Huurah!!!

Iraq Soilder Discusses his kills...VIDEO

Open letter to W...

All the President's Nazis

"...I am ashamed of you Mr. Bush. I am ashamed of those who applauded your political porn played out against the hallowed backdrop of the Holocaust. I am ashamed of those reporters with you, who between them could not muster the moral courage to call you out on your ugly rhetoric and ask you about your own family Nazi ties. You are, sir, the most abhorrent human being of my lifetime. I dare say, in the lifetime of this nation..."

Made in USA

The only country on the planet to ever nuke another country is the USA! Yet they are so afraid that other countries might gain the technology. Fucking hypocrites...and you can bet they will be the next country to nuke someone too!!

Fuckn' hypocrites...

I catch fish...therefore I am!!!

From Fisk...

Truth as a Causality of War

"“There are several things. First of all, there’s the inability of many journalists from the United States to actually tell the truth about the Israel-Palestine situation – hence, occupied territories are called disputed territories, the wall is called the security barrier, a colony or settlement is called a neighbourhood or an outpost. Which means that if you see a Palestinian chucking a stone, if it’s about an occupation, you can understand it, but if it’s about a dispute, which you can presumably settle over a cup of tea, then obviously the Palestinians are generically violent. So you demean one side in this appalling conflict.

Then you have this business where television will not show what we see, for reasons of so-called “bad taste”. I remember once being on the phone to a TV editor in London when Aljazeera were asked to feed some tape of children killed and wounded by British shell fire in Basra, and the guy started saying, “there’s no point feeding us this, we can’t show this”…the first excuse was, “people will be having their tea, so we can’t put it on”, and then it was, “this is sort of pornography, we don’t show this”. And it ended up – it is mesmeric to listen to this stuff - the last thing was “We have to show respect for the dead”. So we don’t show any respect for them when they are alive, we blow them to bits, and then we show respect for them…So because of this - and these bloodless sandpits with ex-generals pontificating - it becomes a game; you start propagating this idea that war is primarily about victory or defeat - when in fact, it’s about death, and the infliction of massive pain..."

Hmm...I may need a deeper bunker!

China Is Adding to Its Lethal Arsenal

"The latest Pentagon report on China is a sobering tale of advancing capability and aggression intentions inside Beijing. The report also illustrates newly developed weapons being fielded by the Chinese military based in part on advanced technology exported by the United States.

"China has the most active ballistic missile program in the world. It is developing and testing offensive missiles, forming additional missile units, qualitatively upgrading certain missile systems, and developing methods to counter ballistic missile defenses," notes the 2008 Defense Department report..."

From Chris Floyd...

Bush Goes Bear-Baiting in the East

"No, what they hate is that Putin won't play ball. He's got oil wealth -- thanks in large part to Bush's Terror War -- he's got nuclear weapons out the wazoo, and he doesn't have to dance to anyone's tune. And that really sticks in the craw of people who believe they have a divine right to "unipolar dominance" over the entire world.

You want to know how it really goes down at the summits like the one Bush will hold this weekend with Putin? Forget the earnest disquisitions from the Council on Foreign Relations or the interminable "process pieces" from the New York Times. Here's how it goes:


Bush: You ought to let our ole boys wet their beaks a little bit in that good stuff you got there, Vladimir. Cut us in on some of them oilfields and pipelines and all.

Putin: Naw, ain't gonna do it. Me and my ole boys are keeping it for our own selves.

Bush: That dawg won't hunt, son. You need to get your mind right on this. What if we was to stick us a big bunch of NATO ordnance down there in the Ukraine and Georgia?

Putin: You got it to do, hoss.


This is, without exaggeration, the precise moral, emotional and intellectual level at which relations between the world's two largest nuclear powers are being conducted. And as Raimondo notes, it will only degenerate further if John McCain -- a man who is perhaps even more ignorant and juvenile than George W. Bush, if such a thing can be imagined -- becomes president..."

My bunker is almost ready!!!

Worried yet...

"I. One Tick Closer to Midnight
Last Friday, Dick Cheney was in Saudi Arabia for high-level meetings with the Saudi king and his ministers. On Saturday, it was revealed that the Saudi Shura Council -- the elite group that implements the decisions of the autocratic inner circle -- is preparing "national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the kingdom following experts' warnings of possible attacks on Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactors," one of the kingdom's leading newspapers, Okaz, reports. The German-based dpa news service relayed the paper's story.

