Cops runs down anti-war protestorWAR PROTEST / 5 YEARS
How to Destroy a Country and Get Off Scot-Free
Someone once told me if you're going to tell a lie make it a whopper based on the premise the more outrageous the lie the more likely it is to be believed. At the time, I wrote off his advice as hogwash but as we see from the Iraq debacle, he was right. Five years later, the deceit continues undiminished and nobody has been held to account.
Tune in to Winter Soldier Hearings
Get ready for the horrible, honest reality of the American occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan like you haven't heard it before. For three days, March 14-16, hundreds of U.S. veterans of the two wars will descend on Washington and testify in the "Winter Soldier" hearings about what they really did while they were serving their country in Iraq. And their experiences aren't pretty.
Celebrating the Anniversary, Mr. Bush?
Five years, George. Five ugly, deadly, bloody years. This is quite an anniversary. If you wait a day or two, you'll be able to celebrate the 4,000th US military death as well. Break out the champagne.
Iraq Reconciliation Talks Hit By Walkouts
A conference to reconcile Iraq's warring political groups began to unravel even before it got under way on Tuesday, with the main Sunni Muslim Arab bloc pulling out and protesting it had not been properly invited.
Hundreds of politicians gathered for the conference a day after Vice President Dick Cheney, on a visit marking the fifth anniversary of the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, hailed what he called "phenomenal" political and security improvements.
Price of Iraq war now outpaces Vietnam
According to two prominent economists, in a study the White House has not disputed, the cost of the war now outpaces the total price of the 12-year US conflict in Vietnam. It's now nearly double the total cost of the Korean War.
Do remember that as you fill out your tax forms next month.
Struggle for Iraq Is the First I-War
This is the war in 2008 -- coming to a computer near you.
Iraq invasion was "successful endeavor": Cheney
Iraq invasion was "successful endeavor": Cheney...
"Hey, drove my Halliburton shares right through the roof! I cashed 'em out and converted them to gold two weeks ago. Now I just ride out the dollar collapse until my gold is worth ten times what I paid for it. Success!"
Reviving Vietnam War Tactics
Phoenix was far from an "aid and development" program. To achieve deniability, the CIA trained and transferred operational authority to the South Vietnamese national police, who tortured suspects indiscriminately. CIA officer William Colby, founder of the program, told a Congressional committee in 1971 that the Phoenix operation had killed 20,587 Vietcong suspects in two years. An official Pentagon evaluation in 1968 found that "the truncheon and electric shock method of interrogation were in widespread use, with almost all [US] advisors admitting to have witnessed instances of the use of these methods...[and] 'turned their backs on them.' " A Naval Institute historian later found that "the large majority of South Vietnamese interrogators tortured some or all of the communist prisoners in their care" as well as Vietnamese suspected of collaboration with the Vietcong.
With people like this calling the shots in Iraq, this country simply needs to withdraw from any and all human rights treaties this country has ever signed, just to make it clear to the world what the US policy is on torture and human rights.
Abu Ghraib abuses were 'de facto US policy'
"the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was de facto United States policy. The authorization of torture and the decriminalization of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of captives in wartime have been among the defining legacies of the current Administration; and the rules of interrogation that produced the abuses documented on the M.I. [Military Intelligence] block in the fall of 2003 were the direct expression of the hostility toward international law and military doctrine that was found in the White House, the Vice-President's office, and at the highest levels of the Justice and Defense Departments."
The Iraqis and Afghanis do not "hate USA because they are free". they hate USA because of what they have done to their respective countries, and fellow citizens.
And a small note to Secretary Rice; please, if you don't want to get laughed out of an official capital in your next round of foreign trips, please say absolutely nothing about human dignity, human rights, or freedom.
If you do, you run the risk of being laughed out of the room by folks who understand full well, that under USA administration's watch, torture by Americans has become routine, and accepted.
Iraq war's cost: Loss of U.S. power, prestige, influence
Thanks in part to the Iraq war, the next U.S. president -- Republican or Democrat, black or white, man or woman -- will take office with America's power, prestige and popularity in decline, according to bipartisan reports, polls and foreign observers.
"The winner of the 2008 elections will command U.S. forces still at war in Iraq, Afghanistan and against elusive terrorists with a deadly reach. The U.S. economy will remain burdened. ... America's moral leadership and decision-making competence will continue to be questioned," begins a study of foreign-policy choices for the next president, which a Georgetown University task force released last month.
Bush's legacy will be that of destruction of two nations for no good reason, the destruction of the US economy, and the destruction of the reputation of US country almost beyond repair.
Anti-War Protesters March in Hollywood
An estimated 1,500 people marched through downtown Hollywood Saturday to protest the Iraq War's fifth year. The protesters were marching behind coffins and banners. Police say no arrests were made during the protest.
Red Cross Slams "Critical" Situation In Post-Invasion Iraq
Remember, this is the same Iraq which Cheney characterized as a "difficult but successful" venture 5 years on in his press conference this morning. One has to wonder if the Red Cross and this administration are talking about the same country.
Over One Million Murdered -- and Nothing Has Been Learned
Of course, neither the NYT nor any of the "nine experts" refer to the invasion and ongoing occupation as a war crime. Not a single one of these eminent personages acknowledges that Iraq had never attacked us, that Iraq constituted no threat to the U.S. of any consequence whatsoever, and that these facts -- which are the only facts relevant to a determination of whether the U.S. had any justification at all to launch this criminal war -- could have been known in the winter and spring of 2002-2003, and that these facts were known to many "ordinary" persons in the United States and around the world. But none of the "ordinary" persons who understood the truth were "experts." None of them belonged to the ruling class.
So, Israel felt threatened by Iraq's 'nookular bombs', which Iraq didn't really have, but still 4000 of young Americans have died , and more will continue to die, because helpless little Israel, which really HAS nuclear weapons, felt so scared.Million Musicians March
Million Musicians March...
The Iraqi murdered Bishop was a staunch opponent to the US Occupation and denounced President Saddam Hussein' execution.
Reliable sources in Mosul, asserted today, that the murdered Iraqi Bishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was a staunch opponent to the US occupation of Iraq, denouncing many times and publicly the assassination of the Iraqi legitimate President Saddam Hussein.
The mentioned sources explained that the late Archbishop of Nineveh, Paulos Faraj Rahho was one of the most outspoken Iraqi high graded clerics who rejected publicly and utterly the US' occupation of Iraq and denounced many a times President Saddam Hussein murder by the US.
