BLAD AL_ARAB AUTANI: Hejira

Monday 22 December 2014

Hejira

The Common Ills
Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) counts today's dead in Iraq, "At least 190 were killed, and another 13 were wounded."

The dying never stops in Iraq as the violence only seems to increase.

And the only answer to violence on Barack's part is to add more violence. To drop it from the skies.

In a piece about the state of the world, Arnaud de Borchgrave (UPI) observes, "More than 90 percent of the bombing of ISIS positions in Iraq is done by the U.S. Air Force and Navy. And most of it is ineffective as the enemy has learned all the techniques of concealment."

The bombings are not an answer, they're not even a plan.

However, they are expensive.

Betty notes in "All those tax dollars" that not only has Barack spent over $1 billion in US tax dollars since August on this latest phase of the never ending Iraq War but that he's done that as the Shi'ite member of the Iraq military continue to desert -- over and over -- in the midst of battles.

The current generation's grandchildren -- if not great-grandchildren -- will be on the hook for some time for the cost of the Iraq War.

And it's too much to expect that the Iraqi military actually stands up and fights?

If they're not going to, why is the US government, why is Barack, putting US tax payers further into debt for actions overseas when tax dollars could be better spent at home?

US tax payers finally got some representation in the US Congress following the 2006 mid-terms.

A Democrat-led Congress wanted to have benchmarks to measure 'progress' claiming they would cut off funding if no progress could be measured. (There was no progress but this didn't lead to cutting off funds.)

This same spirit had already resulted (in 2004) inoversight and you had the Inspector General's office created for Iraq Reconstruction.

And that was headed by Stuart Bowen.

And then Dems controlled the Congress and the White House and accountability went out the window.

This was most obvious in a House hearing we attended where Bowen was explaining the White House (Barack) shouldn't be allowed to phase out the office, that oversight continued to be needed.

But the White House didn't want oversight and despite the fact that US troops are over the ground and on the ground in Iraq, there's no office overseeing, there's no check on the actions or the spending.

Despite the fact that billions will be spent this year and despite the fact that the White House says this latest phase will last "years," there is no effort to create oversight.

Last week, US troops were in on the ground combat in Iraq and yet Barack failed to inform the nation of that fact. Despite promising that US troops would not see on the ground combat, they did and Barack dummy-ed up while hoping the press would as well.

I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4494.

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