Bush and his blowhards tout the Coalition of the Willing as the biggest partnership since WWII. What a crock of shit. They have 32 countries participating, many with no military presence at all. And some, like Morocco, who are willing to send their monkeys to clear minefields. What I want to know is are the monkeys volunteers or does Morocco have a draft? Do they have a problem getting their monkeys to serve like we did with the chimp?

One correction Jo. The road to Baghdad airport is so dangerous that no Americans (and allies) use it. Everybody takes a chopper from the airport to their destination.

Of that 32 nation coalition, the US troop total accounts for 84% of it. To date the US has borne 88% of the fatalities, in case anyone was keeping score.

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Aren't we paying some of these countries?

Coalition of the bribed. A lot of places with offshore accounts are getting getting some supersized wallets for the Cheney'd up situation.

Three Americans were arrested in Afghanistan for prisoner torture as well.

Coalition of the Billing. As in, your check is in the mail.

This would classify the biggest naval ops since WW2 yes?

This will be the first time in U.S. naval history that seven of our 12 carrier strike groups deploy in one place at the same time. It will look like the peacetime equivalent of the Normandy landings and may well end in a disaster.

At a minimum, a single carrier strike group includes the aircraft carrier itself (usually with nine or 10 squadrons and a total of about 85 aircraft), a guided missile cruiser, two guided missile destroyers, an attack submarine and a combination ammunition, oiler and supply ship.

Normally, the United States uses only one or at the most two carrier strike groups to show the flag in a trouble spot. In a combat situation it might deploy three or four, as it did for both wars with Iraq. Seven in one place is unheard of.

Operation Summer Pulse '04 was almost surely dreamed up at the Pearl Harbor headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Command and its commander, Adm. Thomas B. Fargo, and endorsed by neocons in the Pentagon. It is doubtful that Congress was consulted. This only goes to show that our foreign policy is increasingly made by the Pentagon.

You can read the rest at Common Dreams. Chalmer Johnson argues that our friends the neocons want to start a war with China. Seems to be the only logical explanation for deploying seven carrier strike groups. At least, China is sure looking at it that way.

W.T.F.

Remember when I put that scenario for a Taiwan scenario? See,s like the Star Wars program is well ahead of schedule.

One prob- Los Alamos has a massive security breach .

Between that Huai Mei there's enough info to first strike our entire carrier force. Thanks Condie Rice. You are quite the double agent, much like the Huai spy who was at aWol's inauguration with her former American contact...

How about, in honor of the lucrative contracts and the "only those in the coalition get 'em" rules, we call 'em the "Coalition of the Swilling."

Ed

1. Timely
   
2. Strategery
   
3. Webb wins
   
4. Huh?
   
5. Bunnypants in Bagdad
   
6. Outage
   
7. Filthy Lucre Watch
   
8. Playing the numbers
   
9. My letter to Countdown
   
10. Jefferson's Nigerian Scams