About Iraq

Davinos Greeno asked:


The War on Terrorism, (also called the Global War on Terrorism) is the name of a campaign with the stated goal of ending international terrorism by preventing those groups said to be terrorist in nature from posing a threat, and by putting an end to state sponsorship of terrorism. This can be in any country anywhere in the world.

Everyday on the news is one disaster after another, often linked to the War on Terror. We have Somalia now being run by the Islamic Court which the Ethiopians dont like so they have invaded towns on the border, ongoing problems in Chechnya and the worsening situations in Iraq and Afganistan.

George Soros thinks that the War on Terror is a false metaphor. It has been used by the Bush administration to further its own objectives, but those objectives are opposed to the principles of open society and harmful to the national interest.

The allies have killed more innocent civilians in Iraq than the terrorists killed on 9/11. In addition to killing, we have also humiliated and tortured many Iraqis. By creating innocent victims, we have advanced the terrorists cause.

Why are we hated? Not because terrorists hate democracy but because they hate arrogant idiots who think they know better. Terrorists are only defeated when the large majority of the community feel that they can trust the local authorities to maintain law and order and work for the common good. Then ordinary people will turn the terrorists in to the authorities when, or even before, they strike. In countries such as Iraq where the police and army often consist of Al Qaeda and other militants sympathisers it makes the job even more difficult. The availability of army and police uniforms on the open market and those sold by corrupt officers means that ordinary people are afraid to stop at the checkpoints in case they are militants dressed as the authorities.

Osma bin Ladens purpose for the 9/11 attack was (and is) to provoke massive retaliation from the US against Islam. He hoped that our retaliation would finally unite Islam against the US as a common enemy, and that his vision for a fundamentalist pan-Islamic state would sweep away all the more moderate governments in the region.

One of the Western Allies, Israel was recently subjected to the kidnap of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah militants based in Lebanon, this led to a month long way in which Israel was silently and invisibly encouraged to continue the War on Terror on behalf of the USA in the Middle East. Why did the USA care how long the war went on for as none of their soldiers or civilians where dying? The destruction on Lebanons infrastructure including water and electricity utilities was a crime against humanity, how can this destruction and harm against the civilian population ever bring them to forgive Israel and the West?

If this destruction was intended just to weaken the Lebanon state and prevent the movement of Hezbollah then this short sightedness has lead to the long term poverty, struggle and hatred of the allies by the general population. Many of whom have now aligned themselves with Hezbollah for defending their homeland of Lebanon.

Finally back to Iraq where recently Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death and the problems seem to go on and on. We need to remember the old saying that one mans terrorist is another mans freedom-fighter. Until we fully understand this saying and the tools and strategies for dealing with it…. The war on terror will become the old war on communism… and that lasted for nearly 50 years.



Willie

Owl_08 asked:


Huge profits are at stake in Iraq: The U.S. government already has paid more than $100 billion to private contractors performing work in the war zone.

Does the US pay the wages of Iraqi soldiers and police? Does the US pay the wages of soldiers and police in Afghanistan? Is this US bribery?

Rodney

Westhill asked:


I know it is up to the Iraq court, but I would like to know how long you think the guy should spend in jail.

Douglas

interlink008 asked:


My brother is a Marine reserve scheduled to go on his first tour of duty in Iraq. He’ll working as a warehouse clerk. We want to know how much money he’ll make because he has a college loan to pay off.

Harvey

Michael OBrien asked:


By nature, I am a chronic insomniac. A good night’s sleep is hard to come by but when I have one, the dreams come fast and furious. One recent dream that came to me involved a large cow. There it was, this humongous cow grazing on the White House lawn, dropping steaming piles of scandal after scandal.

The war on Iraq, Plamegate, Abu Ghraib and the firings of federal prosecutors littered the Rose Garden and the South Lawn. Frightened groundskeepers ran screaming in to the night. That I live next to a dairy farm gave me a good start on some Freudian post-dream analysis.

One of the biggest piles I saw drop from the giant cow, was the scandal involving the condition of Walter Reed Army Hospital and the now-notorious Building 18. Washington Post staff writers Dana Priest and Anna Hull reported in February on conditions in this wretched facility.

The physical condition of the facility, combined with the muddled and inept response from the Army brass, resulted in universal outrage, inside and outside of the Washington D.C. beltway. In the aftermath, Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey was ousted along with Major General George Weightman, commanding general of Walter Reed.

Did I say universal outrage? Well not quite. Thinking a really bad dream had come to me, I came across a Columbus Dispatch article headlined “Schmidt: Walter Reed not so bad” (March 22, 2007) in which Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt did not completely accept the public outcry over conditions in Building 18. In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Rep. Schmidt had the audacity to announce that she found “the situation at Walter Reed to be overblown by both politicians and the media”.

Holy cow – “the media” strikes again!

Admitting that problems did exist, Schmidt went on to say that “While I believe that this building is beneath the standards of what is acceptable, I think it is wrong to suggest that mold found behind an air conditioner somehow is an excuse to say that all of our veterans are receiving substandard medical care”. Sound’s like Schmidt was trying to spread a few cow pies of her own.

Reporting by Priest and Hull has yet to suggest that all veterans are receiving substandard medical care. Speaking from my own experience, Veterans Administration medical care – in general – is no better or worse than what I have experienced outside the VA Health Care system. A good example is my experience with the VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinic in Athens, Ohio where I have always been treated with respect and dignity. Like many vets, I have received less-than-adequate care at other VA facilities over the last 32 years. But in spite of being chronically under-funded, VA health care has improved since the horrific aftermath of the Vietnam War.

