Recent News on Iraq and Afghanistan

I thought that you might find the following articles interesting:

1999 War Games Foresaw Problems in Iraq

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, and even then chaos might ensue.
(snip)
“The conventional wisdom is the U.S. mistake in Iraq was not enough troops,” said Thomas Blanton, the archive’s director. “But the Desert Crossing war game in 1999 suggests we would have ended up with a failed state even with 400,000 troops on the ground.”
(snip)
The war games looked at “worst case” and “most likely” scenarios after a war that removed then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power. Some are similar to what actually occurred after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003

Latest Kuhl Campaign Print Ad

 

Did You Know that Eric Massa Hates the Troops and America and wants this nation to be attacked again? You didn’t??? It could be because its not true. However, according to the latest “hit piece” from Rep. Randy Kuhl’s campaign, this must obviously be the case.

I’m getting highly annoyed and pretty tired of debunking these attack ads from Rep. Kuhl. Rep. Kuhl, when are you going to start sending out ads that detail your positions on issues instead of sending out these attack ads on Mr. Massa??? How about something positive from you, about only you, for a change? Do you have any plans for that type of advertising? You are running out of time, though. (And I could use the break from doing these reports. PLEASE???)

Senator Kerry: You’re not a Comedian

So the guy can’t tell a joke; I’ve not been known for my sense of humor, either (just ask my spouse).

I request anyone who is not familiar with the background of Kerry’s comment to read this:

MSNBC host Chris Matthews read from the AP article during the October 31 edition of Hardball, noting that Kerry “opened his speech … with several one-liners, joking at one point that Bush had lived in Texas but now ‘lives in a state of denial.’ Then he said: ‘You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.'” Matthews further described the White House’s characterization of Kerry’s remarks as a “violent interpretation,” then later, during an interview with former House Republican Leader Dick Armey (TX), said:

NY-29 Blog Roundup

From The Fighting 29th:

Trivium

Ad Tweaks and Internet Ads, which includes the new Massa commerical and an internet ad from Majority Action, which focuses on Rep. Kuhl’s opposition to stem cell research (although I don’t recall them using the word “embryonic” in the ad).

Closing Time

Canandaigua VA Hospital

Recent developments at the Canandaigua VA Hospital regarding the closure of an in-patient acute psychiatric unit by November 30, 2006, have triggered strong reaction from local veterans, Senator Clinton, and Congressional Candidate Eric Massa. Earlier this year, the hospital was deemed to be a “Center of Excellence”, one of three across the country.

IAVA Ratings

The group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America recently released their ratings for congressional members:

Each IAVA Congressional Rating is based on a given legislator’s voting history on issues that affect US Troops, Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans and military families.

Latest Iraq War News

(…Because it is important to be aware of what is happening.)

Heralded Iraq Police Academy a ‘Disaster’

BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 — A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished, U.S. investigators have found.
(snip)
“This is the most essential civil security project in the country — and it’s a failure,” said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an independent office created by Congress. “The Baghdad police academy is a disaster.”
(snip)
Even in a $21 billion reconstruction effort that has been marred by cases of corruption and fraud, failures in training and housing Iraq’s security forces are particularly significant because of their effect on what the U.S. military has called its primary mission here: to prepare Iraqi police and soldiers so that Americans can depart.
(snip)
The most serious problem was substandard plumbing that caused waste from toilets on the second and third floors to cascade throughout the building. A light fixture in one room stopped working because it was filled with urine and fecal matter. The waste threatened the integrity of load-bearing slabs, federal investigators concluded.

General Batiste on Randy Kuhl

Disclosure: Hat tip and full credit for this post goes to The Fighting 29th website. This is their find, and they deserve the recognition. If you haven’t visited the site, please do so. They are doing some great work on the Massa/Kuhl congressional race.

Kuhl Says His Constituents Don’t Understand

The link below is the Buffalo News’ recap the the Kuhl/Cheney account.  Little was to be learned about the event from this article that hadn’t already been covered from the Rochester area reports.  What is missing from that article is the mention of any protest activities.

However, this post is about the following passages from that article:

Kuhl, a freshman locked in a competitive race against Democrat Eric Massa, is one of the dozens of House Republicans for whom Cheney has campaigned this year. And he couldn’t agree more with the vice president’s assessment that combating terrorists around the world stands as the top issue of this campaign.

A flow of bad news from the war zone needs to be countered by a frank discussion of reality, he said.

“They don’t necessarily understand the full importance of our presence there,” he said of his Finger Lakes and Southern Tier constituents.   (my emphasis)

Cheney/Kuhl Event News Recap

Here are several news and blog reports from around the area:

Hundreds of Cheney protestors line city streets

Anti-war protesters make views known.  More than 250 gather to tell Cheney they want the U.S. out of Middle East

Cheney stands by war, Bush policies

Vice President speaks up for Congressman Randy Kuhl

Eric Massa at St. Bonaventure

(Print article from Olean Times Herald; not available on-line at the time of this posting.)

