Yes, they're talking about having to provide shelter for 5 million Chinese displaced by the earthquake.
But China is a very big country - 1.2 billion people or so, I believe.
4.7 million displaced Iraqis, out of 25 million or so? Nearly one in five?
Imagine the international outcry if Saddam had done that!
It's OK if the US does it, though. Freedom is messy, after all.
Freddie Starr ate my hamster!
Er, johninz ate my hamster!
"Nibbles" is the Rosa Parks of hamsters!
Jeffrey shoved my hamster up his asshole!
Bush is dealt a defeat on Iraq bill
Senate Republicans have broken with President Bush to help Democrats add support for veterans and the unemployed to a bill paying for another year of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
20080...ss_iraq_funding
How the US dream foundered in Iraq
The unexpected Iraqi resistance - at all levels of society - to the plans of the George W Bush administration has hardly been given its due. This resistance ranges from the Sunni insurgency to oil workers (who aborted a plan to transfer management of the port of Basra to then-Halliburton subsidiary KRB), to tribal leaders, the Sadrists to the national parliament. Thus the "new American century" went missing in action in Iraq.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Mid...t/
JE24Ak03.html
Bush bid to isolate Mideast hardliners backfires: analysts
The Bush administration's campaign to isolate Iran and Syria has backfired as the two Middle East hardliners ended up this week sidelining the United States, analysts said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
dailynews...nsyriadiplomacy
US spending in Iraq ignored rules
An audit of $8bn paid to contractors in Iraq finds that almost none of the payments complied with US federal laws.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2...cas/
7416253.stm
raq's Babylon bears scars of US-led invasion
Copying ancient Babylonian tradition, a brick on Babylon's new walls bears the name of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whose regime had launched a project to rebuild the ancient city in southern Iraq. The city has been damaged by the US-led invasion. At a meeting in Berlin next month, Iraqi and other specialists will endeavour to assess the true level of damage.(AFP/File/Ali Yussef)AFP - The last outsiders to visit the ruins of the once-mighty city of Babylon in Iraq came in tanks and helicopters, leaving a blight on its historic and fragile landscape, archaeologists say.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
dailynews...turearchaeology
THE ROVING EYE : The Mosul riddle
While most attention in Iraq is focused on Baghdad and the troubles in Sadr City, under the global radar an invisible war in Mosul drags on, officially against al-Qaeda in Iraq jihadis but in fact a barely disguised anti-Sunni mini-pogrom conducted by government-embedded militias.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Mid...t/
JE24Ak01.html
Baghdad hospital turns to the sick as troops take Shiite bastion
Fighting has died down in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City after seven weeks, but a doctor at a key hospital in the impoverished neighbourhood has more work now. During street battles between American troops and the Mahdi Army militia, the al-Sadr hospital operated only the emergency room to treat men, women and children hit by bombs and bullets.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb....ment&RSS20=02-
P
Shiites accuse Iraqi army of truce violations
The movement of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday accused the Iraqi army of violating a truce, but said the Shiite militia will honour the deal that halted weeks of bloodshed.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
dailynews...aqunrestbaghdad
For His Treatment of Children in the 'War on Terror,' Bush Is a War Criminal
Surely nothing that President Bush has done in his two wretched terms of office — not the invasion and destruction of Iraq, not the overturning of the five-centuries-old tradition of habeas corpus, not his authorization and encouragement of torture, not his campaign of domestic spying — nothing, can compare in its ugliness as his approval, as commander in chief, of the imprisoning of over 2500 children.
http://www.commondreams.org/arch...008/05/21/9116/
RhusLancia has a whine! (in previous thread)
"...We DID invade Iraq in '03...[in a way that has turned out disastrously.] Five years later, we and the Iraqis are sorting it out over there. What is the best thing to do now? [You guys want] to "punish" us for the invasion and mistakes in its aftermath. [You] couldn't care less about the day after that, or the ultimate fate of Iraqis, or the end state of Iraq. And it shows.
If YOU need to see us punished, then you have four thousand dead Americans, half a trillion dollars spent, and five years of us being "bogged down" in Iraq to entertain you. Now, please think clearly about the best way forward for Iraq from here."
Awwww, diddums! Did your nice little conquest turn nasty? Got your widdle pinkies burned, have 'oo? En'taining the beastly lefties, are 'oo?
"...we and the Iraqis are sorting it out..."
Let them get on with it. They don't need more of your "mistakes." You have proved beyond all possible doubt that you couldn't sort out the socks in your underwear drawer, let alone the mess you've made in Iraq.
Whatever the best way forward is, it's not your way.
You stopped being "entertaining" long long ago. Now you're just embarrassing.
It's over, can't you get that through your thick head? The fat lady ain't gonna sing for you. She can't stand whiners.
[Rhus]: If YOU need to see us punished, then you have four thousand dead Americans, half a trillion dollars spent, and five years of us being "bogged down" in Iraq to entertain you. Now, please think clearly about the best way forward for Iraq from here.
[MockTada al-Sneerlandi al-Snider]: blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Translation: No.
MockTada: "Imagine the international outcry if Saddam had done that!"
Saddam did do that, may have been even worse (4-5 million expats). I don't know why there wasn't an international outcry, but I have a good guess or two.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira.../
Iraqi_diaspora
I don't know how many Iraqis he displaced internally. My best guess is "a lot". Recall his Arabification program, draining of the marshes, razing of 4k Kurdish villages, and ... hey! Wake up MockTada! I know you're not interested, but jeez!
_
MockTada: "It's over, can't you get that through your thick head? The fat lady ain't gonna sing for you. She can't stand whiners."
Well, it's almost over. The PNUNSMSR has fizzled and/or been captured & killed and/or come over to the good guys side, AQ is on the ropes and can barely muster half a nudge and a third of a wink's worth of support from you guys, JAM has won great victories against the Iraq government (by surrendering), and the ISF continue to assert the new Iraqi state's control over wider areas of the country.
This leaves the TAC hoping & praying that somehow, some way the chaos will flare again (Sistani fatwa'ing against us?). May the chaos stay only in their dreams, and may Iraq continue its progress towards stability!
MockTada: "Let them get on with it."
Sorry, MockTada, Iraq may be able to sort itself out without the final bloody show that you can't wait to see.
_
JEESUS FUCKING CHRIST ,RHUSLANCIA ,,,YOU NEVER GIVE UP DO U...AFTER 5 YEARS AND MORE THAN A MILLION DEAD IRAQIS LATER ,YOU SHAMELESSLY GO ON BLABBERING ABOUT HOW "GOOD" THE WAR HAS BEEN TO IRAQ..U ARE ONE OF THE MOST BRAZEN,HYPOCRITICAL AND SHAMELESS BASTARDS I HAVE EVER SEEN ...MORE THAN 25% OF THE IRAQI POPULATION IS NOW DISPLACED ,,,,THANX TO UR WAR OF LIBERATION ,,BUT U FIND IT EXTREMELY HARD TO GET THAT THROUGH THE THICK SKULL OF URS,THE INCALCULABLE DAMAGE UR WAR OF CHOICE HAS BROUGHT UPON MY COUNTRY ...I CANT FIND EXPLETIVES TO SLAM U ,,,I AM RUNNING SHORT OF THAT ,,,FUCK U ASSHOLE..THAZ ALL I WOULD SAY
What's the best way for it to end from here, Displaced_Iraqi_in_Syria? Would you tolerate more violence, more death, and a potentially longer struggle if it bloodies Amreeka a little more?
_
Operation Salaam...ISF presses into Sadr city.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/
ar...y_presses_i.php
Somehow, I have a feeling "American Jarab" missed this story in his nightly recap of negativity.
God bless the ISF...all you haters who want our efforts in Iraq to fail are in for a rude awakening.
PeteS: "blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah"
Ah. He's on his knees before his new shrine, the Altar of the Blessed Harlot.
Saint Feith, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
Saint Wolfowitz, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
Saint Rumsfeld, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
Saint Cheney, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
Saint Bush, O Blessed Bush, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Turning point: the good news about Iraq
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/B...=4909213&
page=1
ISF is assuming control in major security operations across Iraq.
Doom and gloom might just be fading from the headlines.
http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUni...=4444000&
page=1
Seriously, how sickening is it that the so-called "antiwar" movement has repeatedly touted every problem the USA is facing in Iraq over the last few years (ie Bruno). All of us should be happy about the good news coming out of Iraq, no matter where we are on the political spectrum we may be on.
Saint Bolton: "Hey, Pete, you forgot to pray for me."
"Sorry, your Holiness. Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa. Blah blah blah blah blah blech!
Mosul attacks down 85%
http://www.newsday.com/news/
nati...0,7378471.story
Freedom and security are taking place...Iraq will succeed in its fight against extremism.
So, RhusLancia, it's almost over is it? That's a very upbeat assessment.
When can we expect a new "mission accomplished" banner, pray tell? Can you try to put that "almost" on a timeline? 6 months? One year?
Nah, never mind. We've heard it before. Insurgency "in its last throes" and all that. When was that, almost 3 years ago to a day? Right?
Haven't you noticed, Marcus?
Unfortunately, when the good guys win, it isn't marked by a definitive hanging-from-the-skids moment. AQ, the PNUNSMSR, JAM etc. just become more and more irrelevant.
_
No fat lady to sing for us, either... but MockTada will come close. We just have to settle for the TAC wailing and gnashing its teeth, hoping and praying for somebody "else" to take up the violence where the others left off.
Whatever happened to that Messiah Communist "Resistance" group? Man, I bet there were some broken hearts when they didn't amount to much, as far as violence goes.
_
Sistani does not issue fatwa allowing armed resistance against foreign troops in Iraq-source
Karbala, May23, (VOI)-A close source to grand ayatollah Ali Sistani’s office on Friday denied news agencies’ reports the Shiite cleric issued a fatwa permiting taking up weapons to drive the foreign occupation forces out of Iraq.
“The reports of issuing fatwa by the Shiite cleric Sistani permiting taking up arms to drive foreign troops out of Iraq were baseless”.
