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OPERATION NEW DAWN: Same War Different Name
In the week or so since the much publicized [mainstream media spin] withdrawal of “combat” troops from Iraq, and President Obama’s speech last week, it has become more evident that the Iraq War continues under a new name: “Operation New Dawn.”
ROBERT L. HANAFIN, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, GS-14, U.S. Civil Service-Retired, Veterans Today News Network
According to Voters for Peace, the first confusion over Operation New Dawn came from the Department of Defense. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said shortly after the “end” of the war, “I don’t think anybody has declared the end of the war as far as I know. Counter-terrorism will still be part of their mission.” He said the more than 50,000 remaining troops will be well armed and that among their responsibilities will be counter-terrorism which will mean taking on Islamist militants in combat situations. The former head of the Central Command who had been in charge of military operations in Iraq echoed the Pentagon sentiments when Petraeus told CBS News, “We’re not leaving” Iraq and that the troops remaining behind will have “an enormous capability.”
To make matters worse, General Ray Odierno said it was possible that U.S. combat troops would return to Iraq if the security situation worsened. Odierno also said that he was certain the U.S. would consider staying in Iraq after 2011 if invited. There is more talk of the U.S. staying beyond the 2011 deadline for withdrawal of all troops. Iraq’s top military officer said last week that American forces may be needed for another decade, something to which Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says the U.S. is open.
And sadly, the war’s “end” does not mean an end to deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. An American soldier was killed in a rocket attack in southern Iraq on Sunday, the U.S. military said, marking the first American fatality since the last “combat” unit in Iraq pulled out of the country. The military did not provide a lot of information on what the soldier was doing but said he was conducting operations in Iraq’s southern province of Basra.
It also does not mean an end to deployments of new troops to Iraq. Five peace activists blockaded six buses carrying Fort Hood Soldiers deploying to Iraq. The buses were slowed to a halt; while police made no arrests, they forced the activists out of the street using automatic weapons and police dogs so the deploying soldiers could proceed.
In addition to soldiers remaining in Iraq, the country remains in miserable condition. Foreign Policy in Focus reports: “Iraq has between 25 and 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, an epidemic of mental illness, and sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life.” They also report that half the urban residents in Iraq live in slums, up from 20% before the U.S. invasion.
Veterans Today Editorial Comment: But the deception continues. President Obama’s speech on Iraq boils down to Democrat Party political spin to highlight Obama keeping his promise to end the Iraq war. His speech was nothing but a political illusion with the timing set of coincide with the November election season. However, with vulnerable Democrats running for cover to either sweep the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars under the carper with brooms of silence, or desperately trying to distance themselves from President Obama’s falling popularity ratings.
Please join Voters for PEACE in writing President Obama and urge him to get beyond the Pentagon and political spin to level with the American people. Tell him the disaster Iraq continues to be and that more than 100,000 U.S. troops and mercenaries remain, continuing to engage in combat and continuing to die. Let Obama know that Americans can handle the truth and do not want to be lied to. You can send a letter by clicking here.
In addition, please join peace events nationwide being organized by a coalition of anti-war groups. The events are being scheduled around the country during the end of August. Click here for information.
Sincerely,
Kevin Zeese
Executive Director
About VotersForPeace
VotersForPeace is educating, organizing and activating voters to end the occupation of Iraq and prevent future wars of aggression. The mission of VotersForPeace is to mobilize anti-war voters into a visible and effective political force that cannot be ignored. They provide voters with the information and tools they need to be effective peace advocates; this includes educating their friends and family on the occupation, writing letters to the media, and holding congressional and presidential candidates accountable [come the November 2010 elections].
The first thing that voters can do to take action is sign the Voters’ Pledge. This sends an important message to their elected officials and it empowers other voters to take a stand and demand TOTAL withdrawal from Iraq.
VotersForPeace was launched on March 17, 2006, with the VotersForPeace Pledge, a shared project of national, state and local participating groups. Click here to read the launch press release, speaker bios and statements.
VotersForPeace is sponsored by Campaign for Fresh Air & Clean Politics, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, public charity for education and research. It engages in very limited lobbying and no political activity.
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=47707
Posted by Robert L. Hanafin on Sep 4 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Peace, WarZone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
COMMENTS
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Stop wasting time writing letters. Neither Obama, nor those PUT into power along with him give a rat’s arse what the herd thinks. That includes all branches.
