May-June, 2003

Iraq War - Fighting a War without Identifying the Enemy

11/19/2006

- May 1, 2003: Making a dramatic landing on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, dressed in a military flight suit, and then climbing up on a stage in front of cameras with a huge "Mission Accomplished" sign hanging from the superstructure, the President of the United States displayed his ego and ignorance for all the world to see. George Bush, wearing his self-proclaimed "wartime president" moniker announced: "My fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country."

Nothing, and I mean nothing, could have been further from the truth - unless you consider how far this man was removed from it. His lies had started a war for which there would be no end. He had misidentified the enemy and knowingly aided and abetted the real foe.

Up to this point, 140 American's had sacrificed their lives to accomplish Bush's mission, which was to become a wartime president. 140 dead Americans as percentage of the 2590 American soldiers and 125 American civilians killed in Iraq (as of August 2006) is 5%. From a casualty perspective, 543 wounded Americans thus far represents 1% of the 19,272 American soldiers who would be wounded in action after the "combat operations ended" and the real war began. Ninety-five percent of the fatalities and 99% of the casualties could have been avoided if only the troops had been called home on this day. But troop deaths would average 75 a month for years to come. Nonfatal casualties would average over 500 a month as burned, bullet ridden, and amputated bodies returned in numbers equivalent to Vietnam.

Lying to the American people and to its military, the President said: "In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment - yet, it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage, your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other, made this day possible. Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free. (Applause.)"

The tyrant had fallen but Iraq was not free, nor would it ever be. It was now controlled by a religion which is completely opposed to choice and which calls itself "submission." As for peace, Muslim religious gangs would murder 30,000 to 40,000 of their own people within the next three years making the Islamic government more ruthless than the secular one George Bush had replaced.

More importantly, America was less secure. First, Islam, the reason for Islamic terrorism, was now in control of Iraq. Second, as a direct result of invading Iraq crude prices had tripled, further enriching the Islamic OPECers - terrorism's primary funding mechanism. Third, to justify the war the president had lied repeatedly about Islam, presenting the real enemy as a "good, noble, loving, and peaceful religion serving the same God as that of the Bible." And as we all know now, Bush lied when he presented his justifications for his war - all of them.

Knowing that blunders and mistaken identities had claimed nearly 70% of those who had died thus far, that the announced enemy didn't fight, and that those being "liberated" killed the remaining soldiers, George Bush went on to deceive the world. "Operation Iraqi Freedom was carried out with a combination of precision and speed and boldness the enemy did not expect, and the world had not seen before. From distant bases or ships at sea, we sent planes and missiles that could destroy an enemy division, or strike a single bunker. Marines and soldiers charged to Baghdad across 350 miles of hostile ground, in one of the swiftest advances of heavy arms in history. You have shown the world the skill and the might of the American Armed Forces." It had all been a perverse calamity of errors and this clown knew it. But he had a vested interest in perpetuating a myth.

Imagine using a term like "precision" to describe bumbling so egregious that two thirds of the fatalities were from mishaps and mistaken identities. Imagine using a term like "destroying an enemy division" when the only real enemy, the one responsible for a third of the fatalities, was composed entirely of those you had claimed to have rescued. Only a very, very disturbed and delusional man would find this worth celebrating.

If America is to recover from its misadventure in Iraq, this reality needs to sink in. At the time victory was announced, more than two-thirds of those who had died were killed in accidents and mistaken identity. Nearly a third of the casualties had come by way of Iraqi civilians, the very people who were supposedly being liberated. The ousted secular tyrant was less lethal than the religious tyrants who replaced him. All that was because America and Islam were manufacturing jihadists much faster than coalition bombs were killing them. Worst of all, by invading Iraq, America tripled OPEC's revenues and thus tripled Islamic terrorism's crude funding. The outcome of this war would be as harmful as the deceptions that had led to it.

Aware that he and his team were responsible for this colossal calamity of errors, George Bush said: "And tonight, I have a special word for Secretary Rumsfeld, for General Franks, and for all the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States: America is grateful for a job well done. (Applause.) I'm honored to be your Commander-in-Chief. (Applause.)" If this doesn't make your stomach churn and your soul to cry out, you too are living in denial.

Knowing that the pulling down of Saddam's bronze was a charade, the President said: "In the images of falling statues, we have witnessed the arrival of a new era." It sounded like a mix between Hitler's 1000 year Reich and a New World Order propaganda press release.

Knowing that Iraqi civilians were now the enemy, and that they, not uniformed soldiers were the ones killing Americans, the President said: "With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against civilians. No device of man can remove the tragedy from war; yet it is a great moral advance when the guilty have far more to fear from war than the innocent. (Applause.)"

There is no way of knowing how many Iraqi soldiers the American armed forces may have killed. A generous estimate may be one-thousand. But it is certain that the total number of Iraqi civilians who have died as a result of U.S. military intervention exceeds 40,000 (of which 10,000 were killed by coalition forces). So while it is true that most of the carnage came by way of Muslims killing Muslims, the removal of the secular regime paved the way to what has become an uncivil war waged by competitive Shi'ite militias and Sunni militants.

Completely delusional, the President of the United States said: "In the images of celebrating Iraqis, we have also seen the ageless appeal of human freedom. Decades of lies and intimidation could not make the Iraqi people love their oppressors or desire their own enslavement. Men and women in every culture need liberty like they need food and water and air. Everywhere that freedom arrives, humanity rejoices; and everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear. (Applause.)" I do not dispute that there were cheering Iraqis. They celebrated every time they murdered an American. The best example of this is what happened in Fallujah - all caught on videotape. But what is obvious here is that America's president was in dire need of psychiatric help. The Commander In Chief was delusional.

"We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We're bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous." Actually, the American presence dramatically increased the level of chaos. That much is obvious. "We're pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes." That was true, but they hadn't killed Americans. Those who did, the Islamic clerics, were universally exonerated for their crimes.

"We've begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated." They found nothing. The reason for the war had been a hoax.

"We're helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of hospitals and schools. And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi people. (Applause.)" While the United States would squander $500 billion in Iraq all important indices of progress continue to go in the wrong direction. The economy is in shamble, and basic services like water, sewer, and electricity remain at below prewar levels. Secular schools turned sectarian, now teach the religion of submission. The new Iraqi government is of, by, and for the Shi'ite clerics in league with Iran.

Knowing that there are no democracies on earth, and that there hasn't been one since the Delian League (circa 470 BCE) nearly 2,500 years ago, the leader of the American republic reported: "The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. Then we will leave, and we will leave behind a free Iraq. (Applause.)" No, America will leave Iraq embroiled in a Shiite-Sunni civil war - a nation oppressed by an Islamic theocracy. That is what "voting" will bring.

Wrongly equating the invasion of Iraq to the Islamic suicide bombing of the World Trade Center, the nation's chief deceiver said: "We know that the battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 - and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men [85% of whom were from Saudi Arabia and none of whom were from Iraq] - the shock troops of a hateful ideology [known as the religion of Islam] - gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September the11th would be the ‘beginning of the end of America.' By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation's resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed. (Applause.)"

Actually, everyone lost. Americans would squander thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars lashing out at a tactic while Islam continued to terrorize every life it touched. Further, and let's be absolutely clear, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Nothing. In fact, in a late August 2006 press conference, President Bush would ultimately use the same world, "nothing," to admit that it had all been untrue.

When this president called his misguided and mismanaged invasion of Iraq a "victory" he was as errant and delusional as he was when he equated the invation of Iraq to "a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001." This whole speech, this whole war, was nothing more than one lie piled on top of another. And what is particularly alarming is that this deadly and destructive deceiver was elected because he received near unanimous support from "Christian conservatives" who claimed to have voted for him based upon moral issues.

In this portion of the speech, the President boasted that America had "destroyed the Taliban." However, with the exception of Kabul, the Taliban still controlled the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The oppressive Islamic Sharia Law they imposed was still used to repress the people. About the only thing America changed in Afghanistan was heroin production which became the nation's primary crop. The Taliban, as bad as they were, had made poppy production illegal.

