Author: BrendaStewart

vet of Navy and USAF,nurse in hemodialysis,acute setting mother of 3

So, it is a new day in Iraq.

Here is what Riverbend has to say about the new day bush keeps describing.  I have a feeling she knows what she is talking about.  I think we all know she is right, as well.

I do know that they had a new leader for this group awfully fast, to pronounce.  Sometimes I feel like they are making us very gullible for some reason.  I do not know if they think it is necessary to do this or what is really going on in their minds.  

I have gotten home from vacation, which I did not keep up with the news very well.  I have been working all week long and still trying to catch up on things.  All I can say is, I have a lot of trouble believing everything I hear and read, as to the real context of what they want us to believe.  I have yet to verify in my own heart that this is the true news or not, that I am hearing.  I do not like what I have become with my doubts on things.  This is just not good for me, anyhow.  I just do not believe much anymore.

riverbend’s own words

I hear the news of how we are not gonna debate the war.  Well, that is sortta like getting your horse behind the cart.  This should have been done way back…oh, lets say 2002, wouldn’t one think!!???

The real reasons we went to war have been lies.  That is a proven.  The reasons have changes how many times now??????  To bring democracy to the ME is now the reason for us being there…oh give me a break!  Some countries have democracy, or democracy like government, but still they have tyrants as their leaders.

Now what is it that we went to war for?  I need to be constantly reminded of this, since we have gotten so far fetched from reality, here.  Is this not a sovereign nation we have established, finally?  So, now why is it that we are still there for?  So why is it that our dear leader has to sneak in to this sovereign nation with its dear leader unaware of his arrival?  Oh, for heavens sake, please give me another break!  

I simply can not believe, for the life of myself, that we are standing here debating this whole affair and not going after the crooks in charge for all of this façade.  Why debate it now??!!  We did what we went after and that was to free the nation and given them democracy, after the final excuse was let out, after there were not WMD’s to be found, after SH was found and arrested and his sons killed.

Really read Riverbend’s entry now, then tell me why we are still there, will you please!

Yes, we have reached a number of dead Americans to note. We are now in Iraq longer than we were in WW2, or so they say.  We were in Vietnam 10 years plus, depending our your calculation of when we actually sent advisors.

So we are now bankrupting our nation to pay for this adventure.  That is grover wanted, wasn’t it!?

We now have a supreme court that will dictate to us all what and how we all should live, from henceforth on out.  We now have a congress, made up of both parties that think we ought to just sit down and shut up, for they are the ones who knows best.  Oh for heavens sake, give me a break, y’all!  Is this what we have in our constitution, or have I read it wrongly?

Well, just let me have your opinions on what I should be thinking of nowadays.  I sure do not feel like this government of ours and I mean both parties here, know what the hell they are doing and that is is a good thing!  The more things change, the more they remain the same.

So Booman, how do you frame this one for the up coming election??!!  Since this has got to be about framing and all.  I think I will need direction as how to talk to society, if what I have already been saying is wrong, according to the big wigs of the ykos convention.  Instead of telling you and others what is truly in my heart of hearts and the facts as known facts, now we must frame this rhetoric to win.  How must we do this and stay on track of reality?  Riverbend does not seem to have any problem doing this, so why should I?!  Can someone please help me out here?

Thanks, and so good to be back.  hugs

On a special day

I want to take this one diary to say “Happy Birthday” to Tracy.  She has had to endure much in her life.  When she started to speak out with us, a long time ago, over on the orange, I knew she was special.  Her heart is in the right place always.  Her struggles in her personal life have been tremendous!!!!..to say the least.  For all these struggles, she has grown to become stronger than most.

I salute you, Tracy.  You are one of my hero’s here.  Lots of great things to come in your life.  Stay true to who you are and I personally am so fortunate to have gotten to know you.

Best wishes for a special lady on her special day.

HUGS
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,
DEAR TRACY,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU…..and many, many more….

Say What!

the NYT and Judy, Judy

NOw I ask you what is your opinion on this one.

I asked this last w/e of the group in Memphis.  I still do not have a concrete awareness of this publication.

It sure is being kept quiet.  

When you think it can’t get any worse, well it has! Unitary President, anyone?

What can I say!  I have such distaste for this crap that anything that the WH and its bullwhores put out that I can barely stomach such as this talk, but it does make sense.  Lets talk about this more, please.  I need to get this straight in my mind first of all…ok?!