Simple prudence -- or ominous timing? We noted here last week that an American attack on Iran was far more likely -- and more imminent -- than most people suspect. We pointed to the mountain of evidence for this case gathered by scholar William R. Polk, one of the top aides to John Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and to other indicators of impending war. The story by Okaz -- which would not have appeared in the tightly controlled dictatorship without approval from the top -- is yet another, very weighty piece of evidence laid in the scales toward a new, horrendous conflict.

We don't know what the Saudis told Cheney in private -- or even more to the point, what he told them. But the release of this story now, just after his departure, would seem to be a clear indication that the Saudis have good reason to fear a looming attack on Iran's nuclear sites and are actively preparing for it.
"

Awesome...

From the 'No Shit File'...

How to Destroy a Country and Get Off Scot-Free

"Someone once told me if you're going to tell a lie make it a whopper based on the premise the more outrageous the lie the more likely it is to be believed. At the time, I wrote off his advice as hogwash but as we see from the Iraq debacle, he was right. Five years later, the deceit continues undiminished and nobody has been held to account.

Britain's Gordon Brown yesterday promised to hold an enquiry into the "mistakes" made in Iraq. Sounds good, but don't hold your breath. All previous inquiries have been labeled "whitewashes". They can't afford the truth to come out else they might get a one-way ticket to The Hague.

Think about it for a moment. The warmongers invaded, crushed and occupied a country that was no threat to anyone. They stood by as it was looted, exacerbated sectarianism, flattened entire towns, tortured untold numbers of innocents, brought in gum-chewing, tattooed foreign mercenaries and paid crony companies billions of dollars for mythical reconstruction projects..."

Yikes...

From the best journalist of all time...Fisk

The cult of the suicide bomber

"Khaled looked at me with a broad smile. He was almost laughing. At one point, when I told him that he should abandon all thoughts of being a suicide bomber – that he could influence more people in this world by becoming a journalist – he put his head back and shot me a grin, world-weary for a man in his teens. "You have your mission," he said. "And I have mine." His sisters looked at him in awe. He was their hero, their amanuensis and their teacher, their representative and their soon-to-be-martyred brother. Yes, he was handsome, young – just 18 – he was dressed in a black Giorgio Armani T-shirt, a small, carefully trimmed Spanish conquistador's beard, gelled hair. And he was ready to immolate himself..."

Whatever...

What a dumb fucking question! This war has been a scham from the get go...smoke and mirrors all the way. There was never any doubt that this was all about oil...only an idiot would fail to draw that conclusion. The real story is how before the war Iraq was able to pump its own oil and -when allowed to by the Americans- even sell its own oil...but today all the oil being produced and sold is being done so by foreign energy firms!! Hmmm...er....wait, that was the plan all along! So stop pretending there are questions about any of it you scumbag political hacks!!

Where is Iraq's oil money going?

"Two senators are asking congressional investigators to look at Iraq's oil revenues and see if the war-ravaged nation can pay for its own reconstruction, an effort that has been bankrolled to this point mostly by U.S. taxpayers.

Carl Levin, D-Michigan, and John Warner, R-Virginia, said in their Friday letter to the Government Accountability Office that Iraq has "tremendous resources" in banks worldwide but is doing little to improve security and reconstruction efforts.

Iraqi officials did not immediately respond to the senators' allegations..."

What are they building in there???

War is hell - and hellishly expensive

"War is hell - deadly, dangerous and expensive. But just how expensive is it?

In a recent interview, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz asserted that the costs of the Iraq war - budgetary, economic and societal - could reach US$5 trillion.

That's a hard number to comprehend. Figuring out how many times $5 trillion would circle the globe (if we took it all in $1 bills) doesn't really help matters much, nor does estimating how many times we could paper over every square inch of Rhode Island with it. The fact that total war costs could buy six trillion donuts for volunteers to the presidential campaigns - assuming a bulk discount - is impressive in its own way, but not all that meaningful either. In fact, the George W Bush administration's war costs have already moved beyond the human scale of comprehension..."

Ride'n the hog in Texas...

The first ORION crew...

It's all about hearts and minds...right!!

My 'not so bold' prediction...

