The United States Governments recruitment drive in Afghanistan and Iraq, to fill empty spaces in Arlington cemetery from amongst the troops is bringing results.
Extra millions of dollars spent will improve the ''profit'' margins for the 'contractor' building companies. In this issue there is no mention of ''Greek fires'' in California.
Extra millions of dollars spent will improve the ''profit'' margins for the 'contractor' building companies. In this issue there is no mention of ''Greek fires'' in California.
WHO’S WORRIED
North League Against War, based in Leeds.
All additions by Northllaw are clearly marked, all else from G.I. Special.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Message Excerpts, posted on behalf of ---- GI Special
Issued 15 October 2007 by T. Barton.
GUESS WHO’S WORRIED
GUESS WHO ISN’T
GUESS WHY:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW
A group of Iraqi teenagers look on as U.S. soldiers from A Company 2-23 Infantry Battalion patrol a street in Muqdadiyah, Iraq Sept. 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
~~~~~~~~~~
Arlington Cemetery to Begin Major Expansion;
“The Steady Death Toll from Iraq and Afghanistan Has Added To the Numbers”
[Thanks to James Starowicz, Veterans for Peace.
October 7, 2007 (AP)
Arlington National Cemetery is about to begin a $35 million expansion that will push graves beyond its borders for the first time since the 1960s.
Officials say the extra space will provide room for 14,000 ground burials and 22,000 inurnments in a large columbarium complex.
The expansion comes on the heels of extensive work to utilize 40 acres of unused space in the cemetery, creating room for 26,000 more graves and 5,000 inurnments.
The expansions are partly in response to the deaths of members of the country’s World War II generation. The steady death toll from Iraq and Afghanistan has added to the numbers.
~~~~~~~~~~
“In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit,” said Wood, 42, from Iowa, who did not accompany Halladay’s Charlie Company, from his battalion, on Thursday’s raid. “Here, there are no lawyers. Their resources are limited, so they plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) instead.”
U.S. OCCUPATION, RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR;
RECRUITING
FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS.
~~~~~~~~~~
Two Polish Soldiers Wounded, Helicopter Hit in Attack on Base at Diwaniyah;
U.S. Base Nearby Also Attacked
10.15.07 (AFP) & By Aseel Kami, Reuters
Militants attacked a mainly Polish military base in central Iraq with mortars and machine guns on Monday, killing five civilians and wounding two Polish soldiers during the attack on the military base at Diwaniyah, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of Baghdad, an Iraqi security official told AFP.
"Four mortars were fired at the base. There was heavy firing," the official said,
A Polish helicopter was hit by machinegun fire during the attacks but managed to land safely, said Lieutenant-Colonel Wlodek Glogowski, spokesman for Polish forces in Iraq.
Glogowski said militants also fired mortar rounds at Camp Echo, which is just south of Diwaniya and houses U.S. and other multinational forces and is under Polish command. There were no casualties in that attack. "Coalition and Iraqi security forces engaged the attackers who fled to a wooded area near the base. The attackers remain at large," a US military statement said.
The attack on the base in the eastern Diwaniyah neighbourhood of Al-Iskan, where some 900 Polish soldiers are stationed. "Eight mortars were fired in the first attack, which came at around 9 am (0600 GMT)," the security official said. In video obtained by Reuters Television, the Imam Hussein Brigades and Imam Moussa al-Kadhim Brigades said Poland had allied with the "devil" America to kill Iraqis and accused Polish troops of torturing detainees.
"We want to tell Poland that all its interests in Iraq will be targeted by our resistance, including the diplomats, companies and troops. We only exclude journalists," said one of four masked gunmen who appeared in the video. A column of smoke rose from Iskan, where the base sits amid one-storey houses, while the rattle of sustained machinegun fire could be heard nearby.
~~~~~~~~~~
2500 UK Troops Wounded This Year
October 11, 2007 Associated Newspapers Limited.
This year has already been the most damaging on record for British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
More than 2,500 troops serving in the two war zones have been injured, according to the Ministry of Defence.
The numbers of injured are all higher than last year – statistics for earlier years are either not available or are incomplete. This year’s figures cover only the period up to September 15. They show that 1,463 British forces have been wounded in Iraq; of these, 930 were treated in field hospitals while 469 were flown home.
