John McCutchen's Blog | Talking Points Memo | July 2, 2006

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Week of July 2, 2006 - July 8, 2006

Bush Family Values

July 8, 2006, 6:15PM

Not only has Operation Forward Together failed to pacify Baghdad, it, predictably, has made the situation much worse.

American attacks on Mehdi Army cause uproar among Shia
By Patrick Cockburn

US forces in Iraq have launched a series of bloody attacks on Shia militia forces in and around Baghdad, killing or wounding 30 fighters and provoking widespread anger in the Shia community. ...

The US army in Iraq is evidently starting a new confrontation with the Mehdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr, which now controls much of Baghdad. Its militiamen have grown in number over the last year as Shia civilians look for protection against Sunni assassins and death squads. "Muqtada is taking over the city," said one Shia yesterday.

At one spot on the Tigris river in al-Qadamiyah in northern Baghdad some 10 to 12 headless bodies, most of which were later identified as Shia, are being washed up every day, said a local source. "In once case, a newly married husband and wife had been tied together before being killed," he said. "In another case a man's head had been cut off and the head of a dog loosely sewn on to his neck..."

Think Things R Bad in IraQ?

July 8, 2006, 6:10PM

They're worse than you think

Much worse than reported...(via Salon)

Rod Nordland, Newsweek's chief foreign correspondent and former Baghdad bureau chief, says that conditions in Iraq are "much worse" than they're described in the U.S. press.

The reason? The Bush administration does a "great job of managing the news," and the military has begun to crack down on embedded reporters who might otherwise offer a clear assessment of facts on the ground. "Before a journalist is allowed to go on an embed now, [the military] check[s] the work you have done previously," Nordland says. "They want to know your slant on a story -- they use the word 'slant' -- what you intend to write, and what you have written from embed trips before. If they don't like what you have done before, they refuse to take you. There are cases where individual reporters have been blacklisted because the military wasn't happy with the work they had done on embed."

Still, Nordland says that reporters "get out among the Iraqi public a whole lot more than almost any American official, certainly more than military officials do." And he says that there's only so much the administration and the military can do to hide the reality that Iraqis are facing. "It is certainly hard to hide the fact that in the third year of this war, Iraqis are only getting electricity for about 5 to 10 percent of the day," Nordland says. "Living conditions have gotten so much worse, violence is at an even higher tempo, and the country is on the verge of civil war. The administration has been successful to the extent that most Americans are not aware of just how dire it is and how little progress has been made. They keep talking about how the Iraqi army is doing much better and taking over responsibilities, but for the most part that's not true."

Two-three weeks ago, BushRove launched an offensive against the Cut and Run Crowd. A Double Barrel blast from the GOP House and Senate against "cut and run or trot" following a second surprise trip to the Green Zone had the pundits proclaiming a "comeback" that had Democrats on their heels going into the fall elections. Not a few of the Democrat's so-called leaders appeared to confirm the propagandists' caricature.

It came as somewhat of a surprise then to the courtiers and town criers of Versailles on the Potomac, when an LAT poll which timely tracked these events showed that 57% agreed with the Democrats. And for those who may have been mildly shocked by that poll, have a seat before you read this one.

Gallup: 2/3 of Americans Support Withdrawal

Political Scientists such as our Dr. Jentleson have predicted and noted that approval increases following Bush charm offensives have progressively shrunk. But even the experts should be surprised to discover that when Bush goes negative on the Dems, his poll numbers follow.

It is high time for PM Maliki, who is reportedly "examining" everything from GI immunity for rape to requests from insurgents for government "law enforcement" grants, to do more than "examine" the timetables for flights departing Baghdad International

Bacevich is Coming! Bacevich is Coming!

July 8, 2006, 11:19AM

Muscular Wilsonians who have been running for the cover Hillary Clinton's skirts, might start running for their lives because the Realists are launching an offensive.

Can US Foreign Policy recover and return to Beinart's putrefacted vision of days of yore?

That has been a subject of debate off and on among the "liberal internationalists" aka Muscular Wilsonians over at TPMCafe for the past year. They are beside themselves to have discovered that Bush's neo-cons, their very own simple sisters, have given "humanitarian" interventionism such a bad name. Well the problem is bigger than the wolfish Wilsonian hypocrites and back bench courtiers imagine.

