The Mission's Creep

Beyond the fact that Iraq is turning into a God-forsaken quagmire, what is the war doing to young idealistic American soldiers? Read below and find out. Mission Creep is settling in (see article on disillusioned Marines below). Back when Democratic president Bill Clinton was in office the GOP threw an outrageous temper tantrum over going into Bosnia and every Republican in office swore that it was going to be "like a Vietnam quagmire." Read this 1995 HERITAGE FOUNDATION piece and compare to Iraq today. Oh, and not one American soldier died in combat in Bosnia, we saved the country from genocide (the mass killing of Muslims by so-called Christians) and the war criminals are being tried and convicted today for crimes against humanity.

The Christian Science Monitor's Pulitzer Prize-winning series on Bosnia (and the discovery of mass graves).


Bush recently said on THE TODAY SHOW the war on terror can't be won, the next day he completely flip-flopped and switched into his Yale cheerleader role (at a Vets convention) saying rah-rah Iraq and the war on terror will be won by his mighty leadership, yada-yada, etc.! Without his handlers Bush is lost. And so are we.

Bush has screwed it all up in Iraq and our soldiers and nation will pay for it many years beyond the conflict.

Sam

U.S. Intelligence Offers Gloomy Outlook for Iraq

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. intelligence report prepared for President Bush in July offered a gloomy outlook for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst scenario being a deterioration into civil war, U.S. government officials said on Thursday...


Marines grow wary of even friendly faces

By Mike Dorning Chicago Tribune correspondent

Marine Cpl. Travis Friedrichsen, a sandy-haired 21-year-old from Denison, Iowa, used to take Tootsie Rolls and lollipops out of care packages from home and give them to Iraqi children. Not anymore.

"My whole opinion of the people here has changed. There aren't any good people," said Friedrichsen, who says his first instinct now is to scan even youngsters' hands for weapons.

Subtle hostility extends to Iraqi adults, and evidence of betrayal among some of the country's officials is causing some American troops to have second thoughts.

"We're out here giving our lives for these people," said Sgt. Jesse Jordan, 25, of Grove Hill, Ala. "You'd think they'd show some gratitude. Instead, they don't seem to care."

When new troops rotated into Iraq early in the spring, the military portrayed the second stage of the occupation as a peacekeeping operation focused at least as much on reconstruction as on mopping up rebel resistance.

Even in strongholds of the Sunni insurgency such as Ramadi, a restive provincial capital west of Baghdad, the Marine Corps sent in its units with a mission to win over the people as well as smite the enemy. Commanders worked to instill sympathy for the local population through sensitivity training and exhortations from higher officers.

Marines were ordered to show friendliness through "wave tactics," including waving at people on the street. Few spend much time waving these days.

But the hard reality of frequent hit-and-run attacks, roadside bombs showering military vehicles with shrapnel and mortars exploding on their base has left plenty of Marines, particularly grunts on the ground, disillusioned and bitter...




A large part of the homeless ranks today are troubled Vietnam vets who returned to America and found it hard or impossible to fit in. What kind of soldier will return from Iraq and what kind of future is in store for them? Over a thousand of their comrades have died and thousands more have been maimed and scarred by this needless conflict that grows worse every day.

Fears Grow of Wider Spread of Nuclear Weapons

Is America safer under George Bush? Under his inept watch the whole world is becoming more unstable. George Bush is a dangerous reactionary who one day says the war on terror can't be won and the next claims he's going to win it. One day he says the war is because Iraq has weapons of mass destruction then he says Hussein is a brutal dictator and must go and THEN said he went to war to promote democracy in Iraq. All the while North Korea is moving towards becoming a nuclear state as George takes another nap.

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Reports of nuclear experiments in South Korean and an unexplained blast in North Korea are stoking fears that other countries may increasingly feel compelled to move toward a "nuclear tipping point."

Few officials and experts predict non-nuclear states will make a mad dash to acquire outright the capability now possessed by the five declared nuclear powers -- the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia -- and three undeclared powers -- Israel, India and Pakistan.

But they are concerned that some governments -- warily watching nuclear activity in the two Koreas and Iran -- may begin to reconsider their own status and start amassing the materials and technologies needed to leap quickly to the nuclear club in the future.

"If the assumption becomes widespread that everybody's doing it, that everyone is experimenting in these areas, then this will tend to erode a taboo against illicit nuclear activities," Robert Einhorn, the top non-proliferation official under former President Bill Clinton, told Reuters.

Einhorn, co-editor of a new book called "The Nuclear Tipping Point," said it is important that questions about programs carried out by the two Koreas and Iran "be resolved in such a way as to rebuild support for staying away from these sensitive technologies."...

Colin Powell in four-letter neo-con 'crazies' row

Martin Bright
Sunday September 12, 2004
The Observer

A furious row has broken out over claims in a new book by BBC broadcaster James Naughtie that US Secretary of State Colin Powell described neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as 'fucking crazies' during the build-up to war in Iraq.

Powell's extraordinary outburst is alleged to have taken place during a telephone conversation with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The two became close friends during the intense negotiations in the summer of 2002 to build an international coalition for intervention via the United Nations. The 'crazies' are said to be Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.

Last week, the offices of Powell and Straw contacted Public Affairs, the US publishers of Naughtie's book, to say they would vigorously deny the claims if publication went ahead. But as no legal action was threatened, the US launch of the book, The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency, will proceed as planned this week.

Naughtie stands by his claims and is said to be privately delighted that Powell and Straw have reacted so violently to the suggestion that the former US general had fallen out with the 'neo-cons'.

