Thoughts of a veteran, Marching on Memorial Day Options

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

And I see from the upstate Albany Times Union this morning that the big news from the camp of NYS Governor Eliot "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer on this Memorial Day is that he is using his liberty to get out there some more to peddle his *** for about $2.5 MILLION at another of his interminable fund-raisers where you have to pay BIG BUCKS to get a whiff of the "STEAMROLLER'S" expensive cologne, and even bigger bucks to be seen with the "STEAMROLLER" at his private table!

All you people out there today fighting and dying for the "STEAMROLLER" to have this privilege here in America, BE PROUD that you are getting this opportunity to shed your life's blood for the cause of "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer, whatever on earth it might be, beyond enriching him own self!

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | May 28, 2007 8:23 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...end.html?page=3

[Livyjr]

The other day, I went to google and asked it for sheet music for the song "The Star-Spangeled Banner", and google referred me to a historic site, the federal government or something, where I was able to download a copy of the original sheet music penned by Frances Scott Key ....

So yesterday and today, I was out in the countryside teaching myself to play the "Star-Spangeled Banner", and there sure are a lot of notes in there .....

From one end of the neck to the other, over an octave ...

I made it through a couple of times today, from start to finish ......

But just rote playing, right now ....

Just to get the sequence down ....

Even so, it's a pretty powerful tune for me to play ...

There sure is a lot of expression in it that comes out on the banjo ....

Like they were made for each other .....

Especially out here in the country on Memorial Day ....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

Comment by Ed Rooney — May 26, 2007 @ 7:56 pm: John, I appreciate your interest in my post."

"I didn’t mean to freak you out."

"But appearently I’m far to late for that…"

"I really can’t be any more clear."

"If you need further understanding on where I’m coming just read the master (see #8 above)."

Ed Rooney says: “This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

JOHN GALT REPLIES: Ed Rooney, please, please, clear your conscience!

In no way did you “freak me out”, and to be truthful, Ed, you’re not really capable of doing that, but that is alright, Ed, you’re still a real cool dude in here, notwithstanding!

And I did go back and re-read one more time your post up there in #8, which I cut-and-pasted down to here, to save people the effort of having to scroll back up there to see for themselves what is was that you said ….

And all it is is a PLATITUDE, Ed!

It means absolutely nothing!

Or to put it another way, it means whatever it means to whomever reads it!

And with that said, I in my turn would refer you back to post #25 above here, where the words you quote could well have been said, and in essence were said, although in a much more laconic fashion, which is to say, “unemotional”, and “short and to the point”, by American General John Stark on August 16, 1777, those words being spoken not far from where I am sitting right now writing these words back to you on this fine Memorial Day morning:

“See there, men!”

“There are the red-coats.”

“Before night they are ours, or Molly Stark will be a widow.”

end quotes

The way I see it, Ed, because John Stark and all of those brave Americans back then never yielded to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy sent over here by the TYRANT King George III in England to crush the American people, people like me today in America get to celebrate Memorial Day as free American citizens, rather than as lackeys and lick-spittles and boot-lickers and such to some TYRANT English king or queen …

And so, Ed ….

I quess we can both say that freedom and liberty are really in the eye of the beholder ….

Which is cool with me ….

Who am but one one of America’s many disabled veterans out here in the countryside on this fine Memorial Day morning ….

Who is about to depart my seat here to go out and play “Amazing Grace” to all my dead veteran friends who never made it back to here after going to Viet Nam ….

Where they met their own ends …

So that you could write platitudes in the Albany, New York Times Union all these years later ….

And so ….

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4719#comments

Posted by: John Galt | May 28, 2007 3:01 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...end.html?page=4

[Livyjr]

"Iraq veterans protest war with drama - Theater piece staged throughout New York City aims to bring the realities of conflict home"

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press

First published: Monday, May 28, 2007

NEW YORK -- Iraq war veterans who oppose the war went on mock patrols and staged mock arrests Sunday in a roving guerrilla theater piece designed to bring the war home.

Wearing camouflage fatigues and pointing imaginary guns, a half-dozen veterans subdued a crowd of anti-war protesters playing Iraqi civilians, throwing some of them roughly to the ground and handcuffing them.

"We believe that this is bringing the truth of the war here, the reality of the war here," said Demond Mullins, 25, of Brooklyn, who served in Iraq as an infantryman with the Army National Guard in 2004 and 2005.

"We should be ever mindful of the troops who are giving their lives, and we should be ever mindful of the dishonesty, the absence of truth that has caused us to engage in this war."

The protest, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, was repeated at sites around Manhattan, including Times Square, Union Square and the World Trade Center site.

It was dubbed Operation First Casualty, recalling the adage that truth is the first casualty in war.

At least 3,450 members of the U.S. military have died since the start of the war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

President Bush signed a war spending bill Friday that does not set a date for troop withdrawals.

"By Bush logic, to support the troops means to fund the mission," said Adam Kokesh, 25, of Washington, D.C., who served in Fallujah with the Marine Corps in 2004.

"But the more the troops are funded, the more of them are going to die."

[Livyjr]

"Breyer shares wit, wisdom - During Albany lecture, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice praises key role of Constitution"

By SCOTT WALDMAN, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007

ALBANY -- U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer keeps the Constitution close to his heart.

Literally.

He pulled a copy of it out of his suit pocket during a lecture in Albany Tuesday night and said it was an essential tool for his job and for the country.

Breyer's speech -- the first in a lecture series at the Court of Appeals -- is also the first time a Supreme Court justice has visited the state's highest court in recent memory.

He spoke in the courtroom where the state's top judges hear appeals.

Breyer, 68, who took his seat on the Supreme Court in August 1994 after being nominated by President Bill Clinton, spoke for more than an hour about the relationship of democracy to the Constitution to a capacity crowd of more than 100 people.

He said the Constitution creates legal boundaries within which a society can thrive.

He said it ensures that the average citizen has a role in government.

"It isn't judges who decide how people will live in their community," Breyer said.

"It is those people who will decide, through democracy."

He said the Constitution encourages conversation, which strengthens the democratic process.

The Constitution often forces people with opposing points of view to reach some middle point of compromise during the American judicial process, Breyer said.

Breyer elicited numerous bursts of laughter with humorous self-deprecating quips, and jabs that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. -- who was appointed by President Bush -- needed a "little time" with complex cases.

Christine Ward, a state archivist, chuckled at many of Breyer's comments.

She said she was impressed that a man in such a prominent job could be so down-to-earth.

"I found it interesting to hear the humanity in the man," Ward said.

Breyer also told personal tales of some of his time on the Supreme Court.

He said it took him almost three years to adjust to life as a Supreme Court associate justice.

He got chuckles from the crowd when he recalled the understated advice of Associate Justice Harry Blackmun, whose retirement created the seat Breyer filled.

"He said, 'You'll find this an unusual assignment,' and I have," Breyer said.

