My friend Mike Otterman, with whom I recently spoke in New York about Iraq and Palestine, has a piece in the Christian Science Monitor on Iraqi refugees, the silent victims of our devastating war: Bombs still detonate and Iraqi political factions remain deadlocked, but American pundits and politicians have vied to take credit for US…
Showing all posts tagged Iraq
Floating towards war with Iran, via Israel and Zionists
I constantly write about Iran because I both fear what Israel and/or America may do to the nation and the profound human rights abuses occurring inside the country. But these days the threat of military action against the Islamic Republic is growing. Many of the same figures who pushed for war against Iraq have now…
Afghan war isn’t some noble exercise; it’s empire building
Afghanistan is essentially absent from the Australian election campaign. In fact, any foreign affairs are missing in action. Parochialism is the name of the game. Today’s Australian features a mindless quote from Julia Gillard that the risk of further Australian deaths in Afghanistan is real. Very insightful. A foreign affairs “expert”, Michael Fullilove, offers this…
America is meddling in Iraq (but don’t tell the Americans)
Ironic headline alert: Odierno: Troops staying in Iraq to prevent foreign interference
Iraq may be like Lebanon, if US and Israel have their way
When failure is your middle name, why not copy the masters? The US may be using Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon as a model for its supposed draw-down in Iraq. In other words, expect America to hassle and monitor Iraq for years to come, violating Iraqi sovereignty. Like Israel does in Lebanon.
Iraqis hate us because we abuse and kill them
Before the Afghan war logs, Wikileaks released the “Collateral Murder” video. The Nation provides an exclusive that details the casual brutality dished out by the US to average Iraqis. No wonder the insurgency continues to rage: One by one, soldiers just arriving in Baghdad were taken into a room and questioned by their commanding officers.…
How ANZ bank is backing cluster bombs
Just one more reason to dislike the banking industry: A postcard produced by campaigners shows six-year old Abdullah, pictured with his left arm missing above the elbow. It explains the Iraqi boy was sleeping in his home in 2003 when a cluster bomb came through his window, the shrapnel blowing off his arm and tearing…
What the West has left Iraq
Anthony Shadid writes a powerful piece in the New York Times on the deadly legacy of America in Iraq, in 2003, today and into the future. The occupation isn’t about to end: The morning after President Obama spoke of bringing the war in Iraq to “a responsible end,” insurgents planted their black flag on Tuesday…
Let the post Wikileaks leaking begin
This piece didn’t get the attention it deserves. Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg (a clear inspiration to Wikileaks and Julian Assange) told the Washington Post last weekend what documents or information should be leaked and freely available. A truly free society would depend on it: 1. The official U.S. “order of battle” estimates of the…
The lack of intelligence of American intelligence
Fulton Armstrong is a former US intelligence officer who sent the following letter to the New York Review of Books and explains how the US intelligence community is close to broken (so remember this when a forthcoming report appears on Iran): I was a member of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), as national intelligence officer…