I, as well as every other right-leaning blogger in the world, have already covered all of these points, but I figured I’d cover it just once more.

As I’ve said in the past, I usually agree with the staff of the local “independent” newspaper, the Clay County Communicator (and the associated website), on local issues. On national issues, though, I typically disagree vehemently.

Case in point, from their Current News page:

• March 15 pm Wedding Anniversaries are happy times. Anniversaries are for remembering good times, happy times. We’ve got a big anniversary coming this weekend but it’s not a happr one.
• March 15 pm This Sunday makes two years in Iraq for the Coalition of the Killing, the USA. A year ago, President W said the hostility was over. He was wrong. The quagmire continues as the body count rises. There have been 1,687 coalition troop deaths, 1,514 Americans, 86 Britons, eight Bulgarians, one Dane, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, 20 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 17 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of March 14, 2005
• March 15 pm We were told Sadamn had nasty weapons of mass destruction tucked away all over the country just waiting to do America in. We now know, that was a lie. We’re still there as occupiers. Our goal all along has been to gain control of the oil and payback Sadamn for trying to knock off King George the 1st.
  March 15 pm Our government started a policy of flying the wounded out of the war zone and landing them at hospital bases under the cover of darkness. The press is banned from taking pictures, witnessing the flights, or talking to the American heroes. To date, over 25,000 soldiers have been severely injured and removed from the sands of W’s oil war.
• March 15 pm Our government keeps something else very quiet. Nearly 6000 soldiers have gone AWOL or not reported to duty. That info is held close to the chest for fear others may get an idea to use their brains.
• March 15 So dismal is the recruiting of new soldiers, our government has issued orders that soldiers must remain on duty well beyond their assignments. We call that, “stop loss” orders. Our government is calling up soldiers who long ago served their country and returned to civilian life. Now talk is to resurrect the draft of old. To take our high school seniors into harm’s way.
• March 15 pm Two years into this unnecessary mess, mass media glazes over the stark reality of lies and cover up. To call this an anniversary, our English language is flawed.

Let’s start at the top, shall we?

“This Sunday makes two years in Iraq for the Coalition of the Killing, the USA.”

Is this supposed to indicate that the “Coalition of the Killing” only consists of the USA? If not, it’s poorly worded. (If so, then it’s blatantly wrong, as there are several other countries there.)

“A year ago, President W said the hostility was over. He was wrong.”

I’m still looking for the text of these remarks, but as I recall, the President’s speech had to do with the fact that Phase One of the campaign in Iraq was over, as we’d effectively toppled Saddam’s regime. I don’t remember any time when the President said that all hostilities were over — every speech I can find from that time period on the war in Iraq says things like this:

There are still violent thugs and murderers in Iraq, and we’re dealing with them. But no one can argue that the Iraqi people would be better off with the thugs and murderers back in the palaces. Who would prefer that Saddam’s torture chambers still be open? Who would wish that more mass graves were still being filled? Who would begrudge the Iraqi people their long-awaited liberation?

“We were told Sadamn had nasty weapons of mass destruction tucked away all over the country just waiting to do America in. We now know, that was a lie.”

Do we? High ranking officials in Iraq have pointed out the systematic way that some weapons depots were looted, and there have been rumors that other nations may have helped Saddam get rid of his WMD supplies. Even assuming none of that is true, there were a number of politicians (Including Former President Clinton and Presidential candidate John Forbes Kerry) who stated publically that Iraq had WMDs. There may have been a failure in Intelligence, but that’s not grounds for calling the President a Liar if he believed what he was saying was true.

“We’re still there as occupiers.”

Technically, we’re there to assist in the rebuilding of Iraq after the violence involved in liberation.

“Our goal all along has been to gain control of the oil and payback Sadamn for trying to knock off King George the 1st.”

If the goal is to gain control of the oil, then I’m looking forward to the release of the invoices that show that we’ve paid the Iraqis anything less than fair market value for their oil. If all we wanted was cheap oil, there are a myriad of much easier ways to get it. As a cost-benefit analysis will show, getting this oil through the Iraqi war is a pretty damned inefficient way of going about it.

As for the attempted murder of a former leader, yes, Saddam’s violations of cease fire agreements from the early nineties did contribute to our destruction of his regime in Iraq, and in fact, the multiple violations of those agreements was one of the reasons given for the invasion.

“Our government started a policy of flying the wounded out of the war zone and landing them at hospital bases under the cover of darkness. The press is banned from taking pictures, witnessing the flights, or talking to the American heroes. To date, over 25,000 soldiers have been severely injured and removed from the sands of W’s oil war.”

And the press should have the right to invade their privacy and harass them while they’re recovering. Obviously, that’s the stance of Claywestvirginia.com.

“Our government keeps something else very quiet. Nearly 6000 soldiers have gone AWOL or not reported to duty. That info is held close to the chest for fear others may get an idea to use their brains. ”

Are there more deserters in this war than in previous wars? Is the 6,000 AWOL an extremely high number of AWOL soldiers? I don’t know the stats, but without that information, it’s hard to know what this number means. “…others may get an idea to use their brains?” Is the Communicator implying that smart soldiers are the ones breaking the agreements that they signed when they entered the service? That they should get all the benefits of being paid by the citizens of these United States, but when they don’t like the services they’re expected to perform in exchange for those benefits, they should cut and run?

“So dismal is the recruiting of new soldiers, our government has issued orders that soldiers must remain on duty well beyond their assignments. We call that, ‘stop loss’ orders. Our government is calling up soldiers who long ago served their country and returned to civilian life.”

Unless the government has broken the terms of the original agreement with these soldiers, I can’t help but think this is a non-story.

“Now talk is to resurrect the draft of old. To take our high school seniors into harm’s way.”

The only talk I’ve heard of resurrecting the draft was from Democrats, as a scare tactic. I welcome links to any serious proposals having been put forth by the government after November 2nd.