Scott Waldman can be reached at 454-5080 or by e-mail at swaldman@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Breyer shares wit, wisdom - During Albany lecture, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice praises key role of Constitution"

By SCOTT WALDMAN, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007

ALBANY -- U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer keeps the Constitution close to his heart.

He said it ensures that the average citizen has a role in government.

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

Say, staffer ....

Who got Livyjr censored over there at the NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE BLOG?

We figure it must have been your crowd .....

Someone gave an editor over there a "cigar" ....

And a nice little pat on the head ....

Along with some marching orders as to what to leave out of the NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE BLOG ....

So that we can then all believe that this farce being presented to us in the "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer made-for-TV soap opera is really "good government" ...

Because "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer and the NY TIMES are telling us that it is ....

Even though that is nothing but pure hog swill ....

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | May 30, 2007 7:00 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...e.html#comments

[Livyjr]

A SERIOUS MESSAGE TO THE CANDID WORLD:

TO THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG 10:58 AM EST; 1 June 2007

COMMUNICATIONS HAVE GONE DOWN:

John Galt is not posting in here because our communications network out in the countryside appears to have been compromised in some way that has severed our link with the outside world through Internet Explorer, along with this BLOG, our e-mail, and the NY Daily News Daily Politics BLOG ....

Interestingly, we can still access the NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE BLOG, but to no avail, since we cannot post anything there, having been apparently "locked out" of that BLOG, after one of the members of our disabled veterans' community out here in the countryside, Livyjr, had posted a series of articles on the constitutional separation of powers of our government here in NYS pursuant to the provisions of our NYS Constitution, which separation of powers in this state begins with WE, THE PEOPLE, and not Joe Bruno or Eliot Spitzer ....

This transmission is being posted from a random location which requires us to have to travel some distance to reach it, which makes its use by us a prohibitive expenditure of our scant resources ....

So until we can diagnose how our computer network was taken off the air, and repair the damge, our voices will no longer be heard ....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

"America's Iraq strategy boosts US combat losses"

By Gordon Lubold, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Fri Jun 1, 4:00 AM ET

Washington - May's spike in the American death toll in Iraq is the result of the administration's new approach in Iraq – as much as it is the enemy's own "surge" of attacks against US forces.

In strategic terms, it's called taking it to the enemy.

But analysts warn that if the number of US casualties continues at their current high level through the summer, that could raise questions about whether the strategy is actually working.

May has already been difficult – the third-deadliest month since the Iraq war began.

In a candid briefing Thursday, Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of Multinational Corps-Iraq, warned that the situation would be difficult in the months ahead.

But the rising number of Americans killed comes as a result not only of insurgent activity but also from US operations in places that forces have not been before.

Such operations by US and Iraqi forces have had their impact, Lieutenant General Odierno said.

Since January, 17,946 insurgents, terrorists, or other bad actors have been detained.

Of those, nearly 1,500 are considered "high value targets."

US and Iraqi forces have also killed more than 3,180 enemy fighters; another 1,016 have been wounded, he said.

Insurgents have reacted to the offensives and are now aggressively using improvised explosive devices as a defensive tactic.

"What we're finding is, the insurgents and the extremists use [improvised explosive devices] as their own little security and support zones and they use large buried IEDs in areas [where] we have not been before," Odierno said.

"And some of them have been somewhat effective, which has raised our death toll."

Much of the violence is in and around Baghdad, where Odierno said the sectarian lines are blurry and where it can be difficult to allow political reconciliation to occur – and violence to decrease.

But as hard as it is to see the glass half full at times in Iraq, reconciliation, he said, is the real answer to a stable Iraq.

"I will not be too optimistic, I will wait and see; I've been here too long to be too optimistic about anything we've moved forward with, but I do see this as an opportunity," said Odierno.

"We're all tired of Iraqis dying, we're tired of Americans dying, and if we can reach out and conduct reconciliation and come across in a peaceful way, and move forward in Iraq, that is a much better way to do this."

The number of American casualties tell the story of the toll of war.

As of Thursday, the Pentagon had confirmed 110 fatalities in May with as many as 12 more as yet unconfirmed.

The two deadliest months occurred in April and November 2004, when major US offensives resulted in death tolls of 135 and 137 respectively.

Much of the recent violence is attributed to the new approach under Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq.

Under his counterinsurgency strategy – "clear, hold, and build," now with more emphasis on the hold and build aspects – US forces are more exposed than they were before, conducting more patrols and living in 58 decentralized bases around Baghdad called combat outposts and joint security stations.

The final elements of the surge of US forces announced in January are arriving in Iraq over the next week or so.

Odierno will provide his assessment of progress in Iraq come August.

In turn, General Petraeus, his boss, will provide an overall assessment to President Bush, Congress and the American public come September.

But Odierno cautioned that it's likely that his assessment could well say that he needs more time to truly make a determination about progress in Iraq.

That sounds about right to T.X. Hammes, a retired Marine colonel and an expert on counterinsurgencies who said the violence was to be expected.

He sees the effort as a long-term one that even now won't offer up any overnight solutions.

"People shouldn't be looking for an answer by September," he says.

"Counterinsurgencies are a decades-long progress."

There are other factors that are driving up the violence in Iraq right now.

Al Qaeda is growing stronger, and extremist militias like the Mahdi Army, led by Moqtada al-Sadr, are retaliating, analysts say.

If those factors and others contribute to a sustained level of violence over the summer, one may have to question if the approach under Petraeus is working, says Michael O'Hanlon, a senior analyst at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington.

"If that continues, what it means is that you're not actually weakening them, but you're just allowing them to regenerate, and they are capable of doing so," says Mr. O'Hanlon.

"If the intensity continues ... then it looks like a strategy that is ultimately futile."

Fatality rates are a dangerous metric to use to gauge success or failure in Iraq, anyway, he says, because there are so many other factors that could play into success or failure in Iraq.

On the other hand, they do say something.

"It is possible that you could have progress and not see US fatality rates go down for awhile, but I think it's relatively hard to imagine that we would start losing 100 people a month for the summer and be able to term this strategy successful."

One place that continues to be much more peaceful is Anbar Province, a Sunni enclave to the west of Baghdad.

There has been a nearly 50 percent drop in violence after tribal leaders turned against Sunni extremists and Al Qaeda, providing them with fewer safe havens than those groups had had there.

In May, there were 400 incidents of violence or other attacks in Anbar, down from more than 810 in May 2006.

In the provincial capital of Ramadi, there were 254 attacks in May last year, and only 30 this month, Odierno said.

But he conceded that Anbar is not as diverse as Baghdad or other areas, making it easier to quiet the violence.

"The success we've had in Anbar is tremendous, but that is actually one of the simpler places in Iraq," he said.

"But it's a good start and we have to build off that."

[Livyjr]

"VFW backs vet in trouble over protest"

By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:23 a.m., Saturday, June 2, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The nation's largest combat veterans group on Friday urged the military to "exercise a little common sense" and call off its investigation of a group of Iraq war veterans who wore their uniforms during anti-war protests.

