Much as the media has shielded us from war stories out of Iraq and the pictures of Iraq, every once in a while a story breaks through their blackout.
U.S. Troops are actively searching for two missing soldiers who disappeared during an attack at a check point south of Baghdad. This area, commonly referred to as "The Triangle of Death", is situated between the River Euphrates and Baghdad in the town of Yusufiya. It's given that pessimistic title as a result of the numerous clashes between US forces and Sunni insurgents.
According to reports, one soldier was murdered and two are missing at approximately eight pm Friday. Now, divers are searching for the missing soldiers in the canals nearby and the Euphrates River. Also, the Iraqis and American forces are busy raiding houses and scanning the scene from aircraft. Even women in traditional head scarves are being watched to make sure they're not men dressed up as women. Cell phone signals are being scrambled and the investigation is in high gear.
The Washington Post presented more details about the increase in violence this past week:
Word of the missing troops came as insurgents in and around Baghdad thwarted a heavy police and army presence by carrying out six attacks that killed at least 35 people, most of them Iraqi police and soldiers. In recent days, the capital has seen increased numbers of checkpoints, patrols and raids as part of a new security initiative from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.
The deadliest attack Saturday came in the northern neighborhood of Zayouna, home to many former officers in Saddam Hussein's army, where a suicide car bomber struck a joint Iraqi police and army checkpoint, killing 12 members of the security forces and wounding 22, according to Brig. Gen. Arkan Yahiya of Iraq's Interior Ministry.
Seven other members of Iraq's security forces were killed when a car bomb blasted a checkpoint near Iraq's National Theater in the southern neighborhood of Karrada, police officials said. A car bomb at a checkpoint in checkpoint in Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad, also killed seven.
In the Shiite-majority neighborhood of Kadhimiyah, northwest of downtown, three nearly simultaneous explosions rocked a crowded market early Saturday morning, killing a father and son and wounding 15 others, according to Ahmad Hussein, a doctor at nearby Kadhimiyah Hospital. The blast took place near a prominent Shiite shrine frequented by pilgrims.
"I came from Najaf to visit the shrine, and after I finished the visit I was drinking water with my wife when the explosion took place," said Natiq Gati, 55, who was badly burned from head to toe. "I felt the heat on my back."
"What security plan are they talking about?" said Hussein Kadhum, 21, who was visiting the shrine Saturday. "The whole area is cordoned and the police and army are everywhere and are searching everybody. So who can bring explosives inside this area unless there are people with the security forces cooperating with him?"
The Mujaheddin al-Shura Council, an umbrella organization of insurgent groups that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, also derided Maliki's security initiative as a "media show" and promised more attacks in the coming days, in a statement posted on a Web site used by insurgents.
In Yusufiyah, a U.S. military statement said a quick reaction force had arrived at the scene within 15 minutes of the clash that led to the disappearance of the two soldiers. Police and soldiers manning nearby checkpoints were ordered to stop civilian traffic and establish a perimeter around a concentrated search area. Helicopters, airplanes and unmanned drones were dispatched to provide surveillance, the military said.
In the heart of the violence-plagued Sunni Arab suburbs south of Baghdad, Yusufiyah has seen a series of military operations in recent months, including one in April in which former al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- killed this month by a U.S. airstrike -- was believed to have narrowly escaped."
According to reports, the names of the missing soldiers are being withheld until the families have been notified.
So this week, while Republicans in Congress have attempted to legitimize discrimination and hate against gay Americans and brown skinned immigrants, have tried to politicized flag burning, and they've sunk to smearing Kerry and Murtha, this is what our troops and their families have been fighting daily.
War! Not gays. Not flags. Not Kerry or Murtha.
Murtha said it best to these Republicans who politicized the war:
When I hear somebody standing here sanctimoniously saying we're going to fight this out, we're not fighting at all. The troops are doing the fighting. The families are doing the sacrificing. A small proportion of families in this country are doing the sacrificing. And that's why I get so upset when they stand here sanctimoniously saying we're fighting this thing. It's the troops who are doing the fighting, not the members of Congress who are doing the fighting."
Update: As I was about to post this, I discovered that CNN reported that insurgents were seen leading two soldiers away.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell says a search will continue until the soldiers are found.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi witnesses say they saw two U.S. soldiers who survived an attack at a checkpoint near Baghdad being led away by masked insurgents to a pair of cars, The New York Times is reporting in its Sunday edition.
