The operative quote here is “the department used unrealistic assumptions, errors in estimation, and insufficient data.”

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

This has been the offered excuse for the Bush’s administrations shortcomings in planning the war in Iraq, the orgy of greed and corruption in contracting with the Dept of Defense, in underestimating the American people’s response to the plan to sell security operations of the east coast ports to a state-owned company in Dubai, in estimating the energy needs of the country leading to bottlenecks and shortages as a result of the conversion to ethanol, the tepid response to the worst natural disaster in American history in Hurricane Katrina, and hundreds of others ways, large and small, that the Bush administration has failed the American people through stupidity, arrogance, mendacity, greed, corruption, and incompetence

We are in the hands of mad men, grifters, and villains.

Iraq Headlines & Commentary by Michael Zacchea

It Just Gets Worse

Joe Galloway continues to be spot on in his commentary on the war. Stay the course is a euphemism for "doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results." This is the classic definition of insanity. Is anyone else frightened that the neo-conservative alpha
males of this adminsitration seem to be crack-smoking delusional??? Does anyone else care?

The nation has been entrusted to mad men. Now Henry Kissinger is advising President Bush. Kissinger is a well-known Machiavellian practitioner of the real-politique school of international relations. Just to refresh everyone's memory, he is the one who concocted the "peace with honor" slogan to get us out of Viet Nam, and orchestrated the withdrawal of US troops from Viet Nam, and withdrew support from the South Viet Namese govt. This led to the sad spectacle of Operation Frequent Wind, the evacutation of the US Embassy that saw Americans hanging off of helicopter struts to get out of Viet Nam as the NVA took Saigon. This led to a decade of Viet Namese fleeing the country in boats as refugees. Just to further refresh everyone's memory, he is the one who screwed the Kurds in 1973, saying "There is a difference between charity and diplomacy." Two weeks ago, MajGen Richard Zilmer, CG of 2nd Marine Division in Iraq, said he didn't have enough troops to win the war in Al Anbar, but he did have enough troops to conduct his mission to train the Iraqis. That same week, Gen Abizaid said, "Given unlimited time and unlimited resources, we are winning." This is another way of saying "We're losing." without appearing defeatist.

It appears we are losing because the Bush Administration is not deploying troops to fight to win, but rather to fight to train the Iraqis. Whenever Kissinger gets involved, someone is going to get royally screwed, and decades of misery for hundreds of thousands ensue; and the US winds up looking like a**holes. I am calling it right now, President Bush is fixing to f**k some group of people over hard...my guess is the Sunnis.

The more I read of what Joe Galloway writes, the more he becomes one of my heroes.

Six months ago, and more, Gen Casey was saying that he anticipated that the US could begin drawing down the number of troops in Iraq. At that time, and since then, I wrote that they are LYING to the American people. That

Finally!!! Someone besides me has publicly stated that the mad men in our National Command Authority must be smoking something!

As Joe Gallo points out, there is NO good news coming from the streets of Baghdad, and even that redoubtable scion of military propoganda, MajGen Caldwell, admitted it. I can not stand the cognitive disconnect between the ground truth, and what these mad men are telling the American public!!! Does any body remember "Baghdad Bob" - and how comical his public announcements were? We should have a Baghdad Bob meter, showing statements from members of this administration, and some sort of measure of how close to reality the statement is. Maybe add it to the Mad Mike segment. Or maybe like a thermometer or something, because, I swear, this is going to make me blow a gasket. I actually feel physical pain when I read this stuff. I can actually feel the acid burning in my stomach and esophagus, the blood pulsing in my temples, and the throbbing of my optic nerve warning me that I am getting a Bush-administration BS-induced migraine.

In this section Lt. Col. Michael Zacchea brings Citizen Hunters news stories from and about Iraq, as well as providing his own take on the latest developments.

This is stunning and speaks for itself. And it soundly disputes the “stay the course” Kool-Aid drinkers.

