Bent Corner

Evidently Muntadar al-Zaidi, the reporter that threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, is being looked upon as a hero in Iraq. Thousands of Iraqis are calling for his immediate release from Iraqi custody. His employer, Iraqi-owned TV station al-Baghdadiya, is calling for his release saying he was merely exercising his freedom of expression. By throwing his shoes at someone’s head.

I am so surprised.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that I don’t have much love for George W. Bush.  I honestly think he will go down as one of the worst presidents in American history.  That doesn’t mean I like the idea of a foreign reporter throwing his shoes at Bush’s head. I think this might be the very first time that I’ve ever felt defensive for George W. Bush and for that I am quite perturbed at Mr. al-Zaidi.

How dare he do something that makes me feel for George W. Bush.

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If only Saddam Hussein didn’t have all those weapons of mass destruction mothers wouldn’t have to leave their young children for months at a time and go to Iraq. Terri Gurrola comes back from Iraq and embraces her daughter. Gurrola served in Iraq for 7 months.

Link

This from the Associated Press (Via Yahoo! News):

The Iraqi government Monday ordered Blackwater USA, the security firm that protects U.S. diplomats, to stop work and leave the country after the fatal shooting of eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack against a State Department convoy.

The order by the Interior Ministry, if carried out, would deal a severe blow to U.S. government operations in Iraq by stripping diplomats, engineers, reconstruction officials and others of their security protection.

The presence of so many visible, aggressive Western security contractors has angered many Iraqis, who consider them a mercenary force that runs roughshod over people in their own country.

The reason many Iraqis consider them to be a mercenary force is because that is precisely what they are. They are mercenaries. They are professional soldiers that perform military work for money. They are often referred to as “contractors” because it sounds better.

Contractors usually need a contractors license. Mercs don’t.

Our illustrious president spoke last night on the television about his most favorite subject - the Iraq war. From his speech:

Anbar province is a good example of how our strategy is working. Last year, an intelligence report concluded that Anbar had been lost to al-Qaida. Some cited this report as evidence that we had failed in Iraq and should cut our losses and pull out. Instead, we kept the pressure on the terrorists. The local people were suffering under the Taliban-like rule of al-Qaida, and they were sick of it. So they asked us for help.

The al-Qaida he should be worried about is the al-Qaida in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is the real al-Qaida. That is the al-Qaida that attacked the United States on 9-11. The al-Qaida in Iraq? They just call themselves that to give themselves some cheap terrorist credibility. Everyone knows that al-Qaida attacked the United States six years ago and Bush has failed to bring them to justice. Bush has failed to make them pay. Bush and his inability to make al-Qaida pay turn them into the terrorist organization that every two bit terrorist wants to be apart of.

Just because they call themselves al-Qaida doesn’t make them al-Qaida. The al-Qaida in Iraq is as much al-Qaida as American skinheads are Nazis. Sure, they may have a photo of Hitler in their mom’s basement, but that doesn’t mean they are the same bunch that fought Patton’s Third Army in the Battle of the Bulge. Those were real Nazis. They weren’t pretending to be Nazis.

Just because someone identifies themselves as a Nazi on their MySpace page doesn’t mean they are a Nazi. Just because someone in Iraq says they are al-Qaida doesn’t make them al-Qaida.

Roscoe Bartlett
2412 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
20515-2006
Dear Roscoe Bartlett –

I’m writing this letter in regards to comments you made shortly after your historic vote last March against the continued funding of our troops in Iraq.

You stated that you were against a time table for withdrawal. Wouldn’t you agree that our military has already accomplished everything they were asked to do? They have:

• Ensured that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction.
• Removed Saddam Hussein from power.
• Allowed Iraq to become a democratic and free country.

Our troops have successfully done their job. Now it’s time for you to do yours. You need to work towards bringing them home. Their mission has been accomplished.

You stated back in March that another reason you voted NO was because one-fifth of the spending bill was pork. Expenditures unrelated to our national defense. As though the continued occupation of Iraq has anything to do with the defense of our nation. Now that the Democrats have caved and removed any type of timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, voting YES on the supplemental spending bill should be fairly easy for you to do - unless you really are a fiscal conservative. All that pork is still firmly attached to the bill.

Rick Rottman

Hagerstown, Maryland

Well, they did it. The Democrats in the House agreed to give Bush $124 BILLION, but they put restrictions on it:

The $124 billion House legislation would pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year but would require that combat troops come home from Iraq before September 2008 — or earlier if the Iraqi government did not meet certain requirements. Democrats said it was time to heed the mandate of their election sweep last November, which gave them control of Congress.

Bush and the other neo-cons need to learn that the American people will not sit still for a never ending occupation of Iraq. The neo-cons first tried to base American troops permanently in Saudi Arabia. We all saw how that worked out. They now want to make Iraq a permanent base of occupation to facilitate control over the Middle East.

To the neo-cons, it’s not about not leaving Iraq until “the job is done”. Whatever that means. It’s about staying in Iraq forever. It’s about having a permanent presence in the Middle East.

I doubt Bush would have invaded Iraq if it meant American forces would one day have to actually leave.

Larry Johnson of No Quarter links to an article in the Washington Post that details conditions troops being treated at Walter Reed Army Center as out-patients. It’s pretty disgusting.

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

Call me a liberal, but I don’t think our troops injured in Iraq should ever have to live someplace where phrases such as “mouse droppings” or “black mold” are used to describe the living conditions.

