George Bush

This weekend we saw why George Bush has been the worst President in the history of the United States of America.

Over the weekend, Bush went to Iraq for the last time as President. He had just started a press conference with the Prime Minister (?) when an Iraqi journalist stood up, threw a shoe at him, then threw the other shoe at him and shouts that he's a dog, or something.

Later, Martha Raddatz (ABC News) spoke to him. In that conversation this is what Bush said about the incident:

Raddatz: It's also considered a huge insult in this world, the sole of a shoe, throwing a shoe.

Bush: I guess. Look they were humiliated. The press corps, the rest of the Iraqi press corps was humiliated. These guys were just besides themselves about, they felt like he had disgraced their entire press corps and I frankly, I didn't view it as, I thought it was interesting, I thought it was unusual to have a guy throw his show at you. But I'm not insulted. I don't hold it against the government. I don't think the Iraqi press corps as a whole is terrible. And so, the guy wanted to get on TV and he did. I don't know what his beef is. But whatever it is I'm sure somebody will hear it.

This is why George Bush has not made a good President. He doesn't even understand that it doesn't matter how he took it. He wasn't insulted, good for him. That's not the point. The point is someone is extremely upset at him and is trying to get him to understand something. He assumes the guy just wants to get on television. What an insult - he's assuming the man is like the reality TV people who will do anything just to be famous. He can't imagine what the guy's 'beef' is? He's purposely acting obtuse. He can't imagine that maybe the guy is upset about all the changes in his country over the last six years? Bush doesn't even have to characterize the changes, but not even acknowledge it? I don't know what his angle is by playing stupid. And "Somebody" will hear about it? Because Bush won't be bothered to listen to it. It has nothing to do with him. GRRRR...the man is infuriating.
Here is an article from Reuters that describes other MidEast reactions to the shoe insult.

Linda Robinson on Q&A September 7, 2008

Excellent hour! Recommended watching (http://www.q-and-a.org/)

Linda Robinson spoke to Brian Lamb about her new book "Tell Me How this Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for the Way Out of Iraq"

Since 2003 she's been to Iraq 11 times. She's a former reporter for US News and World Report, but left there to finish her book.

Linda spoke about the work of David Petraeus in Iraq for the last 18 months or so.

In the end, Brian Lamb asked her what she hoped people would learn from her book.

She said "I hope they will learn that, as Klaus Witt said (sp?), "War is politics by other means", and the only way you can get a resolution of this conflict is by looking at the political motivations of those who are fighting and use the military and other resources to address those motivations. We have to engage in the politics of Iraq to get to the solution."

She sounded very knowledgeable and spoke without hesitation about complicated and interrelated issues from the military to politics to sectarianism, etc.

Reality Bites

As of Wednesday, at least 4148 members of the US military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3371 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is one fewer than the Defense Departments tally, last updated Wednesday at 10 am Eastern.

*****
From Robert Burns at the Associated Press 08/28/2008
The United States is handing over responsibility for security in the Sunni stronghold of Anbar to Iraq within a few days. Anbar would be the 10th of 18 provinces to be returned to Iraqi government control.
There are now about 146,000 US troops in Iraq and 33,000 in Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures.
"There aren't a whole heck of a lot of bad guys there [Anbar province] left to fight," General James Conway, the top Marine Corps general, said Wednesday.
The US military is stretched so thin by the two wars that it cannot send significant additional numbers of combat forces to Afghanistan until the numbers in Iraq have been reduced. Conways likes the idea of sending more Marines to Afghanistan, but only if they thin out in Iraq.

Reality Bites

As of Wednesday August 6, 2008 at least 4134 members of the US military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to a count by The Associated Press.
The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3362 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's umbers.
The AP count is one more than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Wednesday at 10am

As of Wednesday at least 496 members of the US military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, accoording to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Saturday.
Of those, the military reports 352 were killed by hostile action.

*****

Iraqi lawmakers, after weeks of late-night negotiations and intense US pressure, failed to pass a much-debated provincial elections law Wednesday before adjourning for the month.
...
The bill failed because Kurds, Arabs, and Turkomen were unable to come to terms on a power-sharing deal for the multiethnic region around the city of Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's northern oil fields. Kurds consider Kirkuk their ancestral capital and want to incorporate it into their self-ruled region in the north. Most Arabs and Turkomen want Kirkuk to remain under central government control.
After a Kurdish walkout, parliament approved an elections bill last month that would have established an ethnic quota system on the 41-member Kirkuk area provincial council and reduced the role of Kurdish security forces there.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, vetoed the measure as unconstitutional and sent it back to parliament, which convened a special session Sunday.
When compromise appeared impossible, parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani announced Wednesday that lawmakers would break for summer recess and then resume sessions Sept. 9.
A committee will continue negotiations over the bill during the recess, he added.

