Remember Iraq War ? - It's Not Over

We don't hear much about the war in Iraq these days. I think a lot of Americans harbor the illusion that it is over. After all, didn't the president say we had withdrawn our combat troops from Iraq? he did say that, but he wasn't exactly telling the truth. There are still 50,000 American soldiers in Iraq.

And they are still in harm's way. In fact, at least 15 American soldiers were killed in Iraq in June of this year. That's the most killed in any month since June of 2009. With that many troops still in the country and the death toll once again rising, this is a war that's definitely not over.

The legal agreement between the puppet government in Iraq and the United States will end on the last day of this year. After that, it will be a violation of international law for United States troops to be in that country. But don't get your hopes up that it will mean the real end of that war. The U.S. government want to stay there and is currently putting pressure on the Iraqis to sign a new agreement -- and whatever the American government wants in Iraq, it usually gets.

So we can probably expect this war to continue for many more years (just like the useless war in Afghanistan). And if we do stay (which is very likely), the violence is probably going to increase. Muqtada al-Sadr has rearmed his Shiite army and says they will attack American soldiers if we are still there after the end of this year (and the size of his army is rather substantial). That means if we stay, we might have to increase the number of troops there.

It is time to start making some noise about Iraq again. We must make the president understand that it must end -- really end, with all American troops coming home.

Civilian Casualties - Does Anyone Care ?

There have always been a certain amount of civilian casualties in war.   Some think it is unavoidable.   But it seems like these days the amount of civilian casualties (by all sides) has reached a level that is intolerable.   Part of this is due to the new technology.   With the new missles, bombs and drones it is easy to attack groups of people from a distance by just pushing a button.   There is also an effort by some to use civilian deaths to pressure their opponents into surrender.

Americans like to think this is something that is done by our opponents, but the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq show that is just not true.   American forces have killed far too many innocent civilians.   While our enemies will attack civilians with suicide bombers, we send drones to attack wedding ceremonies in the hope that a terrorist will be among the many people killed.   Both sides are wrong in attacking civilians.

And it just seems to get worse with each war.   Eminent historian Howard Zinn gave a talk a couple of years ago in Madison (Wisconsin) in which he gave some civilian casualty figures.   Here is how he described the changing ratio of military to civilian deaths:

World War I..........10:1

World War II..........50:50

Vietnam War..........30:70

More recent wars..........20:80 to 15:85

It is hard enough to defend the killing in any war.   But how can these atrocious ratios of military to civilian deaths be defended by anyone?

Afghan War Gets Even Worse For U.S.

It looks like the war in Afghanistan just keeps getting worse for the United States and its coalition partners. In June, a total of 60 American soldiers died in Afghanistan. That was a record number of deaths for one month for the United States in the nine-year war. But it was a short-lived record.

Last Thursday three more U.S. soldiers died in an explosion in Afghanistan. That upped the death toll for United States soldiers to 63 for the month of July -- a new record. After nearly nine years of war a person would hope things would finally be getting better in this seemingly endless war, but if the death toll is any measure (and it certainly is), then things are definitely not getting better.

U.S. officials tried to put a good face on the terrible numbers, saying they had expected casualties to rise as they "ramped up the war against the Taliban". That just makes me wonder what they hell have they been doing for the last nine years, if not ramping up the war against the Taliban?

The truth is that our leaders learned nothing from the experience in Vietnam in the 60s and 70s. They evidently thought Vietnam was an anomaly that couldn't happen again. They were (and are) wrong. It may be the desert mountains of Afghanistan instead of the jungles of Vietnam, but it is exactly the same situation. How much longer will it be before our leaders (in both parties) realize this?

It's time to bring our soldiers home from Afghanistan (and Iraq) -- all of them.

How Are Things In Iraq ?

In March of 2003, the United States (and Great Britain) invaded the country of Iraq. The lame excuse for the invasion was self-defense -- that Iraq supposedly had weapons of mass destruction that made them a threat. Of course, no weapons of mass destruction were ever discovered.

