Quite some ink has already been spilled on: "How to get out of Iraq?"
A bottle af fairly bad red wine and me meditated last night about this question. We came up with the only possible answer.
The Air Force folks shall fly. All others shall drive.
Back to Main
March 17, 2006
How To
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U.S. War Spending to Rise 44% to $9.8 Bln a Month, Report Says
U.S. military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan will average 44 percent more in the current fiscal year than in fiscal 2005, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said.
Spending will rise to $9.8 billion a month from the $6.8 billion a month the Pentagon said it spent last year, the research service said. The group’s March 10 report cites “substantial” expenses to replace or repair damaged weapons, aircraft, vehicles, radios and spare parts.
It also figures in costs for health care, fuel, national intelligence and the training of Iraqi and Afghan security forces — “now a substantial expense,” it said.
The research service said it considers “all war and occupation costs,” while the Pentagon counts just the cost of personnel, maintenance and operations.
Why should they walk? We can build barges and fload them down the Tigris & Euprates. That will take them in the general direction of Iran, which is where they’ll be headed soon enough anyways…
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 17 2006 13:38 utc | 2
Oh, you simply must listen/watch democracynow today. Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez interview the passive agressive, if not belligerent, Michael R. Gordon. Michael R. Gordon is the NYT’s chief war correspondent and mate of Judas (Blood on her hands) Miller. This fucker made me want to strangle him. He was justifying his and millers reporting. Nor were his subtle insinuations lost on me about how dangerous Iran is now. It made me so mad,
I could chew steel.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 17 2006 15:17 utc | 3
New York Times Chief Military Correspondent Michael Gordon Defends Pre-War Reporting on WMDs
Michael Gordon, the chief military correspondent for The New York Times, discusses his reporting on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in the run-up to the invasion.
I’m stll so mad at this guy I could stomp on baby ducks, just something about his whole persona touches a compklete rage responce in me.
Also, don’t miss this one:
Judy Miller thinks the “bloggers” did her in.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 17 2006 16:27 utc | 4
If they’re going to drive, they’d better do it soon. If the Shiites decide that the US is switching sides and allying itself with the Sunnis (something that has been widely reported or at least rumored), the Shiite militias in southern Iraq could make the road to Kuwait more or less impassable. Can you say Kabul 1842?
Posted by: Aigin | Mar 17 2006 17:22 utc | 5
A bottle af fairly bad red wine and me meditated last night
in my heart of hearts i am hoping that bad wine was partly responsible for your 4:33 post. plllease, i am begging you. you don’t have to answer. just recover, rethink, and reconsider how many people in this world have a fan base of such loyal dedicated fans hanging on your every thread!
i know thats so OT of me. happy happy happy birthday, a day late. i am sending you a birthday spanking, not to be confused w/a kiss.
Posted by: annie | Mar 17 2006 17:42 utc | 6
Watch out for annie, Bernhard. She has naughty ideas too. 😉
Posted by: beq | Mar 17 2006 17:49 utc | 7
annie,
go ahead, offer Bernhard sexual favors if he keeps the site up.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 17 2006 18:18 utc | 8
uncle- that gordon fella sure is a fan of the prick-waving dick fight approach to discourse. what a putz.
Posted by: b real | Mar 17 2006 18:24 utc | 9
ralphieboy, i think i’ll send him a ‘personal’ email!!
Posted by: annie | Mar 17 2006 18:28 utc | 10
@Uncle:
Yeah, but they won’t score any points. The debate became too arcane for the average person. And they were not successful at elucidating any of the filters in place that prevent impartial coverage of the news. Why didn’t they ask him about reliance on government sources, the illegality of the war, and America’s hypocritical nuclear policy. More importantly, why did they buy the phony argument that Iraq possessing Nukes could lead to rogue weapon proliferation, when the nukes would have a unique traceable signature.
And then there’s the fact that they were too busy making nice to the “good” General, as if there is such a thing. Why didn’t they question him about America’s treatment of the rest of the world as a means of maintaining their dominance. Until you blow that conceit out of the water, you can waste your whole life arguing “he said, she said.”