"There are intelligence indicators they may have been captured alive rather than killed," a senior military official told CNN on Saturday night.
Murtha is not a traitor nor has he ever been; however, let's talk about people who really are a traitor to this country.
1. Scooter Libby--gave out a covert spy's name to get a war.
2. George W. Bush--allowed Scooter Libby to give out a covert spy's name to get a war. Also, failed to show up at national guard duty to complete his own service. Took a lighter path to send people to war in Vietnam so they could die or come home mutilated in his stead. Then he ran a below decency campaign to get elected twice with not only smears but blatent untruths and allowed huge amounts of Americans to be 'disenfranchised fromt he democratic process' meaning he stole their votes!
3. Dick Cheney--5 deferments. Allowed Scooty Libby to give out a covert spy's name to start an illegal war. Made huge profits in Haliburten since starting a false war.
4. Rove--defered from Vietnam. Lied and said he was a full time student when he wasn't. Avoided going to Vietnam as a result. still may be indicted for leaking a spy's name or may have cut a deal.
So before you come in here and slur a proud marine who went to war and who put his life on the line, you had better watch your facts buddy.
MURTHA IS NOT A TRAITOR TO THE U.S. BUT THIS ADMINISTRATION AND THESE REPUBLICANS IN OFFICE WILL RIP APART THESE SOLDIERS IN IRAQ JUST SO THEY DON"T HAVE TO SAY THEY WERE WRONG AND THEY"RE LIARS!!! THEY ARE THE TRAITORS NOT MURTHA!
These neoconservatives and these Republican's are the biggest traitors our country has ever seen. Just think of them like Pinochio, what they say is actually the opposite of facts or truth.
"We support our troops" is actually, "We don't give a crap about out troops."
"Our bill is for Safe skies and water" is actually, "Warning more poisonous gases and pollutants with our policy"
and
"There are weapons of mass destruction" is actually, "We dream of weapons of mass destruction but they don't have them...!"
If you people Murtha is doing our country any good with his demeaning comments that do absolutely nothing to help our troops in the field or to comfort their families in their time of loss, than this country is far more gone that I had ever imagined. I say if you don't like it get the hell out, see why they say paradise is in North Korea, you morons.
I have been calling my senators on this for days!
LIE and DIE is NOT a plan! NOR is wait and see.
BUT CHANGE and SUCCEED IS the RIGHT plan and the majority of Americans agree.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060620/cm_thenation/1593804
The Nation -- When John Kerry, Barbara Boxer and Russ Feingold offer an amendment to the defense spending bill Wednesday calling on US troops to leave Iraq by July 1, 2007, only a handful of Senators voted with them.
ADVERTISEMENT
If the American people had a say, the outcome would be different. A majority of the public supports setting a timetable for giving Iraq back to Iraqis. And the issue is particularly salient in Congressional districts in play this November.
MoveOn.org, with the help of the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, recently surveyed voters in the country's top 68 swing districts, two-thirds held by Republicans.
By 50 to 42 percent, these voters want Democrats to control Congress. Roughly half of the respondents are more likely to vote for Democrats, and against a Republican, because of the war. When Democrats embrace Kerry and Feingold's position, their lead increases to 54 to 41 percent over a stay-the-course Republican.
A Message from Iraq
| posted by Shakespeare's Sister | Tuesday, June 20, 2006 | permalink |
This morning I received an email from a reader who asked me if I would be willing to pass along a message from her husband, who’s currently serving in Iraq. After reading the statements from Republican Senators in defense of giving amnesty to terrorists in Iraq, compiled by The Huffington Post (via The All Spin Zone), he sent the following home, with the request that his response to those Senators be published. These are his words, and his name has been included at his request.
I am one of the soldiers that these proposals are dishonoring.
Did any of these men ever serve??? Have to go through memorial service after memorial service day after day for comrades they knew and loved???
Have they had to live in fear every moment of every unchanging, horrible day, waiting for a never-seen rocket or a mortar to kill them—or worse, kill those to whom they are close???
Have they bore body armor in 120 degree heat in the face of an unrecognizable enemy, one who uses terrified civilians as shields?
