Dreams & Horoscopes

Important Announcement

The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More

The invasion of Iraq and current occupation of this oil rich nation:

WAR ARCHITECTS STILL IN DENIAL:

The individuals who devised and supported the Iraq war still refuse to admit error. President Bush insists that the war was worth the "high cost in lives and treasure."

On separate surprise visits to Iraq this week, Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) seemed oblivious to the tragedy that their policy had unleashed upon the people of Iraq.

Cheney preposterously claimed that the Iraq war has been a "successful endeavor" and blithely "warned against losing the gains the surge has produced," even as Baghdad was again wracked by explosions.

On the same day that a suicide bomber killed over forty people in the Shia shrine city of Kerbala, McCain repeated his mantra that "the surge is working."

Here at home, the war architects frantically cast blame on each other, and even on the Iraqis themselves. American Enterprise Institute (AEI) scholar Richard Perle still maintains that invading Iraq was "the right decision," but blames Iraq proconsul L. Paul Bremer for "underestimat[ing] the task" of nation-building.

Douglas Feith, the former director of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, has also blamed Bremer for "mishandling...the political transition" in Iraq. AEI analyst Danielle Pletka blamed the Iraqi people for not embracing the opportunity afforded them by the American invasion and occupation. Alas, Pletka laments, "there is no freedom gene."

A WAY FORWARD:

The Iraq invasion has now created a fractured, dysfunctional government, a disunified largely militia-controlled state closely allied with Iran to the east and in simmering conflict with Turkey to the north, an open-source training ground for terrorists and a cause around which global jihadists have rallied.

American standing is at a low point in the Middle East and Arab world, with Arab democrats and reformers isolated and frustrated. It not enough to simply stay the course. The United States must reset its strategy by looking beyond the deteriorating situation in Iraq in order to counter the threat from global terrorist groups and ensure stability in the entire Middle East and Gulf region, using the credible promise of withdrawal from Iraq to encourage Iraqi leaders to come to a sustainable political accommodation.

This is an essential first step in order to correct the tragic policy mistakes of the last years, of which the decision to invade Iraq is the most obvious and profound.

The Progress Report via email:

March 19, 2008

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Ali Frick, Benjamin Armbruster, and Matt Duss

IRAQ

Five Years Of War

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a preventative war of choice whose purpose, according to President Bush, was "to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger." Five years later, it is clear there were no weapons of mass destruction to disarm in Iraq and no grave danger from which to defend. In 2006, a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluded that the war in Iraq had become "the 'cause celebre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement" faster than the United States and its allies can reduce the threat. The 2007 NIE concluded that "al-Qaeda [had] reorganized to pre-9/11 strength," largely as a result of the United States turning its attention away from Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to focus on Iraq. Also, al Qaeda's association with insurgents in Iraq helped "energize the broader Sunni extremist community, raise resources, and...recruit and indoctrinate operatives." Far from making the United States safer, the Iraq war has made the world much more dangerous.

A FAILED RECONSTRUCTION:

A recent World Health Organization and Iraqi health ministry report estimated that 151,000 people were killed between the start of the invasion on March 20, 2003 and June 2006. or approx. 38 months.

In a March 17 report, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that millions of Iraqis are still deprived of clean water and medical care, describing Iraq's health care system as "now in worse shape than ever." Iraqis endure intense heat in the summer and freezing cold in the winter because of a lack of electricity, even though more than $6 billion, mostly in American money, has been devoted to improving supply. The New York Times reported that "typical daily peaks are around 4,500 megawatts." According to a recent report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, "that's only about 500 megawatts more than what it was shortly after the start of reconstruction five years ago -- before the completion of thousands of American-supported projects." Garbage collection is notoriously unreliable, with refuse often piling up "for days, sometimes weeks, emanating toxic fumes."

In a new report, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees stated that, five years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraqis are still fleeing in large numbers. Iraqis topped the list of asylum seekers in industrialized countries for the second year running, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total with 45,200 applications last year. "It is important to bear in mind, however, that Iraqi asylum seekers in industrialized countries represent only one percent of the estimated 4.5 million Iraqis uprooted by the conflict," the report said.

Amnesty International reports that Iraq continues to be "one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with hundreds of Iraqi civilians killed every month."

Well quite honestly, WHAT did anyone expect out of such an immoral foundation, such as invading Iraq for Oil Revenues??

After all, as Jesus told us, when we build our house on a less then firm foundation, (such as sand), or lies, etc. we should expect that "house of cards to crumble"........

so it's no surprise.,even after 2 Trillion Dollars and over 4,000 America lives later.,not to count the countless numbers of maimed people, and cost to go on to the next generation to care for them.

Why was it so necessary then, to invade Iraq, when Bin Laden was in Afghanistan, ?? Why did we leave Afghanistan to invade Iraq and unseat S. Hussein??

Does anyone remember? Time can fog recollections you know.

Well I do!!

We did this because Bush and Richard Perle, and his friends, esp. Cheney, Rumsfeld and the gang over at the PNAC (including Bush's little brother Jeb)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Perle

said that, we needed to unseat Hussein, to "get the oil", and get it soon.

The reason WHY they were in such a hurry, was because Saddam Hussein, just started to declare a change in his oil policy (selling the Oil) to demand EUROS and no more American dollars.

Now, that's just not "kosher", according to George Bush and his cohorts to allow this to occur.

Of course Iran too, is threatening to do this as well, as why would anyone other then Saudi Arabia want to play ball with American's worthless "u.s. dollars" when they could have the Euros instead?

So, it became urgent in the oil barons minds, to grab that oil base in Iraq, and the sooner the better.

That's why everyone died, sacrificed their lives & limbs, and it had ZERO to do with Bin Laden.......There was NO Al Quida in Iraq, until we invited them in. There were NO Iraqis who caused 9-11 or were involved in this in any way.

There were only Saudi Arabians, and Al Quaida followers. NO IRAQIS.........no one sent from S. Hussein.

It was all, "smoke and mirrors".

And it is going to cost America, "dearly" for centuries to come to have allowed this gross immoral act of invading this soverign nation.

Our enemies - They were only based in Afghanistan, and of course many from Saudi Arabia and other Bush friendly middle eastern nations.,like the UAE.

While America and Americans are knee deep, or Neck high deep in Debt, who do you think made out like bandits now for 6 years?

Who do you think reaped the profits monetarily from this Invasion of S. Hussein's country for it's oil revenues??

Just check out Cheney's tax return, and his Halliburton Pension fund, to find out.

Check out G.W. Bush's and Laura's family for their Oil revenues to find out, just how filthy rich they have all become from oil

advancing from $20.00 per barrel when the oil barons took over the White House to today's $109.00 per barrel.

Why do you "think" that is?

Or doesn't anyone use their brains anymore for thinking?

I have to wonder.

Important Announcement The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More
Dreams & Horoscopes	[email protected]