"Trying to hush up and punish fellow Americans for exercising the same democratic right we're trying to instill in Iraq is not what we're all about," said Gary Kurpius, national commander of the 2.4 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"Someone in the Marine Corps needs to exercise a little common sense and put an end to this matter before it turns into a circus," Kurpius said.

Marine Cpl. Adam Kokesh had already received an honorable discharge from active duty before he was photographed in March wearing fatigues -- with military insignia removed -- during a mock patrol with other veterans protesting the Iraq war.

A military panel in Kansas City, Mo., will hold a hearing Monday to decide whether he should be should be discharged from service and, if so, with what type of discharge.

Col. Dave Lapan, a Marine Corps spokesman, said Kokesh is under administrative review because he wore his uniform at a political event, which is prohibited.

And, Lapan said, when a senior officer told Kokesh that he violated military regulations, Kokesh used an obscenity and indicated he would not comply with the rules.

"It's the political activity that is prohibited, not the type of event that it was," Lapan said.

"If it had been a pro-war rally, it would still have been a violation."

The panel could recommend an honorable discharge, a general discharge or an other than honorable discharge.

Kokesh could not be given a dishonorable discharge, which generally results from a court-martial.

The final decision would be made by the commanding general.

A second Marine who was at the same event was also called about the violation, but told the officer he was unaware he was breaking the rules and said he would not do it again, Lapan said.

That Marine has not been called to an administrative hearing.

Kurpius said the possibility of receiving a less than honorable discharge from service could threaten educational and other benefits Kokesh is eligible to receive from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The action might also prevent Kokesh from future employment opportunities that require a security clearance, Kurpius said.

"We all know that people give up some individual rights when they join the military," Kurpius said.

"But these Marines went to war, did their duty, and were honorably discharged from the active roles."

"I may disagree with their message, but I will always defend their right to say it."

Kokesh received his honorable discharge after one combat tour in Iraq, but he remains part of the Individual Ready Reserve, a pool of former active duty service members in unpaid, non-drill status.

Kokesh's attorney, Michael Lebowitz, has called the investigation an effort to stifle critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy.

------

Associated Press Writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

end quotes

Actually, it sounds like he was given his separation papers from formal active duty, and not an Honorable Discharge from military service, which he would get at the end of his total commitment, but why should the media worry about accuracy at this stage of the game ....

[Livyjr]

"Mick Ryan's Lament"

From Two Journeys

(1999 by Robert Emmet Dunlap, Prodigal Salmon Music/ASCAP)

Well my name is Mick Ryan, I'm lyin still
In a lonely spot near where I was killed
By a red man defending his native land
In the place that they call Little Big Horn

And I swear I did not see the irony
When I rode with the Seventh Cavalry
I thought that we fought for the land of the free
When we rode from Fort Lincoln that morning

And the band they played the Garryowen
Brass was shining, flags a flowin
I swear if I had only known
I'd have wished that I'd died back at Vicksburg

For my brother and me, we had barely escaped
From the hell that was Ireland in forty eight
Two angry young lads who had learned how to hate
But we loved the idea of Amerikay

And we cursed our cousins who fought and bled
In their bloody coats of bloody red
The sun never sets on the bloody dead
Of those who have chosen an empire

But we'd find a better life somehow
In the land where no man has to bow
It seemed right then and it seems right now
That Paddy he died for the union

Ah, but Michael he somehow got turned around
He had stolen the dream that he thought he'd found
Now I never will see that holy ground
For I turned into something I hated

And I'm haunted by the Garryowen
Drums a beating, bugles blowin'
I swear if I had only known
I'd lie with my brother in Vicksburg

And the band they played that Garryowen
Brass was shin, flags a flowin'
I swear if I had only known, I'd lie with
my brother at Vicksburg

http://www.timobrien.net/Lyrics2.cfm?ID=176

[Livyjr]

"Hot war seen from cool 'crow's nest'"

By CHARLES J. HANLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 3:42 a.m., Saturday, June 2, 2007

A U.S. AIR BASE, Southwest Asia -- "We have a downed helo."

The words, in bright type, riveted Ken Edwards to one of his five computer screens.

From his raised platform -- a "crow's nest" at the heart of a cavernous operations room known as the "Kay-Ock" -- the Air Force lieutenant colonel glanced up at an electronic wall display.

The towering map was alive with ghostly blue figures flitting through its skies, splotches of "friendly" troops spread blue among its towns, and now an urgent yellow rectangle, tagged "TIC," troops in contact.

The ever-changing picture was the war in Iraq -- digitized.

The TIC marked the site of a U.S. helicopter crash north of Baghdad on Monday.

The nervous blue figures were aircraft rushing to the spot.

It's the American way of war, 21st-century style: A life-or-death drama playing out among the palms and heat of the Iraqi countryside was being mirrored in the air-conditioned calm of this secretive military nerve center 800 miles away. '

By day's end -- Memorial Day 2007, when President Bush loomed large on another giant screen here eulogizing America's war dead -- 10 more would join what he called a "new generation of heroes."

Inside the CAOC -- the Combined Air and Space Operations Center -- they weren't listening to Bush's address.

The dozens of Air Force officers were too busy at their keyboards orchestrating hundreds of flights over Iraq and Afghanistan -- by strike aircraft, transports and tankers, surveillance planes and now a rescue mission.

"I hardly get a chance to see anything here," Edwards said over his shoulder when a reporter pointed out Bush, bigger than life on the TV screen above.

The Air Force had allowed a journalist a glimpse of the CAOC in action, on condition that no security-sensitive information be disclosed and the host country not be identified because of its sensitivity to being spotlighted as the site of a large U.S. air base.

The vast, state-of-the-art CAOC opened just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, in a three-story-high space of some 20,000 square feet, a "warehouse" where 500 military personnel work in round-the-clock shifts to oversee the daily ATO -- the Air Tasking Order whose flight assignments last Monday covered some 170 pages.

Across the darkened floor, the faces of Air Force professionals in jumpsuits glowed in the light of computer monitors as they quietly did their jobs in 11 "cells," from space satellite reconnaissance, to midair refueling, to search and rescue.

On the soaring wall above, a dozen outsized video screens displayed weather forecasts, video from Predator surveillance drones aloft in the war zones, even a view of Iraq from space, watching for the telltale flame of an anti-aircraft missile launch.

Edwards' Combat Operations unit is charged with real-time execution of the ATO drawn up by Combat Plans, a division whose informal symbol, a house of cards, denotes the fragility of each day's well-laid plans.

This day was no different.

At "1421 Zulu," 6:21 p.m. Baghdad time, Edwards spotted the "helo down" alert on one of the 13 military chat groups he monitors, computer forums linking aviation operators.

A two-man OH-58 scout helicopter from the Army's Task Force Lightning had "put down for an unknown reason" in Iraq's embattled Diyala province, he explained.

