Hagel joining Obama in Iraq

The GOP's senator from Nebraska confirms it.

From TPM:

In many ways, Hagel has become the mirror image of Joe Lieberman -- he is a conservative who has infuriated his party through his opposition to the Iraq War. However, Hagel has not crossed party lines to endorse Barack Obama as of yet, opting only to refuse to endorse John McCain.

Some have put Hagel's name out there as a potential Obama V-P. At the least, an endorsement may be a possibility.

By the way, Hagel's wife is an Obama donor.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Mrs. Hagel donated twice to Obama's campaign in February for a total contribution of $500. The contributions were first reported by the Washington Post
The contribution came a month before Sen. Hagel, a sharp GOP critic of the war in Iraq, appeared on ABC's "This Week" and declared that he and McCain have "pretty fundamental disagreements on the future of foreign policy."

Dave Evans headed to Iraq

Longtime W.Va. antiwar activist Dave Evans is going to Iraq to help upgrade prosthetic clinics and train to replace limbs for amputees.

Evans, who lost both of his legs in Vietnam, was featured in a good story on the wire this weekend. We ran it in Sunday's paper.

The original appeared in the Gazette last week.

"I don't care what side you are on. I don't care what politics you have," Evans said last week. "I will take care of you if you are an amputee."

The U.S. State Department is financing his work and also will pick up costs to train Iraqis to help the wounded.

Quickies

- Net neutrality looks to be on track

- The GOP's Sen. Chuck Hagel is going to Iraq with Obama.

- ACLU is suing over the new FISA law:

President Bush's signature had barely dried on the FISA Amendments Act, which the Senate approved Wednesday, when the American Civil Liberties Union announced that it would mount a constitutional challenge to the new law, claiming that it violates the First and Fourth Amendments.

The real cost of war

From Newsday - Joseph Dwyer became a face known around the world.

The March 2003 image became one of the most iconic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq: that of a bespectacled American soldier carrying an Iraqi child to safety.

However, upon returning home, Dwyer was haunted by his experience in Iraq:

His internal terror got so bad that, in 2005, he shot up his El Paso, Texas, apartment and held police at bay for three hours with a 9-mm handgun, believing Iraqis were trying to get in.

Last month, on June 28, police in Pinehurst, N.C., who responded to Dwyer's home, said the 31-year-old collapsed and died after abusing a computer cleaner aerosol. Dwyer had moved to North Carolina after living in Texas.


Dwyer, who joined the Army two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and who was assigned to a unit of the 3rd Infantry Division that one officer called "the tip of the tip of the spear" in the first days of the U.S. invasion, had since then battled depression, sleeplessness and other anxieties that military doctors eventually attributed to post-traumatic stress disorder.

The war that made him a hero at 26 haunted him to the last moments of his life.

Dwyer's story is not an isolated case. There are thousands of Iraq vets who, after returning home, have to deal with the psychological and physical cost of our nation's mistake. They need real support from the country that sent them to war. A bunch of magnetic ribbons on SUVs isn't going to make the problem go away.

For more info on a real way to support the troops, check out Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

---

Remember how, at the height of Bush war cheerleading, our local rightwing radio outlet, WVHUAM, held two pro-war rallies, attacking antiwar activists in their radio promotions, and claiming that the station's efforts were supporting the troops?

One was hosted by an opportunistic up-and-coming Limbaugh-clone, Glenn Beck. The other was emceed by local wingnut radio host Tom Roten.

WCHS-TV did the same thing in Charleston at a rally of their own.

With veterans being denied the care they need and the Pentagon actively discouraging the diagnosis of PTSD, you'd think these supposed "Support the Troops" folks like Roten and Beck would be booking MU stadium for a follow-up so they could once again express their legendary concern.

