Quote:Guantanamo
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Map of Cuba with the location of Guantánamo
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Map of Cuba with the location of Guantánamo
Guantanamo (Spanish spelling: Guantánamo) is a city in southeast Cuba, capital of the Guantánamo Province. It has about 208,000 inhabitants and most of them live from producing sugarcane and cotton wool.
About 15 km away from the city lies a US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, containing detention centers, currently used for alleged unlawful combatants captured in the War on Terrorism. The detention centers consist of the temporary Camp X-Ray, which is now closed, and the permanent Camp Delta.
Guantanamera ("The girl from Guantánamo") is perhaps the best known Cuban song and that country's most noted patriotic song.
The US occupies a 45-square mile naval base at southern half of Guantánamo Bay under a series of agreements concluded with Cuba. The original 1903 lease left "ultimate sovereignty" with Cuba, but gave the US "complete jurisdiction." Later agreements set the annual rent for the base at $2,000 in gold and provided the US could remain at the base in perpetuity as long as it did not abandon Guantanamo or agree with Cuba to leave. The base at Guantanamo Bay is in the unusual situation of being a permanent US military base located in an unfriendly nation. This was popularly illustrated in the movie A Few Good Men, especially in the final courtroom outburst in which the fictional base commander Col Jessup (Jack Nicholson) defends his role as a modern day warrior. The government of Fidel Castro considers the rental agreement to be against international laws and has already revoked it while the US claims it is not possible as explained above. The base is the only US naval base in Latin-America that US officials have not wanted to discuss abandoning.
Fill the blanks .........
Which Iraqi deputy prime minister will ratify the charter /lease on the military bases required for the continued protection of the Iraqi people after the installation of democracy? [blank] [blank]
Bush has no idea what American democracy is, and he's trying to force our kind of democracy on the Iraqis while Bush destroys ours. The Patriot Act is a good example; it takes away our privacy rights (from government snooping), and our civil liberties.
A bipartisan group of six senators is leading the fight to ensure that this bad bill doesn't become law. Let's hope they win this fight. Bush doesn't understand a thing about democracy.
CIA abduction claims 'credible'
Allegations that the CIA abducted and illegally transported terror suspects across European borders are credible, an investigator has said.
Swiss senator Dick Marty has submitted a report on the claims, made in the media, to a meeting of the human rights committee of the Council of Europe.
Mr Marty criticised the US for refusing to confirm or deny the allegations.
The US government and its intelligence agencies say that all their operations are conducted within the law.
Extra pressure
Mr Marty's findings were released in an official statement by a committee of the Council of Europe, the continent's human rights watchdog.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE
Founded in 1949 and based in Strasbourg, France
Forty-six members, 21 of them from Central and Eastern Europe
Set up to defend human rights, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law
Acts as human rights watchdog for Europe
Oversees the European Court of Human Rights
Comprises a decision-making committee of ministers and 630-member parliamentary assembly
"The elements we have gathered so far tend to reinforce the credibility of the allegations concerning the transport and temporary detention of detainees - outside all judicial procedure - in European countries," he said.
He went on:
"Legal proceedings in progress in certain countries seemed to indicate that individuals had been abducted and transferred to other countries without respect for any legal standards."
The BBC's Alix Kroeger in Strasbourg says the strongly worded report will add to the pressure for more in-depth inquiries.
The European Union has so far declined to investigate, although it has said any member state with secret prisons on its territory could have its EU voting rights suspended.
Poland and Romania have been named by the media as possible locations of CIA secret prisons, but have denied the allegations.
Mr Marty said it was "still too early to assert that there had been any involvement or complicity of member states in illegal actions".
But, he warned, if the allegations proved correct any European states involved "would stand accused of having seriously breached their human rights obligations to the Council of Europe".
Tony Lloyd, a member of the Council's parliamentary assembly, told the BBC the charges that people may have been effectively kidnapped and taken to other countries for possible torture "were of such magnitude that they have to have proper answers".
Torture ban
Mr Marty urged the US to comment formally on the allegations, saying he "deplore[d] the fact that no information or explanations" were given during last week's tour of Europe by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Ms Rice refused to address claims the CIA operated secret prisons abroad, where suspects could be interrogated without reference to international law.