Edwards, 47, an A-10 fighter pilot from Potomac, Md., quickly determined that Baghdad air staff had diverted a pair of home base-bound F-16 fighters to the scene.

But the Air Force jets, low on fuel, soon gave way to "Voodoo 51," a mission of two Navy F-18s pulled from a job nearby to "overwatch" the downed helicopter site.

Within minutes, one of the unmanned Predators, code-named "Judge," flew into the area and began sending live video to a CAOC wall screen, and a small television at Edwards' elbow.

But the drone, crisscrossing above date-palm groves and Diyala brushland, somehow couldn't find the crash site.

"A QRF is on its way!" an Army liaison shouted up to Edwards.

Task Force Lightning had dispatched a QRF -- quick reaction force -- of six Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees, 24 soldiers.

Unconfirmed word came that the OH-58 apparently was brought down by enemy fire.

Then Edwards learned that the two crew had been lifted out by a rescue helicopter.

Still the pressure mounted, now to protect the undefended chopper and its arms and equipment from the insurgents.

"Sir, I need to take this Predator away!"

It was Edwards' senior intelligence aide, Maj. Jason Arnold, across the operations platform, reminding his boss that Judge had been pulled off a priority mission nearby tracking a "high-value" insurgent suspect.

"They're going to get antsy," said Arnold, 32, of Brighton, Mich.

Edwards wasn't moved.

"Damn, I'd really like to see if we can get eyes on that bird," he told Arnold.

"I don't want anyone messing with that aircraft."

The Predator stayed in the hunt.

Then, at 7:16 p.m. Baghdad time, a new murmur arose on the floor: A TIC had developed in Afghanistan.

Intense but cool, the bespectacled Edwards turned to this new contingency, meticulously taking notes on a small pad while also checking back on the Diyala situation.

Minutes later, that situation turned worse.

The CAOC was informed that the two helicopter crewmen were dead.

The Predator remained overhead, looking for signs of an ambush by roadside "improvised explosive devices."

"The important thing now is to make sure the guys coming in the QRF don't get hit by IEDs," Edwards said.

At this point, with the ground force reported less than 15 minutes from the chopper, and as a sandstorm built outside the CAOC in the desert day's dying heat, the reporter had to leave the crow's nest.

In the coming hours, at CAOC and in Baghdad, the full extent of the Diyala losses would emerge.

The ground force was, indeed, hit by a roadside bomb or bombs, and six of its men were dead -- eight killed in all, out of 10 U.S. fatalities in Iraq this bloody Memorial Day.

It was confirmed that the OH-58 had been shot out of the sky by insurgent fire.

"They did not want war, but they answered the call when it came," Bush said in his holiday speech, speaking of this new roll call of American dead.

In a war as unpopular at home as any America has waged, the world's greatest military and technological power has been fought to a standstill by Iraqis taping together makeshift bombs.

The military professionals at the CAOC and other critical posts, meanwhile, have used the four years of war to hone skills and perfect technology, to prepare for more -- in this case in a new, next-generation CAOC scheduled to open in 2008 on this low-profile base.

[Livyjr]

"Bush's real memorial will be in Baghdad"

By BOB RAY SANDERS

First published: Monday, May 28, 2007

A proposed half-billion-dollar library on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas is likely to house the official documents and memories of George W. Bush's presidency.

But it will be a $600 million building 8,000 miles away that will be the true symbol of the Bush legacy.

The new U.S. Embassy under construction in Iraq, which will be the largest in the world, will be a monumental memorial to the folly and failure of this President.

It will stand as a testament to the bad planning, miscalculations and overall ineptness of an administration that still finds it difficult to admit a mistake while American troops continue to die.

Ironically, the fortified compound being erected on 104 acres in Baghdad's so-called Green Zone is one of the few projects in Iraq that is being completed on schedule and under budget, according to a report by The Associated Press.

Of course, when this new diplomatic palace was being planned to accommodate many of the officials now squatting in one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces, civilian and military leaders still hoped that Iraq would be a thriving democracy setting an example for the rest of the Middle East.

But the sad truth is this mammoth estate on the Tigris River will sit in a country with a failed government whose people are engaged in a civil war.

Before it's all over, Iraq indeed may be divided into three territories to accommodate its trio of major religious and ethnic sects.

The envisioned democratic oasis in the desert has quickly faded into a dusty hellhole where U.S. troops are trapped because their leaders back home still have not found the political will to pull them out.

With American casualty rates reaching alarming levels, and with the Iraqi people suffering daily bombings, what kind of diplomacy will be served up from our new, state-of-the-art embassy?

Even the Green Zone has suffered fatal attacks, and as a result, many of those housed there are feeling less and less secure.

Just as this administration was hasty in declaring an end to major combat operations, it also acted too hurriedly in planning what it thought would be a shining example of American will and might -- overthrowing a dictator, freeing a people and creating a capitalistic, democratic government free of sectarian violence.

Instead, millions of Iraqis have had to flee their homes in fear of being killed by their former neighbors, and many of the most educated and successful men and women have left the country to seek freedom and security.

The place is a mess.

And it is a mess that we made.

As former Secretary of State Colin Powell warned, "If you break it, you own it."

Even though the civil unrest has Iraqis killing Iraqis, as long as American troops are there, this country will bear the responsibility for what is happening on the ground.

So it is going to be a long time -- maybe even a generation -- before we'll need a full-fledged embassy operation in Iraq.

But whether we'll need one or not, we'll have one come September -- the biggest in the world.

And unlike the war itself, this is one project in Iraq that will be under budget.

Bob Ray Sanders writes for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. His e-mail address is bobray@star-telegram.com.

[Livyjr]

President Johnson's Message to Congress August 5, 1964

Last night I announced to the American people that the North Vietnamese regime had conducted further deliberate attacks against U.S. naval vessels operating in international waters, and I had therefore directed air action against gunboats and supporting facilities used in these hostile operations.

This air action has now been carried out with substantial damage to the boats and facilities.

Two U.S. aircraft were lost in the action.

After consultation with the leaders of both parties in the Congress, I further announced a decision to ask the Congress for a resolution expressing the unity and determination of the United States in supporting freedom and in protecting peace in southeast Asia.

These latest actions of the North Vietnamese regime has given a new and grave turn to the already serious situation in southeast Asia.

Our commitments in that area are well known to the Congress.

They were first made in 1954 by President Eisenhower.

They were further defined in the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty approved by the Senate in February 1955.

This treaty with its accompanying protocol obligates the United States and other members to act in accordance with their constitutional processes to meet Communist aggression against any of the parties or protocol states.

Our policy in southeast Asia has been consistent and unchanged since 1954.

I summarized it on June 2 in four simple propositions:

America keeps her word.

Here as elsewhere, we must and shall honor our commitments.

The issue is the future of southeast Asia as a whole.

A threat to any nation in that region is a threat to all, and a threat to us.