If either Barak Obama or Hillary Clinton win the race to the White House next November...say goodbye to Air America Radio - and a lot of the progressive/left leaning radio broadcasts we listen to today. While Conservative radio is entrenched in the talk radio markets of America; lefty radio relies on Bush bashing to keep audiences tuning in. Period! If a Democrat gets in...say goodbye to listeners, and more importantly, say goodbye to advertisers.

Think about it. What are people going to tune in for? Seriously. The only reason liberal radio has increased it's market share since 911 is because of the global hatred of GW and and the failed policies he's unleashed. If not for the war in Iraq...what would they talk about? Only Conservatives would have anything to bitch about. They'll be in their glory again...just like they were during the Clinton years...because that's what Conservatives do! So, unless a new Democratic Administration reintroduces the fairness doctrine, and I doubt they will, well...see ya!

Anyway, I figure my prediction is a mute point anyway. Americans will probably vote in McCain and his straight talk express in. It'll be a straight express into Iran and likely Armageddon. That's OK, I have a plan...but I digress. Talk radio-wise it'll be like four more years of Bush (I doubt he's make eight and who knows what creep he'll run with) ...more of the same. And while sane liberal folks like myself will be pissed...lefty radio will enter a golden age!

But heh, what the fuck do I know?!

Ain't this sweet!!!

This shot was taken just moments before McCain dropped down onto his knees and licked W's boots. I think if the camera were to pan over a little you'd see Canadian PM Stephen Harper standing in line to do the same. God help us (and I'm an atheist) if this guy wins the election in November! I can't say I'd rather see Clinton in there either but man am I glad I live in Canada. I feel for my many American friends but jeeezus!

Canada’s Secret War in Iraq

Canada’s Secret War in Iraq

"On March 25, 2003, during the “shock and awe” bombardment of Iraq, then US Ambassador Paul Cellucci admitted that “… ironically, Canadian naval vessels, aircraft and personnel... will supply more support to this war in Iraq indirectly... than most of those 46 countries that are fully supporting our efforts there.”

Cellucci merely scratched the surface of Canada’s initial “support” for the Iraq War, but he had let the cat out of the bag. As then Secretary of State Colin Powell had explained a week earlier, “We now have a coalition of the willing… who have publicly said they could be included in such a listing.... And there are 15 other nations, who, for one reason or another, do not wish to be publicly named but will be supporting the coalition.”

Canada was, and still is, the leading member of this secret group, which we could perhaps call CW-HUSH, the “Coalition of the Willing to Help but Unwilling to be Seen Helping.” The plan worked. Most Canadians still proudly believe that their government refused to join the Iraq War. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here are some of the ways in which we joined the fray:
Escorting the US Navy: Thirteen hundred Canadian troops aboard Canada’s multibillion dollar warships escorted the US fleet through the Persian Gulf, putting them safely in place to bomb Iraq.

Leading the coalition Navy: Canadian Rear Admiral Roger Girouard was in charge of the war coalition’s fleet.

Providing war planners: At least two dozen Canadian war planners working at US Central Command in Florida were transferred to the Persian Gulf in early 2003 to help oversee the war’s complicated logistics.

Commanding the war: In 2004, Canadian Brigadier General Walt Natynczyk commanded 10 brigades totalling 35,000 troops. He was Second-in-Command of the entire Iraq War for that year. When Governor General Clarkson gave Natynczyk the Meritorious Service Cross, her office extolled his “pivotal role in the development of numerous plans and operations [which] resulted in a tremendous contribution… to Operation Iraqi Freedom, and… brought great credit to the Canadian Forces and to Canada.”"

Great read...

This is a great read. I spent 4 hours on a flight the other day glued to Fisk's history of the turmoil in the Middle East but this will be the book for my next few flights in the coming weeks. Gotta love history books, it's the closest we can get to time travel!

A little weekend cheese...

Husband of the Year candidates...

UK
USA
Poland
Greece
Serbia
Ireland

Fuck sakes...

Putin: Russia will counter U.S. military moves

Russian President Vladimir Putin complained Friday about "one-way" Western military demands and promised that Russia will respond to U.S. and NATO military expansion near its borders.

"We have been put in a situation where we have to react," Putin said of U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic and build new bases in Romania and Bulgaria.

"They tried to convince us that all these activities aren't against Russia, but our concerns have gone unanswered," Putin said. "Unfortunately our partners use a diplomatic and informational cover to hide their real plans."

Putin said Russia closed its bases in Cuba and Vietnam but saw no steps from the West toward compromise. NATO's demands, Putin said, "go one way."

