The Price of Progress
QuestionGirl September 2nd, 2007 - 7:42 amby Larry Johnson
If you caught the intellectual lightweight, Michael O-Hanlon, on CNN this morning you would have been treated to a masterful display of toadying and sucking up that puts the “sick” in sycophant. O-Hanlon continues to insist that his DOD arranged and controlled trip this summer to limited areas of Iraq proved beyond doubt that the surge is working and we are progressing in Iraq.
Of course his confident claims are not attended by any benchmarks or empirical evidence. So as a public service we will take a look at the specifics in Iraq and you can judge for yourself whether or not we are making progress and whether or not we are getting value for our money and the blood of our sons and daughters.
U.S. Casualties:
Compare the current number of U.S. fatalities in Iraq with previous eight month periods for 2006 and 2005. For the first eight months of 2007 there have been 735 American troops killed and 4430 wounded. This is significantly higher than the casualty rate in 2005 or 2006. We have 1000 more dead and wounded this year than last year for the period January-August. The following chart tells the factual story (source, icasualties.org):
The Iraqi Population:
Higher casualties, by themselves, tell us nothing about progress one way or another. One could make the case that because of the casualties the situation in Iraq has stabilized and Iraqis are rushing to celebrate the “new peace”. Sadly, that is wishful thinking.
Continue reading at No Quarter
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:05 am
EIR September 1, 2007 (LPAC)–Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson rips apart the Brookings Institution’s Michael O’Hanlon for his support of the Bush Administration’s policy in Iraq, in a column posted today on the website TPMCafe. O’Hanlon masquerades as a liberal intellectual on military and national security policy, but has long been a promoter of the U.S. intervention in Iraq, if not always pleased with how it has turned out. Johnson says that if you had seen O’Hanlon’s Friday morning appearance on CNN “you would have been treated to a masterful display of toadying and sucking up, that put’s the ’sick’ in sycophant. O’Hanlon continues to insist that his DOD arranged and controlled trip this summer to limited areas of Iraq proved beyond doubt that the surge is working and we are progressing in Iraq.”
While O’Hanlon doesn’t offer any evidence for the much touted “progress,” Johnson does offer evidence that there is, in fact, no progress in Iraq. To begin with, the U.S. has suffered about 1,000 more dead and wounded in the first eight months of 2007 than in the same period, last year. The number of Iraqis seeking refuge outside the country continues to climb, with about 30,000 going to Syria each month. The Sunni-Shia divide continues to worsen as shown by the political infighting among different factions in the government in Baghdad. Violence in some parts of Baghdad may indeed have declined, but there’s “an alternative and darker explanation,” Johnson notes. “Violence is down because there are fewer people. The absence of respiration is not a sign of progress.” Finally, British troops are leaving southern Iraq. This means “the United States must either further divide and weaken its over strapped units and send them to Basra or cede the territory to the Shia militias that are in de facto control.”
Johnson concludes that “If U.S. roads and bridges were in great shape, if American schools, particularly in inner cities, were the envy of the world, if every American had access to health care, then I could tolerate wasting $3 billion a week. But asking almost 3 Americans per day to die in Iraq, is not worth another drop of our blood.”
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:06 am
This is more war propaganda style by the KI$$$$$$$$$$$inger men.
Or any other suggestions?
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:12 am
The price is half a trillion to the contractors.
is 500.000.000.000.000.000. the price.
Real price. NO BS from the Ki$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$winger men.
Any doubt?
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:17 am
Meantime the bridges are collapsing in America, Katrina destructions widen, crime, inflation, no health insurance, bankers going broke, financial mess, homeless and debts in default.
Great, Bush/Cheney/Arnold Governator… California and USA in shambles.
But another 50 billions dollars to keep feeding the war machina and the pockets of the war masters profiterriiiiing from the empty coffers of the US Treasure and the FED printing more fiat money.
Please, people, look at the club that run the goverment-Congress-Federal Reserve-Hedge Funds-Supreme Court.
All under and connnected to the powerful KI$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$4inger men.