TRUTH ABOUT THE SURGE, IRAQ
Comments here from two highly respected and objective journalists about Iraq. How refreshing to read truth. Remember, please, that the American media, even the liberal media, jumped on the bandwagon with Bush about invading Iraq...
"This uncertain situation is now encased in an incredible amount of concrete--the blast barriers that have become one of the signature images of Baghdad. There were plenty in place when I was last here a year ago. Now there are even more and journeys take longer than ever. There are checkpoints with heavy machine-guns every 300 meters on many roads now--far more than you ever saw under the police-state rule of Saddam Hussein. Baghdad is a city under complete military occupation. So the relative quiet here may be deceptive.
'People are still dying, bombs are still going off,' a pharmacist I know in East Baghdad tells me. 'So if you ask me if it's better, it's not. Better for me is a normal life. And this is not normal.'
Because the bombs are not as big as before, the outside world has largely lost interest. But this is still a very damaged place. Most Iraqi would like the Americans gone." -Andrew North, BBC News, Baghdad, 11/6/08
"The occupation is costing the U.S. at least $10 billion per month, not counting depreciation, $67 billion replacement costs for equipment, and billions for medical care of wounded and veterans benefits. By the end of 2008, Iraq will have cost U.S. taxpayers $1 trillion, a good part of it is borrowed from Japan and China, making it America's second most expensive war in history.
Half the U.S. Army is bogged down in Iraq. This war and Afghanistan have led the U.S. ground and air forces 'to the breaking point,' in the words of senior American commanders. History shows that all occupation armies become brutalized, corrupted and demoralized.
At least 30,000 Iraqi prisoners are held by the U.S. and routinely tortured or executed without trial. They should be considered political prisoners. Saddam Hussein's prisons held less inmates. The brutality of the U.S. occupation of Iraq has enraged the Muslim world against America and, according to U.S. intelligence agencies, has created a whole new generation of anti-American militants." -ICH, Eric Margolis, 10/2/08, contributing foreign editor for Sun National Media Canada, and author of "War at the Top of the World." FFI: www.ericmargolis.com
[with acknowledgements to "Worldwide WAMM" www.worldwidewamm.org]
