Who will play his lovers?

BULLY BOY PRESS &    CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE

FADED CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O IS ABOUT TO BE THE SUBJECT OF A LOW BUDGET -- POSSIBLY STRAIGHT TO VIDEO -- FILM ABOUT HIS MEETING AND MARRYING MICHELLE.









WHILE THE ROLE OF MICHELLE HAS BEEN CAST, THE MALE ROLES HAVE NOT BEEN -- NOT BARRY O NOR ANY OF THE MANY MEN HE ALLEGEDLY ENGAGED IN ORAL SEX WITH.


FROM THE TCI WIRE:




In one for Ripley's, Jean Sellmeyer Smith of Crowley has become the first person on the planet to prove it is possible to live without a brian.  Sellmeyer Smith managed this achievement and even documented it via a letter to the editors of the Advertiser.


Let's now quote from the historic document, "Our soldiers are home from Iraq. . ."


Sellmeyer Smith composed the letter after apparent non-stop exposure to the propaganda of MSNBC.


While proving it is capable to live without a brain, Sellmeyer Smith has also provided hours of laughter with her idiotic claim which was published on the same day as the Associated Press reported:


The US has reached an agreement with Iraq on privileges and immunities for the growing number of troops based in the country, helping in the fight against the Islamic State (Isis) militant group, the new US ambassador said on Thursday.
Stuart Jones said prime minister Haider al-Abadi has given assurances that US troops will receive immunity from prosecution.


Reached for comment, Sellmeyer Smith reportedly responded, "What do you expect from me, I'm just a mindless zombie in the Cult of St. Barack."

Being a zombie is being bit of whore.  You whore whatever's left of your name, sacrifice it on the temple alter to Barack Obama.  Being whores, people like Sellmeyer Smith?

They put their dirty, trashy name to anything.

That's how Sellmeyer Smith came to write:

Our soldiers are home from Iraq; Osama bin Laden is dead. In sharp contrast to the Bush years, the United States again leads the world in respected internationality.

That's how she came to write it a month after the editor of the Pekin Daily Times, Amy Gehrt, quoted Richard Brunt writing:

America is leading the world once again and respected internationally — in sharp contrast to the Bush years. Obama brought soldiers home from Iraq and killed Osama bin Laden.


Oh, I get it, you take the first sentence and make it the second one and you change the second one from "America" to "United States" and then, presto, it's almost as if you're plagiarized words were your own?

What is it?

It's Astroturf. (And the Shreveport Times printed the letter at the end of last month.  The exact same letter.)

We used to mock, on the left we did, all the crazy love slaves of Bully Boy Bush who used to copy and paste the same sentiments and send them out to newspapers across the land.

Like a nasty venereal disease, Astroturf has spread to the segments of the left -- the brain dead and whorish segments.


In the November 10, 2014 Iraq snapshot, we dealt with Richard Brunt's lies about US troops being out of Iraq:


Well just because you're letting the precum pool in your pants doesn't mean you need to share your erotic fantasies with the rest of us.

Brunt's so busy jizzing while moaning Barack, he actually writes, "Obama brought soldiers home from Iraq."

Indeed.

For example, he brought these two home last month -- in body bags.








That's Lance Cpl. Sean P. Neal (photo from Facebook).   We noted his death in October 25th snapshot.



That's Cpl Jordan Spears (photo from Marine Corps).  Last month, he was reclassified as the first death in 'Operation Inherent Resolve.'




Apparently, Brunt's been too busy jacking off to light bondage fantasies of Barack disciplining him to pay attention to actual events in the real world -- including the fact that 'Operation Inherent Resolve' has already claimed the lives of 2 American service members.

Jean Sellmeyer Smith is actually a bigger idiot and a bigger whore than Brunt.  When he wrote his bulls**t, those two were the only US service members dead in the latest phase of the never ending war.

