Quotes of the Morning: Waiting for a Sign
“These last few months (ok.. years) haven’t been such a good time to be an Iraqi, especially since the military surge seems to have ratcheted up the violence on both sides.”
-Skippy
“A suicide car bomber struck the center of a major Shiite city in southern Iraq this morning, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens as the streets were packed with shoppers and people on their way to work, police said.
The explosion occurred at 9 a.m. in a commercial district in Hilla, according to provincial police. Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, has been the site of some of the deadliest bombings, including a double suicide attack on March 6 that killed 120 people.
The attack came a day after a string of car bomb attacks left at least 17 people dead in Baghdad on Monday, many of them civilians killed by three blasts in one of the city's busiest neighborhoods.
In all, at least 42 Iraqis were killed nationwide on Monday, according to security officials who asked not to be identified because they feared retribution.”
-Washington Post, July 24, 2007
“The surge has lead to a few more injuries for the American troops too.”
-Skippy
“The ‘surge’ in U.S. troops in Iraq has resulted in an increase in patients passing through this [Rammstein] base.
[…]
May and June stand among the busiest months ever for airmen who help transport and care for wounded servicemembers coming from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Air Force figures.
June saw the highest number of patient movements since April 2004, when U.S. forces conducted a major offensive on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
In May, the airmen conducted 1,545 ‘patient movements.’ In June, the facility saw 1,564 movements.
[…]
Only two other months have been higher than May and June, he said. The facility saw the greatest number of patients in April and May 2003. April 2004, when military forces converged on Fallujah, was the second busiest time, Langevin said. He could not provide statistics for those months.
Since 2003, the facility has received 43,807 patients from Afghanistan and Iraq. Of those, 9,548 had battle injuries. Airmen have conducted nearly 70,000 patient movements.”
-Stars and Stripes, July 23, 2007
“Of course when our troops are injured they are having some trouble getting the care they need..”
-Skippy
“Frustrated by delays in health care, injured Iraq war veterans accused VA Secretary Jim Nicholson in a lawsuit of breaking the law by denying them disability pay and mental health treatment.
The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco, seeks broad changes in the agency as it struggles to meet growing demands from veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Suing on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, it charges that the VA has failed warriors on numerous fronts. It contends the VA failed to provide prompt disability benefits, failed to add staff to reduce wait times for medical care and failed to boost services for post-traumatic stress disorder.
The lawsuit also accuses the VA of deliberately cheating some veterans by allegedly working with the Pentagon to misclassify PTSD claims as pre-existing personality disorders to avoid paying benefits. The VA and Pentagon have generally denied such charges.”
-Associated Press, July 23, 2007
“So I guess we’ll just have to wait this war out until Fearless Leader hears back from his boss..”
-Skippy
“Pakistani leaders say President Bush said God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. That is Palestinian leaders' remarks attributed to Mr. Bush are in a BBC documentary. The White House dismisses it as absurd.”
-CNN Saturday Morning News, October 8, 2005
“Imagine our surprise Wednesday to read in the Israeli paper Haaretz (online), that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Abu Mazen, meeting recently with militants to enlist their support for a truce with Israel, said that, when they met in Aqaba, President Bush had told him this: ‘ God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam [ Hussein], which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.’
So who needs to find WMD or a link with al Qaeda when the orders come from The Highest Authority?
Two calls to the White House for clarification went unreturned, but colleague Glenn Kessler did some digging. The Haaretz reporter, Arnon Regular, read what the paper said were minutes of the Palestinians' meeting to Kessler and another colleague, who is an Arabic speaker.
The Arabic-speaking colleague's translation, was this: ‘God inspired me to hit al Qaeda, and so I hit it. And I had the inspiration to hit Saddam, and so I hit him. Now I am determined to solve the Middle East problem if you help. Otherwise the elections will come and I will be wrapped up with them.’"
-Washington Post, June 27, 2003
-Skippy
“A suicide car bomber struck the center of a major Shiite city in southern Iraq this morning, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens as the streets were packed with shoppers and people on their way to work, police said.
The explosion occurred at 9 a.m. in a commercial district in Hilla, according to provincial police. Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, has been the site of some of the deadliest bombings, including a double suicide attack on March 6 that killed 120 people.
The attack came a day after a string of car bomb attacks left at least 17 people dead in Baghdad on Monday, many of them civilians killed by three blasts in one of the city's busiest neighborhoods.
In all, at least 42 Iraqis were killed nationwide on Monday, according to security officials who asked not to be identified because they feared retribution.”
-Washington Post, July 24, 2007
“The surge has lead to a few more injuries for the American troops too.”
-Skippy
“The ‘surge’ in U.S. troops in Iraq has resulted in an increase in patients passing through this [Rammstein] base.
[…]
May and June stand among the busiest months ever for airmen who help transport and care for wounded servicemembers coming from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Air Force figures.
June saw the highest number of patient movements since April 2004, when U.S. forces conducted a major offensive on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
In May, the airmen conducted 1,545 ‘patient movements.’ In June, the facility saw 1,564 movements.
[…]
Only two other months have been higher than May and June, he said. The facility saw the greatest number of patients in April and May 2003. April 2004, when military forces converged on Fallujah, was the second busiest time, Langevin said. He could not provide statistics for those months.
Since 2003, the facility has received 43,807 patients from Afghanistan and Iraq. Of those, 9,548 had battle injuries. Airmen have conducted nearly 70,000 patient movements.”
-Stars and Stripes, July 23, 2007
“Of course when our troops are injured they are having some trouble getting the care they need..”
-Skippy
“Frustrated by delays in health care, injured Iraq war veterans accused VA Secretary Jim Nicholson in a lawsuit of breaking the law by denying them disability pay and mental health treatment.
The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco, seeks broad changes in the agency as it struggles to meet growing demands from veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Suing on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, it charges that the VA has failed warriors on numerous fronts. It contends the VA failed to provide prompt disability benefits, failed to add staff to reduce wait times for medical care and failed to boost services for post-traumatic stress disorder.
The lawsuit also accuses the VA of deliberately cheating some veterans by allegedly working with the Pentagon to misclassify PTSD claims as pre-existing personality disorders to avoid paying benefits. The VA and Pentagon have generally denied such charges.”
-Associated Press, July 23, 2007
“So I guess we’ll just have to wait this war out until Fearless Leader hears back from his boss..”
-Skippy
“Pakistani leaders say President Bush said God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. That is Palestinian leaders' remarks attributed to Mr. Bush are in a BBC documentary. The White House dismisses it as absurd.”
-CNN Saturday Morning News, October 8, 2005
“Imagine our surprise Wednesday to read in the Israeli paper Haaretz (online), that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Abu Mazen, meeting recently with militants to enlist their support for a truce with Israel, said that, when they met in Aqaba, President Bush had told him this: ‘ God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam [ Hussein], which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.’
So who needs to find WMD or a link with al Qaeda when the orders come from The Highest Authority?
Two calls to the White House for clarification went unreturned, but colleague Glenn Kessler did some digging. The Haaretz reporter, Arnon Regular, read what the paper said were minutes of the Palestinians' meeting to Kessler and another colleague, who is an Arabic speaker.
The Arabic-speaking colleague's translation, was this: ‘God inspired me to hit al Qaeda, and so I hit it. And I had the inspiration to hit Saddam, and so I hit him. Now I am determined to solve the Middle East problem if you help. Otherwise the elections will come and I will be wrapped up with them.’"
-Washington Post, June 27, 2003
posted by Pope Impious XXIII | 4:23 AM
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