Have they seen the remains of tanks, HMMWVs, BODIES!!! that were rent asunder by invisible bombs, planted by fanatical zealots???
Have they truly seen the shatter lives of Iraqis, these lives broken by the very people they propose to grant amnesty?
Have they had to pull the trigger with the aim of killing another human being, someone you have never met or seen before, never knowing if the target was truly an enemy?
Do these gentlemen wrestle at night with the nightmares of guilt and second-guessing?
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2006/06/message-from-iraq.html
More at the link
Not just a number by Ava
http://www.peacetakescourage.com/number.html
The party of torture, mutilation and murder
You wanted a political vote, Republicans? You got one. Tuesday, the day after the mutilated, tortured bodies of two American soldiers were discovered, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson offered a nonbinding resolution condemning the notion that an Iraqi government would ever grant amnesty to those who have "attacked, killed, or wounded" our military men and women.
Sounds good, right? You would think that Nelson's "sense of the Senate" resolution would have passed unanimously, with senators from both sides of the aisle coming together to oppose granting amnesty to those who have wounded or killed our brave soldiers. Wrong. While the measure passed by a 79-19 margin, it's important to note who voted against our troops, in favor of those who would torture and kill them. Nineteen senators. Nineteen Republicans.
Nineteen Republicans that support granting freedom to those who mutilated and murdered Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker. Nineteen Republicans that support giving a free pass to anyone who attacks our troops. Nineteen Republicans that support Iraq's thriving insurgency more than they support our soldiers. The commercials ought to write themselves.
The list of pro-torture, pro-mutilation, pro-murder Republicans reads like a who's who of right-wing hypocrites. You've got Tom Coburn, who once said, "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life." You've got John Cornyn, another terror advocate who recently justified violence against judges. You've got Lindsey Graham, who considers it against U.S. interests to discuss the mistakes we've made in the war, but apparently in the U.S. interest to pardon war criminals. You've got Trent Lott, who's "not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld" but apparently is a fan of those who torture Americans.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/BobcatJH/96
Truth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iAfJ5EkLEQ
The Democracy Cell Project is calling for a protest of the NYT's for shabby, sloppy journalism.
See the link here:
http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/2006/06/write_to_the_ny.html
And from the same people who claim to support our troops...where's their unity against IRAQIS AMNESTY on KILLING AMERICANS?
19 REPUBUBLICANS could NOT get their own to side with the troops but instead say it's A-OK to KILL AN AMERICAN--YOU WILL BE FORGIVEN AND GIVEN AMNESTY!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/06/20/19-gop-senators-vote-agai_n_23445.html
NOW I"M infuriated!
The media...Happy Hookers!
http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/2006/06/the_happy_hooke.html#comments
Beware of hookers though...you always get negative side effects later.
Thank you John Kerry for standing up to the media and the Republican liars. They're policy is "LIE AND DIE" and your policy is not their idiotic 3 word saying.
LIE AND DIE is the Republican plan for your 18 year old children.
Where's the Bush twins? Where's poppa Bush's sacrafice?
The two soldiers were barbarically tortured to death. This is sickening. Rush Limbug is sickening for his claim that liberals on the blogs were 'happy' about this.
Rush, if you read this blog, no we're not happy. Your neocon president and his supporting cast of Republican torturers in congress allowed Abu Ghraib and Gitmo--and even you with your sickening "Club Gitmo"--implemented a policy that only brought about this as well as more terrorist in Iraq and the middle east.
Can someone please send Rush and the rest of the chickenhawks to Iraq to fight this war since they kind of like the lie and die policy.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2095744
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 19, 9:57 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats coalesced Monday around a proposal urging the Bush administration to start pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq by year's end, brushing aside calls by some in the party for a firm withdrawal timetable.
"Three-and-a-half years into the conflict, we should tell the Iraqis that the American security blanket is not permanent," said Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., who helped write the nonbinding resolution that quickly drew criticism from Republican leaders.
snip
The Senate is to take up the resolution Tuesday and vote on it before Friday as....Snip
Last week, the GOP-controlled Senate and House soundly rejected timetables for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq, back-to-back votes that forced lawmakers in both parties to go on record .....snip
As the U.S. death toll and war spending continue to climb, polls show the public increasingly uncomfortable with the direction of the conflict.....snip
Democrats in Congress have long been divided over the way ahead in Iraq.
