It is Happy Surge Day!

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge Every so often, as appropriate, we list the recent fallen American soldiers that have died in Bush's war. From the list, we can see the surge didn't work. Sgt. 1st Class John J. Tobiason, 42, of Bloomington, Minn., died Nov. 28 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered from an incident that is currently under investigation. He was assigned to the 847th Adjutant General Battalion, 89th Regional Readiness Command, Wichita, Kan. Cpl. Allen C. Roberts, 21, of Arcola, Ill., died Nov. 28 from a vehicle accident near Al Asad, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Attack Squadron 214, Marine Aircraft Group 13, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz. Pvt. Isaac T. Cortes, 26, of Bronx, N.Y. died Nov. 27 in Amerli, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He were assigned to the 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. Spc. Benjamin J. Garrison, 25, of Houston, Texas. died Nov. 27 in Amerli, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. Staff Sgt. Jonathon L. Martin, 33, of Bellevue, Ohio, died Nov. 22 in Regensburg, Germany, of wounds suffered on Nov. 9 in Jisr Naft, Iraq, when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Spc. Melvin L. Henley Jr., 26, of Jackson, Miss., died at Camp Striker in Baghdad on Nov. 21 of injuries suffered from non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 603rd Aviation Support Battalion, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. Sgt. Alfred G. Paredez Jr., 32, of Las Vegas, Nev., died Nov. 20 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. Pfc. Marius L. Ferrero, 23, of Miami, Fla. died Nov. 18 when an improvised explosive device detonated during a mounted patrol in Baquabah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash. Cpl. Jason T. Lee, 26, of Fruitport, Mich. died Nov. 18 when an improvised explosive device detonated during a mounted patrol in Baquabah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash. Cpl. Christopher J. Nelson, 22, Rochester, Wash. died Nov. 18 when an improvised explosive device detonated during a mounted patrol in Baquabah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.

Why the troops will stay.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge We have heard it a million times, once the surge is successful, Bush tells us he will bring the troops home, "when the job is finished." So why are they still there? The Right Wing press has been suffering seizures over the lull in violence in Iraq, exclaiming how "liburls are hand-wringing" over "Bush's success." But why aren't they asking the NEXT question? (they never ask the next smart question) Why did the violence slow down? There are a multitude of answers. The first being the fact that Moqtada al-Sadr's Madhi Army has declared a cease fire. The recent "pact of honor" made by two of Iraq's most influential Shiite clerics, Moqtada al-Sadr and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim—aimed at preventing violence and helping to maintain the "Islamic and national interest" of Iraq—appears to signal a significant shift toward stability in Iraq. The second reason violence is down is due to the fact that there is hardly anyone else left to ethnically cleanse. Much of the work of the Sunni/Shia Death Squads has been completed. The "unpure" Muslims were either executed or they have fled. Fewer people to shoot at. Bush's war has created a silent disaster that is rarely reported on - the existence of over 5 million refugees, half of which have fled the nation entirely. There are over 1.2 million in Syria, there are 750,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan, 100,000 in Egypt, 54,000 in Iran, 40,000 in Lebanon, 10,000 in Turkey and 200,000 in various Persian Gulf countries, according to the UNHCR. So why are we still there? The answer is obvious, Iraq is not stable, it is far from stable and I doubt will be stable in the next decade. Why is it far from stable? Why will Bush keep troops there? The cease fire from the Madhi Army is only for six months, it expires in January, 2008. Refugees are returning home because they are out of money to support themselves and their families. Which means the ethnic cleansing is far from over once these "cleansed" neighborhoods begin to fill back up with the original inhabitants. Oh yeah, they still have oil.

Petraeus Report: 6 months of Surge or Pelosi Inaction?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge Ever wonder how many lives would have been saved if we had YouTube for the Vietnam war? Or would the leaders of the day still deny the evident truth laying dead in the ditches and rivers of Baghdad? Would they still ignore the never ending stream of flag draped coffins coming in from the Middle East? My guess is yes, they would. To deny the facts on the ground in Baghdad, it takes a Herculean capacity for denial to look at the Iraq War as nothing more than a total and abject disaster of Greecian tragedy proportions. Or they could be lying to our face. That sums up our President and his underlings - liars. No one can be so deluded as to thinking Iraq is a success. (Ok, McCain excluded.) But what about Pelosi? How long is she going to go for the bullshit? How long will Reid back her up in letting Bush ruin the nation? So far, the Democrats have given us nothing but shame and embarrassment in the Congress. Instead of doing the job they were sent to do, they have achieved none of the major promises they gave us in the 2006 elections. I understand they also battle the Blue Dogs and there is the one vote majority in the Senate, but Pelosi and Reid haven't even tried. They have not lifted a finger. All they have done is take after Senator Craig and dropped their pants for Bush. They have willingly bent over and let Bush have his way with the war, FISA courts and on and on. If Pelosi and Reid roll over this time and accept another six months of continued bloodshed and violence, it is time to remove them from office. They will have proven themselves as traitors to We The People.

