I'm a liberal pagan living in West, Texas. Yes. That West, Texas.

Friday, September 29, 2006

..............BUSH'S WAR..............





















The classified National Intelligence Estimate states that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped create a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept.11 attacks..

Documents released by the White House timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Sept.11 attacks emphasixed the successes that the United States had made in dismantling the top tier of al-Qaeda."Since the Sept.11 attacks,America and its allies are safer, but we are not safe," one report, titled "9/11 Five Years Later:Success and Challenges."
"We have done much to degrade al-qaeda and its affilates and to undercut the preceived legitimacy of terrorism," the report said.
That document makes only passing mention of the impact the Iraq war has had on the global jihad movement."The ongoing fight for freedom in Iraq has been twisted by terrorist propaganda as a rallying cry," it stated.

RETIRED OFFICERS SAY RUMSFELD MUST GO
Recently retired military officers who served in Iraq blamed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday for the morass there, said he should resign and urged senators to subpoena active generals to testify about their own similar concerns.
In extraordinary testimoney from former senior military men during wartime,retired Army Maj.Paul Eaton said Mr.Rumsfeld "continues to fight this war on the cheap" and denounced him as "incompetent."
Gen.Batiste, said Mr. Rumsfeld had surrounded himself with "like-minded and compliant subordinates," underestimated the need for ground troops despite arguments to the contrary and was so insistent that there wouldn't be an insurgency that "he threatened to fire the next person who talked about the need for a post-war plan."

MORE VETERANS REPORT STRESS SYMPTOMS
More than 1/3 of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking medical treatment from the Veterans Health Administration report symptoms of stress or other mental disorders--coming as more troops face multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan-
has triggered concern among some veterans groups that the agency may not be able to meet the demand.

IRAQ COMBAT TOURS EXTENDED AGAIN.
The Army is stretched so thin by the war in Iraq that it is again extending the combat tours of thousands of soldiers beyond the promised 12 months-the second such move since August.Soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division had been expecting to return to their home base in Germany in mid-January.Instead, they will stay an extra 46 days in Iraq, until late February, the Pentagon announced Monday.
The soldiers are operating in western Anbar province,one of the most violent parts of Iraq.
The Pentagon also announced tht the 4th Brigade,1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood,Texas, will deploy to Iraq 30 days earlier than scheduled,starting in late October.
"The Army is coming to the end of its rope in Iraq,"said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, a private research group."It simply does not have enough active-cuty military personnel to sustain the current level of effort."
Last month, the Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade was ordered to extend its tour in Iraq by up to four months.Some members of that unit had already returned to the brigade's home base in Alaska when the decision was announced.About 300 soldiers had to go back to Iraq, drawing public complaints from families.
Asked about the matter at a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declined to confirm the extension but said that "from time to time there may be" units required to stay in Iraq longer than sheduled.Mr. Rumsfeld also appeared to hint at other adjustments to the troop rotation plan.

WAR FORCING ARMY TO CUT BASE OPERATIONS
The Army is $500 million short of the money it needs to operate the bases this year because of the war in Iraq, forcing many posts to cut back on training,force protection and family support programs,House Democrats said Thursday.
Since June, some Army installations have had to close mess halls, reduce training time, and cut back on ammunition, equiptment, food and fuel to nondeploying units.
Funds for family support activities, including child care,gyms, bus services have also been cut, hurting morale for families whose loved ones are fighting overseas,the congressional Democrats said at a news conference.
The problem has been building for several years, with the Army underfunding its base operation accounts.When fiscal 2006 started last October, the Army had only 69% of the funds it needed for activites ranging from cutting frass and building maintenance to paying civilian workers to man security gates and equiptment warehouses.
The Army was counting on money from the Bush administration's $72billion emergency defense spending request to help cover those activities, but the Congress failed to pass the bill before the Memorial Day recess.


I would like to end this silent screaming rant by adding one more peice of information...
Mehtarlam, Afghanistan.
Sgt.1st Class Merideth Howard,52 became the oldest female soldier to die in combat..In 1996 she had been assigned to the Individual Ready Reserves, for soldiers without a unit.
In a first for the U.S. military-provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan were being filled by a mix of Navy,Air Force,Army,National Guard,and Reserve soldiers.
I'll tell you the truth..this is so fucking painful for me to write I will justtell you that you can google her name and all the information about her is there..I am just so motherfucking pissed about this right now, my teeth hurt...
The only thing I can say is........VOTE...VOTE ...VOTE...VOTE

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Found you surfing on Blogmad, had to stop and say a great post, and I will check out Meredith Howard.

To many have died in this war now I believe the figure to be over 2,700, even one was to many, as your page opened and I saw all those coffins it was so heartbreaking. I pray for the military to remain safe and soon I hope this conflict to end, being in the military formerly myself, I know that they only go and do as their superiors order them.

Once again a great blog and a great post, I put you on my blog-roll so I can read your blog more often, I don't comment often but I'll be reading,,,vote,,vote,,vote.

Rowan Dawn said...

i can't. i'm not registered here- long ass story why i can't get my drivers license, too. but i would if i could.

Big Pissy said...

I agree with Floyd....all those images of coffins.....so terribly sad.

Such a waste....

I do vote and will encourage others to "vote....vote....vote"

Anonymous said...

You damn well better vote, because I guarantee you the 18% of us who can be classified as Chimpletons will all be at the polls.

They have never been the majority voice, and they have never deserved the kind of sway they've had. Let's knock them off their pedestal.

yellowdoggranny said...

dawn marie: write your state voter registeration people and they will tell you how to vote out of state..
Big pissy:i was going to print more coffins as there were a huge amt of them..but figured that was enough for everyone to get the idea..
jolly roger: i always vote..always have..every election since i was 21..(im old enough that i had to be 21 to vote for my first time)...we have to rid ourselves of these people...they are evil..