Firstly, there is this peice for Digby….I do not know how to make it in a box so forgive me, ok??!!  Does Cambodia or Loas come to anyones mind here??!!  It does me!  Damn it all to hell anyhow!!!!  down a little in his opening page

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Bush’s Secret War

by digby

Colonel Sam Gardiner is the retired colonel who taught at the National War College, the Air War College and the Naval Warfare College and who found more than 50 instances of demonstrably false stories planted in the press in the run up to the war, back in 2003. He was just on CNN:

CLANCY: Well, Colonel Gardiner, from what you’re saying, it would seem like military men, then, might be cautioning, don’t go ahead with this. But what are the signs that are out there right now? Is there any evidence of any movement in that direction?

GARDINER: Sure. Actually, Jim, I would say — and this may shock some — I think the decision has been made and military operations are under way.

CLANCY: Why?

GARDINER: And let me say this — I’m saying this carefully. First of all, Sy Hersh said in that article which was…

CLANCY: Yes, but that’s one unnamed source.

GARDINER: Let me check that. Not unnamed source as not being valid.

The way “The New Yorker” does it, if somebody tells Sy Hersh something, somebody else in the magazine calls them and says, “Did you tell Sy Hersh that?” That’s one point.

The secretary[sic] point is, the Iranians have been saying American military troops are in there, have been saying it for almost a year. I was in Berlin two weeks ago, sat next to the ambassador, the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA. And I said, “Hey, I hear you’re accusing Americans of being in there operating with some of the units that have shot up revolution guard units.”

He said, quite frankly, “Yes, we know they are. We’ve captured some of the units, and they’ve confessed to working with the Americans.”

The evidence is mounting that that decision has already been made, and I don’t know that the other part of that has been completed, that there has been any congressional approval to do this.

My view of the plan is, there is this period in which some kinds of ground troops will operate inside Iran, and then what we’re talking about is the second part, which is this air strike.

CLANCY: All right. You lay this whole scenario, but there are still a lot of caution flags that one would see out here.

GARDINER: Sure. True.

CLANCY: If they do decide on a military option…

GARDINER: Right?

CLANCY: … what’s the realistic chance of success? What’s your — your prognosis for that kind of reaction here?

GARDINER: Yes. Let me give you two answers to that. First of all, the chance of getting the facilities and setting back the program, I think the chances go from maybe two years to actually accelerating the program. You know, we could cause them to redouble their efforts. That’s on one side.

The other side is this sort of horizontal escalation by the Iranians.

My assessment is — and it’s because of regime problems at home — that if we strike, they’re likely to want to blame Israel. Now that’s — because that sells well at home.

Blaming Israel means that there’s a chance that we could see Hezbollah, Hamas targeting Israel. We could very easily see this thing escalate into a broader Middle East war, particularly when you add Muslim rage.

You know, if you take the cartoon problem and multiply it times a hundred — you know, the Danish cartoons, you could see how we could end up very quickly with a very serious problem in the Middle East.

CLANCY: Former U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner. Not a very rosy outlook here. A man who thinks the decision may have already been made.

Thank you for being with us.

GARDINER: Certainly.

My tin foil hat is beeping and honking like crazy right now. These generals coming forward is huge.

I really think it’s possible that Bush and Rummy have already got a secret war going on, one that has not been revealed to congress in any form. It’s designed that way. Bush is not going to fire Rummy — he can’t. He’s already committed himself to this thing. This could be the ultimate action of the unitary executive.

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digby 4/14/2006 01:08:00 PM Comments (49) | Trackbacks (2)

Black Reconnaissance

by digby

It’s obvious to me that this call for Rumsfeld’s resignation by six generals is about stopping this operation in Iran first and foremost. It is not a coincidence that the first salvo came from Sy Hersh last Sunday.

The question I had to ask myself was whether it was really about the nuclear thing or something more that had the military up in arms. In reading back over Hersh’s articles of the last year or so, it became quite clear to me that this has something to do with the fact that Bush instituted the plan to invade Iran more than a year ago when he believed he had been crowned Emperor in the 2004 elections — and that the plan has gone forward without any consideration of changing circumstances on the ground in Iraq. Furthermore, the plan itself comes from the same comic book from which Rummy and Newtie cooked up their RMA fantasy about invading Iraq with only 30,000 troops, a cell phone and a toothpick.

And the beauty of it is, the clandestine operation on which it depends has been folded into the Pentagon and has no congressional oversight.

February, 2005:

George W. Bush’s reelection was not his only victory last fall. The President and his national security advisers have consolidated control over the military and intelligence communities’ strategic analyses and covert operations to a degree unmatched since the rise of the post-Second World War national security state. Bush has an aggressive and ambitious agenda for using that control against the mullahs in Iran and against targets in the ongoing war on terrorism during his second term. The C.I.A. will continue to be downgraded, and the agency will increasingly serve, as one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon put it, as “facilitators” of policy emanating from President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. This process is well under way.