The deceiver in chief said, "In the battle of Afghanistan, we destroyed the Taliban, many terrorists, and the camps where they trained. We continue to help the Afghan people lay roads, restore hospitals, and educate all of their children. Yet we also have dangerous work to complete. As I speak, a Special Operations task force, led by the 82nd Airborne, is on the trail of the terrorists and those who seek to undermine the free government of Afghanistan. America and our coalition will finish what we have begun. (Applause.)" All America accomplished in Afghanistan was to make al-Qaeda more popular and more comfortable. Moving them out of Afghani caves and into Pakistani homes where they enjoy a 70% approval rating, also put them within arm's reach of a thermonuclear arsenal.

"Nineteen months ago, I pledged that the terrorists would not escape the patient justice of the United States. And as of tonight, nearly one-half of al Qaeda's senior operatives have been captured or killed. (Applause.)" That wasn't true either, not even remotely. While the U.S. has killed or incarcerated less than 10% of al-Qaeda's leadership, and neither of its founders, its actions had manufactured a hundred replacements for every one captured or killed. Moreover, al-Qaeda isn't the problem: Islam is. Al-Qaeda is just one of several hundred Islamic terrorist organizations. They all have the same mission.

In truth, the Islamic Osama bin Laden hated the secular Saddam Hussein because he wasn't a Muslim. In 1991, bin Laden had asked the Saudi dictators for authorization to deploy his mujahideen, who were fresh off of their victory over the Soviet Union, to fight Saddam's forces which were now in Kuwait. Unfortunately, Saud Crown Prince Abdallah accepted George Bush's father's offer to help and rejected Osama's - a snub that eventually led to revenge, and to 9/11. So the Iraq war was related to September 11th, but the wrong one and in the wrong way.

Al-Qaeda's primary ally had been the United States. The CIA had given mujahideen jihadists, including Osama's, a billion dollars in funding and weaponry. And while that funding had ended with the mujahideen victory and the end of the cold war, al-Qaeda didn't miss Uncle Sam's generosity because the Sauds were even more generous. Therefore, what the President of the United States said next was not only untrue, the opposite was true: "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding."

Those who claim that President George Bush never claimed that Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda were allies, ought to read that last line again. The harsh reality is that both justifications for the war in Iraq, WMDs and links to al-Qaeda and 9/11 were outright lies. When a nation goes to war based upon that which is not true, horrible things happen. If you need a reminder, consider Vietnam. Or barring that, consider the horrible mess America has made in Iraq.

His next line was the only thing the president got right, but not for the reason he was suggesting: "And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more. (Applause.)" The fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction to be given out was known to the administration at this time but not to the soldiers or the American people.

Continuing to link the invasion of Iraq to 9/11, America's best weaver of lies declared: "In these 19 months that changed the world, our actions have been focused and deliberate and proportionate to the offense. We have not forgotten the victims of September the 11th - the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got. (Applause.)"

The opposite of what he said next was true. To appreciate why it is important to know what Islam represents and who advances its cause. "Our war against terror is proceeding according to principles that I have made clear to all: Any person involved in committing or planning terrorist attacks against the American people becomes an enemy of this country, and a target of American justice. (Applause.)"

The world's most lavish supporter of Islam was and remains Saudi Arabia. Yet its leader was the first guest at Bush's ranch after 9/11. The world was indeed upside down. It is little wonder that mishaps and mistaken identities had claimed the lives of nearly 70% of the American soldiers who had been lost in Iraq. "Any person, organization, or government that supports, protects, or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent, and equally guilty of terrorist crimes. Any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to the civilized world - and will be confronted. (Applause.)" The United States has the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction - more than the rest of the world combined. Saddam's stash wouldn't fill a trashcan.

I hate it when race replaces religion as was done in this line: "And anyone in the world, including the Arab world, who works and sacrifices for freedom has a loyal friend in the United States of America. (Applause.)" Everyone knows that he was speaking of the "Islamic world" but by using race, rather than religion, he caused those who would challenge his overt accommodation of the enemy to be called racists.

Since there is no "Palestine" apart from that which is severed from Israel, the American leader was advocating a reward for the world's most vicious terrorists: "We are committed to...a peaceful Palestine."

"Thank you for serving our country and our cause. May Allah bless you all, and may Allah continue to bless America. (Applause.)" Since George Bush publicly declared that he believes that Allah is God, I didn't think he mind the substitution.

- May 1, 2003: An American working at a Saudi naval base in Jubail was wounded when an unidentified Muslim gunman wearing a Saudi naval uniform shot him three times in the stomach. The attack at the King Abdul-Aziz base took place a day after the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh warned about imminent attacks against American targets in Saudi Arabia.

Earlier in the week the United States announced that almost all of its troops would be pulled out of the Kingdom by a mutual agreement with the Saudi government. The American military presence had been a chief grievance of Islamist militants in the region. So George Bush capitulated to Osama bin Laden, turned tail, didn't stay the course, surrendered, and cut and run - abandoning a $5 billion dollar upgrade to American military bases in the fiefdom of Saud.

- May 1, 2003: The end of April didn't bring an end to America's problems in Iraq. Mistaken plans continued to breed mistakes. Jesse Givens, 34, from Springfield, Missouri was the next to die. He was killed when the M1A1 Abrams battle tank he was in, which was parked at the time, fell into the Euphrates River as its bank collapsed near al Habbaniyah.

- May 3, 2003: Sean Reynolds, 25, from East Lansing, Michigan fell while climbing a ladder in Iraq, causing his M-4 rifle to accidentally discharge, killing him.

- May 4, 2003: The next two soldiers to die in Iraq were also the result of mishaps. Jason Deibler, 20, of Coeburn, Virginia was killed by a non-combat weapon discharge in Kuwait. Andrew Kelly's death is listed as an accident that is undergoing further investigation. He was just 18 when he was killed in a shooting accident at his barracks near Basra.

- May 4, 2003: The Al-Alwiyah Children's Hospital in Baghdad reported today that failures in the city's water purification systems caused between 21 to 56 children to contract diarrhea and die.

Two days later, 24 Iraqi civilians died in Samawah when electrical and water system failures prevented them from extinguishing a fire.

- May 8, 2003: Marlin Rockhold, 29, from Hamilton, Ohio was shot and killed by a Muslim while he was directing traffic at an intersection in Baghdad. Who would have ever dreamed that the United States military would put 7th Infantry Regiment soldiers on the street to direct civilian traffic in a city where 96% of the population saw American troops as the enemy. While a Muslim sniper may have pulled the trigger, American stupidity was responsible for his death.

Duncan Pritchard, 22, died as a result of injuries sustained in a traffic accident while on duty in Iraq.

- May 9, 2003: Brian Van Dusen, 39, Hans Gukeisen, 31, and Richard Carl, 26 of Columbus, Ohio, Lead, South Dakota, and King Hill, Idaho, were killed when the UH-60 medical helicopter they were aboard crashed in the Tigris River near Samarra.

Cedric Burns, 22, of Vancouver, Washington was killed in a non-hostile vehicle accident in a Kuwaiti base. The pickup truck he was driving was struck on the driver's side by a "logistics vehicle system."

While it may seem like I'm pulling isolated troop fatalities which were the result of accidents from a massive number of soldiers who died fighting the enemy, that is not the case. I am reporting everything I have found. The truth is as startling to me as it probably is to you. I knew that this war was an accident waiting to happen but I had no idea it would be this bad.

- May 10, 2003: Matthew Smith, 20, of Anderson, Indiana, was killed in Iraq when the Humvee he was driving as part of a convoy to Camp Coyote, Kuwait hit a parked trailer.

- May 12, 2003: Jose Rodriquez, 19, and Jakub Kowalik, 21, were both killed when unexploded ordnance they were handling in a Marine encampment detonated accidentally.

- May 12, 2003: Nine Islamic suicide bombers in four simultaneous assaults blew up three residential compounds for foreign workers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The 34 dead included the 9 attackers, 7 other Saudis, 9 Americans, and one citizen each from the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Philippines.

Yet another American died on June 1. Forty Americans were among the 200 people who were wounded in the bombing.