Internationa news agencies reported Sistani issued a fatwa, an edict, legalizing Iraqis to hold up arms to drive US troops out of Iraq
The source, a cleric from Karbala associated with Sistani office,pointed out “Sistani’s stance is clear since toppling the former regime(of Saddam Hussein) by calling for sticking to civil resistence to drive foreign troops out of Iraq”.
AP retraction to come right after MockTada sings.
_
Arizona - 2018
"Any day now! We're gettin' there! They love us, they really do. Just a few more months..."
Of course the will to fight on will be zapped for good far sooner than that.
Rhus will instead be one of those bitter old guys who blame them there damn liberals for backstabbing the military and losing the war of his generation.
Arizona - 2038
"'t was lost at home I tells ya! Daaam libruls and wimpy wieners! We coulda won, we shoulda won! We sorely needs 'nother Bush in the white house, lemme tell ya!"
Jenna would be old enough by then.
Marcus, don't you see the violence trending down? The ISF trending up in competence and numbers? The GoI trending up in confidence and capability? Yeah, I know youse guys need everything to suck to feel validated, but by now it must be seeping in that the insurgency's "best" days are behind it. You may hope and pray otherwise, but reality is reality.
_
RhusLancia,
You're doing IBC proud by slugging it out in the trenches with this nest of vipers.
Hey, I asked Sami, a psychiatrist in Iraq, if violence has really decreased in the last six months. Here was his reply to me:
Dear Jeffrey, yes it did decrease in the last six months or so. Thank you for your care and support. Sami.
And the numbers support Sami's view from inside Iraq.
AQI, the Sunni insurgency, and the Sadrist militia have all three been defeated in Iraq by the conjoined efforts of Iraqi and American forces and the fantastic counter-insurgency tactics designed and led by Petraeus.
*
As far as Zeyad's link goes, it sounds like he's now trying to justify his own decision to continue working in the Great Satan. It's kind of sad, really. "Hey, see, it's really too dangerous to return and no one else is returning, so why should I leave the Great Satan?"
Many refugees will stay in their host countries, I imagine, if they're able to secure the correct papers and find a job. But I think most Iraqis will eventually return, especially those in neighboring Syria and Jordan, over the next year or two.
*
"Only 4 per cent of Iraqis in Syria plan to return home"
That's because 96% of Iraqis in Syria are Ba3thists like Riverbend. They think "resistance" is the answer.
"Saddam did do that, may have been even worse (4-5 million expats)."
Rhus, this is an excellent point, but the REAL Iraqis want you to stop reminding them that their hero was a gigantic ass who ripped the country apart long before Zeyad fled Baghdad. They want to pretend that they are the only Iraqi victims of violence. They don't want you talking about Saddam, not in this way. Only THEY and their allies here are allowed to talk about Saddam.
Wa an yaj-a'lanee minal muntaz'ireena laka
wat taabi-e'ena wan naas'ireena laka a'laa aa'-daaa-ika
wal mustash-hadeena bayna yadayka fee jumlati awliyaaa-ika
(MockTada al-Snider's prayer to chaos)
Iraqi who fled in 1982,
you probably fled because your dad and uncles were Khomeinists or Da'wachis so eager to import Iran's 'Islamic Revolution' to Iraq. Were you one of those Da'wa terrorists who planted bombs in Iraqi universities and embassies? Did you run to Iran and help torture Iraqi prisoners of wars to please your masters in Qom? Or did you run and offer your services to the CIA? Every single one of you traitors got what they deserved. And it's not even over yet. You are not fit to lick a Ba3thi's shoe, you Safavid dog.
^
|
Oops. Bring back the TAC to tell us how Iraq's problems are all American imports! 
Oh God, those frightening people from Bosnia-Herzegovina are back on the gogglebox. And the wuffters from Azerbaijan. And the Swedish turkey.
US 'bullying' hurts cluster bomb ban workers – activists
DUBLIN, May 23 (Reuters) - The United States is trying to bully its allies into weakening a treaty banning cluster bombs, Jody Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for leading a campaign against landmines, said on Friday.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/...k/
L23511970.htm
A cluster of excuses – by Marc Garlasco
Since the first day here at the negotiations in Dublin the UK has appeared determined to undermine efforts to achieve an effective and comprehensive international treaty banning cluster munitions. It is becoming increasingly hard to see how the Oslo process is going to come up with a good treaty - at least one with the UK on board - unless the British delegation starts to compromise. Without having Princess Diana championing humanitarianism, as in the days of the mine ban treaty, getting the UK on board has been akin to dental surgery without an anaesthetic.
http://
commentisfree.guardian.co...of_excuses.html
Increased U.S. airstrikes in Iraq killing more civilians
A surge in US airstrikes within densely populated areas of Iraq has led to a dramatic rise in civilian casualties.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/
U....lians_0523.html
More good news?
Surge in violence against women in Iraqi Kurdistan (AFP)
Medics in Iraqi Kurdistan said on Saturday that they had seen a surge in violence against women in May, with both so-called "honour" killings and female suicides on the increase.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
dailynews...urdsrightswomen
American "Justice"
The Marine Corps will not bring criminal charges against two officers in command of a unit involved in the shooting deaths of as many as 19 civilians in northeastern Afghanistan last year after a car bomb struck the marines’ convoy, it was announced Friday. In the episode, on March 4, 2007, several marines opened fire with automatic weapons after a suicide car bomb exploded and wounded one marine. Human rights groups said that up to 19 unarmed civilians were killed and 50 people were wounded along a six-mile stretch of road near Jalalabad, as the convoy fired automatic weapons along the route back to its base. A statement released Friday said Lt. Gen. Samuel T. Helland, commander of Marine forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan, had determined that the officers in command and the troops in the convoy “acted appropriately and in accordance with the rules of engagement and tactics, techniques and procedures in place at the time in response to a complex attack."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/
2...agewanted=print
Well Marcus, your turkey suffered a serious bird strike. It was probably an RAF Eurofighter on the way to bomb Tirana, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Zagreb and Podgorica ... the only way anyone's ever going to get a Balkan vote. Anyone other than Russia, that is, whose vote from Serba propelled Nuryev-on-skates to the heady heights.
American Jarab,
"Surge in violence against women in Iraqi Kurdistan"
Some sick people here are not worried about the "surge in violence against women". They just want oil and money, money, money!!!
Iraqis can build their own homes but here we have another American company thinking about the profits. I didn't like the houses... I could design a far better, more tasteful home and have it built by Iraqis. Since when has Iraqis needed Americans to build their homes?
"Des res, easy access to oilfields"
Worried about the British/American housing market? Then how about a more audacious address - in Kurdistan?
Western property developers are moving into northern Iraq, selling luxury homes and flats for six-figure sums.
The investment is being driven by expectations of a black gold boom, with oil prices at record levels and Iraq's government now claiming to have the largest reserves in the world.
Despite the violence, some officials are already planning to stop Iraq's economy becoming too dependent upon oil.
"Welcome to the American village"
American style homes for £120,000 British pounds, with American garages that will be big enough for the largest car!
See the video:-
http://www.channel4.com/news/art...lfields/
2244052
"you probably fled because your dad and uncles were Khomeinists or Da'wachis so eager to import Iran's 'Islamic Revolution' to Iraq."
My father was eager to return to Iraq in 1980, even though his nephews were murdered by Saddam and his filthy henchmen. His nephews were probably recruited by Da'wa, as they were quite religious. One of his nephews was a doctor, the other a dentist. Congratulations!
"Were you one of those Da'wa terrorists who planted bombs in Iraqi universities and embassies?"
Oh now we planted bombs in universities and embassies? A few months ago, Abass said that Da'wa was accused of throwing a grenade at some Ba3thi bitch and his entourage in the early 80s, and now the Ba3thi bitches who fled Iraq in 2006 are accusing us of planting bombs in universities and embassies? Interesting. Please provide evidence. I mean evidence besides Uruknet.
"Did you run to Iran and help torture Iraqi prisoners of wars to please your masters in Qom?"
My uncle, the father of the murdered dentist, fled to Iran in 1980 because he could not live in a country ruled by a piece of shit who mass murdered Iraqis. I don't blame him. My father and mother fled Iraq in 1982 because my father was in danger of being murdered by the Ba3thi bitches. Good thing we got out when we did, because just three years later my father's friend was murdered by your heroes for saying that Saddam was a piece of shit. Your heroes murdered an educated Sunni Arab from Sammarra. Are you proud?
"Or did you run and offer your services to the CIA?"
When we arrived in the US, my father wanted to apply for political asylum, but his lawyer told him that seeking asylum was a waste of time, because Saddam was an ally of Washington at the time, so my father withdrew his application for asylum.
"Every single one of you traitors got what they deserved."
Yes we fled and started new lives in a great country that allows us to criticize its government and President. Iraqis should learn from Americans.
"And it's not even over yet."
You're not done blowing up Iraqi veggie shoppers? Why am I not surprised?
"You are not fit to lick a Ba3thi's shoe, you Safavid dog."
Thank you for your honesty.
A book some people might want to read!
THE TRIAL OF SADDAM HUSSEIN
BY Dr. Abdul-Haq Al-Ani
The trial of Saddam Hussein marks the first time since the UN was created that a head of state has been put on trial by an invading, occupying power. This book seeks to draw public attention to the threat this precedent poses to developing nations worldwide, and to its distortive influence on the further evolution of international law.
Al-Ani documents the trail of illegalities marking the destruction of Iraq at the hands of the US and UK, from the genocidal sanctions of the 1990s, the US State Department pre-invasion planning that commenced in 2001, and the 2003 invasion, to the setting up and proceedings of the tribunal that swiftly dispatched Saddam Hussein.
While the Tribunal was intended to promote the image of a triumphant Iraqi democracy, the US was actually in control of all stages of the trial. It drafted the Tribunal’s Statute; determined the trial venue and what charges would be brought; researched, compiled, stored, and prevented access to evidence and documentation; selected and trained the judges, and micro-managed the proceedings.