Then Bush tried another lie. He told Americans that the invasion was necessary to win the "war on terrorism". But their were no islamic terrorists in Iraq before the invasion. Saddam Hussein knew the islamic terrorists were a threat to his power, and made sure they had no foothold in his country. He made sure Iraq had a secular rather than an islamic government.

But the invasion did accomplish two things. It created an anarchic situation that allowed islamic terrorists to come in and begin operations there, and it re-ignited a long simmering hatred between religious factions in the country kicking off a religious civil war. Outside elements (like al-Queda) began killing innocent civilians and the Iraqi religious factions (Sunnis and Shiites) joined in the killing of innocent civilians, each trying to gain the upper hand.

The occupation forces then installed a puppet government -- a government in which only candidates approved by the United States could run for office. After installing this "democratic" government, the occupation forces then set out to quell the violence in Iraq (or as they called it, "defeat the terrorists"). Years passed and the violence continued unabated.

In early 2009, the occupation forces decided the violence had subsided enough that the fight could be turned over to the Iraqi puppet government. In April 2009, Great Britain withdrew all of their forces and while the the United States stayed in Iraq, they stopped most agressive actions and let the Iraqi assume the bulk of peacekeeping efforts.

If one were to go by the newspaper and other media reports, it could be assumed this was a successful tactic. Since there are seldom any media reports about Iraq, the violence must have stopped -- right? Wrong! Even though the American media is no longer interested in Iraq, innocent civilians are still being killed there by the thousands -- over 4,500 in 2009 (or about 13 people killed every single day).

But surely it has gotten better in 2010. Wrong again! Let's look at the numbers for this year. In January, 135 innocent civilians were killed in addition to 61 Iraqi police and soldiers. About 782 people were wounded (620 were innocent civilians). And the violence continues:

February 1st..........56 killed and 160 wounded

February 3rd..........24 killed and 122 wounded

February 10th..........2 killed and 4 wounded (and an oil pipeline destroyed)

February 16th..........4 killed

February 17th..........4 killed

February 18th..........13 killed and 48 wounded

In addition, six Americans have been killed in Iraq this year so far. Is this what the United States government defines as success? While the actions of the United States has been instrumental in kicking off the seemingly perpetual violence in Iraq, the U.S. military is powerless to control or quell that violence even after nearly seven years of occupation.

We destroyed the country rather easily, but we've not been able to fix it at all. This does not mean we should keep our troops there though (or send more troops). Surely after seven years it is clear that the United States cannot fix what it broke. All we can do at this point is withdraw our troops and hope the Iraqis are able to find a solution sooner rather than later.

It does make me wonder though, are we doing the same thing in Afghanistan?

Death Count Still Rising In Iraq

Last year, Bush instituted his infamous "troop surge" in Iraq. McCain jumped on board, saying Bush was finally doing the war correctly. Both of them quickly declared victory when the death toll of American soldiers dropped to 23 last December. Since then they have been bragging about how they're now winning the war.

I guess they think the American people are stupid, and if they keep talking about victory we might actually believe them someday. But it's now looking like the December numbers were just a one-month fluke. Since then, 152 American soldiers have been killed, including 44 this month. That's 1.57 soldiers dying every single day in Iraq.

Since December, the American death toll is rising each month. The total now is 4,056. Frankly, I don't think we can stand much more of this kind of victory, especially since nothing is being accomplished either politically or security-wise.

McCain is still deluded enough to believe an American victory is possible in Iraq. He has even talked of leaving troops there for a hundred years (as long as they're not being killed). That shows just how deluded he is.

He doesn't seem to understand that we have placed our troops into a no-win situation. They are being killed because they are on Arab soil. The killing will go on for as long as we have troops there. If we stay for a hundred years, the killing will go on that long.

This shows the importance of defeating McCain in November. The only plan he has for Iraq is more of the same old Bush strategy. We must elect Democrats, and then pressure them to withdraw all our troops as soon as possible.

A permanent military base in Iraq is not an option.