Transfer of military control completed in Iraq

Iraqis celebrate the withdrawal of American troops from the country's cities and towns in Baghdad on Tuesday. (Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times)

Transfer of control of all Iraqi cities and towns from U.S. forces to Iraq's government and security forces has been completed, marking an "important milestone that we've reached in Iraq," President Obama said Tuesday.

Obama, who made the announcement at the White House during a ceremony to honor entrepreneurs committed to social justice, noted U.S. forces had met a June 30 deadline to complete their withdrawal from urban areas and hand over full control to Iraqi security forces, warning of "difficult days" ahead.

“Now make no mistake. There will be difficult days ahead. We know that violence in Iraq will continue. We see that already in the senseless bombing in Kirkuk earlier today,’’ he said referring to the car bomb that killed some 30 people and wound 65 others in Iraq Tuesday.

Iraq's Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders will have to make some hard choices to resolve disputes that have hindered political reconciliation, he said.

“This is an important step forward, as a sovereign and united Iraq continues to take control of its own destiny. And with this progress comes responsibility. Iraq’s future is in the hands of its own people and Iraqi leaders must now make some hard choices necessary to resolve key political questions, to advance opportunity, and to provide security for their towns and their cities,’’ he said, promising the U.S. would be ‘’a strong partner for the Iraqi people.’’

The President praised U.S. troops and said he's confident that those who test Iraqi security forces and the resolve of the Iraqi people through more sectarian bombings will fail.

There's more work to be done to support a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, he said. "And everyone who has served there, both in uniform as well as our civilians, deserves our thanks."

Obama has made ending the six-year Iraq "war" a top foreign policy priority, with plans to withdraw all U.S. troops by the end of 2011.

The country has been almost torn apart by sectarian attacks (countless bombs) that have killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions more.

The Iraqi government celebrated the final withdrawal of American troops its cities Tuesday with parades, fireworks and a national holiday, marking a political milestone to trumpet what the prime minister called sovereignty from foreign occupation.

“The Iraqi people are rightly treating this day as cause for celebration,’’ Obama said.

Better late than never...still...

What percentage of the Iraqi population either favored or opposed the presence of U.S. forces in that county still is--and probably will always be--up for debate. But we know that many suffered throughout this six-year occupation, and their troubles are hardly over.

In the meantime, people in this country--Americans--are suffering at the hands of a broken economy--losing their homes, jobs, savings, healthcare insurance, even their hope.

Contributing (greatly, in my opinion) to the current state of affairs is a pseudo war launched by former President George W. Bush et al whose price tag has reached $683 billion--yes, billion. Add another $191 billion spent in Afghanistan, and you have some $874 billion, nearly a trillion dollars my friends, spent as of today.

According to the Brooking Institution's Iraq Index, the U.S. has spent $12 billion per day on the so-called this fake war--that's $5,000 per second. A significant portion of the money--billions of dollars--is unaccounted for as per multiple news reports and Congressional hearings.

Bush and his fan club--a brilliant group of good old boys from Ivy League schools--thought draining our economy with an unnecessary so-called "War on Terror" against a country that did terrorize the U.S. on 9/11 would be a good idea, as it would make W look "presidential" and boost his chances at re-election. Sigh.

There were no weapons of mass destruction, and (as far as we know) Osama Bin Laden along with his al-Qaeda posse are still plotting our destruction under the stars somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan.

As of today, U.S. troop casualties add up to 4,318, with another 31,368 wounded, 20% of which are serious brain or spinal injuries and not counting psychological injuries.

The price we have paid for this pseudo war, or occupation, is high--in U.S. dollars, resources, time wasted, and lives abruptly ended or forever shattered (literally).

I'm no political pundit, war correspondent or White House reporter. My thinking can be--and probably is to a certain degree, just like everybody else's--flawed in some way due to a lack of information, education and/or an excess of ignorance. Whatever. No one knows everything.