The trial itself was so farcical as to provoke international condemnation. International human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as UN bodies such as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, have stated that the Iraqi Special Tribunal and its legal process does not meet international standards for a fair trial.
The behavior of the United States and its allies sets an ugly precedent for its intervention in other targeted states. This detailed examination reveals how the ‘New World’ is in fact being ‘ordered’. It presents a terrifying prospect of ruthless dictatorship, deprivation of independence, and removal of the human right to justice. It lays bare the level of deception, hypocrisy, and flagrant flouting of even its own laws to which the U.S. was willing to resort in order to achieve its objective: the subjugation of a sovereign nation.
http://www.atlasbooks.com/clarit...arity/
b0037.htm
Thank you American "iraqi" we appreciate the fact that whenever anyone points outs how fucked up Iraq is under the control of the United States that you bring up how fucked up Iraq was under Saddam.
Also good job on your own blog. I see you have a Shiite rabble rouser there named Marion that from the sounds of it appears very anti-American. We're glad that you have chosen to take a stand against her even when she comes under unprovoked attacks from American patriots on your blog.
We also love the way that you didn't respond when Mister Ghost attacked Sistani, your hero, on your blog.
You are doing a great job.
Keep up the good work!
"As far as Zeyad's link goes, it sounds like he's now trying to justify his own decision to continue working in the Great Satan. It's kind of sad, really. "Hey, see, it's really too dangerous to return and no one else is returning, so why should I leave the Great Satan?"
Hi Zeyad please ignore the infantile rantings of the Iraq Blog Police aka Jeffrey and the gang over at IBC. You see Jeffrey leads a very emotionally unstable and empty life. He needs validation by cyber Iraqi people in order to feel good about himself. Notice the comment he published earlier where he unnecessarily quoted another idiotic Iraqi blogger. We can only really feel sorry for him. As far as the other silly commentator that feels the need to attack you and any other Iraqi who has had a different Iraqi experience than his own, he's just a confused silly man that doesn't know his head from his ass.
Don't pay attention to those silly Americans. They're only with you when you agree with them but as soon as you dare state your own opinions they are trying to push you onto the next flight back to Iraq. You aren't allowed to have independent thoughts about Iraq you must obey them and their Centcom talking points at all times.
Marcus | 05.24.08 - 2:55 am | #
Maybe sooner. How else might they even attempt to win the elections?
That's because 96% of Iraqis in Syria are Ba3thists like Riverbend. They think "resistance" is the answer.
Iraqi who fled in 1982 | Homepage | 05.24.08 - 1:30 pm | #
The majority of Iraqis in Syria are Shi'a. It was the only Arab country not to put any caps or limitations on Shi'a that wanted to enter their country.
Maybe if you pulled your head out of your own putrid stinky ass you would have a clue before you opened your stinky putrid mouth to give your backwards opinions.
That's because 96% of Iraqis in Syria are Ba3thists like Riverbend. They think "resistance" is the answer.
Iraqi who fled in 1982 | Homepage | 05.24.08 - 1:30 pm | #
The majority of Iraqis in Syria are Shi'a. It was the only Arab country not to put any caps or limitations on Shi'a that wanted to enter their country.
Maybe if you pulled your head out of your own putrid stinky ass you would have a clue before you opened your stinky putrid mouth to give your backwards opinions.
Mojo sucks IBC dick | 05.24.08 - 7:34 pm | #
The trial of Saddam Hussein marks the first time since the UN was created that a head of state has been put on trial by an invading, occupying power.
Um Ayad | 05.24.08 - 7:09 pm | #
1. Manuel Norreiga
2. Slobodan Miloslovic
3. Charles Taylor
4. William Jefferson Clinton
What's the best way for it to end from here, Displaced_Iraqi_in_Syria? Would you tolerate more violence, more death, and a potentially longer struggle if it bloodies Amreeka a little more? RhusLancia
>Let the Iraqi people decide. You are speculating that there will be more violence when the US troops leave, and if you thought that there were WMDs to be found in Iraq in early 2003, then you should recognize that you don't have a clue what you are talking about.
God bless the ISF...all you haters who want our efforts in Iraq to fail are in for a rude awakening. - C.H.
>Iraq is already a failed state. Time you woke up and recognized that.
But I think most Iraqis will eventually return, especially those in neighboring Syria and Jordan, over the next year or two. * Jeffrey -- New York
>You are delusional. I bet in a year or two you will make the same claims, and still not realize that you are delusional.
Iraqi who fled in 1982 @ 6:35 pm
Incheb shroogie.
Susan aka "Dancewater",
I think its time you woke up and realized that you are a political ideologue wrapping yourself in the "peace" movement.
So what's your plan, Dancewater, pull out and "give peace a chance"? There's a lot more to opposition to armed conflict than simply avoiding military confrontation. For example, do you think that a power vaccum among militant factions and a subsequent slaugher unleashed upon a civilian population is "peaceful" (ie Vietnam)?
The so-called "antiwar" movement does not give a damn about the people of Iraq. The extreme fringe left jumps up and down over the news of violence in Iraq because they hate our president. You will systematically reject all of the amazing progress that has occurred in Iraq because it steps on your "Bush lied people died so get the hell out" beliefs that string your movement together.
"The majority of Iraqis in Syria are Shi'a."
Are all Ba3thi bitches Sunni? It is of course an exaggeration to say that 96% of Iraqis in Syria are Ba3thi, but it is where many Ba3thi bitches fled to, along with Amman, to organize "resistance" that's mass murdered Allah-knows how many Iraqi kids. Are you proud? A second cousin of mine is in Amman. A couple years ago she left another jarab infested Arab country, took her sons to Amman because she was promised a visa to the US, because apparently the stupid Americans only issue visas out of Amman. She's stuck there now, maybe because the US is too busy issuing visas to Iraqis like Zeyad and Raed Jarrar.
Amman hosts many Shia, but the majority of Iraqis in Amman are Sunni, and I'd bet a majority of them are Ba3thi bitches. Damascus also hosts Iraqis of all sects, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that a majority of Iraqis in Amman and Damascus are Sunni Slime like Harith al Dhari. And many Shia jarab like Saad fled Iraq after the fall of the beloved King of Slime Saddami7sain. How many jarab entered Iraq via Damascus to mass murder Iraqis? Do the jarab from Zarqa and Salt know that they've helped prolong the occupation? Of course they don't. Do Sunni bloggers like Nabil still think it was the Iraqi govt, with the help of Americans, who blew up the shrine in Sammarra? Are the 3arab jarab still retarded as fvck? Of course they are.
'Originally, the influx into Syria was Sunni, the 20 percent of Iraq's population that dominated the country under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader ousted in the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 and executed in December last year. In recent months, Shiites, the 60 percent-majority population empowered by his downfall, have joined the flow.
Between January 2007 and mid-May, 41,000 Sunnis, 18,500 Shiites, 19,700 Christians and 5,000 members of smaller minorities registered with the UNHCR, says Sybella Wilkes, UNHCR information officer in Damascus.
The Shiites have surprised refugee officials, who initially thought they would flee into Shiite areas of Iraq. Shiite refugees say they are hunted down at home and their mosques are car-bombed. Syria, despite its 75 percent Sunni population, is the easiest and most accommodating place to go, they say.
"At this point, every group is coming," said Laurens Jolles, the UNHCR's Damascus representative. "Iraq is reproducing itself in Syria."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007...news/
letter.php
Yalla ya jarab, please provide evidence to prove your claim that a majority of Iraqis in Syria are Shiite.
'Thank you American "iraqi" we appreciate the fact that whenever anyone points outs how fucked up Iraq is under the control of the United States that you bring up how fucked up Iraq was under Saddam.'
Did you read the first comment on this thread, mu6y? Did you read RhusLancia's response? Are you stupid? Well of course you are.
"Also good job on your own blog. I see you have a Shiite rabble rouser there named Marion that from the sounds of it appears very anti-American."
An American Shiite anti-American, yes. It is quite quaint - she appears to be a hypocrite living in America, like so many jarab. She is welcome to comment on my blog, just as she is free to bash America.
"We're glad that you have chosen to take a stand against her even when she comes under unprovoked attacks from American patriots on your blog."
She has attacked me, and I have defended myself. Jarab don't like it when Mojo defends himself, I see. It is typical, of course. I suppose you expected me to embrace her and other jarab who come to my blog and tell me how much they disagree with me.
"We also love the way that you didn't respond when Mister Ghost attacked Sistani, your hero, on your blog."
Mister Ghost doesn't like Sistani, maybe for good reason. I don't want to see the hijab imposed on Iraqi women either. I don't completely agree with Sistani, mu6y, nor do I agree completely with Mr. Ghost.
So you're glad that I've defended myself against Marion, and you're also glad that I didn't respond to Mr. Ghost. OK!
Indigo,
Many thanks for the link to the article in The Independent on "Oil: A global crisis".
http://www.independent.co.uk/env...sis-
834023.html
Here is another article:-
"IEA probes fears that oil will run out"
Analysts disagree about cause of the jump in oil prices - some have blamed commodity speculators but others point to surging international demand from Asia and South America as factors that have pushed the price higher.
IEA researchers have warned that even if there is enough oil under the ground, which is probable, supply difficulties could emerge because national oil companies and Western multinationals have failed to invest sufficiently in the equipment and pipelines needed to extract oil and convey it to consumers.
The IEA is worried about an extremely narrow capacity margin by 2012, when demand is expected to have reached 95 million barrels a day. At that point spare capacity could be at just a million barrels a day - which may not be enough to make good any sudden interruption of supply from volatile countries such as Nigeria or Venezuela - or Iraq, which is now estimated to have overtaken Saudi Arabia as the largest holder of reserves.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/busine...2008/may/25/
oil
Outer Darkness: The Gulag Cancer Grows, State Terror Intensifies
The United States government is holding some 27,000 human beings in secret prisons around the world. The overwhelming majority of them are being held indefinitely, without charges, without rights, cut off from the outside world, and subject to "harsh interrogation techniques" (to use the prim locution for "torture" used by the Bush Administration and universally adopted by the American media).