Back to Iraq: Operation Overblown
“Operation Swarmer” is really a media show. It was designed to show off the new Iraqi Army — although there was no enemy for them to fight.
Every American official I’ve heard has emphasized the role of the Iraqi forces just days before the third anniversary of the start of the war. That said, one Iraqi role the military will start highlighting in the next few days, I imagine, is that of Iraqi intelligence. It was intel from the Iraqi military intelligence and interior ministry that the U.S. says prompted this Potemkin operation. And it will be the Iraqi intel that provides the cover for American military commanders to throw up their hands and say, “well, we thought bad guys were there.”
i saw this swarmer report last night on the tube and thought, oh jeez, they just need some ‘encouraging’ report to sync w/the anniversary. news is not ‘positive’ throw a little event, include some iraqi’s. some special iraqi info, meanwhile the funding is doubling up and there are no plans to leave. the whole fiasco is being conducted to play for the media. more wag the dog. what a way to die.
Posted by: annie | Mar 17 2006 19:20 utc | 13
Algin, I know that a retreat like the one from Kabul by the British might be possible, but I think that the withdrawal might very well resemble Xenophon’s Anabasis even more. The Shia will also be able to cut the supply lines into central Iraq, which means no fuel for the tanks, AFVs, and helicopters the US military needs to project power on the ground. The US troops around Baghdad won’t be able to withdraw back down the the Mesopotamian valley, with its heavy population and lousy tank ground.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Baghdad generals decide to withdraw to Jordan or to Turkey, fighting their way through the Sunni areas. Hell, the Sunnis might decide to just stand down to let the US troops leave their country so they can get on with their long-standing effort with the Shia.
Posted by: PrahaPartizan | Mar 17 2006 19:26 utc | 14
I for one think the Iraqi army is doing quite well. They really ought to be issued live ammunition soon…
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 17 2006 19:26 utc | 15
ralphieboy,
You are an acquired taste, but one I’ve very much grown to appreciate. I enjoy your dry wit, which I must admit I misread the first time or two. Though my computer screen now needs to be cleaned on a regular basis………..
“Back to Iraq: Operation Overblown”
““Operation Swarmer” is really a media show.”
Oop! Slips!…Amost blew it there, advocating *fer* the “Port” Arabs.
Must show I’m *still* *agin* the “Sand Arabs”. Must kill a few Iraqi babies to prove my Manhood and ‘Terra’ble’ resolve.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 17 2006 19:44 utc | 17
Kinda looks like the war is turning into a war game, which is probably a good thing. Send them all out into the desert, with the press in tow, watching all their cool hardware, blowing up sand dunes, chasing phantom enemies, in a big make work, media extravagansa. And what a success it will be, the first major post invasion military operation deemed not counter-productive — to not have created more insurgency and won-ton destruction than existed before.
Posted by: anna missed | Mar 17 2006 19:51 utc | 18
malooga,
my favorite humor is the stuff that is delivered so deadpan that you take it at face value the first time. I was a youngest kid, so I had older brothers & sisters doing it to me all the time, then I got to practice it on my nieces and nephews.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 17 2006 20:04 utc | 20
i just listened to michael gordon spew his rudeness all over amy goodman, what an arrogant prick. rude rude rude. i wrote the nyt and tattled on him.
Posted by: annie | Mar 17 2006 20:40 utc | 21
i would like to think this new effort on the part of the empire is just a ‘show’ & i take anna missed point – that as with the vietnamese there is no fixed position for the empire to hit to offer proof of their “efficacity”
what i worry about however – that this announcement allows for a notcheting up of the level of bloody terror used against the people of iraq
it is clear – as was pinted out here long long ago – that there has been a salvadoe optio operating from the beginning & possibly even befoe the invasion with the use of the overrated ‘special forces’ – which is just another name for homme psychopathus
just came back from an ami’s home where they had cable & witnessed in a stolen moment cnn’s celebration of the iraq war – which for some reason or other failed to mention abu ghraib – & they managed to try to spin goodnews from what is in essence – a slaughterhouse
tho did reas a harpers with an honourable editorial piece – impeach bush
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Mar 18 2006 0:51 utc | 22
“It has been three years since the beginning of the war that marked the end of Iraq’s independence. Three years of occupation and bloodshed.”
