Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

War Of Junior’s Ear

Cemetery Fight Haunts Some U.S. Troops :

NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 10 — Bats flapped out of crypts, startling soldiers creeping through the cemetery with guns up. Graves opened beneath their combat boots. And an old enemy displayed a new professionalism, darting in clearly practiced moves between tombstone and mausoleum to stalk the Americans from above ground and below.

In the battle to control one of the world’s largest graveyards, U.S. Marines and soldiers say they are coping with a lot, including lingering regret. The vast cemetery in Najaf is sacred to Shiite Muslims, perhaps 2 million of whom lie buried in miles of desert adjoining the shrine of Imam Ali, son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad.

Soldiers involved in the fighting described how many of the most recent graves are marked by photos, which crumble when U.S. forces shell the cemetery walls to reach the militiamen hiding within.

‘Wives, daughters, husbands,’ said Sgt. Hector Guzman, 28, of the 1st Cavalry Division’s 5th Regiment. ‘You just know you’re destroying that tomb.’

The Houston native shook his head. ‘It doesn’t feel right sometimes.”

“We feel bad that we’re destroying, that we’re desecrating graves and such,” added Staff Sgt. Thomas Gentry, 29, of Altoona, Pa. “That’s not what we want to do.”

What the reinforced U.S. force in southern Iraq wants to do, commanders say, is destroy the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to Moqtada Sadr, the militant Shiite cleric. The militia has bedeviled the U.S.-led occupation force in Iraq since October, when its largely impoverished, disaffected young gunmen first ambushed a U.S. patrol in a Baghdad slum. A far larger, sustained uprising in April and May undid much of the occupation’s effort to establish security in Shiite-populated central and southern Iraq.

The current engagement, which began Thursday with another ambush, is billed by all sides as the final showdown.

Sadr this week brushed aside overtures from Iraq’s interim government and vowed to fight to his last drop of blood. Iraqi officials, who consult closely with the U.S. commanders of the 160,000 foreign troops in Iraq, said the door was closed on negotiations.

[…]

Avoiding damage to the shrine — and the outcry that surely would follow from the world’s Muslims — is a U.S. objective so well known that the gold-domed mosque has become a refuge and staging ground for the guerrillas, U.S. officers said.

“There’s nothing good that can come of it,” said an Army operations officer, laying out the possible outcome of any strike on the mosque. “We win, we lose. We lose, we lose.”

The cemetery was deemed less sacrosanct, however. Marines first followed militia fighters into it on Thursday morning after being ambushed while moving to reinforce the main Iraqi police station in Najaf, which had come under siege by several hundred militiamen.

The battle for the graveyard went on for 36 hours. In the end, the Marines counted four of their own dead and more than 300 militiamen. But veterans of the battle said the lopsided casualty count — disputed by Sadr’s officials — did no justice to the weirdness of fighting on a sweeping landscape that venerates death.

Now, we have this:

NAJAF, Aug. 10 — Solemn-faced U.S. Marines and soldiers prepared for what was expected to be a decisive battle for the holiest city in Iraq, but as darkness fell Wednesday an armored column preparing to venture deep into Najaf turned away from the main gate as the U.S. commander announced a delay.

“Preparations to do the offensive are taking longer than originally anticipated,” said Maj. David Holahan, executive officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Najaf. “We never said when we would do it.”

Commanders were awaiting final approval from Iraq’s political leaders — notably the interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi — for a combat operation aimed at clearing militia fighters from the city of 600,000.

As discussions continued, the supreme leader of neighboring Iran warned that American combat operations in Najaf constitute “one of the darkest crimes of humanity.”

“The United States is slaughtering the people of one of the holiest Islamic cities and the Muslim world and the Iraqi nation will not stand by,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in an address broadcast on Iranian state television, according to the official government news agency.

Najaf is home to the shrine of Imam Ali, which the militias have turned into a firing base off limits to U.S. forces. The site holds the remains of the most revered figure to Shiite Muslims, who constitute a majority in both Iraq and Iran, a theocracy where Khamenei holds ultimate power.

