Iraq OKs Rehiring Baath Party Members

1st Of 18 Benchmarks Met: Elsewhere, U.S. Soldier Dies, Raising Toll To 3,944

(CBS/AP)  Iraq's presidency council on Sunday issued a controversial law that allows lower-ranking former Baath party members to reclaim government jobs, the final step for the first U.S.-backed benchmark approved by parliament.

The measure was thought to affect about 38,000 former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling political apparatus, giving them a chance to go back to government jobs. It would also allow those who have reached retirement age to claim government pensions.

It became law without the signature of the Sunni representative on the three-member presidency council because the constitution requires the body to act within 10 days after the panel received the law, according to Iraq's constitution.

Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi objected to provisions in the law that would have pensioned off 7,000 members of Saddam's former secret police and intelligence agents who still worked in Iraq's security apparatus.

The law is the first of 18 pieces of benchmark legislation demanded by the Bush administration to promote reconciliation among Iraq's Sunni and Shiite Arab communities and the large Kurdish minority.

Other draft legislation, including measures to divvy up the country's vast oil wealth, amend the constitution and define rules for new provincial elections.

The so-called de-Baathification law was passed by the 275-member parliament on Jan. 12. The presidency council announced it had issued the legislation in a statement on Sunday.

In Other Developments:

The U.S. military announced Sunday that an American soldier had died a day earlier of non-combat related causes in Ninevah province. At least 3,944 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

A senior Interior Ministry official and his bodyguard were wounded and his driver was killed Sunday by a bomb planted on his car, police said. Lt. Col. Mohammed Ibrahim, director of Iraq's police commandos, an elite special forces group, was heading to work when the bomb exploded around 10 a.m. in the Mansour neighborhood, an officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Ibrahim and his bodyguard both survived but his driver was killed, the officer said.

A mortar round slammed into a street in a northeastern section of the capital, killing an Iraqi soldier on foot patrol, another police officer said. The attack occurred at 9 a.m. Sunday in the Sulaikh area, police said. Three civilians and another soldier were also wounded in the attack, an officer said on the same anonymity condition.

South of Baghdad, an Iraqi policeman was killed in a drive-by shooting Sunday near Kut, 100 miles southeast of the capital, police said.

In Mosul - Iraq's third-largest city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad - a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. military vehicle wounded two Iraqi civilians, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. No U.S. troops were injured, and the incident was under investigation, said Lt. Michael Street, a U.S. military spokesman.

The U.S. military on Sunday blamed al Qaeda in Iraq for weekend pet market bombings that killed nearly 100 Iraqis, saying the attacks showed the terror group's "desperation" and "broken ideology." Twin bombings 20 minutes apart killed at least 99 people Friday in Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi officials say two mentally retarded women were strapped with explosives that were detonated by remote control - suggesting the women were used as unwitting suicide attackers. "We condemn al Qaeda in Iraq, who is responsible for these attacks," Rear Adm. Gregory Smith told reporters Sunday in Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone.

In Rome on Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI condemned recent violence in Iraq. "Wickedness, with its burden of sorrow, seems to know no limits in Iraq, as the very sad news of these days tell us," the pope told pilgrims in St. Peter's Square. He did not cite any specific attack, but could have been reacting to Friday's pet market bombings in Baghdad, which killed nearly 100 people. Benedict said he was raising his voice on behalf of the Iraqi population and "invoking God's peace for them."

Four Iraqis working with a U.S.-backed neighborhood watch group were shot dead in their safe house northeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Sunday. American soldiers found the bodies of the men - aged 17, 18, 20 and 21 - in southwest Baqouba, the volatile capital of Iraq's Diyala province, said Sgt. Sam Smith, a U.S. military spokesman. He did not identify the men. There were no signs of torture or forced entry into the house, he said.

Such neighborhood watch groups - also known as Awakening Councils, Concerned Local Citizens or the Sons of Iraq - are local men recruited by U.S. officers to help provide security and rebuild Iraqi towns. They are comprised mostly of Sunni fighters - some of whom once fought against U.S. and Iraqi forces - who have now joined the Americans in trying to oust al Qaeda from their own enclaves.

