Top Admiral Who Said Attacking Iran 'Will Not Happen on my Watch,' Splits with Bush on Occupying Iraq

As the current policy desires of the American people bear no weight with George W. Bush, the hope of millions of Americans is the spectacular emergence of an unimpeachable administration insider blowing the lid off the Bush scam in Iraq so convincingly that another war with Iran is halted and Democrats in congress are infused with a spinal column on the existing war with Iraq—the human embodiment of the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, Joe Wilson and the retired Generals who have blasted the administration all rolled into one.

This hope is naïve of-course; no one is unimpeachable to the amoral Bush administration, and the career inducements for going along with Bush’s insane ploys prove irresistible for war planners and for those who simply know better.

But human decisions matter, no matter the anti-democratic ethos of the Bush administration and indeed the entire Republican Party.

The Washington Post fronts a report this morning chronicling a split in the administration involving Adm. William J. Fallon, chief of the U.S. Central Command overseeing Middle East operations, and the administration’s newest frontman, Gen. David H. Petraeus, whose White House-authored report delivered to Congress can be expected to be, if not laughed out of Washington, met with great skepticism and ridicule, though this incredulity won’t lead to much congressional action to halt the policy so disbelieved.

The page one, 3,639-word Post piece quotes on very deep background one administration official’s description of the schism between General Petraeus and Adm. Fallon as follows:

"Bad relations?" said a senior civilian official with a laugh. "That's the understatement of the century. . . . If you think Armageddon was a riot, that's one way of looking at it."

As the administration attempts another bald-faced, lying PR campaign to continue the Iraq occupation and apparently plans for a military engagement with Iran, it’s worth noting Adm. Fallon’s reported words this February on striking the politically and militarily powerful Iran: An attack on Iran "will not happen on my watch".

Could Fallon be the ultimate insider that millions of Americans wish for who would blow the lid off the administration’s lies?

Maybe Colin Powell will discover that moral courage over career is the honorable course.

One can hope.

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Iraq Military Stats Blasted

More lying in Iraq, but even the corporate media has had enough.

From this monring's Post:

Experts Doubt Drop In Violence in Iraq
Military Statistics Called Into Question

By Karen DeYoung

The U.S. military's claim that violence has decreased sharply in Iraq in recent months has come under scrutiny from many experts within and outside the government, who contend that some of the underlying statistics are questionable and selectively ignore negative trends.

Reductions in violence form the centerpiece of the Bush administration's claim that its war strategy is working. In congressional testimony Monday, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is expected to cite a 75 percent decrease in sectarian attacks. According to senior U.S. military officials in Baghdad, overall attacks in Iraq were down to 960 a week in August, compared with 1,700 a week in June, and civilian casualties had fallen 17 percent between December 2006 and last month. Unofficial Iraqi figures show a similar decrease.

Others who have looked at the full range of U.S. government statistics on violence, however, accuse the military of cherry-picking positive indicators and caution that the numbers -- most of which are classified -- are often confusing and contradictory. "Let's just say that there are several different sources within the administration on violence, and those sources do not agree," Comptroller General David Walker told Congress on Tuesday in releasing a new Government Accountability Office report on Iraq.

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