Many of these captives are stuffed into holding pens in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib, which is still in operations despite the momentary torture-photo scandal of 2004 -- and despite Bush's earnest promise to Iraqis to tear down that hated symbol of Saddam's torture. Other captives are crammed into the holds of prison ships floating around the world. Still others languish in the torture chambers of the Bush Administration's Terror War allies -- despotisms, tyrannies, brutal kingdoms -- having been "renditioned" there by American agents, sometimes after being kidnapped, or sold into captivity by bounty hunters, or snatched up in mass sweeps or random grabs or simply for having the wrong name, the wrong face, the wrong color, the wrong religion.
http://www.chris-floyd.com/conte.../view/1517/135/
The Mosul riddle
"Operation Peace" in Sadr City in Baghdad is and will continue to be spun by the Nuri al-Maliki government - and by America corporate media - as a resounding "success" in controlling Iraqi militias, in this case the Mahdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Meanwhile, under the global radar, an invisible war in Mosul drags on, officially against al-Qaeda in Iraq jihadis but in fact a barely disguised anti-Sunni mini-pogrom conducted by - what else? - government-embedded militias. No one has asked the million-dollar-question: How come
multicultural Mosul - a non-Kurdish city - is now being ruled by deputy governor Khoso Goran, a Kurd?
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Mid...t/
JE24Ak01.html
Rumsfeld On Tape: Terror Attack Could Restore Neo-Con Agenda
Former Defense Secretary's conversation with military analysts on political problems - "The Correction For That...Is An Attack"
Shocking excerpts of confidential recordings recently released under the Freedom of Information Act feature former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talking with top military analysts about how a flagging Neo-Con political agenda could be successfully restored with the aid of another terrorist attack on America.
The tape also includes a conversation where Rumsfeld and the military analysts agree on the possible necessity of installing a brutal dictator in Iraq to oversee U.S. interests.
The tapes were released as part of the investigation into the Pentagon's "message force multipliers" program in which top military analysts were hired to propagandize for the Iraq war in the corporate media.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/
arti...msfeld_tape.htm
Talabani, Crocker discuss long-term strategic Iraq-U.S. ties
Baghdad, May 25, (VOI) – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and U.S. ambassador in Baghdad Ryan Crocker discussed on Sunday the means of ensuring the success of negotiations to establish long-term strategic ties between Iraq and the United States to serve both sides' interests, according to a presidential statement.
"The two sides also deliberated the means to enhance cooperation and coordination between the two friendly countries," read the statement received by Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. President George W. Bush signed in early November 2007 an agreement on strategic partnership between the two countries, sanctioning a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq to protect it from "foreign threats" and maintain its internal stability.
Talabani and Crocker also discussed recent developments on the return of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front ministers to the government and re-formation of a national unity government.
The IAF had withdrawn its five ministers and deputy premier from the Maliki government in early August 2007. The step was followed by withdrawal of other blocs including former Premier Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National List (INL), which had five cabinet ministers.
The IAF, which has 44 out of the Iraqi parliament's 275 seats, is the third largest bloc after the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC)'s 83 seats and the Kurdistan Coalition (KC)'s 55 seats.
http://www.aswataliraq.info/look...e=2&
NrSection=1
Mosul's mayor survives 4th assassination attempt in 10 days
Ninewa, May 24, (VOI) – The mayor of Mosul city survived an explosive charge attack that targeted his motorcade on Saturday, the fourth attempt on his life in only 10 days.
"An explosive device detonated near the motorcade of Mosul Mayor Zuheir Muhsin al-Araji in al-Maared area, wounding two of his companions and causing damage to one of the vehicles of the motorcade," the source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI).
The attack is the fourth of its kind on the mayor during the past 10 days, the source added.
http://www.aswataliraq.info/look...e=2&
NrSection=1
I see Bruno under a Burka is here.
Heh heh.
Peekaboo! We see you, Brunhilda.
*
Is this some sort of racist site?
Ahhhh, Zeyad, I see they are all still here, fighting in your comments section. The more things change the more they stay the same.
I hope you have had a chance to do something fun this holiday weekend. A day off now and then from the news would be a good thing.
It does seem that between the fighting in Iraq and Africa, and the horrendous damage done by the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquakes and subsequent aftershocks in China, that the world is seeing a very serious refugee problem.
They will all put s strain on the international community's ability to respond. Not to mention the rising cost of basic needs such as food.
Jeffrey,
Peekaboo!.... It's me.
I have told you before I never wear a "Burka" or an abaya, hijab, not even a niqab.
You know Bruno doesn't come here at weekends....that is my shift! He should be back tomorrow without the "Burka".
Bush's 'War Crimes' and Misdemeanors
Facing a tough reelection fight in 2004, George W. Bush expressed outrage over leaked photos showing U.S. military police at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison abusing detainees, who were paraded naked before female guards, threatened by attack dogs, chained in “stress positions” and forced to wear ladies underpants on their heads.
President Bush assured the American people that he “shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated.” Other administration officials pinned the blame on a “few bad apples” and dismissed the prison guards’ claim that they were told to “soften up” the detainees for interrogation.
Now, a report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General reveals that months before those abuses at Abu Ghraib, nearly identical tactics were used against “war on terror” detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at CIA prisons – and that FBI complaints about the tactics went up the chain of command back to Washington.
FBI agents at Guantanamo even opened a file that they labeled “war crimes” to document the systematic violations of the Geneva Conventions and laws against torture that they witnessed – before being told by superiors to close the file.
According to the Inspector General’s report, the FBI protests reached the White House but went unheeded. Instead, the prisoner abuses spread to Iraq where the Abu Ghraib prison was “Gitmo-ized” with the same harsh and bizarre tactics applied to Iraqi detainees.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thr...om/thread/
14803
Saturday, May 24, 2008
FBI Evidence that Indicts George W. Bush for Mass Murder, War Crimes and Torture
A 370-page report by the Justice Department Inspector General references an FBI investigation of US torture that accuses the Bush White House, the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the Justice Department with 'ordering and planning' torture, including 'procedures' that resulted in death to 'detainees'. In other words --murder!
The report details how the US began torturing captives in 2002. 'Attempts to stop it ... were systematically suppressed', evidence of criminal activity by the Bush administration covered up. Bush's cover up of torture is itself a crime for which he should be impeached, tried and prosecuted.
A 'capital crime' is one for which the penalty is death. There is enough evidence now to try George W. Bush for various 'capital crimes'. Manadel al-Jamadi, dubbed the “Iceman,” is seen in the picture. He was tortured to death in November 2003, using techniques that John Yoo approved in his torture memoranda.
http://existentialistcowboy.blog...rge-w-
bush.html
Ancient City of Babylon Destroyed by US Occupation Base
Sunday, 25 May 2008
The last outsiders to visit the ruins of the once-mighty city of Babylon in Iraq came in tanks and helicopters, leaving a blight on its historic and fragile landscape, archaeologists say.
The city, born on the banks of the Euphrates River 5,000 years ago and full of priceless archaeological treasures, was transformed into a U.S. military camp after the 2003 invasion with a heliport built among the ruins.
The base was later passed to Polish army control and despite the soldiers' departure in 2005, the damage left behind is evident. At a meeting in Berlin next month, Iraqi and other specialists will endeavor to assess the true level of damage.
Iraqi archaeologist Hadi Mussa Qataa, who guided an AFP reporter through the fragile ruins, said helicopter take-offs and landings, along with the tremors from the heavy rumble of armored vehicles had damaged the city's historic monuments.
Babylon, the legendary city, is indeed, the most famous ancient city in the whole World. It was the capital of ten Mesopotamian dynasties starting with the dynasty of King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC); the 6th king of the 1st dynasty; reaching prominence as the capital city of the great kingdom of Babylonia. The last dynasty at which Babylon achieved its zenith, is well known particularly of its 2nd king, Nebuchadnezzar II (605-563 BC), to whom most of Babylon's existing buildings belongs.
http://heyetnet.org/en/content/v...nt/view/2898/1/
Bush's War on Children in Iraq
Surely nothing that President Bush has done in his two wretched terms of office—not the invasion and destruction of Iraq, not the overturning of the five-centuries-old tradition of habeas corpus, not his authorization and encouragement of torture, not his campaign of domestic spying—nothing, can compare in its ugliness as his approval, as commander in chief, of the imprisoning of over 2500 children.
In the 2004 assault by US Marines on the city of Fallujah, things were even worse. Dexter Filkins, a reporter for the New York Times, reported that before that invasion, some 20,000 Marines encircled the doomed city, which the White House had decided to level because it harbored a bunch of insurgents and had angered the American public by capturing, killing and mutilating the bodies of four mercenaries working for US forces. The residents of the 300,000-population city were warned of the coming all-out attack. Women and children and old people were allowed to flee the city and pass through the cordon of troops. But Filkins reported that males determined to be “of combat age,” which in this case was established as 12 and up, were barred from leaving, and sent back into the city to await their fate. Young boys were ripped from their screaming mothers and sent trudging back to the city to face death.
In the ensuing slaughter, as the US dumped bombs, napalm, phosphorus, anti-personnel fragmentation weapons and an unimaginable quantity of machine gun and small arms fire on the city, it is clear that many of those young boys died.
This was a triple war crime. First of all, it was a case of collective punishment—a practice popular with the Nazis in World War II, and barred by the Geneva Conventions. The international laws of war also guarantees the right of surrender, so those men and boys who tried to leave, even if suspected of being enemy fighters, should have been allowed to surrender and be held as captives until their loyalties could be established. The boys, meanwhile, were “protected persons” who were by law to be treated as victims of war, and protected from harm.
Instead they were treated as the enemy, to be destroyed.
For these crimes, the president should today be impeached by the Congress and then tried as a war criminal.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
lind...ff05242008.html
Bush is fighting a war on children? Wow, I didn't know that. Thanks Um Ayad, you really know your stuff!