Yet, I still gotta call it as I see it because that's what I do. And Iraq was a BIG mistake, if you ask me.

Sources: AP, Reuters, New York Times, Me
Copyright © 2009

Judge rules terrorist can sue over torture memos

Jose Padilla at the time of his sentencing. (Photo source unknown)

Now, I'm unequivocally against torture, but even I think something's off here.

A convicted terrorist can sue a former Bush administration lawyer for drafting the legal theories that led to his alleged torture, ruled a federal judge who said he was trying to balance a clash between war and the defense of personal freedoms.

The order by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White of San Francisco is the first time a government lawyer has been held potentially liable for the abuse of detainees, AP reported Saturday.

The lawyer who wrote the memos? What about the Bush administration? What about Bush himself?

White refused to dismiss Jose Padilla's lawsuit against former senior Justice Department official John Yoo on Friday. Yoo wrote memos on interrogation, detention and presidential powers for the department's Office of Legal Counsel from 2001 to 2003.

Oh, I remember this guy. He was arrested after the Sep 11 attacks on charges linked to a dirty bomb and was held forever without a trial. He's from Chicago.

Padilla, 38, is serving a 17-year sentence on terror charges. He claims he was tortured while being held nearly four years as a suspected terrorist.

"The treatment we allege does violate the Constitution and John Yoo should have known that," wrote White, Bush appointee. "Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct."

And Yoo wrote those memos on his own inspiration...it had nothing to do with a job he was hired to do...

White ruled that Yoo, now a University of California at Berkeley law professor, went beyond the normal role of an attorney when he helped write the Bush administration's detention and torture policies, then drafted legal opinions to justify those policies.

Opinions--therein lies the key, if you ask me, though I'm no legal expert. I'm starting to understand this ruling. Yet, if he was hired to provide those opinions to back the government's use of torture, wouldn't the government be accountable as well?

Yoo's recently released 2001 memo advised that the military could use "any means necessary" to hold terror suspects. A 2002 memo to then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales advised that treatment of suspected terrorists was torture only if it caused pain levels equivalent to "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death."

Holy crap. That's not torture; that's murder. One does not require a Harvard degree in law or medicine to know that. Now I'm really starting to understand this ruling.

Yoo also said the president might have the constitutional power to allow torturing enemy combatants.

Regardless of my personal beliefs on the matter, I can't help but wonder what is the military supposed to do after a massive terrorist attack on U.S. soil to obtain what it expects to be crucial information from a hostile enemy that tortures women and children? What if there's no time to sugarcoat things?

"This lawsuit poses the question addressed by our founding fathers about how to strike the proper balance of fighting a war against terror, at home and abroad, and fighting a war using tactics of terror," White wrote in his 42-page decision.

No one can win or lose this debate. It's one of those that could go on forever because, in the end, like so many other ongoing controversial debates, it's a matter of opinion...in my opinion.

The Justice Department is representing Yoo and has argued for dismissing the lawsuit. The department has not said if it will appeal White's ruling.

Padilla is an American citizen who was arrested in Chicago in 2002 and accused of conspiring with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb." He was held in a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., for three years and eight months as an enemy combatant. Padilla's lawsuit alleges Yoo personally approved his time and treatment in the brig.

What about those who carried out that "treatment"? Couldn't Padilla sue them, too?

His lawsuit alleges he was illegally detained and was subjected to sleep deprivation, temperature extremes, painful stress positions, and extended periods of bright lights and total darkness. Padilla also alleges he endured threats that he would be killed, that his family would be harmed, and that he would be transferred to another country to be tortured.

Torturers at other countries must be laughing at this list of torture techniques, given the atrocities committed elsewhere.

He eventually was charged in an unrelated conspiracy to funnel money and supplies to Islamic extremist groups--no dirty bomb! Padilla was convicted in 2007 in Miami federal court, and is appealing.

Sources: The Associated Press
Copyright © 2009