Our purpose is peace.

We have no military, political, or territorial ambitions in the area.

This is not just a jungle war, but a struggle for freedom on every front of human activity.

Our military and economic assistance to South Vietnam and Laos in particular has the purpose of helping these countries to repel aggression and strengthen their independence.

The threat to the free nations of southeast Asia has long been clear.

The North Vietnamese regime has constantly sought to take over South Vietnam and Laos.

This Communist regime has violated the Geneva accords for Vietnam.

It has systematically conducted a campaign of subversion, which includes the direction, training, and supply of personnel and arms for the conduct of guerrilla warfare in South Vietnamese territory.

In Laos, the North Vietnamese regime has maintained military forces, used Laotian territory for infiltration into South Vietnam, and most recently carried out combat operations - all in direct violation of the Geneva Agreements of 1962.

In recent months, the actions of the North Vietnamese regime have become steadily more threatening...

As President of the United States I have concluded that I should now ask the Congress, on its part, to join in affirming the national determination that all such attacks will be met, and that the United States will continue in its basic policy of assisting the free nations of the area to defend their freedom.

As I have repeatedly made clear, the United States intends no rashness, and seeks no wider war.

We must make it clear to all that the United States is united in its determination to bring about the end of Communist subversion and aggression in the area.

We seek the full and effective restoration of the international agreements signed in Geneva in 1954, with respect to South Vietnam, and again in Geneva in 1962, with respect to Laos ...

"Hmong-Americans stunned by Laos charges"

By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press

Last updated: 11:23 p.m., Tuesday, June 5, 2007

FRESNO, Calif. -- Many of the thousands of Hmong refugees who fled to the United States following the Vietnam War never accepted the communist government that took power in their native Laos.

And if federal prosecutors are right, some apparently never abandoned their dream of toppling it.

A revered leader of the Hmong-American population was among 10 men charged this week with plotting to overthrow the Laotian regime in a case that has shaken the growing immigrant community.

Many Hmong credit Vang Pao, a 77-year-old former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led Hmong counterinsurgents, with helping them build new lives in the U.S.

In California and Minnesota, where the first large wave of refugees settled in the 1980s, Hmong-American politicians are rising quickly through political ranks.

Despite that momentum, some in the community say elders still long to return to their highland villages.

"People of my father's generation have hoped one day that they could go back to a free Laos and farm the plot of land they left 30 years ago," said Minnesota state Rep. Cy Thao of St. Paul.

"Vang Pao is sort of their last hope."

"You hear them talk about it, but you don't ever think it will come to this point."

An undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives secretly recorded a Feb. 7 luncheon meeting with Vang Pao, former California National Guard Lt. Col. Harrison Jack and others at a Thai restaurant a few blocks from the state Capitol in Sacramento, according to the agent's affidavit.

They then walked to a recreational vehicle parked nearby to examine machine guns, grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets, anti-personnel mines and other weapons, the agent wrote.

Hmong leaders had agreed to buy $9.8 million worth of military weapons, Jack said in a recorded conversation, with much of the money coming from immigrants throughout the United States, the affidavit states.

Vang Pao appeared briefly in federal court Tuesday in Sacramento.

"Gen. Vang Pao has worked actively to pursue peaceful solutions to the problems in Laos and has disavowed violence," his attorney, John Balazs, said afterward.

"We look forward to a trial where we can demonstrate Gen. Pao's innocence."

An attorney for Jack declined to comment after a court proceeding Monday.

Vang Pao and the other nine defendants were scheduled for detention hearings later this week.

Prosecutors recommended that all be held without bail until their trials.

"People don't know right now whether the charges are justified or a witch hunt."

"We just want people to remember that for 20 years the Hmong community has worked to make sure that this is our home," said Peter Vang, refugee community liaison for Fresno County, home to about 30,000 ethnic Hmong.

After fighting as U.S.-backed guerillas in Laos, members of the ethnic minority were all but abandoned when the country fell to communist forces in 1975.

More than 300,000 Laotian refugees, mostly Hmong, fled into Thailand.

About 145,000 members of Laotian ethnic groups resettled in the U.S., establishing large enclaves in Fresno, St. Paul, Minn., cities across Wisconsin and in small towns throughout Arkansas' Ozark mountains.

Among those charged Monday were the founder of Fresno's annual Hmong International New Year celebration, a former police officer from the nearby suburb of Clovis and a one-time aide to former Wisconsin state Sen. Gary George.

George, 53, who recently finished serving a four-year prison term for taking kickbacks from a Milwaukee social service agency, is not charged in the Laos case.

The ATF agent's affidavit, however, states that "probable cause exists to believe" George was involved in it.

George's attorney, Alex Flynn of Milwaukee, said the evidence in the indictment does not implicate his client.

"Gary George denies any allegations as defamatory and has as much interest in seeing the government of Laos overthrown as he does in the Klingons taking over the Starship Enterprise," Flynn told The Associated Press late Tuesday.

"These allegations are preposterous."

Investigators also were examining whether those charged tried to use an unidentified congressman and the California Highway Patrol without their knowledge, according to authorities and court documents.

During a March meeting at a Sacramento restaurant, the affidavit says, Jack told the undercover ATF agent that he had contacted a patrol commissioner and arranged for Hmong leaders to help recruit.

The goal was for the Hmong officers to eventually move to Laos "to take positions of trust" in the new Lao government, the affidavit says.

Federal prosecutors said the men who are charged conspired with a Laotian liberation movement, led in the U.S. by Vang Pao, who splits his time between homes in the Twin Cities -- which has the largest concentration of Hmong in the United States -- and Southern California.

The group raised money, directed surveillance operations and organized a force of insurgent troops within Laos, according to the complaint.

Somphet Khoukahoun, the permanent secretary for the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday he would wait to comment until authorities were briefed by U.S. officials.

Like many of their counterparts in the U.S., Hmong leaders in Thailand said they found the charges unbelievable.

"I think the charges are meant by rival Hmong in the United States to smear him," said Ming Wui, a Hmong Christian minister.

In Laos, Hmong people are still subject to detentions and human rights violations, according to the U.S. Department of State.

Many recent immigrants arrive still traumatized by war and decades of persecution, said Sharon Stanley, director of Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries.

Vang Pao's arrest has crushed families struggling to assume a new, American identity, said Blong Xiong, a Hmong-American city councilman in Fresno, where Hmong grocery stores and restaurants are fixtures in most shopping malls.

"I'm hoping that the mainstream understands that our community continues to share the American ideals we defended," Xiong said.

------

Associated Press writers Sutin Wannabovorn and Ambika Ahuja in Bangkok, Don Thompson in Sacramento and Gregg Aamot in Minneapolis contributed to this report

[Livyjr]

"Pace retires as head of Joint Chiefs"

By LOLITA BALDOR, Associated Press Writer

39 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration sidelined Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Friday, announcing plans to replace him as the nation's top military officer rather than reappoint him and risk a Senate confirmation struggle focusing on the Iraq War.