PFC Joseph Dwyer, 26, from Mt. Sinai, NY, runs while carrying a young Iraqi boy who was injured during a heavy battle between the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment and Iraqi forces near the village of Al Faysaliyah, Iraq. (AP Photo/Warren Zinn/Army Times)

Jeff Cohen reacts to the McClellan fallout

Cohen served as producer of Donahue, MSNBC's highest-rated show in 2003. Cohen and Donahue were booted from the air for being too skeptical of the push to war, as MSNBC internal memos show.

He has a new column up over at Common Dreams reacting to the sudden confessions of Iraq War cheerleaders like Katie Couric that the media did a terrible job during the build-up to war.

Katie Couric, whose coverage on CBS of the Iraq troop surge has been almost fawning, was one of the few stars to be candid about pre-invasion coverage, saying days ago, “I think it’s one of the most embarrassing chapters in American journalism.” She spoke of “pressure” from corporate management, not just Team Bush, to “really squash any dissent.” Then a co-host of NBC Today, she says network brass criticized her for challenging the administration.

NBC execs apparently didn’t complain when — two weeks into the invasion — Couric thanked a Navy commander for coming on the show, adding, “And I just want you to know, I think Navy SEALs rock!”

This is a glorious moment for the American public. We can finally see those who abandoned reporting for cheerleading and flag-waving and cheap ratings having to squirm over their role in sending other parents’ kids into Iraq.

And you can find my interview with Mr. Cohen by clicking here.

McNeglect the troops

Today the Senate passed the 21st Century GI Bill in a landslide 75-22 vote.

AP:

A majority of Republicans broke ranks with Bush on a veto-proof 75-22 vote while adding more than $10 billion for various other domestic programs, including heating subsidies for the poor, wildfire fighting, roads and bridge repair, and health research.

John McCain, who tries to sell himself as a supporter of the military has been taking heat for his opposition to the bill.

His way out?

Skip the vote so he's not on record voting against it. He decided to do a fundraising event for his campaign instead.

Obama on McCain:

I respect Sen. John McCain's service to our country. He is one of those heroes of which I speak. But I can't understand why he would line up behind the President in his opposition to this GI bill.

I can't believe why he believes it is too generous to our veterans. I could not disagree with him and the President more on this issue. There are many issues that lend themselves to partisan posturing but giving our veterans the chance to go to college should not be one of them.

Reuters has McCain's reply:

"It is typical, but no less offensive, that Senator Obama uses the Senate floor to take cheap shots at an opponent and easy advantage of an issue he has less than zero understanding of," said McCain, who was not present for the Senate vote because he was campaigning in California.

By the way, McCain has an ally in President Bush, who has threatened to veto the bill.

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., gives a thumbs up as he drinks a coffee at Cafe Versailles on Tuesday, May 20, 2008, in Miami. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Recommended reading: Helen Thomas

Journalism legend Helen Thomas, yet another who got it right on Iraq in 2003 and was blasted by the mainstream media at the time, writes for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the continuing effort by the pentagon to shield the public from the realities of war:

The Pentagon made a command decision after the Vietnam War to get better control of the dissemination of information in future wars. That led then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to create an office of disinformation at the start of the Iraqi war. It was later disbanded after howls from the media.

More recently, we have seen the Pentagon’s propaganda efforts take the form of carefully coaching retired generals about how to spin the Iraq war when they appear on television as alleged military experts. The New York Times’ revelations about those pet generals have cast a pall over their reputations.

Too often in this war, the news media seem to have tried to shield the public from the suffering this war has brought to Americans and Iraqis.

Photo: AP file

Happy Flight Suit Day

In honor of the fifth anniversary of the "Mission Accomplished" carrier landing, I'll be playing dress-up and blogging in full beekeeper gear today.

Greg Mitchell remembers how taken the media was with the whole thing.

Chris Matthews on MSNBC called Bush a "hero" and boomed, "He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics." He added: "Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple." PBS' Gwen Ifill said Bush was "part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan." On NBC, Brian Williams gushed, "The pictures were beautiful. It was quite something to see the first-ever American president on a -- on a carrier landing."

