Brig. Gen. Jeffery J. Dorko wounded in Iraq while hanging with a British security firm
By John Amato Monday Oct 29, 2007 7:00pmA C&Ler emailed this over:
An Army brigadier general was wounded in a roadside attack Monday morning in northern Baghdad, according to Multi-National Forces-Iraq officials. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko is the highest-ranking American officer to be hurt in Iraq since the conflict began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press report.
He was riding in a convoy when the bomb detonated at 9:40 a.m., Espie said. Members of the British security firm Erinys International were accompanying the convoy...
I hope they all recover quickly.
When you don't have enough troops to occupy a country then you just hire security firms out and give them immunity when they shoot civilians. And the Iraqi government thought they actually could kick Blackwater out of their country. Now that's funny.
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State Defends Immunity Deal for Blackwater Guards
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004602.php
and we are in iraq, why? i thought we were there to
1) remove sadam, maybe not.
2) sadam had wmd, maybe not.
3) to overcome the horrible al qaida, maybe not.
4) to help the iraqi govt get established, maybe not.
5) to make bush/cheney and haliburton rich and immune to everything....BINGO !
umm where can i watch the debate tonight on the net?
I guess if Generals are getting wounded they must need for more of the ethnic cleansing to finish running its course.
GAO: Reduction In Violence Due To ‘Ethnically Cleansed Neighborhoods’ In Iraq
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/30/sigir-report-oct07/
td @ 3:
Dodd sent me an email that says
And C&L will have a few highlight/lowlight vids later too I'm sure.
MSNBC will be streaming the debate here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18296908/
OK, let's go thru the math one more time.
Gen Shinseki said that it would take 300,000 troops to "Occupy" Iraq after the invasion.
Paul (Totally Worthless Human Being) Wolfowitz said that the General was totally wrong. Now the General had 30 years experience in the Military and Wolfowitz had ZERO experience in leading troops or planning a war.
Guess who Rummy backed? Yes, it was Wolfowitz!
Now given the 160,000 American troops in Iraq and the 150,000 (or more) mercenaries that are there well....let me see now....hmmm.... well that seems like actually MORE than General Shinseki estimated.
I think we ought to get Gen Shinseki back on the Front Lines since he was so prescient about the number of troops necessary ... OH, shit....I forgot...We fired Shinseki.
Well, hell.
I guess the BushCo mal-administration knows best. After all they have proved so accurate so far on their war plans.
Lou Dobbs was on this story. I don’t like dobbs but at that time it is either dobbs or Tucker. Tough choice. I don’t know, maybe it is just me but having Generals being protected by paid security firms sounds ludicrous. If the military does not have enough forces to do their job- TO DO THEIR JOB FOR CHRIST’S SAKE- they should start a draft. You know and I know that Bush doesn’t want that because the war would be over in a matter of minutes after he announced a draft. I think Dobbs is a jerk but he is right on regarding this story and I have watched the news pretty well in the last 24 hours and there have been no reports about this. Private firms protecting the military. WTF?
I bet Gen. Dorko (what a name!) will have a nice private room at Walter Reed complete with private chef, and nurses to wait on him hand and foot, not to mention adoring, sharply pressed young officers to shepherd him through the recovery process. How many actual grunt-type soldiers do you suppose he'll come into contact with? My guess? Zero.
The military cannot protect itself? These security firm guys make about three or four or five times as much as our soldiers. I want to know why they are guarding a convoy of Army Corps of Engineers. Isn’t that the job of the army? To guard itself?
"security firm" is the newspeak for "mercenaries".
Iraq can't get rid of Blackwater hell, I bet WE can't kick them out of this country either even though we know damned well Bush plans to use them like Hitler used the Praetorian guard!
I prefer
Paul "Iraq will pay for its own reconstruction" Wolfowitz
Just like...
Dick "pretty much confirmed" Cheney
Donald "massive stockpiles" Rumsfeld
Paul "we never said massive stockpiles" Wolfowitz
Condileeza "mushroom cloud" Rice
George "Mission Accomplished" Bush
Why go on?
Loonie @ 11:
And the “mercenaries” are guarding the soldiers. And failing. The General got blown up!
RobertPaul @ 7:
Actually, there is nowhere near that many "mercenaries" in Iraq. You are referring to the total number of contractors, most of whom are cooks, truck drivers etc. Only a small percentage are security.
I don't doubt the actual number could be higher, but not much. Other reports say there are less than 10,000 security contractors.
A little history from WWII:
Highest ranking officers killed in action were Marine Corps Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. in June of 1945 on Okinawa by an enemy artillery shell. At the time of death he was a Major General.
In Europe it was Major General Maurice Rose of the famed Third Division, killed in Germany in March of 1945 when upon rounding a corner in his Jeep he came face to face with a German tank. After trying to surrender he was shot by an agitated tank commander, according to his driver, who escaped.
The highest ranking officer killed in WWII was Lt. Gen. Leslie McNair, his death the result of friendly fire in July of 1944 in France from the infamous Operation Cobra bombing which killed hundreds of U.S. servicemen.
But anyway, thats just a little history. I have no idea of any Generals were killed in either Korea or Vietnam as I have not studied either conflict much.
If you do enough things wrong, enough times, will it eventually make you right?
If you
vote for the wrong people
back the wrong policies
refuse to admit any mistakes
repeat the exact same actions that caused disaster before
Is it possible that eventually that course of action will make everything better?
I guess we'll find out, won't we.
I thought that Lou Dobbs was going to blow a fuse on this. His face got all red (Haha I know it's always red from those martinis he sucks down for lunch.) and he looked like he was going to throw something. Dobbs is a dick but he is correct on this.