What Schmidt fails to acknowledge is the follow-up reporting on Walter Reed documenting that substandard conditions and care came to light over 3 years ago. The reporting almost certainly indicates a lack of planning for the casualties of war commensurate with the Bush Administration’s lack of planning for the war on Iraq.

As early as October 2003, just months after the invasion of Iraq, Mark Benjamin of the United Press International broke the story - “Sick, wounded U.S. troops held in squalor” -about conditions at Fort Stewart in Georgia, reporting that “Hundreds of sick and wounded U.S. soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait — sometimes for months — to see doctors.”

Quoting further from the story –

“One month after President Bush greeted soldiers at Fort Stewart — home of the famed Third Infantry Division — as heroes on their return from Iraq, approximately 600 sick or injured members of the Army Reserves and National Guard are warehoused in rows of spare, steamy and dark cement barracks in a sandy field, waiting for doctors to treat their wounds or illnesses.”

“Most soldiers in medical hold at Fort Stewart stay in rows of rectangular, gray, single-story cinder block barracks without bathrooms or air conditioning. They are dark and sweltering in the southern Georgia heat and humidity. Around 60 soldiers cram in the bunk beds in each barrack.”

“Soldiers make their way by walking or using crutches through the sandy dirt to a communal bathroom, where they have propped office partitions between otherwise open toilets for privacy.

A row of leaky sinks sits on an opposite wall. The latrine smells of urine and is full of bugs, because many windows have no screens. Showering is in a communal, cinder block room. Soldiers say they have to buy their own toilet paper.”

The personal testimonies of the soldiers documented in Mark Benjamin’s report detail conditions that must surely have violated U.S. and international law. Strangely, nothing much happened as a result.

Oh the story had legs for a week or so, but was never really addressed by a war-happy news media, still giddy with reports of “Mission Accomplished” and pronouncements by then-Pentagon advisor and neo-conservative-in-chief Richard Pearle that “Next year at about this time, I expect there will be a really thriving trade in the [Iraq] region and we will see rapid economic development. And a year from now, I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad named after President Bush.”

As we know, the cow pies have really hit the fan in Baghdad and plans for the commemorative George W. Bush Plaza and Shopping Mall are undoubtedly on hold.

What makes the Walter Reed scandal so hard to ignore is that the cow pie landed in Washington D.C., literally in the backyard of Congress - where “Support the Troops” has always been the rallying cry for House and Senate war hawks.

Troops wounded in the war on Iraq and ensuing sectarian civil war have experienced both the best and the worst of medical care. Combat trauma care in Iraq and follow-up treatment at U.S. military bases in Germany has resulted in an increased survivability among many wounded troops, compared to previous conflicts. But contrast that with the way wounded troops were treated at Walter Reed and Fort Stewart - and the oft-cited slogan “Support the Troops” starts to fade from all those yellow ribbon car magnets.

“…and the cow jumped over the moon.”



Reginald

littlechick asked:


I’m sending a package to a friend of mine who is currently stationed in Iraq. Can anyone tell me what the fastest way of sending it would be, and about how much shipping costs? (If weight is a big factor, it would be apprx 12lbs). Thanks!

Kevin

Lindsay S asked:


I work for the State of Michigan and need to send a birth certificate application to a soldier in Iraq. He gave me his address, including an APO AE number and the camp he’s located at. But does mail to Iraq require any sort of postal code or anything?

Reginald

HandyMam asked:


I recieved the name of both a male and female soldier stationed in Iraq (artillery division and of whom I don’t know) at church who do not have family or are not getting any letters or packages from home.

We want to make a small care/gift package to send with our letter for both of these soldiers. Do you know what items most soldiers would like to recieve the most?

Eileen

Alan Nelson asked:


looking for a high paying job and willing to endure the hardships of living in a danger zone, then a search of the many available jobs in Iraq may be for you.

Searching for a job in the Middle East, in particular a war zone is much like finding a job anywhere else. You still need to go through the customary job search process. However, once you find that job there are various nuances that you need to be aware of to ensure maximum income and standard of living while in country.

Here are a few of the numerous methods for finding Jobs in Iraq:

1. Perhaps the easiest way to find jobs in Iraq is through personal contacts. Who do you know; who’s already working there, already on the ground and established? You can gain a lot of knowledge and often get the upper hand by leveraging personal contacts.

2. If you are currently working for one of the many companies that provides contracting services, then you already have an inside advantage. Often these positions are listed on internal job boards before advertised to the public.

3. Another option is to contact a recruiter who’s specifically looking for people to fulfill jobs in Iraq. Depending on the recruiters’ role, you may or may not have to pay a fee for their services. Sometimes the hiring company will pay the recruiters fee.

4. You can also monitor the job search sites. All the big employment sites such as Monster.com and Yahoo Hot Jobs will list jobs in Iraq.

5. With some research, you can identify companies already doing business in Iraq and contact them directly. To do this, you would go to the website for each company and look at the employment page. Here you will often find open jobs not posted elsewhere.

Many very diligent job seekers pursue all of these methods. Yes, it is time consuming, but the potential pay off is well worth it. You can easily double or triple your annual salary if you’re willing to deal with the hazards of living in Iraq.

As mentioned before, you need to be aware of the various entitlements and benefits available. These benefits are much different then the standard package provided my most major employers. For instance, if working in certain countries such as Iraq, you are entitled to basic hardship allowances. For US citizens, these allowances are often based on US State Department guidelines. For residents of other countries, the rules vary.



Mitchell

Leah Jea asked:


They say we are rebuilding iraq, but what is the progress made? When i watch the news and tv, I havent seen anything that look remotly different.Or do they mean they are making social progress? If that wa they case wouldnt there be a change in the hole ppl getting killed everday? The daily amount seems to be on a average to me.

Nancy