After Bush and the Illuminati conquer the world, they seek to enslave all Muslim children. This is the Zionists conspiracy. Do you know what I mean?
Phoenix has just landed on the Northern slopes of Mars. From Carl Sagan's Contact: "[Humans] are capable of the most beautiful dreams...and the most horrifying nightmares"
Chimpy and the Amerkkkins are perpetrating the “Zionist capitalist agenda” trying to control the world through capitalism. Democracy is slavery. The Illuminati blew up the trade centers so the Zionists can control the oil and oppress the Muslims.
Carl Sagan was a dope.
I wonder if the Martians have started to complain yet of American occupation.
Heh heh.
Kudos to the NASA team!
I've seen the first images sent back from Phoenix, and they look great. While we're helping Iraqis stabilize their country, and while we send aid to Burma and China, we've just successfully landed Phoenix on Mars. Jeez, Bruno isn't going to be very happy about these developments. None of them fit into his monomaniacal view of the "evil Americans."
*
You know Bruno doesn't come here at weekends....that is my shift! He should be back tomorrow without the "Burka".
Um Ayad | 05.25.08 - 5:46 pm |
Come on Jeffrey, you know better...the library Bruno uses to launch his anti-American tirades is closed on the weekends.
ISF works to secure Mosul...AQI is fleeing.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/
0,2...,358081,00.html
Shouldn't we all be happy about this?
News:
Looks like Sistani might have an "accident" soon:
"'I sell foodstuffs. Sometimes the Occupying Powers or their associates come to my establishment. May I sell them foodstuffs?' Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani replied: ' Selling foodstuffs to the Occupying Powers is not permitted.' [...] This fatwa is significant in light of the reports that Sistani has been orally permitting attacks on US troops by Shiite militiamen loyal to the Shiite religious authorities in Najaf. Then an Iranian news service reported yesterday that Sistani is also coming out against the proposed mutual security agreement between the United States and Iraq that is intended to serve as a Status of Forces Agreement after the United Nations Security Council authorization for US troops to be in Iraq expires in December. The report says: ' The Grand Ayatollah has reiterated that he would not allow Iraq to sign such a deal with "the US occupiers" as long as he was alive, a source close to Ayatollah Sistani said."
http://www.juancole.com/2008/05/...cans-
warns.html
But Cole has more:
"The man some consider the 'fifth Grand Ayatollah of Iraq,' Sayyid Kadhim al-Ha'iri (who resides in Qom, Iran because he cannot abide the Occupation regime in Iraq) has denounced the proposed security agreement in no uncertain terms. Fars News had reported in Persian on May 22 that al-Ha'iri (Haeri) rejected the security agreement. "Every knows that America intends to legitimize its illegitimate presence in our country," so as, he said, "to loot its wealth and spreak poverty and deprivation.""
and more
"[Khatami] "Any hand that signs such an agreement will be considered by Iran as a traitor to Islam, to Shiism and to the Iraqi people," he added. ' "
http://www.juancole.com/2008/05/...cans-
warns.html
"The Grand Ayatollah has reiterated that he would not allow Iraq to sign such a deal with "the US occupiers" as long as he was alive, a source close to Ayatollah Sistani said. The source added the Grand Ayatollah had voiced his strong objection to the deal during a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the holy city of Najaf on Thursday. "
http://www.presstv.ir/
detail.asp...ionid=351020201
It seems to me that it has come down to this: Iran and the Ayatollahs were content to use the US to further their goals while their goals and those of the US were in alignment, but now faced with the prospect of permanent Occupation, they are getting off the US bandwagon. The real question is, if massive protests like those Sistani called out before occur, what will the US reaction be? What will Maliki do? The pressure on him must be enormous.
Notice, if you will, how a spy for the resistance gets sentenced to over 10 years imprisonment, but a US soldier that murdered an Iraqi gets 72 days in barracks:
"A US Army contract translator was sentenced today to 121 months of imprisonment for illegally possessing national defense documents, and using a false identity to procure his United States citizenship and to gain access to classified military materials. In addition, the court issued an order stripping the defendant of his United States citizenship on the basis of his conviction for unlawful procurement of citizenship."
http://www.michnews.com/artman/
p...cle_20323.shtml
"Najaf Governor Assad Sultan Abu Gelal said he did not want the United States to replicate in his province the strategy of funding former insurgents, a move claimed to have reduced al-Qaeda attacks in neighbouring Anbar."We told them (the Americans) we don`t need an Awakening Council like in Anbar," Abu Gelal told reporters on Saturday in the presence of Crocker, who was on his second visit to Najaf this year. [...] The governor said he opposed arming militias and wanted to ensure that the remnants of militant groups were disarmed, not the other way round."
http://syriatimes.tishreen.info/
...420080526084415
This is Liberation:
""A new wave of ethnic cleansing is going on in Iraq. If these atrocities continue, the Chaldean, Syriac and Assyrian communities there will be wiped out altogether, creating a new catastrophe for humanity," Hadodo cried, drawing chants in Swedish and Arabic from the demonstrators. Iraq's Christians, with the Chaldean sect the largest community, were said to total as many as 800,000 before the US-led invasion in 2003 but the number is now thought to be just half that figure."
http://www.thelocal.se/12006/20080526/
"My visit to Mosul with Vice President Tariq Hashimi’s delegation took us to the local police detention center. Some of the prisoners claimed that they were arrested for arbitrary reasons, rather than any credible evidence."
http://
fairuse.100webcustomers.c...imesblog02.html
Just shut up and kill:
"The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written an unusual open letter to all those in uniform, warning them to stay out of politics as the nation approaches a presidential election in which the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be a central, and certainly divisive, issue."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story....on/
5801613.html
"NATO spokesman Mark Laity said militant violence in Afghanistan seems to be getting worse as Pakistan pursues peace with militants in an effort to end a wave of bombings that have killed hundreds of Pakistanis in recent years."
http://www.wiredispatch.com/news...news/?
id=184255
Grr. Me, obviously.
Jeffrey,
Bruno sounds an awful lot like a Baathist sunni arab . . . are you sure he is an Africaaner?
Um Ayad, did Rumsfeld really talk about putting a dictator in power inside Iraq?
I never liked Rumsfeld (disliked is a better word for it), but this would be awful if true. Would you mind researching this story a bit more, and sharing what you find out with the rest of us? Anyone else with additional data who could provide additional information would be greatly appreciated.
Rumsfeld met that wanna be anti-christ Saddam in 1983. So he is no saint. But to openly talk about another Iraqi dictator is a step too far.
Finally, Syria is one of the most racist anti-Shia bigoted countries on earth (right up there with Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, KSA.) Only a small number of Iraqi Shia go the the Baathi scumbag Asad's place. The vast majority are sunni arab or Christian.
I hope LTG Riyad gets permission from PM Maliki to liberate Syria from all the Baathist subhuman scum. I hope this happens soon. The IA would wipe the map with the Syrian army (since most of the Syrian jundi hate Asad intensely . . . they would quickly switch side to their Iraqi liberators.)
Let us not forget that Syrian army officers have been leading the Iraqi resistance for years. A Syrian army colonel was the one who put the arch bishop of Mosul in his vehicle a few months ago (when the arch bishop was kidnapped and later killed.)
Under international law, the sovereign government of Iraq and its army has the right to protect itself from Syria’s aggression (since 2003.) It is time the Iraqi army kicked the Syrian Baathi scum out.
The animal Asad is better than the subhuman Lucifer channeling Saddam/Uday/Kussay. But his day is coming. The IA is fast becoming the best quality military in Arab history. They are in the process of adding thousands of armored fighting vehicles (tracked and wheeled) in the coming months. Field artillery comes online next year. The upgraded M60 IA tanks (coming this year and next) are better quality than Syria’s T72. And the new IA’s officer corp is better quality. The Syrian army doesn’t have a general of Riyad’s caliber.
Anand is funny sometimes.
Several hilarious statements in the last post alone. But my recent favourite is this little gem Anand left over at Catharsis:
[Anand]: "I think Palestinians and Israelis secretly really love each other, and are pretending. They are like brothers who are having a pillow fight . . . but still love each other underneath it all."
@ Um Ayad | 05.24.08 - 7:09 pm
Um Ayad, do you think Saddam should not have been tried? Do you think he was railroaded? Should he not have been held accountable for anything?
But, should Bush be tried?
_
Susan: "Let the Iraqi people decide."
You mean by elections? Yeah, well, that's what I've been saying. By coup, revolution, warlordism, or some other manner of thuggish rule of the stronger & most violent over the weaker or acquiescent? How would that be collectively better for the Iraqi people?
_
Marcus, what exactly is so funny? You seem to be on Iraq's side . . . so I have always liked you.
Most people around the world are fundamentally good--except for hard core Baathists that is.
I don't believe that Israelis and Palestinians really hate each other, just like I don't believe that Sunni Arab Iraqis and Shia Iraqis hate each other.
The Takfiri Jarabs try their best to make everyone hate everyone else. But they will fail Marcus. Have faith in the decency and goodness of the vast majority of humans.
Susan supports democracy inside Iraq. She must be a neo-con. What does neo-con even mean?
More Anand idiocies on the military might of the "IA". He thinks we're gonna forget how its armoured divisions were routed by a bunch of guerrillas in Basra just the other day, and needed the IRANIANS to step in and save their asses.
Let's not forget the most important point: that its facade of impartiality and unity is illusory. Its a collection of different sects wearing the same uniform.
Bruno, exactly which part of Basrah is not under the complete control of the ISF?
Name any neighborhood. The ISF kicked butt.
Violence in Iraq for the last two weeks have been at their lowest level since March, 2004. This is because the IA is kicking butt, and Bruno's precious resistance, is scared of the IA.
Bruno,
I think you have spent one-to-many nights reading up on antiwar.com propaganda. Anand is right...ISF kicked ass in Basra, and they're on the verge of doing so in Sadr city as well.