...
Parliament also has yet to pass a law to share oil revenue or to amend the constitution on such issues as the role of Islam and the nature of federalism in the government.
...
Parliament did sign off on a $21 billion supplemental budget, a move the Iraqis hope will ease US congressional criticism that they aren't paying their fair share of Iraq's reconstruction at a time of economic hardship in the United States.

Material from McClatchy News Service and the Associated Press used in this report.

Points to Ponder - Winning the War

This was in my notebook dated February 26, 2006:

When we talk about the war, we should talk about how to win it - but to get there we need to define what a "win" would be.


Normally I'm good at attributing what I write in my notebook. Since its not attributed I have a feeling I heard someone talk about defining what a win is and thought it was an important idea as it relates to our discussion of the war.

Defining nonspecific terms is important in any discussion.

War is not safe for human beings and other living things...

A person can't know if they'll be affected by war until its too late.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2270614/US-Iraq-war-hero-Joseph-Dwyer-dies-of-apparent-drugs-overdose.html

Telegraph.co.uk
by Tom Leonard in New York July 9, 2008

The premature death of Joseph Dwyer at the age of 31 has highlighted the neglect many American veterans believe they face once they return home.
He was made famous by a photograph, taken in March 2003 during the first week of the war, in which he is seen running to a makeshift hospital.
In his arms, the soldier was cradling an injured Iraqi boy who he had rescued from crossfire.
The arresting image, held up by the war's supporters as the human face of the invasion, was reproduced around the world and Specialist Dwyer was hailed as a hero.
However, he was always uncomfortable with the media attention, attempting to deflect its focus on to his entire unit. He had done no more than any of the other soldiers in his unit, he told reporters.
It emerged that Mr Dwyer's post-war civilian life was also no different to that of many fellow veterans.
For years, he struggled against post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), drug abuse, unemployment and marital breakdown.
On June 28, Mr Dwyer, 31, called a taxi to take him to a hospital near his home in Pinehurst, North Carolina, after earlier taking presciption pills and inhaling fumes from a computer cleaner aerosol.
When the driver arrived, Mr Dwyer said he was too weak to open the door. Police had to kick it down and found he had collapsed. Within minutes, he had died.
Police in several states had been dealing with Mr Dwyer for several years as he suffered from violent delusions that he was being hunted by Iraqi soldiers.
He was in and out of psychiatric care, once being committed after he started firing at imagined attackers inside his home, leading to a three-hour police siege. He had also crashed his car several times after swerving to avoid imagined roadside bombs.
Mr Dwyer's family said he had also been struggling with depression and sleeplessness, symptoms associated with PTSD. He would spend nights hiding in a wardrobe clutching a knife, and started inhaling from aerosols to help him sleep.
His mother said the army could have done more to help him.
"He loved the picture, don't get me wrong. He just couldn't get over the war," said Maureen Dwyer.
"He just wasn't Joseph. Joseph never came home. Talking to him, he knew he was going to die."
His wife, Matina, said: "He was just never the same when he came back, because of all the things he saw.
"He tried to seek treatment, but it didn't work."
She said she hoped that her husband's death would bring more attention to PTSD issues.
A recent report by the RAND corporation, a US think tank, criticised as inadequate the treatment of the one in five American troops who exhibit symptoms of PTSD or depression following service in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Mr Dwyer, a New Yorker who enlisted after the September 11 terrorist attacks, got married just before leaving for Iraq. His unit, a squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, was in the vanguard of the initial US thrust and involved in fighting almost every day for the first three weeks.
On the day before his famous photograph was taken, Mr Dwyer's Humvee vehicle had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade - an event which his family said sparked his depression.
After seeing the village of Al Faysaliyah caught in the fighting, he grabbed a four-year-old boy from his father and rushed him to safety.
When he returned home after three months, he was exhibiting the symptoms associated with PTSD.
In restaurants, he would always sit with his back to the wall and he avoided crowds. At home, he would pile his furniture up against the walls, too.
As his marriage fell apart, he stayed away from friends, abused inhalants and got into frequent trouble with the police.
In 2005, he and his family gave an interview to try to help other veterans struggling with PTSD.
"I know I don't need to be carrying a weapon. And I'm scared of going home without having one, even though I know probably nobody's going to attack me," he said.

Reality Bites

As of Friday (07/11/2008) at least 4118 members of the US military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003 according to the AP. 8 million civilians have been killed in action.
At least 3355 died as a result of hostile action according to the military.

There are 553 US military killed in Afghanistan. That number comes from http://www.icasualty.org/

Reality Bites

As of Monday, at least 4,114 members of the US military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3,353 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military numbers.

As of Monday, at least 468 members of the US military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures June 28. Of those, the military reports 331 were killed by hostile action.