Al-Maliki says Obama's plan is "more realistic"

Your buried lead this weekend in the mainstream media.

From Spiegel Online:

SPIEGEL: Would you hazard a prediction as to when most of the US troops will finally leave Iraq?

Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we're concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.

SPIEGEL: Is this an endorsement for the US presidential election in November? Does Obama, who has no military background, ultimately have a better understanding of Iraq than war hero John McCain?

Maliki: Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic. Artificially prolonging the tenure of US troops in Iraq would cause problems. Of course, this is by no means an election endorsement. Who they choose as their president is the Americans' business. But it's the business of Iraqis to say what they want. And that's where the people and the government are in general agreement: The tenure of the coalition troops in Iraq should be limited.

In this photo released by the Iraqi Government, the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gestures as he speaks at a meeting with several Arab ambassadors to the United Arab Emirates in that country's capital, Abu Dhabi, Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Iraqi Government, HO)


----
UPDATE: Al-Maliki appeared to back off this statement a bit yesterday, but today the Iraqi government spokesman issued a statement that looks like it favors the Obama plan.

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.

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)

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)

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.

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.

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?"

A real "Support the Troops" bill

One of my favorite senators, Ohio's Sherrod Brown, plans to introduce legislation this week to help sufferers of post-traumatic disorder.
It would require additional regulations before personnel who suffer from service-connected PTSD and traumatic brain injury are discharged by the defense department.

Brown's bill would:

- Require the Department of Defense to supply detailed explanations of the consequences of discharge status on federal benefits and services.
- Require notice of the right to legal counsel before discharge.
- Instruct Departent of Defense to release the number of upgrade reviews the Discharge Review Board performs for each service, along with the number of upgrades actually granted.
- Require Department of Defense to test for PTSD, TBI and related conditions, and prohibit less than honorable discharges in cases where service members test positive.
- Provide additional protection by waiving the statute of limitations on discharge appeals, for individuals suffering from service-connected PTSD or TBI.

Source: Mansfield News Journal