It was the first major attack on U.S. targets in Saudi Arabia since the end of the first war in Iraq. Saudi authorities arrested 11 suspects they themselves had educated (actually indoctrinated) on May 28th. To make the naive believe that they were fighting the terrorists rather than manufacturing them, the assailants were said to have links to al-Qaeda rather than Islam.

- May 13, 2003: Mishaps took more lives today in George Bush's misguided war on terrorism. Nicholas Kleiboeker, 19, was killed when the munitions bunker he was working in caught fire and exploded.

Patrick Griffin, 31, was sacrificed when an unexploded U.S. Army cluster bomb detonated while his convoy was stopped near Diwaniya, Iraq.

David Nutt, 22, died in a vehicle accident in Mosul, Iraq. An Iraqi civilian vehicle cut in front of Nutt's 5-ton truck. When David swerved to miss it, his truck hit the median and overturned.

- May 16, 2003: Bill Payne, 46, was killed when ordnance he was examining accidentally exploded in Haswah, Iraq.

Rasheed Sahib, 22, was killed when by an accidental weapons discharge as he and another soldier were cleaning their M-16s. The stray bullet pierced his chest.

- May 18, 2003: As we continue to study the effects of George Bush's failed invasion of Iraq, and the consequence of his mythical war against terrorism, we learn that the next American to die was Doug Marencoreyes. He was 28 years old and was killed when the transport truck he was riding in rolled over southwest of Samawah, Iraq.

- May 19, 2003: Aaron White, 27, John Shepherd, 34, Tim Ryan, 30, Jason Moore, 21, and Andy La Mont, 31, were drowned when their CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff and plunged into the Shatt Al Hillah Canal. They were on a resupply mission.

Kirk Straseskie, 23, from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, drowned while trying to rescue the crew of the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter when they fell into the canal.

On April 3rd KGO Radio in San Francisco broadcast a live interview with La Mont before he flew north to evacuate wounded troops.

Dominic Baragona, 42, was killed in a vehicle accident. A tractor-trailer jackknifed on the road and collided with his High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HHMWV) - Humvee.

Once again, I'm not ignoring fatalities that were the result of confronting the enemy to make the case that those responsible for this calamity should be shot.

Over the course of the first 19 days of May, Islam, which wasn't supposed to be the enemy, claimed one American soldier's life. Mistakes killed 25 of 26 American casualties. The Coalition death toll was now 201. A stunning 67% (129 of 194) of the known casualties were from friendly fire and accidents. Islam (mistaking the enemy's real identity) had claimed 59 lives representing 31% of the known deaths. The virtually nonexistent enemy, Saddam Hussein's armed forces, had perpetrated 2% of coalition casualties. There was a very clear and disturbing picture being pained here. Too bad it wasn't reported.

Bush, Chaney, and Rumsfeld were the Three Stooges Do War - only thing, this wasn't funny. Good people were dying.

- May 26, 2003: David Evans, 18, died prematurely in an accidental explosion in an ammunition stockpile in Diwaniya, Iraq. David was guarding the Iraqi munitions when a steel structure he and another soldier had erected to keep out of the fierce heat and piercing sand collapsed, causing the stockpile to detonate. David's comrade in arms was badly wounded.

Jeremiah Smith, 25, was killed when his vehicle hit unexploded American ordnance while escorting heavy equipment in Baghdad. It was most likely a cluster bomb

Mistakes aside, it was time for some Muslims to kill an American. Today, Mat Schram, 36, was killed in a convoy supply mission that came under "enemy fire" in Haditha, Iraq. The realization that this "enemy" was composed entirely of Muslim civilians never dawned on the politicians.

Brett Petriken, 30, and Kenneth Nalley, 19, lost their lives when a heavy U.S. transporter crossed the median and struck their Humvee while they were escorting a convoy in the other direction.

Keman Mitchell, 24, died when he jumped into a 7-foot deep body of water in Kirkuk, Iraq and failed to resurface. He was revived but was too far from quality medical care to be saved.

- May 27, 2003: The report says, "Michael Quinn, 37, of Tampa, Florida and Thomas Broomhead, 34, of Cannon City, Colorado, were killed on guard duty at a checkpoint by unknown assailants who pulled up to them in a civilian vehicle in Fallujah, Iraq and then opened fire." I beg to differ. These assailants had made themselves known. They were Shiite Muslims serving in the militia of the second-highest ranking Islamic cleric in Iraq, al Sadr. He and his militants would go on to murder and mutilate many Americans. But the Commander In Chief put a "do not kill and do not capture" designation on al-Sadr. Whose side was he on?

- May 28, 2003: Kenneth Bradley, 39, of Utica, Mississippi, died of "a non-combat related cause." It was a heart attack in Baquba, Iraq. Unlike the man who had sent him there, at least he had a heart to be broken. The lack of humanity required to perpetrate a war for personal political purposes based entirely upon false pretenses may be the most heartless thing a human can do. But it is surpassed in moral callousness when the perpetrator allowed more good people to die while he scrambled to justify the unjustifiable. Ego isn't a valid reason to go to war and pride isn't a satisfactory reason to stay at war.

- May 28, 2003: Muslim militants killed Jose Perez, 22, in an ambush while he was driving as member of a convoy through the town of Taji, Iraq.

- May 30, 2003: May in Iraq ended as it had begun. Three Americans were killed in a senseless accident. Mike Gleason, 25, and Kyle Griffin, 20, and Zachariah Long, 20 were ordered to drive through a raging sandstorm. They lost their lies in hellish conditions between Mosul and Tikrit, Iraq. Unable to see much beyond that which was immediately in front of them, they dodged to avoid a large pothole in the road, causing their Light Medium Tactical Vehicle to swerve and then turn over. It's just my opinion, but it's hard not to hold those accountable who had sent them out into this sandstorm.

May was worse than April, at least when one looks beneath the surface to learn how and why good men lost their lives. A total of 38 Americans and 3 British troops were killed in Iraq this month, 36 from mistakes and 5 from Muslims. The totals were now: Mishaps and Accidents: 140 (67% of the known total). Mistaking Muslims for Friends, not Foes: 63 (30% of the known total). Saddam's Army: 5 (2% of the total). Unknown: 7 (insufficient DoD data to ascertain cause of death). Total: 215 (178 Americans & 37 Brits). The total American Casualties were 598.

Sadly, during this time, the real enemy, Islam, was growing stronger, much stronger. The destabilization that had occurred as a result of the U.S. invading Iraq had sent crude prices soaring. Since OPEC was the funding source for Islamic indoctrination and terrorism, the world was becoming substantially more vulnerable while the United States was losing a distracting, costly, and unwinnable war. As a direct result, the most expensive weapons on earth, nuclear bombs, will funded by OPEC and conveyed by Muslims. The target will be America's largest cities. The timing: between 2010 and 2025.

- June 1, 2003: In Iraq, two masked men broke into the office of Aqil Muhammad Rashid of the weekly Al-Fayha newspaper in al-Hillah, 50 miles south of Baghdad. They killed him. His crime had been to publish articles critical of Saddam Hussein's deposed regime. The gunmen escaped, leaving behind a statement signed "Saddam's Knights" (Fursam Sadam), threatening those who cooperated with the Americans.

So even if Saddam's Knights weren't very good at killing American's, they had plenty of practice killing their own.

- June 1-7, 2003: Jon Lambert, 28, died in Germany of injuries sustained when his Humvee flipped over in Iraq. He was part of an escort mission. Travis Burkhardt, 26, was also killed when his vehicle hit a curb in Baghdad and rolled. David Sisung, 21, died of a non-combat related injury.

Doyle Bollinger, 21, died when unexploded American ordnance accidentally detonated in the area he was working in.

Atanacio Marin, 27, was manning a checkpoint in Balad, Iraq when Muslims decided to kill him. He died in a hail of projectiles from rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.

Pfc. Brandon Oberletner, 20, became one more of a rising tide of Americans killed by Mahdi Militia of Iranian-backed Shiite cleric al Sadr in Fallujah, Iraq. He was returning from a dismounted patrol when he was attacked with an RPG.