Paul Craig Roberts illustrates:
Hegemons Court Doom

It is "balancing" time again boys and girls. Time to dust off your Hans Morgenthau. It's gonna be a Hobbesian Hell out there in the dawning Real World.

The Eagle Has Crash Landed: Pax Americana Is Over

The Realist's kids like Walt, Mearshiemer and Bacevich - are on the offensive

Kim's Rockets Clear the Air - Buchanan

What a Concept!

July 7, 2006, 1:58PM

This one is sure to take off - Iran to host Iraq security conference

Mushroom Clouds of Methane

July 6, 2006, 4:07PM

The TAEP-O-DONG Missile (Robert Corddry Reports from North Korea) - Millions could die from this dong

Bush: U.S. Wants Diplomacy With N. Korea - 2 hours ago

Bush: Hard to read North Korea's motives - 3 hours ago

Only invades countries who don't have nukes and ICBM that can hit the USA..

8 in 10 historians agree Worst President Ever And the interational war criminal had the unmitgated gall to sugges that we would dishonor the dead troops if we pulled them out of his debacle.

Flamming Flaggotry

July 6, 2006, 10:56AM

Flammig Flaggotry - Jon Stewart

The Stewart?Corddry riff on the Taep-O-Dong missle and the next gen warhead - buckets of steaming young man juice - not up yet.

Aren't you glad!

Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends

July 6, 2006, 9:42AM

Divide, Conquer, Destroy: Same Old Convergence, Same Old Israel

Tax receipts cut off. Rockets launched from attack aircraft. Artillery shell kills kids on a beach. A rocket lands in a IDF base. Israel attempts to foment civil war in Palestine but as the factions reach agreement Israeli Merkavas re-enter Gaza. A rocket lands at an IDF base. Israel calls it a "major escalation". They destroy the PA's government offices and Gaza's power plant. They send US taxpayers the bill even while Washington wrings its hands, feigning agnst at the latest pothole on the road map.

Familiar isn't it? It certainly should be. Israel destroyed the Arafat PA, the Abbss led PA and wasted no time doing the freely elected democracy that it so cynically demanded to the accompaniment of Bush sermonettes on the Virtues of Democracy.

The same old story should be familiar at another level for there are a few things that you can always count on Israel to do. They will never allow a Palestinian State. They will never relinquish control of the West Bank or Gaza They will ignore international law and human rights. They will seek to foment chaos and discord throughout the middle east doing as they have in Lebanon, Iraq, even Kurdistan, they will attempt to divide, conquer and eliminate their neighbors, and in all of it they will enlist what has become in effect a puppet sponsor of this rogue state. The PM will go to Washington to review the script for the latest farce and the supporting role that Bush and his gang are to perform, a tiresome black comedy of lies and calumnies, which raises now a very real question for the freely elected government of Palestine....

To be or not to be a prop in the black Zionist farce - the show that never ends? That is the question that William Lind explores below and Scott McConnell follows in a report from his recent Christian Peace Mission to Syria, Palestine and Israel.

The one question for the US is ever the same. Can its politicians summon the political will to go against the Israel Lobby, free the US to pursue what is in its manifest national interest to do, especially now that it is trapped in the neighborhood in what is already its Greatest Strategic Disaster), represent the interests of YOUR nation for a change - cut the bastard off without a damned schekel the $6 Billion to Springtime for Israel in Palestine, and thus achieve its stated goals of peace and Palestine freedom?

Don't hold your breath.

To Be or Not to Be a State - Wlliam Lind
When Hamas won the Palestinian elections, a highly successful Fourth Generation entity became a state. No doubt that was one of Hamas' highest aspirations. But by becoming a state, it became far more vulnerable to other states than it was as a non-state entity. How Hamas deals with this problem may say a great deal about the future of Fourth Generation war.

