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US Still Making Payments To Relatives Of Civil War Veterans, Analysis Finds

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Photo Credit: AP

If history is any judge, the U.S. government will be paying for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for the next century as service members and their families grapple with the sacrifices of combat.

An Associated Press analysis of federal payment records found that the government is still making monthly payments to relatives of Civil War veterans — 148 years after the conflict ended.

At the 10 year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, more than $40 billion a year are going to compensate veterans and survivors from the Spanish-American War from 1898, World War I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the two Iraq campaigns and the Afghanistan conflict. And those costs are rising rapidly.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said such expenses should remind the nation about war’s long-lasting financial toll. “When we decide to go to war, we have to consciously be also thinking about the cost,” said Murray, D-Wash., adding that her WWII-veteran father’s disability benefits helped feed their family.

Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator and veteran who co-chaired President Barack Obama’s deficit committee in 2010, said government leaders working to limit the national debt should make sure that survivors of veterans need the money they are receiving.

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‘Appalling’ Waste And Abuse In Iraq Reconstruction

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Photo Credit: Republican Party of Shelby CountyAn “appalling” report on the misuse of U.S. reconstruction funding for Iraq shows the need for a “top-to-bottom” review of the State Department and its aid agency, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Wednesday.

“The extent of waste and abuse in the $60 billion of Iraq reconstruction funds coupled with the instability still evident in Iraq is appalling and highlights real failures of planning and execution that must be corrected to make U.S. foreign assistance a more effective tool for advancing the national interests of our country,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said. “At the same time, this final Iraq reconstruction report also highlights some approaches that worked and could be applied to future reconstruction efforts, especially the billions of dollars in remaining reconstruction funds for Afghanistan.”

“Going forward, I am committed to working with the State Department, USAID, and the administration, to provide the kind of accountability and oversight the American people deserve. We owe this not only to the American taxpayers, but also to the men and women – civilian and uniformed – that we send into dangerous and challenging environments to secure the area and implement U.S. programs.”

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Secret Memo Reveals Obama Justification for US Drone Strikes

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Photo Credit: The TimesPresident Obama is using the British government’s Iraq war-era legal arguments as part of the secret justification for the United States drone programme.

A leaked memo drafted by the US Department of Justice cites a legal argument given by Lord Goldsmith, Tony Blair’s Attorney General in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.

The 16-page memo makes the case that America’s drone programme is legally justified in targeting US citizens as part of wide-ranging extra-judicial powers granted to the President.

The emergence of the document, which was obtained by NBC News, is the first time the Obama Administration’s secret legal justification for deadly drone strikes against US citizens has been published.

The Department of Justice argues that Mr Obama can order the killing of senior al-Qaeda operatives even if there is no evidence they are planning an attack against the United States.

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U.S.-Installed Iraqi Government in Danger?

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WASHINGTON – The Iranian-backed government of Shi’ite Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is experiencing increasing opposition from what sources say are efforts by Sunni Saudi Arabia and Turkey to overthrow him and install a more favorable Sunni government, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Sources said that other Sunni regional countries of Jordan and Qatar also are involved.

Their efforts are aimed at diminishing the increasing influence that Shi’ite Iran is acquiring in the Arab countries as shown in Shi’ite majority Bahrain, its close alliance with Shi’ite Alawite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and now with the Shi’ite minority in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia where much of the country’s oil production takes place.

In effect, Iran, which has historical roots in the area, has sought to maintain its hold on a region that encompasses the Middle East to Central Asia.

Iraq has become the latest proxy war that has been simmering for some time between Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia. Other areas where Shi’ite-Sunni proxy wars have been ongoing have been in Bahrain, Syria and Yemen.

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Obama’s Orwellian Double-Speak: I’ve Made the US ‘Safer, Stronger and More Respected in the World’

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At yesterday’s nomination of Senator John Kerry as the United States’ next Secretary of State, Obama made the ridiculous statement that he’d made the US “safer, stronger and more respected in the world.”

How any American could possibly believe this crazy talk is beyond me.

Anyone who spends more than a minute or two each day reviewing the news can see that Obama’s entire Middle East policy has completely unraveled, leaving the world deeply destabilized.

