Iraq war into 6th year, same old story...

[SunMo]

i felt good about it, and that's all that really matters

[Diomedes]

The coalition of the willing gets weaker and weaker.  Slovakia troops out.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-01/27/content_5662652.htm

All 110 of them.

[Diomedes]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2855506

Feb 7, 2007 — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it was checking reports that a helicopter, possibly a Chinook transport aircraft, had either crashed or made an emergency landing near Baghdad on Wednesday.

An Iraqi policeman who had been to the area northwest of Baghdad told Reuters he had seen wreckage on the ground. One witness who said he saw the helicopter come down also said he had seen wreckage.

U.S. soldiers had moved in to secure the area, witnesses said.

"We have heard about this ... but I cannot confirm anything at this stage," said Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

The U.S. military said on Sunday it was adjusting its tactics in Iraq after four helicopters were shot down over a two-week period.

Those helicopters were shot down in four separate incidents in which 21 U.S. servicemen and private security contractors were killed. Dozens of U.S. helicopters have come down, some hit by missiles or gunfire, in four years of fighting in Iraq.

But the high number lost in such a short time had raised questions about whether militants had changed tactics or were using more sophisticated weapons.

At least two witnesses said they saw the helicopter, which they described as a twin-rotor Chinook, come down on Wednesday amid gunfire from the ground. Some witnesses said they saw smoke before the helicopter went down, while others said they had not seen any.

The Chinook has two crew and can carry up to 55 passengers. They are used widely to transport troops and cargo around Iraq.

I bet the copters are coming down because the insurgents are getting better weapons from Saudi Arabia, but Bush will claim they're coming from Iran instead.  It's his M.O., the dirty motherfarger.


edit:  confirmed
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2855643

A Sea Knight helicopter went down northwest of Baghdad on Wednesday, the military said, the fifth helicopter lost in Iraq in just over two weeks.
The CH-46 helicopter went down about 20 miles northwest of the capital, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said, but he declined to comment on casualties.

[Diomedes]

what a goddamned mess

[ice grillin you]

a documentary just debuted at sundance last week that get s a rack of bush officials on record as to how they got completely ignored and trivialized by the neo cons in the admin re: the invasion of iraq

armitage
jay garner
paul hughes and others all speak out


should be interesting and infuriating all at the same time

[SD_Eagle5]

Disgrace

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government is at risk of squandering significantly more money in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has already wasted or otherwise overcharged taxpayers billions of dollars, federal investigators said Thursday.

The three top auditors overseeing contract work in Iraq told a House committee of $10 billion in spending that was wasteful or poorly tracked. They pointed to numerous instances in which Defense and State department officials condoned or otherwise allowed poor accounting, repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for work shoddily or never done by U.S. contractors.

That problem could worsen, the Government Accountability Office said, given limited improvement so far by the Department of Defense even as the Bush administration prepares to boost the U.S. presence in Iraq.



Given "the need for continued support for deployed forces, it is essential for DOD to address these shortcomings if the department is to increase its return on its investment in Iraq," said David M. Walker, comptroller general of the GAO, Congress' auditing arm, in prepared testimony.

The auditors' joint appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee comes as Congress is preparing for a showdown with President Bush next month over his budget request of nearly $100 billion to pay for more U.S. troops in Iraq.

Also testifying Thursday were Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, and William Reed, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency.

$5 billion in bad paperwork
According to their testimony, the investigators:

Found overpricing and waste in Iraq contracts amounting to $4.9 billion since the Defense Contract Audit Agency began its work in 2003, although some of that money has since been recovered. Another $5.1 billion in expenses were charged without proper documentation.
Urged the Pentagon to reconsider its growing reliance on outside contractors to run the nation's wars and reconstruction efforts. Layers of subcontractors, poor documentation and lack of strong contract management are rampant and promote waste even after the GAO first warned of problems 15 years ago.
Pointed to growing Iraqi sectarian violence as a significant factor behind wasted U.S. dollars. Iraqi officials must begin to take primary responsibility for reconstruction efforts, an uncertain goal given widespread corruption in Iraq and the local government's inability to fund projects.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the panel, has pledged scores of investigations of fraud, waste and abuse — with subpoenas if necessary — on the Bush administration's watch. He decried the overpricing identified by the DCAA, a figure that has tripled since last fall.

Halliburton cited
Of the $10 billion in overpriced contracts or undocumented costs, more than $2.7 billion were charged by Halliburton Co., the oil-field services firm once headed by Vice President D Cheney.
"According to the Pentagon auditors, more than one in six dollars they have audited in Iraq is suspect," Waxman said. "It's no wonder taxpayers across the country are fed up and demanding real oversight."
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the top Republican on the panel, pointed to ongoing, "systemic" problems in Iraq contracting.