Hamas may have presumed that once it won a free election, other states, including the United States and Israel, would have to recognize its legitimacy. Great expectations are seldom fulfilled in the amoral world of international politics. When the Washington Establishment calls for "free elections," what it means is elections that elect the people it wants to deal with. Hamas does not fall in that category. Washington therefore greeted Hamas' electoral victory with a full-court press to destroy the new Hamas leadership of the Palestinian Authority, a "state" that bears a state's burdens with none of a state's assets. Both Machiavelli and Metternich were no doubt delighted by this act of Wilsonian hypocrisy, a variety that often exceeds their own and does so with a straight face, an act they could never quite master, being gentlemen.

Also Scott McConnell: Divided and Conquered

As to the U.S, I do not see that it follows any particular set of principles except hypocrisy: meaning, the heart-felt need to dress up its extraordinary hunger for power with fine-sounding phrases about freedom, democracy, women's rights, etc.

Israel - To be or not to be is a question that the US dispositively answered in March of 2003. For by that standard, has Israel not forfeited its right to exist- several times over? [Accord Ivo Daalder and Bruce Jentleson who have each expounded the New World Order Principles which compel such a result but for the hypocrisy of it all, - a mere triffle for learned Courtiers, Versailles sur Le Potomac..]

Note to Dr. Bruce...The two cheers? I propose 3 - for the courageious Palestinian people yearning to breathe free. Drop by any old time..I'll ice a bottle of Schadenfreude Schnapps.

Welcome back my rriends to the show that never ends...we're so glad you could attend come inside, come inside

A toast!

May Palestine be free from the Jordan to the Sea.

Number of days the people of East Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Golan have been living under Israel's military occupation regime:

13335

Support the Troops

July 3, 2006, 1:09PM

Even as the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld is thought to expose CheneyRumsfeldBush to war crime indictment,, Mitch McConnell is Johnny-on-the-Spot supporting the troops! God Bless America.

Senator McConnell: Court Ruling Means GIs Could Be Accused of War Crimes

Another issue that WarWInger Democrats dare not discuss. Disgusted yet? Had enough?

From the Los Angeles Times
Did Bush commit war crimes?
Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan(sic) vs. Rumsfeld could expose officials to prosecution.
June 30, 2006
THE SUPREME Court on Thursday dealt the Bush administration a stinging rebuke, declaring in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld that military commissions for trying terrorist suspects violate both U.S. military law and the Geneva Convention.
But the real blockbuster in the Hamdan decision is the court's holding that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention applies to the conflict with Al Qaeda — a holding that makes high-ranking Bush administration officials potentially subject to prosecution under the federal War Crimes Act.

The provisions of the Geneva Convention were intended to protect noncombatants — including prisoners — in times of armed conflict. But as the administration has repeatedly noted, most of these protections apply only to conflicts between states. Because Al Qaeda is not a state, the administration argued that the Geneva Convention didn't apply to the war on terror. These assertions gave the administration's arguments about the legal framework for fighting terrorism a through-the-looking-glass quality. On the one hand, the administration argued that the struggle against terrorism was a war, subject only to the law of war, not U.S. criminal or constitutional law. On the other hand, the administration said the Geneva Convention didn't apply to the war with Al Qaeda, which put the war on terror in an anything-goes legal limbo.

This novel theory served as the administration's legal cover for a wide range of questionable tactics, ranging from the Guantanamo military tribunals to administration efforts to hold even U.S. citizens indefinitely without counsel, charge or trial.

Perhaps most troubling, it allowed the administration to claim that detained terrorism suspects could be subjected to interrogation techniques that constitute torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law, such as "waterboarding," placing prisoners in painful physical positions, sexual humiliation and extreme sleep deprivation.

Under Bush administration logic, these tactics were not illegal under U.S. law because U.S. law was trumped by the law of war, and they weren't illegal under the law of war either, because Geneva Convention prohibitions on torture and cruel treatment were not applicable to the conflict with Al Qaeda.

In 2005, Congress angered the administration by passing Sen. John McCain's amendment explicitly prohibiting the use of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees. But Congress did not attach criminal penalties to violations of the amendment, and the administration has repeatedly indicated its intent to ignore it.

The Hamdan decision may change a few minds within the administration. Although the decision's practical effect on the military tribunals is unclear — the administration may be able to gain explicit congressional authorization for the tribunals, or it may be able to modify them to comply with the laws of war — the court's declaration that Common Article 3 applies to the war on terror is of enormous significance. Ultimately, it could pave the way for war crimes prosecutions of those responsible for abusing detainees.