1,069 have been injured in Afghanistan this year. Of these, 456 were flown home for treatment.
The figures have been growing since British troops were stationed in the notoriously dangerous Helmand province in January last year. Deaths in Afghanistan already stand at 38 so far this year and are likely to exceed last year’s total of 39.
Campaigner Diane Dernie, the mother of 23-year-old Ben Parkinson, who lost both legs and suffered brain damage in Afghanistan last year, dismissed yesterday’s changes to compensation rules as ‘cheap’.
She said she saw dozens of injured being brought into hospital.
‘That’s when you realise what’s truly happening in Iraq and Afghanistan,’ she added.
U.S. Forces Attack Pro-Occupation Collaborators
Oct 15, 2007 DPA.
Baghdad - US troops killed by mistake three tribal fighters in Doualiya city in Salahaddin province, a media report said Monday.
A US aircraft shelled areas linked to Doualiya tribal forces while it was chasing militants Sunday evening, killing three U.S. allied forces, injuring one and damaging a vehicle.
Tribal councils have been formed across Iraq to fight militants through organized forces backed by the Iraqi government and the US military.
The US military did not comment on the incident.
~~~~~~~~~~
“AFTER NEWS LEAKED THAT 9 CHILDREN WERE KILLED IN THE RAID,
GEN. PETRAEUS WARNED IRAN ONCE MORE
TO STOP SUPPLYING LETHAL CHILDREN TO THE IRAQ INSURGENCY”
[Thanks to Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier, who sent this in with the headline?]
Oct 11 By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer.
BAGHDAD - A U.S. attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, northwest of the capital Thursday — one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in an American operation in recent months.
Addition by Northllaw >
One of the really tragic resulting actions that has come from the invasion of Iraq, is that a very small number of children, aged below 18 years old, though an outstanding rarity, [in Britain one is still legally a child till 18 years old, the age of criminal responsibility being 10 years old] have taken part in the warfare with weapons.
All the children of Iraq are involved in the warfare, though not with weapons, whether they like it or not, such is the result of violent invasion of one’s country.
In Britain it is not unknown for ones less than 18 years old to involve themselves in actions of defence of older members of their families, if one has been attacked violently, it is not unknown. The most common reaction is shock, which ‘stuns’, but occasionally anger will prevail.
The crucial reason is defence of ones family members.
Around a million people are now dead from the warfare, the children have seen parents, brother, sisters, cousins, friends, killed, raped, permanently disabled, none of which was taking place in Iraq prior to the exercise of mass organised murder that has been inflicted, on a people who wished no war. The Iraqi army disbanded, at the time the invaders moved their armies into position, for the offensive action.
Children see soldiers with guns, they learn fast that it only takes a pull on the trigger to fire them, they are young and do not understand fear in the way adults do, but many know that they ‘live’ every day on the edge of the abyss, the next explosion and they too may lose legs, feet, arms, hands, eyes, or even their lives.
They know who are killing their relatives and friends.
So they respond.
In Britain there have been many reports of a gun culture by young people, some less than 18 years old, either using guns or being on the receiving end, so how do they acquire the guns?
These actions are destroying families, not defending them, so wherefrom does the ideology originate ?
In Iraq it is easy, they are available.
They weren’t till after March 2003. .end.
~~~~~~~~~~
“A Dozen” Foreign Occupation Soldier Wounded In Wardak Ambush;
Nationality Not Announced
October 15, 2007 The Associated Press
In central Afghanistan, Taliban militants ambushed a NATO patrol on Sunday, leaving about a dozen soldiers wounded, said a NATO official.
Troops called for an air strike on the militants in Wardak province, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak on the matter. The official did not identify the nationality of the wounded troops. Most of the troops in Wardak province, which borders Kabul, are Turkish.
“New Political Alliance Does Not Recognise the Government Led By Nuri Al-Maliki”
“Says That All Laws and Treaties Agreed Under the Occupation Would Be Rescinded”
~~~~~~~~~~
October 12, 2007 Ewen MacAskill in Washington, The Guardian [Excerpts]
Six Iraqi insurgent groups took a step towards unifying the factions fighting the US yesterday by announcing the creation of a political umbrella organisation.