Oh and by the way, Iraqis who rightly fight back on their own soil are neither “terrorists” nor “militants/insurgents” or any other defamatory spin the war-profiteering pep squad chooses to smear them with. They are, as we would be if it were OUR soil being invaded and occupied illegally by foreign troops, PATRIOTS defending THEIR own soil. IF we really care about the lives of our young men and women, then get them (and their “capabilities” (for wanton destruction))the hell out of other people’s lands once and for all.
So simple even a dumbed-down 5 year old could understand it.
Veterans Today Editorial Comment:
Penumbra, I’ve personally signed on to God only knows how many letters, emails, and Congressional office visits that get US nowhere, so I can relate to your views on appeals to reason are a waste of time.
I especially like your the insight into “Iraqis” who defy our government as being PATRIOTS. Damn, I wish the Tea Party and other independent parties could understand your analogy.
Bobby Hanafin
The Mustang Major
Veterans Today News
“Stop wasting time writing letters. Neither Obama, nor those PUT into power along with him give rat’s arse what the herd thinks. That includes all branches. ”
Agreed.
Attempting to reason with Obama is like arguing with a brick wall. Even his own party has discovered this. Trying to convince yourselves that Obama has a different agenda than Bush or that he can be reasoned with is futile. He has screwed over and lied everyone that has ever helped him, what makes you think he will listen to you?
People have attempted to do this for almost 2 straight years, now it’s time to go on the offensive.
Veterans Today Editorial Comment
“Even his own party has discovered this. Trying to convince yourselves that Obama has a different agenda than Bush or that he can be reasoned with is futile.”
Ron, I would have to say that instead of his own party discovering Obama cannot be reasoned with and is but a Bush clone of a different color instead it is voters who voted for Obama and now feel their vote was WASTED.
Mainstream media despite their bias is already highlighting that the main ingredient that have given the Democrats both the House and almost the Senate, plus the election of the first man of color to be President of the United States are the independent and swing voters. This of course includes folks who never voted before and young voters.
Methinks that is what will hurt Democrat incumbents come November, and why they are distancing themselves from both Obama and the wars he now calls his own.
Best I see it, the independent and swing voters have either been driven further to the right or further to the left, will sit out a wasted vote for either established party, support a third party, or only vote on local issues and tax levies (that have of course been increasing along with the federal budget).
Rather than waste me vote PERIOD, I’m considering voting third party, but it will not be Tea Party or any party too right of center.
Bobby Hanafin
The Mustang Major
One more thing, here’s a tip:
The reason that the recent attempt to avert Israels bombing of Iran was successful wasn’t because people like Ray McGovern appealed to President Obama. It was successful because certain individuals bypassed the idiot altogether and appealed straight to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Just something the heroes at VT should consider when trying to influence policy.
It does appear that the Obama administration and Pentagon do have separate agendas, and that General McCrystal was most likely onto something when he thought out loud that the Commander-In-Chief was nervous or timid around THE BRASS. One could get the feeling that both the President and Democrats in general are afraid of the Pentagon.
Having worked at the Pentagon during the reign of Bill Clinton, I sincerely believe that the attitude and impression General McCrystal had of his boss Obama is more widespread in the Pentagon and within our Armed Forces at levels that could no shit jeopardize our Constitutional Rights.
Though I don’t call for a return of the Neoconservatives to power anymore than I would welcome the Antichrist, but at least the Republicans in Congress and President Bush gave the impression they did not FEAR the Pentagon or were timid around THE BRASS.
Someone, anyone, needs to get the Pentagon spending spree under control YESTERDAY, and that is where Obama so pathetically FAILS!
Bobby Hanafin
The Mustang Major
Veterans Today News
It’s really not hard to understand Bob, simply a matter of what I’ve mentioned before, “consistency of principle”. If we argue that defending our own soil from foreign invaders is the duty of the patriot, then any other national fighting against us when WE invade them makes them patriots too, not “insurgents” not “terrorists” or any other smear label used throughout history by those in the wrong against their victims. Might does not make right.
As for the Tea Baggers, I give them and their largely illiterate ilk little credence given that they source most of their understanding (or obvious lack thereof) of the nature of our domestic and international crises from mainstream media as do far too many Americans even those not disposed to political activism.