Common Article 3 forbids "cruel treatment and torture [and] outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment." The provision's language is sweeping enough to prohibit many of the interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration. That's why the administration had argued that Common Article 3 did not apply to the war on terror, even though legal experts have long concluded that it was intended to provide minimum rights guarantees for all conflicts not otherwise covered by the Geneva Convention.

But here's where the rubber really hits the road. Under federal criminal law, anyone who "commits a war crime … shall be fined … or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death." And a war crime is defined as "any conduct … which constitutes a violation of Common Article 3 of the international conventions signed at Geneva." In other words, with the Hamdan decision, U.S. officials found to be responsible for subjecting war on terror detainees to torture, cruel treatment or other "outrages upon personal dignity" could face prison or even the death penalty.

Don't expect that to happen anytime soon, of course. For prosecutions to occur, some federal prosecutor would have to issue an indictment. And in the Justice Department of Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales — who famously called the Geneva Convention "quaint" — a genuine investigation into administration violations of the War Crimes Act just ain't gonna happen.

But as Yale law professor Jack Balkin concludes, it's starting to look as if the Geneva Convention "is not so quaint after all."
"For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins".
Martin van Creveld*

*Martin van Creveld (born 1946) is an Israeli military historian and theorist. He was born in the Netherlands but has lived in Israel since shortly after his birth. He holds degrees from the London School of Economics and The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he has been on the faculty since 1971. He is the author of fifteen books on military history and strategy, of which Command in War (1985), Supplying War (1977, 2nd edition 2004), and The Sword and the Olive (1998) are among the best known. van Creveld has lectured or taught at virtually every strategic institute, military or civilian, in the Western world, including the U.S. Naval War College, most recently in December, 1999 and January, 2000. Some people consider his 1991 book, The Transformation of War, among the most important treatises on military theory ever written.

Revolt of the Generals: An Update

July 3, 2006, 12:07PM

An E-Ring war about BushWar IV

LAST STAND
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
The military’s problem with the President’s Iran policy.

Odds on Ivo longer this week?

Hard to say after that embarrassment with the NK Missle Test That Never Was.....Transhuman is looking a little green around the gills This Week in Bushwar.

Bush's Little Stalingrad

July 2, 2006, 1:42PM

Fallujah: Little Stalingrad -

by William S. Lind

Caught in the Crossfire
The Untold Story of Fallujah
A Film by Mark Manning

Independent filmmaker Mark Manning was the only Westerner to travel to Fallujah un-embedded, and he lived with the refugees of Fallujah and experienced life from their point of view, returning with them to their destroyed city after the siege by the United States. Unknown to any authorities, he recorded what he saw. He went through the checkpoints, witnessed the devastation of thousands of homes, shops and mosques, and documented the horrors of the siege as recounted by those who survived inside the city during the battles. The people of Fallujah asked him to tell their story to the world, and he is now fulfilling that request with the release of Caught in the Crossfire.

Shot from November 2004 to April 2005 inside the city of Fallujah, Caught in the Crossfire details the conditions experienced by civilians as they endured the violent clashes and consequences of Operation Phantom Fury and became refugees outside the eyes and care of the international community.

Part I
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Part II
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Guerrilla War for Dummies

William Lind

Air power works against you, not for you. It kills lots of people who weren’t your enemy, recruiting their relatives, friends and fellow tribesmen to become your enemies. In this kind of war, bombers are as useful as 42 cm. siege mortars.
Big, noisy, offensives, launched with lots of warning, achieve nothing. The enemy just goes to ground while you pass on through, and he’s still there when you leave. Big Pushes are the opposite of the “ink blot” strategy, which is the only thing that works, when anything can.
Putting the Big Push together with lots of bombing in Afghanistan’s Pashtun country means we end up fighting most if not all of the Pashtun. In Afghan wars, the Pashtun always win in the end.
Quisling governments fail because they cannot achieve legitimacy.
You need closure, but your guerilla enemy doesn’t. He not only can fight until Doomsday, he intends to do just that—if not you, then someone else.
The bigger the operations you have to undertake, the more surely your enemy is winning.