Muslim militants murdered Jesse Halling, 19, when they fired rocket-propelled grenades at him and then finished the job by shooting him with automatic weapons. He had been manning a police station in hopes of restoring order.

David Sisung was killed in an accident aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

- June 7, 2003: In Afghanistan, four German soldiers were killed when a suicide car bomber detonated himself next to the bus the coalition troops were riding in. Demonstrating that even Kabul isn't safe, the Islamic assault occurred near the Afghan national Army training facility inside the city limits.

- June 8, 2003: I am particularly sickened by what happened in Al Asad, Iraq today. Michael Dooley, a 23-year-old from Pulaski, Virginia displayed his character when he, while manning a checkpoint, approached a vehicle in which two people were calling out for medical help for a sick friend. Muslims displayed their character when they opened fire on Mike as he approached, killing him at pointblank range. It takes a very, very sick person to do such a thing.

- June 10, 2003: Gavin Neighbor, 20, of Somerset, Ohio, was trying to do the neighborly thing. He was helping Iraqis in Baghdad collect and dispose of their trash when Muslims killed him with a rocket-propelled grenade. Another account has Gavin off duty and resting in a bus when an RPG was fired at him from a house nearby.

- June 12, 2003: In Iraq, Muslims attacked the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline, igniting massive fires. Such forms of sabotage following the U.S.-led occupation had become common.

- June 12-19, 2003: Since America's sole focus in its "war of terror" was now in Iraq, it's important that we keep tabs on how the Bush administration was doing. After all, George was a "wartime president."

Andy Pokorny was killed when his M113 armored personnel carrier threw a track, causing it to roll over in Al Asad, Iraq. He was returning from patrol duty in Al Asad.

Ryan Cox died of a non-hostile gunshot wound suffered near Najaf, Iraq. Joe Suell also died from "a non combat related cause." He spent his last day in Todjie, Iraq. Mike Tosto lost his life to a non-combat cause at Camp Wolf, Kuwait. John Klinesmith was last seen alive wading in a lake on the palace compound in Fallujah Iraq. His body later floated to shore.

Muslims acting badly killed Shawn Pahnke, 25, of Shelbyville, Indiana. They shot him in the back while he was sitting in a military vehicle during a security patrol of Baghdad.

Also trying to help ungrateful people, Mike Deuel, 21, of Santa Fe Springs, California was murdered when neighborhood Muslims in Baghdad sent a bullet through him in a drive by shooting. Mike was working at an Iraqi propane distribution facility.

Robert Frantz, 19, of San Antonio, Texas was thanked by Muslims for "liberating" them when "a local resident exploded near him while he was on guard duty in Baghdad." Other accounts have "a local resident throwing a grenade over a wall that was next to him." Either way, only one human was killed in this incident.

Further demonstrating their lack of humanity, Baghdad Muslims shot a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. ambulance killing Paul Nakamura, 21, of Allendale, South Carolina. He was part of the medical crew transporting an injured soldier at the time.

Bill Latham, 29, was hit by shrapnel during a raid on a suspected arms market in Ramadi, Iraq. Qur'ans and guns go together like bread and butter.

- June 14, 2003: Hypocritically, Muslims in Iraq scream bloody murder when Americans arrest a Muslim woman suspected of terrorism. Yet in Kashmir, they make murdering them routine. Today militant Muslims barged into the home of a man who they didn't like and promptly shot his wife to death.

- June 22, 2003: Orenthial Smith, 21, lost his life when Muslims in Baghdad decided that it was Allah's will for them to ambush an American convoy carrying supplies. Once the convoy had slowed they shot Smith with their militant weapon of choice, AK-47s. He had been promoted to sergeant earlier in the day.

Cedric Lennon, 32, died in Baghdad from non-combat causes.

- June 22, 2003: Petty Officer Tom Tetzer, 30, of San Diego was wounded after his convoy was attacked by Muslim militants outside of the town of Gardez, Afghanistan.

- June 22, 2003: Muslims opposed to the United States occupation of Iraq continued to sabotage oil pipelines - today damaging the pipeline between Iraq and Syria. This same day, Muslims exploded a bomb alongside an oil pipeline 150 miles northwest of Baghdad. These were the forth and fifth pipeline attacks in less than three weeks.

- June 22, 2003: Captian Seth Michaud, 27, of Hudson, Massachusetts was killed in Afghanistan when an Air Force B-52 bomber inadvertently dropped his ordnance south of the intended target, killing the Marine. He and others were there at the range in case a medical evacuation was needed.

- June 24, 2003: Continuing to bleed the American taxpayer rather than the Iraqi oilfields, Muslims sabotaged another pipeline, this one along the Syrian border.

- June 24, 2003: In Iraq, at least thirteen people, including two American soldiers were killed and at least seven other U.S. soldiers were injured when militant Muslims attacked a police station in Ba'qubah. This attack was one of many which were perpetrated a week before the scheduled handover of power from the U.S. government to the Iraqi interim government. "Tawhid and Jihad" claimed responsibility for the coordinated assaults. At the end of the day, over ninety people were dead and over 250 more Iraqi civilians were wounded.

Demonstrating their bloodlust, Tawhid and Jihad attacked a police station in Mahaweel. Then a car bomb stuck the al-Jumhuri hospital in the city of Mosul. It was one of three attacks in Mosul on this day, inclusive of a car bomb attack on two Mosul police stations. Another suicidal car bomber exploded himself outside the Iraqi Police Academy in Mosul, too. About 65 Iraqi civilians were killed in Mosul alone.

Continuing the carnage, a suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint in Baghdad, killing five people, including four Iraqi soldiers. Tawhid and Jihad finished demonstrating the jihadist nature of Islam at a police station in Ramadi.

The terrorist group's full name, Jama'at Al-Tawhid Wa'al-Jihad, tells us that they represent Islam, that they understand what the Qur'an teaches, and that they are following Muhammad's example. Their name means: "Monotheism and Holy Fighting."

Monotheism and Holy Fighting's objective is to establish an Islamic state in Iraq. Their goal is thus identical to that of the Shi'ite clerics who now control Iraq's government, notwithstanding that Tawhid and Jihad is a Sunni organization.

The Islamic terrorist group's preferred targets are coalition forces in Iraq, as well as Iraqi government officials, particularly Shi'ites, and Shi'ite security forces. In full compliance with the Qur'an, Tawhid and Jihad announced that they will "target and kill any Iraqi Muslim who betrays his religion by cooperating with the Infidel Crusaders." Monotheism and Holy Fighting is a Salafi/fundamentalist Islamic gang motivated exclusively by Allah's Qur'anic orders and Muhammad's Sunnah. United and driven by their religious beliefs, their organization is composed of non-Iraqi Muslims, elements of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, and indigenous Sunni Iraqis.

Monotheism and Holy Fighting has engaged in all of the really popular Islamic behaviors: kidnappings, beheadings, assassinations, heavily armed assaults, ambushes, and suicide bombings. They frequently deploy rocket-propelled grenades in their attacks.

Tawhid and Jihad has been linked to several gruesome murders, including the beheading of the American civilian contractor Nicholas Berg. However, Monotheism and Holy Fighting does not limit its attacks to American civilians, American soldiers, coalition military allies, Iraqi government officials and Iraqi security forces. They have also attacked the United Nations, a wide assortment of humanitarian organizations, Kurdish politicians, and Shi'ite clerics.

In the United State's rush to judgment, Tawhid and Jihad was initially linked to al-Qaeda. But initially, there was no al-Qaeda presence in Iraq. It would be more than a year after the American invasion before a merger of terrorist groups would create an al-Qaeda presence there. On October 17, 2004, Tawhid and Jihad first announced their affiliation with al-Qaeda, pledging to respect the more famous firm's directives.

One of Tawhid and Jihad's leaders is Sami Muhammad Ali Said al-Ja'af, who uses the aliases, Abu Yusef and Abu Omar Al-Kurdi. He is an explosives expert. He had risen to prominence and favor in the Sunni Islamic community as a result of his repeated and deadly attacks against U.S and coalition forces in Iraq, as well as against Iraqi Shi'ite civilians. This good Muslim and thus bad person is believed to be responsible for 32 car bombings, collectively resulting in several hundred deaths. Now in detention, Muhammad Ali Said al-Ja'af confessed to building 75% of the car bombs used in Iraq since the March 2003, American invasion, including the ones used in the attack on the U.N. headquarters.