The groups, believed to be more than 70,000-strong across the country, have been credited by U.S. commanders as being instrumental in what they say is a nearly 60 percent reduction in violence in the last six months. It also was affected by the dispatch of additional U.S. troops and a six-month cease-fire declared in August by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia.

But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government has been deeply uneasy about the potential for the Sunni fighters - now better organized and armed - to switch sides again, posing a threat to stability and the Shiite domination that followed the ouster of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime.

© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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by ioweign February 4, 2008 10:44 AM EST

Anyone figure out yet why the number of civilian contractors in both Iraq & Afaganistan outnumber American uniformed forces ?????

Posted by j-whitman at 01:41 PM : Feb 03, 2008

It is the money...

Reply to this comment

by gce65 February 4, 2008 5:54 AM EST

Hey, speaking of Iraq...
What do you think ever happened to those life sized poster/pictures of Jenna and Barbara Bush that Saddam''s sons Udai and Qussay had plastered up on their wall? Those might fetch some big bucks on eBay!

Reply to this comment

by rowdytexan2 February 4, 2008 4:52 AM EST

I too would certainly like to hear Mr. Obama articulate at least one thing he thinks he can do to FIX this country. We don''t need CHANGE, and we already have HOPE!

I have listened to every word from all these candidates and I have yet to hear what his real stance is on anything!!!

Reply to this comment

by brianbwb-2009 February 4, 2008 4:06 AM EST

Posted by grazinggoat

Your sentiment is admirable, but I feel I must caution you, and remind you that we have heard such promises before.

It is time now for some specifics on just what changes Mr. Obama intends, because I have not yet heard anything that suggests that Mr. Obama will do little more than try to put band aids on gaping machete wounds, and I believe that if the powers that be thought that Mr. Obama really intended to make the changes necessary to save America, he would be dead already, so as cold as it sounds, we need those ideas out there and in discussion now, so that if he is "silenced" in whatever way, at least we know what was supposed to happen, and can choose whoever is closest to those ideas.

Reply to this comment

by grazinggoat February 4, 2008 3:43 AM EST

CBS News: ''''Obama has also seen his support among women rise by 11 percentage points, and he now trails Clinton by only 7 percentage points among that group. He trails Clinton narrowly among Democrats but leads her among independent voters by 13 percentage points. ''''

-What a GIANT Leap this guy is going... Can''''t but be proud of such realization. We need this guy, who is gonna make History in America, being the first African-American president of the USA. His integrity, his dignity, his time spent as civil servant, his involvement as street-level community organizer, gives this guy the legitimacy of claiming REAL political experience, connected directly to the PEOPLE AND THEIR NEEDS...

-Hilary cannot claim the community-level involvement. She spent her life in LUSH and LUXURY circles, getting compensated for what she could lobby for the deep-pockets who supported her.

-Obama is advocating the CHANGE for a newer foreign policies, whereas Hilary is vowing the same same same what Walking-Liar has done dragging our country in the worst debt ever USA had in recent History. She is pro-war. Obama has vowed to bring the troops home as soon as he''''s elected president. Obama will make a CHANGE in foreign policies. He will talk and resolve problems with our foes... OBAMA WILL NOT STEAL AMERICA... and YES WE CAN!

Reply to this comment

by deboldt February 4, 2008 3:15 AM EST

After having spent the last two hours drafting my response to your CBS Reports'' program that aired this evening, I was frustrated to find the comments page closed. I wish I had known this before I went on this fool%u2019s errand. This is the closest to an on topic open comments forum available on your site. If you can find a forum more appropriate to my comments, please feel free to move them to that site. What would really be appreciated would be for you to reopen the original forum for the CBS Reports story %u201CFathers, Sons and Brothers, A report on members of the Iowa National Guard who are serving in Iraq and their families%u201D (cont.)