"We have been put in a situation where we have to react. We have been forced to make certain decisions. Russia will always respond to this new challenge," Putin said...

From Scott Ritter...

I'd believe this guy long before I believed anything coming out of a politicians mouth - but then Ritter has been right about everything regarding Iraq so far so...

Iraq’s Tragic Future

"Any analysis of the current state of the ongoing U.S. occupation of Iraq that relied solely on the U.S. government, the major candidates for president or the major media outlets in the United States for information would be hard pressed to find any bad news. In a State of the Union address which had everything except a “Mission Accomplished” banner flying in the background, President Bush all but declared victory over the insurgency in Iraq. His recertification of the success of the so-called surge has prompted the Republican candidates to assume a cocky swagger when discussing Iraq. They embrace the occupation and speak, without shame or apparent fear of retribution, of an ongoing presence in that war-torn nation. Their Democratic counterparts have been less than enthusiastic in their criticism of the escalation. And the media, for the most part, continue their macabre role as cheerleaders of death, hiding the reality of Iraq deep inside stories that build upon approving headlines derived from nothing more than political rhetoric. The war in Iraq, we’re told, is virtually over. We only need “stay the course” for 10 more years.

This situation is troublesome in the extreme. The collective refusal of any constituent in this complicated mix of political players to confront Bush on Iraq virtually guarantees that it will be the Bush administration, and not its successor, that will dictate the first year (or more) of policy in Iraq for the next president. It also ensures that the debacle that is the Bush administration’s overarching Middle East policy of regional transformation and regime change in not only Iraq but Iran and Syria will continue to go unchallenged. If the president is free to pursue his policies, it could lead to direct military intervention in Iran by the United States prior to President Bush’s departure from office or, failing that, place his successor on the path toward military confrontation. At a time when every data point available certifies (and recertifies) the administration’s actions in Iraq, Iran and elsewhere (including Afghanistan) as an abject failure, America collectively has fallen into a hypnotic trance, distracted by domestic economic problems and incapable, due to our collective ignorance of the world we live in, of deciphering the reality on the ground in the Middle East.

Rather than offering a word-for-word renouncement of the president’s rosy assertions concerning Iraq, I will instead initiate a process of debunking the myth of American success by doing that which no politician, current or aspiring, would dare do: predict the failure of American policy in Iraq. With the ink on the newspapers parroting the president’s words barely dry, evidence of his misrepresentation of reality begins to build with the announcement by the Pentagon that troop levels in Iraq will not be dropping, as had been projected in view of the “success” of the “surge,” but rather holding at current levels with the possibility of increasing in the future. This reversal of course concerning troop deployments into Iraq highlights the reality that the statistical justification of “surge success,” namely the reduction in the level of violence, was illusory, a temporary lull brought about more by smoke and mirrors than any genuine change of fortune on the ground. Even the word surge is inappropriate for what is now undeniably an escalation. Iraq, far from being a nation on the rebound, remains a mortally wounded shell, the equivalent of a human suffering from a sucking chest wound, its lungs collapsed and its life blood spilling unchecked onto the ground. The “surge” never addressed the underlying reasons for Iraq’s post-Saddam suffering, and as such never sought to heal that which was killing Iraq. Instead, the “surge” offered little more than a cosmetic gesture, covering the wounds of Iraq with a bandage which shielded the true extent of the damage from outside view while doing nothing to save the victim.
"

Cool...

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Pollux is the brightest star in the constellation Gemini and one of the brightest in the nighttime sky. Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Boötes, and the third brightest star in the night sky

That little arrow points at our sun!
If Betelgeuse were placed at the center of our solar system, its outer surface would extend between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter, completely engulfing Earth. Antares is the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius and the sixteenth brightest star in the nighttime sky

Ouch!

Check it out; I've driven by this several times and thought it was just an old gas station falling apart...turns out it's the end result of a high speed chase and the car that hit it was doing 80MPH plus...or so I was told. I guess in the movies this would have been a mushroom cloud but in reality it's just a mess of mangled gas pump.

Wierd looking machine...

...at least I think it's weird looking. I installed a nav system in this machine this morning and then spent the day in the bush waiting to see how it worked. Pretty boring day at work...but at least my rental had satellite radio in it!

Yikes!!!

Russia threatens nuclear strikes

"RUSSIA'S military chief of staff said yesterday that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes in case of a major threat.
These were the latest aggressive remarks from increasingly assertive authorities in Moscow.

