What’s Really Going on in Iraq?
Snipped from EditorAndPublisher.com.
What is really going on in Iraq? We may never know. Why? Because the mainstream media is a puppet of the conglomerate corporate world in which they paint reality as they want it to be painted, not as it is. If anyone ever thought that war was not a profitable enterprise for big business, then you better think again. War is good for business. And, those that profit, even indirectly, will do anything to keep it going. Sound unreal? No, it isn’t. There is one man who is tired of all the whitewash and who sought out the truth by digging for it on the internet. What he found was made into a docu-drama about what is really gong on in Iraq.
If you haven’t noticed but this war has been whitewashed and scrubbed in the media by not publishing the death and violence of the conflict and refusing to publish or air some of the most graphic images. We aren’t even allowed to see pictures of the flag draped coffins of U.S. soldiers returning from the war zone. Well, the director of numerous well-known movies, Brian DePalma who made “Scarface”, “The Untouchables” and “Carrie” wanted to do something about this. So, his latest film simply called “Redacted”, he compiles photos that newspapers have refused to print into a docu-drama that hopefully will make people think twice about the untold misery and suffering we are causing people in Iraq.
DePalma goes deeply into the internet and grabs pictures including soldiers’ home videos and photos that have never appeared in print. In order to avoid lawsuits, DePalma also utilizes more standard documentary film footage and the use of fictionalized techniques and characters to avoid certain legal issues and turns this film into a different kind of docu-drama.
Here is a portion of the article that tells more about the film.
The film centers on perhaps the most horrendous known atrocity involving U.S. troops, the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl and four members of her family in March 2006. DePalma had directed in 1989 a movie about a rape by U.S. soldiers of a Vietnamese girl called “Casualties of War,” starring Sean Penn and the young Michael J. Fox.
All the images we…have of our war are completely constructed — whitewashed, redacted, said De Palma in Venice, according to press reports. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to get their congressmen to vote against the war.
If you would like to read the full article click the image below.
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New Scientist
The Onion
Media Matters
Newsvine
Associated Press
Charts and upsloping, downsloping graphs can be included in the war propaganda of Bush, his administration, and his carpetbagger friends. A picture may tell more than a 1,000 words; a chart may hide more than a 1,000 words. Will we see the media publish the charts and graphs used by General Petraeus this week? Of course, even though we all saw them on television.
I bet you all nodded your heads at the charts and graphs and said to yourselves, yes I now understand the true situation in Iraq. Why were you all fooled? And why did the General go into great detail on how the data was collected, more than once? What a sales job! And you bought it that the “facts” are accurate and because statitics don’t lie. Oh yeah? Remember this: Liars figure and figures lie.
Please go see DePalma’s Docu-drama. Okay? I didn’t know what the word “Redacted” mean’t until I used the dictionary. Check it out.
Bottom line: Two words can describe what we read today and hear today and see today about the Iraq war — Kaka Propaganda!
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Blackwater “civilian soldier” guards lost their “James Bond” license to kill in Iraq today. //click onto Newsvine story in left sidebar strip for details//
What this may mean is that no U.S. troops will be withdrawn anytime soon from Iraq. What has happened on 9-16-07 Sunday, without a fix, is, without doubt, a Bush “however” which became a break-promise condition. This will nix any troop withdraws. //The “howevers” that can break any Bush promises for Iraq are any discouraging security/political developments//
Today’s News Headlines reported the Blackwater people to be kicked out by Iraq. Why — see Newsvine or Associated Press story. See news for what is Blackwater. And what Blackwater does in Iraq. Enough background for you? There are tens of thousands of Blackwater guards at work in Iraq. Actual number? Sorry, General Petraeus left the Blackwater numbers off his charts. Right now, this missing data is vital information. Why?
Because when the Blackwater people leave Iraq, they will leave a huge break in security in Iraq. Backwater has protected journalists, visiting foreign officials (U.S. Congressmen and Senators) and U.S. military operations and military personnel, even General Petraeus. Blackwater ruthlessly guards and protects, by heavily armed force, thousands of construction projects in Iraq.