Reply to this comment

by deboldt February 4, 2008 3:12 AM EST

I have just finished viewing the rebroadcast of your CBS Reports %u201CFathers, Sons and Brothers, A report on members of the Iowa National Guard who are serving in Iraq and their families%u201D on my local KRCG affiliate here in Missouri. Viewing these pieces, so sympathetic to our forces, literally tears me in half emotionally.

Let me try to explain. As you noted, this war is extremely controversial, both at home and among those fighting in Iraq. There were a number of things I found fault with in this program in particular and in the general press coverage of the war and the reporting of the controversy...(cont.)

Reply to this comment

by deboldt February 4, 2008 3:11 AM EST

My heart goes out to the families of the soldiers. They are the only truly innocent Americans in this whole mess. I have heard wife after wife say that they were not enthusiastic about their spouses, siblings fathers or children serving in this war, but it was the decision largely of the one serving to enter the war. I think, to some extent, these soldiers had no idea of what the real consequences would be for their uninformed decision. I view them somewhat as naove lambs led to a slaughter. They enlisted, trusting that the cause was noble and that the commanders (including the commander in chief) were honorable men of their word. These ideas seem so ludicrous now. For these who actually believed the lies and believed in the honor of their commander in chief, the war in time will come only to represent a kind of innocence lost. Now sadly many family members on the home front and many serving are beginning to awaken to the sad fact that they have been duped. The really sad realization that still has not fully hit is that they are engaged in an illegal enterprise, whose purposes have nothing to do with the spread of democracy or the national security of the United States...

Reply to this comment

by deboldt February 4, 2008 3:10 AM EST

...On the contrary, their service represents one of the greatest threats to the peace of the world since Germany%u2019s expansionist dreams that culminated in WWII. I think this realization has penetrated to some level because most servicemen become extremely defensive and even angry when confronted with these facts. Many family members react similarly. Who can really blame them? Is it possible to think of your fair-haired son or daughter whom you raised to be moral people as a war criminal? By any objective standards of international law and even our own Constitution, the title must stand. It sickens me to look at the guileless faces of our young soldiers and see them in the same light as I used to view Hitler%u2019s beautiful, blond SS officers. These soldiers cannot even say they were drafted as in Vietnam. They %u201Cvolunteered%u201D as rational free agents and so must bear the full moral responsibility for this war. I think I can understand why your producers might regard this little addendum to be a little too far off topic for a sentimental piece about the suffering of the families of the Iowa National Guard and probably not in very taste as well. The only problem is I hardly ever see the subject of the legality and the morality of the war brought up at all in any context. I do not watch a lot of television, so I am willing to stand corrected...

Reply to this comment

by deboldt February 4, 2008 3:08 AM EST

Certainly there is no lack of inquiry as to the conduct of the war. Some of these questions were even asked in this episode. Of course there are a lot of soldiers, voters and politicians who object to the war on strictly technical/strategic grounds. I do not understand why do you not give any voice to those who speak to the real issue: This war is illegal, immoral and was based entirely on lies, manipulation and fraud. One of the solders in the show bemoaned the fact that the American people were behind this war in the beginning and are now turning against it. I wish you would not let a statement that is the product of an obviously misinformed combat addled person stand so completely unchallenged. There were many, many Americans who opposed this war, not just on a popular level unparallel for any impending conflict in our history, but also among qualified mideast experts and in the intelligence community as well. It is not our fault that CBS, among others, chose not to report these facts. True many now, including a majority of Americans, have turned against this war. Unfortunately the objections are largely for the wrong reasons. One does not oppose a burglary simply because the culprit got caught bungling the job. I suppose it would have been OK as long as he gotten away with it?

Reply to this comment

by deboldt February 4, 2008 3:06 AM EST

...I am going to make a couple of statements that I%u2019m sure will be misinterpreted. First, I am delighted (yes, delighted) that we have failed so miserably in Iraq and that the enterprise has blown up so completely in Bush%u2019s childish hands. Had it been the promised cakewalk lined with the flowers and sweets offered our occupiers by a grateful Iraqi people, it would have emboldened these pathetic Neocons to move on others in the area and in the world with an impunity unparallel in the history of atrocity. Pain is a great teacher. I hope this war will not only tarnish the legacy of this megalomaniac%u2019s last eight years in the history books but that this debacle may restore a semblance of democracy at home as well. My hope is that the upcoming election may help decide this...

