Why We Are At War - George Bush Is Not The Problem"   :-?  View video Here

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

PS  I mentioned in another post that corporations are required by law to make a profit (according the the documentary "The Corporation") this speaker refutes that assumption...

[Amanda_931]

No, most any investment is a gamble.  Some more than less--"backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government" ought to mean something, although one of the Eisenhower brothers--not Dwight, Milton I think--believed in the late seventies that the United States should declare a moratorium on the national debt, including all the money it had borrowed.  In an infamous op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.  (which I haven't found a reference to through a couple of pages of Google search)

[Sassy]

The problem with the United States backing everything is that banks & corporations take risky chances - when that bank or corp. fails, the United States makes good on their promise - or I should say, the United States taxpayer...  :-/

[Amanda_931]

But then there was 1929.  Well, on through at least early 1933.

If banks went under all the money was gone for all the depositors.

(now, they'd have sold their loans, so you'd still owe those)

[glenn-k]

3,166 reported deaths -Depends on who is counting

...and besides what really qualifies as dead anyway?  Dead is really subject to interpretation.  Isn't it? :-/

US Iraq casualties rise to 52, 590

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/19170

[Sassy]

How The Military Industrial Complex Makes Money Off 9/11 video