These security details and guard duties were traditionally carried out by soldiers in other wars. In the Iraq war, no. The idea was to relieve our miliatry of these mundame duties, freeing them to engage in other, more important, wartime assignments. And so, and sooo, their replacements will have to be drawn from the U.S. military ranks already in Iraq. As temps, maybe permanently. Get it?
Wow! here’s an unforseen contingency out of nowhere! Who would have guessed? I don’t have any Blackwater numbers — probably General Petraeus doesn’t have the numbers either — but may I hazard a wild-card guess? Say that there are 30,000 Blackwater bodyguard and security guard openings that must be filled by our soldier guys already in Iraq. Hmmm! 30,000 sounds like a familiar number, doesn’t it?…Why, shat on me, it’s all from Bush’s homecoming promise…however and provided that…. Hence, with my example, Bush’s next emergency “beefing-up” will require keeping the surge troops in Iraq and/or perhaps sending in 30,000 additional U.S. troops. We’re just playing with numbers here because who, except Blackwater Headquarters, knows the Blackwater numbers in Iraq? Does General Petraeus know? I bet he found out today. And so the surge-beat stays in Iraq and goes on and on,
Promises, promises, promises, however, however, however….
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Blackwater has about 1,000 “civilian soldier” guards in Iraq. The numbers are out, revealed in a follow-up Associated Press news story. There shouldn’t be any problem in replacing these drop-outs with similiar “civilian soldier” adventurers recruited from well-placed “soldier-of-fortune” adverts. This would avoid reassigning U.S. soldiers already in Iraq to replace the Blackwater people. The numbers needed are not the 30,000 that I first pretended in an earlier comment. — Scrap that scenario, but don’t discard its possibility too soon. What’s next that might cause the worst “however” that can happen to undermind Bush’s homecoming promises for the troops?
Other numbers of interest in the AP news story: There are 4,600 “civilian soldier” contractors in Iraq for combat roles. And a total of 129.000 contractors in Iraq.
//Oh what a computer-room recurring nightmare at the Department of Defense it must be to run that humongous payroll that includes the military//
Let me see … 130,000 U.S. Military men/women plus 129,000 contracted civilians equals 259,000 U.S. bodies in Iraq. What an investment of U. S. manpower! — just to grap Iraq’s oil.
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Alan Greenspan and the Iraq War: Alan Greenspan has declared that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.
-from news story in the September 16, 2007 edition of The Sunday Times, World News Section. Check this out on TimesOnline (www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2461214.ece).
Alan Greenspan was also quoted on TimesOnline re the 2003 Iraq invasion: “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.”
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Bush Does Not Want To Win The Iraq War. Bear with me along this imaginary line of thought. Cheerleader Bush may yell: “We’re going to win!” and “Victory” and “The surge is working!” but our president knows in his heart that his cheerleading chants are false. The media may claim he’s ignorant and plain stupid. I don’t think so.
Forget the “means” going on right now, consider the “justified end.” Bush and Company want Iraq’s oil. To get Iraq’s oil, Bush can’t win the war. The goal is to continue our overwatch occupation of Iraq for as many years as possible. The Pentagon and the Department of Defense are fighting a war without end because Bush wants a war without end.
What a great concept! Let’s pretend the Iraq war/occupation does end … say ten years from today. Okay. The Iraq oil wells are currently producing 3 million barrels a day, and soon in a matter of months they will produce 6 million barrels a day. Good gosh! it’s a Texan wildcatter’s wildest dream come true.
Let’s see, (6 million barrels a day) minus ( ? token barrels as lease payment for Iraq) times (365 days) times (10 years) equals OH MY GAWK! What clues one in on Bush’s posturing? I guess, The lady does protest too much? And Bush’s dropped hints that the war will continue long after his presidency. Behind closed doors, Bush probably yells: “We’re going to win … all the oil” and “Iran’s oil fields are next!” Iran, another endless war? Good Gawk!
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Exit Strategies for Mercenaries and for our U.S. Military from Iraq. It is said that it will take six months to one year to completely withdraw our troops from Iraq if necessary. I would bet that Blackwater and the other combant mercenaries can be out of Iraq within 24 hours if the need arises.