Reply to this comment

by deboldt February 4, 2008 3:04 AM EST

...I am sorry most for the Iraqi people in this whole disaster. They did not deserve the horror that has been visited upon them. Even though the Iraqi war continues to be an expensive lesson for us it will be an eternal continuing catastrophe for the people of this once great country. John McCain thinks the catastrophe could last for more than a hundred years. I get so tired of hearing Saddam derided while failing to mention that Iraq was one of the most progressive countries in the middle east. Unlike many countries we supported, Iraq had a high level of education, women held important positions in government, academia and business and there was an excellent system of healthcare. This secular state was even a bulwark against al Qaeda. Unfortunately, sanctions and the war have made all this fade (along with the infrastructure) like a beautiful dream with the dawning of this our new American Century...

Reply to this comment

by deboldt February 4, 2008 3:03 AM EST

...Now I am going to say the second thing that I am sure will be misinterpreted. I am not interested in seeing any more documentaries on CBS about what a hardship this war is on the American servicemen and their families until I start seeing similar stories on the hardship our occupation is having on the Iraqi victims and their families. Unlike the infamous %u201Cbody counts%u201D of the Vietnam War, the number of dead and dismembered Iraqis has been veiled and rarely mentioned on CBS or the other broadcast news outlets%u2019 press reports...

Reply to this comment

by deboldt February 4, 2008 3:00 AM EST

I don%u2019t want to hear that the civil war is the Iraqis%u2019 fault, that the faulty government in Baghdad is the Iraqis%u2019 fault, that the suicide bombers are the Iraqis%u2019 fault or that the rising tide of ungrateful citizens who want nothing more that to see us gone yesterday is the Iraqis%u2019 fault. All these things are our fault, only our fault. And the sooner they see the backside of our occupying forces the sooner this poor country will begin to mend. Until then I will continue to mourn the death of every Iraqi man woman and child. I relish the suffering of no human being, but I would rather see the death of any ten beloved members of the Iowa National Guard than to have the hair of one Iraqi child harmed. That is why it is so difficult to see a program like CBS%u2018s %u201CFathers, Sons and Brothers%u2026%u201D without being torn in half. Bob Boldt

Reply to this comment

by prinzowhales February 3, 2008 8:22 PM EST

Why wouldn''t they rehire Ba''athists? The Washington Regime imported enough of them into the United States, settling many of them--with your tax dollars, of course--in Oklahoma City...where, embarrassingly, several were apprehended after the OKC bombing...but quickly released...while security tapes of some, embarrassingly, with Tim McVeigh and associates are now held from view for reasons of national security.

On the matter of the Iraqi women accused of blowing themselves up...here is an interesting story by Joe Quinn who dissects the Regime and its Quisling helpers response to the bombing...

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/148200-Burka-Bombers-Spontaneously-Exploding-Iraqi-Women

The undersea cables linking Iran to the rest of the world have been cut, undoubtedby by the Zio-Nazi/Neo-Cons...this is an act of war........and, if you think that there is no relation between this, the Regime''s bellicose attitude toward Iran, the move upward of Ziggy Brzezinski''s Obama creature in the polls and the recent upsurge in activity by the Russian military...then, by all means enjoy the Super Bowl and try not to wonder too much about where the Regime''s next false flag operation will be to kick off the war against Iran...and, who knows, who else.

Reply to this comment

by sgtrds February 3, 2008 7:47 PM EST

"The U.S. military announced Sunday that an American soldier had died a day earlier of non-combat related causes in Ninevah province. At least 3,944 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count."

RIP Bro. Sorry you had to die in vain. Sorry Bush wasted your life and service for his madness.

Reply to this comment

by rowdytexan2 February 3, 2008 6:36 PM EST

Posted by j-whitman at 01:41 PM : Feb 03, 2008

Halliburton, Blackwater, Cheney...maybe not in that order.

Reply to this comment

by hungry1968 February 3, 2008 4:48 PM EST

"The law is the first of 18 pieces of benchmark legislation demanded by the Bush administration to promote reconciliation among Iraq''s Sunni and Shiite Arab communities and the large Kurdish minority."





One out of 18 benchmarks made?

Woo hoo! At this rate we just might be out of Iraq just after the turn of the century!!

Reply to this comment

by j-whitman February 3, 2008 4:41 PM EST

Anyone figure out yet why the number of civilian contractors in both Iraq & Afaganistan outnumber American uniformed forces ?????

Reply to this comment

by j-whitman February 3, 2008 4:35 PM EST

7,000 Sunni''s aren''t going to be too happy when they loose their jobs

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[ioweign]

Anyone figure out yet why the number of civilian contractors in both Iraq & Afaganistan outnumber American uniformed forces ?????

Posted by j-whitman at 01:41 PM : Feb 03, 2008

It is the money...

[gce65]

Hey, speaking of Iraq...
What do you think ever happened to those life sized poster/pictures of Jenna and Barbara Bush that Saddam''s sons Udai and Qussay had plastered up on their wall? Those might fetch some big bucks on eBay!

[rowdytexan2]

I too would certainly like to hear Mr. Obama articulate at least one thing he thinks he can do to FIX this country. We don''t need CHANGE, and we already have HOPE!

I have listened to every word from all these candidates and I have yet to hear what his real stance is on anything!!!

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by grazinggoat

Your sentiment is admirable, but I feel I must caution you, and remind you that we have heard such promises before.

It is time now for some specifics on just what changes Mr. Obama intends, because I have not yet heard anything that suggests that Mr. Obama will do little more than try to put band aids on gaping machete wounds, and I believe that if the powers that be thought that Mr. Obama really intended to make the changes necessary to save America, he would be dead already, so as cold as it sounds, we need those ideas out there and in discussion now, so that if he is "silenced" in whatever way, at least we know what was supposed to happen, and can choose whoever is closest to those ideas.

[grazinggoat]

CBS News: ''''Obama has also seen his support among women rise by 11 percentage points, and he now trails Clinton by only 7 percentage points among that group. He trails Clinton narrowly among Democrats but leads her among independent voters by 13 percentage points. ''''

-What a GIANT Leap this guy is going... Can''''t but be proud of such realization. We need this guy, who is gonna make History in America, being the first African-American president of the USA. His integrity, his dignity, his time spent as civil servant, his involvement as street-level community organizer, gives this guy the legitimacy of claiming REAL political experience, connected directly to the PEOPLE AND THEIR NEEDS...

-Hilary cannot claim the community-level involvement. She spent her life in LUSH and LUXURY circles, getting compensated for what she could lobby for the deep-pockets who supported her.

-Obama is advocating the CHANGE for a newer foreign policies, whereas Hilary is vowing the same same same what Walking-Liar has done dragging our country in the worst debt ever USA had in recent History. She is pro-war. Obama has vowed to bring the troops home as soon as he''''s elected president. Obama will make a CHANGE in foreign policies. He will talk and resolve problems with our foes... OBAMA WILL NOT STEAL AMERICA... and YES WE CAN!

[deboldt]

After having spent the last two hours drafting my response to your CBS Reports'' program that aired this evening, I was frustrated to find the comments page closed. I wish I had known this before I went on this fool%u2019s errand. This is the closest to an on topic open comments forum available on your site. If you can find a forum more appropriate to my comments, please feel free to move them to that site. What would really be appreciated would be for you to reopen the original forum for the CBS Reports story %u201CFathers, Sons and Brothers, A report on members of the Iowa National Guard who are serving in Iraq and their families%u201D (cont.)