"It would be a backward looking and very contentious process," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at a Pentagon news conference where he announced he would recommend Adm. Mike Mullen to replace Pace.

Mullen is the chief of naval operations, and Gates praised him for having the "vision strategic insight and integrity to lead America's armed forces."

At the same time, he made clear he had made his decision with reluctance, saying he wished it had not been necessary.

"I am no stranger to contentious confirmations, and I do not shrink from them," Gates said at a hastily arranged news conference.

"However, I have decided that at this moment in our history, the nation, our men and women in uniform and Gen. Pace himself would not be well served by a divisive ordeal. ..."

As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for two years, and vice chairman for the previous four, Pace has been involved in all of the key decisions leading to the 2002 invasion of Iraq and the planning for the post-Saddam Hussein era.

"President Bush appreciates Gen. Pace's long and distinguished service to the country and as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who was traveling overseas with Bush.

"He is an example for all our men and women in uniform and has been an integral part of the president's national security team."

The war, now in its fifth year, has claimed the lives of more than 3,500 U.S. troops, and has become intensely unpopular with the public.

The new Democratic majority in Congress has shown an eagerness to challenge Bush's handling of the conflict, and the president has already vetoed one bill that included a troop withdrawal timetable.

Gates said he made his decision after consulting with Republican and Democratic senators alike.

Asked whether the developments indicated GOP support for the war was waning, he replied, "No, I don't think it says that."

Less than a month ago, Pentagon officials circulated word that Pace was in line for another two year term.

His current term expires on Sept. 30.

Gates said he also will recommend Gen. James E. Cartwright, currently the commander of the Strategic Command, as the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He would succeed Adm. Ed Giambastiani.

The defense secretary said he had originally intended to name Giambastiani to a second two-year term, but Mullen's selection had foreclosed that possibility.

It is customary for the chairman and vice chairman to come from different branches of the service.

Gates heaped praise on Pace, a Marine of more than 40 years.

"He has served our country with great distinction and deserves the deepest thanks of the American people for a lifetime of service to our country and for his leadership."

"I have thoroughly enjoyed working with him, trust him completely and value his candor and his willingness to speak his mind," he said.

[Livyjr]

"Pace retires as head of Joint Chiefs"

By LOLITA BALDOR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration sidelined Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Friday, announcing plans to replace him as the nation's top military officer rather than reappoint him and risk a Senate confirmation struggle focusing on the Iraq War.

"It would be a backward looking and very contentious process," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at a Pentagon news conference where he announced he would recommend Adm. Mike Mullen to replace Pace.

"I am no stranger to contentious confirmations, and I do not shrink from them," Gates said at a hastily arranged news conference.

"However, I have decided that at this moment in our history, the nation, our men and women in uniform and Gen. Pace himself would not be well served by a divisive ordeal ...."

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

And I also see from the news item "Libby sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison" by MATT APUZZO and PETE YOST, Associated Press, last updated: 5:23 p.m., Tuesday, June 5, 2007, that among those agitating for the release of I. Lewis "AMERICA'S SCOOTER" Libby is Marine general and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter "Pretty Peter" Pace ....

This at a time when the Marine Corps is set to bring a disciplinary action against an enlisted Marine separated from active duty under honorable terms who wore his fatigues, sans military insignia, at some type of anti-war rally recently ...

According to a Marine spokesperson in the news item "VFW backs vet in trouble over protest" by SAM HANANEL, Associated Press, last updated: 7:23 a.m., Saturday, June 2, 2007:

Col. Dave Lapan, a Marine Corps spokesman, said Kokesh is under administrative review because he wore his uniform at a political event, which is prohibited.

"It's the political activity that is prohibited, not the type of event that it was," Lapan said.

"If it had been a pro-war rally, it would still have been a violation."

end quotes

"Political Peter" Pace writing letters while wearing the uniform of a U.S. Marine to a federal judge on behalf of the convicted I. Lewis "AMERICA'S SCOOTER" Libby is political as hell, and looks like hell to boot, as far as "PRETTY PETER" setting standards of conduct for our American military ....

But then, "PRETTY PETER" Pace really is just another politician, anyway, albeit one who wears a pretty military uniform instead of the more standard suit that others of his ilk wear down there in washington, D.C. ....

A politician put in his position of power over our military because he would say yes when the White House needs him to, as in the case of "AMERICA'S SCOOTER" ....

And so ....

I guess it is not really a double standard for conduct that we are seeing here, when an enlisted Marine separated from active duty cannot be seen in fatigues without military insignia at a "political activity" protesting George W. Bush's war in IRAQINAM, while a Marine general in full fancy military regalia can be seen at a "political activity" agitating on behalf of a convicted REPUBLICAN politician ....

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | June 6, 2007 7:53 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...3.html#comments

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

Posted by: Ravi Batra | June 9, 2007 1:07 PM: P.P.S. You are still in time, as Eliot’s actual birthday is tomorrow!

JOHN GALT MUSINGLY REPLIES: What you are saying, Mr. Ravi Batra, if I am indeed hearing you right here, which I believe that I am, is that if I cave in, if I capitulate, if I take several months worth of $150 a week that I have to live on as a disabled person here in NYS, and I bundle that money up, perhaps with some others, and get some bag man or woman to schlep that money on over to Eliot Spitzer for his birthday post haste, that by doing so, I will be creating some kind of better world for myself that I would not otherwise be entitled to if I didn't make the payment ....

If I pay sufficient money to Eliot Spitzer on his birthday, perhaps he will become compassionate and magnanimous with me all at the same time, and he will get the state of NY to finally and actually recognize me as a disabled veteran of the Viet Nam war residing in NYS, but who is not now "bought in" with the "state", and so, is and remains unrecognized as any kind of veteran at all ....

Ah, well, Mr. Ravi Batra ....

Ah, well ....

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | June 10, 2007 2:19 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...rta.html?page=2

[Livyjr]

"Soldiers struggle to find therapists"

By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 34 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Soldiers returning from war are finding it more difficult to get mental health treatment because military insurance is cutting payments to therapists, on top of already low reimbursement rates and a tangle of red tape.

Wait lists now extend for months to see a military doctor and it can takes weeks to find a private therapist willing to take on members of the military.

The challenge appears great in rural areas, where many National Guard and Reserve troops and their families live.

To avoid the hassles of Tricare, the military health insurance program, one frustrated therapist opted to provide an hour of therapy time a week to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for free.

Barbara Romberg, a clinical psychologist in the Washington, D.C., area, has started a group that encourages other therapists to do the same.

"They're not going to pay me much in terms of my regular rate anyway," Romberg said.

"So I'm actually feeling positive that I've given, rather than feeling frustrated for what I'm going through to get payment."

Joyce Lindsey, 46, of Troutdale, Ore., sought grief counseling after her husband died in Afghanistan last December.

The therapist recommended by her physician would not take Tricare.