Media Matters also looks back at the cheerleaders.

And before you think everyone was insane at the time, here's an excerpt from Sen. Byrd's speech on the event. The media blasted him for it:

The prowess and professionalism of America's military forces do not need to be embellished by the gaudy excesses of a political campaign. War is not theater, and victory is not a campaign slogan. I join with the President and all Americans in expressing heartfelt thanks and gratitude to our men and women in uniform for their service to our country, and for the sacrifices that they have made on our behalf. But on this point I differ with the President: I believe that our military forces deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, and not used as stage props to embellish a presidential speech.

Casualties at the time of Mission Accomplished: 139

Confirmed U.S. combat deaths to date: 4,059 (according to AP)

Bush's disapproval rating today: 71 percent (according to Gallup)

AP file photo: President Bush poses with sailors and pilots aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast after landing in a small jet Thursday, May 1, 2003.

Sen. Byrd featured in Donahue's Iraq War film

Excerpted from Amy Goodman's latest:

Tomas Young was one of those injured, on April 4, 2004, in Sadr City. Young is the subject of a new feature documentary by legendary TV talk-show host Phil Donahue and filmmaker Ellen Spiro, called “Body of War.” In it, Young describes the incident that has left him paralyzed from the chest down:

[...]

The film documents his struggle, coping with severe paralysis and life in a wheelchair, its impact on his psyche, his wrecked marriage, his family and his political development from military enlistee into a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Donahue has his own personal link to the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. It was just weeks before the invasion that his nightly program, MSNBC’s top-rated show, was canceled. As revealed shortly thereafter in a leaked memo, Donahue presented a “difficult public face for NBC in a time of war. He seems to delight in presenting guests who are anti-war, anti-Bush and skeptical of the administration’s motives … at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity.”

[...]

“Body of War” depicts the personal cost of war. In one of the most moving scenes in the film, Young meets Sen. Robert Byrd, the longest-serving senator, with the most votes cast in Senate history (more than 18,000). Byrd said his “no” vote on the Iraq war resolution was the most important of his life. Young helps him read the names of the 23 senators who voted against the war resolution. Byrd reflects: “The immortal 23. Our founders would be so proud.” Turning to Young, he says: “Thank you for your service. Man, you’ve made a great sacrifice. You served your country well.” Young replies, “As have you, sir.”

Trailer:


"Body of War" Web site can be found by clicking here.

UC to host famed television psychic Bill Kristol

Bill Kristol, son of conservative leader Irving Kristol, is coming to the University of Charleston.

From a press release:

Bill Kristol, Editor of the influential Washington-based political magazine, The Weekly Standard, will appear at the University of Charleston as part of UC’s Speaker Series sponsored by Dow Chemical at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, in Riggleman Hall’s Geary Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Kristol's Miss Cleo-like powers have given him the ability to make such amazing observations as these:

Kristol on April 4, 2003:

“There’s been a certain amount of pop sociology in America … that the Shia can’t get along with the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq just want to establish some kind of Islamic fundamentalist regime. There’s almost no evidence of that at all. Iraq’s always been very secular.”

Kristol on April 28, 2003:

The United States committed itself to defeating terror around the world. We committed ourselves to reshaping the Middle East, so the region would no longer be a hotbed of terrorism, extremism, anti-Americanism, and weapons of mass destruction. The first two battles of this new era are now over. The battles of Afghanistan and Iraq have been won decisively and honorably.

Kristol on Sept. 18, 2002:

A war with Iraq “could have terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East.”

Courtesy of William K. Wolfrum, whose piece, " If Bill Kristol can get a job at Time Magazine, so should a bad golf prognosticator," at worldgolf.com is a must-read.

Kristol is also one of the heads of Project for a new America Century, a conservative group who pushed for war with Iraq long before 9-11. The group said the process of transforming America into the foreign policy player they dreamed of would be a long process, "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor.”

