IED Attacks On U.S. Troops Reach All-Time High Last Month

August 10, 2007 New Zealand Limited

Roadside bomb attacks on American troops in Iraq reached an all-time high last month, accounting for more than one third of all combat deaths.

The increase in the number of casualties caused by the sophisticated explosive devices comes at the height of the "surge" of United States forces which, the Pentagon claims, is broadly a success.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Marine Killed In Anbar

August 9, 2007 Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20070809-04

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq – A Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West died Aug. 7 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province.

MORE:

[Unlike the dishonorable wretches who write the meaningless bullshit you just read to cover up news of U.S. KIA, the British Government is not too cowardly to respect and honor their KIA in their battle reports.

[Here are two examples.  T]

MORE:

#1:

Leading Aircraftman Martin Beard Royal Air Force Regiment Killed In Iraq

9 Aug 07 Ministry of Defence

It is with deep sorrow that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of Leading Aircraftman Martin Beard of No 1 Squadron Royal Air Force Regiment, in Basra, southern Iraq on Tuesday 7 August 2007.

Leading Aircraftman Beard, aged 20, was taking part in a routine foot patrol in the Al Waki district north of the British Base at Basra Air Station. The aim of the patrol was to deter indirect fire attacks on the base and reassure the local population.

Leading Aircraftman Beard sustained a gunshot wound when the patrol came under attack as it moved through Al Waki Market.  He was evacuated by helicopter to the field hospital but sadly did not survive.

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#2:

Two British Soldiers Killed In Iraq On Thursday 9 August 2007

9 Aug 07 Ministry of Defence

It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the deaths of two British soldiers from 1st Battalion The Irish Guards in Basra, southern Iraq in the early hours of this morning, Thursday 9 August 2007.

The soldiers were killed, and another two seriously injured, when an Improvised Explosive Device detonated next to their patrol just after midnight local time. The soldiers were travelling in a convoy to the north of the Rumaylah oilfields, which is to the west of Basra City.

Soldier Killed In Iraq Remembered

Army Spec. Camy Florexil

Aug. 03, 2007 By Dwight Ott, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Army Spec. Camy Florexil - who yesterday was being praised on the Internet as a "true American hero" - was a man who went to war but wasn't a fighter, his family said.

"He was quiet, and a good student," said his aunt Marie Gerda-Pierre. "He was so soft. . . . He was an artist who was interested in sketching and computers.

"He spent hours in front of the computer."

The 20-year-old infantryman, who surprised family members when he enlisted nearly two years ago, died July 24, a day after an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle in Baghdad. He had been in Iraq five months.

Gerda-Pierre learned of her nephew's death on Tuesday and had the task of informing his mother, Carol Florexil, who lives in her native Haiti.

"I told his mother she should be proud anyway.  He didn't die by doing bad stuff.  He wasn't hanging on the corner doing illegal stuff," Gerda-Pierre said.  "He was fighting for the freedom of those people."

Although he was a native-born American, Florexil spent the first few years of his life in Haiti because his mother had been forced to return.

After a few years in Port-au-Prince, his mother - who was unable to come back to the United States - made the gut-wrenching decision to part with Camy and his older sister, Emanuela.  She sent them to stay with Gerda-Pierre in Northeast Philadelphia.

"Their mother wanted the best for them," Gerda-Pierre said.

Florexil lived with his aunt from the fifth grade at Thomas Finletter Elementary School to the 11th grade at Swenson Arts and Technology High School, at which point he moved in with his sister.

He joined the Army in September 2005 and was assigned to the First Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, Fourth Infantry Brigade Combat Team, First Infantry Division in Fort Riley, Kan.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete yesterday.  Gerda-Pierre said Florexil would be buried in the United States after his mother came to make the arrangements

REALLY BAD PLACE TO BE:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

A U.S. soldier stands guard near a burnt bus after a bomb attack in Baghdad, July 30, 2007. (Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters)

U.S. Helicopter Down In Yusifiyah:

Two Injured

10 August 2007 Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20070810-03

BAGHDAD – BAGHDAD - During an early morning raid Aug. 10, a U.S. helicopter executed a forced landing in Yusifiyah, ten miles south of Baghdad, while supporting a planned mission.