“These crimes are a dark blemish which will never be wiped from the face of America. They commit these crimes and shamelessly talk of democracy,” the ayatollah said. “Shame has no place in their vocabulary.”

The Iranian leader spoke as U.S. Marines and soldiers busied themselves cleaning weapons, refitting equipment and loading ammunition, food and — most important in the extreme desert heat — water and ice into the armored vehicles that could soon carry them to a decisive final battle with the militia holding Iraq’s holiest city.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. This has got to rank up there with the most absurd of absurd wars that have ever been fought. More and more this looks like another War of Jenkins Ear.

What Gives?

Can someone explain to me why this story continues to get very little play? I don’t get it. The administration blew the cover of an al Qaeda mole for political purposes and it just goes nowhere.

Aside from the usual “mediawhore, mediawhore” explanation, does anyone have any serious ideas as to why this is? This strikes me as curious even for our benighted press corp. It’s a hell of a story and one which I would think even the infotainment crew would be unable to resist. Is there something more to this that isn’t readily apparent?

Stem Cell-a-vision

Man, Kerry just can’t win with some people

Lord Saletan runs a regular series condemning Kerry for his “caveats and curliques” and then turns around and blasts him for not explaining stem cell research in scientific detail when he’s on the stump. You see, Kerry is much too verbose when he isn’t and much too simplistic when he is and it’s all just so very unseemly.

Apparently his lordship just remembered the culture war and is appalled that the Democrats are fighting back with an issue on which most of the country agrees. Republicans can use terms like “the culture of life” and “partial birth” abortion as a club but if Kerry uses the stem cell issue as a proxy for the efficacy of science in ordinary people’s lives he’s a demagogue.

The fact is that this issue captures one of the main differences between the two parties and it’s one that has some real salience with the people. If there’s one thing that Americans have always believed in, it’s scientific progress. And there is an undercurrent of discontent out there that the right wing is imposing a religious agenda that is impeding that progress — specifically medical progress which is something in which we all have a personal stake.

I’m sorry that his lordship disapproves of using this issue to illustrate the medieval view toward science the fundamentalist right are forcing on the country, but that’s just tough. He’s the one who has made a fetish about Kerry’s overly complex rhetoric and now he complains when he hits a real emotional chord. His lordship is very difficult to please.

Useful …

I just want to make a small point about John McCain. While I too find his support for Bush somewhat vomitous, I don’t see any reason to throw the baby out with the bath water.

John McCain is useful to us. He may be campaigning for Bush but he is much more of a pain in his ass than an asset. He represents a certain independent constituency that is just as likely to break our way as Bush’s, even with McCain’s tepid endorsement of Junior — particularly if the Bush people refuse to condemn things like that Farah article yesterday. I think we should wrap our arms around John McCain for the duration of this election even as he throws his arms around Bush. Sowing mistrust between the two camps is good politics and it accrues to our favor.

I’ve never been a big fan of McCain. He’s much too conservative for me and I’d never vote for him even though he has a certain fearless quality that is unique in the Republican party these days. But, he’s not the Republican Zell Miller. His supporting Bush doesn’t surprise me in the least. I’m sure he considers it his duty to his party. But, he’s enough of a thorn in Bush’s side — like calling for him to condemn the Scumbags ad — that he actually helps Kerry more than Bush. Hate him if you will, he’s a conservative Republican, after all — but he’s our conservative Republican.

Perfidious Putz

Via Suburban Guerrilla I see that Lil’ Rodney Turncoat just doesn’t understand why so many Democrats are upset by what he did. Imagine that:

BATON ROUGE, La. – A party-switching Louisiana congressman said Tuesday he’s surprised and “hurt” by Democrats’ reactions to his defection to the Republicans — and vowed to return nearly $90,000 given to him by members of his old party.

“I’m somewhat puzzled as to how much hoopla this has created,” Rep. Rodney Alexander said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

[…]

Party leaders and officials have called him a “traitor,” “confused” and a “coward,” with the last charge stinging, Alexander said Tuesday.