This has nothing to do with supporting/not supporting our troops. One would think any General going into a battleground or into an entire country would first of all plan an exit strategy. Dunkirk during WWII — lack of an exit strategy. Viet Nam — hodgepodge flight — lack of an exit strategy. Battle of Little Bighorn — George Custer — absolutely no exit strategy. //“Please, Mr. Custer, I wanna go home”//
An exit strategy lets you live to fight another day. Read re General Robert E. Lee during the War Between the States.
Cries are made today about the lack of plans when Bush and company invaded Iraq. Does the Commander-in-chief and his people have an exit strategy already planned? Ready to go?
What if Iran does develop the Big Baboom bomb and Army Intelligence says they’re going to drop it in 7 days on Iraq? So where’s the exit strategy when you might suddenly need one? And if within 24 hours?
We have been using Iraq as a boxing ring, slugging it out. Maybe we should change over to a wrestling mat. Why? Because every wrestling hold has its planned escape.
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Goodbye Baghdad, Hello City XXX. If the U.S. military cannot secure Baghdad, the city of 8 million Iraqis and the center of the politics/culture of the country in order to provide a comfortable and secure place for the government of Iraq to sit, mature, convene, legislate and delegate, then get the Iraq government the hell out of Baghdad. Move the Iraqi government, lock, stock and barrel, to a new city, a new location, a new capitol. Or to somewhere in the sticks and build a new capitol there.
Hey, this is not so farfetched as you may think! Saint Petersburg was capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (1712-1728, 1732-1918). St. Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Today the capitol of Russia is Moscow.
-Wikipedia
Why, in a new City XXX, the new capitol of Iraq, I bet the Iraqi government will do more good things in a week than they have done in one year. Go for it!
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Quiz — Before Washington D.C., in what other cities was the capital of the United States?
Answer: 9 cities.
Congress met in numerous locations; therefore, those cities can be said to have once been the United States capital. Washington, D.C. has been the national capital of the United States since 1800
Robert Fortenbaugh provides a rare analysis describing the little-known fact that there were nine capitals of the United States.
http://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_item/Nine_Capitals_of_the_United_States.htm
===========================================
Chronological Table of the Capitals
First Continental Congress
September 5, 1774 to October 24, 1774:
Philadelphia, Carpenter’s Hall
Second Continental Congress
May 10, 1775 to December 12, 1776:
Philadelphia, State House
December 20, 1776 to February 27, 1777:
Baltimore, Henry Fite’s House
March 4, 1777 to September 18, 1777:
Philadelphia, State House
September 27, 1777 (one day):
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Court House
September 30, 1777 to June 27, 1778:
York, Pennsylvania, Court House
July 2, 1778 to March 1, 1781:
Philadelphia, College Hall, then State House
Congress under the Articles of Confederation
March 1, 1781 to June 21, 1783:
Philadelphia, State House
June 30, 1783 to November 4, 1783:
Princeton, New Jersey, “Prospect,” then Nassau Hall
November 26, 1783 to August 19, 1784:
Annapolis, Maryland, State House
November 1, 1784 to December 24, 1784:
Trenton, New Jersey, French Arms Tavern
January 11, 1785 to Autumn 1788:
New York, City Hall, then Fraunce’s Tavern
Congress under the Constitution
March 4, 1789 to August 12, 1790:
New York, Federal Hall
December 6, 1790 to May 14, 1800:
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County Building–Congress Hall
November 17, 1800:
Washington, U.S. Capitol
Source: Robert Fortenbaugh, The Nine Capitals of the United States, page 9.
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IN IRAQ, IT’S WAR. We don’t see a guy losing his or her life on T.V. There’s no more news reels at movie theater houses any more that show the horrors of war. We don’t see the bodies come back. Life Weekly Magazine, all photos, no more. And now they — you know whom they are — they want to war with Iran. I think I’ll watch the flick, “The Saving of Private Ryan” again and get sick. I have a copy. No popcorn, no DAVID sunflower seeds. No stomach for it.
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Has the surge itself been redacted from the media news and the media programs in the hope that those some 30,000 troops were not sent there to make a difference? Hey, they’re still there. Will Bush keep his promise and get at least a token number of guys home by xmas? Why aren’t we waiting for the General to tell us, like the last time? When is his next speech to Congress, to the the TV cameras, followed by Bush’s speech to God-Bless-America, anyway? Once again, we will go round and round. What’s new on the General’s charts now, what has been left off?