So they had no problem linking Iraq to 9-11 in their push for war. When crisis struck, they saw opportunity.

Bill Maher had a good take on Kristol:

And now Mr. Kristol proposes immediate action against Iran predicting the Iranians will thank us for it. Hey, you know what, Nostradamus, why don’t you sit this one out? We’ll get by using the magic 8-ball for a while, because you guys have been so wrong about so much for so long that people are actually turning to the Democrats.

Surely UC and Dow Chemical can provide students with intellectual stimulation from a better source than a guy with such a dishonest track record. Or is a man who's had to run retractions to his NY Times column twice in the first six months their idea of someone students should look up to?

Will UC also book someone who actually got it right on the war like Scott Ritter or Hans Blix? You know, those guys who had this crazy notion that there were no WMDs and that the inspectors had destroyed the stockpiles?

Or what about the commentators who knew what they were talking about prior to invasion like Amy Goodman or Phil Donahue?

And lest I forget, the man Kristol's been wanting for president since before 2000? John McCain.

Kind of makes McCain's sabre-rattling against Iran look a bit more ominous, doesn't it?

Recommended reading: Juan Cole

I was introduced to this guy from his appearances on the Sam Seder Show.

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute. If you tire of having the situation in Iraq broken down in empty terms of "us" vs. "Islamofascists" and want thorough, insightful and truthful analysis of news from Iraq that actually gives you the background on the ethic factions and players involved, this is your guy.

His blog, "Informed Consent" can be found here.

4,000

As the 4,000th American soldier dies in Iraq, Sen. Robert C. Byrd reflects on the war:

As we mark this painful milestone, we must ask ourselves: what is the moral
justification for allowing this war to continue? Can we honestly say that the
disastrous mission in Iraq warrants the sacrifice of more of our troops and the
heartache and loss that so many loved ones continue to suffer?

In March of 2003, just prior to the invasion of Iraq, I made a final plea to the
administration and my colleagues in Congress to avert a war that I believed
would reap sorrowful consequences for our nation. In a speech entitled "We Stand
Passively Mute", I expressed my outrage at the fact that the United States
Senate -- the world's greatest deliberative body -- stood "for the most
part-silent-ominously, dreadfully silent" on this monumental question.

Sadly, my worst fears have been realized. The decision to invade Iraq may go
down as one of the gravest foreign policy blunders in our nation's
history.

Recommended reading: Five years later

Curt Guyette of The Metro Times in Detroit writes "The Left was Right."

They take no satisfaction in knowing that they were right in opposing this
ill-fated Iraq war from the outset. All they want is for people to listen to
them now.

And what they have to say is this: If we are ever going to get all of our
troops out, it will be because of pressure that starts at the grassroots level
and works its way up to the top of the political chain - not the other way
around.

When the Bush administration was spewing its lies and the mainstream media
marched behind in lockstep, trumpeting myths about weapons of mass destruction
and fantasies about invading troops being greeted with tossed bouquets, members
of the peace movement were trying to warn us not to make what became a mistake
of epic proportions.

But America didn’t listen. The drumbeat for war was too loud, drowning out
the voices of opposition. Shoved to the margins, they were all but invisible.
When not being ignored by mainstream media they were on the receiving end of
ridicule from squawking chicken hawks.

Approaching the five-year mark

Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates that the Iraq War will cost the U.S. $3 trillion.

Stiglitz writes:

The Bush team not only misled the world about the war’s possible costs, but has also sought to obscure the costs as the war has gone on.

This is not surprising. After all, the Bush administration lied about everything else, from Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction to his supposed link with Al Qaeda. Indeed, only after the U.S.-led invasion did Iraq become a breeding ground for terrorists.

The Bush administration said the war would cost $50 billion. The U.S. now spends that amount in Iraq every three months.

My favorite politcical cartoonist, Tom Tomorrow, takes a look at just what $3 trillion would have paid for in his latest cartoon, "Remember when they told us the war would pay for itself?"