“It hurt like the dickens,” the first-term congressman said. “I wasn’t a coward. That took a lot of courage to do that.”

His explanation of the switch has shifted somewhat.

On Friday, he declared: “I’m ashamed of some of the things the Democratic Party stands for.”

On Tuesday, he suggested a political calculation was at the root of his decision. He said he had become worried about “erosion” in his base of support, after another Democrat, a politically unknown black woman, qualified to run against him.

Alexander insisted no deals had been made with GOP leaders for making the change.

“I did not have contact with any of the leadership prior to making that decision on Friday,” he said. “I didn’t even tell my own children.”

I’m sure he hurts like the dickens allright. It takes a lot of courage to be Tom DeLay’s bitch.

One of his old colleagues didn’t seem terribly impressed with Lil Rod’s behavior:

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today regarding Rodney Alexander’s last- minute party switch: “Rodney Alexander’s action of filing for re-election on Wednesday, August 4th as a Democrat and some 48 hours later, just before the deadline for filing was to close, filing for re-election as a Republican, was an act of perfidy.

“Perfidy is defined as ‘a deliberate breach of faith; a calculated violation of trust; treachery.’

“It was an act of a person without honor or integrity. In my 24 years in Congress, I cannot recall a more deceitful, more calculated, more treacherous violation of trust, which Congressman Alexander sought and which he received, than what he has done over the past few days and months.

[…]

“A man of honor, as many before him have done, would have changed his party affiliation well before the filing deadline. He would have had the courage to face a challenger and defend the failed policies promoted by his new party. He would have had the courage to explain why he has joined a party whose policies have left behind so many of the children and families he now represents and seeks to continue to represent.

“Congressman Alexander chose instead, through stealth and misrepresentation, to avoid the honorable course of action. He has let his constituents down. He has let his party down. He has let his colleagues down. But in the final analysis he has let his reputation and his conscience down even more.

Alexander probably would have won the seat anyway no matter what party he belonged to. He didn’t really need to cheat but I have little doubt that DeLay demanded it of him as a show of loyalty. In order to be one of the boys you have to prove how deep in the mud you’re willing to grovel. It’s more of that bullyboy hazing that Republicans love so much. It’s what they do instead of going to war.

Preachers and Patriots

When the curtain goes up on the Republican National Convention on Aug. 30, the supporting cast will include gospel- and country-music performers, elaborate videos, and celebrities doing what they can to help market President Bush’s ideas and vision for America, one of the convention’s organizers said yesterday.

But the convention will present not only politicians and celebrities on each of its four days. People from around the country have been invited to offer an invocation or benediction or to make some other short statement, said Frank Breeden, the convention’s director of entertainment, who called this aspect of the program “Preachers and Patriots.”

The Republicans are hoping that their convention, in New York, can help give their candidate the significant bounce in the polls that eluded the Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry, after the convention in Boston. And so the party hired Mr. Breeden, a former president of the Gospel Music Association renowned in the Christian music industry, to help produce a show that carefully weaves the party’s political message with a mix of music, star power and patriotic symbolism.

Republicans have generally been tight-lipped about convention details, but in an interview, Mr. Breeden gave some clues about what to expect. He said he has worked since November to help recruit celebrities to perform, give press interviews, attend parties or be otherwise visible at Madison Square Garden.

The goal, Mr. Breeden said, is to help market the party’s political ideas.

“Entertainment plays more of a prominent role in marketing messages today than ever before,” Mr. Breeden said in a telephone interview. And he said that the convention organizers wanted to employ those tools in selling their political philosophy: “Just like Cadillac uses Led Zeppelin to market its ideas.”

Just like the GOP uses Jesus to market its ideas.

He said yesterday that he expected the convention to be heavy with gospel, country and Broadway music, and with patriotic music. He said there would be several renditions of the national anthem as well. And he said there would be a stage band made up entirely of some of the most sought-after studio musicians in New York City. Everyone is being paid union wages, he said.