Obama thinks things are safer? How about Iran’s ever-advancing nuclear program, with its weapons manufacturing now buried so deep underground that it’s immune from our bombs. Iran has been so emboldened by Obama that, according to Hillary Clinton, the Persians are now spreading terrorism to our next door neighbor, Mexico, and creating new alliances with drug cartels.

And respect? Is that how our ambassador in Benghazi was treated?

Things aren’t much better in Iraq. There, fatwas have issued, encouraging the killing of Christians. Much of the vibrant Christian Iraqi community has fled the country. Similarly, in Syria, US-backed rebels are suspected of using the cover of civil war to murder minority Christians. Minority religious groups are literally under the gun in Egypt now, too.

Obama’s fingerprints are all over this growing Egyptian problem, where we exchanged one pro-American dictator for an anti-American, anti-Semitic dictator. According to an Egyptian opposition leader with whom I spoke with this week, the Obama administration actually pressured the Egyptian military to “fix” the vote to ensure that the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, Mohammed Morsi, won.

Now that Obama helped this radical into office, President Morsi has attempted to seize broad, unconstitutional powers. His supporters have used torture, rape and sexual assault to stifle dissent. And the media refuses to provide fair coverage.

The globalist Henry Kissinger seems to recognize where Obama is headed with these pro-Muslim Brotherhood policies, suggesting that Israel will cease to exist in ten years.

It can’t help that Syria has likely gained ballistic missiles as a result of our meddling there.

How about China, thumbing its nose at the US and threatening our Japanese ally over its long held control of several remote islands in the Pacific Ocean? And this is not the only place in the Pacific where the Chinese are flexing their muscle and threatening massive global disorder.

There’s no doubt that Obama’s full-body embrace with the Muslim Brotherhood has been one of the most catastrophic foreign policy blunders of recent history. That, combined with Obama’s coddling of Chavez, refusal to stand up to China, passivity to Russian aggression (submarines off the US coast, bombers near Alaska airspace), social experimentation in the US military, and other apparent missteps, make it clear that Obama has not given us a safer world. His actions have encouraged derision, instability, and a far more insecure future.

Iraqi Vice-President: Iran Supplying Syria Via Ground Convoys Through Iraq

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For several months, the U.S. government has been urging the Iraqi government to stop Iran from supplying arms to the Syrian regime through commercial flights over Iraqi airspace, but a larger amount of supplies is now crossing Iraq via convoys on the ground, Iraq’s exiled Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi told The Cable.

Hashimi has been living in Turkey following his indictment and subsequent conviction in absentia by Iraqi government courts that he says are working with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The Central Criminal Court of Iraq sentenced him to death last month for allegedly participating in acts of terrorism against his own political opponents,, charges widely seen as political in nature.

But Hashimi is still technically the vice president and he is fighting for what he calls a “fair trial.” He argues that Maliki has hijacked the Iraqi political system and become beholden to Iranian interests, which include supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Hashimi said he has evidence and reports from politicians, from officers in the Interior Ministry, and from Iraqi intelligence officials, all pointing to a growing and active ground transport route from Iran to Syria. The route crosses through the Zarbatia checkpoint on the Iran-Iraq border, west of the Iranian town of Mehran, flows through the city of Karbala, and crosses over to Syria via the al-Qaim border crossing, he said.

“The transit is not only aerial using Iraqi airspace, but the ground transit is becoming a phenomenon. Munitions, heavy arms, and even militias are passing checkpoints without any sort of obstruction,” Hashimi said in a telephone interview. “I am very afraid the U.S. and the international community is only focused on the aerial transit and leaving behind the ground transit. Everything should be checked now.”

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Fruits of Biden’s Iraq Policy: Iran using Iraqi airspace to Supply Assad

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Photo credit: Image Editor

Iran has resumed shipping military equipment to Syria over Iraqi airspace in a new effort to bolster the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, according to senior American officials.

The Obama administration pressed Iraq to shut down the air corridor that Iran had been using earlier this year, raising the issue with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq. But as Syrian rebels gained ground and Mr. Assad’s government was rocked by a bombing that killed several high officials, Iran doubled down in supporting the Syrian leader. The flights started up again in July and, to the frustration of American officials, have continued ever since.