Two U.S. Soldiers sustained non-life threatening injuries when the aircraft landed.  Initial reports from ground forces do not clearly identify the cause of the mishap while in transit to the proposed target.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Davis Left Strong Impression On Fellow Soldiers

July 31, 2007 By Cass Friedman, Times-News writer

TWIN FALLS - Say what you want about whether the U.S. and its allies are winning Operation Enduring Freedom.

U.S. Army Pfc. Adam Davis was winning the respect of fellow soldiers and moving up through the ranks of the military on July 23, the day he died.  A roadside bomb killed him and three other U.S. soldiers riding an armored Humvee in Afghanistan.

Since his death, when the Army awarded him the Purple Heart, the Army raised Davis' rank to specialist.

His wit raised eyebrows, his work ethic inspired other soldiers, his passion for video games and his jokes brought levity to a grim situation.

The Army sent the 22-year-old combat patrol driver, who also manned an M2 .50-caliber machine gun, from Italy to Afghanistan in May with D Company 1-503.

The blast caught Davis' Humvee traveling from base to a patrol area.

UK Officer Calls For U.S. Special Forces To Get The Fuck Out Of His Area:

Unbelievably Stupid U.S. Command Caught Lying About His Request;

Bloodthirsty Idiots Recruit A Whole Village To Fight For The Resistance;

"We Have Understood That The Americans Are A Curse On Us, And They Are Here Just To Destroy Afghanistan"

[Thanks to Alan Stolzer, The Military Project, and JM, who sent this in.]

August 9, 2007 By CARLOTTA GALL, The New York Times [Excerpts] & August 10, 2007 Declan Walsh in Islamabad and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian

Tension between British and American commanders in southern Afghanistan erupted into the open yesterday as a senior UK military officer said he had asked the US to withdraw its special forces from a volatile area that was crucial in the battle against the Taliban.

A senior British commander in southern Afghanistan said in recent weeks that he had asked that American Special Forces leave his area of operations because the high level of civilian casualties they had caused was making it difficult to win over local people.

An American military spokesman denied that the request for American forces to leave was ever made, either formally or otherwise, or that they had caused most of the casualties.

Other British officers here in Helmand Province, speaking on condition of anonymity, criticized American Special Forces for causing most of the civilian deaths and injuries in their area.

They also expressed concerns that the Americans’ extensive use of air power was turning the people against the foreign presence as British forces were trying to solidify recent gains against the Taliban.

A precise tally of civilian deaths is difficult to pin down, but one reliable count puts the number killed in Helmand this year at close to 300 civilians, the vast majority of them caused by foreign and Afghan forces, rather than the Taliban.

American Special Forces have been active in Helmand since United States forces first entered Afghanistan in late 2001, and for several years they maintained a small base outside the town of Gereshk.  But the foreign troop presence was never more than a few hundred men.

British forces arrived in the spring of 2006 and now have command of the province with some 6,000 troops deployed, with small units of Estonians and Danish troops. American Special Forces have continued to assist in fighting insurgents, operating as advisers to Afghan national security forces.

It is these American teams that are coming under criticism.

Such Special Forces teams have often called in airstrikes in Helmand and other places where civilians have subsequently been found to have suffered casualties.

On a rare visit to Helmand in mid-July, a journalist encountered children who were still suffering wounds sustained in that bombing raid or another around that time. 

Their father, Mohammadullah, brought them to the gate of the British Army base seeking help.  His son, Bashir Ahmed, 2, listless and stick thin, seemed close to death. The boy and his sister Muzlifa, 7, bore terrible shrapnel scars.  NATO doctors had removed shrapnel from the boy’s abdomen at the time of the raid and had warned his father that he might not survive, but two months later he was still hanging on.

The father said the bombing raid killed six members of the family and wounded five. His wife lost an arm, and the children’s grandmother was killed, he said.

Altogether, he said, 20 people were killed in the airstrikes after Taliban fighters came through the village. He figured that the planes had bombed them mistakenly, because the Taliban were fighting United States forces well below the village at the time.

