Operation Iraqi Freedom/External links: Year Two (May 2004)

This article is part of SourceWatch and Congresspedia coverage of the Bush administration's war in Iraq

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Operation Iraqi Freedom

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External articles (has links to sub-articles) Related SourceWatch articles Congressional actions on the Iraq War Daily & current news updates Exit Strategy from Iraq Friedman (Iraq War time unit) Iraq Coalition casualty statistics Iraqi casualties Military and political dissent Selling the war at home Bloggers' Roundtable Freedom's Watch Iraq Communications Desk Vets for Freedom Stay the course return on success Troop surge in Iraq Sen. John McCain and the surge The Petraeus Report Testimony U.S. military readiness Violence in the Middle East

This file covers Operation Iraqi Freedom: Year Two for May 2004.

• For more Year Two links see:

• Operation Iraqi Freedom: Year Two (March 19, 2004 through April 10, 2004)
• Operation Iraqi Freedom: Year Two (April 11 through April 30, 2004)
• Operation Iraqi Freedom: Year Two (June 2004)

Also see Task Bar for more links.

Many of the articles which follow are as a result of the Shiite Muslim uprising in Iraq; also see Iraqi unified resistance.

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May 2004

• "America's Shame," Guardian/UK, May 1, 2004.
• "World War III one year later," New York Daily News, May 1, 2004.
• "Bush Defends Year-Ago Claim Of End of 'Major Combat' in Iraq. President Appeared Under 'Mission Accomplished' Banner," Washington Post, May 1, 2004. See "Mission Getting Accomplished" from Jerome Doolittle's Bad Attitudes and "Happy Flight Suit Anniversary" from CounterSpin Central.
• Sewell Chan, "Top Hussein Officers Vetted for New Army. Candidates Recruited Throughout Iraq," Washington Post, May 1, 2004.
• "Arab Outrage Over Photos" at Abu Ghraib, CBS News/AP, May 1, 2004.
• "Shock, outrage over prison photos," CNN, May 1, 2004.
• Dana Milbank, "U.S. Tries to Calm Furor Caused by Photos. Bush Vows Punishment for Abuse of Prisoners," Washington Post, May 1, 2004.
• Anthony Harwood, "VIDEO footage of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners of war horrified America yesterday," Mirror (UK), May 1, 2004. Contains graphic photographs.
• "UK troops in Iraqi torture probe," BBC/UK, May 1, 2004.
• Katarina Kratovac, "Britain Considers More Troops in Iraq," AP, May 1, 2004: "Insurgents killed a U.S. soldier and two civilian contractors in northern Iraq and attacked a U.S. convoy in Baghdad on Saturday, as scores of people took to the streets of Fallujah celebrating a deal ending a monthlong siege of the city. ... British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government said the country is considering sending more troops to Iraq to fill the gap created by Spain's withdrawal of its 1,300 soldiers. But Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram told British Broadcasting Corp. radio no decision had been taken and no formal request had been made."
• "Two U.S. sailors killed in Iraq," AP, May 1, 2004.
• Daniel Ellsberg, "Ellsberg draws parallels between Iraq, Vietnam," San Mateo County Times, May 2, 2004.
• "Six Soldiers Killed in Iraq Mortar Attack," AP, May 2, 2004.
• Roy Eccleston and John Kerin, "US spies 'urged abuse' of prisoners," The Australian, May 3, 2004.
• "Troops Face Najaf Mortar Barrage," CBS News/AP, May 3, 2004: "Another American soldier was killed in Baghdad in an attack on a weapons cache he was guarding -- the 12th GI killed in May and the 744th since the war began."
• Reuel Marc Gerecht, "What Is To Be Done in Iraq?. A plan for dealing with every faction," The Weekly Standard, May 3, 2004 (Issue).
• Sean Rayment, "Britain to send in a further 4,000 troops to Iraq danger zone," Telegraph/UK, May 5, 2004 (Filing Date); accessed May 3, 2004.
• "Current Iraq Troop Levels to Be Maintained Until End of 2005," AP, May 4, 2004: "U.S. commanders plan to keep U.S. troops at their current levels in Iraq -- about 135,000 -- until the end of 2005, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. ... The decision acknowledges Iraq is much more unstable and dangerous than U.S. generals had hoped earlier this year, when they planned to cut the number of troops occupying Iraq to about 115,000."