She said American interrogators were bound by a UN treaty banning the use of torture, regardless of whether they were working in the US or abroad.
A group of British MPs investigating the matter, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition, said the UK could be at risk of breaching its legal obligations.
International law expert Professor James Crawford, of Cambridge University, told the group the UK government must satisfy itself on the issue of torture rather than relying on US assurances.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4524864.stm
Iraq Sunni politician shot dead
A leading Sunni Arab politician has been shot dead in Iraq, two days before the country's general election.
Iraqi Free Progressive Party leader Mizhar Dulaimi was killed while campaigning in western Iraq.
Iraqis living abroad have already begun casting their votes. Expatriates have until Thursday to vote in polling stations in 15 countries.
Meanwhile, four US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in northwest Baghdad, the US military said.
Sunni candidate targeted
Mr Dulaimi was shot dead in his car in the restive city of Ramadi, in the western Anbar province. Three of his bodyguards were wounded.
He had appeared on television the previous night urging Iraqis to take part in the elections.
Many Sunni Arabs are standing in the election after their community largely boycotted the 30 January vote for a transitional assembly.
But Sunni candidates have been among the groups most targeted in pre-election violence, correspondent say.
Al-Qaeda's branch in Iraq and several other extremist groups have warned people not to vote, describing the process as a "devilish plot".
Overseas votes
A spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, Farid Ayar, said the vote conducted outside Iraq was important.
There are an estimated 1.5m expatriates eligible to vote.
A five-day public holiday began in Iraq as security tightened ahead of Thursday's poll.
Iraqis will be able to vote in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US.
"We are making every effort to ensure the elections are honest, because any problem will have repercussions on the ballot in Iraq as well," he said.
The chairman of the Iraq Out-of-Country Voting Program hoped there would be a higher turnout than in January's election, when 265,148 expatriates voted.
"We are expecting a greater number of voters because parties who boycotted the [January] elections are participating," Hamdiya al-Husseini said.
The BBC's correspondent in Tehran, Frances Harrison, says the people voting in Iran are mostly Kurds or Shias, who have lived there often for a quarter of a century, pushed out by Saddam Hussein.
Many of them say that they want to go back to Iraq and they hope that this election will bring the security they need for them to go back, our correspondent says.
On Monday, Iraqi soldiers, hospital patients and prisoners cast their votes.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4523972.stm
Published: 2005/12/13 16:49:03 GMT
Tico noted that this was off-topic in another thread, so I'll repost here, as I feel it is important:
Most people don't even know that the INC, Iraqi National Congress, was a
US propaganda created organization.
Quote:Outrage meter pegged? This'll break it altogether...
by Mike Stark [Subscribe]
Sun Dec 11, 2005 at 09:21:53 PM PDT
I've been waiting for someone to do this one justice... maybe it's been overlooked because this scandal developed over several administrations, Republican and Democrat... who knows? What matters is the indisputable record...
First - perhaps there are lawyers with relevant knowledge that can comment on this because I am not entirely up to speed on the law. That said, I do know that it is illegal for the United States government to use our tax dollars to spread propaganda to Americans... keep that in mind as you follow me to the other side...
what will you find there? Oh... well, just that the entire Iraq war was cooked up and sold to us as an extension of a 15 year old propaganda operation. Remember the Iraqi National Congress - the organization led by Ahmed Chalabi that fed us Curveball and all the other lying miscreants selling information about WMD? It was a propaganda front. You paid for it.
The
story comes to us from Rolling Stone.
Quote:One of the most powerful people in Washington, Rendon is a leader in the strategic field known as "perception management," manipulating information -- and, by extension, the news media -- to achieve the desired result. His firm, the Rendon Group, has made millions off government contracts since 1991, when it was hired by the CIA to help "create the conditions for the removal of Hussein from power." Working under this extraordinary transfer of secret authority, Rendon assembled a group of anti-Saddam militants, personally gave them their name -- the Iraqi National Congress -- and served as their media guru and "senior adviser" as they set out to engineer an uprising against Saddam.
Did you catch that?