A spokesman for the new alliance, his face blacked out, made the announcement on a video broadcast by al-Jazeera. He described the alliance as "the political council of the Iraqi resistance".
The six Sunni groups have been in discussion about the move for months. The aim is to reduce the fragmented nature of the insurgency but also to try to claim a slice of the political agenda after the expected US withdrawal.
The talks about the alliance were disclosed by the Guardian in July. The groups had been close to making an announcement at that time but delayed because of disagreements over how to respond to the US policy of doing deals with Iraqi tribal leaders.
In a lengthy statement published yesterday, the six groups listed a 14-point political programme, of which the first was continued action against US forces.
"The occupation of Iraq is an act of aggression and an act of gross injustice which is rejected Islamically, legally and rationally, and which all laws grant the right to oppose and resist," it said.
It declared all laws passed by the Iraq government null and void.
The new political alliance does not recognise the government led by Nuri al-Maliki.
In its 14-point plan it says that all laws and treaties agreed under the occupation would be rescinded.
The statement also claimed that the country would not be ruled by a "single element" that represented any ethnic or sectarian interest, presumably a reference to the Shia Muslim-dominated government.
~~~~~~~~~~
Remember General Betrayus
Babbling Bullshit About “Success” In Anbar?
Iraqi Trains Don’t Dare Leave the U.S. Base;
“The Marine Commander Cannot Guarantee Safe Passage for the Trains”
“Instability in Central Iraq Has Cut Al-Qaim Off From Iraq’s Main Supply Lines”
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior Army officer in Iraq, and his No. 2 commander, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, also of the Army, have described Anbar Province as a significant success story. THOM SHANKER, New York Times, October 11, 2007
12/10/2007 By Damien McElroy at al-Qaim Railhead, Anbar Province; Telegraph Media Group Limited [Excerpts]
The unending suspension of Iraq’s national railway stands as a stark symbol of the failure to rebuild the nation. Freight trains carrying supplies for a phosphorous plant are the only service offered at al-Qaim, which is also the main American base.
"It’s difficult to get restarted since we are targets because of our close ties to coalition forces," said the station manager Insp Khaled Waled Majeed. "Half our employees still refuse to come to work. Fear for their lives keeps them at home." Mr Majeed and his deputy, Insaief Mohammad have big plans for their stock of 30 trains, purchased under former regimes from seven nations.
But even the obstacles to a test run inside the base are formidable.
The train must stop at a Marine guardpost, wait to be waved through and stop a second time for an onboard inspection with a sniffer dog.
When a driver ignored a signal to stop earlier this year, the guards opened fire with explosive shells.
The driver panicked and derailed the vehicle, putting the track used to haul materials to cement factories out of use. The incident eventually ruined American hopes of restarting train services in western Iraq this summer. Lieutenant-Colonel Jason Bohm, the Marine commander in al-Qaim, remains a cheerleader for restoration of rail services but outside his area, he cannot guarantee safe passage for the trains.
Instability in central Iraq has cut al-Qaim off from Iraq’s main supply lines.
Lt-Col Bohm would like to use trains to transport oil from the Baiji oil refinery to ease a fuel shortage.
Insp Majeed and his colleagues take great pride in having kept the railway stock intact in one of Iraq’s insurgent hotspots. But when asked if the Baghdad government had lent its weight to the effort to re-open the railway, the inspectors could only shrug.
When the train rolls away towing 18 empty freight cars, the circular return to the starting point sums up the lonely futility of their daily effort.
IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION
Troops Invited:
What do you think ? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send email
contact@militaryproject.org:. Name, I.D., withheld unless you request publication. All Replies confidential.
Added by Northllaw,
Invitation also to any British Soldier/s or members of their families, friends, please post to same address -- send email contact@militaryproject.org any details of ‘life’ of soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq, or in the army generally.
Any reports/details of soldier’s deaths, injuries, or ‘conflicts’ in service, reminiscences of actions, eye witness accounts.
What is life like, as soldiers, protecting the Opium plantations of the Hel-mand province?
And for the American troops >
Ride the Karakoram Highway - Cross the Shandur Pass. Sandwiched between the high peaks of the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush, the Hunza Valley is renowned as one of the most spectacular on earth. Enormous glaciers descend to the roadside and picturesque villages cling precariously to the steep valley sides. A highlight is the high meadow at Shandur, the location for the world's highest polo match.