• Bryan Bender, "Pentagon drops plan to reduce troops in Iraq," Boston Globe, May 5, 2004: "The Pentagon announced yesterday that it will keep up to 138,000 troops in Iraq through 2005, the clearest acknowledgment yet that the continuing attacks by insurgents will prevent any immediate reduction of American occupation forces."
• Richard Wolffe, "Losing the Moral High Ground," Newsweek, May 5, 2004: "The shocking pictures from Abu Ghraib prison don't just reflect badly on those involved. They also undermine Bush's credibility and jeopardize his plans for Iraq."
• William S. Lind, "They've Come Unglued. On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq," CounterPunch, May 6, 2004.
• "Doctor Who Treated Thousands of GIs Wounded in Iraq: 'Severest Form of Injuries I've Seen in My Career'," Democracy Now!, May 6, 2004.
• "War Casualties," May 7, 2004: During the first week of May, according to the Department of Defense, there have been '26 fatalities and 22 wounded in action.
• Raymond McGovern, "Calling for Backup," Tom Paine, May 7, 2004.
• Seymour M. Hersh, "Torture at Abu Ghraib," The New Yorker, May 10, 2004 (Issue): "American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go?"
• Paul Savoy, "The Moral Case Against the Iraq War," The Nation, May 13, 2004: "As the Iraq war continues into its second year, the Bush Administration's reasons for being there are more indefensible than ever. Prewar claims regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have all proved to be wrong; the number of terrorists in Iraq has increased rather than decreased; more American troops were killed in April than were lost during the entire invasion phase of the war; the systemic and barbarous abuse of Iraqi detainees contradicts the most basic values the Administration claimed it would bring to Iraq; and the uprisings in Falluja and at least half a dozen other cities portend a nationwide insurgency by both Sunnis and Shiites against the US presence."
• "Rumsfeld signals uncertainty on the outcome," New York Daily, May 13, 2004: "For the first time in public, a somber Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the possibility Wednesday that the U.S. mission in Iraq could fail. ... Rumsfeld said the prison abuse scandal had delivered a 'body blow' to the nation-building effort in Iraq that has cost the lives of more than 770 U.S. troops."
• John D. Banusiewicz, Two new military commands will stand up in Iraq May 15, replacing the current coalition military organization," American Forces Press Service, May 14, 2004: "Multi-National Corps-Iraq and Multi-National Force-Iraq will replace Combined Joint Task Force 7." Army Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz will command the Corps; Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez will command the Force.
• Glenn Kessler, "Powell Says Troops Would Leave Iraq if New Leaders Asked," Washington Post, May 15, 2004: "Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, joined by the foreign ministers of nations making key contributions of military forces in Iraq, emphatically said yesterday that if the incoming Iraqi interim government ordered the departure of foreign troops after July 1, they would pack up without protest." See Iraqi sovereignty: June 30, 2004 for details.
• Tony Perry, Patrick J. McDonnell and Alissa J. Rubin, "Deadly April Battle Became a Turning Point for Fallouja," Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2004: "Today, Fallouja is for all intents and purposes a rebel town, complete with banners proclaiming a great victory and insurgents integrated into the new Fallouja Brigade -- the protective force set up with U.S. assistance to keep the peace."
• "War Casualties," May 15, 2004: Mid-month, according to the Department of Defense, there have been 43 fatalities and 116 wounded (as of May 11) in action.
• Jane McHugh, "118,000 IRR soldiers screened for deployment," Army Times, May 17, 2004: "The Army is screening 118,000 former soldiers who completed their enlistments and turned civilian for possible orders to return to duty. The soldiers compose the Army's current Individual Ready Reserve force, former active-duty or reserve soldiers who have time left on their eight-year total obligation to serve. A soldier who enlisted for three years, then was discharged, for example, has a legal obligation to military duty for another five years. ... Members of the IRR are not formally attached to any specific Reserve unit but could be assigned to an active or Reserve unit if needed. ... None of the more than 118,000 IRR soldiers has been called up involuntarily, so far, said Lt. Col. Burt Masters, a spokesman for the Army Reserve Human Resources Command in St. Louis. ... Whether they could be at some future date has not been determined, he said. ... The Army has sought IRR volunteers since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and, to date, about 1,000 soldiers have volunteered."