The entire Iraqi National Congress was created from scratch by a propogandist paid by your tax dollars. There was never any groundswell movement of disillusioned Iraqi exiles with heartfelt desire to return their homeland to peaceful rule... It was all a sham - paid for by the CIA...
Quote:
Strapped to the polygraph machine was Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, a forty-three-year-old Iraqi who had fled his homeland in Kurdistan and was now determined to bring down Saddam Hussein. For hours, as thin mechanical styluses traced black lines on rolling graph paper, al-Haideri laid out an explosive tale. Answering yes and no to a series of questions, he insisted repeatedly that he was a civil engineer who had helped Saddam's men to secretly bury tons of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. The illegal arms, according to al-Haideri, were buried in subterranean wells, hidden in private villas, even stashed beneath the Saddam Hussein Hospital, the largest medical facility in Baghdad.
It was damning stuff -- just the kind of evidence the Bush administration was looking for. If the charges were true, they would offer the White House a compelling reason to invade Iraq and depose Saddam. That's why the Pentagon had flown a CIA polygraph expert to Pattaya: to question al-Haideri and confirm, once and for all, that Saddam was secretly stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
There was only one problem: It was all a lie. After a review of the sharp peaks and deep valleys on the polygraph chart, the intelligence officer concluded that al-Haideri had made up the entire story, apparently in the hopes of securing a visa.
The fabrication might have ended there, the tale of another political refugee trying to scheme his way to a better life. But just because the story wasn't true didn't mean it couldn't be put to good use. Al-Haideri, in fact, was the product of a clandestine operation -- part espionage, part PR campaign -- that had been set up and funded by the CIA and the Pentagon for the express purpose of selling the world a war. And the man who had long been in charge of the marketing was a secretive and mysterious creature of the Washington establishment named John Rendon.
snip...
Quote:
Although Rendon denies any direct involvement with al-Haideri, the defector was the latest salvo in a secret media war set in motion by Rendon. In an operation directed by Ahmad Chalabi -- the man Rendon helped install as leader of the INC -- the defector had been brought to Thailand, where he huddled in a hotel room for days with the group's spokesman, Zaab Sethna. The INC routinely coached defectors on their stories, prepping them for polygraph exams, and Sethna was certainly up to the task -- he got his training in the art of propaganda on the payroll of the Rendon Group. According to Francis Brooke, the INC's man in Washington and himself a former Rendon employee, the goal of the al-Haideri operation was simple: pressure the United States to attack Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein.
As the CIA official flew back to Washington with failed lie-detector charts in his briefcase, Chalabi and Sethna didn't hesitate. They picked up the phone, called two journalists who had a long history of helping the INC promote its cause and offered them an exclusive on Saddam's terrifying cache of WMDs.
For the worldwide broadcast rights, Sethna contacted Paul Moran, an Australian freelancer who frequently worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "I think I've got something that you would be interested in," he told Moran, who was living in Bahrain. Sethna knew he could count on the trim, thirty-eight-year-old journalist: A former INC employee in the Middle East, Moran had also been on Rendon's payroll for years in "information operations," working with Sethna at the company's London office on Catherine Place, near Buckingham Palace.
"We were trying to help the Kurds and the Iraqis opposed to Saddam set up a television station," Sethna recalled in a rare interview broadcast on Australian television. "The Rendon Group came to us and said, 'We have a contract to kind of do anti-Saddam propaganda on behalf of the Iraqi opposition.' What we didn't know -- what the Rendon Group didn't tell us -- was in fact it was the CIA that had hired them to do this work."
The INC's choice for the worldwide print exclusive was equally easy: Chalabi contacted Judith Miller of The New York Times. Miller, who was close to I. Lewis Libby and other neoconservatives in the Bush administration, had been a trusted outlet for the INC's anti-Saddam propaganda for years. Not long after the CIA polygraph expert slipped the straps and electrodes off al-Haideri and declared him a liar, Miller flew to Bangkok to interview him under the watchful supervision of his INC handlers. Miller later made perfunctory calls to the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, but despite her vaunted intelligence sources, she claimed not to know about the results of al-Haideri's lie-detector test. Instead, she reported that unnamed "government experts" called his information "reliable and significant" -- thus adding a veneer of truth to the lies.
