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| 28/3/05:George Bush milkman and American Cow |
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Group: aus.mediawatch · Group Profile
Author: uneoouneoo Date: May 4, 2007 09:58
28-Mar-2005
GEORGE BUSH MILKMAN AND THE AMERICAN COW
written by U Ne Oo netipr.org>
Everyday at the crack of dawn, the story of cunning milkman and his
poor cow is at play. The man went down with a bucket to the shed where
the cow is, and begin milking. The cow necessarily aware that the man
takes away some of her milk (well, you don't know that. Cows don't
speak.). Anyway, the cow has plenty of milk and the milkman get more
than half bucket-full anyway.
But, greedy milkman wants more. He know the cow can give more milk.
And, alas, there is such thing as an intelligent cow afterall! The
mother cow usually reserves the milk for her own offspring somewhere
the man couldn't reach. Here then, the deceptive and cruel part of the
story just begins.
From the shed, the man brings down the dead-calf of the mother
cow. The calf was either a still-born one, or being killed by the
milkman (I am so sure). The milkman doesn't want that calf anyway. But
the man preserved the carcass of the calf for milking the cow. The man
paraded the dead-calf of the cow before her (the poor cow doesn't know
the calf is dead or alive). The man make the dead-calf touching the
breast of mother cow. Cunning as he can be, the milkman make the cow
smells her offspring.
Often weary and confused cow finally gives in. Because of her maternal
instinct, the poor cow drops down milk she reserved for her offspring.
Before going away with bucketful of milk, the cunning milkman
says: "You are a good cow ! "
THE DEAD CALF AND IRAQI DEMOCRACY
With the same cunning, there appears to be US Administration milking
of American Congress for more money on Iraq war and
reconstruction. The Bush-Cheney milkteam managed the US Congress
approval of $81 billion for Iraq war few weeks ago. But greedy
milkteam wants more. $5.7 billion for training on Iraqi security
forces? Most analysts say the option for the "Iraqification" of
conflict as unrealistic and as a mere fantasy (See R. Polk's paper).
Usually, of course, any money spent by the US government is America's
own business. Not so for Iraq war budget. This $81 billion approved by
US Congress is going to bring more bullet and bombs to Iraq and,
consequently, more death and misery for Iraqi people. This is American
taxpayers money. The American people should better scrutinize and
object to those spendings.
Meanwhile, not withstanding 1,500 deaths of American serviceman in
Iraq, we are going to see George Bush Jr triumphant and says: "World
behold! This is American democracy."
Indeed, this is the story of cunning milkman and the poor cow.
-- U Ne Oo, Adelaide, Australia.
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Strength of Iraqi Forces Questioned
A government report says the number of soldiers and
police in the field has been inflated
By Mark Mazzetti
Los Angeles Times www.latimes.com
March 15, 2005
U.S. commanders and Bush administration officials are overstating the
number of Iraqi security forces on duty, providing an inaccurate
picture about the training mission that is the U.S. military's exit
strategy for Iraq, a government audit agency said Monday. The Pentagon
in its latest figures said 142,000 Iraqis had been trained as police
and soldiers. But the Government Accountability Office said those
figures include tens of thousands of Iraqi policemen who had left
their jobs without explanation.
The GAO also said the State Department six months ago stopped
providing government auditors with information about the number of
Iraqi troops who have been issued flak vests, weapons and
communications equipment. The unreliability of the data coming from
Baghdad makes it difficult to provide an accurate accounting of the
billions of dollars the U.S. is spending to train and equip Iraq's
army and police force, a GAO official told a congressional committee
Monday.
"Without reliable information, Congress may find it difficult to judge
how federal funds are achieving the goal of transferring security
responsibilities to the Iraqis," Joseph A. Christoff, the GAO's
director of international affairs and trade, told the House Government
Reform subcommittee on international relations. Although the Defense
Department has conducted several internal evaluations of the
U.S. training mission in Iraq, the GAO is the first government agency
to challenge the figures the Pentagon uses to chart the progress of
Iraqi troops.
Specifically, the GAO criticized the Pentagon's decision to include in
its totals of trained and equipped Iraqi troops the "tens of
thousands" of police officers who are absent without leave. The most
recent Pentagon figures show that nearly 82,000 Iraqis have undergone
U.S. police training. "If you are reporting AWOLs in your numbers, I
think there's some inaccuracy in your reporting," Christoff said after
the hearing.
The progress of the mission has become a politically charged issue,
with Democrats in Congress charging that the administration is
misrepresenting the number of trained Iraqis in the field. During
confirmation hearings for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
senators challenged her assertion that the Pentagon had trained more
than 120,000 Iraqi policemen and soldiers.
That number, they said, included more than 50,000 police officers who
were given as little as three weeks of basic training. "Time and again
this administration has tried to leave the American people with the
impression that Iraq has well over 100,000 fully trained, fully
competent military police and personnel. And that is simply not true,"
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Rice. "We're months, probably
years away from reaching our target goal."
At Monday's hearing, Defense Department officials defended the
practice of including in the official totals policemen who had gone
AWOL. Unlike Iraqi soldiers, they said, police officers do not sleep
in barracks and are not closely tracked by the Interior
Ministry. Moreover, officials said, policemen often leave their units
when they are paid and return to their hometowns to ensure that the
money gets to their families.
For these reasons, officials said, the total figures for Iraqi
policemen are less accurate than the numbers for Iraqi soldiers. "It's
a less precise accounting, and that's the nature of the business we're
in," said the Pentagon's Rear Adm. William D. Sullivan. The total
number of trained and equipped policemen "doesn't represent the
numbers that are actually in the field," he said.
According to Pentagon figures, more than 142,000 soldiers and
policemen have been trained and equipped, with a goal of 271,000
trained by July 2006. Since Iraq's elections in January, the Pentagon
has made the training of Iraqi forces the focus of U.S. military
efforts, and defense officials hope that by the end of the year local
troops will be leading the fight against insurgents in most parts of
the country.
The U.S. has spent $5.8 billion training and equipping Iraqi forces
since April 2003, and this week the House of Representatives is
expected to vote on a supplemental budget request that includes an
additional $5.7 billion devoted to the training.
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