United States Wars, News and Casualties

NYT: War Without End

In the Viet Nam era, stories like this and television reporting on the war contributed to the end of the Viet Nam War in a time frame of much less than 17 years.

As deployment of the last 17 years only came to a sub set of young people, and TV and news rarely covered the searing violence of war, eschewing such content for minor content (Kardashians, Tweets, outrageous behavior), the daily violence and futility went “off stage”.

One is invited to read the daily post, “United States Wars, News and Casualties” and then watch the daily news on the U.S. TV Media.

The absence of U.S. War News is atrocious.

We need this daily report of our wars in our face………..Daily.

The McGlynn

^{Damn The War Criminals}

^{The war criminals, Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Powell and Blair from England.}

How many Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion 15 years ago? Some credible estimates put the number at more than one million. You can read that sentence again.

The invasion of Iraq is often spoken of in our country as a “blunder,” or even a “colossal mistake.” It was a crime.

Those who perpetrated it are still at large. Some of them have even been rehabilitated thanks to the horrors of a mostly amnesiac citizenry.

We condemned children to death, some after many days of writhing in pain on bloodstained mats, without pain relievers. Some died quickly, wasted by missing arms and legs, crushed heads. As the fluids ran out of their bodies, they appeared like withered, spoiled fruits. They could have lived, certainly should have lived – and laughed and danced, and run and played- but instead they were brutally murdered. Yes, murdered!

The war ended for those children, but it has never ended for survivors who carry memories of them. Likewise, the effects of the U.S. bombings continue, immeasurably and indefensibly.

The McGlynn

War News

Photos: Children of war

NYT: The Iraqi Spy Who Infiltrated ISIS

Capt. Harith al-Sudani’s wife, Raghad Chaloob, center, and their three children, Riyam, Rawan and Muamal, atop their home in Baghdad.CreditIvor Prickett for The New York Times

BAGHDAD — The driver was sweating as his white Kia pickup truck sped along a rain-slicked Baghdad highway toward a neighborhood bustling with open-air markets.

With every jolt and turn, his pulse quickened. Hidden in the truck’s chassis was 1,100 pounds of military-grade explosives that the Islamic State planned to use in an audacious attack on New Year’s Eve shoppers in the Iraqi capital.

A reckless driver on Iraq’s notoriously chaotic roads might clip him, accidentally setting off the bomb. A clash at one of Baghdad’s frequent checkpoints could escalate into gunfire, potentially igniting one hellish fireball.

But there was another reason he was afraid. The driver, Capt. Harith al-Sudani, was a spy.

REU: U.N. envoy says Yemen talks to focus on transition, disarmament: newspaper

DUBAI (Reuters) – Talks between Yemen’s warring parties next month will focus on a transitional governance deal and disarmament, the U.N. special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said in remarks published on Saturday.

Griffiths is trying to negotiate an end to the three-year conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people and pushed Yemen to the verge of starvation.

Air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition killed dozens of children traveling on a bus in the northern province of Saada on Thursday. U.N. chief Antonia Guterres has called for an independent investigation of the raid.

Consultations are due to begin in Geneva on Sept. 6 on a framework for peace talks and confidence-building measures.

“Primarily, we are trying to reach an agreement between the Yemeni government and (the Houthis’) Ansarullah on the issues essential to ending the war and on a national unity government in which everyone participates,” Griffiths told the Arabic-language Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

“This will require a signed agreement that includes setting up a transitional political operation under a national unity government … and putting in place security arrangements for the withdrawal of all armed groups in Yemen and disarming them.”

He said the consultations would lead to direct negotiations……………The coalition of Sunni Muslim Arab states backed by Western powers including the United States and Britain intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 against the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement to restore the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Read full story »

AP: Blast in northern Syria kills at least 18; cause unclear

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian opposition activists say an explosion in the country’s north has killed at least 18 people and wounded many others. The cause of the blast wasn’t immediately known.

The opposition-run Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, says the blast occurred Sunday in the village of Sarmada near the Turkish border and “killed and wounded dozens.” The explosion collapsed a five-story building, burying many of the victims.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 18. It’s unclear if the casualties are all civilians.

The Observatory says an arms depot in the basement of a building had detonated. It says the depot was run by an arms dealer close to the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee.

Meanwhile, Syrian government forces are fighting rebels in Idlib province.

REU: Syrian rebels build an army with Turkish help, face challenges

AZAZ, Syria (Reuters) – A “National Army” being set up by Syrian rebels with Turkey’s help could become a long-term obstacle to President Bashar al-Assad’s recovery of the northwest – if they can end factional rivalries that have long blighted the opposition.