(INSERTION OF MY OWN--Republicans play follow their leader like the mice followed the pied piper! SO DIVISION is a GOOD THING! It means that it's being discussed and it's people who are trying to improve things. The republican way has those little Republican mice sending the kids out to die following the pied piper...Bush)
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., failed to get her caucus to rally around one position last week. Senate Democrats also spent the week trying to come up with a "consensus" position, and it appeared they had largely succeeded.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada backs the resolution and his aides say they expect 38 to 40 Democrats and a few Republicans to vote for the symbolic statement. However, they don't expect to get the 51 votes needed to attach the resolution to an annual military bill.
The resolution would urge but not require the administration to begin "a phased redeployment of U.S. forces" in 2006 and, by year's end, give Congress its plan for "continued redeployment" thereafter.
Additionally, the resolution calls for American troops, which have been focused on combat operations in Iraq, to more quickly switch to "a limited mission of training and logistic support of Iraqi security forces, protection of U.S. personnel and facilities, and targeting counterterrorism activities."
It also maps out steps Senate Democrats say the fledgling Iraqi government must take to lay the foundation for a successful democracy and calls for an international conference to help Iraq overcome problems it faces.
Even as the GOP leadership criticized the resolution, Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, called it "a very serious-minded approach." He declined to endorse it but nonetheless promised to give it careful consideration.
Three Democrats distanced themselves from the resolution.
Seeking a stronger position on Iraq, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Barbara Boxer of California intend to push for a vote on their own proposal.
It would require the administration to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by July 1, 2007, leaving in place only U.S. troops essential to training Iraqi security forces, conducting counterterrorism operations and protecting U.S. personnel and facilities.
"A deadline gives Iraqis the best chance for stability and self-government, and most importantly, it allows us to begin refocusing on the true threats that face our country," Kerry and Feingold, two Democrats eying potential presidential candidacies in 2008, said in a joint statement.
Their proposal is expected to be rejected overwhelmingly.
Aside from Iraq, other fights are brewing as the Senate works on the annual military bill.
searching for the link
So I guess its ok for europeans to immigrate here, but not any other race?
There is one overiding fact everyone wishes to ignore. People are dying in Iraq. Most of them Iraqis. Most of them women and children. America is very good at attacking weak nations. America is very good at killing women and children without compunction.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1422779427989588955
Sooo...as I understand the few comments I have read on the home page, we need to publicize our strategy for pullout. Good idea, that way the terrorists will know the plan and can make their plans accordingly.
I am the father of a Marine who has done two tours in Iraq and I have a son-in-law in the Army who did one tour in Iraq and who is currently serving in Afganistan. Sure they want to be home, but they do not want to come home knowing the job isn't finished. And I want them home safe a sound as soon as possible also, as does my wife, my daughter, and everyone else in the family. We aren't blood thirsty, we just want it finished so my childrens children and their children do not have to do the same thing again because we didn't finish the job.
I believe those who would have us pull out now, at any and all expense, who would let the enemy know our plans, are very, very selfish. They will feel better themselves and they 'hope' the enemy will see that we are really good folks and just leave us alone! Please tell me, show me in history, where that strategy has ever worked.
My children sacrafice and so do I so that we have the freedoms we enjoy. Please don't spit on those who have given all just so that you can feel better. If we all stood united in our resolve to see terrorism eradicated in the world, this conflict would end, and much sooner than we all can imagine. But as long as we continue to haggle and politicize, as Kerry and Kennedy and others of their following continue to do, we will be in this conflict for a long, long time.
Sir,
This is how George Bush spat upon your children.
'Wash Post' Obtains Shocking Memo from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Details Increasing Danger and Hardship
By Greg Mitchell
Published: June 18, 2006 6:20 PM ET
NEW YORK The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked "sensitive," that it says show that just before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, "the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees."
This cable outlines, the Post reported Sunday, "the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government."
It's actually far worse than that, as the details published below indicate, which include references to abductions, threats to women's rights, and "ethnic cleansing."
A PDF copy of the cable shows that it was sent to the SecState in Washington, D.C. from "AMEmbassy Baghdad" on June 6. The typed name at the very bottom is Khalilzad -- the name of the U.S. Ambassador, though it is not known if this means he wrote the memo or merely approved it.