Mr. Breeden said that during his months of work on the convention, he had run up against some obstacles that were surprising and others that he had expected.

After a career in the entertainment industry, Mr. Breeden said he knew well that many of the most outspoken performers do not support the Bush administration. “For whatever reason, on the Democratic side of things, the celebrities who have an affinity with that party tend to be more activist-oriented and tend to get headlines,” he said.

Maybe that’s because the “Republican side of things” is always trying to censor them. It’s a right wing specialty.

If people like tent revival type entertainment, it looks like they’re going to get plenty of it. Praise the Lord and pass the moonshine for Bush. The culture war must go on.

I Yam What I Yam

Everybody chuckled at the Bush’s third grade answer to “what does sovereignty mean in the 21st century” but he had another howler at that UNITY meeting:

ROLAND MARTIN: Mr. President, you remarked in your remarks you said that 8 million people in Afghanistan registered to vote, and as you said, exercised their God-given right to vote.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Right.

ROLAND MARTIN: That may be a right from God, but it’s not guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. In 2000, an estimated 2 million people, half African American had their votes discounted from Florida and Cook County, Illinois, to other cities. Some on it– That cuts into other questions. Are you going to order Attorney General John Ashcroft to send federal election monitors to Florida and other southern states and in this age of new constitutional amendments, will you endorse a constitutional amendment guaranteeing every American the right to vote in federal elections?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes. First of all, look, I can understand why African Americans in particular — you know, are worried about being able to vote since the vote had been denied for so long in the south in particular. I understand that. This administration wants everybody to vote. Now, I — best thing we did was to pass the Helping America Vote Act with over — I think it’s $3 billion of help to states and local governments to make sure that the voting process is fair. I — you know, it’s not just the south. By the way, the voting process needs help all over the country to make sure that everybody’s vote counts and everybody’s vote matters. I understand that. That’s why I was happy to work with the congress to achieve this important piece of legislation. Just don’t focus on Florida. I have to talk to the governor down there to make sure it works.

But it’s the whole country that needs voter registration files need to be updated. The machines need to work. And that’s why there’s $3 billion in the budget to help, Roland. Obviously, everybody ought to have a vote. What was your other question?

ROLAND MARTIN: Should we put it — guarantee it in the constitution.

PRESIDENT BUSH: I’ll consider it. I’ll consider it. What’s your second question? R You said it should be guaranteed in Iraq, why not America?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, it’s not guaranteed in Iraq. People have to show up to vote in the first place. The thing about democracy is people need to step up and decide to participate in the first place. There’s no guarantees people are going to vote. They should be allowed to vote, but the problem we have in our society is too many people choose not to vote. We have a duty in the political process, and you have a duty as journalists to encourage people to register to vote, to do their duty. I’m not saying that — I’m saying that people are choosing. It’s not guaranteed they’re going to. That’s part of the problem that we have in America. Not enough people do vote. You have a duty on your radio stations on your TV stations, to encourage people to register to vote. I have a duty to call them out to vote. Of course, I’m going to try to call them out to vote for me.

The right to vote is not guaranteed unless everybody votes. Jesus H. Christ.

And, I don’t know about you, but I feel much better about Florida knowing that the president is going to talk to his brother to make sure it “works.”

Has there ever been a more stupid president? I don’t see how it’s possible. You can easily see how much more difficult he would have had it if he’d been forced to face a skeptical press more often. How lucky he was to have to only answer to the celebrity press corp instead of real journalists. Too bad about the country, though.

The Manchurian McCain

Via Julia, I see that the scumbags have levelled their repulsive guns at McCain again, presumably because he has been so effective a blunting the swiftboat ad’s charges. He had to know he’d come under fire from these crazies, but they aren’t even trying to hide it, now. This article literally accuses McCain of cowardice and treason:

Why would John McCain characterize the SWIFT Boat vets commercial about John Kerry as “dishonest and dishonorable”?

Why would he ask President Bush to denounce it?