NOBODY Scoops General Petraeus

Appearing at The Jaundiced Eye, My Left Wing, and the Independent Bloggers' Alliance. This week the General Accountability Office slipped an advance copy of its progress report on Iraq to the Washington Post. Their report was "strikingly negative." The GAO thinks that Iraq has failed to meet all but 3 of its 18 mandated benchmarks. But that's because the GAO is a bunch of girlie-men. Don't they know that we are all supposed to -- say it with me now -- "Wait to hear what General Petraeus has to say!" Well General Petraeus is speaking, to The Australian, and guess what: The Surge Is Working! "We say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously going to do everything we can to build on that progress and we believe al-Qa'ida is off balance at the very least," he said. At the "very least," he says. Pshaw. I think the thing I love most about General Petraeus is his modesty. Let's face it. He is kicking insurgent ass, over there. Here are a few things the terrorists didn't know about General Petraeus when they provoked his wrath: General Petraeus's tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried. When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for General Petraeus. General Petraeus can make a woman climax by simply pointing at her and saying "hooah." General Petraeus does not sleep. He waits. General Petraeus once tried to sue Burger King after they refused to put razor wire in his Whopper Jr., insisting that that actually is "his" way. General Petraeus took my virginity, and he will sure as hell take yours. If you're thinking to yourself, "That's impossible. I already lost my virginity," then you are dead wrong. General Petraeus can slam revolving doors. General Petraeus doesn't have hair on his testicles, because hair does not grow on steel. General Petraeus counted to infinity - twice. When General Petraeus exercises, the machine gets stronger. General Petraeus is allowed to talk about Fight Club. General Petraeus sleeps with a night light. Not because General Petraeus is afraid of the dark, but because the dark is afraid of General Petraeus. Water boils faster when General Petraeus watches it. If General Petraeus is late, time better slow the fuck down. When General Petraeus jumps in a lake, he doesn't get wet. The water gets Petraeus. General Petraeus once ate three 72 oz. steaks in one hour. He spent the first 45 minutes having sex with his waitress. General Petraeus refers to himself in fourth person. Superman owns a pair of General Petraeus pajamas. As a child, General Petraeus played Hungry Hungry Hippos with real hippos. General Petraeus's sperm can penetrate 13 condoms, the birth control pill, a brick wall, and the 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line in order to impregnate a woman. General Petraeus always gets blackjack. Even when he's playing poker. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself... The only thing fear has to fear is General Petraeus. But Curmudgette, you are saying, aren't these just warmed over Chuck Norris and Vin Diesel jokes? Yeah. What are you gonna do about it? EVERYTHING is better with General Petraeus in it. The following video, for instance, is only good, if you close your eyes and imagine he's singing about General David Petraeus.

Toy Soldiers- a George W. Bush Cartoon

CLICK PICTURE FOR MORE cross-posted at Left 'Toon Lane Does Bush even know the difference anymore? From "Shock and Awe" to the "Surge," the whole war in Iraq has looked more like a child playing with toys than real war planning. We went in with a "Plan" to smash 'em up, to blast 'em with all our stuff. Then, you see, the game would be over. Maybe time for a nap, maybe Mom's calling for lunch, but everybody would just stop playing. But they didn't. And now we have the "Surge." Really stop and think about that for a minute. We're having a "Surge," but we're running out of soldiers. Does that sound like war planning, or like a kid whining "Mommy, PUH-LEEEAAZE get me another bag of soldiers, PUH- LEEEAAZE!?" George W. Bush. Most powerful man in the world. Ten year old. And a pretty bratty one at that.

Fuzzy Baghdad Math

click to enlarge Can we do the math anymore? Not if the administration and the Iraqi government has it's way. There are moves afoot to ban reporters from bomb attack sites, stop publication of morgue statistics and continue the policy of discluding civilians in the causality numbers. Daily Kos Diarist BarbinMD has an excellent front page story on this very issue. But there is another problem with the body count that I really don't see being address in the mainstream media and that is the so-called surge. Are we really adding troops on the ground or is the real purpose of the surge is simply to replace the dead and the wounded? Yes, the death rate in Iraq is lower than Vietnam, but the number of critically wounded is historically high. So all those dead and wounded soldiers need to be replaced at some point. But do we really know? With the BushCo propaganda machine in full swing against the Democrats, it is damn near impossible to find real data or troop exchanges. So I going on gut instinct here and say we are really just replacing troops lost in combat with just a tinge of new folks for the so-called surge. This is a good time to review my "gut instinct" policy - under the Bush Administration, however bad things appear to be, in reality they are five times worse. Your mileage may vary.