The subject of the memo is: "Snapshots from the Office -- Public Affairs Staff Show Strains of Social Discord."
As a footnote in one of the 23 sections, the embassy relates, "An Arab newspaper editor told us he is preparing an extensive survey of ethnic cleansing, which he said is taking place in almost every Iraqi province, as political parties and their militiast are seemingly engaged in tit-for-tat reprisals all over Iraq."
Among the other troubling reports:
-- "Personal safety depends on good relations with the 'neighborhood' governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. The central government, our staff says, is not relevant; even local mukhtars have been displaced or coopted by militias. People no longer trust most neighbors."
-- One embassy employee had a brother-in-law kidnapped. Another received a death threat, and then fled the country with her family.
-- Iraqi staff at the embassy, beginning in March and picking up in May, report "pervasive" harassment from Islamist and/or militia groups. Cuts in power and rising fuel prices "have diminished the quality of life." Conditions vary but even upscale neighborhoods "have visibly deteriorated" and one of them is now described as a "ghost town."
(more at the link)
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002690071
AND this is another reason we know we MUST get rid of these people who enable GWB to endanger everyone's lives!
Excuse me sir, nobody has spit on your children or their sacrifices. Not one person here has done that!
Yet your party has smeared and threatened to fragg someone, which is the same as murder, when they attempted to discredited Murtha and Kerry for thier service. (Purple bandaids? Do your children deserve that? Fragging? Do they deserve that?)
I respectfully ask you to understand that all of us want our soldiers home safe and sound; however, when your sons return they will return as my hero and I will never spit on them and threaten to fragg them.
AND supporting the troops is not just a phrase. It's an action. Your politicians need to put their words into actions. And the Kennedy's and the Kerry's and Murthas are going to competently bring them home. Emphasis on competent...Bush and the Republicans have failed just like they failed the Katrina victims. But Kerry, Kennedy, Murtha, etc will not fail and they will take care of the soldiers with caring and competency.
First, to you, I am grateful that your children decided to join the service. However, sir, I'm sorry to say that their commander in cheif has lied and started a false war. His incompetence is not fair to your children or any of the troops and puts them in worse danger than making the Iraqis form their own government and getting our kids home safely.
Bush has had over 5 years to make sure that not one more soldier dies. He failed to keep them safe. Private citizens are paying for their equipment because Bush and Rummy sent them to war with peices of scrap metal.
So...should the Republcans and this President decide they've murdered enough people based on a lie, any exit strategy they implemented would be secret. Saying, we're leaving is not the same as saying, "We're leaving on the 2pm train out of Baghdad to ....."
In the meantime, those us of here will pray for your childrens' safety so that they will come home alive and whole. I have a young friend who was just shipped to Iraq. He has a family with two kids he's leaving behind. He has been in the national guard prior to Bush's lie and yet he and his family live in fear daily as a result.
I have neighbors whose son and daughters are in Iraq as well. They too agree with us on this.
He goes because he's called. But all of us pray that this administration and these Republicans will stop saying, "I support the troops" when my friend had to buy his own equipment before being sent there.
There's a difference between "we will be reducing numbers on these dates until we are gone on this date" and "we will be leaving from these ports following these procedures". One leaves us open for attack, the other does not. We would not ENDANGER them by letting the iraqi people know that we are NOT indefinate oppressors!
And thank you and your family for your sacrifices.
Murtha tells it like it is!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/06/18.html#a8760
i hope they find them and they are alive and well
Your coverage is overwhelmingly slanted. This article makes a claim that Republicans are making a hate push against brown skinned people yet an overwhelming majority of Americans want the immigration issue dealt with. All of Congress is failing us and that includes the democrats.
Open your other eye.
Slanted?
Did you watch the coverage on cspan last week?
I did.
Constitutional ammendment to ban gay marraige. How does that help the troops?
Smearing Murtha and Kerry...How does that help the troops?
Flag burning...How does that help the troops?
I sat there and watched and read everything I could and very few Republicans actually had the courage to put an end to it. There was a few. The rest joined the political sham of the week.
Nolie is absolutely right on target with her article. And like it or not, the Republican party has a lot of gall to pretend they support the troops or the war in an uplifting way.
Yes, they support the war, because they have no plan to get out! And they have no plan on how to stop the death. And they're too egocentrical to actually start helping the troops instead of spewing false support.