General Batiste talks about the Bush /Rumsfeld /Cheney failures in Iraq
Keith Olbermann interviews General Batiste after he resigned from the Bush Regime & now after taking part in ads against Bush General Batiste was fired by CBS where he worked as a consultant
And last week :
NBC: 11 Republicans Berate Bush Over Iraq in Private White House Meeting
Thinkprogress.org , 09 May 2007
In a sign of the growing fissure between the White House and its congressional allies over the war, NBC News reports tonight that 11 Republican members of Congress pleaded yesterday with President Bush and his senior aides to change course in Iraq.
The group of Republicans was led by Reps. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Charlie Dent (R-PA), and the meeting included Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, and Tony Snow. One member of Congress called the discussion the "most unvarnished conversation they've ever had with the president," and NBC's Tim Russert said it "may have been a defining pivotal moment" in the Iraq debate.
And the bad news for Bush & CO. keeps coming though some " true believers " still see any negative news about Bush or his war in Iraq as being just part of a " liberal " biased media style conspiracy in the same way as they the Neocons that is believe America lost in Vietnam because of those evil " liberals" leftists" & nasty pacifists so it goes:
And the people of Iraq are far from being happy with the US Invasion & occupation of their country as An Angus Reid Poll done in January this year reveals :
Global Monitor, January 4, 2007
Many adults in Iraq believe the coalition effort has been negative, according to a poll by the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies and the Gulf Research Center. 90 per cent of respondents think the situation in their country was better before the U.S.-led invasion
and as for those who represent the Iraqi people in the Iraqi Government :
Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation
TRUTH OUT
On Tuesday, without note in the US media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.And there are more questions raised about how US troops are behaving in the field & are these isolated incidents or a trend or even a form of unofficial policy unless soldiers get caught or leave too many witnesses ...
MWC
Haditha US military war crimes May 9, 07
Hearings open on Haditha killings
A US military court has started a preliminary hearing against three marines charged with the murder of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha two years ago.
Four other soldiers stand accused of covering up the deaths, the most serious war crimes case involving US forces since the invasion of Iraq four years ago.
The hearing at the marine's Camp Pendleton in southern California, the biggest US criminal case involving civilian deaths in the Iraq war, is to determine whether the cases will proceed to a full court martial.
Tuesday's hearing kicked off with Captain Randy Stone, 34, who faces charges of failing to properly investigate and report the deaths.
Official reports of 15 people being killed in the roadside bombing were contradicted by a Time magazine investigative piece in March.
A subsequent probe into the incident found 24 civilians had been killed, including 10 women and children who were shot at close range, showing the initial accounts to be false.
"We now know with certainty the press release was incorrect, and that none of the civilians were killed by the IED [Improvised Explosive Device] explosion," Colonel Stewart Navarre said when announcing the charges last November.
The alleged killings led to two separate military investigations, the first focusing on the events, the other on an alleged cover-up.
And as more details are revealed :
Marine says urinated on dead Iraqi at Haditha
By Marty Graham
05/10/07 "Reuters" -- - CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., May 9 (Reuters) - Angered that a beloved member of his squad had been killed in an explosion, a U.S. Marine urinated on one of the 24 dead Iraqi civilians killed by his unit in Haditha, the Marine testified on Wednesday.
Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, who has immunity from prosecution after murder charges against him were dismissed, also said he watched his squad leader shoot down five Iraqi civilians who were trying to surrender.
In dramatic testimony in a pretrial hearing for one of the seven Marines charged in the Nov. 2005 Haditha killings and alleged cover-up, Dela Cruz described his bitterness after a roadside bomb ripped Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, known as T.J., into two bloody pieces.
"I know it was a bad thing what I've done, but I done it because I was angry T.J. was dead and I pissed on one Iraqi's head," said an unemotional Dela Cruz in a military courtroom in Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, California.
Dela Cruz also said he watched squad leader Sgt. Frank Wuterich shoot five men whose hands were tied up near a car. Dela Cruz said he also shot the five men as they laid on the ground.
Wuterich "walked to me and told me that if anybody asked, they were running away and the Iraqi Army shot them," Dela Cruz testified.
Three Marines have been charged with murder, and four officers have been charged with dereliction of duty and obstructing the investigation.
And in Afghanistan things seem to be getting worse:
Afghan air raid kills civilians Top_news By Agencies Wednesday, 09 May 2007
An air raid by foreign forces has killed 21 civilians in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, the provincial governor has said.
Assadullah Wafa said a village in Sangin district of Helmand province was bombed late on Tuesday.
"Twenty-one civilians, including women and children, were killed," the governor said.
It was not clear whether the raid was by Nato's International Security Assistance Force or the separate US-led coalition, which both operate alongside the Afghan military.
The claim of civilian casualties is the latest in a string of such incidents which have angered Afghans and prompted Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, to tell the foreign forces in his country to take more care in battle situations.
Authorities are still investigating an incident in the western province of Herat last month where UN and provincial Afghan investigations have found that about 50 civilians were killed.
The latest casualties came even as a US commander admitted that civilian deaths in the country were "shameful".
Colonel John Nicholson, a US brigade commander, apologised on Tuesday to family members of 19 Afghans killed and 50 injured by US forces in an incident more than two months ago.
"I stand before you today deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people," Nicholson said he told the family members.
and another attack on civilians characterized as a mistake just a little friendly fire to keep everybody on their toes I guess or as Bush would dismiss it out of hand since " War is Messy "
May 8, 2007
An attack by a US helicopter against suspected insurgents in Iraq has killed a number of children at a primary school, Iraqi security sources say.
The attack took place in Diyala province north-east of Baghdad, the sources say.
A spokesman for the US military said there had been helicopter activity in the area but he was not able to confirm any other details.
and:
U.S. says helicopter killed 5 bystanders in Iraq
9 May 2007
BAGHDAD, May 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. attack helicopter killed five bystanders including two children when it fired on insurgents north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Donnelly, a spokesman for U.S. forces stationed north of the Iraqi capital, denied some media reports that the helicopter had fired on a school on Tuesday.
"It's traumatic and entirely unfortunate that this happened," Donnelly said by telephone, adding an investigation had been opened into how the civilans could have been killed.
and further this item from the New York Times should be of interest to Canadians as it affects how our troops are perceived in Afghanistan since we are working so closely with the Americans & our military has been accused of handing over prisoners to Afghan forces without assurances that the prisoners will not be abused or tortured:
Civilian Deaths Undermine War on Taliban
By Carlotta Gall and David E. Sanger
The New York Times 13 May 2007
Zerkoh, Afghanistan - Scores of civilian deaths over the past months from heavy American and allied reliance on airstrikes to battle Taliban insurgents are threatening popular support for the Afghan government and creating severe strains within the NATO alliance.
Afghan, American and other foreign officials say they worry about the political toll the civilian deaths are exacting on President Hamid Karzai, who last week issued another harsh condemnation of the American and NATO tactics, and even of the entire international effort here.
What angers Afghans are not just the bombings, but also the raids of homes, the shootings of civilians in the streets and at checkpoints, and the failure to address those issues over the five years of war. Afghan patience is wearing dangerously thin, officials warn.
The civilian deaths are also exposing tensions between American commanders and commanders from other NATO countries, who have never fully agreed on the strategy to fight the war here, in a country where there are no clear battle lines between civilians and Taliban insurgents.
At NATO headquarters in Brussels, military commanders and diplomats alike fear that divisions within the coalition and the loss of support among Afghans could undermine what until now was considered a successful spring, one in which NATO launched a broad offensive but the Taliban did not.
Take care,
GORD.
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