Have you not heard about operation Salaam?
Bruno, the violence in Iraq seems to be declining again as of late after the anti-JAM ops pushed it up. Are you sad about that, or happy? Do you hope somebody somewhere does something to push the stats up again?
_
[anand] "Most people around the world are fundamentally good--except for hard core Baathists that is."
Except for hard-core Baathists that the US hires. Then they become GOOD. That's because of the magic "Freedom Dust" that the US shakes over them, you see.
[anand] "The Takfiri Jarabs try their best to make everyone hate everyone else"
Well, except for the ones that work with the US. Those ones are GOOD, because they get dusted with "Democracy Dust" which turns them into democrats. that's why the US has been handing control of local councils in Iraq to Takfifi groups.
[anand] "Susan supports democracy inside Iraq. She must be a neo-con. What does neo-con even mean?"
Neocon means disgusting, cold blooded, hypocritical and nauseatingly slimy. Susan is most certainly not a Neocon.
This person is a Neocon:
"Shocking excerpts of confidential recordings recently released under the Freedom of Information Act feature former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talking with top military analysts about how a flagging Neo-Con political agenda could be successfully restored with the aid of another terrorist attack on America."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/in...ws/message/
2115
[anand] "Bruno, exactly which part of Basrah is not under the complete control of the ISF? Name any neighborhood. The ISF kicked butt."
You are NOT familiar with the concept with guerrilla warfare, are you? What a shame. Do you need help with this?
[ch] "Have you not heard about operation Salaam?"
Ah, yes, Operation Salami, the decisive battle of the war. Gosh, well, who hasn't? Although Salami makes a better name than "Iron Hammer" or "Phantom Iraq Crusher 4" or whatever other ludicrous names the US military comes up with.
[rhus] "Bruno, the violence in Iraq seems to be declining again as of late after the anti-JAM ops pushed it up. Are you sad about that, or happy?"
I'm ecstatic that deaths are down. Ever since the Sadrists managed to keep the Americans out of Sadr City, things have been looking up. I suspect the same will apply elsewhere in Iraq.
I notice the US managed to go for a few days without massacring a bunch of Iraqi civilians. How do you feel about this? Sad?
I'm pretty happy violence is down, too.
Do you know if there are more Americans in Sadr City now compared to February, say, or less?
Bruno: "You are NOT familiar with the concept with guerrilla warfare, are you? What a shame. Do you need help with this?"
Well you're the expert, right- except when you feign ignorance or unfamiliarity because it exposes you as a blood-lusting chaos-monger.
_
Neocons are Jewish agents of Israel who form a part of ZOG. Non-Jews who consider themselves Neocons are simply useful idiots and tools of their Zionist masters.
Most Neocons are or have been Trotskyites.
Anonymous, let's not forget that many of them are followers of Strauss as well, and that according to them it is OK to lie to the public if it advances a noble agenda. With them being the arbiters of what is noble or not.
[rhus] "Do you know if there are more Americans in Sadr City now compared to February, say, or less?"
This is what people there are saying:
"Critical to the success of the cease-fire was the willingness of Iraqi troops to move into the rest of Sadr City without American ground forces, but U.S. attack helicopters are a constant presence overhead.
"If Americans come back here, there will be trouble," warned Faisel Hassan, an unemployed college dropout.
Iraqi commanders say they will request U.S. firepower only if they come under attack. Their troops have moved carefully to avoid provoking the wary residents, many of whom remain committed to Sadr, even if patience is running thin with some of his fighters."
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m44355&s1=h1
[rhus] "Well you're the expert, right- except when you feign ignorance or unfamiliarity because it exposes you as a blood-lusting chaos-monger."
You mean, disagree with your (mis)interpretations and comments on the matter? I wonder why.
Bruno,
Here are just a couple comments addressed to me from the last few days:
From Sami of Skies:
Thank you Jeff for your encouragement. I feel motivated to write more when I recieve comments like yours. Thank you. Sami
From Kassakhoon:
Jeffrey,
Wish you all success...your support to Iraqi bloggers, regardless to their views, is highly appreciated.
Kassakhoon | Homepage | 05.21.08 - 2:38 am |
Thanks!
Well, Bruno, have you ever received any thanks from a single Iraqi? And why is that? Is it perhaps because they see that your interest in the situation in Iraq is more anti-American than it is pro-Iraqi?
AQI is on its last legs. The Sunni insurgency is gasping its last breath. The Sadrists are in disarray. The US casualties for this month will most likely be the lowest since March, 2003. And everyone here can see how pissed off you are at this turn of events.
*
Fortunately, things are quiet in Iraq:
"Two American soldiers were killed and four wounded in two separate roadside bombings in Iraq on Monday, the US military said. "A coalition force soldier was killed as a result of injuries sustained from an improvised explosive device in Salaheddin province (north of Baghdad) on Monday," a military statement said. "Two soldiers were wounded." In the second bombing, one soldier died and two were wounded in the central province of Qadisiyah, th
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/
story...StoryId=119505e statement said."
[jeffrey] "Well, Bruno, have you ever received any thanks from a single Iraqi?"
Yes. Many times.
[jeffrey] "And why is that?"
Because I'm willing to spend my time highlighting the great injustice and evil of the American invasion. And willing to help where I can.
Jeffrey, trying to make some sort of "point".
Bruno,
Yes. Many times.
Uh-huh. Any evidence?
*
Bruno,
Don't think we've forgotten your febrile joy over that phony story about Sistani floated by the AP last Friday. Nibras and Iraq Pundit, among others, shot that to hell. Still holding on to that nonsense?
Hey, and nice job sidestepping my comments about how the "evil Americans" successfully landed Phoenix on Mars and how we are helping other countries in need at the same time.
*
Let me think: am I going to engage in an inane "Iraqi affection contest" with a certifiable and desperate American warmonger?
Ummm.
No.
Bruno,
I didn't think you'd be able to support that claim. I'm not surprised, of course.
*
It's not that I can't support it, its that I don't see a point with waving my dick around trying to compete with an individual which has (a) been banned from half the Iraqi blogs and (b) which most of the Iraqi bloggers hate like the plague and have told to fuck off in no uncertain terms and (c) has some sort of mental malady stemming from a desperate need for acceptance.
Get real.
Bruno,
It's not that I can't support it, ...
Really? How come you've always tried to support your other claims (granted, with articles from the same two or three anti-American websites)?
Hey, some Iraqi bloggers do indeed heartily dislike the Pscyho Sicko American. That's life. But many other Iraqi bloggers appreciate what we at IBC have been doing over the last four years. And, by the way, whether we agree with them or disagree with them on occasion, we have promoted ALL the Iraqi bloggers, from Riverbend to Shaggy.
What do you do? You wake up each morning, slip into your DEATH TO AMERICA T-shirt, walk to the local library carrying your I HATE AMERICANS thermos, and plunk yourself down at the first open computer terminal and start your WARMONGER RESEARCH.
Iraqis can see RIGHT THROUGH YOU, Bruno.
*
Bruno,
Just to keep Jeffrey happy!!!!.....
Many, many thanks for your links.
Best wishes from Abu Ayad and all the Iraqis in my extended family.
Hmmm... Isn't "Bruno" a Jewish name?
Are you circumsized, Bruno?
Do you drink the blood of Christian babies on Passover?
Anonymous, let's not forget that many of them are followers of Strauss as well, and that according to them it is OK to lie to the public if it advances a noble agenda. With them being the arbiters of what is noble or not.
Bruno | Homepage | 05.26.08 - 8:46 am | #
Chimpy and the Amerkkkins are perpetrating the “Zionist capitalist agenda” trying to control the world through the evil capitalism. Democracy is slavery and people think it is OK to lie. The Illuminati blew up the trade centers so the Zionists can control the oil to enslave Muslim children. Bruno how do you know all of this? During the Strauss indoctrination session boot camp for young republicans, they strap young men to chairs hold their eyelids open and force them to lie over and over while their fellow Skulls repeat the words of Strauss over and over. It is all part of it. They must face Mecca and prey to Strauss five time a day. They are total fanatics.
"Farm Murders in South Africa (from 1994-present)"
http://www.africancrisis.org/Pho...rg/
Photos45.asp
Strauss?
Are Vienna waltzes used for mind control? Who would have guessed? They're Everywhere!
Is Um Ayad a Jew as well?
Bruno: "You mean, disagree with your (mis)interpretations and comments on the matter? I wonder why."
Because mine are based on Insurgency and Guerrilla warfare 101 as well as the actual actions of insurgents and guerrillas in and to Iraq, and the ones you express are based on a cartoon-like discrimination between what the insurgency is doing in and to Iraq, and what you imagine them to be doing.
_
RhusLancia Syndication Service (for the News Bruno will refuse©):
Forbidden pleasures return to Mosul as Al-Qaeda melts away"
MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) — Ata Taha tied the knot with his university sweetheart in a popular park and traditional meeting point for lovers in Iraq's northern city of Mosul -- but only after Al-Qaeda went on the retreat.
"My family had advised me to have a private wedding or celebrate abroad but I stood my ground," the 26-year-old said proudly. "I got my wish -- I married my colleague and we did so in public."
Al-Qaeda militants had banned all public expressions of joy in Mosul, and even prevented the sale of a local popular bread, claiming that it was a breach of Muslim tradition.
Oh no! The insurgents/terrorists are losing Mosul! The decrease in violence and return of normalcy is following as it always does! Next, reconstruction will get under way and the city will move forward quickly. Don't worry, Bruno, uruknet will have their op-ed out in a day or two saying the insurgents win by losing and Iraq is irredeemable. That will make you feel better.
Back here where stability is a good thing: good job ISF & MNF.
_
Finally, Syria is one of the most racist anti-Shia bigoted countries on earth (right up there with Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, KSA.) Only a small number of Iraqi Shia go the the Baathi scumbag Asad's place. The vast majority are sunni arab or Christian.