Descending to the historic town of Chitral, you can reflect on one of the best bike journeys in the Himalayas
All Americans troops are advised to ask for an immediate transfer.
~~~~~~~~~~
FOCUS | Undiagnosed Brain Injury: The Hidden Legacy of Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102707Z.shtml
The Guardian UK's Matthew Taylor and Esther Addley report that UK military officials began a "major study into brain injury in troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan amid fears that thousands of soldiers may have suffered damage after being exposed to high-velocity explosions."
~~~~~~~~~~
Addition by Northllaw >
There has been much said about this matter on the radio in Britain’; the troops have been very lucky that the insurgents haven't taken a leaf out of the IRA's men of violence 'book of tactics''.
The use of percussion explosives, rather than just 'explosives, which even though they may not leave the soldiers dead, could leave every one of them deaf.
What will it be like not to listen anymore? Deaf soldiers are not much use as soldiers.
The Manchester bombing, on a Sunday, did little or no personal injuries, but destroyed glass windows over a very large area.
An IED will destroy a vehicle in a convoy and whoever is in it, but leave other vehicles following intact, a percussion bomb can affect a number of vehicles as windscreens explode inwards, can leave the troops alive but deaf and possibly other injuries, as most likely the vehicles will simply run off the road.
And of course brain damage and the resulting ongoing medical care for the rest of their 'lives, a definite drain on the economy, in a country where the national heath service is struggling to meet demand.
For example -The accident and emergency services in the hospitals have had a sharp rise in the number of patients, since the Blair–Brown government implemented 24 hour drinking.
Percussion is ideal for troops only situations, where there are no civilians, as they may possibly injure, not necessarily kill unless close, much larger numbers.
Potentially much more effective than the normal IED's in many situations.
The Israeli Government and military are known to use percussion, in the form of sonic booms, they fly the planes in low at high speed, it’s a quaint way of forcing the deaths, through murder, of the unborn, it produces miscarriages, and already so many have died.
So what really are the explosions doing to soldier’s brains?
And what does the repercussion of what they have seen and possibly done have on their minds?
And what trauma does it bring to the Psyche?
And what does it do to the people of two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq; they started no wars, two countries without a national health service?
How does one treat cancers caused by depleted uranium? .end.
All enquires to ------ contact@militaryproject.org
G.A. Chair northllaw.
All additions by Northllaw are clearly marked, all else from G.I. Special.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Message Excerpts, posted on behalf of ---- GI Special
Issued 15 October 2007 by T. Barton.
GUESS WHO’S WORRIED
GUESS WHO ISN’T
GUESS WHY:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW
A group of Iraqi teenagers look on as U.S. soldiers from A Company 2-23 Infantry Battalion patrol a street in Muqdadiyah, Iraq Sept. 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
~~~~~~~~~~
Arlington Cemetery to Begin Major Expansion;
“The Steady Death Toll from Iraq and Afghanistan Has Added To the Numbers”
[Thanks to James Starowicz, Veterans for Peace.
October 7, 2007 (AP)
Arlington National Cemetery is about to begin a $35 million expansion that will push graves beyond its borders for the first time since the 1960s.
Officials say the extra space will provide room for 14,000 ground burials and 22,000 inurnments in a large columbarium complex.
The expansion comes on the heels of extensive work to utilize 40 acres of unused space in the cemetery, creating room for 26,000 more graves and 5,000 inurnments.
The expansions are partly in response to the deaths of members of the country’s World War II generation. The steady death toll from Iraq and Afghanistan has added to the numbers.
~~~~~~~~~~
“In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit,” said Wood, 42, from Iowa, who did not accompany Halladay’s Charlie Company, from his battalion, on Thursday’s raid. “Here, there are no lawyers. Their resources are limited, so they plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) instead.”
U.S. OCCUPATION, RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR;
RECRUITING
FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS.
~~~~~~~~~~
Two Polish Soldiers Wounded, Helicopter Hit in Attack on Base at Diwaniyah;
U.S. Base Nearby Also Attacked
10.15.07 (AFP) & By Aseel Kami, Reuters
Militants attacked a mainly Polish military base in central Iraq with mortars and machine guns on Monday, killing five civilians and wounding two Polish soldiers during the attack on the military base at Diwaniyah, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of Baghdad, an Iraqi security official told AFP.