He said that he opposed the Taliban, but that after the bombing raid the villagers were so angered that most of the men who survived went off to join the insurgents.

It is in fact the possibility of the population turning against them, or the unpopularity of the campaign back home, that most concerns the military, one NATO military official said. "We know we can beat the Taliban on the ground," the official said. "The issue is the population."

A civilian NATO from Kabul added, "The problem is Afghans are waking up and thinking: 'Why are they doing this?’"

"The Americans are killing and destroying a village just in pursuit of one person," said Mahmadullah, 24, referring to Osama bin Laden.

"So now we have understood that the Americans are a curse on us, and they are here just to destroy Afghanistan. They can tell the difference between men and women, children and animals, but they are just killing everyone."

A trained mullah from the village of Kutaizi, half an hour from Sangin, Mahmadullah reacted with sarcasm to the idea that reconstruction and assistance could change the minds of the people.

"First they kill me, and then they rebuild my house?" he said.  "What is the point when I am dead and my son is dead?  This is not of any worth to us."

British officers say US special forces are cavalier in their approach to the civilian population.

The tensions were illustrated by an incident the Guardian witnessed in Sangin earlier this summer.

A British patrol was abandoned by its American special forces escort in the town for several hours.  Stranded in central Sangin, British officers tried to establish radio contact with the Americans, who had disappeared without warning, and swore impatiently when they could not.

The British criticisms intensified after the Americans led them to their proposed site for a new Afghan patrol base in the town - beside a graveyard and a religious shrine. "Sensitivity is not their strong suit," said one British officer.

TROOP NEWS

How Stupid, Incompetent General Betrayus Armed The Resistance To Kill U.S. Troops:

Report Holds Him Responsible For Missing Arms In Iraq:

"Some Of The Weapons Probably Are Being Used Against U.S. Forces"

August 6, 2007 By Glenn Kessler, Washington Post Staff Writer

The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, the GAO said, including at least $2.8 billion to buy and deliver equipment.

But the GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when security training was led by Gen. David H. Petraeus, who now commands all U.S. forces in Iraq.

They really have no idea where they are," said Rachel Stohl, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information who has studied small-arms trade and received Pentagon briefings on the issue. 

"It likely means that the United States is unintentionally providing weapons to bad actors.

One senior Pentagon official acknowledged that some of the weapons probably are being used against U.S. forces.

The GAO found that the military was consistently unable to collect supporting documents to "confirm when the equipment was received, the quantities of equipment delivered, and the Iraqi units receiving the equipment." The agency also said there were "numerous mistakes due to incorrect manual entries" in the records that were maintained.

The GAO reached the estimate of 190,000 missing arms -- 110,000 AK-47s and 80,000 pistols -- by comparing the property records of the Multi-National Security Transition Command for Iraq against records Petraeus maintained of the arms and equipment he had ordered.

Petraeus's figures were compared with classified data and other records to ensure that they were accurate enough to compare against the property books.

In all cases, the gaps between the two records were enormous.

Petraeus reported that about 185,000 AK-47 rifles, 170,000 pistols, 215,000 pieces of body armor and 140,000 helmets were issued to Iraqi security forces from June 2004 through September 2005.

But the property books contained records for 75,000 AK-47 rifles, 90,000 pistols, 80,000 pieces of body armor and 25,000 helmets.

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

Lydia Suliveras, right, grieves with her son as they watch an honor guard carry the remains of her husband, US Army Staff Sgt. Wilberto Suliveras, after its arrival at Muniz Airbase, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Aug. 6, 2007. Staff Sgt. Suliveras was killed a week earlier by small arms fire in Hor Al Bash, Iraq.  (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

"Always Unfaithful"

Marines In Iraq, Afghanistan Not Getting Badly Needed Equipment;

Marine Corps BrassRats Refused To Hear Troops Complaints

August 3, 2007 By: RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The system for ensuring Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan receive badly needed war-fighting equipment has "not been perfect" and is being improved, says the top Marine Corps general.

