This is another good one. Someone, copy and past it on a thread where you will get killed for posting . but they ought to at least read it. I chicken out...(:>(
Unsettling Picture IRAQ
While some were tuning into last night's premiere of "Over There," a drama about
the Iraq war that marks "the first American series to fictionalize a war while
that same war is actually going on," a majority of Americans were finally
arriving at a very real, and unsettling, conclusion: "the Bush administration
deliberately misled the public about whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass
destruction - the reason Bush emphasized in making the case for invading." Even
pop star Jessica Simpson's faith has been shaken. The producer of the new drama
claims no interest "in making a political statement about the war," focusing
instead on the experience of the soldiers. Though "combat feels apolitical to
those engaged in it," the new drama serves as a stark reminder of "why it's up
to those who put them in harm's way to have as broad as possible a perspective
on the purpose, the goals, the endgame, and, ultimately, the meaning of the war
these young people are being used to fight." In the real world, conditions in
Iraq are producing an unsettling picture.
"THE HUMAN TOLL": President Bush assured the Iraqi people of a better quality of
life. Yet, "living conditions for the people of Iraq, already poor before the
war, have deteriorated significantly since the US invasion." A new report by the
United Nations Development Programme and the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and
Development Cooperation finds "that the Iraqi people are suffering widespread
death and war-related injury, high rates of infant and child mortality, chronic
malnutrition and illness among children, low rates of life expectancy and
significant setbacks with regard to the role of women in society." Though
"living conditions for the people of Iraq [were] already poor before the war,"
they have "deteriorated significantly since the US invasion."
A 50-YEAR STEP BACK FOR WOMEN: In 2004, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao pledged,
"The commitment of this administration to women's rights in Iraq is unshakable."
Earlier this year, First Lady Laura Bush ensured that "Women will influence the
drafting [of the Iraq constitution] because they hold nearly one-third of the
seats in the assembly." However, draft versions of the forthcoming Iraq
constitution are "raising concerns that women could lose rights in marriage,
divorce and inheritance." Sections of the constitution "bear out fears that
restrictions on [women's rights] rights may soon be enshrined in the law. The
latest copy of the charter, due to be finalised in three weeks, revealed wording
that could roll back a 1959 secular law that enshrined women's equality." Though
the drafting committee claim to have "taken account of women's concerns,"
members have no plans to make changes.
PRETTY HANDS ON FOR A HANDS-OFF POLICY: Back in 2003, President Bush directly
addressed the Iraqi people: "We will help you build a peaceful and
representative government...[and] then our military forces will leave. Iraq will
go forward as a unified, independent and sovereign nation that has regained a
respected place in the world...You deserve to live as free people." But now
senior Bush administration officials are "playing a more vigorous public role in
defining its own image of a future Iraq and pushing factions toward political
accommodation to stem the drift toward civil war. The tactic runs the risk of
alienating many proud Iraqis -- already fed up after two years of unfulfilled
promises, deteriorating security, unreliable power supplies, undrinkable water
and checkpoint shootings." Just this week, the new American ambassador to Iraq,
Zalmay Khalilzad, "injected himself into the writing of the constitution" and
already some Iraqi committee members have "privately complained that the
Americans and British were interfering in Iraqi internal affairs."
THE SAME OLD PROMISE: Though no one in the administration will provide any
timetable for troop return, several recent news reports are claiming that the
Pentagon is planning a sharp reduction in the number of American troops in Iraq.
These conclusions point to statements made by the top U.S. commander in Baghdad,
Gen. George Casey, who said, "I do believe that if the political process
continues to go positively, if the developments with the (Iraqi) security forces
continue to go as it is going, I do believe we will still be able to make fairly
substantial reductions after these elections - in the spring and summer of next
year." Although "Casey's remarks marked the first time in months that a top U.S.
official had commented publicly about the specific prospects of a significant
reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq," the statements were not much more than a
reiteration of President Bush's constant promise that "our troops will come home
when Iraq is capable of defending herself."
THE STATUS OF THE IRAQI SECURITY FORCES: The administration has told the public
that hopes of a sharp reduction in troops relies on the progress being made on
training Iraqi security forces. But after first delaying the release of the
administration's Iraq progress report to Congress, Secretary Rumsfeld decided to
keep "the readiness and performance of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces"
section classified from the American people. However, the inspector generals of
the State and Defense Departments have come forward to reveal that "insurgents
and other criminals have infiltrated Iraqi police ranks due to poor screening
procedures." The joint report also undermines President Bush's myopic focus on
the number of Iraqi forces that have been trained: "This emphasis on numbers
overshadows the attention that should be given to the qualitative performance of
those trained. There is a perception that training programs have produced
'cannon fodder' -- numbers of nominal policemen incapable of defending
themselves, let alone the Iraqi public." But officials in the Bush
administration already knew this. Just last week, the Senate was presented with
an originally classified Pentagon report admitting "only about half of Iraq's
new police battalions can conduct operations at all...while the other half of
police and two-thirds of the new army battalions are only 'partially capable' of
carrying out counterinsurgency missions -- and that, only with American help."
Are these the "developments with the security forces" that Gen. Casey is relying
on?
THE EFFECTS OF THE DEARTH OF POSTWAR PLANNING: "Military conflict has two
dimensions: winning wars and winning the peace." In a study commissioned by the
nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations, two former national security advisers
have found that "in Iraq, pre-war inattention to post-war requirements--or
simply misjudgments about them--left the United States ill-equipped to address
public security, governance, and economic demands in the immediate aftermath of
the conflict, seriously undermining key U.S. foreign policy goals and giving
early impetus to the insurgency." The conclusion echoes that of the State
Department, which reported, according to one analyst, that President Bush
"didn't go in with a plan" but instead "with a theory." The "human, military and
economic" costs of the so-called theory "are high and continue to mount." The
study also undermines President Bush's attempt to blame the state of post war
Iraq on the "catastrophic success" of our own troops who were "so successful so
fast." |
