by Robert Novak

Town Hall

12/23/04

Rumsfeld's civilian colleagues at the Pentagon are furious because they consider Kristol a manipulative political operative, critiquing the war in Iraq after years of promoting it. But his criticism has a broader base. Kristol long has called for big-government conservatism, which on the international sphere involves proactively pursuing democracy around the world. He and the other neocons do not want to be blamed for what has become a very unpopular venture in Iraq. Thus, it is important to get the word out now that the war in Iraq has gone awry because of the way Rumsfeld fought it...

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20041223.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Derrick Z. Jackson

Boston Globe

12/22/04

In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson awarded the Distinguished Service Medal to his Vietnam War commander, General William Westmoreland. ... Thirty-eight years later, President Bush awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom to the commander of his forces in Iraq, General Tommy Franks. ... In 1968, Johnson awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom to his outgoing secretary of defense, Robert McNamara. Johnson called McNamara 'an intensely loyal, brilliant, and good man.' Thirty-six years later, Bush in his end-of-the-year press conference called his secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld 'a good, decent man.' ... Johnson handed out the medals over a war in which 58,000 American soldiers died for a losing cause. Bush is handing out medals and humanizing his defense secretary for an invasion in which 1,300 US soldiers and untold thousands of Iraqi civilians have died under false pretenses...

http://tinyurl.com/4nlhx


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

MSNBC

12/22/04

A U.S.-based construction company has pulled out of its contract to rebuild Iraq's transportation systems, deciding it was too dangerous to stay, a spokesman for the U.S.-led reconstruction effort said Wednesday. Contrack International Inc. of Arlington, Va., led a coalition of firms working on a $325 million contract to rebuild Iraq's roads, bridges and railways. Contrack withdrew from that contract last month after a surge in attacks on reconstruction efforts, said Lt. Col. Eric Schnaible of the Pentagon's Project and Contract Office in Baghdad...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6746747/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The US military has maintained that the abuse of prisoners in Iraq was the work of rogue soldiers like Lynndie England and poor supervision. Whatever the cause, US authorities insist that those practices have now ended. Tonight, author and journalist John Martinkus reveals a rather different account.

http://207.44.245.159/article7531.htm

Deteriorating conditions in Iraq are a consequence of "the arrogance and incompetency of the civilian leadership at the Pentagon," the Nebraska Republican said.

http://207.44.245.159/article7537.htm

Butler Shaffer

Those who defend warfare tend to see it only as an abstraction, a game pitting strategists from opposing collectives against one another in furtherance of contrived objectives. The ugly details of orchestrated butchery and torture are to be suppressed, lest persons of humane sensitivities become upset and demand a cessation of the game.

http://207.44.245.159/article7534.htm


Photo Gallery:
Military Personnel Wounded in Iraq & Afghanistan:

- Warning - Pictures depict the reality and horror of war:
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/wounded/gallery.htm


From Information Clearing House


Calling the dead

"Accident victims" families are worse -- they're not prepared. Military families are calmer. They're half-expecting it." Every time I read a headline about American deaths in Iraq, I remember those words. I've been remembering them a lot lately.

http://207.44.245.159/article7540.htm


Iraq’s silent dead

American behaviour and self-perceptions reveal the ease with which a civilised country can engage in large-scale killing of civilians without public discussion.

http://207.44.245.159/article7536.htm