When the Pentagon starts throwing around estimates of who got killed and
how in its assorted wars in the Middle East, they are often wildly
inaccurate. Nowhere was this more apparent than a new briefing this week
on estimates in the 2003-2011 Iraq War.
Designed for Special Envoy Brian Hook to give hawkish speeches on Iran, the briefing estimated that Iran was “responsible” for the deaths of 608 US troops
during the Iraq War. This was an upward revision from a 2015 estimate
of 500, and seemingly was only done to allow Hook to bring it up now.
A more accurate estimate would, of course, be zero deaths. Despite years
of anti-Iran rhetoric, the US has never conclusively pinned a single
death on the Iranian government or its forces. Rather, these deaths are
all loosely attributable to Iraqi Shi’ite factions.
That anyone Shi’ite is necessarily under Iranian command is a popular
conceit for US officials, and in Iraq, where 60 percent of the
population is Shi’ite, there are no shortage of Shi’ites to blame,
particularly militias that didn’t support the US occupation of Iraq.
Some of these groups had ideological ties to Iran, though other
substantial factions, like the Mehdi Army, were nationalist groups that
opposed both US and Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs. It is
convenient for the US to blame Iran, however, so that’s what they’re
doing.
Trying to make all Shi’ites equal Iran has continued beyond the Iraq
War. In Syria, the US has routinely threatened Shi’ite militias for
being “Iranian fighters,” and the entire justification for US meddling
in the Yemen War is that the Shi’ite Houthi movement, whose form of
Shi’a Islam is distinct from the one in Iran, must be in league with
Iran.
Lies, lies, and more lies are what we get from the jerks running the Pentagon.
The lengths that the US will go to blame Iran for all that is wrong in the Middle East blows ones mind.
THE ONLY THING WRONG WITH THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE US MILITARY BEING THERE.
If only they would get out the place can return to normal again.
Well, there are a few other things wrong, but none of them is improved in the slightest by the US military there. Many are enabled, and made worse.
I totally agree with you, Ron Marshall, the lengths the US (and Israel) will go to blame Iran for the mess in the Middle East. Iran hasn’t attacked its neighbors in over 400 years; yet, the US/UK/NATO/Israel have waged aggressive wars for 6 decades. Iran was attacked/invaded by Iraq under Saddam Hussein in 1980, and that war ended 8 years later in a stalemate.
The only thing wrong with the Middle East, as you said, is the US military’s ongoing presence there .. and Israel’s also.
Brought to you by the “it’s not my fault ” generation…
Th presence of Israel is also screwing up the ME region.
Israel wants America to destroy Iran. Israel runs Washington DC. Israel cares not a whit about truth, America, or Iran. Very simple and clear once you understand this.
One day the Iraqis are about to produce an atomic bomb and the next day they are unable to manufacture a shaped charge. Yeah, whatever lie works for Uncle Sam.
A drop in the bucket, compared to the 500,000 Iraqi kids who died as a result of our no-fly zones, embargoes, bombings, destruction of infrastructure, hospitals, etc., which Mad Madeline Albright said “It was worth it.”
Remember, that was before Dubya ever attacked. Add to that the damage and death of invasion and occupation.
Yes, bring up a Clinton advisor. Wait, you forgot to mention Obama.
Is that the same Obama who was completely responsible for everything he did, unlike poor, poor, downtrodden widdew Donald Trump, who is simultaneously Making America Great Again while also instantly becoming the mewling, helpless slave of every neocon who happens to walk through the West Wing?
Why must your every comment be so obnoxious?
Yep. I’m trying to catch up to the level of obnoxiousness you bring to every conversation. And I keep falling further behind. So I keep trying harder.
You are confusing clever with obnoxious.
You are still stuck in the belief of the Dem team vs. the GOP team.
Pompeo, Pence, and other radical dispensational premillennialists see their mission as biblical prophesy and a nuclear war so they can be raptured.
LOL!!! Pompous Pompeo, Wacky Pence and other fanatical dispensational pre-millenialists are so delusional it boggles the mind. They’ll NEVER be raptured .. The Schofield Bible contains nothing but heresy, and these stupid wackos don’t even realize it. The only way to Heaven is sincere repentance, simple as that.
Guess the DOD doesn’t want to bring up the latest estimate of Iraqi deaths since the USA led the illegal invasion and overthrow of Iraq…
2.4 million Iraqi deaths since the 2003 invasion.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-iraq-death-toll-15-years-after-the-u-s-invasion/
Could they give us a list of the 608? The names of these men/women, the circumstances and locations of why and where these service members died? If they are able to tell us that an exact number died, instead of rounding it off to an approximate number like 600, then they must have some very distinct information on these deaths. Please enlighten us before we start the bombing campaign.
Yup, the Pentagon auditors, who cant account for unknown trillions of dollars, seems to exactly know who killed who 15,000 miles away.
How about the names of the civilians the US kills each month? Or even honest numbers.
That’d be nice but my point was more about how they came up with such a specific number and since they did, someone should make them show some proof. The propaganda machine is hitting on all cylinders when they bring up alleged American deaths at the hands of the Iranians. We seem to be getting close to doing something really stupid.
The US commanders in Iraq at the time said this was not true. They said there was no evidence of Iran’s involvement in the deaths of any Americans.
Do we have new evidence? I doubt that. If we did, I’d like to see it, rather than believe the likes of Bolton and his ilk on ANYTHING.
You’re absolutely right, Mark .. The US commanders in Iraq at the time said this wasn’t true. They stated there was no evidence of Iran’s involvement in the deaths of any Americans.
Do we exactly have new evidence? I, too, doubt it .. If we did, I, too, would like to see it, rather than believe the likes of Bonkers Bolton and his ilk on anything. They’re nothing but pathological liars and lunatics who belong behind bars or in a lunatic asylum.
That’s just straight up racism, like blaming Israel for the Son of Sam killings. Yet the virtue signaling SJW’s of the MSM remain silent. Perhaps they’re too busy smoking “anti-Semites” out of congress. Funny how that works.
The Pentagon officials used the old blind monkey and a dart board to come up with the 608 number. Then they went home to another extravagant DC barbeque. These creatures pull down salaries in the $250,000 plus range bilking taxpayers. Make no mistake. They hate the hands that feed them.
And US sanctions were absolutely responsible for the deaths of 1.5 MILLION Iraqis, including 500,000+ children. And that doesn’t even cover the ones murdered by our “wonderful” soldiers during their (on-going) immoral invasion, destruction, and occupation of Iraq.
And US sanctions were absolutely responsible for the deaths of 1.5 MILLION Iraqis, including 500,000+ children. And that doesn’t even cover the ones murdered by our “wonderful” soldiers during their (on-going) immoral invasion, destruction, and occupation of Iraq.
The US neocons have been salivating to attack Iran since 11/4/79 and daily trying to drum up another excuse.
The US hasn’t won a real war in 75 years. (Grenada, Panama, and Kuwait don’t really count). They whacked paper tiger Saddam, giving Iraq a regime allied with Iran. Brilliant!
I hope Mango Mussolini and Prince Bone Saw go for it. It may destroy both regimes.
Any US “troops” killed in the USA’s aggressive wars outside its Homeland should not have been there. Go Home Yanks.
If the Pentagon says it , it is a lie…