Intel. Gap in Iraq Widens in the Face of Lasting Insurgency
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122504C.shtml

http://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel24.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

You might think a little accounting would be in order.

We know exactly how many American and British soldiers have died in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. We can only guess at the number of Iraqis, both military and civilian. We can be sure of only one thing: it far exceeds coalition casualties. Civilians, like truth, are usually the first casualties of war. In the early days of the invasion of Iraq, Gen. Tommy Franks famously told reporters at his headquarters in Qatar, "We don't do body counts." The Pentagon and our British allies have stuck to that position ever since. They have never given an accounting, or even a rough estimate, of the number of Iraqi civilians who have died in the bombing and crossfire of combat during the invasion, or in he deadly insurgency that still wracks the country. The United States and Britain, under the Geneva Convention and Hague Regulations, have a binding responsibility as occupying authorities to prevent civilian deaths, including those resulting from the breakdown of law and order and inadequate health care or sanitation. So you might think a little accounting would be in order.

That's what a group of retired military, diplomats and government officials have demanded in an open letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The signatures on the letter were collected by Retired Air Vice Marshall Tim Garden, now a member of the House of Lords. They say a full investigation into the death toll is the only way for Britain to comply with its legal requirement to protect Iraqi civilians. A spokesman for the prime minister said his position would not be changed by the letter.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/13/opinion/fenton/main660728.shtml


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - December 23rd, 2004

Suicides of U.S. Marines have reached their highest level in five years, prompting a Defense Department effort to encourage Marines to seek mental health services, a Marine Corps spokesman said on Tuesday. But spokesman Bryan Driver said there was no evidence linking the higher suicide rate with the long tours of duty and frontline fighting Marines have engaged in Iraq. There have been 32 confirmed or probable suicides among 178,000 Marines this year, surpassing the 28 who killed themselves in 2001 as the United States invaded Afghanistan, Driver said. The Marines, the smallest of the U.S. armed services by number of troops, have had the military's highest suicide rate -- about 25 per year among 178,000 active duty troops since 1999, the year the government began keeping detailed records.

"What we found out when we looked into the circumstances are relationship problems, financial problems, legal problems. Those are the three main triggers in these Marines' lives," Driver said.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?R2B85151A


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - December 23rd, 2004

Theresa Parrish tries to avoid the emergency food pantry. But with her husband serving in the National Guard in Iraq and two children at home, that isn't easy.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-12-23-pantries_x.htm

The soldiers said in interviews, e-mails and official documents that they were sent to war earlier this year with chronic illness, broken guns and trucks with blown transmissions.

http://207.44.245.159/articler7547.htm

by Haifa Zangana

The Guardian [UK]

12/22/04

The US state department has launched a $10m 'Iraqi women's democracy initiative' to train Iraqi women in the skills and practices of democratic life ahead of the forthcoming elections. Paula Dobriansky, US undersecretary of state for global affairs, declared: 'We will give Iraqi women the tools, information and experience they need to run for office and lobby for fair treatment.' ... Of all the blunders by the US administration in Iraq, the greatest is its failure to understand Iraqi people, women in particular. The main misconception is to perceive Iraqi women as silent, powerless victims in a male-controlled society in urgent need of 'liberation.' This image fits conveniently into the big picture of the Iraqi people being passive victims who would welcome the occupation of their country. The reality is different. Iraqi women were actively involved in public life even under the Ottoman empire...

http://tinyurl.com/646hx


Hypocrisy and nuttiness

by Fawaz Turki

Arab News

12/22/04

But the US, I say, is hell-bent on 'introducing' you and me to Jeffersonian principles of civil rights, human rights, women's rights, political rights, democratic rights and heck, name the rights, and these bozos will take them out from under their armpit and hand them over to you like a bouquet of roses. Seriously, folks, the issue here is not the intrinsic worth of these values, which clearly are a necessary function of the growth of any vibrant society, but the hypocrisy and nuttiness of American foreign policy in our part of the world....

http://tinyurl.com/5gege


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Nicholas Stix

Intellectual Conservative

12/22/04

Well, it's official: Don Rumsfeld has been declared the fall guy for the Bush Administration's prosecution of the War in Iraq. What was that, you ask? 'Who made the declaration?' Why, it was those unlikely bedfellows, William Kristol, the New York Times, and Norman Schwarzkopf (Gen., US Army, ret.). Apparently, everything that has gone wrong in Iraq, has been President Rumsfeld's fault: He sent insufficient numbers of men to fight the war, he was responsible for the torture at Abu Ghraib, and worst of all, he was insufficiently deferential to the G.I. who asked him at a December 8 public assembly in Kuwait why all U.S. supply vehicles are not armored. What was once seen as refreshing candor is now attacked as 'flippancy...

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article4044.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp