Check out what my father-in law just sent me.

[borlis]

I am so mad. :mad: He claims he hates bush. Being retired, I think he just forwards everything he gets sometimes without reading it. Read on:
I checked this out at:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/combatend.asp<http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/combatend.asp>

And
http://www.americandaily.com/article/6707<http://www.americandaily.com/article/6707>


THE REST OF THE STORY ... THE ONE YOU NEVER HEAR!



Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?

Did you know that the Iraqi government employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?

Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under
rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been
built in Iraq?

Did you know that Iraq's higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities,
46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers?

Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2004
for the re-established Fulbright program?

Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational? They have 5 -100-foot patrol craft,
34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment.

Did you know that Iraq's Air Force consists of three operation squadrons, 9
reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport
aircraft which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4
bell jet rangers?

Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?

Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and
equipped police officers?

Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new
officers each 8 weeks?

Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq? They
include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil
facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.

Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2
series of polio vaccinations?

Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid
October?

Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use
has gone up 158%?

Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations,
180 newspapers and 10 television stations?

Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004 and that the
Iraqi economy is BOOMING?

Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a recent
televised debate recently?

OF COURSE WE DIDN'T KNOW! WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW? OUR MEDIA WOULDN'T TELL US!

I guess the left wing liberals would rather see terrorism prevail in the world than
exercise common sense, judgment and show any sign of patriotism. The lack of
accentuating the positive in Iraq serves only one purpose. It undermines the world's
perception of the
United States and our soldiers ... and it aids and abets the enemy! Shame!

All of these fact are verifiable on the Department of Defense website - and many
other independent sources.

[MindPilot]

1. Tell your FIL, that if this is true--which is highly suspect--then

it just proves that the Bush administration's allegiance is to Iraq and not America or her Constitution. And that is treason.

[Beaver Tail]

4. Just reply

Did you know

100,000 FUCKING IRAQI PEOPLE INCLUDING CHILDREN ARE NOW DEAD!!!!

[Oreo]

2. Ugh

Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004 and that the Iraqi economy is BOOMING?

By BOOMING do they mean exploding or do they mean blowing up?

[borlis]

3. Good one!!!!

:rofl:

[NeoTraitors]

5. It's so good to know that we are spending our

children's dough to rebuild a country we destroyed.

[shoelace414]

6. la*

Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?

How many are in the green zone?

Did you know that the Iraqi government employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?

and my tax dollars are paying for them.

Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under
rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been
built in Iraq?

how many Ameircan schools need renovation, but since we're sending our money to Iraq, there just isn't enough left in the budget?

Did you know that Iraq's higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities,
46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers?

Iraq was always a highly educated and secular nation.

Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2004
for the re-established Fulbright program?

25.. well that's worth all the money we're spending.

Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational? They have 5 -100-foot patrol craft,
34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment.

We have so much extra money in our budget, now we're building other nations militaries?

Did you know that Iraq's Air Force consists of three operation squadrons, 9
reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport
aircraft which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4
bell jet rangers?

We have so much extra money in our budget, now we're building other nations militaries?

Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?

So when are they going to take over so our military can come home?

Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and
equipped police officers?

So when are they going to take over so our military can come home?

Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new
officers each 8 weeks?

So when are they going to take over so our military can come home?

Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq? They
include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil
facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.

who's paying for it? (US Taxpayers), and yet, Iraqi's still dont; have clean water and steady supply of electricity.

Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2
series of polio vaccinations?

how many have been killed by bombs?

Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid
October?

how many have been killed by bombs?

Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use
has gone up 158%?

That's because land line phones don't work/Aren't reliable.

Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations,
180 newspapers and 10 television stations?

and the CPA shut down some of the "independent media"

Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004 and that the
Iraqi economy is BOOMING?

Booming? you mean blowing up?

Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a recent
televised debate recently?

how much has it changed Iraq?