Lindsey eventually found one on a provider list, but the process took two months.

"It was kind of frustrating," Lindsey said.

"I thought, 'Am I ever going to find someone to take this?'"

Roughly one-third of returning soldiers seek out mental health counseling in their first year home.

They are among the 9.1 million people covered by Tricare, a number that grew by more than 1 million since 2001.

Tricare's psychological health benefit is "hindered by fragmented rules and policies, inadequate oversight and insufficient reimbursement," the Defense Department's mental health task force said last month after reviewing the military's psychological care system.

The Tricare office that serves Fort Campbell, Ky., and Fort Bragg, N.C. — Army posts with heavy war deployments — told task force members that it routinely fields complaints about the difficulty in locating mental health specialists who accept Tricare.

"Unfortunately, in some of our communities ... we are maxed out on the available providers," said Lois Krysa, the office's quality manager.

"In other areas, the providers just are not willing to sign up to take Tricare assignment, and that is a problem."

Tricare's reimbursement rate is tied to Medicare's, which pays less than civilian employer insurance.

The rate for mental health care services fell by 6.4 percent this year as part of an adjustment in reimbursements to certain specialties.

Since 2004, Tricare has sped up payments to encourage more doctors to participate, said Austin Camacho, a Tricare spokesman.

In some locations, such as Idaho and Alaska, the Defense Department has also raised rates to attract physicians, he said.

"We are working hard to overcome those challenges," Camacho said.

Jack Wagoner is a retired military officer and psychologist and psychiatrist in private practice who also works for a Tricare contractor.

He told defense mental health board members last December that in general, Tricare pays "considerably lower" than private health insurance plans.

According to data from Tricare's Medical Benefits and Reimbursement System office, Tricare pays mental health providers as much or more than a corporate plan would pay a therapist for treating a patient — although in some cases it is lower.

There are different coverage plans within Tricare, and the amount paid to providers varies by plan, location, specialty and services performed.

Psychologists who treat active duty troops are paid 66 percent of what Tricare views as the customary rate.

So a psychologist eligible for a customary rate of $120 per hour would be paid $79.20 for the hour by Tricare, even if the psychologist's standard rate is $150 per hour.

Active duty troops use Tricare Prime, a managed-care option maintained by private contractors.

Their mental health care is free.

Guard and Reserve troops and their families frequently use Tricare Standard, a fee-for-service plan.

They pay an annual deductible and 20 percent of the amount Tricare pays the therapist.

John Class, a retired Navy health care administrator who now advocates on health issues for the Military Officers Association of America, said Tricare Prime contractors insist that the lower reimbursement rates has made it tougher to maintain a network of providers.

"We are already starting to see the pinch," Class said.

In a limited study by Tricare released earlier this year, about two out of three civilian psychiatrists in 20 states were willing to accept Tricare Standard clients among their new patients, the lowest acceptance rate for any specialty.

Any additional cuts in Tricare payouts could mean that "some really good psychologists who specialize in this treatment and are experienced will be seeing less of (military families)," said clinical psychologist Marion Frank, a widow who is president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Gold Star Wives of America, a support group for military widows.

In parts of Montana, some families drive two hours to see a physician of any kind that will take Tricare, said Dorrie Hagan, state family program director for the Montana National Guard.

"When you get away from a city of any size then you start struggling for providers, and they'll tell you flat out it's because of the rate of pay," Hagan said.
___

On the Net:

Defense Department's Mental Health Task Force: http://www.ha.osd.mil/dhb/mhtf/default.cfm

Tricare: http://www.tricare.mil/

Give an Hour: http://www.giveanhour.org

[Livyjr]

"Bernanke expects economic rebound"

By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:14 p.m., Tuesday, June 5, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke predicted Tuesday the economy will rebound from its anemic start of the year even if the housing slump persists.

Wall Street slid, taking the news as a sign the Fed won't lower interest rates.

Economic growth in the year's first three months nearly stalled, logging just a 0.6 percent pace.

It was the worst quarterly showing in more than four years.

However, Bernanke said he believes some forces that figured prominently in that poor performance -- including a bloated trade deficit, cutbacks by businesses in inventory investment and weak federal defense spending -- "seem likely to be at least partially reversed in the near term."

Hey, how about that Bernacke dude, now will you ...

Just so many days ago, on Tuesday, June 5, 2007, to be exact ....

The Bernacke dude was saying he believed some forces that figured prominently in that poor performance of the American economy -- including weak federal defense spending -- "seem likely to be at least partially reversed in the near term ....

And here he is, looking just like he had prescient vision back then ....

And so ....

Looks like the "GOOD TIMES" are going to roll again for the American defense industry ....

Some more millionaires are going to be made ....

God bless that war in IRAQINAM, ain't it?

For without it, there wouldn't be an American economy for some, anyway ....

And so ...

"U.S. arms Sunni Arabs - Groups promise to fight al-Qaida-linked militants, formerly their allies"

By JOHN F. BURNS and ALISSA J. RUBIN, New York Times

First published: Monday, June 11, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- With the four-month-old "surge" in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight al-Qaida-linked militants who have been their allies in the past.

American commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar province and have held talks with Sunni groups suspected of prior assaults on American units, or of links to groups that have attacked Americans, in at least four other areas where the insurgency has been strong.

In some cases, the American commanders say, these groups have been provided, usually through Iraqi military units allied with the Americans, with arms, ammunition, cash, fuel and other supplies.

American officials who have engaged in what they call "outreach" to the Sunni groups say the groups are mostly ones with links to al-Qaida but disillusioned with al-Qaida's extremist tactics, particularly suicide bombings that have killed thousands of Iraqi civilians.

In exchange for American backing, these officials say, the Sunni groups have agreed to fight al-Qaida and halt attacks on American units.

Commanders who have undertaken these negotiations say that in some cases Sunni groups have agreed to alert American troops to the location of roadside bombs and other lethal booby traps.

But critics, including some American officers, say it could amount to the Americans arming both sides in a future civil war.

The United States has spent more than $15 billion in building up Iraq's new army and police, whose manpower of 350,000 is heavily Shiite.

With an American troop drawdown increasingly likely in the next year, and little sign of a political accommodation between Shiite and Sunni politicians in Baghdad, critics say there is a strong prospect that weapons given to Sunnis will be used against Shiites.

American field commanders met this month in Baghdad with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, to discuss the conditions Sunni groups would have to meet to win American assistance.

Senior officers who attended the meeting said that Petraeus and the operational commander who is the second-ranking American officer here, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, gave cautious approval to field commanders to negotiate with Sunni groups in their areas.

One commander who attended the meeting said that despite the risks entailed in arming groups that have until now fought against the Americans, the potential gains against al-Qaida were too great to be missed.

He said the strategy held out the prospect, after three years of largely fruitless efforts by the Americans, of finally driving a wedge between two wings of the Sunni insurgency that have previously worked in a devastating alliance -- diehard loyalists of Saddam Hussein's formerly dominant Baath Party, and Islamic militants belonging to al-Qaida-linked groups.