Her front-page story, which hit the stands on December 20th, 2001, was exactly the kind of exposure Rendon had been hired to provide. AN IRAQI DEFECTOR TELLS OF WORK ON AT LEAST 20 HIDDEN WEAPONS SITES, declared the headline. "An Iraqi defector who described himself as a civil engineer," Miller wrote, "said he personally worked on renovations of secret facilities for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in underground wells, private villas and under the Saddam Hussein Hospital in Baghdad as recently as a year ago." If verified, she noted, "his allegations would provide ammunition to officials within the Bush administration who have been arguing that Mr. Hussein should be driven from power partly because of his unwillingness to stop making weapons of mass destruction, despite his pledges to do so."
For months, hawks inside and outside the administration had been pressing for a pre-emptive attack on Iraq. Now, thanks to Miller's story, they could point to "proof" of Saddam's "nuclear threat." The story, reinforced by Moran's on-camera interview with al-Haideri on the giant Australian Broadcasting Corp., was soon being trumpeted by the White House and repeated by newspapers and television networks around the world. It was the first in a long line of hyped and fraudulent stories that would eventually propel the U.S. into a war with Iraq -- the first war based almost entirely on a covert propaganda campaign targeting the media.
By law, the Bush administration is expressly prohibited from disseminating government propaganda at home. But in an age of global communications, there is nothing to stop it from planting a phony pro-war story overseas -- knowing with certainty that it will reach American citizens almost instantly. A recent congressional report suggests that the Pentagon may be relying on "covert psychological operations affecting audiences within friendly nations." In a "secret amendment" to Pentagon policy, the report warns, "psyops funds might be used to publish stories favorable to American policies, or hire outside contractors without obvious ties to the Pentagon to organize rallies in support of administration policies." The report also concludes that military planners are shifting away from the Cold War view that power comes from superior weapons systems. Instead, the Pentagon now believes that "combat power can be enhanced by communications networks and technologies that control access to, and directly manipulate, information. As a result, information itself is now both a tool and a target of warfare."
I dunno how to flog this story and get it the attention it deserves... but the families of the 2144 dead and twenty thousand wounded Americans deserve to know that the entire thing was a marketing campaign... That ad executives paid for by the CIA and Pentagon created the INC, that the INC supplied a mounds of savory lies for the neocons, the neocons spun the lies to the Times and other media outlets, and all along the American people were played for suckers.
Remember that the next time you see some political suit express their respect for the troops.
It's hard to even know where to begin. This whole damn war has been a sham from day 1; hell, from day -100!
Cycloptichorn
Bushco also thinks it's okay to spread demagogue through paid news in the Iraq media. Their democracy is coming along just fine.
Gelisgesti wrote:Did you visit it?
Yes. I was morbidly curious.
More on Iraq democracy:
December 13, 2005
U.S. Envoy Says Detainee Abuse Was Worse Than Described
By KIRK SEMPLE
and CHRISTINE HAUSER
RAMADI, Iraq, Dec. 13 - The American ambassador in Iraq said today that more than 100 detainees had been abused in two Iraqi detention facilities, more than had been previously disclosed.
Also today, just ahead of nationwide elections, a Sunni Arab candidate was shot and killed, and the American military said four soldiers were killed just north of Baghdad.
The ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, was speaking at a news conference in Baghdad just days before the country goes to the polls on Thursday to select a full-term government. Early voting started on Monday for soldiers, hospital patients, prisoner detainees and Iraqis abroad.
Mr. Khalilzad was asked about two Iraqi detention facilities from which some detainees had been transferred to the hospital, and to comment on remarks from some Iraqi interior ministry officials characterizing the handling of the detainees as slapping. Mr. Khalilzad said he has received reports that pointed to more extreme treatment.
In an investigation that followed the discovery in November of the first detention center, called Jadriya, "it was determined that over 100 of them were abused," he said, according to a transcript of his remarks released later. He said that close to 170 people had been held there.
Another facility inspected three days ago was, according to reports he had received, "overcrowded and not in good conditions."
