The Hollywood Liberal

Yesterday I watched one of the Oscar nominated documentaries “No End in Sight” It is basically a history of the Iraq war, It goes over every detail from the planning of the war which started right after 9/11, all the way up to the “surge” which was made possible by the fact that Bush, Rumfeld, and the Iraq Czar L. Paul Bremer refused to listen to anyone who knew what they were talking about in regard to how many troops we sent over there. People like General Shinseki, and Jay Gardiner who was the first Iraq Czar, when Bush found out that Gardiner was actually trying to do some good over there, Bush fired him and replaced him with Bremer, who proceeded to FUBAR’d (A military term meaning F**ked Up Beyond All Recognition)
The film also details how the Bush administration made the worst possible decision at every possible term. The incompetence was so stunning that I feel it had to be intentional. You see they wanted to make sure we were there for as long as possible so they could steal as much money throught the oil as possible.

The movie also highlights all the no bid contracts awarded to Kellog, Brown and Root (aka KBR) which is a subsidiary of Halliburton the company that Dick Cheney used to run and still owns hundreds of thousands of shares of stock in. The actions of KBR were blatantly criminal, and today comes word that 35 KBR execs. have been indicted for war profiteering.

Daily Kos has the story:

Federal prosecutors in Rock Island, Illinois have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm, along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show.

And, the dirty little secrets are in free-flow mode

Saturday’s Chicago Tribune tells the sordid tale:

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war’s largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors’ pockets, records show.

(snip)

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Rock Island sentenced the Army official, Chief Warrant Officer Peleti “Pete” Peleti Jr., to 28 months in prison for taking bribes. One Middle Eastern subcontractor treated him to a trip to the 2006 Super Bowl, a defense investigator said.

Prosecutors would not confirm or deny ongoing grand jury activity. But court records identify a dozen FBI, IRS and military investigative agents who have been assigned to the case. Interviews as well as testimony at the sentencing for Peleti, who has cooperated with authorities, suggest an active probe.

The home to the U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM), Rock Island, Illinois serves as the epicenter for the ongoing FBI probe into war-profiteering committed by KBR, because it’s here that the Army top brass at the arsenal act as administrators for all contracts awarded to KBR’s so-called LOGCAP III — which calls for the company to feed, shelter and support U.S. troops – while helping to restore Iraq’s oil infrastructure.

“No End in Site” talks about this in depth. I want to see this case go all the way to the top, to the head war profiteers, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bremer, and many more

John McCain thinks he can change America’s mind on Iraq, he thinks he can convince people that the surge is working. McCain just came out and said if he cannot do that he looses. Well guess what Johnny Boy, you lose. There is no way anyone that wasn’t going to vote for you anyway (the harcore 25% that will never admit they were wrong.) is going to believe a word your lying ass has to say about Iraq. The quagmire you helped prolong with your whole “surge” idea. Don’t you think that saying we should stay in Iraq for the next thousand is going to make people know that you are justing fronting for the neocons and the oil companies, and your corporate masters. Hey John did lobbyists pay you to say that. You seem to be pretty far into their pockets. C’mon John, even Hillary says the war has to end. You better find a way to steal a bunch of states in the election John otherwise you got no chance.

AP
ROCKY RIVER, Ohio – John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can’t, “then I lose. I lose,” the Republican said.

But McCain ever the flip-flopper immediately retracted his statement that he will lose

“Let me not put it that stark,” the likely GOP nominee told reporters on his campaign bus. “Let me just put it this way: Americans will judge my candidacy first and foremost on how they believe I can lead the county both from our economy and for national security. Obviously, Iraq will play a role in their judgment of my ability to handle national security.”
“If I may, I’d like to retract ‘I’ll lose.’ But I don’t think there’s any doubt that how they judge Iraq will have a direct relation to their judgment of me, my support of the surge,” McCain added. “Clearly, I am tied to it to a large degree.”

John must have realized at that moment that he was dreaming about Iraq, but he can’t think that he can win by running on the economy? How is he going to fix the economy? by ending the Bush tax cuts. His own party will revolt agaisnt him if he does that. We know he isn’t going to end the war, so what will he do? Nothing.

Over the next eight months, McCain said he would take the same approach when discussing Iraq that he’s taken all year as he won primary after primary on his way to securing the GOP nomination.

He said he would “tell them that I understand their frustration and their sorrow over the sacrifice that has been made and then I try to explain to them what’s at stake and what’s going on there now. And that’s the best I can do.”

Sorry Johnny Boy, not good enough, not nearly good enough