[JohnyCanuck]

7. So Send him back these links

From journalist Dahr Jamal:

So the American government is pressuring foreign countries to censor their news. Aside from the fact that this act is the height of arrogance by the United States, it makes it exceedingly clear why so many Americans who rely on the corporate media for their news continue to be so misinformed/un-informed about the goings on in Iraq. If the American government is attempting to censor the news in foreign countries, you can imagine what they are doing at home.

<snip>

"The Americans still won't anyone or any medicines and supplies into Buhrez, nor will they allow any people in or out. Even the Al-Sadr followers who organized some help for the people in the city (water, food, medicine) are not being allowed into the city. Even journalists cannot enter to publish the news, and the situation there is so bad. The Americans keep asking for the people in the city to bring them the persons who were in charge of destroying the two Humvees on the other side of the city, but of course the people in the city don't know who carried out the attack."

<snip>

"Listen...we witnessed crimes in the west area of the country of what the bastards did in Haditha and Al-Qa'im. It was a crime, a really big crime we have witnessed and filmed in those places and recently also in Fallujah. We need big help in the western area of the country. Our doctors need urgent help there. Please, this is an URGENT humanitarian request from the hospitals in the west of the country. We have big proof on how the American troops destroyed one of our hospitals, how they burned the whole store of medication of the west area of Iraq and how they killed a patient in the ward...how they prevented us from helping the people in al-Qa'im. This is an URGENT Humanitarian request. The hospitals in the west of Iraq ask for urgent help...we are in a big humanitarian medical disaster..."

People like Edelman don't want the public to know that the same tactics used in Fallujah by the US military -posting snipers around the city to shoot anyone who moves, targeting ambulances, impeding medical care, or the detaining of innocent civilians en masse.

(Edelman is a US diplomat who was trying to pressure the Prime Minister of Turkey to in turn put pressure on a Turkish paper to not reprint so many of Darh Jamal's articles on the situation in Iraq. )

More details and the full article here:
http://electroniciraq.net/news/2019.shtml


From The Moscow Times:

Let's not imagine George W. Bush nudging Tony Blair in the ribs as they masticated their pork together, saying, "Cholera, eh? Typhoid fever. Malnutrition! By God, we can grind these Iraqi children lower than the slum rats of Haiti!" Let's not picture Dick Cheney chiding Donald Rumsfeld over the steak tartare: "Damn it, Don, if there's a single pregnant Iraqi woman left without hepatitis before we're through, heads are going to roll! I want the wombs of those Arab cows swimming in lethal viruses. Lethal, do you hear me?"

Of course it wasn't like that. Such suppositions do these honored national leaders a grave injustice. No doubt their discourse was elevated, focused on lofty matters of state and strategy, on the practicalities of logistics and presentation. If anyone there spoke of the "human factor" -- the actual reality of bleeding flesh, of death, wounds, disease and rot -- it would only have been as part of the political calculations: What level of casualties would the American people accept, how do we keep the dead and maimed out of the public eye? It was all about numbers, processes, abstractions. Nothing to disturb the moral imagination, nothing to put them off the hearty meals and tasty snacks discreetly laid before them by the servants.

So when leading international agencies -- including the World Bank, now headed by one of the chief liars, Paul Wolfowitz -- find that Iraq's children are dwindling and dying twice as fast under the coalition's benevolent care than under the despotism of Saddam Hussein, we should not conclude that this was the liars' conscious intention. Yes, it's true that Iraq's child malnutrition rate is now worse than the broken nations of Uganda or Haiti, as the Japan Times reports. Yes, cholera and typhoid are cutting swaths through the population, with especial virulence in the "stable" areas of the Shiite south. Yes, epidemics of hepatitis are killing pregnant women. Yes, antibiotics are scarce, leaving children, the old and the weak to die of common infections -- that is, when they can get treated at all in a health system ravaged by the liars' war and its atrocious aftermath. (Such as the destruction of Fallujah, for example, when coalition forces deliberately destroyed the city's health clinics and imprisoned doctors to prevent news of civilian casualties from leaking to the press, as the Pentagon's own "information specialists" told The New York Times.)