Why would he say something similar was “pulled” on him when he seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2000?

Americans are supposed to respect Sen. John McCain because he is a war hero. But is he? And why is he so determined to defend John Kerry’s dishonorable activities during and after the Vietnam War?

Now let me begin by saying McCain suffered greatly during his five years of captivity in the “Hanoi Hilton.” But his horrific experiences do not entitle him to stretch the truth about his captivity at the hands of North Vietnamese Communists, nor to deceive Americans about his bravery and heroism.

When the Navy pilot was shot down over a lake near Hanoi, his captors did not know who he was – John McCain, son of the admiral in charge of the Pacific fleet. McCain was seriously injured in his ejection and in need of medical attention. In exchange for what passes as first-class care in Vietnam, McCain talked. He told the North Vietnamese about his father. He told them about the chain of command. He described himself as one of the “very best pilots” in the Navy.

Such behavior by a POW is strictly frowned upon in the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the military code of conduct.

“OK,” you say, “McCain should be given a pass for this because he was badly hurt. Wasn’t his behavior at the Hanoi Hilton honorable after he recovered from his wounds?”

No, not exactly. While serving as a POW, McCain was one of the captives who agreed to be used for propaganda purposes by the enemy. In fact, some argue that an interview he gave to a communist publication – detailing an accident aboard his ship, problems with low morale among U.S. servicemen, the chain of command in the U.S. Navy and other pertinent information – went far beyond mere propaganda and crossed the line into disclosing military intelligence secrets.

On June 5, 1969, the Washington Post carried a story titled, “Reds Say PW Songbird is Pilot Son of Admiral.” The article states that, “Hanoi has aired a broadcast in which the pilot son of United States Commander in the Pacific, Adm. John McCain, purportedly admits to having bombed civilian targets in North Vietnam and praises medical treatment he has received since being taken prisoner.”

Worse yet, many years later, when both John McCain and John Kerry were serving in the U.S. Senate, they teamed up to betray the families of the POWs and MIAs in favor of sucking up to the murderous Communist Vietnamese regime.

More than any other two men in America, McCain and Kerry orchestrated the cover-up of what became of our Vietnam POWs and MIAs.

[…]

One wonders what McCain’s reward might be? What was in the cover-up for him? Why has he become an apologist for John Kerry’s despicable and dishonorable record in Vietnam and, worse, his actions afterward?

Maybe it’s just something about the character of John McCain. Maybe birds of a feather just flock together. Maybe this is why you should take anything McCain says about Kerry with a grain of salt.

I think somebody needs to ask the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush is they agree with this assessment. After all, this is another scathing indictment of the US Navy. Apparently McCain was a traitor and instead of being tried he was awarded medals and became a US Senator. There is something terribly wrong with the US Military to let this happen.

I’m beginning to understand why so many gawd fearing Republicans refused to join up. Who can blame them? They just didn’t want to be associated with the likes of the traitorous Kerry and McCain and all the officers and comrades who covered up for them all these years.

How many losers like McCain and Kerry are serving now, do you think?

Postmodern Heroics

Josh Marshall points out an egregiously incorrect column by Deborah Orin in which she not only claims that John O’Neill served with Kerry, but that Kerry was actually known by his comrades as an outright coward who had “very little nerve for facing serious combat.” This takes the charge to a new level. It’s not just that he got medals he didn’t deserve but that he actively avoided dangerous situations in order to save his own skin. I wonder how long it will before someone accuses him of fragging.

It has struck me lately what a terrible indictment of the military these charges are and how once again the Republicans have absolutely no limits in terms of how fully they are willing to trash the American institutions they allegedly love in order to win. What these people are saying is that the US Navy awarded some of its highest medals for bravery to a coward. The many officers who signed those glowing fitness reports and awarded those citations are either liars or they are incompetent. The word of his shipmates, even the man whose life he saved, are worth nothing. You can’t believe military documentary evidence. It was all bullshit, every last piece of it.