But this week, DoD issued the following:

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Release No: NR-599-14
December 02, 2014

DoD Identifies Air Force Casualty

  The Department of Defense announced today the death of an Airman who was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.
Capt. William H. DuBois, 30, of New Castle, Colorado, died Dec. 1 when his F-16 aircraft crashed near a coalition air base in the Middle East. He was assigned to the 77th Fighter Squadron, Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.

For more information media may contact the 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs Office at 803-895-2019.  

In the early days of the Iraq War, I used to be left dumbfounded by the whorish efforts of Bully Boy Bush's love slaves to ignore reality in order to pimp their lover boy.

The Cult of St. Barack is no different.

They will whore.

They will lie.

They will look the other way.

Anything to avoid calling out Barack.

Barack Obama's time as president has demonstrated whorishness exists on all sides of the political spectrum.  Long gone (and buried) are the days when I could kid myself that being on the left was a sign that we were smarter.



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Barry O's shocking winter finale

BULLY BOY PRESS &    CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE

FRIDAY, FADED CELEBRITY BARRY O IS SCHEDULED TO MAKE A STUNNING ANNOUNCEMENT THAT WILL SHOCK THE NATION.

EVER SINCE SHONDA RHIMES DECIDED TO USE HER WINTER BREAK WITH HANDLING NARRATIVE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE, IT'S BEEN ONE TWISTER AFTER ANOTHER.

BUT.

FRIDAY.

WILL.

SHOCK.

THE.

NATION.

AS BARRY O ANNOUNCES HIS NOMINEE FOR THE NEXT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE.

YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS THE FINAL 2 MINUTES OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT WHERE BARRY O ANNOUNCES THAT NOT ONLY IS IT JOHN KERRY BUT THAT HE'S ALSO DECIDED TO DECLARE WAR ON MARS.

AND DON'T MISS THE STUNNING MOUTH-ON-MOUTH KISS THAT WILL END THE PRESS CONFERENCE.

BARRY O'S WINTER FINALE.

THIS FRIDAY.

ON THE ROSE GARDEN.



FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Today, CENTCOM announced, "In Iraq, four airstrikes near Mosul destroyed five ISIL bunkers, two ISIL-occupied buildings, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL fighting position and two heavy weapons. In addition, those airstrikes also struck a large ISIL unit and a tactical ISIL unit. Near Ramadi, two airstrikes destroyed four ISIL vehicles. Near Tal Afar, an airstrike destroyed an excavator and struck a tactical ISIL unit."

The US-led bombing campaign against the Islamic State has killed many and, though the US government would like to pretend otherwise, that includes many civilians.  Chris Woods (Foreign Policy) reports:

 The United States is not planning to grant compensation for civilians killed in airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, Foreign Policy has learned, despite claims by credible groups that at least 100 noncombatants may already have died in the 16 weeks of U.S.-led bombings.
The decision, confirmed by a senior spokesman for U.S. Central Command (Centcom), the military command organization in charge of the air war, marks a significant departure from recent conflicts, in which payments have regularly been made to civilians negatively impacted by U.S. military actions.  


What a proud moment for Barack Obama.  Even Bully Boy Bush's administration compensated some for Iraqi civilians killed by US military actions.

Let's stay with the US government for a bit.  At the State Dept press briefing today, spokesperson Marie Harf noted, "The Secretary [of State John Kerry]  is on travel in Europe today. This morning in Brussels he participated in the Counter-ISIL Coalition Meeting at NATO, had meetings with EU High Representative Mogherini and Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi, participated in a meeting on Libya with European foreign ministers and the EU, a meeting on the U.S.-EU Energy Ministerial, and he held a press availability which I’m sure many of you saw. Tonight he arrives in Basel, Switzerland for meetings at the OSCE, the first of which will be with Swiss Foreign Minister Burkhalter."

That Counter-ISIL Coalition meeting?  John Kerry wandered around the topic in public remarks to the press today in Brussels:



Secretary John Kerry:  [T]oday was an opportunity for representatives from about 60 members of the anti-ISIL coalition to come together, share their views, receive updates on coalition efforts, make suggestions about the roadmap ahead, and discuss as carefully as possible the pluses and minuses of the strategy engaged and what needs to be done to accomplish our goals going forward.
It was absolutely clear in the comments of everybody, particularly the prime minister of Iraq and his team, that we have made already significant progress in two and a half months. But we also acknowledge there is a lot more work yet to be done. Daesh is still perpetrating terrible crimes, but there was a consensus that the momentum which it had exhibited two and a half months ago has been halted, that it has been forced to modify its tactics – and some of those modifications severely hampering their ability to operate in the way that they were, certainly – that their hold on territory has been challenged already, and their finances have been strained, and in almost every media market that exists, and certainly within the region, their message is being denounced. Their message of hate is being challenged in public meeting places, in mosques across the globe. This clearly represents a multifaceted effort, which is precisely what we defined in the earliest days of suggesting that we would build a coalition and the coalition would take on Daesh.
Now, while airstrikes may capture the headlines – and there have been more than 1,000 of them thus far – this is far more than simply a military coalition. And it will not be successful, we all agree, if it were to rely on military alone, which it does not. Destroying Daesh is going to require defeating the ideology – the funding, the recruitment, and the devastation that they’ve been able to inflict on people in the region. And these are the areas that were really the primary focus of today’s discussion.
During this morning’s meeting, we reviewed the progress in each of our five lines of effort and came together in issuing a joint statement, all countries signing on, that underscores our unity and our firm support for our partners and our absolute determination to succeed. Participants noted the gains that we have made across all of the lines of effort – defeating ISIL on the battlefield, restricting its finances, enacting laws to restrict the flow of foreign fighters, and countering its toxic ideology.
The long-term success of the effort in Iraq is key to the success of the coalition. And today we heard directly from Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi, whose government yesterday revealed and reached a long-sought agreement, a landmark oil deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government. The prime minister also provided an update on the fight against Daesh in Iraq and on his broader reform agenda, including an executive order that he just issued to begin important changes in the criminal justice system of Iraq. Nothing will do more to defeat Daesh than an Iraq that is united and has more representative and effective security forces.
Now, obviously there’s a lot more work ahead. But the prime minister has taken steps to unite the country, including outreach to Sunni tribes. He has taken steps to root out corruption and to reform the Iraqi Security Forces and to take on the threat that Daesh represents. I think it’s fair to say that all of the foreign ministers, ambassadors, representatives who were there today came away impressed by Prime Minister Abadi and by what he has accomplished today, which is the down payment on the roadmap that he laid out for the future.


I like John Kerry -- supported his presidential run in 2004 -- but sometimes he's just too pathetic for words.

Should of been his crowning moment of the year today.  It's been a bad year for John.  Not like when he was in California and shot off his mouth thereby destroying any hopes of a 2008 run for president.  That was weeks of bad.  Weeks of embarrassment.  2014 has just been him forgetting he's Secretary of State and not of Defense.

He's gone crazy trying to play administration tough guy.

Today, he finally did something that was actually a job for the Secretary of State.

Despite the press traveling with him, the foreign ministries meet-up today received very little attention from the press.

And that's his fault.

When he had the microphone today addressing the press, he couldn't stay on topic.

I don't give a damn what he thinks about Libya or China.  We didn't include it.

I used to think, "Some day John will find the self-confidence to stop trying to show off and just focus on the task at hand."  The closer he gets to death, the less likely he'll ever arrive at a moment of self-confidence or self-awareness.

He has the world's attention for one brief moment and can speak for the administration and finally note something on the diplomatic front with regards to Iraq but that's for people who want to do their job.


It's not good enough for a John Kerry who wants to overwhelm you.

He killed his own moment.

That's on him.

He let down the administration because he couldn't stop strutting.

His task today was simple, to stay on topic (Iraq) and assure the world that the US had a diplomatic plan -- something in the works that would help bring Iraq to the "political solution" that Barack Obama has repeatedly said was the only answer for Iraq.

That was what was needed from the Secretary of State.

Kerry couldn't pull it off because he couldn't stay focused.





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FROM THE TCI WIRE:



Well I'm learning
It's peaceful
With a good dog and some trees
Out of touch with the breakdown 
Of this century
They're not going to fix it up
Too easy
-- "Electricity," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her For The Roses


Big News Networks salivates, "In a significant development, the Lebanese army has arrested one of the wives of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al Bakr Al Baghdadi near the border with Syria when they tried to enter the country using fake identity."  The woman is named in some reports as Saja Al Dulaimi.  Some identify her as a Syrian, some as an Iraqi.  All say she was arrested with a child -- some say a boy, some say a girl.  Though only reported today, Gulf Daily News says the arrests took place "10 days ago."

In Iraq today, there are many problems.

One of the biggest is the sense of lawlessness.  For Sunnis, that means their relatives disappear in the so-called justice system.  Security forces show up to arrest Laith al-Mutlaq -- with or without an arrest warrant -- and Laith isn't home but his grandmother is or his wife or his brother or his child or some other relative.  So the security forces haul that person off.

Where did they get that was okay?

Because US military commanders spent the first years of the Iraq War acting like thugs by basically kidnapping women married to Iraqi militants they were seeking.

That was illegal and unethical.

And it set the new Iraqi government down this road.

Very few people objected in real time or since.

The woman who is one of the wives of al-Baghdidi?

If she's done something herself, she should be arrested.

There's no way in the world the child has done anything.

It's doubtful the woman's done anything illegal.


(And in the midst of Barack's amnesty plan, don't try to pull the nonsense of 'she was trying to enter Lebanon illegally!')

The child?  Boy or girl, a DNA test was performed.

I'm doubting seriously that the mother gave permission for that test.

That's another violation.

You can try to pretty it up all you want but these thug actions that should be called out.

If you're not getting it, listen to the boasting that the Oman Tribune reports on:

A Lebanese security source said the arrest was “a powerful card to apply pressure” in negotiations to secure the release of 27 members of the Lebanese security forces captured by militants in August near the Syrian border – a view shared by other Lebanese officials who confirmed the arrest. 


What's taking place is a kidnapping.

These are thug actions.

The US government needs to condemn these actions but it won't.

It will, however, go out of its way to attack the Islamic State for kidnapping women.

I don't care who the woman married, I don't care who she sleeps with.

Unless and until she's broken the law herself, she shouldn't be detained.

Anyone detaining her without just cause based on her actions is a thug who is practicing kidnapping.

This is not acceptable and it is not normal.

The AP attempts to normalize it with paragraphs like this one:

If their identities are confirmed, Lebanon may use the pair as bargaining chips to win the release of soldiers and police taken hostage by the terrorists in cross-border attacks earlier this year.

If tomorrow,  Sarah al-Assam kidnaps Michelle Obama because her husband was killed in one of Barack's Drone War attacks in Lebanon, you better believe the press will express outrage.

And they should.

By the same token whatever Saja Al Dulaimi's husband has done is his responsibility.

If she's done nothing and the government of Lebanon is kidnapping her and attempting to use her hostage status as a bargaining chip, that is illegal and it is unethical and it must be called out.

Refusal to do so?

We've already seen how this ends.

It became normal in Iraq because so very few of us had the guts to call it out.

You either call out what's being done to Saja Al Dulaimi.or you accept that it's now the normal.

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BULLY BOY PRESS &    CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE

FADED CELEBRITY BARRY O CAN'T CREATE JOBS.

HE CAN'T FIX THE ECONOMY.

BUT HE CAN SPEND!

HE CAN SPEND AND SPEND AND SPEND!

IN HIS TERMS SO FAR, HE'S INCREASED U.S. DEBT BY OVER 70%!

REACHED FOR COMMENT, BARRY O TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY, GO BIG OR GO HOME!  GO BULLS! OR WHATEVER SPORT PEOPLE WATCH THIS TIME OF YEAR!"

FROM THE TCI WIRE:



Let's start in the US where two people don't have a grip on the facts: Jason Ditz and Medea Benjamin.

Jason Ditz (Antiwar.com) argues the US focus keeps shifting with regards to the Islamic State.

That's a solid observation.

This isn't:


At the start of the war, Mount Sinjar was the clear focus, and the conflict was even couched as a humanitarian intervention specifically for the refugees there. When the refugee situation turned out to be dramatically overstated, the focus shifted toward ISIS in Iraqi Kurdistan and then Syria.

Mount Sinjar?

Never solved.  Yazidis are still held hostage -- at last count, it was 400 families.

The US didn't rescue anyone.  Those who were rescued by the Peshmerga (elite Kurdish force).

In October, Susan Rice went on Meet The Press.  Pressed to cite a 'success' for the White House in Iraq, she declared it was the rescue of the hostages on Mount Sinjar.

Less than 36 hours later, it was revealed that thousands of Yazidis remained hostages on Mount Sinjar.

Antiwar.com could have run with that.

Except it's the home of the pig-headed male.

I am not 100% right.

I'm wrong often.

When I am, I say so.

The head of Antiwar.com, Justin Raimondo, decided to mock the Yazidis and their plight.

And that became the default position of Antiwar.com.

We pointed out here that nothing was going to be accomplished by Raimondo's nonsense except turning people off to what was being dubbed an "isolationist" position.  The American press wanted more war and was already ridiculing and admonishing those of us against more war on Iraq.

And then comes Justin playing into every stereotype of Ugly American.

Children are being terrorized -- as were adults -- and Justin's mocking it.

Nothing did more damage to the position of 'antiwar' than Justin's bulls**t.

He wanted to stop further war?

Well his ridicule of those suffering wasn't the way to do it.

For those making up their minds and those with a stance that was weak, the response to Justin's mocking of the suffering of the Yazidis was to recoil in disgust.

He did real damage to the 'antiwar' group.  (I belong to the peace movement.)

Justin staked out a position and he's too pigheaded, even now, to admit he was wrong.

This attitude?  It's not antiwar.

It's exactly why the world has so many wars.

People stake out a position and refuse to modify it or to admit they were wrong.

Justin can pretend to be antiwar all he wants but the reality is his mocking of the Yazidis did real damage.

Jason Ditz could probably write the truth, but this is Jason who praised Nouri al-Maliki, remember?

The thug and War Criminal was hero worshiped by Scott Horton (dee jay, not Harper's writer and college professor) and when Jason was a guest on the show, he'd join in on the grooviness of Nouri.

Even though Ned Parker had already exposed the torture chambers Nouri was running, even though Nouri had already launched a witch hunt on Iraqi's LGBT community and much more.

Let's move over to Medea Benjamin.  At the Guardian, she has a column noting the press' inability to question the war claims of the White House.  That's a good topic.  It's one we cover repeatedly.  Medea points out how fear was used to frighten people -- yeah, we covered that months ago.  Thanks for catching up, Medea.

We've also been covering the killing of civilians in the US-led air bombing campaign.

We've noted the inability of the western media to cover those deaths and how, if they were being covered, some of the public support for the bombings -- support in the US -- would erode.  So by all means, Medea, please work your way over to that part of the topic real soon.

Medea writes:

Day after day, night after night, the press relied on propaganda from both Isis and the US government to whip up fear and a thirst for revenge in the American public. Gruesome beheading videos distributed by Isis were played over and over. The media not only regurgitated official US messages but packaged them better than the government itself ever could. 

What is she saying, what does she mean?

We've covered this.

The US press did not cover all the beheadings.  They only cared about Americans and the first death horrified them because of their own huge egos and vanity run amok.


Once upon a time, when the press was supposed to strive for objectivity and to be impartial, there were questions about women reporters and abortion.  Could women cover the topic and be impartial?

Regardless of what camp you fall into on that question (I don't think most people impartial on the topic -- I'm firmly pro-choice), the reality is the press is not impartial.

Steven Sotloff and James Foley got attention -- got round the clock attention -- from the US media because they were reporters.

You did not, as a news consumer, get coverage of those beheadings.

You got obsessive cries from a self-interested group that doesn't give a damn when it's an aid worker beheaded by the Islamic State.

We made that comment in real time, we were correct as demonstrated by the deaths that followed and the lack of media coverage of them.

The press loves war, no question.

But the beheadings resulted in overheated 'coverage' that was nonstop and the reason for that was that the press was having a panic attack, a guttural cry of, "It could have been me!"


When that happens, when the media makes themselves the story, it's not just embarrassing, it's bad journalism.

If Stoloff and Foley's lives (and deaths) mattered (and I believe they did), then so did the others who were beheaded but were reduced to a single sentence in a generic report because they weren't reporters.

There was no grand conspiracy (unless Medea's arguing that the White House gave orders to the Islamic State to kill the two reporters).

The deaths just played into the US press' own vanity and they went crazy with it.


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BULLY BOY PRESS &    CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE

SATURDAY, FADED CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O SHOWED HIS FACE AT A BOOKSTORE AND BOUGHT 17 TITLES -- INCLUDING A HEALTHY SELECTION OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS.

REACHED FOR COMMENT TODAY, FIRST LADY MICHELLE TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "HOW WONDERFUL.  WE ARE ALL SO THRILLED THAT BARRY HAS LEARNED TO READ."




FROM THE TCI WIRE:




In a letter to the editors of the Houston Chronicle, Carl Schiro asks a question no one seems able to answer:

Regarding "Corruption hobbles Iraq's military efforts" (Page A1, Monday), why is our government still sending our troops and money to such a corrupt country?


Can anyone answer that question?  The article Schiro's referring to is David D. Kirkpatrick (New York Times via Hamilton Spectator) report on Iraqi forces:

                             

The Iraqi military and police forces had been so thoroughly pillaged by their own corrupt leadership that they all but collapsed this spring in the face of the advancing militants of the Islamic State — despite roughly $25 billion worth of U.S. training and equipment over the past 10 years and far more from the Iraqi treasury.                         

Now maybe if there had been work on the political solution -- the one US President Barack Obama has spent months giving lip service to -- corruption could have been dealt with.

Instead, Barack's planning a work-around.  Francesca Chambers (Daily Mail) notes:

The U.S. military has decided against rebuilding the entire Iraqi army and will instead focus on training a handful of brigades to take on Islamic radicals, initiating a shift in the Pentagon's decade-long approach to the handling the country.

'The idea is, at least in the first instance, to try and build a kind of leaner, meaner Iraqi army,' a senior U.S. official told the Washington Post.

Officials who spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity said the military plans to create nine new Iraqi army brigades of up to 45,000 light-infantry soldiers over the course of the next two months and team them with other Kurdish and Shiite fighters. 

So the problem is being labeled as "corruption" and the US government thinks the way to handle/address that is to just make smaller units?

That 'solution' -- laughable as it is -- certainly makes more sense than the Iraqi government's response.


Michael Gregory (Reuters) reports that Minister of Finance Hoshyar Zebari has stated that the military will take up about 23% of the proposed budget for 2015 and he's also calling "for deep-rooted reforms to stamp out corruption in a military that collapsed in the face of an Islamic State advance."

Yes, by all means, put nearly a quarter of your annual budget into a military machine known for its corruption.

Don't root out the corruption, just toss more money at it.

A quarter of your budget, for example.

Since the US isn't planning on any major actions until at least February, there's nore than enough time to address graft in the Iraqi military.

In fact, doing so would expose a mountain of corruption because as members of this political party or slate go down, you can rest assured they will take others down with them.  Meaning?  A State of Law military official goes down for corruption, they'll rat out someone in the Ministry of Transportation and so on and so on.

Corruption is rampant in Iraq.


That's why Transparency International ranks Iraq the 171st least transparent country or territory on a list of 177 for 2013.  This is not a new development.  In 2009, Barack was sworn in as president.  Transparency International's finds for 2009?  Iraq was ranked the 176th least transparent. (For those who want to trumpet the 'success' in Iraq moving from 176 to 171, please note that the 2009 list included 180 listings.They dropped three.  So Iraq really just moved one spot.)

In 2009, Patrick Cockburn (at CounterPunch) pointed out, "Iraq is the world’s premier kleptomaniac state. According to Transparency International the only countries deemed more crooked than Iraq are Somalia and Myanmar, while Haiti and Afghanistan rank just behind. In contrast to Iraq, which enjoys significant oil revenues, none of these countries have much money to steal."  Bill Van Auken (World Socialist Web Site) also noted the Transparency International 2009 report:

In relation to Iraq, the report found rampant corruption as well, with corrupt government officials operating with impunity. It cited a recent study by the Bertelsmann Foundation stating that in Iraq “non-security institutions remain weak and debilitated. The Iraqi leadership faces many structural constraints on governance, such as a massive brain drain, a high level of political division, and extreme poverty.”

Across the political spectrum, the corruption has been noted repeatedly and consistently.  For example, early this year the right-wing Heritage Foundation noted of Iraq:

Corruption is pervasive at all levels of government. There are widespread reports of demands by officials for bribes, mismanagement of public funds, payments to “ghost” employees, salary skimming, and nepotism. Although judicial independence is guaranteed in the constitution, judges are subject to immense political and sectarian pressure and are viewed by the public as corrupt or ineffective. Property rights are not well protected.


And if you need a government source, here's the US Embassy in Baghdad:

Corruption remains a salient feature of the political and economic landscape of Iraq and poses and threatens its full economic and social development.  Mitigating corruption’s corrosive effects on Iraq’s reconstruction requires continued USG engagement – both in terms of programs and in terms of bringing political and diplomatic pressure to bear on Iraqi leaders. 


With all the above in mind, let's return to the question that opens Carl Schiro's letter to the editors of the Houston Chronicle:

Regarding "Corruption hobbles Iraq's military efforts" (Page A1, Monday), why is our government still sending our troops and money to such a corrupt country?


It's not a hidden factor.  In June, Richard Engel (NBC News -- link is text and video) interviewed Iraqi forces and they repeatedly cited corruption as the country's "biggest enemy."

And as Patrick Cockburn (at the Independent) pointed out last year, the corruption was predicted at the start of the Iraq War:

A few months before the invasion, an Iraqi civil servant secretly interviewed in Baghdad made a gloomy forecast. “The exiled Iraqis are the exact replica of those who currently govern us… with the sole difference that the latter are already satiated since they have been robbing us for the past 30 years,” he said. “Those who accompany the US troops will be ravenous.”
Many of the Iraqis who came back to Iraq after the US-led invasion were people of high principle who had sacrificed much as opponents of Saddam Hussein. But fast forward 10 years and the prediction of the unnamed civil servant about the rapacity of Iraq’s new governors turns out to have been all too true. As one former minister puts it, “the Iraqi government is an institutionalised kleptocracy”.

Cockburn spent the last years worshipping the Shi'ites and spitting on the Sunnis so it's really hard for him to name names when covering the continued disintegration of Iraq.

But there are names to be named.

Chief among them Nouri al-Maliki.

In 2006, the White House demanded Nouri al-Maliki be named prime minister (the Iraqi Parliament wanted Ibraham al-Jafaari).  In 2010, the White House demanded Nouri get a second term and, having lost the election, the White House offered a legal contract (The Erbil Agreement) to give Nouri a second term.

Which means from spring 2006 to summer 2014, Nouri al-Maliki ruled Iraq.

And corruption thrived.

This despite Nouri insisting he would take on corruption -- repeatedly insisting.  But it's kind of hard to do that when you're part of the corruption.  Pennies found in sofa cushions don't buy all the sports cars Nouri's son zips around London in nor did they buy the swank home.




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