(Update:  On-line article now available: War in Iraq a strategic blunder, Massa tells St. Bona audience)

Congressional candidate Eric Massa spoke at St. Bonaventure University yesterday.  Topics discussed included the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, Election Reform, and Health Care.

Democracy cannot be built at gunpoint in a world region where American democracy is not widely accepted, he said.

Mr. Massa said it is America’s moral imperative to demand solutions to national issues instead of arguments.

“No politician in the U.S. has the right to tell me I’m un-American because I disagree with George W. Bush,” he said.

“If we destroy the Constitution of the United States of America in an effort to try to protect it, then we have lost,” he said.  “Is this country worth fighting for, or do we surrender to an unprecedented power grab…when the powers they seek don’t make us secure?  I’m not ready to surrender just yet.”

Massa wants “clean” election reform; of the $700,000 he has raised so far for his campaign, no contributions have come from American corporations.

(Eric Massa will also be attending and speaking at the Citizens’ Hearing on Health Care, tomorrow, 10:00 am at the Allegany-Limestone school auditorium.)

Are you a “Nazi Appeaser”?

Ever since I heard Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld call the majority of Americans “Nazi appeasers” and that we are “confronting a new kind of fascism”, I’ve been struggling with how I was going to approach this subject.

Massa on Rumsfeld/Iraq/Katrina Anniversary

From the Massa campaign – press releases from 8/30 with information pertinent to Mr. Massa’s views, thoughts, and concerns regarding the current and relevant topics of Donald Rumsfeld’s recent speech and the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina:

On Rumsfeld’s Recent Remarks/Iraq:

“After 21 months of trying to find something I can agree with Secretary Rumsfeld on, I finally found it. He said, ‘the American people are being lied to.’ The problem is, he’s the one doing the lying.”

More on the MoveOn Ad

Upstate GOP congressmen face fresh attacks on Iraq

Yesterday on this site, we posted an article regarding MoveOn’s efforts in running an advertisement related to Randy Kuhl’s Iraq War support.  The above AP article provides more local information on the subject.

Eric Massa, a retired Navy commander challenging Kuhl, met with veterans Wednesday in Corning, arguing that the current U.S. policy in Iraq has failed and the war-torn country should be divided into three separate ethnic states.
(snip)
“My opponent chose to make this the central issue of the election, by going to Iraq 100 days before and returning without any solutions,” said Massa.

Anti-Kuhl Ad

MoveOn.org Political Action launched a new ad campaign against Republican House Members who support the Bush administration’s failed policy in Iraq.

The ads criticize the incumbents for failing to act as a check on President Bush’s fiasco in Iraq. They focus on the Republicans’ failure to protect American troops and taxpayers from war profiteering by companies like Halliburton, and the waste of billions of dollars needed for healthcare, schools, and other priorities at home.

(Convenient) Coincidences

Sometimes, a coincidence is just that – a coincidence.  Sometimes, when too many coincidences occur under similar circumstances, it just makes you wonder.

Last night on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” (MSNBC, weeknights at 8:00 pm EST), they revisited a story that they had first broadcasted this past October.  I leave it up to you to decide if these are all purely coincidental.

Let’s. Go. Retro.

Now, this is interesting:

Retroactive War Crime Protection Proposed

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.
(snip)
“I think what this bill can do is in effect immunize past crimes. That’s why it’s so dangerous,” said a third attorney, Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.
(snip)
Interrogation practices “follow from policies that were formed at the highest levels of the administration,” said a fourth attorney, Scott Horton, who has followed detainee issues closely. “The administration is trying to insulate policymakers under the War Crimes Act.”

Is it possible that the “policymakers” feel that they could be charged with war crimes and that they need this retroactive protection?  I’m somewhat at a loss for words right now…

Civil War This, Civil War That

President Bush held a press conference today.  One reporter asked him the following question:

QUESTION: Mr. President, if I could turn to Iraq for a moment, when you and Prime Minister Blair met at the White House a few months ago, you were asked about mistakes and missteps. And he said the one mistake he made was miscalculating and thinking that a young democracy, as you put it, would be born very quickly after the fall of Saddam.

Are you prepared today to agree with him and acknowledge that you had the same expectations which were wrong?

Kuhl Returns from Iraq

Kuhl reassured by trip to Iraq / Congressman returned to U.S. late Wednesday

“I am absolutely certain that our presence there is making a difference in liberating the people of Iraq,” said Kuhl, R-Hammondsport, after meeting with New York soldiers and top Iraqi and U.S. officials in Baghdad and at Balad Airbase in northern Iraq.”     

Kuhl Visits Iraq

Congressman Randy Kuhl, as part of a congressional delegation, traveled to Iraq this past weekend. 

I have not seen any news regarding the results of his trip; therefore, I will instead share researched items that I feel are relevant to a trip such as this one.