Dummies I
“US marines who suffered the highest casualty rate of any unit in Iraq have revealed that they were so short of soldiers that they used cardboard dummies to fool insurgents into believing they faced more men ... The deception was revealed on Monday when the marines broke the corps' code of silence to detail the extent of shortages of equipment and manpower which they blame for many of their comrades' deaths.” — London Telegraph, April 27.
Dummies II
“US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld voiced exasperation today over criticism that the United States committed too few troops to stabilise Iraq against the advice of his former army chief of staff ... General Eric Shinseki was the army chief of staff who told Congress before the US invasion of Iraq two years ago that about the same number of troops would be needed to stabilise Iraq as to invade — several hundred thousand, by his estimate. His warning was dismissed at the time by Mr Rumsfeld and Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.” — Agence France Presse, April 27.
March of ‘democracy' I
“Ahmad Chalabi — convicted embezzler in Jordan, suspected Iranian spy, double-crosser of the United States, purveyor of phony war-instigating intelligence — is the new acting Iraqi oil minister. Is that why we went to war, to put the oily in charge of the oil, to set the swindler ... atop the ultimate gusher?” — New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, April 30.
March of ‘democracy' II
“Conservative lawmakers in Kuwait's parliament on Tuesday created a constitutional roadblock that effectively killed a measure that would have allowed women to participate in city council elections for the first time.” — New York Times, May 4.
From Green Left Weekly, May 11, 2005.
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