Abu Maysarah al-Iraqi is the spokesperson for Tawhid and Jihad. Although his name is a pseudonym, al-Iraqi frequently posts claims of responsibility for terrorist attacks on jihadist websites. In January 2006 he posted a statement announcing the formation of the Mujahideen Shura Council, a coalition of several Islamic groups.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, known also as Ahmad Fadil Nazal Al-Khalayleh and Ahmed Fadhil Nazzar Khalaylah, is the leader of the Mujahideen Shura Council and considered to be a founder of Tawhid and Jihad. While it was good that Americans killed him on June 7, 2006, deaths of Iraqi civilians have tripled since that time - so it made no difference.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was born in the mid 1960s. He is, or was, a Jordanian Palestinian and more importantly a devout Sunni Muslim. His "al-Zarqawi" moniker was actually an alias derived from the name of the terrorist leader's hometown of Zarqa, Jordan. Zarqawi's goals were Tawhid and Jihad's goals, which are Islam's goals: to establish a singular fundamentalist Islamic theocracy in the Middle East and then the world by first deposing all anti-Islamic monarchies in the Middle East. After replacing the secular dictator in Iraq with Islamic clerics, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi envisioned attacking Jewish influences around the world.

In his twenties, Zarqawi left Jordan in the late 1980s to join the Afghan Mujahideen resistance against the Soviets. It was there that he acquired his basic Jihad skills and learned how to operate an effective terrorist group. He returned to Jordan around 1990, but he was arrested by the Jordanian monarchy in 1992 for attempting to set up a Muslim militant group dedicated to overthrowing the king.

In 1999, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was released from jail when King Abdullah declared a general amnesty. Immediately thereafter Zarqawi set up Jund al-Sham, a Salafi Sunni Islamist terrorist group. Initially, he involved himself in the unsuccessful plot to bomb a Radisson hotel on the eve of the year 2000.

Later that year, while on the run from Pakistani and Jordanian officials, Zarqawi made contact with top al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden. With the support of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Zarqawi set up a terrorist training facility for Jordanians in Heart, Afghanistan. During Operation Enduing Freedom, Zarqawi conducted guerrilla operations alongside other fundamentalist Islamic jihadists.

Jordanian intelligence, which is the ultimate oxymoron, alleged that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was wounded in the chest in late 2001. It was then further alleged by those tasked with promoting the now completely discredited notion that Saddam Hussein's government and al-Qaeda were close allies, that Zarqawi went to a Baghdad hospital for treatment. During his hospital stay he is said to have set up terrorist sleeper cells in Iraq - or so the story goes. And even if it were true, the creation of "sleeper cells in Iraq" is no more an indictment of complicity against the Ba'athist government than the creation of sleeper cells in America is an indictment of complicity against the American government.

A letter recovered by Coalition forces in the Fall of 2004, alleged to be from al-Zarqawi, stated in reference to bin-Laden, that the "distance between our hearts is close." That was true. Islam, Muhammad, Allah, the Qur'an, and Hadith permeated and poisoned both men's hearts. Yet despite this sentiment Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was an independent and egotistic rebel leader who was known to all as a maverick. Further, on many occasions al-Zarqawi clashed with al-Qaeda's cofounder, Ayman Zawahiri.

Due to his substantial Jihad experiences, and his devotion to Islam, Zarqawi became proficient in deception, media manipulation, recruitment, and organizing terrorist campaigns. Before his death, al-Zarqawi played a major role in killing American soldiers and Shi'ite civilians. He destabilized the Shi'ite dominated Iraqi government and did his part to inspire a religious civil war, all aimed at establishing an Islamist state in Iraq.

It is interesting to note, that in December 2005, Iraqi security officials confirmed that in 2004, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been apprehended and was in custody. But the officials said: "Musab al-Zarqawi was mistakenly released by Iraqi forces." Repeated attempts to eliminate Zarqawi were ultimately successful in June 2006, when special operations forces were able to confirm his location in a house near Ba'qubah with the help of local Shi'ites. He was killed by two 500-pound bombs dropped by F-16s. Only one problem: Iraq is just like Vietnam. With every bomb dropped and every bullet fired, more enemy are manufactured than murdered. The effect of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death on the greater Iraqi terrorist movement has been to increase the carnage considerably.

In a speech broadcast over the internet on January 23rd, 2005, Zarqawi denounced the upcoming elections. He called the candidates demigods and voters infidels. He declared a fierce war against democracy because democracy is the antithesis of Islam. The Jordanian Palestinian Muslim went on to accuse the Americans of rigging the election to favor Iraq's Shi'ite population. At least he got that right.

- June 24, 2003: Simon Miller, 21, was one of six Brits slaughtered in a firefight with Muslim militants in Kabir, Iraq. His family was one of those listed on the April 1st grievance letter to the British government. The other men's names are: Paul Long, 24, Thomas Keys, 20, Benjamin Hyde, 23, Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41, and Russell Aston, 30, all of the Royal Military Police. Their story isn't pretty.

It begins with an incident on May 14th when a score of Muslim civilians died in a three-hour exchange of gunfire along the road from Amara to Basra. There were allegations that British soldiers mutilated the bodies of Iraqis after the exchange according to the British Guardian. Death certificates written by the director of the Majar al Kabir hospital stated that seven corpses showed signs of "mutilation and torture."

The Guardian claims to have "seen 28 death certificates completed by doctors at the Kabir hospital and said that most of the wounds were consistent with those that would be sustained in a fierce firefight. But one of the seven certificates in question, Ahmad al Helfi, a 19-year-old casual laborer, was described has having several bullet wounds to the body and signs of beating and torturing. Another laborer, Haider al Lami, 21, had several bullet wounds and mutilation of genitalia. His penis had been severed. Hamed al Suadi, 19, a student, had bullet wounds to the neck and foot and signs of torture with a full distortion of the face. Ali Al Jemindari, 37, had his right arm severed at the shoulder and a gouging out of the right eye. His eyeball was found in a dead man's pocket."

I do not know if these Iraqi civilians were abused by British soldiers or by Muslim militants, but I do know that those who were shooting at the British soldiers were civilians because the hospital morgue records listed them as such. Understanding that civilians were the ones fighting is half of the battle.

Fortunately, the other half of the equation was answered when one recognizes that the inspiration for the attack on the Brits came from the local Islamic imam. The fighters were not only civilians, they were Muslims.

On Friday, Khativ al Battat, the imam of Kabir's central mosque, the day of the original firefight, condemned the militia controlled by Shi'ite imam Moqtada al-Sadr because their last uprising against Americans had caused the golden-domed shrine of the Imam Ali to be damaged. Misplacing their animosity as Muslims are wont to do, Battat's flock "left the mosque seeking revenge," according to Ali Jassam, a local resident. "Some crazy men said they wanted to die for the imam Ali and Islam." Jassam reported: "The men went home, took whatever weapons they could lay their hands on (which you will learn in a moment included machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars), and walked the mile to the Amara-Basra highway. They spread out in the drainage ditches lining the road and lay in wait. At around five in the evening, two British Land Rovers passed on their way back to base."

According to the Birts: "They fought desperately to escape the civilian Iraqi attackers who were using machine guns, rockets, and mortars. They radioed for help, calling in armored cars and tanks from the base 15 miles north." When the battle was over the British removed 22 bodies and took them and a number of prisoners with them to their base in Amara. Dr. Majid said that the British left just six bodies at the scene of the attack.

On the 15th things turned ugly when a convoy of ambulances from Kabir collected and returned the corpses of those who had been killed. According to Abbas Jawad, the senior administrator of the emergency department, "They brought the dead to our hospital where there were thousands of people waiting. It was a real disaster. Everyone was angry, especially when we opened the sacks to find these corpses mutilated and tortured."

Video taken as the casualties as they were returned showed Muslims shouting at the camera saying that the dead were alive when they went to the British base. As the camera panned to the blood soaked corpses, fingers can bee seen pointing at what is said to be signs of mutilation and torture.

While I have no way of knowing for sure who did what to whom I know enough about Islam to know that Muslims routinely fake civilian atrocities, complete with wailing women, to fool the world into believing that they are the victims of terror rather than the perpetrators. The most recent evidence of this was in Kana, Lebanon, where the "massacre of 57 Lebanese women and children as a result of an Israeli air raid" in late July, 2006, was staged for the international media.

The known facts regarding that telling fraud in the name of Allah's Party are: Hizballah shot rockets into Israeli towns from positions surrounding the building in question. The Israelis dropped leaflets over the area warning civilians to leave because the building was now a military target. Hizballah prevented women and children from leaving Kana. The Israeli bombing which occurred at 12 midnight barely damaged the roof of the structure in question. The building collapsed seven hours later following an explosion. Were Muslims too dumb to leave a bombed building or did local Hizballah terrorists bomb the building? Those are the only options. Further, the bodies of the dead had no blood on them and rigor mortise had already set in according to the photographic evidence. It is likely that the "victims" were actually from the Tyre morgue.

With all of this in mind, let's return to Kabir, Iraq on June, 25th, 2003. Hundreds of enraged Muslim civilians surrounded six British soldiers who were inside the town's police station and, around 11am, began shooting. They continued to fire light and heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades into the police station and the attached school for nearly two hours.

During this time there were 15 local Iraqi police in the building with the Brits. It is alleged that they told the soldiers that they were as good as dead too because they were thought to be collaborators, which in Islam is a death sentence.

The scene outside was gruesome. A day before, following a British search for weapons stored in people's homes, a riot in the town's marketplace had lead to the deaths of five Iraqis and claims that Brits, not Muslims, had killed them. It is reported that a British officer walked out to the crowd and said, "Disperse or helicopters will come and kill you."

The local imam then brokered a deal in which he stated in writing that he and his mosque would collect the town's weapons. That religious accord, of course, wasn't worth the paper it was written on because now, countless weapons of every description were being brought to bear against the British soldiers. And let us not forget, the original firefight had been inspired by the town's imam. All of Iraq was now an open wound and truth was the first casualty.

When the second armed assault failed to kill the British liberators, the town's Muslim militants rushed the building as if they were Kamikazes. During this time a Chinook helicopter came in support but it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Then at least one of the British vehicles was torched. It wasn't long before the six Brits combating several hundred hostile townspeople ran out of ammunition and it was all over. Moments later they were slaughtered.

Reporters who visited the site the following day said: "There was no evidence that the events were part of a concerted or organized resistance movement. No one here spoke of diehard Ba'athist loyalists or Fedayeen (a paramilitary civilian militia linked to Saddam). Instead they talk of violation of honor, and lack of respect for their religion.""

This is just one day's story, and it robbed but six Brits of their lives, and yet it provides a window from which to see what Iraq had become and what it would be. There was no one to trust and no reason to live. Deceit, destruction, and death were the only constants.

One of the six British soldiers slaughtered in this ugly affair was Thomas Keys. His father wrote:

As the father of the late Lance Corporal Thomas Keys RMP killed in Iraq 24th June 2003, I implore all families of the bereaved and maimed to muster in a common cause. Many of us now feel angry that our loved ones were killed and were wounded having had their oath of allegiance and patriotism betrayed by their own Prime Minister. These men, who only months earlier had marched off to war flushed with pride to do their duty for Queen and country, were exploited by a liar!

Our Prime Minister misled Parliament and the nation by stating that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the U.K. He claimed intelligence was "extensive, detailed and authoritative." According to him, Iraq's WMD programme was "active and growing, up and running now." Nothing could have been further from the truth!

Over eighty young British men have now returned home in coffins and hundreds more have come home maimed. Our Prime Minister has flouted international law and must now be held to account. We must also remember over 30,000 innocent Iraqis have been slaughtered in this unjust conflict, the wounded to numerous to count.

The number of military families now wishing to pursue this aim is steadily growing. I would ask for other families to give their support to the call for a full independent public enquiry into the Government actions. Iraq has become totally destabilized and it is spiraling into anarchy and civil war. So bereaved British families ask one simple question: Mr. Blair why Iraq?"

The British press reported: "Sixteen families of British servicemen killed in Iraq have called on the Prime Minister to open a full investigation into the background and legality to the war. The families consider that there are serious questions for the government to answer. They believe that their husbands and sons were sent to war on the basis of lies and deception.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, however, rejected their demand for a full public inquiry. And in his rejection the Prime Minister added insult to injury. Tony Blair's lawyers wrote the following to the bereaved families: ‘The decision to take military action in Iraq was in no sense the immediate and direct operative cause of the deaths of the claimants' relatives. Those servicemen regrettably lost their lives due to a variety of circumstances - from a road traffic accident in Kuwait and a U.S. helicopter crash to a gun attack and an improvised explosive device. The legality of the decision to take military action in Iraq has no bearing on the circumstances which led to their deaths.'

These rather inappropriate words drew the following comments from the families today: Ann Lawrence, whose son Marc was killed when two helicopters collided at sea, said, ‘I'm sure that Tom Keys and Marc Lawrence wouldn't have been in ten thousand miles of Iraq had Mr. Blair not sent them there. They had a Queen's commission and were duty bound to follow orders.'

Peter Brierley whose son Shaun was killed in a road traffic accident said: My son often went out on Sunday afternoon drives but Kuwait was not one of favored destinations. Tony Blair's justification for the war is as ridiculous as suggesting his decision to go to war and my son's accident were not connected. All the wriggling that Tony Blair is doing to try and get out of this has probably been the cause of his slipped disc. We will pursue the case for a public inquiry through all avenues.'

Rose Gentle whose son Gordon was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra said: ‘The question of the legality of the war is very important to me and my family. We all need to know whether the army was sent to Iraq on a proper basis. Tony Blair's response letter is an insult to those who gave their lives for their country.'

The parents of the fallen soldiers are now determined to pursue their demand for a full public inquiry and have launched a national petition. They are calling on others to join with them in a campaign to reverse ‘this dishonorable decision.'"

The families whose loved ones died in the Iraq war delivered a letter of claim to 10 Downing Street yesterday. It outlines the legal case they are bringing against Tony Blair regarding the war and the deaths of their family members. They said: ‘This is an important first step in the legal process of bringing the Prime Minister and his cabinet to account for the deception that led to war.'

Some of those who delivered the letter included, Rose Gentle and her daughter Maxine (Rose's son Gordon was killed in Iraq on June 28, 2004), Peter Brierley and his daughter Helen (Peter's son Shaun was killed on March 30 2003), and Tony Hamilton-Jewell whose brother Simon was killed on June 24, 2003.

Other families included in this legal action are Tracey Pritchard, wife of Dewi Pritchard; Anna Aston, wife of Russell Aston; Reg and Sally Keys, parents of Thomas Keys; John and Marilyn Miller, parents of Simon Miller; Pat, Maria and Byron Long, mother, sister and brother of Paul Long - all of whom lost a son, brother, or husband in Iraq.

John Miller, whose son Simon was killed with Tom Keys, said: ‘Blair says he could not sit on the fence over Saddam, but he didn't, he hid behind it and sent our sons over it to their deaths.'

David Shayler said: ‘I came into this because I blew the whistle on the way MI6 funded associates of Bin Laden in their plot to assassinate Gaddafi. That was the point at which Britain became an associate of terrorism. Blair has destroyed every value of democracy in this country. "The Joint Intelligence Committee made it quite clear to the government that Iraq posed no direct threat to U.K. interests. And the intelligence services made it quite clear that if Iraq did possess WMDs, then invasion would make it far more likely that they would end up in the hands of Al Qaeda."'"

- June 25-6, 2003: Returning to the accidental war in Iraq, Greg MacDonald, 29, died when his military vehicle rolled over in a "non-combat" related mishap.

Andy Chris, 25, died in Baghdad when his unarmored Humvee passed a parked car loaded with explosives. The locals detonated it as Andy drove by. To read the press report you'd think that the cause of death was a battle with the Republican Guard rather than by way of uncivilized Muslims acting badly. "Andrew Chris was fatally wounded in combat operations in hostile enemy territory."