"I have seen figures that said 21 or 26 people who were assumed to have been abused," he said.
"I think I can say that based on reports that I have received, that it was, many instances with regard to the over hundred that we talked about it, was far worse than slapping around," Mr. Khalilzad said.
His remarks were the latest this week to touch on the sensitive subject of how Iraqi officials are handling detainees. He called the abuse "unacceptable" and said the Americans would henceforth put officers with Iraqi forces to observe how raids are carried out and people are taken into custody.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry insisted Monday that none of the 625 prisoners discovered last week had been tortured or abused, despite previous assertions by American officials to the contrary.
On Nov. 15, American soldiers entered an Interior Ministry basement and found 169 malnourished prisoners, some of whom, the Americans said, had been tortured. Most of those prisoners were Sunni Arabs.
Last week, the surprise American-Iraqi search of the second detention center, which was run by an Iraqi commando unit attached to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, resulted in the discovery of an even larger number of prisoners.
An American official said the Americans and the Iraqis had found severely overcrowded conditions at the prison, with 13 of the prisoners in such bad shape that they needed to be hospitalized. Today Mr. Khalilzad increased that number to 20 or more.
The exact nature of the maltreatment of the hospitalized prisoners remained unclear.
In an interview, Sami al-Anbagi, director general of the Interior Ministry, said there had been "no mistreatment or torture."
"Only a few guys were slapped on their faces," Mr. Anbagi said. "The prisoners who were taken to the hospital didn't have any serious injuries. They suffered from headaches only."
He did not elaborate on that point but added: "What do you want policemen to do after their colleagues have been attacked? Policemen die everyday because of those guys."
A spokesman for the American command disputed Mr. Anbagi's account, saying the physical condition of the prisoners who were hospitalized was worse than what Mr. Anbagi had described.
"These were very real medical conditions that needed immediate attention," said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson. "There were U.S. forces that provided medical attention on the scene and that transported them to the hospital."
In recent weeks, Sunni Muslim Arabs have charged that commando units working for the Interior Ministry have been carrying out killings and illegal abductions, and that they are abusing and torturing prisoners. Some Sunni leaders contend that the Interior Ministry has incorporated large numbers of Shiite militiamen into the police forces, and that those men are waging a campaign of terror in Sunni areas.
On the spate of killings today, a Sunni Arab candidate in the elections was shot and killed, an interior ministry spokesman said, and the American military reported that four soldiers were killed today by a homemade bomb.
The candidate, Mizhar Al-Dulaimi, was on his way to visit relatives in this city in the volatile Anbar province. Mr. Dulaimi is a businessman in his fifties known for his strong support for Iraqi resistance, and also for his ties to a prominent group of Sunni clerics, called the Muslim Scholars Association. He also took part, as a prominent Sunni Arab politician, in a reconciliation conference in Cairo last month of Iraqi political factions.
It was not clear who Mr. Dulaimi's attackers were. A friend accompanying him was wounded.
The American military said in a statement that the four soldiers, from Task Force Baghdad, were killed when their patrol struck the bomb northwest of Baghdad, but it gave no further details.
Jihadist groups have warned Iraqis against taking any part in the political process, although the Muslim Scholars Association said earlier this month that it would not call for a boycott of Thursday's election, as it had last January.
At one time Mr. Dulaimi lived in Paris before moving to Cairo. He gave several television interviews recently, the last of which was shown on Al-Arabiya, when he accused Shiites of trying to fabricate a security case and arrest him after the Cairo conference.
In addition, a roadside bomb exploded that was meant to hit the convoy of a Shiite member of the National Assembly, Sheik Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, who was elected with the governing United Iraqi Alliance, The Associated Press reported. The Iraqi army said the explosion in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, damaged one of the vehicles, the A.P. said.
Despite the deep, sectarian suspicions aroused by the Shiite-run detention centers, political conditions appear to be set for a huge nationwide vote on Thursday, and American and Iraqi officials say they are anticipating a higher participation rate than the 64 percent turnout in the constitutional referendum in October.
The Sunni Arab leadership, which boycotted the elections in January, has universally urged its constituents to vote in order to increase their representation in parliament.