And yes, it's true that Iraq -- once a modern and prosperous nation -- has suffered "one of the most dramatic declines in human welfare in recent history" during the occupation, as the UN says. But again, this was not part of the liars' deliberate design. The torment of children was outside the parameters of their "metrics of success." It was not a factor one way or the other.

http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/06/24/120.html

Still today, the State and Defense Departments and White House continue to stonewall our demands for the notes of the meetings between lobbyists, oil industry consultants and key Administration officials that would reveal the hidden economic motives for the war.

What are the secret interests behind this occupation? Who benefits? Who met with whom? Why won't this Administration release these documents of the economic blueprint for the war?

To date, the State and Defense Department responses to our reports are risible, and their answers to our requests for documents run from evasive to downright misleading. Maybe Congress, with its power of subpoena, can do better.

Blogs, the Media and Democracy

Let me conclude with a comment about those pesky "blogs" that so bother the New York Times. We should stand and offer a moment of quiet gratitude to the electronic swarm of gadfly commentators who make it so much harder for the US media to ignore news not officially blessed. Yes, Judith Miller's breathless reports for The Times that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction may have maintained "access" for the mainstream press to its diet of White House propaganda, but the blogs insure that, whatever nonsense the US press is biting on, the public need not swallow.

http://www.gregpalast.com/printerfriendly.cfm?artid=437

[Inland]

10. Nice.

[salin]

8. and what about the one about the $80 billion more

voted for Iraq this spring... followed up last week with a bill requesting another $30 billion or so...

[Inland]

9. Not bad for $200 Billion, huh? Particularly the stuff that SADDAM built.

We didn't build any universities or research centers. Saddam did. Kids went to school before we invaded.

And there hasn't been a presidential election.

If Bush had said we would have such piss poor results three years later, 1730 dead later, and $200 Billion later, we would have impeached him before authorizing the war.

[rock]

11. Of course you didn't know

It's not true!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

12. Send this to your father-in-law

It was on the front page of today's Washington Post, which, you must remind him, was a great big booster of our invasion of Iraq. Send him this, and then ask him if he honestly believes unverifiable lists:

Another Year of Living Misery in Baghdad
Residents Face 'So Many Problems'

By Andy Mosher and Bassam Sebti
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 24, 2005; A01

BAGHDAD, June 23 -- In the streets of Baghdad, people wondered Thursday what else could possibly go wrong.

In Karrada, a commercial district across the Tigris River from the city's fortified Green Zone, wreckage was still smoldering hours after four car bombs exploded shortly after dawn, killing 17 people and wounding 20. Water sprayed on the resulting fires commingled in pools with blood. On the north side of the city, in Shuala -- like Karrada, an area populated mostly by Shiite Muslims -- similar scenes played out in the wake of a triple car bombing that had killed 15 people the night before.

Around Baghdad, neighborhoods were celebrating the return of running water but still lamenting the three-day drought caused when insurgents ruptured a water line north of the city.

And with the temperature exceeding 100 degrees, as it has every day for weeks, people voiced anger at the prospect of spending their third summer since the U.S.-led invasion with only intermittent electricity. Those with generators will be able to power air conditioners and other appliances; the rest will simply bake.

"So many problems are happening in the city," said Mohammed Sarhan, 50, a grocer in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora. "Where do I start -- water, electricity, security, unemployment or health?"

"This is not a life," Sarhan added. "This is hell."

(The rest of the article is at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062301963_pf.html)

[borlis]

15. I just sent it to him.

The thing about my FIL is that he does all this in "Fun." Last fall he sent me something that really irritated me and I told him in order to keep peace in the family I would like him to stop. He told me that he doesn't like bush either and he just forwards things in "Fun." I have never sent him many articles until today. I just hope he forwards my stuff like he forwards everything else he gets.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

17. Yeah - "fun"

That's a classic passive-aggressive way of rubbing your nose in something. "Gee, I was only kidding. Why are you taking it 'the wrong way'?" That kind of stuff.

