May 1, 2003 'Mission Accomplished'

'Mission Accomplished' Was 12 Years Ago Today. What's Been The Cost Since Then?

05/01/2015 - On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush delivered a now-infamous speech aboard an aircraft carrier in which he declared that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" and that "in the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." That speech, given less than two months after the U.S. initiated combat operations in Iraq, has been derisively labeled "Mission Accomplished" after the banner used as a backdrop.

The truth is that the American role in Iraq was far from finished, with the overwhelming majority of deaths occurring and most of the money spent since that speech 12 years ago today.

In the years since "Mission Accomplished," some 149,053 civilians have been killed, compared to about 7,412 prior to the speech, according to the website Iraq Body Count. Since the speech, 4,637 military members in the Iraq War coalition led by the U.S. have lost their lives, versus 172 prior, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. As of September 2014, total U.S. expenditures on the war in Iraq totaled $815.8 billion, about 93 percent of which was spent after 2003. That cost is more than 16 times the Bush administration's original projection. read more>>>

Psychological group aided CIA torture, report says

May 01, 2015 - The American Psychological Association secretly collaborated with the administration of President George W. Bush to bolster a legal and ethical justification for the torture of prisoners swept up in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, war on terror, according to a new report by a group of dissident health professionals and human rights activists.

The report is the first to examine the association’s role in the interrogation program. It contends, using newly disclosed e-mails, that the group’s actions to keep psychologists involved in the interrogation program coincided closely with efforts by senior Bush administration officials to salvage the program after the public disclosure in 2004 of graphic photos of prisoner abuse by US military personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

“The APA secretly coordinated with officials from the CIA, White House, and the Department of Defense to create an APA ethics policy on national security interrogations which comported with then-classified legal guidance authorizing the CIA torture program,” the report’s authors conclude. read more>>>

Former NSA Executive: U.S. Created 'Global Torture Regime' With CIA Black Sites, Committed Crimes Against Humanity

"This is a global torture regime," Thomas Drake told Sputnik News. "It was not rogue elements, it was not people who decided to take things into their own hands, it was United States policy."

The War on Terror resulted in the United States creating a "global torture regime" in which it exports torture to black sites located around the world and implicates other countries in crimes against humanity, according to former National Security Agency senior executive Thomas Drake.

"This is a global torture regime," Drake told Sputnik News. "It was not rogue elements, it was not people who decided to take things into their own hands, it was United States policy."

Black sites are secret prisons operated by the CIA, usually outside of U.S. territory and jurisdiction, where alleged enemy combatants are extrajudicially sent to be interrogated, and as we've found out, often tortured. read more>>>

Film Review: ‘War of Lies’

May 2, 2015 - A formally inventive, morally infuriating look at the man whose fabricated stories of WMDs gave President George W. Bush the justification he sought to invade Iraq.

In the lead-up to the Iraq War, defector Rafid Ahmed Alwan, aka “Curveball,” became an expert at telling his interrogators what they wanted to hear, ultimately supplying the “evidence” the George W. Bush administration needed to oust Saddam Hussein. In “War of Lies,” the notorious (mis)informer proves an equally slippery interview subject, spinning his version of events in a transparently opaque attempt to restore his reputation, if only in his own eyes. Though Alwan takes just enough accountability to appease German filmmaker Matthias Bittner, audiences are left with ample reason to doubt every word he says — but then, the facts are almost beside the point in what amounts to perhaps the most fascinating psychological exploration of truth and deceit to reach the screen since “The Impostor.” This endlessly fascinating, meta-minded project has had a healthy festival life since its premiere at IDFA last fall and should spark considerable interest with U.S. auds.

Alwan has been looking to sell his story for some time, holding off not only for the right buyer, but also because of the (ultimately ironic) snarl of trust issues the expat petrochemical engineer holds toward a media that may have unfairly positioned him as the scapegoat in the Iraq War’s WMD scandal. read more>>>

"It's a shame Brian Williams will be the only person ever punished for lying about Iraq"

And now Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl after the Whole Country Abandoned the Missions and those sent to Accomplish, and still haven't paid for either nor the long term results from and that includes the VA their responsibility, so extremely quickly after 9/11!!

Australians Understand What American Led Iraq War Policies Created

* * * CIA Torture: Read the Senate Intelligence Committee report * * *

In a Democracy: 'Citizens must know what is done in their name'

Pres. Bush: “Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated”

Blackwater Security Guards Handed Lengthy Sentences For Iraqi Killings

Human rights groups call for special prosecutor to investigate CIA torture

22 December 2014 - The ACLU and Human Rights Watch say the offences amount to ‘a vast criminal conspiracy’ and are ‘shocking and corrosive’ to US democracy and credibility read more>>>

* * * Seeds of ISIL Planted By Bush/Cheney and Conservative Congresses * * *

* * * The British Iraq War Inquiry * * * Released will carry private communications between GWBush and TBlair, like this already released: TB said there was a danger the Tories would see this as their chance to get rid of him … Bush said they would make it clear to the Tories that if they moved to get rid of TB "we will get rid of them".

* * * Iraq War Promoted Terrorism Rather Than Reducing It * * * 24 April 2014 - Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War promoted terrorism rather than reducing it and was a “strategic failure”, according to a major new report which estimated the cost of all UK conflicts since the end of the Cold War.
The Royal United Services Institute said the UK could face a bill of nearly £65bn, once the cost of long-term care for injured veterans was factored in, with most of the money was spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The study, called Wars in Peace, said both conflicts were largely “strategic failures” for the UK, The Guardian reported."

Facts: Matthew Hoh {former Marine and foreign service officer in Afghanistan}: "We spend a trillion dollars a year on national security in this country."
"And when you add up to the Department of Defense, Department of State, CIA, Veterans Affairs, interest on debt, the number that strikes me the most about how much we're committed financially to these wars and to our current policies is we have spent $250 billion already just on interest payments on the debt we've incurred for the Iraq and Afghan wars." 26 September 2014

Bob Herbert "Losing Our Way" : "And then the staggering costs of these wars, which are borne by the taxpayers. I mean, one of the things that was insane was that, as we're at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration cut taxes. This has never been done in American history. The idea of cutting taxes while you're going to war is just crazy. I mean, it's madness." Bill 'Moyers and Company': Restoring an America That Has Lost its Way 10 Oct. 2014

$14 Million An Hour: War Costs Top $1.6 Trillion Since 9/11, Say Congressional Researchers

December 22 2014 - American taxpayers have shelled out roughly $1.6 trillion on war spending since 9/11, according to a new report from Congress’ nonpartisan research arm. That’s roughly $337 million a day -- or nearly a quarter million dollars a minute -- every single day for 13 years. read more>>>

“With no shared sacrifices being asked of civilians after Sept. 11"

Chris Hayes MSNBC: "If you can run a deficit to go to war, you can run a deficit to take care of the people who fought it" In response to Republican opposition to expanding Veterans' benefits on fiscal grounds

Neither of these recent wars have yet been paid for, let alone the results from, including the long ignored or outright denied existence of, till this Administrations Cabinet and Gen Shinseki, only Government branch consistent for the past six years, issues! As well as under deficits most of the, grossly under funded, VA budget is still borrowed thus added, problem creating, costs that shouldn't exist!