New post up from Riverbend
Heartrending, as always.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 18 2006 8:13 utc | 23
Irealize that there’s a hitch to my suggestion that we float our troops out on the Tigres & Euprhates: insurgents could plant improvised underwater detonators, or IUD’s.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 18 2006 9:32 utc | 24
good one ralphie, another form of Baath control..eh?
Posted by: dan of steele | Mar 18 2006 10:00 utc | 25
War war war. This war has become so duplicitous that any caring person cannot really allow the awful truth to sink in because if you care about mankind you tend to believe that there is some innate goodness in most of humankind. Humanity has reached an all time low with this little pas des deux between Iran and USuk.
Past several months all have been scratching their head trying to work out why it is that Iran is so insistent on pursuing nuclear weapons right when there’s a bunch of fucking lunatics holding the switches in the US, ably supported by lapdogs in Europe. Little do they know the fait accompli is in mid game.
Truth was the fight was never over nuclear weapons. It has been about the division of Iraq’s spoils right from the get go.
This fight was complicated by the sunni’s and their wahabi offsiders who would never consent to any deal which gave the Iranians access to Iraqi resources. USuk wanted to be on the ‘winning’ side so Iran was the logical side to join with because they are bigger, however the USuk cobbers in the other oil rich hell holes are run by Sunnis and Wahabis in the main which meant any overt move against Iraq’s Sunnis in general rather than just the Saddam-ites would have an unfortunate blowback, especially if the ultimate benefactors would be non arabs eg america europe and persia.
So we have just witnessed the start of the end game of one of the coldest moves ever committed to gain control of a resource. This is surely evidence that even the fucking assholes in Texas concede the peak has already passed and it’s downhill from here. Even those rednecked, spigot-eared, greedy-guts wouldn’t take a punt* like this unless un-nerving ordure was likely to reach ventilator.
Lemme spell out how it developed. As soon as it became apparent that Iran was going to end up a benefactor in Iraq; something Dumbo and his clowns hadn’t considered, it became essential to ensure that USuk would still get the biggest share.
At all costs then the sunnis and shia had to be kept seperate so Negroponte was called in to set up the hit men who spent 9 months chasing up all the old school sunni fighters. Chiefly men off lists handed through from Iran hence the deaths of so many retired airforce pilots who had been held responsible for deaths in the 80’s Iran/Iraq war.
However USuk weren’t gonna just give it up to the Shia aka Iran so they also funded Moqtada el-Sadr, a shia fighter/leader who wasn’t allied with Iran.
This way all options would be kept open.
At the same time Iranian feet were kept to the fire by jumping up and down about nuclear weapons.
It was convenient for everyone to pretend that was the issue. Iran doesn’t need the penny dropping yet. (this because as well as pissed off Sunni inside and outside Iraq, there’s going to be a lot of p.o.’d Shia who aren’t allied to Iran.
Real problem?
Still that the sunni insurgency is managing to stop any control being taken by anyone, themselves included. The ‘hit-lists’ are getting alla the old fellas but good intel on the newer activists is just completely unavailable. Sure some of the old sunni psychopaths who used to repress for Saddam have missed their sadism jones so they have moved to repress for USuk. Trouble is no one really trusted them anyway so their knowledge is also outta date and there may even be some who do know but are actually ‘doubled’ back.
The boycott of the first election hadn’t played well to many ordinary Sunni citizens especially since it was apparant that the result was going to be no representation at the divy up of the loot aka “drawing up the constitution”.
So the trap was baited. In return for a bit of peace and quiet around the joint will the next elections were happening sunni could participate without fear of too much harrassment. The seppos and the poms even squashed a couple of the torture centres they had established. It cost them nothing because human rights organisations were going to blow the whistle pretty soon.