Military experts say that the flights have enabled Iran to provide supplies to the Syrian government despite the efforts Syrian rebels have made to seize several border crossings where Iranian aid has been trucked in.

“The Iranians have no problems in the air, and the Syrian regime still controls the airport,” said a retired Lebanese Army general, Hisham Jaber, who heads the Middle East Center for Studies and Research in Beirut.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has played the lead role on Iraq policy for the Obama administration, discussed the Syrian crisis in a phone call with Mr. Maliki on Aug. 17. The White House has declined to disclose details, but an American official who would not speak on the record said that Mr. Biden had registered his concerns over the flights.

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Army suicides hit grim milestone: most self-inflicted deaths in a single month

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Army suicides hit a new single-month record in July, when 38 active-duty and reserve soldiers took their own lives, according to official figures released Thursday.

The toll, up from 24 in June, prompted a wave of renewed anger and frustration among Pentagon leaders and veterans advocates.

“I was pretty shocked when I saw the number,” said Tom Tarantino, legislative director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “This has been a continuous problem. This really stems from the military, and the [Department of Veterans Affairs], for that matter, basically the entire military and veteran community, really coming to this issue several years late.”

“It really wasn’t until 2007-2008, really 2009, that they started thinking about it at the level they need to be thinking about it,” he said.

Despite efforts from high-profile military leaders — including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and former Army Vice Chief Gen. Peter Chiarelli — the wider Army is losing this battle, critics say.

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US wasted more than $200 million on Iraqi police training that Baghdad didn’t want or need

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U.S. auditors have concluded that more than $200 million was wasted on a program to train Iraqi police that Baghdad says is neither needed nor wanted.

The Police Development Program– which was drawn up to be the single largest State Department program in the world — was envisioned as a five-year, multibillion-dollar push to train security forces after the U.S. military left last December. But Iraqi political leaders, anxious to keep their distance from the Americans, were unenthusiastic.

A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, to be released Monday, found that the American Embassy in Baghdad never got a written commitment from Iraq to participate. Now, facing what the report called Baghdad’s “disinterest” in the project, the embassy is gutting what was supposed to be the centerpiece of ongoing U.S. training efforts in Iraq.

According to the report, the embassy plans to turn over the $108 million Baghdad Police College Annex to Iraqis by the end of the year and will stop training at a $98 million site at the U.S. consulate in the southern city of Basra. Additionally, the number of advisers has been cut by nearly 90 percent — from 350 to 36.

“A major lesson learned from Iraq is that host country buy-in to proposed programs is essential to the long-term success of relief and reconstruction activities. The PDP experience powerfully underscores that point,” auditors wrote in a 41-page summary of their inspection. An advance copy was provided to The Associated Press.

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Revise U.S. military strategy now!

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Thirty-one U.S. special operations forces (Navy Seal 6 members reportedly) killed in a helicopter crash Saturday morning in Afghanistan south of Kabul may have been victims of a Taliban shoulder-held missile.

Iran is controlling the future of Iraq more and more each day. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, the Iranian general “secretly running” Iraq and commander of the al-Quds Force, has so much Iraqi influence that Baghdadis believe he is controlling the country. The commander of the Iranian al-Quds force controls more of what goes on inside Iraq than the United States does. There appear to be no achievable victories for the United States in either country.

To date, government security policy elitists in the United States government have demonstrated almost complete ignorance toward revised, adaptive and forward strategic planning. While virtually every military officer and many policy “wonks” have been taught strategic planning at some level, it is obvious many have thrown most of the lessons out the door upon graduating. This is demonstrated more than ever by our senior generals, admirals and Defense, State Department and intelligence political appointees. One only need observe the international scene and turmoil in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

The time is now to change strategy and reposition our forces for present and future operations. This mythical counterinsurgency, or COIN, strategy must cease immediately. These so-called decision makers have bankrupted the United States and are decimating our armed forces by continuing critical budget cuts, wearing out our military equipment and wearing down our force structure with extended operations in the Middle East. It’s just what our enemies like to see.

We must reposition our forces now and change our global strategy. I implore the generals and admirals to take charge and do what is right for America.

Read More at WND  By Paul E. Vallely, WorldNetDaily