Carina said...

Damn right I'm voting, always do.
Great post as always.

Nit Wit said...

The reaction to the coffins tells you why when the first ones were published The Gump barred release of any more.

I'm on vacation for the next week! I can finally catch up on my blogging if I don't do anything else.
Vote early and often!

Anonymous said...

remember the good old days when the iranis and the iraqis were busy fighting each other.

bush resurrected the old saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"

now the iranis and the iraqis have a common enemy, us!. so it looks like they're friends now they're busy fighting us instead of each other.

but as my friend mr netwit says, i might be full of shit.

Anonymous said...

Very eloquent with good supporting points. The coffin graphics were most effective to set the tone. So very many, so very young, so very dead.

RevJim said...

To make matters worse, some of the Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Wesley Clarke, believe we need to start the draft so we can send more troops. I support the Mission of the war, but that doesn't make me a war monger. We can't leave a failed state in Iraq, and remember, it isn't the US that is killing soldiers and Iraqis, it is the Saddamists and the foreign insurgents recuruited by al Qaeda. I know you disagree with me, but this is the way my mind works, and has worked since I joined the Air Force in 1976, so, it's okay if you call me brainwashed. The Rev Luv's ya!

yellowdoggranny said...

carina:thanks for stoping by and glad you vote..
nit wit:happy vacation time..
yeah that is why i put the pictures of the coffins first..after bush's bring em on picture..and i was going to put more, but is sad enough with those.
leo: you and nit wit could never be full of shit..your my heros.
yeah i can remember back when they hated each other and we were the good guys...jeez..seems like centuries ago.
babs: bush is evil...
jan:yup ...they are gone and if the war is a good cause or not..they are still dead.
rev Jim: oh, excuse me I almost forgot..bush didn't lie to us to get us in the war with the iraqui's...so none of this is his fault...
i was raised in the air force..my daddy was a m/sgt my husband was a gi also..i know about cold wars and real wars..and any war fought for the wrong reason and the president of the united states is the reason for it..well, fuck him...and anyone who thinks he is not guilty of war crimes...against our soldiers and the iraqi's...
granny loves ya jim...but the Goddess thinks your a dickhead..

texlahoma said...

We see eye to eye as usual. To bad Gump didn't use 9-11 to gain allies instead of enemies, we had world sympathy we could have made a lot of friends.

JBlue said...

Taking up the chant: VOTE VOTE....

Tom Harper said...

Bush needs to fire Rumsfeld. And this puts him between a rock and a hard place. If he doesn't fire him, Rumsfeld will be an albatross for this November's election. And if Bush does fire him, he'll look wishy-washy in front of his Far Right supporters. Bush is in an awkward situation, and this couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Greco-Roman said...

Hi, YdG!

Great post! The prez is only concerned with filling his own pockets with dough. He doesn't seem to care about the cost to other families.

He's the 3rd prez named George. The American Revolution was fought against another tyrant named King George III. Check out the similarities between the two.

Josh said...

There are more terrorists now than there were five years ago... and our military is stretched too thin for comfort, as well. Both of these facts can be directly attributed to the disastrous Iraq occupation.

What's the definition of treason again?

Nancy said...

I just saw a cartoon that had an alien ship flying by the earth and the picture showed the war and one alien said to the other "what are they fighting over?" The other answered "as near as I can tell, they are fighting over what religion is the most peaceful."

Very sad post.

Unknown said...

"yeah i can remember back when they hated each other and we were the good guys"

Is there any country left who considers us "the good guys"? Seems that we're the one the others are throwing rocks at now.

yellowdoggranny said...

tex:after 9-11 we had the whole world on our side...now look..everyone hates us..
jublue:agreed...everyone now...vote..vote..vote..
thom:like to see him fire all them fuckers...cheney, rumsfeldt,rice,rowe, and anyone else along that line..
cletus:checked him out..but i had read about him before..i used to call george bush king george...but changed it to forest gump...beginning to think i am doing forest a bad turn.
Josh:anyone that follows bush is a traitor..
nancy: isnt that sad?
junebugg: i think the only ones who like us are Israli's..

1138 said...

We need to get the right to vote back.
No paper trail = no vote.

yellowdoggranny said...

1138: your right...

Anonymous said...

Yes, please vote and remember you aren't just voting for youselves, but you are voting for our world. Many Canadians are dying too ... and here they are also putting a ban on photos fom Afghanistan. Very sad state of affairs .. :(

Snave said...

As with nearly GOP solutions to problems, this administration just wants to trim the ends off of the branches of the tree, and must not believe it necessary to attack the problem at the roots. To attack it at the roots might amount to our government admitting it has been doing the wrong thing for years and years.

yellowdoggranny said...

snave: and you know they 'never' admit to wrong doing...bastids..

Cie Cheesemeister said...

Jeez--disturbing images.
Sorry, I'm brainless and can't think of anything but the obvious to say!

Scottish Toodler said...

Dayum JS, this is some shit we are living through. I think Bush is the apocalypse.

yellowdoggranny said...

cheesemaster: what is sad is the amount of pictures i had to choose from. there were rows and rows of pictures of flag drapped coffins...thanks to george w ..
scottish:yeah, think if we shaved his head we would find 666 tattoed on his head.

Cyberoutlaw said...

And that's only the part that we know about for now. Just wait until a few years down the road when shit really starts to come out.

RevJim said...

Thank-you for letting me be a dickhead on your blog. And I apologize--I promised I wouldn't argue politics with you, and then I broke that promise. I guess somebody else, somewhere else got me pissed off. I love this blog, and I make sure I visit at least four times a week.
For pennance, I swear I will not vote for any Republican candidate this year or 2008, but I will vote.