That mendacious, nefarious reprobate Rumsfeld is the best thing that's happened to the Pentagon in 25 yrs? Let's see...that would include when that famous Dick, VP Cheney, was SecDef in the early 90s for George H.W. Bush. Rep Boehner (its amazing how many of these people have names that are phallic in nature) said this on the same friggin day that the Senate held hearings to determine that more than 14,000 weapons the US bought for Iraq have gone missing, including 99 BKC machine guns, more than 700 AK 47 rifles, and 13000+ pistols. This is more than enough to arm a full infantry battalion in Iraq. This after Rumsfeld has over seen a losing strategy in Iraq, not just losing on the political and military fronts, but losing 10 BILLION a month in operations in support of a rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq. In addition, under his watch, the Pentagon has lost nearly 10 BILLION in
money that is completely unaccounted for! Its gone. No trace, Gone for good. Rumsfeld is the worst thing that has happened to the Dept of Defense since Sec McNamara was appointed in 1965, and oversaw the disastrous war in Viet Nam. Later in life, in a movie called the Fog Of
War, McNamara repented of his deeds a generation earlier, admitted he was wrong, and begged forgiveness of the American people. Rumsfeld hasn't the character, the humility, or the time to even do that.

This is the first of a recurring guest blog series by Michael Zacchea, who will be commenting on some of the latest headlines emerging from the military.

What chutzpah! What bald-faced, unmitigated gall! When our mendacious Secretary of Defense refers to his speech to the American Legion in Salt Lake City, he fails to mention his ill-advised and erroneous comparison of critics of his mis-begotten war strategy to Nazi appeasers. He remembers being at the Pentagon on 9/11...what about the thousands of Americans who have died or been wounded because of his poorly planned and poorly executed war in Iraq??? On 9/11, 3001 Americans died, 10000+ were injured, and the US economy suffered a loss of 400 billion dollars. In the two wars the country has fought since then, one necessary, the other by choice, the US has lost 3000 soldiers, had 25000 wounded, and has spent (squandered) 400 billion dollars with almost no positive effect. Its all good and well to say the US is a force for good in the world. I believe that. But his inept management, poor leadership, and incompetent strategic and operational plans fail to live up to the billing that the US is a force for good in the world. Its hard to sell that bill of goods to the world when he fails to take responsibility for war crimes on his watch, like Abu Ghraib, and the extra-legal mistreatment of enemy prisoners of war in Guantanamo Bay and "black" prison cites around the world. The US is a force for good, but Donald Rumsfeld, mendacious reprobate and incompetent strategist, is not.

If this truly is a war for the 21st century, then why doesn't the Bush administration mobilize the entire country's resources? Why is a minuscule minority of the American population bearing the full weight of combat? Why is the Bush administration passing tax cuts while wasting more than 400 billion for little gain in Iraq? Why did Rumsfeld insist on invading Iraq with a force to small by half, and refuse to recognize the insurgency as it happened? Why has Rusmfeld lost more than 9 billion dollars of American taxpayer money? Why don't we bring overwhelming force to bear in Iraq, to win decisively??? Why is there this cognitive dissonance between what President Bush says, and what Donald Rumsfeld decides???

Why is Rumsfeld still SecDef? Why hasn't he been fired, and held criminally accountable for the lives and treasure he has squandered in this "defining conflict of the 21st century?"

Washington Post: In the five years since Sept. 11, the tactics and strategy of Islamic extremists fighting U.S. or NATO forces have improved dramatically. To a degree they could not approach five years ago, the extremists are successfully facing off against the overwhelming technological apparatus that modern armies can bring to bear against guerrillas. Islamic extremists are winning the war by not losing, and they are steadily expanding to create new battlefronts.

The Army is now doing the Kabuki dance to show that they are doing everything "prudent" to protect soldiers. I think its a load of horsesh**.

Guest blog by Michael Zacchea

Memory is painful. The more I remember, the more it hurts. There is a deep, dark part of me would rather not remember.

I was speaking to some veterans recently, from a variety of American conflicts. World War II. Korea. Viet Nam. The Gulf. And most recently, Iraq. They all admitted to similar feelings.

I spent a year in Iraq, from March 2004 to March 2005. Alone with my memories, I find myself starting to forget. I re-read my journal and saved e-mails to remember my experiences in Iraq, and the people I shared them with. I look at the pictures we took.

As soon as I am finished, the images and names begin to fade from my mind. Particularly of the fellows with whom I served who were grievously wounded or killed.