At a bare minimum, American service members injured in Iraq receiving out-patient medical treatment should be treated no worse then the Bush twins. If Jenna and Barbara were receiving medical treatment on an out-patient basis. Not that they would ever be caught serving their country. They might be caught using fake ID’s so they can illegally drink, but you won’t ever see these two doing anything even remotely associated with patriotism. Even the fake kind that is popular with so many Republicans.

This is one of the results of waging war on the cheap.

I realize it’s not as important as Anna Nicole Smith dying, but a local Marine serving in Iraq has been injured. This from the local newspaper, the Herald-Mail:

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Dane Fonte of Smithsburg was injured Wednesday afternoon in Iraq when he was hit by a grenade on a rooftop, Fonte’s parents said Saturday. The 21-year-old Fonte is being treated at Bethesda (Md.) Naval Hospital for bone fractures around his right eye, which also received some retina damage.

That’s one word you don’t ever want associated with your retina. The word “damage”. My hopes and prayers go out to Dane and his family.

I tried looking online for more news about this attack, but I couldn’t find anything. The only results I got were for the before mentioned article in the local newspaper. I then tried to do a less structured search. Instead of searching for Dane Fonte, I searched for MARINE+INJURED+IRAQ+GRENADE. I got lots and lots of results. None of them were about Dane Fonte though. It seems there is no shortage of news articles about Marines being injured in Iraq with grenades. Just none about 21 year old Dane Fonte.

UPDATE - The Herald-Mail updated their report. Here is what was published in today’s eddition (11 February):

SMITHSBURG - U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Dane Fonte was injured Wednesday afternoon in Iraq after a grenade exploded during an engagement in Anbar province, his parents said Saturday.

The incident happened while Fonte was on a rooftop during several hours of off-and-on fighting with insurgents, but he managed to avoid the brunt of the explosion, Jeff and Carlann Christopher said.

Fonte, 21, is being treated at Bethesda (Md.) Naval Hospital for bone fractures around his right eye, which also received some retina damage, according to his parents.

“That’s the major concern,” said Fonte’s mother, who added that wounds to her son’s leg and arm were sutured on Saturday.

Though his eye now is patched, Carlann Christopher said her son could detect some amount of light since he was flown from Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a suspected staging area for insurgents fighting U.S. troops.

“There’s 10 fingers, there’s 10 toes, his personality is there,” she said in an interview from the hospital.

She said Fonte’s superior officer, Cpl. Joshua Pitcher, was not as fortunate, and now is “fighting for his life” after receiving more severe head trauma from the same device.

Jeff Christopher received a cell phone call about his son being taken to the hospital Thursday afternoon while he was at Lowe’s in Hagerstown.

He wasn’t told the extent of his son’s injuries, but left the store and immediately drove to Twigg Cycles in Hagerstown, where his wife works, and went to the hospital.

“We didn’t talk a whole lot,” Carlann Christopher said.

Her husband, a Marine Corps veteran, has traveled to Bethesda several times in the last few months with other members of the Hagerstown chapter of the U.S. Military Veterans Motorcycle Club. They also have traveled to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to support other military personnel injured in the line of duty.

While with their son, Carlann Christopher said Fonte’s sergeant, who lost his legs in October, was one of a number of people who have stopped by to visit him.

“He came in to see him walking on prosthetics,” she said.

“This place is a living miracle,” she said. “The outpouring of love … There’s nothing we could ever want for.”

“The nurses and doctors at Bethesda Naval have been the best,” her husband added.

Despite attempts by his father to deter him from joining the Marine Corps, Fonte enlisted immediately after graduating from Smithsburg High School in 2003, his mother said.

He was deployed to Iraq in September, and was scheduled to complete his term of service with the 1st Battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment in August.

“He’s just worried about his guys still over there,” Jeff Christopher said. “That’s all he’s concerned about.”

Fonte’s younger sister, Casey, 18, said her brother was “out of it” when she first saw him Thursday.

On Friday, he was laughing and telling jokes, she said Saturday.

“He still has all of his body parts, thank God,” she said while cleaning her brother’s room at their parents’ house off Vodys Court in Smithsburg, where his Marine Corps unit’s colors fluttered in a chilly wind.

A standout football player and wrestler in his years in high school, Fonte’s mother anticipates a hearty welcome home from the community for her son, who she said has an infectious smile and personal drive to be the best.

“I think if Dane ran for mayor of Smithsburg, I’d think he’d win hands down,” she said.

I remember when the death toll in Iraq reached 1,000. The news made a big deal about it. As though 1,000 dead of a senseless war was a lot worse then 999 dead. This from the same AP article over on Yahoo:

A Pentagon report on Iraq said in December the conflict now is more a struggle between Sunni and Shiite armed groups “fighting for religious, political and economic influence,” with the insurgency and foreign terrorist campaigns “a backdrop.”

Sunni versus Shiite is another way of saying Iraqi versus Iraqi. There is a civil war going on in Iraq and American troops are stuck in the middle of it.

The sad thing about all this is that I don’t think the American people really care. Sure, they might put a non-permanent magnetic yellow ribbon on the back of their SUV, but I think the American public is basically disconnected from this war and it’s effects. We are constantly told that those in the military volunteered to be in the military. In a way, they wanted to go to Iraq, right?

Wrong. Just because somebody joined the U.S. military doesn’t mean they elected to throw their life away in some foreign civil war. Most join the military to learn some job skills or to help pay for college. Some join because they simply cannot find a job with good pay or benefits. Some actually join to defend the United States. Few join because they want to go to some oil rich foreign country and overthrow the government.

U.S. death toll in Iraq reaches 3,000 [Yahoo]