Despite the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, the Bush Administration has not reconsidered its basic long range policy goal in the Middle East: the establishment of democracy throughout the region. Bush’s reelection is regarded within the Administration as evidence of America’s support for his decision to go to war. It has reaffirmed the position of the neoconservatives in the Pentagon’s civilian leadership who advocated the invasion, including Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Douglas Feith, the Under-secretary for Policy. According to a former high level intelligence official, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff shortly after the election and told them, in essence, that the naysayers had been heard and the American people did not accept their message. Rumsfeld added that America was committed to staying in Iraq and that there would be no second guessing.

“This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone,” the former high level intelligence official told me. “Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign. We’ve declared war and the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah – we’ve got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism.”

Bush and Cheney may have set the policy, but it is Rumsfeld who has directed its implementation and has absorbed much of the public criticism when things went wrong whether it was prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib or lack of sufficient armor plating for G.I.s’ vehicles in Iraq. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for Rumsfeld’s dismissal, and he is not widely admired inside the military. Nonetheless, his reappointment as Defense Secretary was never in doubt.

Rumsfeld will become even more important during the second term. In interviews with past and present intelligence and military officials, I was told that the agenda had been determined before the Presidential election, and much of it would be Rumsfeld’s responsibility. The war on terrorism would be expanded, and effectively placed under the Pentagon’s control. The President has signed a series of findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia.

The President’s decision enables Rumsfeld to run the operations off the books free from legal restrictions imposed on the C.I.A. Under current law, all C.I.A. covert activities overseas must be authorized by a Presidential finding and reported to the Senate and House intelligence committees. (The laws were enacted after a series of scandals in the nineteen seventies involving C.I.A. domestic spying and attempted assassinations of foreign leaders.) “The Pentagon doesn’t feel obligated to report any of this to Congress,” the former high-level intelligence official said. “They don’t even call it ‘covert ops’ it’s too close to the C.I.A. phrase. In their view, it’s ‘black reconnaissance.’ They’re not even going to tell the cincs” the regional American military commanders-in-chief. (The Defense Department and the White House did not respond to requests for comment on this story.)

In my interviews, I was repeatedly told that the next strategic target was Iran. “Everyone is saying, ‘You can’t be serious about targeting Iran. Look at Iraq,’ ” the former intelligence official told me. “But they say, ‘We’ve got some lessons learned not militarily, but how we did it politically. We’re not going to rely on agency pissants.’ No loose ends, and that’s why the C.I.A. is out of there.”

Bush just issued a statement of support for Rumsfeld. He is stubborn and refuses to change course, as we know. But if what Hersh reported back in 2005 is correct, Rumsfeld owns him. Back in the heady days of his 2% landslide, Bush authorized a covert war with Iran, with no congressional oversight and without even the cooperation of the CINQ’s. This makes Iran-Contra look like the Canuck letter.

These retired generals are speaking for a military establishment that has been used like monopoly money by Rummy his fellow magical thinkers (like his “advisor” Newt Gingrich) who have spent the last five years attempting to destroy the military with their useless, incompetent war planning and their surreal Toffler-esque vision of a military that doesn’t require an actual army.

I realize that the armed forces always resist change. But I think it’s fair to assume, considering the Iraq cock-up, that Rummy doesn’t know what in the hell he’s doing. The military is finally saying “enough.” We are witnessing a coup by media.

The congress has completely abdicated its oversight responsibility, the media is shallow and incompetent, our allies are considered irrelevant, the UN is being run by a nutcase even more far-out that Rummy and the wishes of the people are, as usual, not considered. It looks like the only institution in America that can bring us back from the brink of a tragic, tragic mistake is the military itself.

If these guys can’t get through, and it doesn’t appear that they will, then it’s time for some of these active duty officers to resign in protest. It would take a lot of guts, but that’s their business, right?

In an article about the possible revolt of the officer corps, Fred Kaplan writes this in Slate:

MacArthur’s legacy in particular has kept even the boldest generals deeply reluctant to criticize civilian leaders over the decades. Rumsfeld’s arrogance, his “casualness and swagger” as Gen. Newbold put it–which have caused so many strategic blunders, so much death and disaster–have started to tip some officers over the edge. They may prove a good influence in the short run. But if Rumsfeld resists their encroachments and fights back, the whole hierarchy of command could implode as officers feel compelled not merely to stay silent but to choose one side or the other. And if the rebel officers win, they might find they like the taste of bureaucratic victory–and feel less constrained to renew the internecine combat when other, less momentous disputes arise in the future.

