A few things - Iraq; the mission changes yet again; false counting of decrease violence in Iraq

From another blogger Minstrel Boy who seems to share the focus theme specific to Iraq war.


U.S. excludes bombs in touting drop in Iraq violence "WASHINGTON — U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians."

Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Air Force Pinched by Iraq Ground War "WASHINGTON — The Air Force's top general expressed frustration on Tuesday with the reassignment of troops under his command to ground jobs for which they were not trained, ranging from guarding prisoners to driving trucks and typing."

Gen. Michael Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, said that over 20,000 airmen have been assigned worldwide into roles outside their specialties.



ePluribus Media Community This Is Your Brain On Iraq: "Paul Thurman was not supposed to be deployed. His brain had been damaged before he even left Ft. Bragg; a training accident in which a log was dropped on his head. Brain scans showed evidence of lesions. Yet, inexplicably, he was sent to Iraq.

There he sustained a second head trauma; another training accident. An IED simulator went off three feet from his head."

His company sent him to Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center in Germany, where the doctors, he said, told him he shouldn't have been deployed to Iraq. They forwarded him on to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he said he spent "eight hours with the USO ladies eating cookies" before being packed off to Fort Carson. He said he was not examined while at Walter Reed.

Training Iraqi troops no longer driving force in U.S. policy: "WASHINGTON - Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and now believe that U.S. troops will have to defeat the insurgents and secure control of troubled provinces. "

Training Iraqi troops, which had been the cornerstone of the Bush administration's Iraq policy since 2005, has dropped in priority, officials in Baghdad and Washington said.