Prelude to an Attack on Iran

Prelude to an Attack on IranBy Robert Baer08/19/07 "Time" -- -
Reports that the Bush Administration will put Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list can be read in one of two ways: it's either more bluster or, ominously, a wind-up for a strike on Iran. Officials I talk to in Washington vote for a hit on the IRGC, maybe within the next six months. And they think that as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran's nuclear facilities. An awe and shock campaign, lite, if you will. But frankly they're guessing; after Iraq the White House trusts no one, especially the bureaucracy. As with Saddam and his imagined WMD, the Administration's case against the IRGC is circumstantial. The U.S. military suspects but cannot prove that the IRGC is the main supplier of sophisticated improvised explosive devices to insurgents killing our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The most sophisticated version, explosive formed projectiles or shape charges, are capable of penetrating the armor of an Abrams tank, disabling the tank and killing the crew. A former CIA explosives expert who still works in Iraq told me: "The Iranians are making them. End of story." His argument is only a state is capable of manufacturing the EFP's, which involves a complicated annealing process. Incidentally, he also is convinced the IRGC is helping Iraqi Shia militias sight in their mortars on the Green Zone. "The way they're dropping them in, in neat grids, tells me all I need to know that the Shia are getting help. And there's no doubt it's Iranian, the IRGC's," he said. A second part of the Administration's case against the IRGC is that the IRGC has had a long, established history of killing Americans, starting with the attack on the Marines in Beirut in 1983. And that's not to mention it was the IRGC that backed Hizballah in its thirty-four day war against Israel last year. The feeling in the Administration is that we should have taken care of the IRGC a long, long time ago. Strengthening the Administration's case for a strike on Iran, there's a belief among neo-cons that the IRGC is the one obstacle to democratic and a friendly Iran. They believe that if we were to get rid of the IRGC, the clerics would fall, and our thirty-years war with Iran over. It's another neo-con delusion, but still it informs White House thinking. And what do we do if just the opposite happens — a strike on Iran unifies Iranians behind the regime? An Administration official told me it's not even a consideration. "IRGC IED's are a casus belli for this administration. There will be an attack on Iran." — Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, the novel Blow the House Down

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1654188,00.html


There are far too many commentators advising war on Iran.Neocons are pleading mea culpas for the ignorance shown in attacking Iraq.Surely such ignorant advisors would learn from their mistakes.
Alas, such is not the case.The former USSR had a time out when they went BROKE. Maybe it is time for America to get its priorities in line before going on another adventure.
While reparations are in order for the chaos created in Iraq, the American people will no doubt, continue to shop for bargains.
The debt is $850 billion and climbing.
America is going for broke.All troops should get out of Afghanistan and Iraq.
All countries that were committed to giving foreign aid to these countries should do so.Bush and Cheney,and other neocons are fools of the worse kind as they never learn from their mistakes.Derek 08.19.07 - 1:21 pm #

"The Iranians are making them. End of story." - No, not end of story.Says who and on what evidence?"The way they're dropping them in, in neat grids, tells me all I need to know that the Shia are getting help." - So we just believe what you believe, Mr CIA spokesman, hey? And the evidence?"And there's no doubt it's Iranian, the IRGC's,"- Oh, there's plenty of doubt but it won't voiced anywhere in mainstream media, from Fox News to the BBC, as well all these 'official spokesmen' are banking on. And the evidence?"The feeling in the Administration is that we should have taken care of the IRGC a long, long time ago". - Yes, we know all about Washington's deluded 'feelings'; but the evidence?"IRGC IED's are a casus belli for this administration. There will be an attack on Iran."- Looks like it, because the citizens of the USA are indifferent and apparently quite unwilling to or incapable of questioning their media's propaganda and their authorities' claims.It's left to rest of us to challenge every lie and soundbite attributed to 'official sources' in newspapers like the NYT and in TV news broadcasts, from CNN and BBC across the board to all the local stations.blizzard 08.19.07 - 1:56 pm #

If the economy is tottering right now,and the problems with junk mortgages have JUST started (there will be another whammy starting this Otober),what will happen if the U.S attacks Iran ,spreading panic in European and Asian markets,with all the traders dumping U.S. debt?.Are our Representatives going to allow it?.Are we as citizens going to allow it without protesting?.Gustavo Caldas 08.19.07 - 2:30 pm #

An astute observer I know well suggests that if H. Clinton is elected in 2008, there will be an attack on Iran, but not if R. Guliani wins the election. It would seem that the neocons are in for the longer run, and it won' matter who becomes president in 2009. They will continue pursuing their goals.Prospero 08.19.07 - 2:39 pm #

Check my blog and you will see I came up with the idea of Prelude to an Attack before this article was published. For real !andrew Homepage 08.19.07 - 3:07 pm #

http://andrewbnoselli.blogspot.comandrew Homepage 08.19.07 - 3:08 pm #

I feel it is neccessary to rebut the careless and unatributed comments of the 'CIA weapons expert' quoted. Firstly, mortaring is not rocket science. You start with a map, then overlay this map with a grid covering the target area(the Green Zone). Next,reproduce and distribute the map.
Set up observation points (to call in firing adjustments) and a communications net- cell phones would do. Now, canvas your area of operations for good firing points that your mortar crews can use. Write a Firing Plan for every point of fire, incorporating the firing tables for type of ammo used, meteorlogical adjustments, and of course distance to the various targets to be serviced. Gps is ideal for this, but a talented hand with navigational dividers can do the job. Lay out marks (spray paint or stakes) so the lads can get their guns laid quickly,and have your operations officer write out an operational plan.
Happy mortaring!Now, tell me that the thousands of professional soldiers in the former Iraqi army couldn't figure this out? they have been fighting over there since 1980! Iranian Revolutionary Guard my white ass!!Jim Norman 08.19.07 - 4:00 pm #

" A former CIA explosives expert who still works in Iraq told me"Who's he working for? What company? What government?hareli 08.19.07 - 4:35 pm #

Good for you, blizzard 08.19.07 - 1:56 pm.Because I dont buy the shit from this guy, either.hareli 08.19.07 - 4:36 pm #

"A second part of the Administration's case against the IRGC is that the IRGC has had a long, established history of killing Americans, starting with the attack on the Marines in Beirut in 1983."Oh yeah? Then why did Victor Ostrovsky, former Mossad agent, write in the early 90s that the Mossad were involved? [Google it. It's been out for years.] And Israel was so upset about the publication that it sought an a priori injunction against the book from the US Supreme Court.hareli 08.19.07 - 4:40 pm #

As far as the mysterious 'EFPs' these are are simply our old friend the platter charge. I won't tell you how to make one, but will list the neccessary tools and materials. Raw materials are steel pipe- 6" is a good size, and steel plate the same thickness as the pipe. A castable explosive (Comp B from a dud US bomb) and pure copper sheet complete the materials list.You need a welder, a band saw and a lathe to make the casing. Every machine shop and even many home shops have these tools.To fill the casing it's a thermometer and a double boiler. Real hi tech. Only a government could do this, right?The fragment is a little harder.You could make it various ways, but the best would be to use a copper sheet and form it with a press. This would require annealing, and is not something the average Hadjji could easily figure out. Engineering the annealment process is the only hard part though- once this was accomplished the quite simple instructions could be printed on a slip of paper.So- it's not a government that's required here- just a metalurgist, a weapons engineer and Bubbas' machine shop.Jim Norman 08.19.07 - 4:50 pm #

interesting - But I have to say I am so tired of the - US to invade Iran - senario - I mean its like every week since 2003 many articles come out about the potential attack by the US that now I feel burnt out on the whole thing - could this be the key as to why so much chicken little over the years?just a thoughtunity 08.19.07 - 5:00 pm #

Fact Check: Obama on Afghanistan

Fact Check: Obama on Afghanistan :

A check of the facts shows that Western forces have been killing civilians at a faster rate than the insurgents have been killing civilians.


By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 14, 5:20 PM ET
WASHINGTON -
Democrat Barack Obama said it, the Republican Party pointed out in a screaming headline Tuesday that highlighted the presidential candidate's comments on Afghanistan and the killing of civilians.

Behind the scenes, Obama's rival campaigns buzzed about his statement uttered Monday during a campaign stop in New Hampshire when he was asked about his plan to move troops into Afghanistan.
"We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there," Obama said.
THE SPIN:
The suggestion whispered by Obama's opponents was that he was maligning the efforts of troops fighting in Afghanistan by stating they are "just" out there killing civilians.
The Republican National Committee simply repeated the comment as one of their "They Said It!" series used to highlight statements by opponents that supposedly put them in a bad light. RNC Chairman Mike Duncan followed up later in a statement demanding that Obama apologize for his "offensive" statement.
"It is hard to imagine that anyone who aspires to be commander in chief would say such a thing about our brave men and women in uniform," Duncan said. "Obama owes our armed forces an apology — today."
THE FACT CHECK:
A check of the facts shows that Western forces have been killing civilians at a faster rate than the insurgents have been killing civilians.
The U.S. and NATO say they don't have civilian casualty figures, but The Associated Press has been keeping count based on figures from Afghan and international officials. Tracking civilian deaths is a difficult task because they often occur in remote and dangerous areas that are difficult to reach and verify.
As of Aug. 1, the AP count shows that while militants killed 231 civilians in attacks in 2007, Western forces killed 286. Another 20 were killed in crossfire that can't be attributed to one party.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his concern about the civilian deaths during a meeting last week with President Bush.
Bush said he understands the agony that Afghans feel over the loss of innocent lives and that he is doing everything he can to protect them. He said the Taliban are using civilians as human shields and have no regard for their lives.
"The president rightly expressed his concerns about civilian casualty," Bush said of Karzai. "And I assured him that we share those concerns."
___
On the Net:
http://www.barackobama.com

Former U.S. marine charged with killing Iraqi prisoners

Former U.S. marine charged with killing Iraqi prisoners
www.chinaview.cn 2007-08-17 00:23:35

Print
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. attorney in Los Angeles has filed charges against a former marine sergeant for his alleged role in the killing of eight unarmed Iraqi prisoners, it was reported on Thursday.
The defendant, who conducted the killing during a November 2004battle in Fallouja, Iraq, is expected to appear in court today, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Jose Nazario, a former sergeant, is being charged in civilian court because he is no longer a Marine. Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents are examining allegations against other members of Nazario's squad, who are still in the Marine Corps, but referred Nazario's case to the U.S. attorney, sources were quoted as saying.
The investigation involves the same company -- Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment -- that is the focus of the worst alleged atrocity in Iraq, the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, said the paper.
Nazario enlisted in the Marines in September 1997 and left as a sergeant in October 2005
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/17/content_6547198.htm

FACTBOX-Who are the Yazidis?

FACTBOX-Who are the Yazidis?
Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:31PM BST Email this Article Print this Article RSS[-] Text [+] (Reuters) -

The U.S. military said on Wednesday al Qaeda was the "prime suspect" in suicide bombings overnight on an ancient minority sect that Iraqi officials said killed at least 175 people in northwestern Iraq.

Yazidis, who are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect, live in northern Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
They say they have often faced persecution in Iraq because the chief angel they venerate as a manifestation of God is often identified as the fallen angel Satan in biblical terminology.
Here are some key details on the Yazidis:
* WHO ARE THE YAZIDIS?
-- The Yazidi religion is a syncretic combination of Zoroastrian, Manichaean, Jewish, Nestorian Christian and Islam.
-- The Yazidi themselves are thought to be descended from supporters of the Umayyad caliph Yazid I.

* THEIR BELIEFS:
-- They believe that they were created quite separately from the rest of mankind, not even being descended from Adam,

and they have kept themselves strictly segregated from the people among whom they live
http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKL1575433920070815?rpc=401&src=081507_1144_TOPSTORY_iraq_bombs_kill_175

Yazidis are antidualists; they deny the existence of evil and therefore also reject sin, the devil, and hell.
-- The Yazidi relate that, when the devil repented of his sin of pride before God, he was pardoned and replaced in his previous position as chief of the angels; this has often resulted in Yazidis being described as devil worshippers.

-- Sheikh Adi, the chief Yazidi saint, was a 12th century Muslim mystic whom the Yazidi believe to have achieved divinity through metempsychosis.
* A RELIGIOUS CENTRE:
-- The Yazidi religious centre and object of the annual pilgrimage is the tomb of Sheikh Adi, located at a former Christian monastery in a town north of Mosul.
* RECENT INCIDENT:
-- Yazidis consider marriage outside their faith a sin punishable by death to restore lost honour.
-- In April, gunmen shot dead 23 Yazidi factory workers in Mosul in apparent retaliation for the stoning several weeks earlier of a teenage Yazidi girl who police said had fallen in love with a Muslim man and converted to Islam.
Sources Reuters; Encyclopaedia Britannica:

Myths of Mideast Arms Sales

Myths of Mideast Arms SalesBy William D. Hartung08/11/07 ' -- -
The Bush administration’s proposal to send $20 billion worth of arms and $43 billion in military aid to U.S. allies in the Middle East has been promoted by repeating a series of time-worn myths that should have long since been abandoned. With a shooting war in Iraq and a war of words with Iran well under way, the last thing the region needs is a new influx of high tech weaponry.The suggestions of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that this flood of armaments will be “stabilizing” in the short term while underscoring the U.S. commitment to “moderates” in the region over the longer term is a prime example of this historical amnesia.Take Saudi Arabia, which continues to pursue policies that are moderate in name only. Not only is Riyadh one of the most undemocratic regimes in the world, but it has more often than not used its financial resources to promote extremism and repression elsewhere. From financing fundamentalist madrassahs in Pakistan to supporting Sunni insurgents in Iraq, the regime has a long track record of opposing the values of democracy and moderation that the Bush administration claims are the overarching principles of its foreign policy. It’s hard to see how selling Saudi Arabia more military equipment will change this pattern, any more than arming the Shah of Iran in the 1970s and the Afghan rebels in the 1980s promoted stability in those countries.Some elements of the proposed package are particularly disturbing. Satellite guided bombs are not “defensive weapons”,” as the administration claims. Using them would be ill-advised, if not disastrous.This raises the question of who exactly would Riyadh use these weapons against. Iran? Iraq? Israel? Internal opponents?Iran has no intention of invading Saudi Arabia; if it wants to undermine Saudi security it is far more likely to work via proxy, a tactic that the Saudis are well-equipped to counter in kind.An attack on Iraq in the context of a civil war would only exacerbate tensions and help savage any remnants of stability that remain there.Attacking Israel would be a suicide mission, given Tel Aviv’s substantial military superiority. The only plausible scenarios - and the ones most feared by Israeli officials - would be if a rogue pilot attempted to strike without authorization or an even more extremist regime were to overthrow the current Saudi government.Last but not least, using satellite guided bombs against armed extremists within Saudi Arabia would be the wrong tool for the job, like trying to kill a swarm of mosquitoes with a sledge hammer. Good intelligence would be a far more effective tool. What if the Bush administration tried to foster greater intelligence cooperation instead of casting its two top cabinet officials in the role of second-rate arms brokers?In the short-term, these scenarios may not be high probability events, but as the U.S. experiences with arming the Shah of Iran and the Afghan rebels demonstrate, weapons supplied now can be used against U.S . interests down the road as political conditions change.If a symbol of U.S. commitment to Saudi Arabia is needed, there are plenty of other tools at Washington’s disposal, in the realms of diplomacy, economic cooperation, and coordinated law enforcement efforts, among others. Not to mention the fact that the funds the Saudis expend for this proposed deal would be far more productive - and stabilizing - if they were invested in economic and social programs within the kingdom.For all of these reasons, the U.S. Congress must take preemptive action to try to derail or reshape the Middle East arms package. Since Congress was granted the right to stop major arms deals via a joint resolution of disapproval under the Arms Export Control Act of 1976, it has never successfully done so via a formal vote. But there have been instances where the threat of Congressional action has led to the restructuring or delaying of specific deals.A successful effort to block or reshape the Mideast arms package must begin with detailed hearings as soon as Congress starts its fall term. Waiting for a formal notification from the executive branch, as skeptics like Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Joseph Biden and House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Tom Lantos have pledged to do, will be too little too late. Given the inherent problems with this arms package, it is unlikely to withstand public scrutiny. It is up to Congress to take the lead in promoting a real debate on this critical issue.William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the New America Foundation.

Polls find increased support for Iraq war :

New survey results surprise pollsters
By Joseph CurlThe Washington Times
WASHINGTON -- The results from a poll conducted last month by the New York Times so surprised top editors that they ordered a new survey, but the results were the same the second time around:
More Americans now think that President Bush was right to send troops into Iraq.
The first poll, conducted July 9-17, found that 42 percent said the president did the "right thing" taking military action against Iraq, an increase of seven percentage points. Editors thought the poll may have been skewed by other questions about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's failure to repudiate her 2002 decision to vote to authorize the war.
The second poll, conducted July 21-22, came at the worst possible time for Mr. Bush: A fiercely partisan Congress was debating the war; the Bush administration had just released a report saying the Iraqi government failed to meet many of its benchmarks, and was about to recess for a month; and top Republicans were finally choosing to speak out against the war in Iraq.
But the second survey delivered the exact same results — 42 percent supported the invasion of Iraq. The poll also found that while 66 percent of Americans said things were going badly in Iraq, that number had dropped 10 points from May.
USA Today and Gallup also conducted a survey this month and found positive results for the administration: The number of Americans who think the president's decision to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq — the so-called "surge" — is "making the situation better" rose to 31 percent from 22 percent a month ago.
"It's happening because, for the last several weeks, the news media has had to report military progress in Iraq," said Charlie Black, a Republican strategist with close ties to the White House. "I think the public had arrived at the conclusion that we were losing or that we couldn't win over there, based on the constant bad-news reporting for years, so when you get some good news, it causes some people to say, 'Wait a minute, maybe this is winnable and maybe we should be patient.' "
The apparent success of the new strategy implemented by Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, is having an effect. While 73 U.S. soldiers died in July, that was the lowest death rate in eight months. U.S. newspapers are starting to report from provinces across Iraq — including some deemed irretrievable — that the security situation has improved dramatically.
"There is no question that there have been very substantial and significant changes since the new strategy has been implemented by Gen. Petraeus," said Clifford May, president of the nonpartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on counterterrorism.

http://wpherald.com/articles/5637/1/Polls-find-increased-support-for-Iraq-war/New-survey-results-surprise-pollsters.html

Republicans returning to sense of optimism about Iraq

A lot of people think it's merely a surge, more troop numbers; that's very far from reality. It's 180 degrees from what Petraeus' predecessors were doing in Iraq and is much more a classic counter-insurgency strategy and it is having a huge impact. ... Al Qaeda is being crushed," Mr. May said.
The increased support for the president's Iraq policy in recent polls mainly reflects Republicans returning to a sense of optimism about Iraq, but also from independents who reject congressional Democrats' calls for a quick U.S. withdrawal.
"Independents do not want America to accept defeat ... and believe that if we can salvage something from this mission, we should do so," Mr. May said.
Pollster John Zogby, who describes himself as a liberal Democrat, sees the shifting polls as simply a return of a few Republicans that means little for the president's efforts to persuade Americans that Iraq is salvageable.
"This comes under the category mainly of Republicans and conservatives who want to believe. They have wanted to believe, but they haven't had a reason to. You are starting to get more reports — more spin, call it what you like — from White House spokesmen, and some independent analysts, Michael O'Hanlon for example, suggesting that, 'Hey, this could be working' and that the number of U.S. causalities has declined," Mr. Zogby said.
Mr. O'Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack, both scholars with the Brookings Institution, penned a New York Times op-ed column last month titled "A War We Just Might Win," in which they wrote that they were "surprised by the gains we saw" during a visit to Iraq: "Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms."
But Republican pollster Frank Luntz saw less to cheer in the changing polls. "Maybe it's just a lack of bad news. At a certain point, the president's popularity had to stop falling," he said. "I don't think it's a re-examination of the war" but just general summertime optimism.

new zealand , nazi

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand couple is looking to call their newborn son Superman -- but only because their chosen name of 4Real has been rejected by the government registry

Pat and Sheena Wheaton say they will get around the decision by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages by officially naming their son Superman but referring to him as 4Real, the New Zealand Herald newspaper has reported.
The Wheatons decided on the name after seeing the baby for the first time in an ultrasound scan and realising their baby was "for real".
They decided 4Real was the best way to write it, but the name was rejected because the registrar said a name had to be a sequence of characters.
Pat Wheaton said he was considering appealing against the decision through the courts, but whatever happens he won't be budged on his choice.
"No matter what its going to stay 4Real," Wheaton told the Herald, "I'm certainly not a quitter".
A spokesman for the Department of Internal Affairs, which operates the registry told the Herald discussions with the Wheatons about their son's name were continuing.
The baby is now two months old, after the Wheatons first applied to register his name in later June.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070808/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_newzealand_name

Republican Commission: Iraq War is Over

Okay, well, it doesn't say that America "lost." According to the conservative NY Sun, "A commission formed to assess the Iraq war and recommend a new course has ruled out the prospect of victory for America."
Right, "ruled out the prospect of victory," sorry -- don't want to open myself to charges of being anti-American like this commision.
Can Iraq become a stable democracy in the near term? No. Not according to the commission convened by Virginia Republican Frank Wolf and led by Bush 41's main man, James Baker. Unfortunately, the commission's official findings won't be released until after election day. You know, why have all the information if the information is liable to guide your vote?
The Sun's Eli Lake writes (emphasis mine):
"The more palatable of the two choices for the White House, 'Stability First,' argues that the military should focus on stabilizing Baghdad while the American Embassy should work toward political accommodation with insurgents. The goal of nurturing a democracy in Iraq is dropped."
The second part, "Redeploy and Contain," is essentially a withdrawal plan.
From a Daily News article almost exactly a year ago:
In the long run, moreover, many Bush aides believe his legacy will rise or fall largely on how Iraq plays out.
"If a year from now they have a functional government with even a semblance of democracy and U.S. deaths are lower, that will give Bush a huge boost," said a senior Republican political strategist. "But if there's a civil war and Americans are still dying, Bush will end his term as one of the most unpopular Presidents in history."

Tagged as: iraq
Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.
« The AlterNet Blogs
« PEEK « Evan Derkacz

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/42957/?comments=view&cID=251336&pID=251334

Labor Dept: 1,001 contractors have died in Iraq

Aug. 8, 2007, 11:22AMLabor Dept: 1,001 contractors have died in Iraq
By DAVID IVANOVICHCopyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 civilian contractors have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion more than four years ago, according to Labor Department records made available Tuesday.
In response to a request from Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., the Labor Department revealed that 1,001 civilian contractors had died in Iraq as of June 30, including 84 during the second quarter of the year.
So far in 2007, at least 231 contractors working for U.S. firms have died in Iraq.
Those contractor fatalities are in addition to the 3,668 military personnel the Defense Department had confirmed dead in Iraq from the start of the war in March 2003 until today.
"We are not getting the full picture" of the cost of the war in Iraq, Schakowsky said in a recent interview.
Another 76 civilian contractors have died in Afghanistan since the start of operations there, the Labor Department records show.
Besides those killed, 4,837 workers in Iraq and 879 in Afghanistan suffered injuries severe enough to miss at least four days of work, the Labor Department said.
The report did not identify which companies employed the workers, or their nationalities.
Houston-based KBR, the Pentagon's largest military contractor working in Iraq, has had 50,000 employees and subcontractors in the country building bases, serving up meals, delivering mail and providing a host of other logistical support services for U.S. troops serving in Iraq.
More than 100 of the company's employees and contractors have been killed in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.
"Obviously, all of our employees that work in the region perform their work under harsh and dangerous conditions," KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne said Tuesday. "We continue to grieve with the families of those we have lost and remain committed to the safety and security of all our employees and subcontractors in the region.
The civilian contractor figures are compiled by the Labor Department's Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation, which tracks workers' compensation claims by injured workers or families of slain contractors under the federal Defense Base Act.
But these numbers likely do not tell the whole story.
"The data show the number of cases reported to the (Labor Department), not the number of injuries or deaths which occurred," Labor Department official Miranda Chiu wrote in a message to Schakowsky.
Labor Department officials have not responded in recent weeks to inquiries from the Chronicle about the contractor deaths.
The Labor Department only provided the numbers after Schakowsky called personally to request the data.
The United States has about 162,000 troops serving in Iraq. Military families have long complained about the stress placed on them by long and repeated deployments to Iraq.
By using civilians contractors, the Pentagon is able to send fewer troops to Iraq, since the civilians can perform noncombat functions and allow those in uniform to focus on military activities.
david.ivanovich@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5035874.html

The Liberal Hero

Good Ol' Bill, The Liberal HeroIn his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger looks forward to the arrival of Bill Clinton in London where an "audience" with him will cost up to £799 a head. In examining Clinton's liberal credentials and comparing them to George W. Bush's record, Pilger illuminates what Hillary Clinton might offer America and the world as the first female president. By John Pilger08/09/07 "ICH" -- --On 14 August, you are invited to "an audience" with Bill Clinton in London. You have a choice. You can attend the "breakfast and speech" or the "brunch buffet and speech". These will take place in the white elephantine Millennium Dome, where a place in the "Kings' Row" will cost you £799. Last year, Clinton made more than £5m granting "audiences". Not only the usual corporate types attend. A few years ago, I watched a conga line of writers, journalists, publishers and others of liberal reputation shuffling towards his grotesquely paid presence at the Guardian Hay Festival. The Clinton scam is symptomatic of the death of liberalism – not its narcissistic, war-loving wing ("humanitarian intervention"), which is ascendant, but the liberalism that speaks against crimes committed in its name, while extending rungs of the economic ladder to those below. It was Clinton's promotion of the former and crushing of the latter that so inspired new Labour's "project". Clinton, not Bush, was Cool Britannia's true Mafia godfather. Keen observers of Tony Blair will recall that during one of his many farewell speeches, the sociopath did a weird impersonation of Clinton's head wiggle. Clinton is able to make a shedload a money because he is contrasted with the despised Bush as the flawed good guy who did his best for the world and brought economic boom to the US – the fabled American dream no less. Both notions are finely spun lies. What Clinton and Blair have most in common is that they are the most violent leaders of their countries in the modern era; that includes Bush. Consider Clinton's true record. In 1993, he pursued George H W Bush's invasion of Somalia. He invaded Haiti in 1994. He bombed Bosnia in 1995 and Serbia in 1999. In 1998, he bombed Afghanistan; and, at the height of his Monica Lewinsky troubles, he momentarily diverted the headline writers to a major "terrorist target" in Sudan that he ordered destroyed with an onslaught of missiles. It turned out to be sub-Saharan Africa's largest pharmaceutical plant, the only source of chloroquine, the treatment for malaria, and other drugs that were lifelines to hundreds of thousands. As a result, wrote Jonathan Belke, then of the Near East Foundation, "tens of thousands of people – many of them children – have suffered and died from malaria, tuberculosis and other treatable diseases". Long before Shock and Awe, Clinton was destroying and killing in Iraq. Under the lawless pretence of a "no-fly zone", he oversaw the longest allied aerial bombardment since the Second World War. This was hardly reported. At the same time, he imposed and tightened a Washington-led economic siege estimated to have killed a million civilians. "We think the price is worth it," said his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, in an exquisite moment of honesty. Clinton's economic "legacy" – like Blair's – is the most unequal society Americans have known. In his last presidential year, 1999, I walked along the ocean front at Santa Monica in California and was struck by the number of middle-class homeless, "bag gents" who had lost executive jobs and families thanks largely to Clinton's North American Free Trade treaty. As for working Americans, the boasted high employment figures concealed a reversion to real wage levels of the 1970s. It was Clinton, not Bush, who wiped out the last of Roosevelt's New Deal. Back in Santa Monica the other day, I noted the bag gents had multiplied. These days, you see Good Ol' Bill, or the Comeback Kid, as he is variously known, wiggling his head on the TV news, campaigning for his wife, Hillary, among Americans who, terminally naive, still believe the Democratic Party is theirs and that "it's time to vote a woman into the White House". Together, the Clintons are known as "Billary" and rightly so. Like Good Ol' Bill, his wife has no plans to address the divisions of a society that allows 130,000 Americans to claim the wealth of millions of their fellow citizens. Like GOB, she wants to continue Iraq's torment for perhaps a decade. And she has not "ruled out" attacking Iran. Those settling down in the Kings' Row at the Millennium Dome on 14 August for breakfast or brunch with GOB, having transferred another swag to the Clinton bank account, are unlikely to reflect on the blood spilt and the epic suffering caused, or on the moral corruption of the liberal ideology that courted and acclaimed Clinton, along with the criminal Blair. But we should.This article was first published at the New Statesman

Good Ol' Bill, The Liberal Hero

Good Ol' Bill, The Liberal HeroIn his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger looks forward to the arrival of Bill Clinton in London where an "audience" with him will cost up to £799 a head. In examining Clinton's liberal credentials and comparing them to George W. Bush's record, Pilger illuminates what Hillary Clinton might offer America and the world as the first female president. By John Pilger08/09/07 "ICH" -- --On 14 August, you are invited to "an audience" with Bill Clinton in London. You have a choice. You can attend the "breakfast and speech" or the "brunch buffet and speech". These will take place in the white elephantine Millennium Dome, where a place in the "Kings' Row" will cost you £799. Last year, Clinton made more than £5m granting "audiences". Not only the usual corporate types attend. A few years ago, I watched a conga line of writers, journalists, publishers and others of liberal reputation shuffling towards his grotesquely paid presence at the Guardian Hay Festival. The Clinton scam is symptomatic of the death of liberalism – not its narcissistic, war-loving wing ("humanitarian intervention"), which is ascendant, but the liberalism that speaks against crimes committed in its name, while extending rungs of the economic ladder to those below. It was Clinton's promotion of the former and crushing of the latter that so inspired new Labour's "project". Clinton, not Bush, was Cool Britannia's true Mafia godfather. Keen observers of Tony Blair will recall that during one of his many farewell speeches, the sociopath did a weird impersonation of Clinton's head wiggle. Clinton is able to make a shedload a money because he is contrasted with the despised Bush as the flawed good guy who did his best for the world and brought economic boom to the US – the fabled American dream no less. Both notions are finely spun lies. What Clinton and Blair have most in common is that they are the most violent leaders of their countries in the modern era; that includes Bush. Consider Clinton's true record. In 1993, he pursued George H W Bush's invasion of Somalia. He invaded Haiti in 1994. He bombed Bosnia in 1995 and Serbia in 1999. In 1998, he bombed Afghanistan; and, at the height of his Monica Lewinsky troubles, he momentarily diverted the headline writers to a major "terrorist target" in Sudan that he ordered destroyed with an onslaught of missiles. It turned out to be sub-Saharan Africa's largest pharmaceutical plant, the only source of chloroquine, the treatment for malaria, and other drugs that were lifelines to hundreds of thousands. As a result, wrote Jonathan Belke, then of the Near East Foundation, "tens of thousands of people – many of them children – have suffered and died from malaria, tuberculosis and other treatable diseases". Long before Shock and Awe, Clinton was destroying and killing in Iraq. Under the lawless pretence of a "no-fly zone", he oversaw the longest allied aerial bombardment since the Second World War. This was hardly reported. At the same time, he imposed and tightened a Washington-led economic siege estimated to have killed a million civilians. "We think the price is worth it," said his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, in an exquisite moment of honesty. Clinton's economic "legacy" – like Blair's – is the most unequal society Americans have known. In his last presidential year, 1999, I walked along the ocean front at Santa Monica in California and was struck by the number of middle-class homeless, "bag gents" who had lost executive jobs and families thanks largely to Clinton's North American Free Trade treaty. As for working Americans, the boasted high employment figures concealed a reversion to real wage levels of the 1970s. It was Clinton, not Bush, who wiped out the last of Roosevelt's New Deal. Back in Santa Monica the other day, I noted the bag gents had multiplied. These days, you see Good Ol' Bill, or the Comeback Kid, as he is variously known, wiggling his head on the TV news, campaigning for his wife, Hillary, among Americans who, terminally naive, still believe the Democratic Party is theirs and that "it's time to vote a woman into the White House". Together, the Clintons are known as "Billary" and rightly so. Like Good Ol' Bill, his wife has no plans to address the divisions of a society that allows 130,000 Americans to claim the wealth of millions of their fellow citizens. Like GOB, she wants to continue Iraq's torment for perhaps a decade. And she has not "ruled out" attacking Iran. Those settling down in the Kings' Row at the Millennium Dome on 14 August for breakfast or brunch with GOB, having transferred another swag to the Clinton bank account, are unlikely to reflect on the blood spilt and the epic suffering caused, or on the moral corruption of the liberal ideology that courted and acclaimed Clinton, along with the criminal Blair. But we should.This article was first published at the New Statesman



The world is lucky for having Pilger. GOB is definitely more evil than the devil himself.Hammurabi 08.09.07 - 2:37 pm #

He bombed Fmr. Yugoslavia to late.They let Yugoslav army to kill 200,000 Bosnians.They shoul bomb Serbia in 1992 at save those people.bilhajr 08.09.07 - 2:39 pm #

Oooohh!Clinton has a worse record than Bush.Nice.Good show, Mr Pilger.BigPearl 08.09.07 - 3:25 pm #

Hey Bilhajr,200,000 Bosnians? Where are the mass graves? The biggest victims in the war were Serbs - refugees, deaths, destruction........Even the UN confirmed that the Sarejevo market bombing was done by the Bosnians against there own people to gain world opinion. Shame on you and your distorted little nationalism. Yugoslavia was a GREAT country. Now, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia are all "ripe for the picking" to be exploited by the west and their inhumane corporations. You, like the Ustashi, Chetniks and Bosniaks, who provoked the war with the help of German and US interests; will soon long for "the good old days" of FRY. Indeed, many former Yugoslavs have already reverted back to a state of "Yugonostalgia", reserecting their Tito photos and memories of a time when Yugoslavs where not the slaves of of the west.ratko 08.09.07 - 3:28 pm #

This is the problem with all american administrations, there is no continuity from one president to the next. At the end of the day they are all criminals.Gamal Akabani 08.09.07 - 3:49 pm #

Pilger's assertion that Clinton has more blood on his hands than GWB can hardly be correct if the Johns Hopkins analysis is credible. GWB is directly responsible for the deaths of a million Iraqis, or will be shortly as the tolls mount.As much as Pilger deserves praise for his courage and independence, he should not make comparisons between Clinton and Bush without factoring in 911, in which Bush was complicit, and the war on terror, which is a direct assault on the Constitutional foundation of American life. One cannot make the connection between Clinton and political terror, nor did he employ convicted criminals, like Eliot Abrams and others. He did not operate his administration like a criminal cabal.Bill was not a cryptofascist.This is not to say Ole Bill was not a devout servant of the oligarchy.A president can either use the military or lose it. It is to say that GWB is a monster by comparison. There are shades of blackcruxpuppy 08.09.07 - 3:57 pm #

I've never said anything about SFRJ, that was nice country, until Butcher from Balkan took a power,Nobody from Bosnia didn't go to Serbia and burn down cities and villages, slaughter civilians.That was done by regular Yugoslav army under Milosevic rule.From your point of view people from Serebrenica committed suicide.In two days Serbs slaughter 8,000 people.And what I said before they've should bombarded Yugoslavia in 1992 when they destroyed Vukovar, slaughter thousands people in Bijeljina, Brcko, Foca, Zvornik , Visegrad.... Mabe you don't know but Serb Ortodox church built Church o mass grave in Konjevic Polje, near Srebrenica. One of the few justified military use by USA was in former Yugoslavia, but for 200,000 people to late.bilhajr 08.09.07 - 4:21 pm #

There are shades of black -cruxpuppy 08.09.07 - 3:57 pm #Black has nothing to do with what goes on in the White Supremacist house.Anonymous 08.09.07 - 4:58 pm #

Slobo was a kurva, but so was Bosnia political leaders and Croat political leaders. True, nobody from Bosnia went to Serbia to burn villages but Bosnian Serb villages were burnt. As for Croatia, not too many Serbs are left, after a considerable Serbian population lived in Croatia for hundreds of years (this was the biggest ethnic cleansing). I am happy you agree SFRJ was a nice country. Sad that the West used Slobo, Tujman and Itzebegovic to manipulate their people into killing themselves. You line up a Serb, Croat and Bosnian Muslim and no western person could tell them apart. We speak the same language, eat burek, dance to good music and are passionate people - why did we slaughter each another? We should be together and strong!We are not Serbs, Bosnians or Croats - we are Yugoslavs!ratko 08.09.07 - 5:02 pm #

Many have blood on their hands, particularly the the mass media and so called left gate keepers who cannot cope with an examination of the material that proves that 9/11 was an 'inside job'. Even the videos show the explosions in WTC, 1, 2 and 7 (not hit with a plane). Pilger should save his crocodile tears.optimist.optimist 08.09.07 - 6:28 pm #

John Pilger must have a hardon for the Clintons.either that or his neo-con clothes are showing through.This story is all based on lies and half truths.Example...He talks of there being more bombing in Iraq during the no fly zone then there was in ww2.If that was true what heck did they bomb?Iraq was a strong viable country with a prosperous economy,not a bombarded war torn country as old John boy says.Clinton allso never lied to the american people or the world about another country,and then go and attack it without provocation or aproval from the UN or anyone else.All anyone has to do is ask themselves,is America and the world better off for what Bush has done or what Clinton did.We are up to our ears in debt,the dollar is devalueing steadily,the rich are geting richer,and the poor poorer.Our infrastruture is decaying as we speak,allong with our reputation as a peace loveing country.Clinton was right on with shooting for alternative fuels and the kyoto treaty to stop global warming,which Bush repealed and said global warming was shaky science.One of the first things Bush did when the supreme court elected him was to repeal the usry law for the big oil companies so that the sky was the limit for theire priceing of fuel.John boy has to be scratching the bottom of the barrel when he has to bring up high dollar speking events of Bills.Well we wont have to worry about Bush ever doing that,unless its showing off his new coloring books hes trying to hawk.Enough said!!Guy Smith 08.09.07 - 6:53 pm #

Ratko, I agree with you. The Ustashe did a MASSIVE job of genociding Serbs. I believe about 800,000 died, and so brutally were they killed that even the Nazis were amazed. We don't hear about this. Funny about that.And I had heard that Sarajevo was bombed by Bosnian radicals (the KLA - a murderous, drug running group aligned with NATO), and that it is correct that they would kill "their own" if they didn't agree with their methods. Or just to blame it on the Serbs. Whatever suited at the time.I don't know what a kurva is, but I believe from everything I've read that Milosevic was just a fairly normal politician. BUT... he didn't want to sell public assets. From the "internationalists" point of view, this was bad, and worth bombing the country for. They got sold all right, at bargain basement prices.Also, I believe Milosevic did a wonderful job of defending himself and the Serbs in the kangaroo court at the Hague. I believe, as he did, that he was murdered by drugs, as they couldn't get sufficient evidence to charge him after years of trial.As for the thousands of dead Bosnians, apparently 17 different groups went (through the UN) to search for those bodies. They were simply not found.Propaganda and lies are always needed to get the people to kill each other. In Gulf War I it was the Kuwaiti babies being tipped out of their incubators onto the concrete floor to die by Iraqi soldiers. Later it was proven that Hill & Knowles had done a job on that, and the girl was the daughter of one of the Kuwait leaders and had never been to the hospital she cried crocodile tears about. Bush Snr used this, of course, to get the west really mad at Hussein and the Iraqis.To go bomb Afghanistan the story was that 19 hijackers had brought down the towers, which a great many now understand was an inside job.To invade Iraq it was those WMD. Always it's lies, and we still don't get it. We still send our boys as cannon fodder for the "internationalists", who are the only beneficiaries of these horrific wars.Daphne O'Brien 08.09.07 - 7:08 pm #

He invaded Haiti? What? Marines were sent there to ensure the reinstallation of left wing President Aristide after he had been overthrown by right wing thugs. But there was no bloodshed. He bombed Bosnia and Serbia? Had he not done that we would be hearing how he allowed the genocide to continue because there was no oil in Yugoslavia. The bit about Sudan is lifted straight from the right wing talking points in the US. America was a much better place for the poor and working people under Clinton. The number living in poverty shrank greatly and we were respected the world over. Pilger can do better than this. Clinton worse than Bush? What utter BULLSHIT!Thomas Doyle 08.09.07 - 7:52 pm #

Furthermore it should be noted that the Bush regime sent the Marines back to Haiti to help overthrown Aristide. It should also be noted that the NeoCons opposed the humanitarian mission in Yugoslavia because it was not "in Americas strategic interests" (no oil). Instead they had wanted Clinton to invade Iraq. Whatever you are smoking Pilger, I want none of it.Thomas Doyle 08.09.07 - 8:06 pm #

"He bombed Bosnia and Serbia? Had he not done that we would be hearing how he allowed the genocide to continue because there was no oil in Yugoslavia."There's a cynic in me that believes part of this might be right.Clinton set Bush up pretending to give a flying fook about genocide, yes indeedy.Franz 08.09.07 - 8:19 pm #

Maybe G.W. Bush did not make the world love US, but he made more people in the world see what US is about. More than Clinton did. Clinton managed to deceive most of the world (and continues to do it). US, together with NATO, did everything possible to push Yugoslavia into the civil war. I personally hold Clinton and his gand responsible for the ethnic clensing in the Yugoslavia, Serbs killing Bosnians and vice versa, Croats doing their own killings. This was all possible because US and NATO destabilised the great country of Yugoslavia. Before the country descended into the civil war, all the ethnic minorities live together in peace. US and NATO destroyed that peace. In the end, Bush, with all his lies about 911, WMD in Iraq, etc. is more honest about his objectives than Clinton ever been.Wes S 08.09.07 - 8:22 pm #

Though I think Clinton deserves credit for his juggling act with the domestic economy, and putting up a good front in what the western media sold everyone as "ongoing Genocide's" in the Balkan's, and Africa, John Pilger has a good point. Good ole Bill still served the Puppetmaster's, and as a bone (no pun intended!) he got some "Boy Perk's", and a license to print money from speaking engagements like all President's end up doing anyway. Billy was just better looking, and better at covering his Seamen stains than the current shrivel dick in the job that's all! He wasn't nearly as good a liar as the little swaggering cowboy.What's Hillary got to look forward to if elected, a Kosher vibrating Oval Office Chair and edible undies from AIPAC? You can bet she'll do the same thing in planning for her comfie retirement with the exception of the cutsie trademark headshake. Maybe she'll get Blair under the desk practicing U.S. foreign policy speeches now that he's been reassigned to Gaza duty - then Bush can set Condi up in his new digs in Parguay for weekend retreats. Ah, the good life eh??? Better living through Viagra!Well spotted "Big Pearl"! I like your wit!Angel Gabriel 08.09.07 - 8:22 pm #

Sorry there Wes, I always thought Bill looked better in a Sharkskin Suit than the bowlegged little cowpoke! Georgie's lack of literacy of the English language, and his smirky little chicken-like head bob keeps Bill slightly in the lead toward leaving "No Goat's behind".Angel Gabriel 08.09.07 - 8:32 pm #

Hi Angel Gabriel,If it looks like the clown, it must be the one. Personally I feel that women were attracted to Bill because of the power and money, not his good looks.Wes S 08.09.07 - 8:46 pm #

Thomas Doyle thinks there was no bloodshed in the "fake" bringing back of Aristide in Haiti? Think again. And read "Hideous Dream" by Stan Goff, who was a Green Beret over there. He left the army in disgust after Haiti.Angel Gabriel said: "Billy was just better looking, and better at covering his Seamen stains than the current shrivel dick in the job that's all! He wasn't nearly as good a liar as the little swaggering cowboy."Actually, I think Clinton was a "better" liar than Bush Jnr. Bush is blatant. Clinton was clever. Clinton got away with a lot more than Bush Jnr, as he was believed more.Daphne O'Brien 08.09.07 - 9:07 pm #

Most all US Presidents were better liers then Georgie. He could not put a proper sentence together if it were a matter of life or death.I think Clinton was a good lier, but most of us were working, and respected in the world.Clinton took his orders from the same corporate gang that rules the bushes.Just think if there is a election and Hillary is elected there would be a total of 24 years of Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton.Whats the world coming to.anthny 08.09.07 - 9:27 pm #

John Pilger is a man of great INTEGRITY. Read his coverage of the killing fields in Cambodia and know many lives were spared because of his unstinting efforts. He was a brave fellow war correspondent in Indochina. I know, I was there. And I salute him for having the intellectual honesty to expose what a danger the Clintons are. Bush is evil, so are the Clintons.MAJ Glenn MacDonald, USAR (Ret Homepage 08.09.07 - 10:28 pm #

Con artist Bill Clinton...(I voted Greens.) Okay, Clinton put more cops on the streets...(Mercs for the rich.) And he killed those poor kids in Waco and Oklahoma City. (Some may disagree with me. Watch documentaries on Google Video or Information Clearing House(.info). Oh, and Bill let his brother rot in the Pen for coke...And let the CIA fly tons of coke into MENA, Arkansas during the 80's...(Check out the MENA Connection, on Google Video.) Cutting short the rag on Clinton? The Republicans are through...Ron Paul may win the primary. (I like the dude.) But a Democrat will win. Unfortunately, a CFR member. Obama or Clinton. (Kuchinich is the long shot. I like him too.)I'll vote either Unity 08 or Greens. Cause I don't see Ron Paul or Dennis Kuchinich winning the primaries.Peace out! Bring our brothers and sisters home. NOW!Heyman Nationwide 08.09.07 - 10:48 pm

posting problem ?

We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.
When reporting this error to Blogger Support or on the Blogger Help Group, please:
Describe what you were doing when you got this error. Provide the following error code and additional information. bX-9z85b6 Additional informationblogID: 28870944host: www.blogger.comuri: /post-create.do
This information will help us to track down your specific problem and fix it! We apologize for the inconvenience.

US Hegemony Spawns Russian-Chinese Military Alliance 2

Thank you for your ongoing efforts to wake the sheeple up Mr Roberts. The Chinese and Soviets do understand the consequences of ill-informed and ill-advised war mongering. That is why you never see them engaging in it. It is not too much of a stretch to think that they are planning to take America "out" for "its own good".Nothing But The Truth 08.09.07 - 3:09 pm #

Putin has done a great deal to ensure the free world is armed against the US Purple-Wire-Monster-Beast. He deserves an enormous amount of credit for his foresight and intelligent chess-play.Any Europeans at ICH, please, share your thoughts about the potential of becoming a nuclear crater for the sake of ol' George W.BigPearl 08.09.07 - 3:21 pm #

The neocons and Israel know that they are in their last throes. Their last card is to use tactical nuclear weapons in order to send the message to the whole world: Don't Mess with Us. They would love to use them against Iran but they cannot as they would hurt the economies of the Western world by disrupting the oil flowing from this region. So Pakistan is a good target. Moreover, the whole invasion of Afghanistan was not to oust the Taliban for some oil pipeline but mainly to be close to Pakistan the only Moslem nation that posseses nuclear weapons. This proximity would allow them either to neutralize or destroy Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.A Moslem nuclear weapon presents a real threat to Israel which through its fifth column in the administration and media usurped US sovereignty. Frankly I think that the Generals of the US army should upheld their oath to the US constitution and act accordingly. Their primary allegiance is to the Constitution and not to the commander in chief.Deceived 08.09.07 - 3:29 pm #

@Deseived, well said...A US friend since the 50’s is been encircled by US and India by the design of necons…..Nuclear deal with India, US high tech jobs flooded to India and Israeli weapons, such as Arrow missile defense system. US offering F18 and other modern weapon systems to India. The only fault of Pakistan is that it is a Muslim country….concerned american 08.09.07 - 3:53 pm #

That another bloc is forming to oppose the threat posed by the U.S. is fortunate. Hopefully it will grow quickly.It is the only solution that will bring to a halt the hegemonic ambitions of America and its greed-driven armament industry!Daniel Homepage 08.09.07 - 4:26 pm #

Thanks Paul, I need that!Paul Craig Roberts delivers on a promise to get rough with the neocons and pulls out the stops in his" U.S. Hedgmony Spawns Russian-Chinese military alliance."Lets get to the hard and sharp point here without mixing words.Bush and Cheney have DESTROYED a great deal of hard work which ended the cold war and ushered in an era of comparative peace on the planet. WHY?The economy of the United States dependes on war as a hedge against a sell off on Wall Street. Pretty ugly,huh? Yes, very ugly.We can't go back and start over , so lets start now with a reality check.How are we going to get these assholes out of Washington D.C. and install an emergency government to stop the bleeding. I know what your thinking and it won't work. If we shoot the bastards we are in for marshall law and we are better off without that. Trust me.Talk is cheap. We have to get up close and very personal if we are to get serious with the GOP in congress and break the neocons back for good.Attack AIPAC for all we are worth. We have plenty of information and many of the names of the ringleaders so just look them up and get as close to scareing the shit out of these weakest of the weak .The Religious right is up to their eyeballs in scandal . Most of it is scarcly below the surface on their books and easily leveraged to bring out the truth in the leadership. Dig it up and throw it in their faces in public forums. This will send them our message to end the racist rhetoric, (armageddon,the Isreali "project" etc)The arms companies are outr toughest adversary . They all have mercinaries in Iraq and in their headquarters. Bodygaurds and security staff are linked to CIA and FBI section chiefs. We must exploit the callusion between government and private enterprise angle while threatening to expose financial wrongdoing to the newspapers if they retaliate against our information warfare.Brandywine peace community has enough dirt on Lockheed Martin to fill the indian ocean(get it). Go for them and get the facts before loading your hard drives with research. Put it all on paper first, then get it out fast on a new pc with new spyware.Bechtel can be had by doing the research concerning their water rights theft in third world countries. Also a boatload of info can be found concerning their Iraq contract abuses and murderous rampages against Iraqi citizens by proxies in the Iraqi theatre tied to Dick Cheney.KBR and Halliburton are our bonanza piece in their near suicidal use of mercinary help to the tune of over fifty thousand murders in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also hold a gun to our vice presidents head if he squeals. Bush can be had by the blow job!jerry gates 08.09.07 - 4:42 pm #

There is a three part series on Asia Times with a german perspective on the neo-conservative infiltration of European politics and media.Here is a link:http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/ IH10Aa01.htmlgo 08.09.07 - 6:09 pm #

Lawmakers slam alliance with USBy Our CorrespondentISLAMABAD, Aug 8: Members from both the ruling and opposition parties in the National Assembly on Wednesday kept attacking Pakistan’s alliance with the United States in the so-called ‘war against terrorism’ as a foreign policy debate, marked more by abandon than caution, was dragged out to a fourth day.Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri failed to make a scheduled speech as not many listeners were left in the house when he came to wind up the debate, which was dominated by demands for a review of a policy of perceived Pakistani subservience and American domination.After failure of hectic efforts to collect a respectable audience for the foreign minister’s speech, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi moved a motion, and got it passed, to extend the debate to a fourth day on Thursday, when the house will meet at 9:30am.There were hardly about 40 members present in the 342-seat house at the time and Mr Kasuri’s speech could have been blocked if an opposition member had pointed out the lack of the 86-member quorum.Most of the criticism was focused on the latest US legislation tying aid to Pakistan to its performance in fighting terrorism, a US nuclear deal with India, and controversial statements by two presidential hopefuls — Democrat Senator Barak Obama that he would be ready to send troops to Pakistani tribal areas in search of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and by Republican Tom Tancredo suggesting to threaten attacks on Islam's holiest sites in Makkah and Medina to deter a nuclear attack on the United States.Some ruling party members seemed to compete with those of religious parties in denouncing the US for allegedly being ‘insincere’ to Pakistan and harming the Muslim world.But some other members of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML)-led ruling coalition, including Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan and Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar, defended the government's foreign policy and countered the opposition’s criticism.Criticism by members of the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP), too, was punctuated with words of caution in foreign affairs dealings and a stress on a full transition to democracy.AMERICAN ANGER: While an anti-American speech by parliamentary secretary for defence Tanveer Hussain Syed on Tuesday sparked a sharp condemnation by the US embassy in Islamabad and a disclaimer by the foreign ministry on Wednesday, another parliamentary secretary and ruling party back-bencher were equally vehement in attacking Washington’s present and past policies towards Pakistan.“These statements are outrageous and highly reprehensible,” the embassy said about Mr Syed’s remarks that called for responding to the present situation by allowing ‘jihad’ in Kashmir and ‘recognising’ the Taliban in Afghanistan, accusing the United States of seeking to take control of an ‘independent Kashmir’ to keep a check on China, and holding the American CIA along with the Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies responsible for the killings of Chinese nationals in Pakistan.“The parliamentarian has levelled allegations that were completely unfounded and irresponsible,” said the statement issued by embassy spokesperson Elizabeth O. Colton.In her comments on Mr Syed’s statement, foreign ministry spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said these were his “individual views and do not represent the government policy”.Parliamentary secretary for defence production Mohammad Faiz Tamman said Pakistan had suffered “big jokes played by Uncle Tom” in what he called a ‘ove affair’ since the creation of the country by using its services when needed but leaving it out in the cold afterwards whether it was the fight against communism, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, or the situation created by the 9/11 attacks.“We should devise a policy so that we can restrain them (Americans) from fulfilling their designs,” he said.A PML back-bencher, Chaudhry Ejaz Ahmed, earlier said the Americans were “doing all this under a plan (and) to avenge the disgrace of their defeat in Iraq”. He described the threats of direct operation in Pakistani tribal areas as empty threats of ‘a coward nation’ and asked the government to reject any conditional aid from Washington.About Mr Tancredo’s suggestion to threaten to target Makkah and Medina, he said: “If anybody ever dared to do it, a million Muslims can become suicide attackers.”Minister of State Omar Ayub said the foreign policy pursued by the government, as well those of the previous governments of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were in national interest and successful.He described statements by the two prospective American presidential candidates as irresponsible and said they should be restrained by the US administration as they were ‘playing with fire’.Mr Sattar said Pakistan’s foreign policy had been influenced by international ‘accidents’ from the beginning such as the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the 9/11 and called for removing the impression that it was dictated by the United States.But he asked the government’s critics whether they could implement what they were saying and what alternative they had to fall back upon.concerned american 08.09.07 - 6:24 pm #

What price such a liability?By Ayaz AmirEMERGENCY, martial law, election in uniform, election from these assemblies, no return of Nawaz Sharif, a deal with Benazir on Gen Musharraf’s terms, general elections to suit the general’s convenience: this is the nonsense that Pakistan faces. And all because of one man and his paranoid desire to cling to power, no matter what the consequences. A fine gift to the country on its 60th birthday.On a sinking ship any captain with a semblance of honour and sense of duty is first concerned about the safety of his passengers and crew. He is the last man to leave the ship. In our case this concept of honour has been turned on its head. A helmsman for eight years, not satisfied that he has been around for so long, is concerned only about himself. His ship is sinking but he wants everyone to go down with him.This has nothing to do with the Constitution, or the 17th Amendment or any other legal document. This is megalomania pure and simple (my dictionary defining megalomania thus: obsession with the exercise of power…delusion about one’s own power or importance, typically as a symptom of manic or paranoid disorder).It is also akin to Hitler’s mental condition in his bunker as the Red Army closed in, determined to take the German nation down with him. That is why he ordered a ‘scorched earth’ policy, the destruction of everything, including basic infrastructure, the last embers of his anger not so much against his enemies as against his own people who he felt had not been strong or Aryan enough to prevail against the odds. (A good thing for Germany his orders weren’t carried out.)Wounded, stricken, paralysed…we are running out of words and metaphors to describe this dispensation in its last throes. No one has cornered or paralysed Pakistan’s imitation Cromwell. He has brought all this on himself – the author of his own misfortunes, his powers of imagination circumscribed by his fears.He feels he is riding a tiger and will be devoured if he gets down. This is wrong imagery. We are a forgiving nation. We did nothing to Yayha Khan, who presided over Pakistan’s biggest disgrace. Nothing ever happened to that other military hero, Lt Gen Amir Abdullah Khan ‘Tiger’ Niazi, who surrendered to Jagjit Singh Aurora in Dhaka’s Race Course Ground. The tiger and his riding are only in Musharraf’s imagination.Provided he can bring himself to trust the Constitution, provided even at this late stage he can think of something beyond his survival, he can still play a role in the transition from this wretched halfway house, betwixt military authoritarianism and democracy, to something more closely resembling democracy. But how do you treat a victim of his own fears? About ‘wehm’ or nameless suspicions it is said even the great Hakim Luqman had no cure.Musharraf wants everything tailor-made to his fears. He wants to remain army chief. He wants to become president for another five years while still retaining his army position. He wants to be elected by these assemblies when their own tenures are about to finish. He wants general elections in which his allies are assured of victory. He wants to keep Nawaz Sharif out of the political arena. He wants to cut a deal with Benazir on his terms.A thousand desires, each more pressing than the other. Alas, the time for them is past. For seven and a half years Pakistan lay at Musharraf’s feet. I do not exaggerate: he did as he pleased. The holy fathers danced to his tune and gave him the 17th Amendment, parliament was a rubber stamp and political parties were supine. Things have changed.March 9 happened when Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry stood up to military diktat. Then May 12 when the MQM, trying to be more loyal than the king, overplayed its hand in Karachi, leading to the killing of move than 40 people. Then July 20, when the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ramday wrote judicial history by declaring invalid all the steps taken against the Chief Justice. This was the first such reverse suffered by a military ruler in Pakistan’s history.The republic we await is yet far away. But something has happened. The Pakistani nation was so demoralised it had even stopped dreaming. That gift if nothing else now stands restored.In this new mood the people of Pakistan won’t put up with such things as the imposition of emergency. As for martial law, the last option of tinpot patriarchs in the terminal stages of distress, its first casualty will be Musharraf, and its second the army when it shoulders the onus of a move bound to be reviled across the political and social spectrum.This has not been a good period for the army’s standing with the Pakistani public. We don’t need this gulf to widen. And Pakistan can do without sinking to the level of Myanmar.Lord in heaven, after 60 years of existence still stuck at the beginning, still trying to figure out our first steps. Don’t we deserve better than this? Was this the land of hope and freedom envisaged by Iqbal and Jinnah – a playground to some of the most incompetent straw-packed heroes it has been the lot of any Third World country to endure?Top brass stacked with favourites, the criterion for promotion these past eight years loyalty rather than competence in the field. Look at the Vice Chief: a veritable replica of Genghis Khan. A good thing any test of arms is the last thing on the general staff’s mind, otherwise the kind of steeped-in-politics command we have right now would be hard put to maintain its own in the field.Of what use our eastern cantonments? Time to dismantle them and turn them into defence housing colonies. Will F-16s and a new GHQ make us look better and more respected in the comity of nations? As for our nuke capability, for all the good it is doing us, the time may have come to hawk it as high-grade scrap on the international market.The stupid games we play and have been playing for the last 60 years. The imposition of emergency for what? To save Pakistan or save someone’s skin? Pakistan will be saved and preserved by its people, not for the next ten years but a thousand years.The space for freedom acquired over the last six months is a gift from no one. It has been won by the spirit and doughtiness of the Pakistani people: Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Justice Rana Bhagwandas, the judges’ bench headed by Justice Ramday, the judges who resigned and those who showed solidarity with the judicial movement, the lawyers of Pakistan in the forefront of this movement, the leadership of the bar led by Munir Malik, the lawyers who defended the Chief Justice, especially Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Kurd who set the movement alight with his oratory, activists of political parties, ordinary people of this country who in their thousands greeted the Chief Justice.Let me not forget Javed Hashmi who manfully endured prison and on his release by the Supreme Court has received a hero’s welcome. He speaks now in a language marked by conviction and seriousness.Did the people of Pakistan do all this so as to endure another round of dictatorship? The future beckons. The Supreme Court is hearing the petition of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif regarding their return to the country. The government is already afraid – afraid of the tumult sure to arise when the Sharifs finally return. The lawyers are gearing up to challenge any move to get Musharraf ‘reelected’ by these assemblies. The Q League is frightened and its leadership does not know what to do.The country is reaching out to the future, bracing for change. There could be no greater sign of weakness or failure than the imposition of emergency. The generalissimo on more than one occasion has pooh-poohed this idea. Is this another solemn pledge about to be broken?Over the last eight years we have had our ears filled with talk of commando courage. Isn’t it time to honour the code of the commando for once? There is no need to be afraid of the Constitution. There is a right way of doing things and if this road is followed, many of the things that seem threatening may not be that frightening after all. Every military ruler in our history has had to be pushed out. Why not do things differently this time?concerned american 08.09.07 - 6:28 pm #

First AIPAC must be cleared out along with their dual passport fellow travellers.Deport them all to that Sh_ty Little Country in the Middle East as a French diplomat put it a while ago.AIPAC is the dead cockroach in America's salad.If putting America's interests above those of Israel's makes one a Patriotic American Anti Semite so much the better.Mannstein 08.09.07 - 6:37 pm #

Whew, that's a sobering article. I need to take a break before reading what others think.CK Homepage 08.09.07 - 6:41 pm #

Chinese have wisdom; Russians balls; neocons have run out of options.“If only a sweet young thing would volunteer to give Bush a blowjob so that he can be impeached before he leads us to Armageddon”Israelis keep dispatching their sweetens, highly trained in the art of giving a blowjob; alas, ol’ tinkler’s skin flute is all dried up.a reader 08.09.07 - 7:21 pm #

Without nuclear weapons America is a pushover for Russia and China, either individually or collectively. Right now, the American military is broken. Even a country like Iran could beat it. Just look at their performance in Iraq and Afghanistan. "The world's best and most powerful military" cannot even defeat a bunch of rag tag guerrillas numbering in the tens of thousands whose most sophisticated weapon is a rocket propelled grenade launcher. Does anyone seriously believe that that military would stand much of a chance against sophisticated militaries like the Russians and Chinese? The neocons and their camp followers can thank their lucky stars that America does have nuclear weapons. The possession of those weapons has made it possible for America to pursue an aggressive, interventionist and imperialist foreign policy, with relative ease.However if America gets into a shooting war with Russia and/or China, you can bet your bottom dollar that the neocons would be scared shitless and not use their nuclear weapons. They do not have a death wish. They certainly don't believe in martyrdom. From a larger historical perspective, the American military has never, with one exception, fought a truly competent military opponent on its own and defeated that opponent without significant help in the form of powerful allies, a weakened or bogged down opponent, facing a much reduced part of an opponent's military or an opponent not bringing to bear its full military power. The only exception is Japan during World war II. Even then America had the advantage of being able to read the Japanese secret codes. How well they would have done otherwise is a big question mark. They certainly would not have won the Battle of Midway, which was the turning point in the Pacific War.Sam 08.09.07 - 7:29 pm #

Good job PCR!!! The fuse is lit and we're all standing around with our fingers in our ears waiting for the fireball to deliver us to the Bosum of the Creator.With PNAC, your will's will be done even if it kills us all. I wonder if it would make a difference if we instead offered up Bush and Cheney as a human sacrifice instead of arranging a blowjob? - sorry, I just naturally gag at the thought of Cheney naked!PS - I knew Borat was a spy!!!Angel Gabriel 08.09.07 - 7:48 pm #

If the world leaders had any sense or balls, the entire planet would unite against the USA & israel, the enemies of peace, democracy & the human race.Al 08.09.07 - 7:56 pm #

The one fact mentioned that should be noted is that the Neo Cons, the political militry industrial groups, are not acting in secret they actually advertize their agendas.Thee is more than ample evidence out there as to what the past, present and future leadership has in store for the world.many people have been playing this mind game sicne the 50's and formation of House on Un-American activitys and to us for over 50 years now the direction of nation never vered from it empire building with a fascist form of government.We watched the Republican or more rightly GOP set up the economic foundations while the Democratic wing set up the social programming needed to implement this program.The true American of the militias in the south and heartlands complaining about government encroachment into their daily lives could not be understood by easterns masses of popualce who depended since 1940's for government intervention and running of thier lives.That those in power broke the backs of American Independence of small governemtn believers of militia, the Social Democrats saying they were a threat to child care and low income housing while the repubs used the demos want your guns and gradually turned them into todays hard core Fascist militaristic groups.Many groups who defended Constituional Articles were allowed to be killed thier lands confiscated and all this culminated by botht the Social Democrats and GOp need for a police state formation when everyone sat by and watched US military kill Americans at WACO and Ruby Ridge and cheered the end results.This allowed the formation of a federalized domestic police force..Bush's Mandate and the new HB 700?, elimination of Possee Commitatus Laws and under the guise of protecting Americans after the towers fell Habeascorpus was gone with the wind along with 4 parts to our Constituion.All laws replaced by the Homeland Secuerity ACT, Patriot ACT and no one can read what is the full text but a very small group of people.We have been living in a form of Voluntary Slavery mainly because of greed and stupidity.To make it shorter , what it all boils down to is that for reasons all so clearly known we allowed those in power to gradually break Constituional Limits set in place by our Constituion in Speical Interest partiononing Bills until it was so weakend as to be not there except in the mindds being manipualted by Governeing bodies and fiancial managers.The demos to this day believe they can restructure the social infrastructure of the US or even Iraq or Somalia and Venezuela in partner ship with the fiancial entity of Gzop connections with the Corps.As an example of this collaberation one only has to look at wehat happend in the past and is now ongoing for such atheoldman 08.09.07 - 8:12 pm #

In New Orleans we see the amount of collaberation of this eleitist attitude of Social Democracy and Corproate Fascism combining to make a BRAVE NEW WORLD.The children of New Orleans are the guinea pigs to be used in one part this experiment.Remember now Democrats cried for fiancial relif and heloped move the greater part of New Orleans residence out of area and immediately the Corproate secotr divided the wasted city hired low cost Mexican laborers and the Democratic Governor and Mayor of the city sat down with FEMA to discuss how to build.No member of old city council had a vote in new direction as under the laws of country it was a disater ara and under true martial law.FEMA was moved to be under HOmeland Security, the Religious Right were the faith based Chairtys to distribute goods.The school age children will be divided into two classes and go to two distinctly different schooling systems.The testing of children will determine what class of schooling they shall recieve; with top 50% of the highest test scores will attend privatized, they are calling them charter schools, while those with the lower scores will attend public schooling.Any child not found up to acceptance standards at charter schools will be sent to public schools.These charter schools it seems will be mostly whites, under old systems the whites lived near the better schools and recived more funding for eduction befor ethe flooding so score higher overall than most blacks, but some blacks will still make it.Teh Charter schools have the smallest class to teacher size, roomier classrooms with more teaching aides and aids than will the public schools, around 30% to 59% less students per teacher.This is but an example of what both partys have long sought, an educated class to manage both industry and government including schools, with a highly trainable mass of workers for future industrial and military needs.READ WHAT THE PROGRAM IS DOING! IT IS NO SECRET; except to those who will not open their eyes.theoldman 08.09.07 - 8:30 pm #

"Neocons are people who desire war, but know nothing about it."If only a sweet young thing would volunteer to give Bush a blowjob so that he can be impeached before he leads us to Armageddon."Great, great, GREAT!And while we're at it let's add: Paul Craig Roberts, former Administration man, current dissenter. We needed this guy, and we need more like him; as many ex-government people as possible must use the strongest terms capable to condemn Bush, his neocons and the whole mess they have made.PCR is correct: Polite words are useless. Words must now be used as bayonets: Thrust hard and deep. We must find a way to get Bush and his imps out FAST.Franz 08.09.07 - 8:32 pm #

Sam,You seriously underestimate the power of the US military. It is not built for keeping the peace or occupation. It is built around kicking a whole lot of ass, real fast. The US hardware is much more advanced than the Russian or Chinese counterparts. China can't even produce a good jet themselves. They have started manufacturing one recently, but it is a knock off of an Israeli design they bought. Taiwan, a non-nation, has more advanced air craft than China.The US also has an all volunteer military that could be doubled or tripled rather quickly with a draft. In addition, if American industry was to switch to war time production such as in WWII, the Chinese and Russians would be hard pressed to keep pace. The US provided the vast majority of Allied arms in WWII. I'm not promoting war, and I can't stand the Neo-Con assholes in charge. Hopefully in the next year and a half, the US can start doing some house cleaing and get rid of all these people in power. I believe that it already started in November 2006.Only a fool would underestimate the US. Admittedly, the US has a lot of problems, but it amazes me how so many people on this forum critize the US, all the while promoting regimes such as Russia, China,　North Korea and so on. Russia just fired a missle into the Georgia plus the Chechniya situation, China is horrible in concern to Human Rights, and the North Korean people are starving to death for one man's ego.True the US has many problems, one of which is horrible leaders at the moment. The US has wronged many nations in the past, as it is still doing today. However, don't promote regimes, some of which are very deplorable, just because they oppose the US. The US has done many positive things in the world. What this administration does is not the will of the American people. If you want to blame your average American, then I am sure that all you Canadians, Brits, Aussie and other all support Iraq and the war or terror being that your governments all have troops in Iraq and Afganistan. We, like you, want peace. We are tired of our government committing acts in our name. Peace, GaijinAnonymous 08.09.07 - 8:34 pm #

@ theoldman --Correct, the regime is going out of its way bragging about what they are doing. 20 years ago they bragged about how they were able to throw hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work AND GET AWAY WITH IT.Nothing is secret. There is no "conspiracy". Michael Moore's movie, Farenheit 911, even showed the clip of G.W.Bush bragging about being one of the "Haves and Have Mores."Amazing! They steal the country right out from under the citizens, laugh and boast about it, and nothing happens!Franz 08.09.07 - 8:40 pm #

Sorry to burst anyone's bubble but the joke about wishing someone would give W a bj has been making the rounds for a while and PCR is not its author.°kamo Homepage 08.09.07 - 8:40 pm #

Yes, the US military is directed towards total destruction. The question is now reversed. The Russian and Chinese military and, for that matter their economies, are also directed towards occupation (economical occupation in the case of the USA) and not destruction of our nation.These nations have learned from previous wars that destruction is a loose-loose result of such destructive-only war policy.The USA government, in its delusion, has the mentality of destruction at all costs.This policy is being used in Iraq where the USA wants to control it as a territory not as a nation.Gamal Akabani 08.09.07 - 8:43 pm #

Hey Gaijin, hate to bring it up, but the good ol' US is bancrupt and Chinese are paying your bills. BTW, through the history US was run by genocidal madmen, murdering 90% of your native population and millions arond the world (remember 1900 Philippines? Probaly not.). It is not Bush, it is most of you, US.Wes S 08.09.07 - 8:43 pm #

The author is reading to much “Weekly Standard”, I have given some examples of civil society of Pakistan and they will not bring a so called “Islamic revolution”, revolution has no religion Mr. ………….Pakistanis could bring a revolution of free election and get rid of American puppet Mush… pls stop misinforming American people about “Islamic revolution” where less than 10% Pakistanis are orthodox Muslims.concerned american 08.09.07 - 8:46 pm #

Umm who's running the ship now?? A few days ago I happened to come across an article that stated the FBI and CIA said that Bush has been on prozac, alcohol, and coke. it showed a pix of about five white house staffers standing behind Bush with his head on his desk boozed out. in front of him is an open bottle of whiskey and a glass full of the liqour.now who the hell is in charge of the country?? it is also possible that some congress members are on coke.Bluetiger 08.09.07 - 8:58 pm #

As for no secrecy, it is also with the US military where programs on tactics andsdeminars minutes of how to engage and take vvoer a country are posted evn on the Internet.Naval College is a great one for this.Some interesting observations have surfaced on US military reactions to the Iranians change of tactics during tier recent war games.Surprise, Surprise Iran did not and will not play the war game scenarios the US military and civilian experts said they would.To date no amount of incursions by manned or unmanned aircraft has drawn out Irans Radar Capabilities except for mobile units.Iran has been able to target US coverts in Kurd areea who cross border and fire inot Iraqui lands against them with artillary of which most is still in unknown positions.Iran has been able through domestic populatons to detect covert Britsh and US incursion attempts up to capturing British Special units said to be best in world.During Irans largest ever war games what surprised the Americans the most was not equipment but thier small unit with almost total local contrtol by area commanders. Capability to hide and fight without large concentration of troops or a tight central command structures as in past.Dispersal of resupply points all over the country;No large fuel or armory depots to destroy and ability of troop to remain at large for long periodss of time.Yes the US would ultimately defeat Iran but in actuality they are attempting to undermine it from within, we already have on he payroll over 9,000 Iranain defectors here and in Britian to replace as we did in Iraq the civil leaders and several thousand Iranian men being trained, as were the 5,000 so called Free Iraquis of last Gulf War fame, in old Romanian, Bulgarian, Czech and Poland camps.What makes a nuke attack so hard to achieve succes is lack of intelligence of target sites and their ability to withstand hits, widely dispursed military targets, largly mobile and the greates fear of all and one never heard too much outside of US military or within news rooms at all,Iran will not lay down without an overwhelming devestating destruction the likes not ever seen before on earth. No "shock and awe" pyro technic made for TV propaganda destruction, but a flattening and the destruction of even Iranian satelite in space.Teh most dangrous aspect of Iran, nd this has been shwon even to soem extent in Iraq by the resistance, Iran will fight only one way," IMMEDIATE AND ALL OUT TO THE DEATH WARFARE."NO HOLDS BARRED OVER THERE AND BY ANY OF THEIR AGENTS ABROAD FOR THAT MATTER.Caspian Seal area pipelines, the worlds most productive oil fields the joint Saudi Kuwiati complex, and damn near anyone who sides with the US will be targets.It is the same response as would be used by N. Korea, as recognized by the Armitage State and Mlitary Study Groups "PNAC" papers but for the Asians and not Arabs and why both countries are so troublesome.theoldman 08.09.07 - 9:21 pm #

Russia and China forced into military alliance? No need for panic. All is going according to plan. Read "The Late Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsay http://www.amazon.com/Late-Great...h/dp/ 031027771X and come to an understanding of the road map these insane ziochristian fundies are travelling towards their beloved rapture.Anonymous 08.09.07 - 9:23 pm #

For Bluetiger, Cheney is in charge and has been since he appointed himself as Bush's running mate. With Russian dominance in Europe and the near east, China's dominance in the Far East and Venzeula's dominance in South America, the neocon/zionist cabal is in deep doo doo.Hal O'Leary 08.09.07 - 9:53 pm #

Wes,The Philippines, let's see, territory the US received after the Spanish American war, ''Remember the Maine.'' That Philippines right? I happen to be rather good with history, but nice try!As far as the native population, I have Cherokee blood flowing through these veins and at one time lived on a reservation...but once again, nice try!With a good Christian name like Wes, I am wondering from what part of the world you are from. I hope not Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, being what they did to the native populations of those lands, i.e. the same thing that happened in the U.S.And Lord forbid you be European since they colonized the majority of the world for centuries and are responsible for the so many residual problems to this day i.e. in Africa and the Middle East where the British did not do a very good job of carving up the Ottoman empire, Israel, etc.However, you are spot on about China being America's banker (I read that PCR article too, plus a 1000 others). The reason why China and Japan are America's bankers is so that the War in Iraq can continue and RICH people in the US can get a tax cut. I dont and never have supported either, surpise, surprise. Oh, with the largest GDP in history, I wouldnt exactly say the US is banKrupt. It is living way too much on credit at the moment.I am interested in where you are from. Let's put your homeland under the microscope and see if you guys come off sqeeky clean shall we?Gaijin 08.09.07 - 9:55 pm #

Here is most likely Iranian warfare scenario.Israel will be the catalyst with command center located within the new capable of withstanding multiple nuclear hits US/Israel joint command military base already built in Israel.Israel will launch nuke armed planes from Israel, with protective aircraft launched from its new Kurdistan military and air fields from which they are under contrat to train covert Kurds who are already attacking Irans infrastructure.The trouble group who are now being trained, with some trainees already covertly attacking Irans Central Asian border regions, at Blackwaters US contracted Caspain Sea Speical Groups naval and military Special Operations Training center hitting Irans infrastructure and small military units.The US will wiat before attacking for the forthcoming Iranian retaliation and to then protect Israels returning fighters and figheter bombers who because of fuel needs have to return to Kurdistan. Wehn he US hits it will be targets not completley destroyed and pre selected targets not on Israels list.The one fly in onintment is , what if Iran hits back before the Israeli jets get to targets.Not a premeptive strike but one just before and before US is ready to launch its support.We need world to think Iran instigated war or at least have some form of plausible denial ready and waiting to spread the propaganda.Teh US military commqnd structure and state Dept are not nuts, but they believe we, the USD power structure, not you and I we are ants who will bear the burden later,actually believe that they can withstand, live through, and even win a full out confrontation not with just Iran if they have a nuke but both a simultaneous attack upon our homeland by China and Russia.Someone asked who is running this country, Ever hear of a guy called DR. Strangelove?WELL THEY, yes there is more than one Dr., ARE STILL ALIVE AND WELL BUT HIDING SOMEWHERE WITHIN THE SHADOW GOVERNMENT.theoldman 08.09.07 - 10:10 pm #

Phillipines Spanish American not realy a war bvy the US media manipualtion.Americans slaughtered over 100,000 indigenous Phillipinos after the Spanish had relinquished it control of territory.One famous massacre at a bridge where unarmed populace were lined up and shot with the general in charge using Gods Blessings to justify it.Lets ask the Cheerokee Nation how many of their black slaves they dragged behind them on the Trial of a Thousnd Tears and why so few of those black slaves made the whole distance?theoldman 08.09.07 - 10:17 pm #

Mannstein,You say: "AIPAC is the dead cockroach in America's salad." However disagreeable the image, I would say that "AIPAC is the very much alive and breeding cockroach in America's salad." You Americans must do something with them, and fast! As I understand your situation there, all potential candidates for the presidency in 2008 have kneeled in obeience to these cockroaches. Why is that? It can't be bribery, as the money flows in the other direction. Is it blackmail? Nah, too many candidates. Could it possibly be the Rothschildean world-wide banking system, which currently seems to be going down? That's where I'd place my 25-cent bet.Otto 08.09.07 - 10:52 pm #

Hey, Gaijin,We come to this site in order to learn, to pool resources of knowledge, and to exchange ideas. It is absolutely none of your business where anyone is from. This is not a site for ego-games: times are too serious for that.Otto 08.09.07 - 11:04 pm #

The old man,Very interesting posts from you...I more or less agree with your projected scenario on the planned USA/zionist attack upon Iran. However, in the last several days, Israel has held a top-secret cabinet meeting (8.8.07) regarding an imminent attack upon Syria, as well as issuing a travel advisory against Israeli travel in all Middle-Eastern Muslim countries (as well as asking those Israelis currently there to immediately return to Israel). The angels are now clearly dancing upon the head of a pin. Let us hope for the best.Otto 08.09.07 - 11:15 pm #