The behaviour in em was getting too over the top for anyone to want to carry the stink of that cat with them and that would surely prove to the insurgents that everything was on the up and up.
No harassment would have been a giveaway so a couple assholes got whacked, which everyone thought were the proof that Sunnis were indeed going to participate in the new legislature.
As the unofficial ceasefire became more established, insurgent security slipped and new listwere drawn up of the previously unknown leadership plus middle management and sufficient cannon-fodder to really destroy morale if they all got whacked.
The US pulls the old one, two. US ambassador stands up and argues for sunni inclusion in govt and a lot less Iranian controlled influence in domestic security eg ministry of interior.
That very night US forces surround Samarra and blockade it while Iraqis wearing police and security uniforms spend the night mining the mosque. Two days after the mosque bombing there were a number of reports of this following both Arabic and Western interviews of the mosque’s janitors. This was quickly glossed over and hasn’t been really discussed since.
Within twenty minutes of the detonation Moqtada el-Sadr’s whackers are whacking the Sunni insurgents.
By giving the lists to ‘Mocky’ USUK retained control over the operation where the Iranian backed militias would have run an agenda which suited them and maybe cut deals with some Sunnis.
Mocky keeps saying that he deplores the killings and as soon as he does Sunnis in areas under his control get slaughtered.
There’s an easy way to tell the score. When a bunch of bodies turns up if the are Shia (lately hardly ever) the report will say so. If the dead are sunnis the reports don’t identify the sect of the dead sometimes by saying no one knows (complete bullshit of course) or by saying that “identification will fuel sectarian tension”.
So a large chunk of the insurgency has been stymied for a while, permanent stymie would require almost total genocide which would make some press conferences tough to breeze through.
So now is the time to for Iran and USuk to talk turkey.
For the first time since the early 70’s the US and Iranian government are going to be in the same room talking bidness and there will be no other participants.
Yeah right the subject is nuclear weapons….NOT!
There are many seredipities and synergies, too many to detail really, but those that think the US really is going to have a ping at Iran haven’t been looking for them.
eg This weeks change from the issue being nuclear to the lack of ‘democracy and freedom in iran. That is a deliberate move to prevent Iran baulking and resiling from the nuke scenario thereby leaving the Iranian supporting shia the strongest force in Iraq and USuk and franco germany (more about the duplicitous role that leadership has played another time) having no excuse to make Iranian lives miserable if Iran’s leaders come over all greedy.
Do we get the picture? Could just about make a three volume uber post on alla this depressing shit cept it is depressing.
Advantages. Civil war is nearly over and no-one has even acknoledged it’s existence. US citizenry have stayed schtumm while numbers of fighting men have been increased this week. Same goes for the poms.
When there isn’t an Iranian war people will be so pleased that it didn’t happen that instead of dumping rethugs for this whole fuck-up they will be thanking ass features and his slugs for not getting into a war that blind freddy can see couldn’t be won! Ahh the irony!!!
Don’t believe? Sit back and watch this horror unfold.
*punt (sl)
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 18 2006 10:35 utc | 26
UK Ministry of Defence gets wrist slapped by parliamentary committee overseeing defence expenditure, debate to follow in House of Commons on Monday 20 March:
In its report, the committee argues it is “not good enough” for the MoD to tell parliament that the cost of the current troop deployment to Afghanistan is “around a billion”.
Posted by: Dismal Science | Mar 18 2006 10:50 utc | 27
Don’t believe? Sit back and watch this horror unfold.@5:35
That you, DiD ?