General Yuri Baluyevsky said: "We have no plans to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand… that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including the use of nuclear weapons."

The comments from the hawkish Baluyevsky did not appear to mark a policy shift for Russia, whose leaders have stressed the need to maintain a powerful nuclear deterrent and reserved the right to carry out preventive strikes to counter threats.

But in most of their public remarks about preventive strikes, President Vladimir Putin and other officials have not specifically mentioned the use of nuclear weapons.

Baluyevsky's remarks, which were made at a press conference, came at a time of increasingly strained relations between Moscow and the West..."

Note to self: Stay away from drugs when in Asia...

This is one of the books I'm reading and man, what a story! I suppose you have to have limited sympathy for the dude since he was busted as a heroin smuggler but that does not diminish the experience he has in a Thai prison. It kinda makes you never want to visit this part of the world, especially given that police in these countries get a bonus for busting people with drugs. Add to this the fact that these guys make low wages and you have a recipe for innocent people getting popped (as described in a previous post).

Anyway, a good read if you like non fiction, which is what I prefer.

This sucks...

Serving Time in Thailand

"“Years ago, I moved to Bangkok from Toronto to set up a travel agency,” he explains. “I rented my Bangkok apartment to a South African man, who, as I later learned, was manufacturing Ecstasy. When the police arrested him, they figured that, as the landlord, I must have been involved. With our names both on the lease, my Thai girlfriend and I were both arrested even though we had no part in any illegal activities.” According to Associated Press, police seized 3300 ecstasy pills and four kg of chemicals, which was enough to make 20 000 tablets of ecstasy and ketamine. Adrian, his girlfriend and two others, were found guilty of “conspiring to produce and distribute class A illegal drugs”. They were sentenced to life in prison. “I am innocent,” he says, almost apologetically, recognizing the cliché. Adrian claims that, with its harsh drug laws, flawed criminal justice system and corrupt police officers, “there is no justice in Thailand. It’s guilty until proven innocent.”"

Say it isn't so...

Report reveals Vietnam War hoaxes, faked attacks

"But he said that probably the "most historically significant feature" of the declassified report was the retelling of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.

That was a reported North Vietnamese attack on American destroyers that helped lead to president Lyndon Johnson's sharp escalation of American forces in Vietnam.

The author of the report "demonstrates that not only is it not true, as (then US) secretary of defense Robert McNamara told Congress, that the evidence of an attack was 'unimpeachable,' but that to the contrary, a review of the classified signals intelligence proves that 'no attack happened that night,'" FAS said in a statement..."

From Chris Floyd...

Lies and Blood from Tonkin to the Tigris

"Think anybody in the presidential media pack will ask the newly triumphant, straight-shootin' John McCain what he thinks of the lastest confirmation of the fact that the war in which he was captured and tortured years ago was launched under precisely the same kind of knowingly false, manufactured pretext as the present war he supports so fervently?

Nah. They won't ask. And he doesn't care. He's as close as he will ever be to the power he's sought for so long; he's not about to admit that tens of thousands of his comrades were slaughtered for a lie told on behalf of the same machine of dominion and loot that he wants to control (for awhile). He'll keep trading on those senseless deaths, and those wasted lives, riding them as far and as high as he can, waving Old Glory all the way -- while helping hurl more of his fellow Americans into the killing fields of another criminal war.

As for the two million Asians -- and the one million Iraqis -- killed by the machine's highly profitable mendacity, forget it. They're nothing. They don't count. And neither will the next million devoured by the machine -- which is set to keep rolling and grinding on, no matter whose hand is temporarily at the helm."

In Canada we have our own scumbag leader...

Stephen Harper is as much a Bu$h lapdog as Tony Blair ever was; if Harper had been PM back in 2003, we'd be stuck in the Iraq quagmire with the US. That's OK, Harper is happy to have Canadians spilling their blood in Afghanistan where so many other countries have sent their young off to die in the past. Thing is, what are we doing in Afghanistan? Nothing productive ever happens; they'd be fucked if the West ever pulled out. It's a puppet government surrounded by thugs waiting their chance. We have no business there...and if there was a mission in Afghanistan, it was to get 'Osama Bin Hiden' in a cave with his dialysis machine'...and Bu$h let him go at Tora Bora because he really doesn't even want him. Ah, there's no shortage of scumbag leaders willing to send their young off to die...even if, as Harper says in the opening frames of this propaganda piece, it is against the will of the people!