Tim Conneway, 22, died two days after he was wounded in Baghdad. Tim was traveling in an Iraqi government vehicle when a remote-controlled explosive device detonated beside him.

Richard Orengo, 32, was shot and killed by someone he was trying to liberate in Najaf, Iraq.

Joshua McIntosh, 22, died of a "non-hostile gunshot wound. In Karbala, Iraq.

Corey Hubbell, 20, died in Camden Yards, Kuwait, from a non-combat related cause. American's were having a particularly bad time with stray bullets. While I don't know if this was how Corey was killed, the Pentagon admits that 21 American soldiers lost their lives to other American soldiers who were cleaning their weapons. Friendly fire accidents have already taken many times that number of lives.

Tom Sotelo, 20, was killed when a Muslim militant shot a rocket-propelled grenade into his vehicle which was part of a supply convoy in Baghdad. One of his comrades wrote: "I was there the night CPL Totelo's convoy was attacked. I too was injured in the attack. I was the first to respond to his aid. I wish I could have done more to save him. I think about him all the time. I wish things were different that night. I don't know what story was given to you by the military, but the official story on this is very inaccurate. I wish I could give you closure for you and for myself. I strongly believe you deserve the truth." I wrote the soldier who authored this compelling correspondence but have not heard back from him.

- June 26, 2003: Thomas Retzer, 30, was fatally wounded in an ambush outside of Gardez, Afghanistan.

- June 26, 2003: A driver for the Iraqi electric utility was killed by a bomb even though he was escorted by two U.S. military vehicles and was on the main highway between the Baghdad airport and the city center.

The same day, civilian Muslim militias attacked a police station in Baqouba. Officers managed to fire back at the masked gunmen, killing two of them. The Shi'ite majority blamed the Sunni Tawhid and Jihad.

Later that day, a car bomb attack killed one person and injured nineteen others in the Kurdish town of Irbil. The Culture Minister of the Kurdistan Democratic Party was among the injured and one of his bodyguards was slain. Since Tawhid and Jihad was composed of Ansar al-Islam Kurds, fingers pointed at al-Zarqawi were directed the wrong way.

Also on the 26th, a number of unidentified Islamic gunmen attacked a government building in Baqouba. Guards fired back at the attackers, killing four. One of these Muslims wore a suicide vest. It was assumed that he planned to detonate himself inside the building.

Not finished serving Allah, a taxi cab packed with weapons and ammunition, was parked in front of an Iraqi political party office in Baqouba. It was detonated about 250 feet from the building. Following the blast, gunmen entered the Iraqi National Accord Party office in Baqouba and set off another explosion. The Iraqi National Accord Party was that of Iraqi interim Prime Minister Allawi.

With one Allahu Akbar left in them, Muslims fired rocket-propelled grenades at the Shi'ite Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq Party headquarters in Ba'qouba. Three Shi'ites were killed and two others were injured.

- June 28, 2003: Today in Iraq, the most influential person in the country, Shi'ite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, handed down a two-page fatwah, or Islamic religious order, for general elections to select the drafters of "a new constitution whose basis is Islam." He said: "Iraq will be an Islamic state. No law in Iraq may conflict with Islamic principles. Islam must be recognized as the religion and law of the country." Fact is, the Iranian born and funded, Ali Sistani can count - something the Bush Administration can't seem to do. The Ayatolah knew that over sixty percent of Iraq's voters would follow his fatwa - an order substantially more binding than a Pope's decree.

With this fatwa, the American liberation plan for Iraq was doomed and Bush, Bremer, Powell, and Rice knew it. Islam is the most undemocratic dogma ever conceived by man. Its message is "submit and obey." Islam is intolerant of freedom of choice, free speech, and freedom of religion - and thus it provides the underpinnings of dictatorial governments. Bush, Bremer, Powell, and Rice did everything, including beg to get the Ali Sistani to change his mind but to no avail. They recognized that a general election of constitutional framers under the Ayatollah's edict would guarantee the establishment of an Islamic regime.

The clerics religious order decreed that the constitutional assembly that Bremer and the Bush team was promoting would be stacked in favor of fundamentalist Islamic leaders chosen by the populous. And that would lead directly to an Islamic government. The dominant political party was destined to be Ayatollah Ali Sistani's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq - its very name predestining and announcing the outcome.

Yes, Iraq would become like Iran. It would only be a matter of time before the nation was an Islamic theocracy.

The facts are: al-Jazeera reported America and Great Britain were going to draft the Iraqi Constitution. Ali Sistani said no, that he would only endorse a constitution written by candidates he picked. And then the Islamic leader issued a religious order commanding Iraqis to elect them. It is what he planned. It is what happened. The blue fingers American politicians praised as a proof of democracy were nothing more than evidence that Ali Sistani had outmaneuvered the Americans and that even in defeat, deceitful politicians will claim victory. Besides the Bush Administration, there was never any opposition to the Shi'ite leader's fatwa. The very thing America wanted least to happen, was now a fait accompli.

U.S. overlord, Paul Bremer, tried repeatedly to meet with Ayatollah Sistani, hoping to change his mind, but he was not even granted an audience. Colin Powell's and Condoleezza Rice's urgent phone calls were neither answered nor returned. The political leader of Sistani's majority party, Ayatollah Muhammad Bakir Hakim (now dead) told Bremer through a subordinate: "There is no hope for compromise. Ayatollah Sistani was firm in his position." There would be a general election to select constitutional framers and not Bremer appointees. Period.

Trying to get around the fatwa, Bremer asked the American-appointed Governing Council to select a 25 member constitutional commission composed of lawyers, clerics, and academics. Hoping to appease the Ayatollah, it even included Sistani. But when they convened, Sistani didn't show and the others voted 24 to 0 to honor the fatwa. Yass Khudier, a commission member said, "It was impossible to disregard the fatwa of Ayatollah Sistani."

Secretary of State Colin Powell entered the fray with multiple edicts. But the commission immediately replied: "They are unreasonable demands." So Bremer asked: "Is the political structure of Iraq going to be in the hands of one man?" And the people said: "Yes," which meant "no" to democracy.

The election Ali Sistani demanded, on the terms he insisted upon, propelled the party he had created, and the candidates he had blessed, into power in a landslide. The United Iraq Alliance, known also as the Shia List and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, won more than 65% of the vote. The one man, the Iranian Islamic cleric, the most powerful man in Iraq, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani was elated.

The Ayatollah's delegates "reached and agreement that Islam is the religion of state, and that no law shall be enacted that contradicts the agreed-upon essential truth of Islam. Likewise, the inviolability of the highest religious authorities in the land is safeguarded. A Higher Council will be formed to review new legislation to ensure it does not contravene the essential truth of the Islamic religion."

The people of Iraq would vote for the people they were told to vote for until the people they elected told them that there was not longer any reason to vote. They would live in Submission, in Islam. America had been trumped.

- June 28, 2003: An ammunition depot explosion in the village of Haklamiyah killed 25 Iraqi civilians. The same day, an American convoy inadvertently ran over an Iraqi chilled in the vicinity of Baghdad's Airport.

- June 28, 2003: Gladimir Philippe, 37, of Linden, New Jersey, and Kevin Ott, 27, of Columbus, Ohio were discovered missing when they failed to respond to a radio check while on duty south of Balad. A search party found their remains west of Taji, Iraq three days later. Taji, Iraq is 20 to 25 miles west of Baghdad. Gladimir and Kevin were kidnapped and murdered by Muslims following Muhammad's example.

Ott and Philippe were last reported traveling in a Humvee near a checkpoint that had been the site of many prior civilian attacks on U.S. personnel. They were equipped with two M16 rifles, a grenade launcher, and a global-positioning system as well as a radio. They were to stay in visual contact with nearby teams but a sandstorm made that impossible.

The military tracked their vehicle to a nearby house and the people inside were detained. The military has not released any information regarding a resolution.