Posted by: DM | Mar 18 2006 11:12 utc | 28
DS,
try declaring your taxable income as “around forty thousand”…
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 18 2006 11:56 utc | 29
Permanent US Colony By Dahr Jamail
Mr. Bush refuses to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq because he doesn’t intend to withdraw.
clip
In the Quadrennial Defense Review Report released on February 6, 2006, there is a stated ambition to fight “multiple, overlapping wars” and to “ensure that all major and emerging powers are integrated as constructive actors and stakeholders into the international system.” The report goes on to say that the US will “also seek to ensure that no foreign power can dictate terms of regional or global security. It will attempt to dissuade any military competitor from developing disruptive or other capabilities that could enable regional hegemony or hostile action against the United States or other friendly countries, and it will seek to deter aggression or coercion. Should deterrence fail, the United States would deny a hostile power its strategic and operational objectives.”
In sum, what is the purpose of permanent US military garrisons in Iraq and the implicit goals of these government documents?
Empire
Posted by: annie | Mar 18 2006 16:58 utc | 30
Iraq will be cut up into a patchwork of ‘territories’ –
– a fist layer will be ‘legal’- cutting the country into 3 admin, supposedly ’federal’ parts. On the ground, people will not pay too mcuh attention, as no proper and strong Federal Gvmt. will exist. No one will ever refer seriously to them for anything, except the moves that need be made for the Int’l press. Puppet Gvmt.
-a second layer, made up of ‘local law’. Here, two codes will exist, one internationally imposed and calculated for the foreignors benefit, pushed by the Iraqi puppet Gvmt. That is biz law, war crimes law, corruption law, tax, import duties, etc. etc.
– a third layer, the family courts. Civil and family matters will be handled by local Islamic courts, basically very arbitrary, as relying on the one-time opinion of whatever iman. The intl’ community will keep that more or less hidden, or justify it with the argument of respecting the importance of local customs. It will include bankruptcy, personal responsibility, divorce, schooling of children, etc.
– a fourth layer, concerning on the ground land, that is agriculture, use of ground, water, roads, transport, garbage management, energy, and so on. This will be mayhem, and will leave farmers absolutely at the mercy of International Corporations (Monsanto) or Foreign Gvmt. (Australia), with no way to move forward or seek redress. Farmers will be (are) helpless. Likewise, for basic infrastructure, no Iraqi community will be able to do anything, as there will be no mechanisms for general planning, community efforts. They will have to resort to local, very small, efforts, always, then, dependent on those who have an ideology to push. They will not be able to build roads – when these will easily be blocked by some legislation, stop after 500 meter. They will not be able to, and cannot today, mend bridges or electricity generating plants. And so on. Sadr City is today conrolled by ‘islamists’ – that is natural and normal, those who have energy and guts and a view to push at their own expense (yes) will take the day. But they can do little, and the powerlessness they exhibit will only serve to make people more radical. This layer will never be legislated in any way.
-a fifth layer. The fifth layer is that in situations of chaos, anything goes. Corruption, personal influence, crime, etc. are all accepted as inevitable. Everything must pass through personal relations, contacts, sympathies, kudos, local power, sex power, personally directed threat, money in small amounts. It is more lucrative to kidnap than to open a Mac Dos; better to give or sell one daughter to protect the rest of the family; more favorable to dress a cousin in good clothes so that he may be received here or there at Gvmt. offices.
Even the American are beginning to feel they are like Palestinians!
Posted by: Noisette | Mar 18 2006 19:05 utc | 31
“In sum, what is the purpose of permanent US military garrisons in Iraq and the implicit goals of these government documents?”
“Empire”
Posted by: annie | Mar 18, 2006 11:58:47 AM | #
Yeah, as long as it can be done on “Other peoples money”. Nine million million ($9,000,000,000,000) so far and counting.
But,…one of these days….
Posted by: pb | Mar 18 2006 19:43 utc | 32
How long will it be before the USA becomes the OAC (Oganization of American Corporations)? With,..say…an interest only loan from Pauley at the World Bank of oh; $1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.99.
What’s the difference how many zeros when you are never going to pay for it anyway? As long as their name is on the deed little else matters. Maybe *this* is what Cheney means when he says “Deficits don’t matter”.
Posted by: pb | Mar 18 2006 20:05 utc | 33
thanks for that analysis, DiD. good to see you’re back & in top form
Posted by: b real | Mar 19 2006 4:00 utc | 34