You know, you could just delete the stuff and never mention it. If he brings it up, change the subject. Or break wind. Or something.

This, by the way, is why I married an orphan ..........

[satya]

13. Please send him LynnTheDem's excellent 'bush vs. hussein' thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3898051#3898051

Unlike the crap always forwarded from RWers, this one is researched and sourced.

[borlis]

24. Thanks, I just did. I also sent him the article from today's

Wash Post about how healthcare for Vets is $1 billion short.

[LiberalFighter]

14. According to Embassyworld there only 6 countries with embassies in Iraq

Greece
Bahrain
Armenia
Phillipine
Australia
China

[dogday]

16. It has cost an arm and a leg, literally

Let's talk about all the limbs in the street of Bagdad, this war has cost many an arm and a leg and a life.

[stanwyck]

18. I was sent this email six months ago

wasn't true then. Isn't true now.
Pack of lies.

[LiberalFighter]

19. Navy??

UMM QASR PORT, Iraq (AFP) - A tiny Iraqi patrol boat chugs around two oil terminals off the southern coast of Iraq, hunting for saboteurs and smugglers under the gaze of a formidable fleet of US-led military ships.

Iraq's feeble navy regained official control of its coastline last month but it will take years to build up enough strength to assume real responsibility for the economically vital area, officials say.

"The main challenge is to expand this navy to do the job," said Captain Hameed Sharhan, who commands the 500-strong Iraqi Coastal Defence Force.

"Our principle job is to protect the oil terminals but at present we do not have the capability so we help protect them with the coalition," he told AFP in an interview at his headquarters in the southern port of Umm Qasr.

Equipped with five patrol boats, 24 smaller patrol crafts and 10 rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) -- a kind of motorised dinghy -- the country's new naval fleet is a fraction of its former size.

Cache

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Um. 38 Schools, Huh?

We needed to reconstruct 3100 others. Wonder why? Building 38 and repairing 3100 that we blew up is nothing of which to be proud.

Their economy is not booming. Anyone who says that is an idiot. It's just not as bad as it was immediately after dropping bombs. And, the economy was stagnant before that because we had trade sanctions against the country for 12 years! We don't get credit for that either.

This is just stupid.
The Professor

[LiberalFighter]

21. Schools??

“Iraq used to have one of the finest school systems in the Middle East,” said UNICEF Iraq Representative Roger Wright. “Now we have clear evidence of how far the system has deteriorated. Today millions of children in Iraq are attending schools that lack even basic water or sanitation facilities, have crumbling walls, broken windows and leaking roofs. The system is overwhelmed.”

Wright said that the decay is the result of over a decade of neglect and under-funding during the sanctions era, as well as the impact of three wars, starting with the Iran-Iraq war.


GEE... USAID says only 2457 schools have been renovated and that is a US government site.

[spanone]

22. To once again qoute Penn & Teller...'Bullshit'

[hfojvt]

23. did you know

that sounds alot like the crap my sister sent me in Dec 2003? Especially with regard to the last line about the 'liberal media'. I went off on that last line:

One problem is that we have no way to verify or refute any of this good news. Am I expected to trust the Bush administration? As far as the media not being willing or able to report this, ask the RNC since they own Fox News and the Washington Post (or they might as well since Murdoch and the Moonies are totally rah rah Republican). Also Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Rumsfeld, etc. are all over the news giving press conferences all the time.
The trouble is that if they report these things, some real journalists will then investigate the claims, or maybe not since they rarely investigate Bush's lies. Too busy with their war on Gore and tracking down relatives of Kobe and Michael Jackson to interview. They sure did go into overdrive too for the Thanksgiving surprise and for the capture. Children of the world no longer have to be afraid that the Saddamy-man is in their closet, or that he
will get them if they do not eat their vegetables. I know I felt safer until the terror alert level went to orange and I see on the news two or three bank robberies and other armed robberies and car-jackings every day, and that's just KC.