Both paths are cluttered with drear and danger. Does President Bush know this is going on? If he does, he would do the nation–and the Constitution–a big favor if he launched a different sort of pre-emptive attack and got rid of Rumsfeld now.

The problem may be that Bush can’t replace the person who is running his secret war.

Oh, and get ready for the swiftboating. I can hear them revving their engines already.

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I actually listened to CNN International this day and heard it with my own ears and saw it with my own eyes.  I  know it is true!  The eveidence of Colonel Gardiner interview, I mean.
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Now go back to the common-sense factor of things and think like rummy, cheney,bush, et al. [I know, don’t laugh yourself out of your chair!]  NOw just sit back and think about this for a moment, will you.  Have we already started the infiltration and war with Iran?! Was Sy right all along and what do we do about it now??!!
After thinking about this now, lets take a good look at attitudes of members of the press corps, the military, the GOP, and might I add, all of Congress.  What if they did not know what was going on in their rightful manners of notification.  Did Rummy actually think he could get by with this??!!  Did anyone here what Biden said this past week about this?  I did and he made it sound that the Excutive would be be in serious doo doo, if this were to be true!  

Have you heard any of the press really address this matter, of us being in Iran already!!!!  I do not know if they have or not, for I do not listen too much of them, since they are liars anyhow.  

Let me know, like I said I am here to learn and try to understand.  Thanks ahead of time…

I hate to admit it, but I have been snookered

For most of my life, I have been an Independent.  I think that I have thought through the things of politics that I consider most of all important to me as a citizen.

When I became active politically, I was very let down in one of the most, I thought, respected persons of this administration.  That person was Colin Powell.  I have met the man in person and he came across as very amicable and knowledgeable and honest.  At least that was then, back in the mid 90’s, anyhow.  He showed me respect and helped Gen. Shelicasvali {?spelling, let alone say} from my home state.  He was the top man at the  chairman of joint chiefs of the military!  How could I not respect this man.  Little did I really know of the most notable incident back in my war days of Vietnam when the then Lt. Powell was involved in nasty matters.  Boy how things have changed from then to now and beyond.

This morning I took a look at the Gadflyer and to my surprise, what did I find!!??  This captivating article as to my past hero,[not], Powell.

More below the fold:

When does one consider himself toast?  Well, in my honest opinion it is when one figures he/she has got a reputation for covering up the truth!  This is exactly what Gen. Powell is doing now.  I heard Larry Wilkerson, praise the Gen. in his speech this week.  That the Gen. did many good things behind the scene to help keep things one the right track of diplomacy and to keep things from happening that, if were to happen, would mean, severe prices to pay for America.  

Well, I beg his pardon, he did not do the one most important thing ever, and that was to stop this administration from doing the most very wrong things ever…and that was go to war.  He never stood on his principles and dedication of which he brags about on a daily basis for the American ppl…He chose instead, to be for only Powell and the president of which he chose to stay and work for.  For shame!!!! is all I can say…Now is not the time for Monday morning quarterbacking, IMHO!!!!  He had a duty to America and he chose not to fulfill that duty…He is worthy of a stripping of his rank and retirement totally for treason.  This is hard for me to say about this man, or any one for that matter, but this is the most heartbreaking thing I can say at this time, without getting seriously angry to the point of saying many other bad things about him.  I am so sorry for this, that I can hardly believe what I am saying, too.  Anyhow, this man broke my heart with his what-with-all that he did to us.  I expected greater and better things from him.  That is my spiel today.  At least I try to deal in reality, not like some I know inside the beltway of never-never land.

In looking on the military of today, was it the leadership of these kind of men, such as Powell, that has made it less in leadership than what we need in our military of war?  This may be what broke our will to win, at the end of the game.  Didi Gen. Powell change the mentality of the Joint Chiefs whith the way he participated in it?  I do think he did! and for the worst, now looking back on things.  He really did not show the leadership we really needed.  This  only my opinion on this matter.

 from the Gadflyer

….ah, when one, first attempts to deceive, then…….

I have been trying hard to stay abreast of this whole affair.  Sometimes it is hard to keep in perspective of everything that has happened.  This is to say that we need to always keep our eyes open for that which is being reveled to us on happenstance.  

Happy reading following the break………
from wampum  scroll down to the 31 March article

from the muckracker

from talking points memo scroll down to March 31 entry @0349 entry