Provocatively, the phrase 'fucking crazies' will be quoted on the jacket of the book, according to a source at the publisher. 'We were surprised to receive calls from the offices of Jack Straw and Colin Powell within 24 hours of each other,' the source said.

Naughtie claims that Powell and Straw spoke on an almost daily basis. Powell's concerns were said to have chimed with Straw's and those of Blair himself - that if America acted without UN sanction, allies would be lost.

Cheney and his allies were preparing for a spring war and did not wish to be deflected by the UN inspection process. Powell is thought to have been terrified that the strategy of the 'crazies' would alienate the Blair government, which believed it needed UN backing to win over Parliament and the British public.

John Kampfner, political editor of the New Statesman and author of Blair's Wars, said Naughtie's characterisation of the feverish political atmosphere of the summer of 2002 was entirely accurate. 'The British government saw Powell as the most significant voice of sanity in the US administration. At different times during this very difficult period, the Brits used Powell to get across their point of view to the White House. But, bizarrely, Powell sometimes also used Blair to pass messages to Bush.'

Kampfner's book, which covers the Blair government's military adventures in Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, reported that in July 2002 Blair sent his foreign policy adviser David Manning on a secret mission to Washington to deliver a letter hinting that, without a second UN resolution, Britain would not be able to join a war in Iraq.

Bush, The Flip-Flopper

Both Candidates Often Shift Positions

Sun Sep 12, 7:08 AM ET

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - While working relentlessly to portray Democratic Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) as a "flip-flopper," President Bush (news - web sites) has his own history of changing his position, from reversals on steel tariffs and "nation-building" to reasons for invading Iraq (news - web sites).

Latest headlines: · Bush willing to say, do anything to remain in the White House: Kerry AFP - 20 minutes ago · Edwards Visits N.C. Flooded by Hurricane AP - 34 minutes ago · Bush, Kerry on National Parks AP - 35 minutes ago

Most recently, Bush did an about-face on whether the proposed new director of national intelligence should have full budget-making powers as the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission recommended. Bush at first indicated no, then last week said yes.

Just as GOP efforts to question Kerry's military record in Vietnam helped revive nagging questions about Bush's service in the Air National Guard, the "flip flop" attacks on Kerry could boomerang against an incumbent running on his record and reputation as a straight talker.

"The guy who is the ultimate flip and flop is this sitting president," said Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) of Delaware.

Yet so far Democratic efforts to paint Bush as "Flip-Flopper-in-Chief," as one Democratic news release put it, have not seemed to have had much impact on the race.

Republicans have been driving home their depiction of Kerry as a flip-flopper for months, in campaign ads, speeches and interviews. And polls suggest this line of attack is working.

Far more voters give Bush high marks for being decisive than they do Kerry. Three-fourths, 75 percent, in the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll said the president is decisive, up 7 percentage points from August, while 37 percent said Kerry is decisive, down 7 percentage points from a month ago.

Republican audiences chant "flip-flopper" when Kerry is mentioned, some political novelty stores are carrying flip-flop sandals bearing Kerry's picture, and the theme is reinforced by late-night comedians.

"Gee, I wonder if Bush will say the 'F' in John F. Kerry stands for flip-flop," said NBC's Jay Leno after Kerry last week suggested the "W" in George W. Bush stood for "wrong."

If he is a flip-flopper, Kerry has company.

_In 2000, Bush argued against new military entanglements and nation building. He's done both in Iraq.

_He opposed a Homeland Security Department, then embraced it.

_He opposed creation of an independent Sept. 11 commission, then supported it. He first refused to speak to its members, then agreed only if Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) came with him.

_Bush argued for free trade, then imposed three-year tariffs on steel imports in 2002, only to withdraw them after 21 months.

_Last month, he said he doubted the war on terror could be won, then reversed himself to say it could and would.

_A week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush said he wanted Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) "dead or alive." But he told reporters six months later, "I truly am not that concerned about him." He did not mention bin Laden in his hour-long convention acceptance speech.

"I'm a war president," Bush told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Feb. 8. But in a July 20 speech in Iowa, he said: "Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president."

Bush keeps revising his Iraq war rationale: The need to seize Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s weapons of mass destruction until none were found; liberating the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator; fighting terrorists in Iraq not at home; spreading democracy throughout the Middle East. Now it's a safer America and a safer world.

"No matter how many times Senator Kerry flip-flops, we were right to make America safer by removing Saddam Hussein from power," he said last week in Missouri.

Bush has changed his positions on new Clean Air Act restrictions, protecting the Social Security (news - web sites) surplus, tobacco subsidies, the level of assistance to help combat AIDs in Africa, campaign finance overhaul and whether to negotiate with North Korean officials.

But while Bush's policy shifts have been numerous and notable, Democrats haven't succeeded yet in tarring him as a flip flopper, said American University political scientist James Thurber.

"Kerry has made some statements about it, but he doesn't have a clear strategy for hammering back at the flip flops of the president," Thurber said.

The sustained Bush attack draws on Kerry's 20-year Senate record, with special emphasis on his votes to authorize force in Iraq in 2002 and against final passage last year of an $87 billion aid package for Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites).

Kerry didn't help himself by explaining that he first supported an amendment to provide the $87 billion by rolling back Bush's tax cuts. "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it," he said. The Bush campaign turned the quote into an ad.

Bush aides brush off suggestions by Democrats that the real flip-flopper is Bush, not Kerry.

"One moment they say the president's too stubborn and the next day accuse him of being a flip-flopper. It's generated to a point of incoherence," said Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt.

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EDITOR'S NOTE — Tom Raum has covered Washington for The Associated Press since 1973, including five presidencies.