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[War] technology has improved since Vietnam and Cambodia. But we still can't bomb our way to victory....
We live in an age when American might can overwhelm the defenses of entire countries with barely a drop of American blood spent. It is, in a way, too easy. Because there is so little risk, there is no political cost to be paid for the drone wars. Presidents Bush and Obama could deploy drones by the dozens with the certain knowledge it would do nothing but enhance their political causes....
We cannot kill our way to victory in the war on terror. I'm not even sure we have a place in the fight.
Radical Islam is a cult within the larger body of the religion. It is not going to be defeated with bombs or bullets. It must be attacked and rooted out from within Islam, at the village and mosque level. Our main role in this fight is to embolden the Muslim majority to rally against the radicals.
Right now, we're harming that goal more than helping.
4,487 - U.S. deaths as of Dec. 15, 2011, according to the Pentagon. 32,000 (at least) - injured U.S. soldiers as of Dec. 15, 2011. 103,775 (at least) - Iraqi deaths as of Nov. 30, 2011 from war-related violence, according to Iraq Body Count. 2,097 (at least) - Deaths of civilian employees of U.S. government contractors as of Sept. 30, 2011. 464 - Assassinated Iraqi academics as of Aug. 25, 2011. 174 - Journalists killed on assignment as of Nov. 30, 2011.
The U.S. military may be leaving Iraq, but the U.S. government is not. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad is the largest in the world, and thousands of private contractors will fill the role of the departing U.S. troops.
"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy... The loss of Liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad..." ~James Madison
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." ~Benjamin Franklin
Related:
Poll: 62% Say War Going "Badly"
A new poll shows growing US opposition to the war in Afghanistan. According to CBS News, some 44 percent of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the war, a jump from 37 percent in May. The number of Americans who believe the war is going either "somewhat" or "very badly" also increased to 62 percent from 49 percent.
Record US Soldier Suicides in June
New figures show a record number of US soldiers took their own lives last month. At least thirty-two soldier suicides were reported in June, the highest monthly number since record keeping began around the Vietnam War. Seven of those soldiers killed themselves while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bio: Muntadhar al-Zaidi was an Iraqi broadcast journalist who served as a correspondent for (Iraqi-owned, Egyptian-based) Al-Baghdadia TV. Al-Zaidi's reports often focused on the plight of widows, orphans, and children in the Iraq War. On November 16, 2007, al-Zaidi was kidnapped by unknown assailants in Baghdad. He was also previously twice arrested by the United States armed forces. On December 14, 2008, al-Zaidi shouted "this is for the widows and orphans" and threw his shoes at then-US president George W. Bush during a Baghdad press conference. Al-Zaidi suffered injuries as he was taken into custody and was tortured during his initial detention. There were calls throughout the Middle East to place the shoes in an Iraqi museum, but the shoes were later destroyed by American and Iraqi security forces. Al-Zaidi's shoeing inspired many similar incidents of political protest around the world. On February 20, 2009, al-Zaidi received a 90-minute trial by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq. On March 12, 2009, he was sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting a foreign head of state during an official visit. On April 7 the sentence was reduced to one year from three years. He was released on 15 September 2009 for good behaviour, after serving nine months of the sentence.
Calling it a case of "collateral murder," the WikiLeaks Web site today released harrowing until-now secret video of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter in Baghdad in 2007 repeatedly opening fire on a group of men that included a Reuters photographer and his driver -- and then on a van that stopped to rescue one of the wounded men.
None of the members of the group were taking hostile action, contrary to the Pentagon's initial cover story; they were milling about on a street corner. One man was evidently carrying a gun, though that was and is hardly an uncommon occurrence in Baghdad.
Reporters working for WikiLeaks determined that the driver of the van was a good Samaritan on his way to take his small children to a tutoring session. He was killed and his two children were badly injured.
In the video, which Reuters has been asking to see since 2007, crew members can be heard celebrating their kills.
"Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards," says one crewman after multiple rounds of 30mm cannon fire left nearly a dozen bodies littering the street.
A crewman begs for permission to open fire on the van and its occupants, even though it has done nothing but stop to help the wounded: "Come on, let us shoot!"
Two crewmen share a laugh when a Bradley fighting vehicle runs over one of the corpses.
And after soldiers on the ground find two small children shot and bleeding in the van, one crewman can be heard saying: "Well, it's their fault bringing their kids to a battle."
The helicopter crew, which was patrolling an area that had been the scene of fierce fighting that morning, said they spotted weapons on members of the first group -- although the video shows one gun, at most. The crew also mistook a telephoto lens for a rocket-propelled grenade.
The shooting, which killed Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, took place on July 12, 2007, in a southeastern neighborhood of Baghdad.
WARNING: The following video is not censored, and depicts graphic acts of violence, bloodshed, and inhumanity.
Update:
Families of Victims of 2007 US Helicopter Killing React to Leaked Video
US Forces Admit Killing Two Pregnant Afghan Women & Teenager
In Afghanistan, US-led forces have admitted to killing two pregnant Afghan women and a teenage girl during a nighttime raid on February 12. Afghan investigators told the Times of London US Special Forces soldiers tried to cover up the killings. US forces reportedly dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened. One of the women killed was a pregnant mother of ten, and another was a pregnant mother of six. Initially NATO military officials suggested that the women were stabbed to death, or had died by some other means, hours before the raid. In other news from Afghanistan, German troops accidentally killed six Afghan soldiers on Saturday.
Karzai Lashes Out at Western Nations
The killings occur as tension mounts between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Western leaders. Last week Karzai issued a harsh rebuke of Western and United Nations involvement in Afghanistan, criticizing what he called “massive interference from foreigners." On Saturday, he reportedly told a group of lawmakers, “If you and the international community pressure me more, I swear that I am going to join the Taliban.”