Gen. James Conway sought to blunt congressional criticism over the slow delivery of mine-resistant vehicles, laser warning devices, and aerial surveillance systems in a letter to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It was obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

Complaints have come from within the Corps as well.

Marines returning from Iraq several months ago estimated that of more than 100 "urgent" requests for equipment from units between February 2006 and February 2007, less than 10 percent were fulfilled.

Conway made no mention of the internal Marine Corps dissatisfaction in his letter to [Senator Joseph] Biden.

While acknowledging shortcomings, he also defended decisions the Marines have made in pursuing certain equipment despite requests for alternative gear from deployed forces.

The AP reported in May that a document from Marines just returning from Iraq -- laying out a case for quicker action to get better equipment -- was to be presented in March to senior officials in the Pentagon's defense research and engineering office.

But the session was canceled by Marine Corps leaders because its contents were deemed too contentious.

In his letter to Biden -- a similar letter was sent to Bond -- Conway didn't specify how the Marines' acquisition process is being adjusted to make it more responsive.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

The Ditch At My Lai

From: Mike Hastie

To: GI Special

Sent: August 07, 2007

Subject: The Ditch At My Lai

                     The Ditch At My Lai

Of the 504 Vietnamese civilians who were murdered

at My Lai in 1968 by the U.S. Government,

175 were shot at point-blank range in this ditch.

Iraq has become another ditch in America's Empire.

Bush and Cheney and Congress will stop at nothing.

Mike Hastie

Vietnam Veteran

"I believe that God wants me to be president."

George W. Bush

Complaint:

Article Complained Of:

Replies:

Complaint:

From: James M Leas

To: GI Special

Sent: August 09, 2007

Subject: Re: GI Special 5H7: Oh Please

I strongly disagree with your message counterposing reaching out to soldiers to demonstrations.  The large rallies demonstrate widespread opposition to the war to the soldiers. Soldier and veteran participation in the marches and rallies helps build civilian opppostion to the war.  We can and should do both demonstrations and reach out. Counterposing one to the other defeats both.

Stop complaining about those who are organizing action against the war.

If you think more reach out to soldiers is needed why not initiate or propose a reach out to soldiers event?

MORE:

Here Is The Article Complained Of:

[Thanks For A Chance To Run It Again]

[GI Special 5H7: Oh Please]

Oh Please,

Not Another Useless Pilgrimage To DC

Father Georgi Apollonievich Gapon [wikimedia.org]

Bloody Sunday (Russian: Кровавое воскресенье) was an incident on 22 January 1905 in St. Petersburg, Russia, where unarmed, peaceful demonstrators marching to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II were gunned down.  The event was organized by Father Gapon, who told the Russian working class that the Czar and his government would be moved by their march, their opposition to the Imperial war against Japan, and their requests for reforms.  The Tsar’s dictatorship ended in 1917, when the Russian working class and soldiers in the Russian army rose in revolution.  After the revolution the Czar, whose entry into World War I killed 2 million Russian citizens, was executed.

**********************************************************

Well, the usual crew are out there planning a whole assortment of trips to DC to beg the politicians to stop the war.  

Repeatedly. 

August, September, October; whenever.  Talk about a blind obsession, like moths to a flame. 

What a fascination with standing around in the presence of power, and feeling important going in some Senator’s office, or tromping back and forth on the mall, or both.

What a pathetic farce, the merest pretense of action, the faint shadow of action.

******************************************

Someone said a long time ago, "Law is but the recognition of material reality.  It represents a written armistice between class forces and competing interests."

So, if you change material reality, the law, which is all there is in DC, follows along.

The people that tell us to go beg on our knees in DC before the thrones of the powerful – politely called lobbying these days -- have hold of the wrong end of the stick, if they could stop kissing DC political butt long enough to hold a stick that is.

Material reality is the army, turning hard against the war.  You may be assured that when they break loose and decide to do some marching on Washington, that will hit like a hammer.

The silly self-appointed movement leaders, instead of spending their time and money reaching out to members of the armed forces turning against the war, think that if they show up in Washington again, and again, and again, they will have a significant effect on those that hold the power and run the Empire. 

What pretentious delusions.  They have no power