"Four mortars were fired at the base. There was heavy firing," the official said,
A Polish helicopter was hit by machinegun fire during the attacks but managed to land safely, said Lieutenant-Colonel Wlodek Glogowski, spokesman for Polish forces in Iraq.
Glogowski said militants also fired mortar rounds at Camp Echo, which is just south of Diwaniya and houses U.S. and other multinational forces and is under Polish command. There were no casualties in that attack. "Coalition and Iraqi security forces engaged the attackers who fled to a wooded area near the base. The attackers remain at large," a US military statement said.
The attack on the base in the eastern Diwaniyah neighbourhood of Al-Iskan, where some 900 Polish soldiers are stationed. "Eight mortars were fired in the first attack, which came at around 9 am (0600 GMT)," the security official said. In video obtained by Reuters Television, the Imam Hussein Brigades and Imam Moussa al-Kadhim Brigades said Poland had allied with the "devil" America to kill Iraqis and accused Polish troops of torturing detainees.
"We want to tell Poland that all its interests in Iraq will be targeted by our resistance, including the diplomats, companies and troops. We only exclude journalists," said one of four masked gunmen who appeared in the video. A column of smoke rose from Iskan, where the base sits amid one-storey houses, while the rattle of sustained machinegun fire could be heard nearby.
~~~~~~~~~~
2500 UK Troops Wounded This Year
October 11, 2007 Associated Newspapers Limited.
This year has already been the most damaging on record for British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
More than 2,500 troops serving in the two war zones have been injured, according to the Ministry of Defence.
The numbers of injured are all higher than last year – statistics for earlier years are either not available or are incomplete. This year’s figures cover only the period up to September 15. They show that 1,463 British forces have been wounded in Iraq; of these, 930 were treated in field hospitals while 469 were flown home.
1,069 have been injured in Afghanistan this year. Of these, 456 were flown home for treatment.
The figures have been growing since British troops were stationed in the notoriously dangerous Helmand province in January last year. Deaths in Afghanistan already stand at 38 so far this year and are likely to exceed last year’s total of 39.
Campaigner Diane Dernie, the mother of 23-year-old Ben Parkinson, who lost both legs and suffered brain damage in Afghanistan last year, dismissed yesterday’s changes to compensation rules as ‘cheap’.
She said she saw dozens of injured being brought into hospital.
‘That’s when you realise what’s truly happening in Iraq and Afghanistan,’ she added.
U.S. Forces Attack Pro-Occupation Collaborators
Oct 15, 2007 DPA.
Baghdad - US troops killed by mistake three tribal fighters in Doualiya city in Salahaddin province, a media report said Monday.
A US aircraft shelled areas linked to Doualiya tribal forces while it was chasing militants Sunday evening, killing three U.S. allied forces, injuring one and damaging a vehicle.
Tribal councils have been formed across Iraq to fight militants through organized forces backed by the Iraqi government and the US military.
The US military did not comment on the incident.
~~~~~~~~~~
“AFTER NEWS LEAKED THAT 9 CHILDREN WERE KILLED IN THE RAID,
GEN. PETRAEUS WARNED IRAN ONCE MORE
TO STOP SUPPLYING LETHAL CHILDREN TO THE IRAQ INSURGENCY”
[Thanks to Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier, who sent this in with the headline?]
Oct 11 By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer.
BAGHDAD - A U.S. attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, northwest of the capital Thursday — one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in an American operation in recent months.
Addition by Northllaw >
One of the really tragic resulting actions that has come from the invasion of Iraq, is that a very small number of children, aged below 18 years old, though an outstanding rarity, [in Britain one is still legally a child till 18 years old, the age of criminal responsibility being 10 years old] have taken part in the warfare with weapons.
All the children of Iraq are involved in the warfare, though not with weapons, whether they like it or not, such is the result of violent invasion of one’s country.
In Britain it is not unknown for ones less than 18 years old to involve themselves in actions of defence of older members of their families, if one has been attacked violently, it is not unknown. The most common reaction is shock, which ‘stuns’, but occasionally anger will prevail.
The crucial reason is defence of ones family members.