[deboldt]

I have just finished viewing the rebroadcast of your CBS Reports %u201CFathers, Sons and Brothers, A report on members of the Iowa National Guard who are serving in Iraq and their families%u201D on my local KRCG affiliate here in Missouri. Viewing these pieces, so sympathetic to our forces, literally tears me in half emotionally.

Let me try to explain. As you noted, this war is extremely controversial, both at home and among those fighting in Iraq. There were a number of things I found fault with in this program in particular and in the general press coverage of the war and the reporting of the controversy...(cont.)

[deboldt]

My heart goes out to the families of the soldiers. They are the only truly innocent Americans in this whole mess. I have heard wife after wife say that they were not enthusiastic about their spouses, siblings fathers or children serving in this war, but it was the decision largely of the one serving to enter the war. I think, to some extent, these soldiers had no idea of what the real consequences would be for their uninformed decision. I view them somewhat as naove lambs led to a slaughter. They enlisted, trusting that the cause was noble and that the commanders (including the commander in chief) were honorable men of their word. These ideas seem so ludicrous now. For these who actually believed the lies and believed in the honor of their commander in chief, the war in time will come only to represent a kind of innocence lost. Now sadly many family members on the home front and many serving are beginning to awaken to the sad fact that they have been duped. The really sad realization that still has not fully hit is that they are engaged in an illegal enterprise, whose purposes have nothing to do with the spread of democracy or the national security of the United States...

[deboldt]

...On the contrary, their service represents one of the greatest threats to the peace of the world since Germany%u2019s expansionist dreams that culminated in WWII. I think this realization has penetrated to some level because most servicemen become extremely defensive and even angry when confronted with these facts. Many family members react similarly. Who can really blame them? Is it possible to think of your fair-haired son or daughter whom you raised to be moral people as a war criminal? By any objective standards of international law and even our own Constitution, the title must stand. It sickens me to look at the guileless faces of our young soldiers and see them in the same light as I used to view Hitler%u2019s beautiful, blond SS officers. These soldiers cannot even say they were drafted as in Vietnam. They %u201Cvolunteered%u201D as rational free agents and so must bear the full moral responsibility for this war. I think I can understand why your producers might regard this little addendum to be a little too far off topic for a sentimental piece about the suffering of the families of the Iowa National Guard and probably not in very taste as well. The only problem is I hardly ever see the subject of the legality and the morality of the war brought up at all in any context. I do not watch a lot of television, so I am willing to stand corrected...

[deboldt]

Certainly there is no lack of inquiry as to the conduct of the war. Some of these questions were even asked in this episode. Of course there are a lot of soldiers, voters and politicians who object to the war on strictly technical/strategic grounds. I do not understand why do you not give any voice to those who speak to the real issue: This war is illegal, immoral and was based entirely on lies, manipulation and fraud. One of the solders in the show bemoaned the fact that the American people were behind this war in the beginning and are now turning against it. I wish you would not let a statement that is the product of an obviously misinformed combat addled person stand so completely unchallenged. There were many, many Americans who opposed this war, not just on a popular level unparallel for any impending conflict in our history, but also among qualified mideast experts and in the intelligence community as well. It is not our fault that CBS, among others, chose not to report these facts. True many now, including a majority of Americans, have turned against this war. Unfortunately the objections are largely for the wrong reasons. One does not oppose a burglary simply because the culprit got caught bungling the job. I suppose it would have been OK as long as he gotten away with it?

[deboldt]

...I am going to make a couple of statements that I%u2019m sure will be misinterpreted. First, I am delighted (yes, delighted) that we have failed so miserably in Iraq and that the enterprise has blown up so completely in Bush%u2019s childish hands. Had it been the promised cakewalk lined with the flowers and sweets offered our occupiers by a grateful Iraqi people, it would have emboldened these pathetic Neocons to move on others in the area and in the world with an impunity unparallel in the history of atrocity. Pain is a great teacher. I hope this war will not only tarnish the legacy of this megalomaniac%u2019s last eight years in the history books but that this debacle may restore a semblance of democracy at home as well. My hope is that the upcoming election may help decide this...

