This should be heard/watched by Many!
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Economist Linda Bilmes on the True Cost of the US Invasion andOccupation of Iraq
read/watch/listen to more | digg story
Their book: The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict
One week after President Bush rejected charges the war in Iraq has hurt the
US economy, a new book puts a conservative estimate of the war¹s cost at $3
trillion so far. In their first national broadcast interview upon their
book¹s publication, Nobel laureate and former chief World Bank economist,
Joseph Stiglitz, and co-author Linda Bilmes of Harvard University say the
Bush administration has repeatedly low-balled the cost of the war‹and even
kept a second set of records hidden from the American public.
How many remember this:
"For the vast majority of Iraqi citizens who wish to live as free men and women, this event brings further assurance that the torture chambers and the secret police are gone forever." - George W. Bush upon capture of Saddam Hussein.
There was a post, early this morning, that I followed the links embedded before heading for work. And once again my Disgust at the Depths my Country has Sunk to left me in a Rage for the rest of the day, and is still there!
Wired online site has an updated report on Abu Ghraib, with more photo's not seen before, they also have a slideshow!
I would suggest only those with a Very Strong Constitution view the photo's and slideshow, but everyone should read the report.
The report is called: How Good People Turn Evil, From Stanford to Abu Ghraib
It is an interview with Psychologist Philip Zimbardo. His book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, explores how a "perfect storm" of conditions can make ordinary people commit horrendous acts.
We hear an awfull lot about 'National Security' and how some think they are 'Stronger' on that issue.
Well when you wage Wars of Choice and Atrosities such as Abu Ghraib, and now known other Torture practices and sites are maintained, and you Kill and Maim tens of thousands of Innocent Citizens of a small country, you leave any and all nations 'National Security' wide open for the 'Blowback' from the Extreme Hatreds for what you've done!
And those who ordered the actions, as well as their supporters, are No Differant Than The Saddams Of The World, those same Saddams they once supported and in many cases, but differant countries, Still Support!!
They make us all the Terrorists, term so easily used, they Condemn!!
Which seems to be the norm for this country, just look at the leadership that's allowed to continue,
across the board, on any subject one might pick!
A Los Angeles man with mental problems,
who spent three months lost in Mexico after being deported despite being a U.S. citizen, sued homeland security
and immigration officials on Wednesday.
Mr Guzman apparently was arrested for trespassing and spent time in lockup than,
"Immigration and Customs Enforcement put Peter Guzman on a bus with $3 in his pocket and put him out in Tijuana,"
said his lawyer, Jim Brosnahan. "With no family or friends in Mexico, he broke down and thought that his country had rejected him."
Guess what, His Country Had!!
He survived, apparently by begging, washing in a river, and sleeping outdoors, for Three Freaking Months,
he may have had mental problems, but he sure Outshines most of the people I've observed, especially this last decade or so.
They finally reunited him with his family, looking for him desperately and in any place they could think of including morgues
after border guards stopped him as he was crossing back into California.
Wonder how many "Super Patriots", who couldn't exist in their materialistic world without Low Waged Workers, i.e. Illegals,
will Apologize to a Fellow Citizen, Mr Guzman, of this ever so fine Country!
A few more articles on this tragic incident:
ACLU Files Suit Over Disabled US Citizen's Wrongful Deportation
Wrongly deported US man sues over deportation to Mexico Malaysia Star
US man wrongly deported to Mexico suing government
International Herald Tribune, France
Wrongly deported SoCal man sues U.S., county governments
Remember this:
President Bush laid down the standard of success when he announced the surge more than a year ago: "If we increase our support at this crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home."
Than yesterday we get this:
The Pentagon is projecting that when the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq ends in July there will be about 8,000 more troops on the ground than when it began in January 2007, a senior general said Monday.
Rolling Stone has a great report, From Iraq, that's online now and out in next months mag.
The Myth of the Surge
Hoping to turn enemies into allies, U.S. forces are arming Iraqis who fought with the insurgents. But it's already starting to backfire. A report from the front lines of the new Iraq
NIR ROSEN Posted Mar 06, 2008
It's abit of a long read, but a truth to word and opening ones mind to imagine the reality as if there, opening:
It's a cold, gray day in December, and I'm walking down Sixtieth Street in the Dora district of Baghdad, one of the most violent and fearsome of the city's no-go zones. Devastated by five years of clashes between American forces, Shiite militias, Sunni resistance groups and Al Qaeda, much of Dora is now a ghost town. This is what "victory" looks like in a once upscale neighborhood of Iraq: Lakes of mud and sewage fill the streets. Mountains of trash stagnate in the pungent liquid. Most of the windows in the sand-colored homes are broken, and the wind blows through them, whistling eerily. House after house is deserted, bullet holes pockmarking their walls, their doors open and unguarded, many emptied of furniture. What few furnishings remain are covered by a thick layer of the fine dust that invades every space in Iraq. Looming over the homes are twelve-foot-high security walls built by the Americans to separate warring factions and confine people to their own neighborhood. Emptied and destroyed by civil war, walled off by President Bush's much-heralded "surge," Dora feels more like a desolate, post-apocalyptic maze of concrete tunnels than a living, inhabited neighborhood. Apart from our footsteps, there is complete silence.
We have created a Huge Refugee Crisis that may be ready to explode, creating more danger to them and the already unstable conditions of Iraq and the region.
A top U.N. refugee official warned on Tuesday of the possibility that Iraqi refugees might be expelled from their sanctuaries unless the United States, Iraq and other countries act quickly to help them.
One of the reasons for the curb in violence, besides the ceasefire by Sadr and paying former insurgent personal to not fight U.S. troops but the so called al Qaeda of Iraq, are the Blast Walls seperating the now mostly ethnically cleansed neighborhoods of Baghdad.
Baghdad security walls curb violence, at a cost
To some Iraqis they are the reason it is safe to shop. To others they are like big jails.
Not winning Hearts and Minds!!
And any Iraq refugees, returning, voluntarily or forced because of lack of money or forced out of safer neighboring countries, return to the ethnically cleansed neighborhoods, most with others now living in their homes, and all living behind Walls of Concrete seperating neighborhood from neighborhood!
The three trillion dollar war
The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts have grown to staggering proportions
Most Americans have yet to feel these costs. The price in blood has been paid by our voluntary military and by hired contractors. The price in treasure has, in a sense, been financed entirely by borrowing. Taxes have not been raised to pay for it - in fact, taxes on the rich have actually fallen. Deficit spending gives the illusion that the laws of economics can be repealed, that we can have both guns and butter. But of course the laws are not repealed. The costs of the war are real even if they have been deferred, possibly to another generation.
So far this Month some 29 U.S. Military Personal have been killed in Iraq, by Iraq Casulties.org.
“ Every war, when viewed from the undistorted perspective of life's sanctity, is a "civil war" waged by humanity against itself."
- Daisaku Ikeda
Reuters: NEW YORK (Billboard)
Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Peal Jam have contributed tunes to the anti-war soundtrack for a documentary about a U.S. soldier paralyzed in Iraq.
The 30-song, two-disc album "Body of War: Songs That Inspired an Iraq War Veteran" will be released March 18 via Warner Music's Sire Records label. All proceeds from the sale of the album will benefit Iraq Veterans Against the War.
SNIP
This Sunday's New York Times Regional Section has an article about Soldier-Poets of Post Traumatic Press. Walt Nygard is featured at The Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck, NJ. Any vets wishing to submit for the 'Post Traumatic Press 2008' should contact editor Dayl Wise.
Vet Poets Wanted For 2008
Again contact Editor: Dayl Wise - 1st CAV RVN
