CBS choose to waterdown the reality of the American death toll and secure Bush/Cheney place in history by showing GIs smiling and mingling among Iraqis that are queued for a medical clinic in the Amariyah neighborhood of west Baghdad. (click here).
The only pictures brought forward by CBS of wounded or dead are those of Iraqi civilians.26 U.S. Troops Killed In 1 Week In Iraq
Military Announces 4 More Deaths Around Baghdad(CBS/AP) The U.S. military tells CBSNews.com that 26 American service members have been killed in action in Iraq in the past week alone, including three soldiers who were killed by a single roadside bomb attack reported Tuesday. Most recently reported were the three Task Force Marne soldiers killed Saturday when a roadside bomb struck their convoy south of Baghdad, according to a brief statement that provided no more details. One Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier was killed and another wounded Monday when their vehicle was targeted by an armor-piercing explosively formed penetrator, or EFP, in a western section of the capital, the military said separately. Lt. Col. Rudy Burwell, a military spokesman based at Camp Victory in Baghdad, told CBSNews.com that a total of six troops were killed in action Monday....
This and the link above belongs to a Russian site and does more justice and honor to the USA military than it's counter part that seeks to pander to a failed and exploitive USA president.
Four more U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, the military said on Tuesday, raising the U.S. death toll for the first six days of the month to 21 as thousands of troops battle militants in intense summer heat.
Off the battlefield, Iraq's crumbling national unity government was in crisis after five secularist ministers said they would boycott cabinet meetings until Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki addressed demands they first gave him in February.
The move means that 17 ministers, nearly half the cabinet, have now quit or are boycotting government meetings. The main Sunni Arab bloc pulled out last week and ministers loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr withdrew in April.
While Maliki went ahead with a trip to Turkey and Iran, the secular Iraqi List of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi held a news conference in Baghdad to explain why they were boycotting the meetings, in which the embattled prime minister now only has a narrow working majority.
"In February, the List delivered a written list of proposals to the government. Since that time we have not received a reply," leading Iraqi List lawmaker Iyad Jamal-Adin said....
The circumstances with Turkey and Northern Iraq are heating up. Maliki is trying to make peace treaties with Turkey to limit the extremists in Northern Iraq while giving Turkey permission to pursue PKK into the sovereign area now occupied by Kurds. In other words, Maliki, a member of the 'figure head' government in Baghdad has openly stated Turkey has a right to start a war in the Northern Kurdish Province of Iraq. Now. Who are the good guys and whom are the bad guys. I suppose PKK has those initials tatooed on their foreheads, right? Kurds are Sunni Arabs. Maliki has declared open season on Kurds for the sake of oppressing a war with Turkey. The conflict is now inevitable. As soon as Kurds start to die, the Northern Province will take up arms against the Turks and a more global war will begin.
Maliki has no right to enter into any treaty with Turkey or otherwise without a vote of the Iraqi legislature. Considering everyone whom is anyone is abandoning the Iraqi Unity Government legislature in droves, there is no one to pass such a measure. The Kurds of the Unity Government in Baghdad will never consent to such measures and rightfully so. This is just more 'juke PR' demanded of Maliki from Bush/Cheney. There are no reasons for any country to consider treaties or trade agreements serious as there is no consistent Unity Government to ratify them. Maliki is a figure head and nothing else. There is no central authority in Iraq. Iraq is splintering into regional provinces.
Turkey is already ratcheting up the rhetoric, either half of all USA arms are missing or they aren't. Which is it? Because Turkey is about to declare war on Northern Iraq's Kurds for the sake of defeating terrorists. By the way, Is Turkey counting on further genocide of Iraqis with the assistance of the USA? And in the face of all this, Bush/Cheney aren't impeached yet?
The US government cannot account for large amounts of weapons and armour given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the US congress, said.
At least 110,000 AK-47 rifles, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body armour and 115,000 helmets are missing.
According to the GAO, the Pentagon has agreed with the findings and begun a review to ensure full accountability for the programme that aims to train and equip Iraqi forces.
"Our review of the 2007 property books found continuing problems with missing and incomplete records," the report said.
Approximately 54 per cent of the total weapons distributed to the Iraqi forces are said to be unaccounted for.
'Flexibility'
The report comes ahead of a review of US military operations that may pave the way for a reassessment of the US role in Iraq.
A senior Pentagon official has told The Washington Post newspaper that some weapons were probably being used against US troops.
He said that an Iraqi brigade, created in Fallujah, had disintegrated in 2004 and had begun fighting American soldiers.
Since 2003, the US has spent about .2bn to develop Iraqi security forces.
The US defence department has recently asked for another bn to continue the train-and-equip programme.
According to the GAO, the government had funded the programme for Iraqi security forces outside traditional security assistance programmes, providing the Pentagon with a degree of flexibility in managing the effort.
The report has further stated that "since the funding did not go through traditional security assistance programmes, the DoD [Department of Defence] accountability requirements normally applicable to these programmes did not apply".
Source: AgenciesKavkaz Center
