In a new special report, the Guardian charges that the Pentagon is stretched so thin it has begun sending unfit soldiers back to Iraq:

The report begins with allegations we've read before:

The Guardian has uncovered more than a dozen instances in which ill or injured soldiers were sent to war by a US military whose resources have been stretched near to breaking point by the simultaneous fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq. In its investigation, the Guardian learned of soldiers who were deployed with almost wilful disregard to their medical histories, and with the most cursory physical examinations. Soldiers went to war with chronic illnesses such as coronary disease, mental illness, arthritis, diabetes and the nervous condition, Tourette's syndrome, or after undergoing recent surgery.

What's new to us is the allegation that the Pentagon is sending soldiers who have returned from Iraq, injured and traumatized, back to Iraq:

[Jason Gunn] came within inches of death last November 15, when the Humvee he was driving hit a roadside bomb, killing his sergeant. The entire left side of Gunn's body was splattered with shrapnel, his elbow was shattered and, as he lay in the US military hospital bed in Germany, he was tortured by nightmares. Late on March 23, Gunn told his mother, Pat, that his commanders were putting pressure on him to return to Iraq, but there was no way he was getting on that plane. A few hours later, he was airborne. This week, Gunn's distraught mother, who is herself a navy veteran, received a first official response to her demands to know why a soldier, who was being treated by military doctors for combat stress, was sent back to the war.

The note, which acknowledged Gunn suffered post-traumatic stress, said: "After discussion of his case it was determined ... this may be in his best interest mentally to overcome his fear by facing it. Therefore, he has been cleared for redeployment."

Apparently, Gunn is not an isolated instance:

We received this from a colleague on the east coast:

What happened yesterday was absolutely ghastly. The Administration terribly miscalculated the aftermath of the war and as a result four American civilians, good and decent people who were only trying to help the Iraqis, died a horrible death. Unfortunately, we are now subject to the rule of "You broke it, you bought it," and I don't see that we have any choice but to stay and clean up our mess.

But some are taking the wrong message from this. Driving to work today I listened to a conservative talk radio host ranting about "what kind of people burn corpses and string them up from bridges?" You see where this is going, don't you? Because I couldn't help but thinking -- not so long ago, within my lifetime, it was American people who did EXACTLY the same thing to black men. A simple Google images search on "lynching" returns dozens of pictures just as frightful as what we saw yesterday, including tortured and mutilated black bodies hanging before crowds of well-dressed whites.

This sort of inhumanity is inexcusable and incomprehensible whenever it happens. But let's not suggest that the Iraqis who did this are a different breed from us, or there is something unique about Islam or Arabs that leads to cruelty.

From the AP:

In one of the bloodiest days in weeks for the U.S. military, five troops died when a bomb exploded under their military vehicle west of Baghdad on Wednesday. At least four foreign nationals, including one American, were killed in a separate attack and some of the bodies were burned, beaten and hanged from a bridge. The explosive device that killed the American troops blew up when their vehicle ran over it, U.S. Army Col. Jill Morgenthaler said in Baghdad. The attack happened in Anbar province, which encompasses Fallujah, Ramadi and other towns where anti-U.S. insurgents are active.

In the second incident, the Iraqis dragged the bloody bodies through the streets:

It was reminiscent of the 1993 scene in Somalia, when a mob dragged the corpse of a U.S. soldier through the streets of Mogadishu, eventually leading to the American withdrawal from the African nation.

George Hunsinger, who teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary, writes about Occupational Hazards: Iraq One Year Later for Antiwar.com:

Adequate words are lacking to describe the mendacity of the current administration and the folly of its "preemptive" war. Judged by just-war standards, it has waged war on Iraq without just cause, without legitimate authority, without right intention, without due regard for civilians, and without reasonable chance of success. It is hubris that will come to grief, one that threatens to engulf the entire world.

According to a new AP article, Saddam is not only not talking to authorities, he is amused and having fun.

He doesn't have a lawyer in the room, but Saddam Hussein apparently is practicing what most attorneys would advise: Don't talk. Diplomatic and military officials say the former Iraqi leader has provided little useful information in interrogations so far - and may even be having fun....In a recent interview, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he occasionally sees the interrogation briefing reports. "He's a pretty wily guy, and he's not giving much information that I've seen. But he seems to be enjoying the debate," Armitage told WPHT-AM radio in Philadelphia.

There are signs the intelligence phase of Saddam's capture is coming to an end. The investigation is now a joint effort by the CIA and FBI:

by TChris

The democratic values that the United States wants to export to Iraq apparently don't include freedom of the press. Saying that articles in the weekly Al-Hawza newspaper increased the threat of violence against occupying forces, Paul Bremer decided to shut the paper down. Soldiers used chains and locks on Sunday morning to prevent entry into the newspaper offices.