I hope LTG Riyad gets permission from PM Maliki to liberate Syria from all the Baathist subhuman scum. I hope this happens soon. The IA would wipe the map with the Syrian army (since most of the Syrian jundi hate Asad intensely . . . they would quickly switch side to their Iraqi liberators.)
Let us not forget that Syrian army officers have been leading the Iraqi resistance for years. A Syrian army colonel was the one who put the arch bishop of Mosul in his vehicle a few months ago (when the arch bishop was kidnapped and later killed.)
Under international law, the sovereign government of Iraq and its army has the right to protect itself from Syria’s aggression (since 2003.) It is time the Iraqi army kicked the Syrian Baathi scum out.
Anand, you filthy Hindu scum. Who the hell do you think you are to come here and talk about Sunnis and Shia and who needs to be liberated and who doesn't? Who gave you that authority, you sick freak? Someone should liberate us from the hundreds of millions of filthy Indian cow worshipping scum that infest this planet.
Anonymous - he is talking about Leo Strauss.
Hey, and nice job sidestepping my comments about how the "evil Americans" successfully landed Phoenix on Mars and how we are helping other countries in need at the same time.
*
Jeffrey -- New York
Too bad we could not help those poor people in New Orleans!
Back here where stability is a good thing: good job ISF & MNF. -RL
got to wonder why Iraqis won't move back if it is so stable there in Iraq.....
hey, maybe they don't like the weather?
Jeffrey and RL - dear god, you are thick as a brick!
Oh, never mind.
By the way, is this Leo Strauss a Jew like Bruno?
Rhus, congratuations ISF. The NiOC (Ninevah Operations Command) commands 50 K ISF. There are 20 times as many ISF in Ninevah as MNC-I (mostly Special Forces, advisors, logistics.)
The ISF did the Ninevah operation almost completely on its own. It is true that MNC-I provides medivac backup for the ISF and Iraqi civilians. Too bad Bruno. Cry your heart out . . . MNF-I are saving IA lives. Translation: More IA to kill your friends.
Some more bad news, IA and IP casualties have fallen sharply in the past two weeks. John the Canadian Baathists, your friends are getting smashed . . . and they are scared to death of the rapidly improving and growing IA.
Um Ayad, please pass my best wishes to Ayad and Abu Ayad. I would love to see Ayad's picture some day. 
Is there any additional data on the allegation that Rumsfeld talked about putting a new dictator in power to rule Iraq? I was stunned to read that.
Bruno must be a Jew because he knows all the secrets of the neocons.
Rhus, the Ninevah operation by the NiOC (Ninevah Operations Command), is almost completely ISF (50 K, or 20 times as many ISF as MNC-I.)
It is the IA and IP that won in Mosul . . . and it is they who should get credit.
It is true that the MNC-I still offers combat enablers (intelligence, Special Forces, advisors, logistics--including medivac), but the ISF won in Mosul is almost on their own.
Bruno and John the Canadian Baathist cry your heart out.
To the Iraqi Akhoya who left your country in 2006, I am sorry for inadvertantly offending you. My deepest sympathies for what you and your family have been through. I apologize profusely for the extent to which American mistakes have added to your suffering. I am sincerely sorry. Inshallah, Iraq will shine to greater heights than any nation has ever shown before, and soon.
My comments were directed at (kill ISF) Bruno and John the Canadian Baathist, not you.
I am full of admiration for your army, the new Iraqi Army. My hope is that they can assume full responsibilities from the MNF quickly, enabling all our GIs to leave quickly.
I very much hope that a war between Syria and Iraq can be avoided. But I don't think Asad will stop causing destruction in Iraq unless they are afraid that the IA will take him out.
Asad is a bad guy and does what bad guys do. Most Syrians are obviously nothing like him.
Too many have died already (the IA + IP lost 5 1/2 times as many dead as the MNF-I last month.) Inshallah, all the violence stops soon.
Inshallah the Iraqis in Syria get to return home.
The one statement I completely stand by is that Shia are terribly abused in Pakistan, KSA, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. India's 20-30 million Shia also suffer from extremists . . . but they are treated far better than Shia in the top 5 countries. The good people in the world need to speak out about this, just as all Americans needed to speak out about slavery in the 1850s.
God willing, all racism and bigotry in this world will end soon.
inaneand (4.54).."God willing..": In the unlikely event that any civilised man's conceptualization of 'god' could ever ressemble your own;
and even within the construct of those imaginings, should we then decide to set aside any disdain for your vapid and vacuous proclamations and apply every measure of tolerance to your insipidness lest we fall down that inevitable path and tendency to want to spew;
and then showing the ultimate spirit of generosity, try to assume you have some claim to being rational as a minor sort of pathetically fleeting gesture recognizing your impaired, 'crying for equity' slobbering essence;
I would still consider it unlikely that your shallow interpretation of god's supposed benevolenve would ever approach any likelihood where it might embrace your support for collaborationist and crusading forces bent on killing human beings solely on the basis of tribal allegances or affiliation!
Is it not obvious that the balkanization and chaos in Iraq benefits the Zionist Entity? What then are we to think of the actions of Bruno, Um Ayad, John the Baathist, and their henchmen in encouraging such chaos? Are they tools of the Zionist Neocons or are they themselves Neocons, Zionists, or even Jews?
This is too good. I don't think semi-colons count as sentencec breaks, so I'm going the following as a single sentence:
"God willing..": In the unlikely event that any civilised man's conceptualization of 'god' could ever ressemble your own; and even within the construct of those imaginings, should we then decide to set aside any disdain for your vapid and vacuous proclamations and apply every measure of tolerance to your insipidness lest we fall down that inevitable path and tendency to want to spew; and then showing the ultimate spirit of generosity, try to assume you have some claim to being rational as a minor sort of pathetically fleeting gesture recognizing your impaired, 'crying for equity' slobbering essence; I would still consider it unlikely that your shallow interpretation of god's supposed benevolenve would ever approach any likelihood where it might embrace your support for collaborationist and crusading forces bent on killing human beings solely on the basis of tribal allegances or affiliation!
FIFTEEN VERBS!
EIGHTEEN ADJECTIVES!!
TWENTY-ONE NOUNS!!!
NOT AN OUNCE OF SENSE!
I hear that when they indoctrinate young neo-cons they dress the kids up in outfits with headbands and have them brandish weapons and march trough the streets. The neo-cons teach the young that they are victims of the coming of the 12th Imam and the global caliphate Marxist conspiracy.
Oops, that should have read: "I don't think semi-colons count as sentence breaks, so I'm going to count the following as a single sentence..."
Tom - are you on a bender with Canadian John?
Violence still taking toll on Baghdad education
BAGHDAD — Murtadha Abdul Zahara is in his final year of high school and must take examinations to begin college next year. The problem is he hasn't been to school since March 23, because it's been closed due to violence between Shiite Muslim militants and U.S. and Iraqi security forces in the Sadr City neighborhood where he lives. So now he waits.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/...tory/
38564.html
Feeling safer, Iraqis come home — but only a few
BAGHDAD - The surge has been good for the Murads. Just over a year after they were driven out of their Baghdad neighborhood by militants who kidnapped their son, the parents and children are back in their home. The Shiite family is living among longtime Sunni neighbors, protected by U.S. forces and armed with safety guarantees from the Sunni tribal sheiks who had joined forces to drive al-Qaida in Iraq from the area.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080...a/
iraq_uprooted
News:
"Hassan Nasrallah, 'the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has said that his organisation "is siding with the resistance in Iraq" in a speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters in Beirut, the Lebanese capital. "The Iraqis, Shia and Sunni, who took part in the political process wanted to give it a chance," he said in his address on Monday. "But now that the real American goal in Iraq has been exposed the Iraqi government is put to a test." It is the first time Nasrallah has issued a challenge to the Iraqi government to take a stand against the US military presence in Iraq."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/
...7EF3A0BFBB1.htm
"The governments of the Middle East, from Iran to Israel and beyond, are increasingly ignoring the wishes of a U.S. administration which has only eight months left in office, going their own way in regional diplomacy."
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=184712
"Investigators from the Defense Department's inspector general's office say the Army paid out $1.8 billion to U.S. and Iraqi contractors that lacked any kind of documentation. In other words, they have no idea where the money went. The investigators say the violations were egregious enough to invite potential fraud.We would bet on actual fraud. And the Iraqi leadership may have been helping itself to some of that money. "
http://www.rockymountainnews.com...-into-the-void/
More on the Qadsiya blast:
"One US soldier killed and two injured when an improvised bomb exploded targeting their patrol in Al-Qadsiya province 180 kilometer south of Baghdad, a US military statement said on Monday. The statement noted that the improvised bomb attack occurred in Al-Shamiya town, one of the biggest towns in the province."
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenc...660&
Language=en
Only true fucking morons would build a major military base on top of ancient Babylon:
"The last outsiders to visit the ruins of the once-mighty city of Babylon in Iraq came in tanks and helicopters, leaving a blight on its historic and fragile landscape, archaeologists say. The city, born on the banks of the Euphrates River 5,000 years ago and full of priceless archaeological treasures, was transformed into a US military camp after the 2003 invasion with a heliport built among the ruins. The base was later passed to Polish army control and despite the soldiers’ departure in 2005, the damage left behind is evident. At a meeting in Berlin next month, Iraqi and other specialists will endeavour to assess the true level of damage."
http://www.dawn.com/2008/05/27/int17.htm
Iranian opposition to "security arrangement" Maliki is to sign with the US:
http://www.iran-daily.com/1387/
3...nal.htm#s307413
US bullets too small:
http://www.bostonherald.com/
news...ticleid=1096564
Um Ayad -
Thank you so much for the sentiment. A non-entity like Jeffrey really does have a tough time hacking it in the real world - ie, not in his parallel universe where he strides around to the adulation of crowds of adoring Iraqis - and its quite amusing to witness his failed attempts to gather any scrap of credibility he can. He's probably got a file on his computer: "Iraqis that like me", and its got about six names on it.
[jeffrey] "Really? How come you've always tried to support your other claims"
Because, asswipe, my other claims are important and your bullshit is just ... bullshit.
