8-20-07, 10:02 am

Last week several thousand people in 160 cities and towns across the country, , gathered to publicize a recently released report by the National Priorities Project on the cost of war.

According to the report, the human cost of war totals 3,700 US troops killed, about 30,000 wounded, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed, and 4 million displaced so far.

The economic cost so far totals $456 billion to US taxpayers.

The report notes that 48.6 million children could have been provided health insurance or over 48,000 elementary schools could have been built. The report provides state and local data on how much has been given up to fund the war in Iraq.

USAction held similar actions in 25 states.

Later this month, organizers and activists in 40 congressional districts across the country are planning to converge on the offices of pro-war members of Congress. We'll keep you updated on that. Go to to learn more.

Meanwhile political chaos and violence continue to thwart Bush administration efforts to claim progress in Iraq in advance of its September report on the effects of the 'surge.' Prior to mid-August, the White House had attributed the anticipated report to General Petraeus.

As of this past week, however, the White House played down General Petraeus' role amid rumors in the blogosphere that the report had already been written by the White House.

On MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann last week, political commentator Craig Crawford wondered if the fact that the report hasn't been authored by General Petraeus suggests that congressional Republicans' wait-and-see attitude hasn't been undermined.

'Many Republicans were using the prospect of the Petraeus report as cover way back in the last wave or two votes on Iraq to say, 'We're going to wait for this report and then we'll make a firm decision.' They were buying time for themselves before the next election to see where they needed to be,' said Crawford.

P.J. Crowley, of the Center for American Progress, agreed, adding that the campaign to hide behind Petraeus was wrong.

'The President said in July, 'Let's wait until September,'' Crowley commented. 'Well, what's the president going to say in September? 'Let's wait until April?''

Despite Pentagon reports claiming dramatic reductions of violence in July, the Brooking Institution, a Washington think tank, showed that multiple fatality bombings over the last five months in Iraq slightly decline with a bump in July – hardly the dramatic results claimed by the Pentagon.

This week saw the deadliest one day of violence during the entire war, erasing optimistic claims about improvements in the security situation. A total of 17 ministers in the Iraqi government have left the governing coalition over the last couple of months, citing sectarian preferences by Al-Maliki and his supporters, incompetence, and security failures.

Last April, Dawood withdrew his support from Al-Maliki and hinted that the prime minister might have to be replaced in order to end political gridlock. Dawood was quoted in USA Today as saying, 'I doubt very much that this government can continue in power much longer.'

Dawood also leveled criticism at Bush administration representatives in Baghdad. A Shia member of parliament and former government minister Dawood was quoted in the New York Times Sunday (Aug. 19th) as saying, 'From one side, [the American representatives] interfere in everything. Then on the other side, they say, 'Sorry, you are a sovereign country. You have to do it yourself.''

Also, media reports revealed that 'security improvements' in the western parts of the country were little more than a massive efforts by military commanders to bribe Sunni sect leaders to support US aims.

It is increasingly evident that these aims have less to do with building political unity in Iraq, easing security concerns, or fighting terrorism. Instead, the build-up of US-armed Sunni forces might be regarded as a first step in a proxy war with Iran.

US commanders labeled the new Sunni inductees as 'security contractors.'

According to media reports, it appears that some Sunni groups are accepting the role for sectarian purposes – to build up their own armed forces against the Shiite-led Iraqi government and perceived Iran influence.

Critics of this 'counterinsurgency' tactic say it does nothing to resolve political disunity and sectarianism and only hides the root causes of the security problems – most significantly, ongoing US military presences and political interference.

The promotion of armed sectarian groups by the US government comes as a recent poll conducted jointly by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies indicates growing nationalist sentiments among Iraqis.

--Joel Wendland can be reached at

| | |