More than 1,000 Sunni clerics issued a religious edict urging Sunni Arabs to vote, according to the A. P. report today.
Top American and Iraqi security officials say that they have refined their electoral security measures over the course of the year and that they feel confident that the voting will be relatively quiet. While election day in January was the single most violent day in Iraq since the invasion, insurgents were mostly held in check on the day of the constitutional referendum in October, with only 18 polling centers coming under attack, mainly by mortar fire and drive-by shootings, said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a top American military spokesman in Iraq.
The government on Monday announced a series of measures intended to control violence this week, including prohibiting the carrying of weapons, declaring a national holiday from Tuesday to Thursday, closing the borders, extending a nighttime curfew, restricting domestic travel and banning the movement of vehicles from Wednesday to Saturday morning.
Additionally, there will be more troops than ever deployed throughout the country, including 160,000 Americans and about 225,000 Iraqis, up from 200,000 Iraqis in October and 138,000 in January, General Lynch said in an interview in Baghdad last week.
In the vicinity of polling places, Iraqi and American officials plan to use the same general system of security that they refined in the October referendum. The Iraqi police will guard the entrances of the sites while Iraqi Army troops will provide a close cordon of security. American forces, meanwhile, will form a loose outer cordon, conducting light patrols and serving as a quick reaction force in the event of an emergency.
On Monday, five Islamic militant groups, including Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, issued a rare joint statement on the Internet in which they denounced the elections as a "crusaders' project" in violation of Islamic law. But unlike statements before national elections in January and the constitutional referendum in October, the message did not threaten disruption of this elections.
However, insurgents in this city on the Euphrates River in the heart of this Province, the Sunni Arab stronghold, have distributed fliers threatening residents with death if they go to the polls. Similar menacing messages have been posted on walls in towns in western Anbar, according to a Western diplomat who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.
As a reflection of the continuing threat of violence in Anbar, electoral officials anticipate opening only 154 of 207 planned polling places in the province, according to Safwat Rashid Sidqi, a member of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq. "The reason is security, only security," he said in an interview.
American officials hope that widespread Sunni Arab participation will help to deflate the Sunni-backed insurgency and give more legitimacy to the new parliament.
Elections officials say an improved security situation will permit the opening of about 500 more polling centers than in October, bringing the total to 6,300.
Kirk Semple reported from Ramadi and Christine Hauser reported from New York. Dexter Filkins contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article.
Ticomaya wrote:Gelisgesti wrote:Did you visit it?
Yes. I was morbidly curious.
Wow, well I'll try to find something more at your leve....l BRB
Gelisgesti wrote:Ticomaya wrote:Gelisgesti wrote:Did you visit it?
Yes. I was morbidly curious.
Wow, well I'll try to find something more at your leve....l BRB
Okay ... but you should know: I have disney.com bookmarked already.
For the kids, of course.
Here ya go Mr. T.
You might try some talc on that rash ....
klik me
Cyclopitchorn apparently missed the following story-
Source-December 13, 2005, Chicago Sun Times- P. 32
"Iraqis are expressing optimism about their futures even as they have mixed feelings about the US occupation, a new poll shows.
Seventy Five percent of Iraqis surveyed expressed confidence in the national elections, according to the poll thjt was conducted for ABC News, Time Magazine and three overseas news organizations.
Seventy per cent said they approve of the new Constitution and almost two-thirds say they expect conditions to improve in the year ahead.
When it comes to American forces, Iraqis are split.
Two thirds of those surveyed opposed the presence of US forces in Iraq but roughly half say US forces should remain until security is restored, Iraqi forces can operate independently or longer."
It sounds as if the Iraqis have been talking to Senator Lieberman.
Mortkat, Don't under credit where credit is due. The report actually said 79 percent of Iraqis surveyed said they have confidence in their future, but 59 percent also said that the US occupation exacerbates the insurgency problems. Most want the US to leave.
Thank you for the specifics, Ticomaya. Your words-"roughly half"( 52 %) corresponds to my post-"roughly half". It would appear, that unlike Cicerone Imposter's comment- "Most want the US to leave" that indeed over half( THAT IS MOST) want coalition forces to stay.