They are a far cry from the level of education, critical reasoning capabilities and even general awareness of what’s going on and how the game operates than those early patriots from whose act they have drawn their group name.
correction: “OF those early patriots from whom…”
ugh.. “from whose…” (posters need an edit function!)
Is the karzai bank bailout a back door to fund the 50,000 “special” forces, 100,000 mercenaries, and the US-trained death squads?
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5571
Very good link Sara, and to answer your question about funding of the troops and mercenaries that remain behind in Iraq, President Obama admitted quite a few things during his speech that both confirm that his administration is adopting the Bush Iraq narrative with the exception of telling the American tax payer up front how the wars have been funded up to now, and will continue to be. The wars will continue to be funded as Obama said they’ve been funding thus far ON LOANS from Foreign governments, so that our next generation of Americans and their children and grand-children get stuck with the bills.
OBAMA’S “NEW DAWN” IN IRAQ
Phyllis Bennis: The President has adopted the Bush Iraq narrative
Phyllis has some very insightful comments about Bush’s, we mean Obama’s speech that we at Veterans Today seriously believe are going to hurt the Democrats come November 2010, and that IS NOT a good thing.
“President Obama’s acknowledgment that this is now a trillion-dollar war in Iraq. That’s the first time, I think, that he’s publicly acknowledge that. And it is important, because one small part of his speech did focus on the costs of war. A great deal of it focused on the price that’s been paid by the US troops, but for almost the first time, he did speak of the economic cost and the need to rebuild this country. For some months now, US troops have not been taking the lead in combat operations, but they have been engaging in whatever combat they choose anywhere in the country. What we didn’t hear tonight from President Obama, and I think ultimately it’s probably more important than what we did hear, was about the nature of the 50,000 troops that are being left there now. Those 50,000 troops are combat troops. They are rebranded (the military, the Pentagon uses the term re-missioned) as training and assistance brigades, but these are combat brigades. President Obama referred specifically to the 4th Stryker Brigade, the last combat brigade, as he put it, to leave Iraq, and he spoke quite [inaudible] about it. But what he didn’t talk about, again, was the 3rd Armored Cavalry [Regiment] from Fort Hood in Texas, Killeen, Texas, who just deployed to Iraq a week ago last Sunday. So in that context, this is a new deployment, 3,000 combat troops going to join the ongoing deployment in Iraq. So the notion that this is somehow the end of combat, this Orwellian term they’re using now—this is now called New Dawn, Operation New Dawn, instead of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Well, it was never about Iraqi freedom, and it’s not about a new dawn. Among those 50,000 troops are 4,500 special forces, and they’re a particular concern, something we did not, again, hear President Obama refer to. Those 4,500 troops have two jobs. One is horrifying. They go around the country with a list of names, and that list of names are those who they are authorized to, quote, “kill or capture”. It’s known as the “kill or capture” list. Anyone whose name happens to be on that list, regardless of where that information, where that intelligence came from, if it was—well, we know all the ways in which it could be wrong, but they are authorized to kill or capture them. Their job goes on without any change. Their second job—and they’ve been doing it for the last year or more, but they will continue now—is training up the Iraqi Special Operations Forces, also about 4,500. They started training them in Jordan; now they’re training in Iraq. And these guys are accountable only directly to Prime Minister Maliki. They are not accountable to the military command. The Iraqi Parliament has no control over them. And the American general who’s training them, who also worked earlier in El Salvador and in Colombia, has said that the El Salvador model is something that he’s proud of and that the kind of training that the US did in Latin America is very transferable to Iraq. That means he is training up a death squad. That’s what we’re leaving behind. So I think that we are in for a very serious year and a half before the ostensible withdrawal of troops. And even that—something else we didn’t hear from President Obama is that at any point, the Iraqi government, which of course remains thoroughly dependent on the United States for its very survival—right now, of course, the government is a caretaker government. There is no government yet, six months after the last election. But whatever government is in power as we get close to the end of 2011, that government can simply ask the US to renegotiate the agreement, and that renegotiation will be answered with a resounding yes. My guess is that if the Iraqi government does not request an extension of the US troop deployment in Iraq soon enough, US officials will request that they make that request.”
Robert L. Hanafin
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired
GS-14, U.S. Civil Service-Retired
Veterans Today News
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