They wanna test their grand theories
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
With the blood of you and me
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

The Boss

July 2, 2006, 11:37AM

Bruce Springsteen: "Bring 'Em Home, Bring 'Em Home"

Bruce Springsteen sings "Bring 'Em Home, Bring 'Em Home" on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The song is part of Springsteen's new album "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions". The song is based on Seeger's Vietnam-era ballad "Bring 'Em Home".

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BRING THEM HOME (IF YOU LOVE YOUR UNCLE SAM)©
Studio version
If you love this land of the free
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring them back from overseas
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
It will make the politicians sad, I know
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
They wanna tangle with their foe
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
They wanna test their grand theories
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
With the blood of you and me
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Now we'll give no more brave young lives
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
For the gleam in someone's eyes
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
(Hooo-hooo hooo-hooo)
(Hooo-hooo hooo-hooo)
The men will cheer and the boys will shout
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Yeah and we will all turn out
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
The church bells will ring with joy
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
To welcome our garland girls and boys
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
We willl lift their voice and sound
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Yeah, when Johnny comes marching home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring them back from overseas
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
If you love this land of the free
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring them back from overseas
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

Hamdi Ruling: A War Crimes Predicate???

July 2, 2006, 9:53AM

I must confess I missed it but Paul Craig Roberts has a good point. Still in all, Conspiracy to Wage a War of Aggression is the Supreme War Crime to which even gross and intentional violations of the Geneva Conventions must take a back seat.

Bush's Assault on Freedom: What's to Stop Him?
by Paul Craig Roberts
On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-3 decision ruled that President Bush's effort to railroad tortured Guantanamo Bay detainees in kangaroo courts "violates both U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions."
Better late than never, but it sure took a long time for the checks and balances to call a halt to the illegal and unconstitutional behavior of the executive.
The Legal Times quotes David Remes, a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling: "At the broadest level, the Court has rejected the basic legal theory of the Bush administration since 9/11 – that the president has the inherent power to do whatever he wants in the name of fighting terrorism without accountability to Congress or the courts."
Perhaps the Court's ruling has more far-reaching implications. In finding Bush in violation of the Geneva Conventions, the ruling may have created a prima facie case for charges to be filed against Bush as a war criminal.
Many readers have concluded that Bush assumed the war criminal's mantle when he illegally invaded Iraq under false pretenses. The U.S. itself established the Nuremberg standard that it is a war crime to launch a war of aggression. This was the charge that the chief U.S. prosecutor brought against German leaders at the Nuremberg trials.
The importance of the Supreme Court's decision, however, is that a legal decision by America's highest court has ruled Bush to be in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Issues the War Wing of the D Party Can't Talk About

July 2, 2006, 9:33AM

Baghdad Attacks Rise Since Crackdown

More Than 1,000 Iraqis Killed in June
Sadr City Car Bomb Kills 66, Wounds 100

The Israeli Attack: Bush's Role?

July 2, 2006, 4:00AM

Juan Cole agrees with me and that's not a bad position to occupy in these matters. Certainly better than the kids Israel slaughtered or Gilad Shilat who, as I previously noted, seem to have been pawns in a larger Israeli operation.

These Israeli black ops over the past five or so years conform to a certain pattern. In case you haven't noticed it, they generally follow a cabinet level or better trip to Washington to give Bush instructions.

Sunday, July 02, 2006
Israelis Bombard Palestinian Prime Minister's Offices
Israeli war planes attacked the offices of Palestinian Prime Minsiter Ismail Haniyah of the Hamas Party early on Sunday morning, setting them afire.
This looks so little like a rescue effort for missing Israeli serviceman, and so much like a war, that I am persuaded now of the theory that the Israeli authorities had had a plan for some time to destroy the elected Hamas government and encourage a coup by Palestinian President, Mahmoudd Abbas. Although it is worrying that the Bush administration has to say publicly that for the Israelis to just kill Abbas (the secular Fateh politician) is unacceptable. Anyway, look for Mahmoud or his successor to try to take over and marginalize Hamas. That will undermine all Bush administration arguments for democracy (Hamas is the one that won elections) in the region.

The Israeli strike against the main electricity plant in Gaza will produce a bill into the tens of millions of dollars for the American taxpayer.