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Even experts are surprised at the vast numbers of U.S. soldiers who have been deployed after 9/11. Even if troop levels in Iraq are cut next year, the military may be permanently damaged.
By Mark Benjamin
Three and a half years have passed since U.S. bombs started falling in Afghanistan, and ever since then, the U.S. military has been engaged in combat overseas. What most Americans are probably unaware of, however, is just how many American soldiers have been deployed. Well over 1 (…)

ORIGINAL:
Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 12 April 2005 Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org
resistancereport.jpeg
Tuesday, 12 April 2005.
The Battle of al-Qa’im. Ferocious US attack repulsed.
Resistance communiqué Tuesday night gives US forces 12 hours to withdraw from environs of al-Qa’im.
Men and women fighters flock to defend liberated city.
Woman Resistance fighter (…)

The International Occupation Watch Center, launched in July 2003 with the staff of "two Iraqi women and two international peace workers," was quietly restructured. Now the center has "no staff on the ground in Iraq." Lack of funding? If so, that’s a shame. As the power elite implant fake news and manufacture consent through the corporate media, the anti-war movement in the United States needs its own foreign correspondents, photographers, and documentary film makers. The Occupation Watch (…)

The US is failing - and hatred of the occupation greater than ever
by Jonathan Steele
Saddam Hussein’s effigy was pulled down again in Baghdad’s Firdos Square at the weekend. But unlike the made-for-TV event when US troops first entered the Iraqi capital, the toppling of Saddam on the occupation’s second anniversary was different.
Instead of being done by US marines with a few dozen Iraqi bystanders, 300,000 Iraqis were on hand. They threw down effigies of Bush and Blair as well as the (…)

A report to the UN human rights commission in Geneva has concluded that Iraqi children were actually better off under Saddam Hussein than they are now.
This, of course, comes as a bitter blow for all those of us who, like George Bush and Tony Blair, honestly believe that children thrive best when we drop bombs on them from a great height, destroy their cities and blow up hospitals, schools and power stations.
It now appears that, far from improving the quality of life for Iraqi (…)

Interview with Hassan Juma’a Awad
Q: How was the Southern Oil Company Union organized?
A: Two weeks after the occupying forces entered Basra on the 9th of April, 2003, Iraqi activists in the oil industry met to reestablish the union. We organized the workers for two reasons. First, we had to deal with the administration put in place by the occupying forces. Second, we fear that the purpose of the occupation is to take control of the oil industry. Without organizing ourselves, we would (…)

In a surprise move today, the Mayor of Kab...er...I mean the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is requesting a long-term security pact with the United states that - get this - may include permanent U.S. military bases. When asked about this latest development, Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, who is visiting the country, reportedly said that it was up to his boss, Junta leader George Bush to decide if the U.S. will honor Karzai’s request.
In Washington, White House Press (…)

by Wayne Besen
In sixth grade, I used to play pick-up basketball against a neighborhood bully and spoil sport nicknamed Major Pick. He was called Major Pick because he barked orders like a soldier and constantly picked his butt. His team would always win because the overpowering brute would either break the rules or change them.
For example, in our game, the team that first reached 15 points always won. Unless, of course, the Major Pick’s team came up short, prompting him to (…)

JERUSALEM - Ariel Sharon’s military attache presented aerial photos of Iranian nuclear installations during the Israeli prime minister’s summit with US President George W. Bush, Israeli public radio reported on Tuesday.
General Yoav Gallan, who accompanied Sharon to Monday’s talks at Bush’s Texas ranch, presented the photos as well as information gathered by the Israeli intelligence services on Teheran’s nuclear programme.
The radio, which did not give details on how the photos were (…)

BEGALA: Welcome back to CROSSFIRE. Both President Bush in Texas today, and Donald Rumsfeld in Iraq, were talking about just how swell things are going in Iraq. But, a new survey says most Americans believe the war was not worth it. In the CROSSFIRE to debate Iraq, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen — she is a Republican from Florida, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, he is a Democrat from Ohio.
HOLT: Welcome to the program, Mr. Kucinich, nice to see you.
During the presidential campaign, (…)