"This much is clear: Poor security, an arcane, ill-suited management structure, and frequent management changes have produced a succession of troubled acquisitions," he said.

Bowen said his office had expanded an investigation of police training contracts awarded by the State Department. An audit by Bowen last month found tens of millions of dollars wasted on a DynCorp International contract to build an Olympic-size swimming pool for a police academy in Baghdad that has yet to be used. The pool as well as VIP trailers were ordered by Iraqi officials but never authorized by the State Department.

[Diomedes]

totally predictable

Bush Cheney et. al ought to be impeached, jailed, shot.  They're the traitors, not people like me who called bullshtein from day one.

[Butchers Bill]

totally predictable

Government waste usually is.

[Diomedes]

Especially this government, Bush lover.

[Diomedes]

As you probably know, the U.K. has announced a timetable for withdrawal.  Here's a link:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/21/uk.iraq.troops/index.html

Denmark will also remove their troops:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/02/21/denmark.iraq/index.html

worst president ever

[ice grillin you]

[Diomedes]

Ah, no.  Unless you're Bush Cheney and friends, in which case it's great because you can sell arms to both sides.

[MDS]

Fox Noise!!

[Diomedes]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article1640389.ece

If you ask McCain, things are getting better in Iraq.  If you ask the Red Cross (or anyone NOT running on a pro-war republican platform), things are getting worse in Iraq.



Dude's truck was destroyed by a military vehicle (U.S. Tank or some such..there are no other military vehicles).  Have a nice day, Iraqi dude trying to survive.

Life for ordinary Iraqis is getting worse as they try to live with a poor healthcare system, little electricity, a shortage of drinking water and bodies left lying on the streets in unsanitary conditions, according to a report by the Red Cross.

After some of the most intense fighting in Baghdad for two months yesterday, which saw a heavy exchange of gunfire between insurgents and the US military, the bodies of twenty insurgents were still lying in the streets of the capital today.

The report by the Red Cross, published today, said: "The conflict in Iraq is inflicting immense suffering on the entire population. Civilians bear the brunt of the relentless violence and the extremely poor security conditions that are disrupting the lives and livelihoods of millions. Every day, dozens of people are killed and many more wounded.

"Civilians bear the brunt of the relentless violence and the extremely poor security conditions that are disrupting the lives and livelihoods of millions. The plight of Iraqi civilians is a daily reminder of the fact that there has long been a failure to respect their lives and dignity."

A mother living in Baghdad told the Red Cross that dead bodies were a constant reminder of the conflict. "The most important thing that anyone could do would be to help collect the bodies that line the streets in front of our homes every morning. No one dares touching them," she said.

"For us it is unbearable to have to expose our children to such images every day as we try to bring them to school."

This morning a community leader from the Jihad area of west Baghdad pleaded with the Iraqi Interior Ministry to clear the bodies from the streets in the area. He said: "We have five bodies in the street and nobody dares to collect them."

Although the army does most of the fighting, it is left to the police to clear away the dead bodies.

Since the bombing of the Shia shrine of Samarra in February 2006 the increase in violence has seen more than 100,000 people displaced and an ever greater burden on the failing infrastructure in the country, according to the Red Cross report.

Food, electricity and drinking water shortages have created a situation in Iraq which adversely affects everyone in the country, whether or not they are directly impacted by the violence. Displacement, as families flee the most dangerous regions of Iraq, has increased the pressure on services in other parts of the country.

Abu Ahmed, from a displaced family said: "My family is Shiite. We live together with a Sunni family. Both families were forced to leave their homes by militias. There are 30 of us, sharing the same living space: 14 children and 14 adults, and grannies on both sides. We live on an abandoned construction site and protect ourselves from the weather with plastic sheets."

During the fighting yesterday in the Fadhil district of central Baghdad four Apache helicopters were hit, but not brought down. Sixteen US soldiers were wounded.

James Hider, The Times correspondent in Baghdad, explained that the infrastructure in Iraq was in crisis and showed little sign of improvement. "The entire healthcare system has collapsed. There are so few supplies that there are just 30 intensive care units in Baghdad and people are getting shot every day," he said. "If you get shot in Iraq, they'll patch you up, but you are going to die as there is no after care."

"There are common complaints about water supply and the electricity is off all day, it hasn't improved since the war. There was a demonstration in Sadr City over the lack of clean water and basic services."

The Red Cross report is published on the same day as reports from Oxfam and the Oxford Research Group claiming UK foreign policy in Iraq is fermenting further radical support and undermining the UK's international reputation.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Of all the issues in Iraq, one motherfarger's truck doesn't even rate.  Bleeding heart nancy.