[deboldt]

...I am sorry most for the Iraqi people in this whole disaster. They did not deserve the horror that has been visited upon them. Even though the Iraqi war continues to be an expensive lesson for us it will be an eternal continuing catastrophe for the people of this once great country. John McCain thinks the catastrophe could last for more than a hundred years. I get so tired of hearing Saddam derided while failing to mention that Iraq was one of the most progressive countries in the middle east. Unlike many countries we supported, Iraq had a high level of education, women held important positions in government, academia and business and there was an excellent system of healthcare. This secular state was even a bulwark against al Qaeda. Unfortunately, sanctions and the war have made all this fade (along with the infrastructure) like a beautiful dream with the dawning of this our new American Century...

[deboldt]

...Now I am going to say the second thing that I am sure will be misinterpreted. I am not interested in seeing any more documentaries on CBS about what a hardship this war is on the American servicemen and their families until I start seeing similar stories on the hardship our occupation is having on the Iraqi victims and their families. Unlike the infamous %u201Cbody counts%u201D of the Vietnam War, the number of dead and dismembered Iraqis has been veiled and rarely mentioned on CBS or the other broadcast news outlets%u2019 press reports...

[deboldt]

I don%u2019t want to hear that the civil war is the Iraqis%u2019 fault, that the faulty government in Baghdad is the Iraqis%u2019 fault, that the suicide bombers are the Iraqis%u2019 fault or that the rising tide of ungrateful citizens who want nothing more that to see us gone yesterday is the Iraqis%u2019 fault. All these things are our fault, only our fault. And the sooner they see the backside of our occupying forces the sooner this poor country will begin to mend. Until then I will continue to mourn the death of every Iraqi man woman and child. I relish the suffering of no human being, but I would rather see the death of any ten beloved members of the Iowa National Guard than to have the hair of one Iraqi child harmed. That is why it is so difficult to see a program like CBS%u2018s %u201CFathers, Sons and Brothers%u2026%u201D without being torn in half. Bob Boldt

[prinzowhales]

Why wouldn''t they rehire Ba''athists? The Washington Regime imported enough of them into the United States, settling many of them--with your tax dollars, of course--in Oklahoma City...where, embarrassingly, several were apprehended after the OKC bombing...but quickly released...while security tapes of some, embarrassingly, with Tim McVeigh and associates are now held from view for reasons of national security.

On the matter of the Iraqi women accused of blowing themselves up...here is an interesting story by Joe Quinn who dissects the Regime and its Quisling helpers response to the bombing...

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/148200-Burka-Bombers-Spontaneously-Exploding-Iraqi-Women

The undersea cables linking Iran to the rest of the world have been cut, undoubtedby by the Zio-Nazi/Neo-Cons...this is an act of war........and, if you think that there is no relation between this, the Regime''s bellicose attitude toward Iran, the move upward of Ziggy Brzezinski''s Obama creature in the polls and the recent upsurge in activity by the Russian military...then, by all means enjoy the Super Bowl and try not to wonder too much about where the Regime''s next false flag operation will be to kick off the war against Iran...and, who knows, who else.

[sgtrds]

"The U.S. military announced Sunday that an American soldier had died a day earlier of non-combat related causes in Ninevah province. At least 3,944 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count."

RIP Bro. Sorry you had to die in vain. Sorry Bush wasted your life and service for his madness.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by j-whitman at 01:41 PM : Feb 03, 2008

Halliburton, Blackwater, Cheney...maybe not in that order.

[hungry1968]

"The law is the first of 18 pieces of benchmark legislation demanded by the Bush administration to promote reconciliation among Iraq''s Sunni and Shiite Arab communities and the large Kurdish minority."





One out of 18 benchmarks made?

Woo hoo! At this rate we just might be out of Iraq just after the turn of the century!!

[j-whitman]

Anyone figure out yet why the number of civilian contractors in both Iraq & Afaganistan outnumber American uniformed forces ?????

[j-whitman]

7,000 Sunni''s aren''t going to be too happy when they loose their jobs