by TChris

Have U.S. troops been held accountable for civilian deaths in Iraq?

The majority of U.S. service members charged in the unlawful deaths of Iraqi civilians have been acquitted, found guilty of relatively minor offenses or given administrative punishments without trials, according to a Washington Post review of concluded military cases. Charges against some of the troops were dropped completely.

Though experts estimate that thousands of Iraqi civilians have died at the hands of U.S. forces, only 39 service members were formally accused in connection with the deaths of 20 Iraqis from 2003 to early this year. Twenty-six of the 39 troops were initially charged with murder, negligent homicide or manslaughter; 12 of them ultimately served prison time for any offense.

Is accountability a military goal?

I'm just tuning into today's news, and Wolf Blitzer on CNN reported that Israel has nuclear weapons and may decide to try and take Iran out even if it has to go it alone.

A reporter from the Jerusalem Post said he has heard this too but that there has been no official confirmation from Israeli officials.

The reasoning seems to be that Israel wants to stop Iran's nuclear weapon development plans which it thinks will reach the R&D stage within six to 12 months. The U.S. may not have the military capability to fight Iran, given how stretched it has become in Iraq.

So, we lost more than 2,000 precious U.S. lives to take out a despot who had nothing to do with 9/11 or the war on terror, only to be impotent at taking out what could be a real threat not just to hundreds of millions of Americans but the whole world?

I realize there is a big issue as to whether Iran is 5 to 10 years away from having a viable nuclear weapons program or 6 to 12 months away from entering R&D, but either way, it just shows what a waste this war in Iraq has been.

by TChris

One cost of staying the course in Iraq:

The Marine Corps said Tuesday that it would begin calling Marines back to active-duty service on an involuntary basis to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan -- the latest sign that the American force is under strain and a signal that the military is having trouble persuading young veterans to return.

Marine commanders will call up formerly active-duty service members now classified as reservists because the Corps failed to find enough volunteers among its emergency reserve pool to fill jobs in combat zones. The call-ups will begin in several months, summoning as many as 2,500 reservists at a time to serve for a year or more.

Lambert at Corrente outlines how the Republicans plan to take Iraq off the table for the 2008 election. How? With the help of James Baker and a new working group called the Iraq Study Group-- that reportedly has Bush's blessing.

I'm watching Sen. John McCain on Meet the Press. David Gregory is the host. The topic is Iraq. He seems to be weaseling to me. He thinks Rumsfeld has done a poor job but won't call for his resignation. Serious mistakes have been made but he has confidence in the President.

He says Iraq is not in civil war, we can fix it. He backs the war. There should be no date set for withdrawal.

The difference between him and Bush is what?

by TChris

With the ceasefire apparently holding (for now) in Lebanon, attention can return to Iraq, where gunfire has not ceased, and where daily killings are in fact increasing. The country is no longer at risk of a civil war; it's embroiled in one.

July appears to have been the deadliest month of the war for Iraqi civilians, according to figures from the Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue, reinforcing criticism that the Baghdad security plan started in June by the new government has failed.

An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed each day in July, according to the figures. ... The rising numbers suggested that sectarian violence is spiraling out of control, and seemed to bolster an assertion many senior Iraqi officials and American military analysts have made in recent months: that the country is already embroiled in a civil war, not just slipping toward one, and that the American-led forces are caught between Sunni Arab guerrillas and Shiite militias.

Received this by e-mail from the Decider's Last 1,000 Days and thought I'd pass it on:

• December 7, 1941 through May 8, 1945 (VE-Day) = 1,248 days

• March 19, 2003 (U.S. invasion of Iraq) through Friday, August 18, 2006 = 1,248 days

The Christian Science Monitor, employer of kidnapped Jill Carrool, is publishing her account of her ordeal at the hands of Iraqi kidnappers beginning today. It's an 11 part series, which means it should be a book any time now.

Read it and remember all those who thought she might be complicit in her abduction. What fools.

What a gruesome statistic:

The Baghdad morgue took in 1,815 bodies during July, news services quoted the facility's assistant manager, Abdul Razzaq al-Obeidi, as saying. The previous month's tally was 1,595. Obeidi estimated that as many as 90 percent of the total died violent deaths.

A new CNN poll finds that 60% of Americans now oppose the Iraq war. A majority of those polled would support troop withdrawal by the end of the year.

This is the largest percentage since polling on the issue began in March, 2003.

The testimony continues in the case of the rape and murder of a teenage girl in and slaughter of her family by U.S. troops in Mahmudiya, Iraq. One of the accused says following a day of drinking and playing golf, Pvt. Steven Green felt like killing some Iraqis. After going to her house and separating the family members, he says the soldiers took turns raping or trying to rape the teen, when they were done, Steven Green shot and killed her, and then they set her body on fire and then attempted to cover up their crime.

A US military court has heard testimony of how three soldiers took it in turns to hold down and try to rape an Iraqi girl aged 14 in Mahmudiya in March....Graphic details of the attack at the family's home came in a sworn statement by one of the accused, James P. Barker.

The four soldiers, Barker, Sergeant Paul Cortez, Private Jesse Spielman, and Private Bryan Howard, are accused of helping former Pvt. Steven Green, who is charged in U.S. federal court (details here and here.)

Writing in Huffington Post today, former Senator Gary Hart predicts Bush will announce an exit strategy from Iraq in October -- in time for the November elections.

Since, with precious few exceptions, political careers trump principle, and since the cabal of neoconservatives and the religious right intend to govern forever, the genius Karl Rove will concoct a patently phony Iraq exit strategy.

Sounds right to me.