And because of this it can now be said that all medals awarded for bravery are suspect. A superior military record is no longer a recommendation. Who can ever believe the government on this issue, now? If they were willing to reward the undeserving Kerry, for reasons about which we can only speculate, then obviously the entire system for awarding valor in combat is corrupt.

There used to be some things that Americans could count on. Having a certain reverence for combat medals was one of them, regardless of political party. It was something you just didn’t fuck with, certainly not openly. We’ve always known that the good old boy network existed, that “connected” guys got better assignments and that in the Vietnam era, strings could get pulled to get into the guard or get stationed in Germany or something. But, even in the worst dark days of the conflict, I don’t remember anybody saying that medals were being handed out to cowards. And people said a lot of terrible things about the military in those days.

Once again, we are seeing that the baby boomer Vietnam generation (of which I am on the later side) continues to play out its little psychodrama. During the sixties, the young liberals had disdain for the military. Now, in flaccid middle age, it’s the conservatives who are taking it apart. Our excuse was that we were young and passionate and stemmed from an honest belief that the government was lying to us. And it was. We grew out of the idea that the military itself was a corrupt institution, but we have paid a political price for more than thirty years for taking that attitude. And that price was exacted by the very same people who are now essentially accusing the military of extreme dishonesty. Irony doesn’t begin to cover this.

The conservative attack on the military is, on the other hand, so small minded, so parochial. For puny, partisan reasons they are accusing the military of widespread corruption — merely to excuse the behavior of their less than stellar candidate. In order to save that worthless little child-man, they are basically telling the American people that the US Navy rewards cowards and covers it up. They do not care that they are setting the stage for people to think that heroic deeds in combat have no concrete meaning. GOP Post modern politics rescues the cipher and further degrades our democracy.

Too bad for the men and women who are risking their necks as we speak for Junior’s Big Adventure. Any act of bravery on which the military might bestow a medal is now subject to interpretation. Nothing is sacred to these people.

Update:

If anyone cares to see how totally corrupt the Navy must have been, Eriposte has the full scoop. Dozens of officers would have had to lie or have been completely incompetent for all these charges to be true. Not the least of whom are some of the Swift boat vets themselves who said very different things at the time.

Watch Your Backs, Spooks

Porter Goss, Junior’s choice for CIA director, is a loyal guy, but it isn’t you he’s loyal to.

Goss says CIA leak not worthy of committee action

Rep. Porter Goss said Thursday that the uproar over allegations that White House officials purposely identified a covert CIA agent appears largely political and doesn’t yet merit an investigation by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which he chairs.

Goss, who was a CIA agent himself from the early 1960s to 1971, said he takes such leaks seriously, but he distinguished between a willful violation of federal law and an inadvertent disclosure.

Goss also said no one from the intelligence agencies has raised the issue with him since syndicated columnist Robert Novak identified the agent in a column July 14.

“I would say there’s a much larger dose of partisan politics going on right now than there is worry about national security,” said Goss, R-Sanibel. “But I would never take lightly a serious allegation backed up by evidence that there was a willful — and I emphasize willful, inadvertent is something else — willful disclosure, and I haven’t seen any evidence.”

Goss said he would act if he did have evidence of that sort.

“Somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I’ll have an investigation,” Goss said.

Let’s just say that when push comes to shove, old Porter is a partisan Republican first and a guardian of the CIA second. Be warned.

I’m assuming that he will be confirmed with no problem. Miller and Lieberman and probably a few other Democrats will vote for him.

But, President Kerry is going to have to turn around and fire him. He has to because this guy will stab him in the back the first chance he gets:

Critics say Goss’s political antics reveal a partisan streak that compromises his ability to be a fair and diplomatic CIA chief. Most recently, he interrupted debate on the House intelligence authorization bill by displaying a sign with a 1977 quote from John Kerry that called for cuts to the intelligence budget.

Kerry cannot have someone like this working for him in such a sensitive job. I would assume that the Republicans are very well aware of this fact. This may be only the first of numerous landmines that are being laid in case of a Kerry victory.