Around a million people are now dead from the warfare, the children have seen parents, brother, sisters, cousins, friends, killed, raped, permanently disabled, none of which was taking place in Iraq prior to the exercise of mass organised murder that has been inflicted, on a people who wished no war. The Iraqi army disbanded, at the time the invaders moved their armies into position, for the offensive action.
Children see soldiers with guns, they learn fast that it only takes a pull on the trigger to fire them, they are young and do not understand fear in the way adults do, but many know that they ‘live’ every day on the edge of the abyss, the next explosion and they too may lose legs, feet, arms, hands, eyes, or even their lives.
They know who are killing their relatives and friends.
So they respond.
In Britain there have been many reports of a gun culture by young people, some less than 18 years old, either using guns or being on the receiving end, so how do they acquire the guns?
These actions are destroying families, not defending them, so wherefrom does the ideology originate ?
In Iraq it is easy, they are available.
They weren’t till after March 2003. .end.
~~~~~~~~~~
“A Dozen” Foreign Occupation Soldier Wounded In Wardak Ambush;
Nationality Not Announced
October 15, 2007 The Associated Press
In central Afghanistan, Taliban militants ambushed a NATO patrol on Sunday, leaving about a dozen soldiers wounded, said a NATO official.
Troops called for an air strike on the militants in Wardak province, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak on the matter. The official did not identify the nationality of the wounded troops. Most of the troops in Wardak province, which borders Kabul, are Turkish.
“New Political Alliance Does Not Recognise the Government Led By Nuri Al-Maliki”
“Says That All Laws and Treaties Agreed Under the Occupation Would Be Rescinded”
~~~~~~~~~~
October 12, 2007 Ewen MacAskill in Washington, The Guardian [Excerpts]
Six Iraqi insurgent groups took a step towards unifying the factions fighting the US yesterday by announcing the creation of a political umbrella organisation.
A spokesman for the new alliance, his face blacked out, made the announcement on a video broadcast by al-Jazeera. He described the alliance as "the political council of the Iraqi resistance".
The six Sunni groups have been in discussion about the move for months. The aim is to reduce the fragmented nature of the insurgency but also to try to claim a slice of the political agenda after the expected US withdrawal.
The talks about the alliance were disclosed by the Guardian in July. The groups had been close to making an announcement at that time but delayed because of disagreements over how to respond to the US policy of doing deals with Iraqi tribal leaders.
In a lengthy statement published yesterday, the six groups listed a 14-point political programme, of which the first was continued action against US forces.
"The occupation of Iraq is an act of aggression and an act of gross injustice which is rejected Islamically, legally and rationally, and which all laws grant the right to oppose and resist," it said.
It declared all laws passed by the Iraq government null and void.
The new political alliance does not recognise the government led by Nuri al-Maliki.
In its 14-point plan it says that all laws and treaties agreed under the occupation would be rescinded.
The statement also claimed that the country would not be ruled by a "single element" that represented any ethnic or sectarian interest, presumably a reference to the Shia Muslim-dominated government.
~~~~~~~~~~
Remember General Betrayus
Babbling Bullshit About “Success” In Anbar?
Iraqi Trains Don’t Dare Leave the U.S. Base;
“The Marine Commander Cannot Guarantee Safe Passage for the Trains”
“Instability in Central Iraq Has Cut Al-Qaim Off From Iraq’s Main Supply Lines”
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior Army officer in Iraq, and his No. 2 commander, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, also of the Army, have described Anbar Province as a significant success story. THOM SHANKER, New York Times, October 11, 2007
12/10/2007 By Damien McElroy at al-Qaim Railhead, Anbar Province; Telegraph Media Group Limited [Excerpts]
The unending suspension of Iraq’s national railway stands as a stark symbol of the failure to rebuild the nation. Freight trains carrying supplies for a phosphorous plant are the only service offered at al-Qaim, which is also the main American base.
"It’s difficult to get restarted since we are targets because of our close ties to coalition forces," said the station manager Insp Khaled Waled Majeed. "Half our employees still refuse to come to work. Fear for their lives keeps them at home." Mr Majeed and his deputy, Insaief Mohammad have big plans for their stock of 30 trains, purchased under former regimes from seven nations.
But even the obstacles to a test run inside the base are formidable.