[borlis]

27. I ranted to him about the media also.

Told him it is practically state controlled.

[Midlodemocrat]

25. Liberal Media My Ass.

None of that is true. My cousin just returned from Baghdad and is getting ready to go back. You should hear the stories. Unreal.

[newportdadde]

26. This is an oldie. Seen it on here a few times.

Lets be honest here, if things were really that good it would be all over Fox news and the other corporate media... even runaway brides wouldn't get the pictures off the screne of that delicious Iraqi prosperity.

[AnnInLa]

28. Gee, maybe Iraq will be featured on the Travel Channel soon,

sounds like a great place to vacation.

[paula777]

29. Fantastic - things in Iraq are great. Guess our troops can leave now

right!

[KansDem]

30. Some responses, for what its worth...

THE REST OF THE STORY ... THE ONE YOU NEVER HEAR!

Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?—How many left or were kicked out when the US invaded?

Did you know that the Iraqi government employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?—Isn’t “big government” considered evil? Don’t we now have to shrink this government so it can be drowned in a bathtub?

Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been built in Iraq?—Define “renovated.” Define “rehabilitation.” Also, how many of these resulted in profits for Halliburton, KB&R, or the Bush Family?

Did you know that Iraq's higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers?—Are these functioning? To what degree? Or are these 20 universities, et al just bombed-out shells?

Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2004 for the re-established Fulbright program?—How many “departed” when we invaded?

Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational? They have 5 -100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment?—Define “operational.” What is a “100-foot patrol craft?” What are they “patrolling?” In what capacity is the “naval infantry regiment” serving in this war? Why aren't these craft described in conventional terms, such as "destroyer," "cruiser," "patrol boat," etc., or does "patrol craft" also include fishing boats with a searchlight?

Did you know that Iraq's Air Force consists of three operation squadrons, 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 bell jet rangers?—Define “operation squadrons?” As I recall from “Desert Storm,” the Iraqis always had a significant “air force” that flew its planes into Iran when the US went after them. Are they still flying them into other countries to avoid confrontation? As for the “US” planes, were these bought before or after the Iraq invasion? And who stands to profit from future sales? Was the Carlyle Group involved?

Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?—How substantial are these groups? Where are they and what are they doing?

Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?—How many have been killed since this “statistic” appeared? Does "fully equipped" mean they have body amour, or is this something only the American troops lack?

Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?—Of those 3,500 “new officers,” how many are killed each day? Does this “impressive number” mean 1) there are no other jobs in Iraq for its citizens? 2) so many are being killed their numbers need to be constantly replenished?

Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq? They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities?—Are these part of the “no bid” contracts Bush gave Halliburton?

Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?—Is this all??? Does the “96%” represent only those children who survived the bombings? What percentage of the total population of children before we invaded does 96% represent?

Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?—See previous “statistic”

Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?—What does this mean? Could it be that the telecommunications infrastructure is so badly damaged and in such a shambles that cell phones are the only way of communicating?

Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?—Who owns them? We have many stations here, but are all owned by only a few wealthy individuals who use them for propaganda. Are Iraqi stations being used for this purpose too?

Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004 and that the Iraqi economy is BOOMING?—Define “booming.” And how much of this “alleged” booming goes to Western investors/invaders (ie Halliburton, Carlyle Group, etc)

Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a recent televised debate recently?—Was one of them wired to receive answers and did he shout out “You forgot Poland!”?

OF COURSE WE DIDN'T KNOW! WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW? OUR MEDIA WOULDN'T TELL US!—What else won’t the media tell us?

Remember, "figures don't lie..."