Oops, actually Buckner was a Lt. General at the time of his death and was posthumously awared his fourth star in 1954 by a special act of Congress (no idea why)
justabill @ 15:
Do you believe in the numbers they are providing?
Why would the British hang him?
I think the key words that struck me in John Amato's post is "When you don't have enough troops to occupy a country..." It instantly brought to mind images of civilians cowering in front of soldiers menacingly walking down their streets in battle fatigues and especially carrying a semi-automatic assault rifle. When Iraqis see Americans in this way, how can they not view them with hatred, fear, loathing, contempt, resentment? If Americans in this country were able to grasp what the word empathy means, then they would be demanding that American soldiers leave Iraq and allow Iraqis to govern in the way that they wish. But so many Americans seem to live in a bubble and cannot imagine what people think and feel outside the confines of the United States.
dadams @ 2:
Don't forget the endless distraction angle, the sideshow so big that it covers the continuous stream of smaller crimes these NeoTurds are committing hourly.
OK..the first BG wounded in this stupid war was a CA officer
2ndly...Walter Reed Army Hospital will provide the same care whether he was a private or a general .
Thats the hospital, once he's an outpatient then he competes for the limited resources there like everyone else.
Things have improved since the Washingtonpost story broke, they revamped leadership, brought in experienced combat vets in key leadership positions, and developed new protocol for case managers.
But resources are resources, and WRAMC is still BRACed by Rumsfeld
It's true, not all contractors in Iraq are mercenaries. Some of them are looters and pillagers.
does the general have a son named donnie? cuz that would explain alot
the world ends tomorrow at 11:59 pm
I'm sorry he's injured, but the dude's name is Dorko?!?
I am reminded of George Carlin's routine on golfing from 1992 "dorko in the plaid knickers."
duncanidho @ 24:
I saw pictures of the suite that officers get at Walter Reed. Are you saying all the wounded now get these rooms? Just asking.
May the General and all of our troops find recovery and a speedy return to their loved ones.
May all of those who have fallen, their family and friends find peace.
Those of us who oppose this Iraq war, and the threats of additional reckless wars by Bush, Cheney and the Neocons, are constantly aware, grateful and indebted to our troops for their sacrifices, duty, professionalism and courage. We are motivated by our duty to you, our troops, who have not been well served by this Commander-In-Chief, his advisors and his vocal supporters of reckless Middle East adventures.
Does anyone believe Kristol, Bush/Cheney and the rest of the Neocons care about the well being of the troops?? Just watch them chuckle and preen on Fox advocating for their next war.
if you are talking about the VIP suites, you can't get around them, all hospitals in the D.C. area military and civilian have them, Its the reality of healthcare in the national capital. In contrast to the total beds, are few in number, and access to them on the civilian side is driven by our unique class system of what the market will bear. On the military side When a soldier needs a single room because of the infections in the wounds, and that vip suite is the unoccupied single room, the soldier will get it until another rooms opens up. Rank may have its priviledges, but the inpatient facts are who gets what first is driven by the severity of the injuries.
"course thats just my opinion"
Go ask Drew Carey, he was there the other day, ask him what he thinks..
I still remember Jim Cramer of CNBC gushing over Rumsfeld privatizing the military
Our Embassy there is nice. Our military bases permanent. Our reasons for going...
My dad graduated from high school and is still good friends with Jeff. I've met him several times. It's so weird to think that he's wounded like that, though...
From what I've been told, he has a bruised lung, but he's going to be okay. Keep him in your prayers.
We have GOT to get out of there.
odanny @ 16:
General Walton Walker, commanding the Eighth Army in Korea, was killed in a jeep accident while retreating from the Chinese in Dec 1950.
"When you don’t have enough troops to occupy a country then you just hire security firms out and give them immunity when they shoot civilians." -- JA
That's not the reason why they are there, or why they have this supposed immunity. It's to break our laws, all of them, if they can. And it's to PRIVATIZE OUR OWN SOLDIERS, in order to triple and quadruple the income to rightwing companies that will support a war OF terror around the world for US corporate interests of the most ruthless kind.
A one-star injured by shrapnel is just one more officer added to the pile of Bush's accomplishments, which include TWO full-bird colonels (the next step down from one-star) outright killed, and the ten National Guard brass killed in that helicopter crash (that they mysteriously all decided to fly in).
The flesh-eating Bushteria has eaten its way well into the next generation of brass. A sad, sad sight.
Ron @ 20:
Do you have another source for anything different?
Or do you just make up the truth in your head?
I can give you another dozen links or so that say about the same thing. The pentagon has 6,000-8,000 private security contractors and the State Dept has at least that many, but the total of all "mercenaries" in Iraq is somewhere around 25-30k. If you have a source that says different i'd like to see it.
Re: boom
I wonder how much armor was on the general's vehicle and if he would have survived if he was in a standard "how Repugs support the troops" model?
Re: O Blackwater/keep on killing/Iraqi Moon won't you keep on cryin'
But, but, but, I thought Iraq was a sovereign state, you know, sovereign:
"... sovereignty means that. It's sovereign," he said. "You're a .. you're a ... you've been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity" -- GWB
So why can't they sovereignally eject Blackwater out of their own country?
I mean, like, if they're sovereign and all.
Don't say "Iraq War", say "Bush's War."
NEVER EVER say "surge". Say "Bush's Escalation."
Remember Highlights(r) for Children
Goofus always says: "Surge."
Gallant always says: "Escalation."
E Pleb Neesta
GODISNOWHERE
If family planning causes promiscuity, then confession causes sin.
Excellent Blog!Very well designed and focused.
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