• Charles Aldinger, "U.S. Assessing Reports of Sarin Gas in Iraq," Reuters, May 17, 2004: "The United States, which invaded Iraq over alleged weapons of mass destruction, said on Monday an exploded artillery shell found there will be tested further to confirm indications that it was armed with sarin nerve agent. ... It would be the first time any chemical weapon has been found in Iraq since the United States led an invasion of that country last year, accusing then-President Saddam Hussein of developing chemical, biological and possibly nuclear weapons."
• Jane McHugh, "Two soldiers exposed to sarin when roadside bomb explodes," Army Times, May 17, 2004: "Col. Jill Morgenthaler, spokeswoman for coalition forces in Baghdad," said that the "sarin came out of a 155-milimeter artillery round that was rigged to the improvised explosive device, ... The round was 'very old, binary and divided into two, which would require the mixing of two chemical components in separate sections of the cell before' the sarin is produced, she said."
• "Inspectors: Sarin possibly left over from pre-Gulf War," Olympian News Service, May 18, 2004: "The former top U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, David Kay, said it was possible a shell containing ingredients for sarin nerve agent that detonated Monday was a relic that was overlooked when Saddam said he had destroyed such weapons in the mid-1990s. ... Kay, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, said he doubted the shell or the nerve agent came from a hidden stockpile, although he didn't rule out that possibility. ... Former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix agreed the shell was likely a stray weapon scavenged from a dump and did not signify that Iraq had large stockpiles."
• "No exit timeline for U.S. troops in Iraq. Wolfowitz says military underestimated Saddam," AP, May 18, 2004: "The Defense Department underestimated its enemy in the Iraq war, failing to predict how resilient former President Saddam Hussein and his government would be, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Tuesday, warning that it was impossible to say how long a large U.S military force would have to stay in Iraq after power was handed over on June 30. ... Answering a question about miscalculations that had been made to date in the year-old campaign, Wolfowitz said: 'I would say of all the things that were underestimated, the one that almost no one that I know of predicted ... was to properly estimate the resilience of the regime that had abused this country for 35 years.'"
• "Rumsfeld says it wasn't necessarily sarin," AP, May 19, 2004: "Rumsfeld told a Washington, D-C audience that the "field test" showing the presence of sarin may not be accurate. He says more analysis needs to be done -- and that it may take some time to find out just what the chemical was. ... In Baghdad, officials said the bomb was apparently left over from the Saddam era. They said two members of a military bomb squad were treated for 'minor exposure' -- but that there were no serious injuries."
• Scott Ritter, "Iraq sarin shell is not part of a secret cache," Christian Science Monitor, May 21, 2004.
• Steve Kroft, "'They've Screwed Up'," CBS News, May 21, 2004: "Accusing top Pentagon officials of 'dereliction of duty', retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni says staying the course in Iraq isn't a reasonable option. ... 'The course is headed over Niagara Falls. I think it's time to change course a little bit or at least hold somebody responsible for putting you on this course,' he tells CBS News Correspondent Steve Kroft in an interview to be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, May 23, at 7 p.m. ET/PT."
• "Newspaper: Reservists pressured to re-enlist," AP, May 24, 2004.
• Michael Ewens, "Casualties in Iraq. The Human Cost of Occupation," antiwar.com, May 25, 2004: "Since May 1, 2003 663; Since war began: 802; Since Capture of Saddam: 342; Total Wounded: 4609."