Antiwar.com Blog

We have goggles, but we’d rather have food!

How ridiculous is this?

The commander of an Army Reserve
detachment is begging friends back home to
send food for Iraqi police dogs.

“The dogs are starving and urgently need dry
dog food,” Capt. Gabriella Cook, commander
of the Las Vegas-based 313th Military Police
Detachment, said in a Dec. 28 e-mail reported
Wednesday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Some of them have already died,” Cook wrote.
“Half of them are sick. We have no way of buying
actual dog food here.”

Cook’s unit arrived last month in the Iraq capital.
She said 12 German shepherds and one black
Labrador retriever trained for bomb-detection
and attack at the Iraqi Police Academy in Baghdad
have been eating table scraps and garbage.

People are asking about how to donate to help the dogs. I found this: (click more)

Continue reading “Military dogs starving”

The Army Reserve is finally stating what’s been obvious for some time:

“While ability to meet the current demands associated with OIF (Operational Iraqi Freedom) and OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan) is of great importance, the Army Reserve is additionally in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements including those in named OPLANS (operational plans) and CONUS (continental United States) emergencies, and is rapidly degenerating into a ‘broken’ force,” Helmly wrote.

Helmly said military leaders had rebuffed his proposals for change. The memo’s purpose was to inform Schoomaker of the Army Reserve’s “inability — under current policies, procedures and practices governing mobilization, training and reserve component manpower management — to meet mission requirements” for the two wars, Helmly wrote.

Now what? Invade Syria? Iran?

Yoshie: How Many Troops Would It Take to Defeat the 200,000-strong Guerrilla Insurgency?

Poorman: I’m Not Sure How Many More Corners We Can Stand To Turn

Glenn Reynolds, while claiming to be personally opposed to (legal) torture (even before Alan Dershowitz was promoting it!) uses his bully pulpit to link every pro-torture argument in the known universe while offering almost no opposing argument. Reynolds even offers this caution against making torture an issue in the Gonzales hearings:

I think the effort to turn this [torture] into an anti-Bush political issue is a serious mistake, and the most likely outcome will be, in essence, the ratification of torture (with today’s hype becoming tomorrow’s reality) and a political defeat for the Democrats.

In other words, if the torture issue is raised , the Republicans will “ratify torture” and it will be the fault of people who oppose torture for raising the issue. I guess that answers this question. And confirms this observation. No wonder this is no big deal.

Gonzales poster via Norwegianity

UPDATE: Reynolds responds to this accurate criticism by Andrew Sullivan by saying, “And critics — and I’m explicitly including Andrew in this — don’t seem very interested in outlining what conduct is appropriate and what isn’t, but rather in blurring the lines.”

In case you hadn’t noticed, Glen, what is appropriate and what isn’t was outlined and agreed to long ago – it’s called the Geneva Convention, to which the US is a signatory. That agreement is what Bush and Gonzales are trying to destroy.

Martial, who works with humanitarian organizations and NGOs, has a good post up about what to do and not do to help: Ten Myths About Disaster Relief

If anyone has any questions about humanitarian response, Martial is a good person to ask. I’ve pestered him with plenty of questions and he always patiently shares his considerable knowledge. Thanks, Martial! And condolences on the sad loss of your friend.

Fallujah doctors are starting to get the word out about deaths in Fallujah and the news is as depressing as you might have expected.

FALLUJAH, 4 January (IRIN) – “It was really distressing picking up dead bodies from destroyed homes, especially children. It is the most depressing situation I have ever been in since the war started,” Dr Rafa’ah al-Iyssaue, director of the main hospital in Fallujah city, some 60 km west of Baghdad, told IRIN.

According to al-Iyssaue, the hospital emergency team has recovered more than 700 bodies from rubble where houses and shops once stood, adding that more than 550 were women and children. He said a very small number of men were found in these places and most were elderly.

Doctors at the hospital claim that many bodies had been found in a mutilated condition, some without legs or arms. Two babies were found at their homes, who are believed to have died from malnutrition, according to a specialist at the hospital.

Al-Iyssaue added these numbers were only from nine neighbourhoods of the city and that 18 others had not yet been reached, as they were waiting for help from the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) to make it easier for them to enter.

He explained that many of the dead had been already buried by civilians from the Garma and Amirya districts of Fallujah after approval from US-led forces nearly three weeks ago, and those bodies had not been counted.

IRCS officials told IRIN they needed more time to give an accurate death toll, adding that the city was completely uninhabitable.

In an article on the assassination of Baghdad Governor Ali Radi al-Haydari this morning in Baghdad, RFE is reporting:

Kurdistan Satellite television reported on 3 January that the Kurdish and Iraqi parliaments will call on the Council of Ministers and the president to postpone the elections due to the unfavorable conditions in the country. That request is due to be made at the interim National Assembly’s next meeting in Baghdad, the station reported. Meanwhile, interim Defense Minister Hazim al-Sha’lan proposed in Cairo on 3 January that national elections be postponed by a few weeks in order to allow Sunnis to organize should they agree to participate in elections. It is unclear whether al-Sha’lan’s proposal was an official proposal floated by the interim government or a personal one. For now, there is no official word on whether a delay will take place.

Further, a call from Allawi to his masters in Washington is being interpreted as a possible sign that he is preparing the ground to make the case for delay.