The train must stop at a Marine guardpost, wait to be waved through and stop a second time for an onboard inspection with a sniffer dog.
When a driver ignored a signal to stop earlier this year, the guards opened fire with explosive shells.
The driver panicked and derailed the vehicle, putting the track used to haul materials to cement factories out of use. The incident eventually ruined American hopes of restarting train services in western Iraq this summer. Lieutenant-Colonel Jason Bohm, the Marine commander in al-Qaim, remains a cheerleader for restoration of rail services but outside his area, he cannot guarantee safe passage for the trains.
Instability in central Iraq has cut al-Qaim off from Iraq’s main supply lines.
Lt-Col Bohm would like to use trains to transport oil from the Baiji oil refinery to ease a fuel shortage.
Insp Majeed and his colleagues take great pride in having kept the railway stock intact in one of Iraq’s insurgent hotspots. But when asked if the Baghdad government had lent its weight to the effort to re-open the railway, the inspectors could only shrug.
When the train rolls away towing 18 empty freight cars, the circular return to the starting point sums up the lonely futility of their daily effort.
IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION
Troops Invited:
What do you think ? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send email
contact@militaryproject.org:. Name, I.D., withheld unless you request publication. All Replies confidential. Added by Northllaw,
Invitation also to any British Soldier/s or members of their families, friends, please post to same address -- send email
contact@militaryproject.org any details of ‘life’ of soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq, or in the army generally. Any reports/details of soldier’s deaths, injuries, or ‘conflicts’ in service, reminiscences of actions, eye witness accounts.
What is life like, as soldiers, protecting the Opium plantations of the Hel-mand province?
And for the American troops >
Ride the Karakoram Highway - Cross the Shandur Pass. Sandwiched between the high peaks of the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush, the Hunza Valley is renowned as one of the most spectacular on earth. Enormous glaciers descend to the roadside and picturesque villages cling precariously to the steep valley sides. A highlight is the high meadow at Shandur, the location for the world's highest polo match.
Descending to the historic town of Chitral, you can reflect on one of the best bike journeys in the Himalayas
All Americans troops are advised to ask for an immediate transfer.
~~~~~~~~~~
FOCUS | Undiagnosed Brain Injury: The Hidden Legacy of Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102707Z.shtml The Guardian UK's Matthew Taylor and Esther Addley report that UK military officials began a "major study into brain injury in troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan amid fears that thousands of soldiers may have suffered damage after being exposed to high-velocity explosions."
~~~~~~~~~~
Addition by Northllaw >
There has been much said about this matter on the radio in Britain’; the troops have been very lucky that the insurgents haven't taken a leaf out of the IRA's men of violence 'book of tactics''.
The use of percussion explosives, rather than just 'explosives, which even though they may not leave the soldiers dead, could leave every one of them deaf.
What will it be like not to listen anymore? Deaf soldiers are not much use as soldiers.
The Manchester bombing, on a Sunday, did little or no personal injuries, but destroyed glass windows over a very large area.
An IED will destroy a vehicle in a convoy and whoever is in it, but leave other vehicles following intact, a percussion bomb can affect a number of vehicles as windscreens explode inwards, can leave the troops alive but deaf and possibly other injuries, as most likely the vehicles will simply run off the road.
And of course brain damage and the resulting ongoing medical care for the rest of their 'lives, a definite drain on the economy, in a country where the national heath service is struggling to meet demand.
For example -The accident and emergency services in the hospitals have had a sharp rise in the number of patients, since the Blair–Brown government implemented 24 hour drinking.
Percussion is ideal for troops only situations, where there are no civilians, as they may possibly injure, not necessarily kill unless close, much larger numbers.
Potentially much more effective than the normal IED's in many situations.
The Israeli Government and military are known to use percussion, in the form of sonic booms, they fly the planes in low at high speed, it’s a quaint way of forcing the deaths, through murder, of the unborn, it produces miscarriages, and already so many have died.
So what really are the explosions doing to soldier’s brains?
And what does the repercussion of what they have seen and possibly done have on their minds?
And what trauma does it bring to the Psyche?
And what does it do to the people of two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq; they started no wars, two countries without a national health service?
How does one treat cancers caused by depleted uranium? .end.
All enquires to ------
contact@militaryproject.org G.A. Chair northllaw.
e-mail:
