President announces withdrawal of soldiers from Iraq at end of year

President Barack Obama

Today President Obama announced the withdrawal of soldiers deployed in Iraq. Conservatives like John McCain are not pleased. Republicans want troops to stay in Iraq indefinitely. The majority of Americans want the soldier home and an end to the conflict.

 “As a candidate for president, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end, for the sake of our national security and to strengthen American leadership around the world,” Obama began. “After taking office, I announced a new strategy that would end our combat mission in Iraq and remove all of our troops by 2011. As Commander-in-Chief, ensuring the success of this strategy one of my highest national security priorities.

“Last year, I announced the end to our combat mission in Iraq, and to date we’ve removed more than 100,000 troops. Iraqis have taken full responsibility for their country’s security.

A few hours ago I spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki. I reaffirmed that the United States keeps its commitments. He spoke of the determination of the Iraqi people to forge their own future. We are in full agreement about how to move forward.”

Some stats on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

• 8 years, 260 days since Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence of Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons program 
• 8 years, 215 days since the March 20, 2003 invasion of Iraq 
•  8 years, 175 days since President George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln 
• 4,479 U.S. military fatalities 
• 30,182 U.S. military injuries 
• 468 contractor fatalities 
• 103,142 – 112,708 documented civilian deaths 
• 2.8 million internally displaced Iraqi
•  $806 billion in federal funding for the Iraq War through FY2011 
• $3 – $5 trillion in total economic cost to the United States of the Iraq war according to economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Blimes 
• $60 billion in U.S. expenditures lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2000
•  0 weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq

Stats from ThinkProgress, October 21

Creating facts that are easily disproved

Chris Matthews, MSNBC

Watching Chris Matthews’ Hardball today I was struck by war stats he threw out at the beginning of his show. The guests were Republicans Michael Steele and Ron Reagan. Matthews, talking about the American causalities in the Afghanistan war, said during the Bush presidency only 630 soldiers were killed from 2001 to 2008; in the case of President Obama, since 2009 to the present, 1,000 soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

I wrote the numbers down to make sure I heard them correctly. They were discussing the President’s “two wars” in Afghanistan and Libya, his polices, questioning why Americans were still in Afghanistan. They were all over the place with their expert wisdom. As usual, Matthews was way, way off track!

Going on the Internet I found the information I was looking for at The Washington Post, under the banner “Faces of the Fallen.”  This information assured me even more than Matthews. As usual, he was creating his own facts. His guests did nothing to disabuse him of these wrong numbers. I looked for Afghanistan stats alone but couldn't find them. Fallen soldiers in both wars are combined. Matthews didn't say where he got his statistics.

The “Faces of the Fallen” site was designed by Nelson Hsu and Alyson Hurst and programmed by Andrain Holovaly. To see the complete breakdown with photos, ages, year of death, home state and military branch, go to washingtonpost.com, key in "Faces of the Fallen" to view the site.

To date the total of fatalities in Iraqi and Afghanistan is 6,026. The wounded  was not included in the statistics, but the number is reportedly in the thousands. Wounded soldiers suffer a variety of serious wounds due to IED attacks.

*Barack Obama was not sworn in as president until January 20, 2009.

Corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan: A meat and potatoes diet of fattening money

Corruption has always been ripe as rotten fruit in Iraq and Afghanistan, starting with American companies such as Blackwater Security, Haliburton and other makeshift contractors from America. They saw a way to get rich quickly amid the Bush created chaos in these countries. Corruption and rip-offs began days after the first bombs were dropped in Iraq.

I saw one young American bragging  about flatbed trucks he delivered to Iraq. He had a multi-million dollar no bid contract. The trucks did not work; they were old and broken. The contractor said he did not guarantee the trucks would work. His corruption was bold and bodacious. He was arrogant enough to get on American TV in Iraq and make this confession with a smile.

There will never be security in Iraq or Afghanistan due to the many young men will to strap bombs to their bodies. Suicide bombers do not mind dying for their cause. Iraqi women are now volunteering to be suicide bombers. They want to kill American soldiers.

From the beginning America has been reluctant to join forces with the citizens of Iraq to strengthen their police and security forces. America was reluctant to engage the people in redevelopment and rebuilding what bombs destroyed. The loss of life was carelessly treated as “collateral damage.” Had they been paid a decent wage to rebuild their homes and businesses, the enemy wouldn't have been able to convince a great number of them to become suicide bombers. Americans felt that "nation building should begin in America.

Had the people in Iraq been treated fairly, with respect and asked to rebuild their homes and businesses after President Bush's "Shock and Awe" bombing campaign, the Taliban and other terrorists couldn't have thrived and survived for fear of  getting turned over to  American soldiers, or killed by Iraqis. The terrorists' foothold on the people would weaken. Citizens would have more to gain than to lose by cooperating with America.

Corrupt politicians in Iraq and Afghanistan, like those in America, are a hindrance to peace, stability and progress. Kickbacks, price gauging and free money are too seductive to ignore. Once the corruption ball started rolling downhill in 2001 it was hard to roll it back uphill.

“The Taliban is not a popular movement, but it exploits a population frustrated by weak governance,” stated a recent report titled Progress toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan.  Citizen involvement is the key to thwarting Taliban threats of violence and retaliation against American soldiers and peoples in the Middle East.