Reacting to the news of the capture and subsequent brutal murder of the two American soldiers, Senator Lautenberg in Washington, issued a press release. In his opening paragraph, Frank "expressed concern that the Administration was underestimating the magnitude of the remaining Iraqi opposition forces."

Senator, the "opposition force" in Iraq was understated by some 20 million. The majority of Iraqi civilians are opposed to the U.S. military presence in their country. Two thirds believe that killing Americans is justified.

Lautenberg went on to say: "I would like to know how many more deaths we should be expecting from among the brave young people who are securing and protecting freedom in Iraq." Thousands is the answer but your question is fatally flawed. Americans are empowering the religion of submission in Iraq which is the opposite of "securing and protecting freedom." Doesn't anyone on Capitol Hill understand Islam? How is it that American politicians are willing to send good men to die fighting an enemy that they haven't bothered to study?

Senator Lautenberg's written statement declared: "I am concerned that nearly 1/3 of U.S. casualties in Iraq have occurred since May 1, when the President announced the war to be victorious. I am going to ask that a review of these recent deaths be held in the Senate in order to get a better understanding of the toll on U.S. lives that now will have to be paid in the rebuilding of civil society in Iraq." Too bad he didn't follow through.

Although, to be fair, the Senator did write a letter "demanding that the Administration report to Congress and to the American people an accurate assessment of the threat still posed to U.S. forces by remaining fighters from Ba'ath party (that would be none) and other Iraqi insurgents." There are no insurgents in Iraq, only Muslims who respect the authority of their imams and their religion.

In another letter, this one to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Lautenberg "asked for an approximate calculation of how many months the current force level is expected to be deployed in Iraq." In his first address on this question, Don Rumsfeld said, "I don't know. It could be six days, six weeks, or even six months." Thirty-seven months later the nation is further from the goal than when it began.

I understand that conservative talk radio show hosts dismiss all critics of the war in Iraq by saying that the world is better off with Saddam Hussein in prison. But even that conclusion is only accurate if it is viewed in a complete vacuum. Would anyone in their right mind trade 2,818 American and British lives for the incarceration of Saddam Hussein? Is Saddam's head worth the $302 billion it has cost U.S. taxpayers? And why is replacing a deceitful, destructive, and deadly dictatorial secular thug with a deceitful, destructive, and deadly Islamic religious regime a good thing?

Truth is an endangered species in Washington. The Senator went on to say: "The Pentagon should be upfront with the American people about the costs of this war - both in terms of the casualties we should expect in this post-war period and how much taxpayer money will be required to continue fighting the enemy."

Senator Lautenberg's release concluded: "The deaths of Sgt. Philippe and Pfc. Kevin Ott, 27, of Columbus, Ohio bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since major combat was declared over on May 1 to at least 63 (it was actually 67 and would grow to 2,413 in three years). The military has confirmed the identities of 138 soldiers killed before that date. Of the 63 recent deaths, a majority have occurred in the past five weeks."

- June 28, 2003: As a result of mounting American casualties, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose completely dishonest presentation to the United Nations was used as justification for the invasion, said: "It's not possible yet to characterize what's happening in terms such as ‘an organized insurgency' or ‘whether it has a central nervous system directing it.'"

"Fool" is what one calls a man who is oblivious to the obvious. The enemy is Islam. It is organized by Imams in their mosques. The central system directing the enemy's behavior is the Islamic Qur'an, Sira, Ta'rikh, and Hadith - Muhammad's words and deeds.

Colin Powell, George Bush's Secretary of State, was the first to misapply the "insurgency" moniker. The term means "one who rebels against authority." The Muslims who were killing Americans were the opposite of "insurgents," a term usually applied to political rebels and revolutionaries. The Islamic civilians who would had and would murder Americans by the thousands were religious fighters, jihadists, and holy warriors; they were mujahideen. They weren't political revolutionaries or even rebels. No one on planet earth respects established authority more than a suicide bomber.

But Colin had to deceive, just as he had done in his United Nation's presentation. He had to fool the nation and world into believing that the enemy wasn't Islam. Because once the obvious is recognized, everything the administration had said and done with regard to terrorism and Iraq completely unraveled. It became obvious that good men had died making the situation worse.

The truth is as easy to understand as it is horrible to contemplate: 99.9% of the 2715 American military and civilian fatalities in Iraq (as of mid August 2006) were the result of mistakes and misidentifying the enemy. America had shed blood and spilled coin to make Iraq a more deadly and more Islamic place to live than it had been previously. Unable to count, America enabled Shiite Muslims with ties to Iran to seize control of a country that floats on oil. These clerics had militias and they were all to eager to murder an average of 100 Iraqis a day.

"Liar" is what one calls a man who knowingly deceives. George Bush's Secretary of State said: "We are seeing a combination of leftover Ba'athists (Iraq's ruling socialist and secular political party) taking it out on the soldiers who have come to provide security and hope for the Iraqi people, Fedayeen (a civilian paramilitary militia), and there are lots of criminals who are loose." Not a word of that was true.

"Delusional" is what one calls a man who offers false hope. Colin Powell said: "I am quite confident that Paul Bremer and General Tommy Franks will be able to impose security on the region in due course. But it will take some time, and regrettably there will be casualties."

Secretary of State Powell tried to justify the unjustifiable with this parting salvo: "I mourn for the loss of every young man or woman who puts his life of her life at risk and loses their life in the cause of freedom," he added, parroting the lie that has led to so many needless deaths. Iraq is less free under the fundamentalist Islamic clerics, Sharia Law, and religious militias, than it was under the deposed secular dictator. Further, America's military is one of the least free organizations on earth. And despite mindless feel-good rhetoric to the contrary, the United States military has seldom fought for America's freedom. While a strong argument can be made that the United States Army hasn't fought for American liberty for nearly 200 years - it is absolutely certain the soldiers engaged in Iraq aren't advancing the cause of freedom for Americans or for Iraqis.

- June 30, 2003: In a firefight in and around the Al-Hassan mosque complex in Fallujah, Iraq an explosion claimed 7 civilian lives.

- June 30, 2003: The total coalition fatalities for June 2003 were 30 Americans and 6 Brits. There would be only one month over the next 36 in which fewer Americans would die in Iraq. In other words, things got worse in following the ouster of Saddam Hussein, not better.

The good news was that in June, accidents and friendly fire only claimed 13 soldier's lives. The bad news was that the people being liberated claimed the rest. By percentage, 61% (153 of 251) of those who returned from Iraq in body bags lost their lives in mishaps and misidentifications. Islam had caused 37% (93 of 251) of the fatalities. Saddam never mattered.

- After thought: While I was searching for information regarding the circumstances surrounding Jeff Kaylor's death (April 7, 2003), I came upon this letter. It doesn't date to 2003, but since we began this month on an aircraft carrier, it seemed a fitting conclusion.

The soldier who would prompt the poignant correspondence, Michael Potocki would not die until July 1st, 2006. His unit came under civilian small-arms fire in Al Asad. He would have retired from the Army in August. The deceased was looking forward to civilian life as a Baltimore Police Officer. I share one soldier's perspective on his death because it speaks volumes.

Michael Potocki, 21, "died today of injuries sustained in Al Asad when his unit came in contact with enemy force's small arms fire during combat operations" read the press release from the Department of Defense. His best friend was fellow soldier, Ryan Kahlor. He wrote this the next day: "Dear Mom and Dad, The world keeps turning and so does the war in Iraq. Yesterday my friend was shot and killed. A sniper with an armor-piercing round shot PFC Potocki. He was 21-years-old. He bled out during surgery. He is the first in our platoon to be killed. His death has started an uproar of emotion in the platoon. Two people since have said they quit and will no longer fight. This is adding to those who have already said they are done fighting this war. No one understands why we are here and what our mission is. Potocki was a soldier who could not be replaced. He hated the army but never quit or bitched. The army did nothing but s--- on him and he still geared up every day. He wanted to go back to school when he got out but now his mom will have to bury him before his time. Dad, keep up your fight to send the troops home. This war is lost. We aren't helping these people we are just dying and getting injured. I can't imagine what his mother is going through right now. He was all she had. He never knew his father so they worked together to keep their house going. Now he is gone. Love, Ryan."