-- Associated Press

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"Al-Qaida targets Iraqi infrastructure"

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:43 p.m., Monday, June 11, 2007

BAGHDAD -- Suspected al-Qaida bombers stepped up attacks on key transportation arteries, striking a bridge north of the capital Monday a day after shutting the superhighway south of Baghdad with a huge explosion that collapsed an overpass and killed three U.S. soldiers.

The latest attack, a parked truck bomb, blew apart the bridge that carries traffic over the Diyala River in Baqouba, police said on condition they not be identified by name because they feared retribution.

There were no casualties, but motorists and truckers now must use a road that runs through al-Qaida-controlled territory to reach important nearby cities.

Baqouba is the capital of Diyala province, which is swarming with al-Qaida fighters.

Those militants were driven out of Baghdad by the four-month-old U.S. security operation and out of Anbar province west of the capital by Sunni tribesman who rose up against the terrorist group.

The attacks on the bridges were only the latest in a campaign to deepen turmoil in Iraq, especially on the vital transportation network linking Baghdad to the rest of the country.

Such bombings -- especially suicide attacks -- are an al-Qaida trademark and one of the group's many and ever-shifting tactics against U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Earlier this month, a bomb heavily damaged the Sarhat Bridge, a key crossing 90 miles north of the capital on a major road connecting Baghdad with Irbil, Sulaimaniya and other Kurdish cities.

In March and April, three of Baghdad's 13 bridges over the Tigris River were bombed.

The attacks were blamed on Sunni insurgent or al-Qaida attempts to divide the city's predominantly Shiite east bank from the mostly Sunni western side of the river.

The most serious attack, an April 12 suicide truck bombing, collapsed the landmark Sarafiyah bridge and sent cars plunging into the brown waters of the Tigris.

Eleven people were killed.

U.S. forces used bulldozers Monday to push aside the rubble of the overpass that crashed onto Iraq's main north-south highway just east of Mahmoudiyah, a dangerous triangle of death city with a large al-Qaida presence.

The suicide truck bombing 20 miles south of Baghdad not only brought down a section of the bridge, it killed three U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint and wounded six other American soldiers along with an Iraqi interpreter, the U.S. military said in a statement issued at its Camp Victory headquarters at Baghdad International Airport.

Paul Kane, a fellow with the International Security Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, said the attacks on bridges are an extension of earlier insurgent attacks on "electric generation sites, infrastructure for water and also the obvious target of oil pipelines."

Kane noted that Iraq does not have railroad service so insurgents "may be at the end of the transit list."

"If anything, it means they're trying to be creative and they're running out of targets."

Tumult arose in Iraq's fragile political structure Monday when lawmakers declared themselves fed up with the parliament speaker and voted to oust the controversial Sunni politician from his powerful post.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani is a physician who was jailed by Saddam Hussein and who had said from the parliament speaker's chair that those who attack American forces should be treated as heroes.

He was voted out in a closed session of the Shiite-dominated 275-member legislature.

His ouster appeared to have grown out of a shouting match Sunday with lawmaker Firyad Mohammed Omar, a Shiite Turkoman.

Omar had complained to the speaker about the heavy-handedness of al-Mashhadani's bodyguards; al-Mashhadani responded abusively, according to lawmakers who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Omar told fellow legislators that the speaker's guards had assaulted him.

Al-Mashhadani's deputy, Khaled al-Attiyah, who chaired the closed session, will assume the duties of the speaker until a replacement is chosen.

"It's an illegal decision made by a juvenile house," al-Mashhadani told the U.S.-funded Radio Sawa in an interview posted on the Internet.

Al-Mashhadani is part of the Accordance Front, parliament's largest Sunni Arab bloc with 44 of the house's 275 seats.

Salim Abdullah, a fellow lawmaker from the Accordance Front, said it would offer a replacement for al-Mashhadani within a week.

The speaker's job is allotted to a Sunni member of parliament according to an agreement among lawmakers who struggled for months to chose their leadership, a prime minister and government.

"We agreed to replace him because we want to improve the house's performance," Abdullah told The Associated Press.

But al-Mashhadani told Radio Sawa that if his performance as speaker were below par, Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's was "much worse."

The level of competence of President Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, was "even worse because he does nothing," the former speaker said.

The man expected to become Britain's next prime minister, meanwhile, met with Iraqi leaders in an unannounced visit.

Treasury chief Gordon Brown has vowed to study his country's participation in the Iraq war in the face of growing opposition at home.

Brown, slated to succeed Tony Blair this month, was on a one-day fact-finding mission, British officials said.

In London, the House of Commons rejected a motion by Britain's opposition Conservative Party calling for a formal inquiry into the decision to go to war in Iraq.

By a vote of 288 to 253, the lower house of parliament sided with Blair, who has ruled out such an inquiry while British troops are deployed in Iraq.

Like so much in Iraq these days, even final exams for high school seniors aren't going as planned: Iraq's Education Ministry delayed the start of finals after some of the test questions were leaked to students, an official said.

A week of final exams had been due to start Tuesday with the Islamic education test, but that was put off until July 1 while authorities investigate reports of cheating, an official said, on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Iraqi police, morgue and hospital officials reported 34 deaths in sectarian violence across Iraq on Monday, including 17 bodies dumped on Baghdad streets and believed to be the victims of Shiite death squads.

[Livyjr]

"Al-Qaida targets Iraqi infrastructure"

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:43 p.m., Monday, June 11, 2007

BAGHDAD -- Suspected al-Qaida bombers stepped up attacks on key transportation arteries, striking a bridge north of the capital Monday a day after shutting the superhighway south of Baghdad with a huge explosion that collapsed an overpass and killed three U.S. soldiers.

The latest attack, a parked truck bomb, blew apart the bridge that carries traffic over the Diyala River in Baqouba, police said on condition they not be identified by name because they feared retribution.

There were no casualties, but motorists and truckers now must use a road that runs through al-Qaida-controlled territory to reach important nearby cities.

Paul Kane, a fellow with the International Security Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, said the attacks on bridges are an extension of earlier insurgent attacks on "electric generation sites, infrastructure for water and also the obvious target of oil pipelines."

Kane noted that Iraq does not have railroad service so insurgents "may be at the end of the transit list."

"If anything, it means they're trying to be creative and they're running out of targets."

Pardon me ....

But with fools like this Paul Kane ....

A fellow with the International Security Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government ....

In charge of analyzing what is going on over there in IRAQINAM .....

It's no wonder we are in such a fix as we are over there, where we are getting pinned down and isolated .....

It don't sound like whomever is running out of targets to me ....

What it sounds like is that they are evening up the playing field for them by eliminating America's mobility over there ....

A rapid deployment force is totally worthless, after all, if it cannot deploy ...

Which was exactly the case in Mogadishu ....

And so ....