The paper has blamed violence in Iraq on American forces and recently carried an article headined "Bremer follows the steps of Saddam." Bremer says the paper will stay closed for 60 days.

by TChris

Last month, TalkLeft asked why American citizens are prosecuted for lying to their government while the government pays Ahmed Chalabi and others associated with the Iraqi National Congress to provide it with false information. Now, according to Newsweek, the General Accounting Office is asking a related question: "Did Chalabi and the INC violate the terms of their funding by using U.S. money to sell the public on its anti-Saddam campaign and to lobby Congress?"

The terms of the grant that the government gave to the INC "strictly excluded" activities "to influence the policies of the United States Government or Congress or propagandizing the American people."

Even so, in 2002 the INC—in an apparent effort to get Congress to continue its funding—submitted to the Senate Appropriations Committee a list of 108 news stories published between October 2001 and May 2002. The INC's document said these stories contained "ICP product" from an INC "Information Collection Program" financed by State. The stories included allegations about Saddam's WMD programs and links to terrorism, as well as INC material supporting innuendo that linked Saddam to the 9/11 attacks.

The INC propoganda machine may have played a key role in developing support for the war in Iraq.

Chalabi contends that what the INC said before the war doesn't matter now. Iraq is a better place without Saddam Hussein, says Chalabi, and that's all that matters. But to some, the truth still matters, as does the INC's disregard of the terms of its funding.

A BBC television program airing Sunday night, Panorama, outs the man who betrayed Saddam. The program says it is his relative and former bodyguard, Mohammed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit , who gave up Saddam after being arrested and interrogated.

Mr Musslit was a loyal lieutenant of Saddam Hussein. He was one of the people who accompanied the Iraqi leader as he fled Baghdad in a white Oldsmobile, as US troops entered the city on 9 April 2003. But Panorama will reveal that he was quickly broken by interrogators after being captured in Baghdad, and led American troops to his boss just hours after being arrested in December.

The program also reports that the U.S. will not give al-Musslit any of the reward money, because he didn't volunteer the information:

A senior US commander, Major General Ray Odierno, denied the source had been tortured but told the programme that he was "a shady character", adding that he believed "the US treasury gets to keep the money."

by TChris

What is life in occupied Baghdad really like? One journalist describes a city of relentless violence, much of it unseen by reporters who fear to leave their hotels at night.

Explosions from bombs, rocket propelled grenades and artillery as well as guns firing can be heard all day and night, but their locations are usually impossible to determine, even if you are foolish enough to search for them after dark, when gangs and wild dogs own the streets. There are systematic assassinations of policemen, translators, local officials, and anybody associated with the occupiers. ... Nobody in the US (and certainly nobody in Iraq) even cares much about the American soldiers dying daily, as long as the numbers on any given day are low. In the Sunni neighborhood of Aadhamiya in Baghdad there are nightly RPG and mortar attacks on the US base, and the men on the street erupt in cheers and whistles at the sounds.

Freelance journalist Nir Rosen offers a compelling look at a country torn apart by internal strife, united only by its hatred of occupation. One cause of suspicion and hostility, rarely reported in mainstream media: "over ten thousand Iraqi men are being held prisoner, and most of them are innocent."

A survey released today by the Army shows that at the end of last summer, 52% of soldiers in Iraq reported having low morale. 75% believed they are being poorly led by their officers.

In addition, seven in 10 of those surveyed characterized the morale of their fellow soldiers as low or very low. The problems were most pronounced among lower-ranking troops and those in reserve units. The survey was part of a study initiated by the Army last summer after a number of suicides provoked concern about the mental well-being of soldiers in Iraq. The report faulted the Army for how it handled mental health problems, saying some counselors felt inadequately trained and citing problems in distribution of antidepressant medication and sleeping pills.

A senior Army commander said these numbers should set off alarm bells.

In its findings on suicide, the report confirmed data previously released by the Army that the rate among soldiers in Iraq in 2003 was higher than for the Army generally, but lower than that of U.S. men of a similar age range. There were 23 confirmed suicides among Army troops in Iraq in 2003, for a rate of 15.6 per 100,000 soldiers, the report said. That compares with an Army average in recent years of 11.9, they said.

The Dreyfuss Report quotes the Washington Post describing President Bush's appearance at last night's Radio-TV Correspondents Association dinner in Washington where he made fun of the fact that we didnt' find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq:

He [Bush] put up dorky looking pictures of himself. A recurring joke involved photos of the president in awkward positions-bent over as if he's looking under a table, leaning to look out a window-accompanied by remarks such as "Those weapons of mass destruction must be somewhere!" and "Nope, no weapons over there!" and "Maybe under here?"

We're with Dreyfuss who says,

That's funny? I wish the tape of the president cackling about his lies over Iraq could be broadcast on Iraqi TV. And maybe shown to the families of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.

Update: Skippy says "wdiv tv in detroit has an online poll asking if bush's wmd jokes at the media dinner last night were appropriate or not. please get as many people as possible to go register their disgust by voting!"

[comments now closed]

Via CNN tv, at 4:10 am Baghdad time, an explosion that may have been a rocket hit the Baghdad Sheraton, a hotel housing journalists. No casualties.