I myself believe they want the public to forget there ever was a surge. You can bet their loved ones do remember the surge! And remember the bottom/up tactic? What’s next and what will it be called. Guard-duty, maybe? Yeah. We’ll need 30 to 40,000 men for guard-duty. Oh yeah. Blackwater goes and Guard-duty is scheduled. Gawk, why not?
In an A.P. story, ROBERT BURNS (AP Military Writer) on October 17, 2007 1:01 AM EDT reports a U-turn in the mission of the Iraq War. Called the drawback, the promised number of troops will be home by Christmas. You must check out the A.P. news story later today. What is bizarre, at least to me, is that the news comes zo many hours after I wrote my last comment here. Check and you will see my last comment was written on October 16th, 2007 2:50 p.m. By gawk, it make me feel like magic!
I expected to see headlines today re Robert Burns’ story, and I think the reason why not is that these media outlets are waiting for the Drawback to be announced officially. Soooo, put it on hold and wait awhile. His story was based upon reports in the field.
Mr. President, you gotta be kidding. First there is unconfirmed news (a.p. Robert Burns) in the wee hours that you’re sending some troops home for xmas, by reducing the number of brigades in Iraq from 20 to 19. And this afternoon you’re calling up for late next summer eight National Guard Units. By Golly and by Gawk, how does the pentagon keep track of all these guys. Like Abbott said to Costello, “Who’s on First?” ….
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President Valdimir Putin said today in Moscow that one of the goals for the Iraq war was for the U.S. to establish control of the country’s oil reserves. — S.F. Chronicle. Duh! The same thing was said by Alan Greenspan exactly one month ago. Oil was over $90 a barrel yesterday. The farmers who grow corn for ethanol must be dancing in the corn rows. It’s going to be a great xmas for them and their families.
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Turkey is about to attack the Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq which has Bush and Cheney very upset. Because of a second front? Naw. They do not want the U.S. to share the reconstruction bonus and the spoils of war with anyone. //share the oil with anyone//
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Brain DePalma’s film REDACTED just released. For movie trailer, photo gallery, theater dates, click on:
http:redactedmovie.com
Army Gen. David Petraeus delivers his assessment of the Iraq war next week on Tuesday and Wednesday. All three presidential contenders will hear and be able to question Petraeus on how goes the war. We know, from recent events, of how went the surge. Or do we? Failure? What? — A success? oh yeah. Bush and McCain will so tell us, no matter how this second report on Iraq is graded.
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Gen. David Petraeus back in Washington for his May, 2008 report said that by this September he could recommend further troop reductions in Iraq if security continues to improve. If you read between the lines, by security he’s saying when “they” stop lobbing missles and mortars into the Green Zone.
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Pumping Gasoline and Diesel for the military in Iraq. I have a question: What does it now cost to run the military in Iraq with today’s higher cost of gasoline (at $4 a gallon and headed upwards and diesel at $4.50 and headed upwards)?
Surely, an army used to run on its stomach; but now it’s fuel, today and tomorrow, the most costly fuel. If an 18-wheeler big truck gets about 4 miles to the gallon on diesel, how many miles per gallon does a tank take to move along? What about all those Hummers//sp?// vehicles in Iraq? Airplane fuel? The additional fuel cost for the second war in Afghanistan?
Will the United States Armed Forces be brought to its knees, not by the enemy, but by the Fifth Column at home (oil companies reaping excessive profits)? Until today… we can’t afford war. And until tomorrow… we can’t afford to defend ourselves.
What now does the fuel really cost to run the two wars? Can we afford at the pump the new increases in fuel costs without asking Congress for more war money? Good Gawk, someone must know these things? Answers, please!
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I googled on the Web and discovered the tank mileage as:
M1 Abrams gets 7 gallons to the mile. It takes 5 gals just to start.
Ouch! –30–
“Military to pay $400 million more per month for fuel” according to an Associated Press article in today’s news. And there is anticipated a $1.2 billion rise in fuel costs in the next three months.
According to the military, “every $1 increase in the market price per barrel translates into a $130 million rise in costs for the military because it relies so heavily on fuel. In Iraq alone, for example, the military consumes some 1.6 million gallons of fuel a day.”
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