...and I figure the link below about sums up my feelings on the war in Afhanistan, but hey, what the fuck do I know?

The "Good Good War" Is A Bad War

"The truth about the "good war" is to be found in compelling evidence that the 2001 invasion, widely supported in the west as a justifiable response to the 11 September attacks, was actually planned two months prior to 9/11 and that the most pressing problem for Washington was not the Taliban's links with Osama Bin Laden, but the prospect of the Taliban mullahs losing control of Afghanistan to less reliable mujahedin factions, led by warlords who had been funded and armed by the CIA to fight America's proxy war against the Soviet occupiers in the 1980s. Known as the Northern Alliance, these mujahedin had been largely a creation of Washington, which believed the "jihadi card" could be used to bring down the Soviet Union. The Taliban were a product of this and, during the Clinton years, they were admired for their "discipline". Or, as the Wall Street Journal put it, "[the Taliban] are the players most capable of achieving peace in Afghanistan at this moment in history"..."

Damn straight...

The best season of all time...

1. Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers, 1981-82
Choosing between Wayne Gretzky's best seasons is like choosing between Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel: There isn't a wrong answer. Still, in a decade in which he dominated, no performance exudes greatness as much as his 1981-82 season. A 20-year-old Gretzky scored 92 goals that season, shattering the previous mark of 76 set by Phil Esposito. He hit the 50-goal mark in just 39 games, capped by a five-goal performance against the Flyers in Game 39. With 120 assists, Gretzky's 212 points set another record (one he would eclipse by three in 1985-86). Gretzky won the scoring title by 65 points, leaving super sniper and runner-up Mike Bossy in his dust.

Gretzky grabbed all sorts of postseason hardware (Hart, Pearson, Art Ross), but it was Gretzky's ability with grace and style to bring the game of hockey to the masses that stands out from the 1981-82 season. In the early 1980s, specifically this season, while the Islanders were winning Stanley Cups, Gretzky started to transcend his icy domain by grabbing international acclaim as the first hockey player and first Canadian to be named The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. He was also named Sports Illustrated's 1982 "Sportsman of the Year." Starting in 1981-82, Gretzky truly elevated the sport in a way no one had ever done before."

See the rest here...

Say it isn't so mofo...

Ouch!!!

151,000 Iraqis killed by war since 2003

"The World Health Organization said Wednesday a large-scale household survey showed an estimated 151,000 Iraqis were violently killed since the US-led invasion of their country in March 2003 to the middle of 2006.

WHO said the findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, were the result of a wider family health survey to provide the Iraqi government with the basis to develop and update its health policies and services.

“Assessment of the death toll in conflict situations is extremely difficult and household survey results have to be interpreted with caution,” said Mohamed Ali, a WHO statistician. “However, in the absence of comprehensive death registration and hospital reporting, household surveys are the best we can do.”

WHO said the estimate was based on interviews in 9,345 households in nearly 1,000 neighbourhoods and villages across Iraq, placing the number of violent deaths between 104,000 and 223,000. WHO chose to focus on the middle figure of 151,000 to illustrate its survey.

Naeema al-Gasser, the WHO representative in Iraq, said the estimate was three times higher than the death toll calculated through careful screening of media reports by the Iraq Body Count project, a joint effort of Baghdad and organizations trying to determine the number of people killed since 2003."

Must read...

Interesting Article...

China's ability to sustain war

"Should a conflict break out across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwanese forces would face a grave shortage of ammunition after just seven days of fighting. Even though China has a much greater stockpile of ammunition than Taiwan, it would also encounter similar problems in a sustained conflict.

The PLA Air Force fleet of third generation fighters comprises 281 Su-30s, Su-27 SKs, J-11A/Bs and 64 J-10As, whereas its bomber fleet includes approximately 48 JH-7As and 117 H-6s. In full-scale warfare across the Taiwan Strait, suppose there were a loss of 20-30 combat aircraft each day, the current fleet of 344 third generation fighters in effective service in the PLAAF could sustain combat operations for only 11-17 days.

Unlike the United States and Russia, China does not yet have the capability to independently manufacture third generation fighters. For instance, in order to produce J-11B fighters, China has to rely on imports from Russia for critical subsystems including engines and infra-red search and track systems..."

GSP GSP GSP!!!