[Anonymous] "Hmmm... Isn't "Bruno" a Jewish name? Are you circumsized, Bruno? Do you drink the blood of Christian babies on Passover?"
I try not to overindulge, frankly. It does go down real smooth with a shot of vodka and a plateful of crispy nachos and guacamole though.
Bruno,
The whole issue with the "security arrangement" is, among other things, very interesting.
I think it will give us some measure on the strenghts and influence in Iraq of the US and Iran respectively.
I think it's safe to say that the US will press for such an agreement very hard. I also would say it's safe to say Iran is not at all keen on such an agreement and will try to shoot it down before it's ratified.
Who's got the strongest strings attached to the Maliki puppet, the US or Iran?
This has never been really put to the test before so it will be very interesting to watch this showdown, or rather the result - treaty signed or no treaty signed - as the showdown will inevitably be played out behind the scenes.
The Iranian corporations (run by joos) will inevitably allow the security agreement to be signed, but with a clause that it's okey-doke to still attack Iraqi civilians and sometimes Americans in the name of "Resistance".
Marcus, Abbas Hawazin (formerly Konfused Kid) said he recently found out Sweden has one of the highest suicide rates around. What's the dealio with that?
_
Rhus, I'm not sure that's correct. Wiki has Sweden at #31 with a ssuicide rate of 13.2 out of 100.000.
Compare it to the "leaders" in Lithuania with 40.2 and we're quite a bit lower.
Compare it to the US in position 43 with a rate of 11.0 and we're not THAT much more suicidal.
Myself I would blame the weather. Do you know how many hours of sunshine they get in northern Sweden in the mid winter? Zero! (of course they have permanent sunshine in mid summer but that's more of an annoying thing than a good thing)
Myself I don't live up there but even down south it's real dark in the winter.
Pete will tell you it's the vodka though. But it's not.
Hell, Rhus, even the Danes off themselves at a ratio higher than the Swedes and they are supposedly the happiest people in the world:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story...tory?
id=4086092
Pete will tell you it's the beer. You know what? It is!
Tom --
Thanks for your sensible comments.
I've no doubt that the Neocons would indeed consider doing what you accused them of doing if they thought it would help advance their agenda.
Up to now, however, they've had no need to resort to such shennanigans (to my knowledge) since there is a large supply of idiotic and naive tools in America that eagerly lap up whatever these evil people have to say. Fortunately, that supply is drying up as they are either culled in Iraq or suddenly realise that the lies they were told about Iraq were, in fact, lies.
(Or they notice they are paying triple for petrol, and that they have no medical aid and that the bond on their house is unpayable ... and they start to wonder whether paying hundreds of billions of dollars to occupy a country thousands of miles away is not insane when that money could be put to better use in America itself. But I prefer to take the generous view.)
Here's some interesting and relevant information on Leo Strauss. Enjoy:
"Danny Postel: You’ve argued that there is an important connection between the teachings of Leo Strauss and the Bush administration’s selling of the Iraq war. What is that connection?
Shadia Drury: Leo Strauss was a great believer in the efficacy and usefulness of lies in politics. Public support for the Iraq war rested on lies about Iraq posing an imminent threat to the United States – the business about weapons of mass destruction and a fictitious alliance between al-Qaida and the Iraqi regime. Now that the lies have been exposed, Paul Wolfowitz and others in the war party are denying that these were the real reasons for the war.
So what were the real reasons? Reorganising the balance of power in the Middle East in favour of Israel? Expanding American hegemony in the Arab world? Possibly. But these reasons would not have been sufficient in themselves to mobilise American support for the war. And the Straussian cabal in the administration realised that.
[...]
A second fundamental belief of Strauss’s ancients has to do with their insistence on the need for secrecy and the necessity of lies. In his book Persecution and the Art of Writing, Strauss outlines why secrecy is necessary. He argues that the wise must conceal their views for two reasons – to spare the people’s feelings and to protect the elite from possible reprisals."
http://
www.informationclearingho...article5010.htm
Another one down:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
englis...ent_8262814.htm
@Marcus, 4:19 am:
I think it's the vodka and the weather -- they go hand in hand. What're you going to do when the sun doesn't rise for a month? Get sozzled is what. And of course "the night is young" for a very long time.
I read that the suicide rate rises continuously as you traverse up the North American Atlantic seaboard starting in Florida. Less daylight equals more suicide.
Here in Ireland we get seven hours daylight in mid-winter (and sixteen in summer) and the suicide rate is high. I also blame the rain -- just because the sun is up doesn't mean you can see it. I'd be interested to see the suicide stats for Bergen in Norway where it rains all the time and the winter days are short.
Pete
"the vodka and the weather -- they go hand in hand. What're you going to do when the sun doesn't rise for a month? Get sozzled is what."
Ahh, yes indeed. But does the vodka contribute to a high suicide rate? Perhaps vodka actually saves people from getting too damn depressed during the dark winter, have you thought of that?
Speaking of Bergen. You mean Bergen in Norway where it rains all the time and the winter days are short AND a regular pizza costs about 25 Euros and a beer 10 Euros?
I'm surprised any life form at all can sustain themselves there, never mind people.
Just kidding. It's really a wonderful place to visit. Too damn expensive and it sure rains a lot but otherwise it's great. The people seem both happy and healthy, never seen signs pointing to a suicidal mentality myself.
Bruno,
Other commenters predicted that you would conveniently sidestep the fact that you have been shown to be utterly gullible in your immediate embrace of that bogus AP story on Sistani from last Friday. And, sure enough, now that Iraq Pundit, Nibras Kazimi, and Eye Raki (the last two of which have actually met Sistani) have shown just how inane someone like you is to grasp at this story, you go silent on the issue. Par for the course with you, Bruno.
Here's what Eye Raki wrote today:
It beggars belief that some people actually think Sistani has issued fatwas that condone attacks on the US forces in Iraq.
By the way, Eye Raki is the pseudonym for Hayder Al-Khoei, a member of a powerful Shiite Iraqi family, son of Sayyid Abdul Majid Al-Khoei, who was most likely murdered under orders from Muqtada al-Sadr.
So who has more authority on this issue? Bruno, an unemployed Afrikaner in Jo'burg, or three Iraqis, two or whom have met Sistani?
Bruno, just admit that you were a gullible git last Friday.
*
Trying to score some points, Jeffrey?
Aw, what a shame, you evidently haven't been following the story here since it started. If you had been, you would realise that you were making the usual idiotic clown out of yourself, as usual.
Usually I would give you a pair of crutches, to help you out. But in this case, I leave it to you to work out why you're an idiot.
Bruno,
Everyone read your jubilant comments last Friday in which your eyes gleamed at the possibility that Sistani might have suddenly done an about-face and condoned attacks on Coalition forces.
We ALL read your comments, Bruno.
So now you just have to admit that you were wrong and something of an ass to believe such tripe.
Go ahead, just admit it. Or you could try to continue arguing that you know more about how Sistani thinks than Nibras Kazimi and Hayder al-Khoei.
Well?
These are VERY easy points for me to win, Bruno. You really f*cked up this time.
*
Speaking of the Sistani story, here is Cole's view of the fracas:
"Sawt al-Iraq writes in Arabic that a close associate of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Karbala, who declined to be identified, denied that he had prepared a fatwa of jihad against foreign troops in Iraq. He said that Sistani urged resistance to the occupation, but wanted Iraqis to deploy non-violent means to end the foreign troop presence."
http://www.juancole.com/2008/05/...ki-
advisor.html
[While this statement is true, it does not actually address the legal issue. Sistani was said by AP to have replied privately to Shiite militiamen who asked him about the legitimacy of attacking multi-national troops in Iraq. He was said to have confirmed, in private and in person, that in Shiite law, attacking a foreign occupier is legitimate. There is no contradiction between him holding those views as a matter of considered opinion on the law, and his actual policy of encouraging peaceful resistance.]
In other words, this would be confirming the legality of such an action, but without endorsing such actions nor advocating them.
Jeffrey won't understand this, but that's OK. Other people will, and that's what counts.
And what were my words?
These:
"I agree with what you said, Marcus. Sistani very much stays out of the limelight and to get a straight decree on something this sensitive has been very difficult. Maybe he is just 'testing the waters' so to speak, to see what the reaction to these "quiet" fatwas are. He could always come backlater and say he was misinterpreted."
Gosh, Jeffrey (the idiot) managed to embarrass himself yet again.
That's because he's not paying attention.
But he's not paying attention because he's an idiot.
(Uh-oh, the snake bites its own tail.)
It seems as though Jeffrey is doomed to live forever in the muddled mish- mash of his microscopic mind.
So long, loser.
Bruno,
You STILL go back to Cole?! Son, you're a glutton for punishment.
Oh-oh, Bruno, listen.
"The library will be closing in ten minutes."
Hey, ignore the librarian and check this out:
Graduations and Wedding Bells in the Iraqi Blogosphere.
C'mon, you KNOW you want to, so just click on the link.
*
Wow Bruno, you really know your facts! SO, because of Leo Strauss’s evil philosophy of lying the neo-cons perpetrated ‘the big lie’ to justify invading Iraq so the Zionist and the illuminati can enslave Muslim children with the evil capitalism. The oil is part of their devious plain to control the world through democracy. So when they imploded the twin towers they set in motion the chain of events. The housing market bubble burst because the American government didn’t bail more people out of their problems. If the American government didn’t spend so much money trying to enslave Muslim children they could fix internal problems with all that money! Wow Bruno that is brilliant! Instead of trying to collect taxes, maybe everyone should work for the government. I think I understand your brilliance, hegemony exists when you have vibrant capitalistic democracies, but hegemony doesn’t exist in a government which over taxes to provide cradle to grave benefits to its citizens. After all, money is like a piece of pie, and great men like you should choose how big a slice each person should get. Hegemony =Capitalism & Democracy! Wow. So I guess according to your logic Oligarchy=diversity.
Where did our wise sage Bruno go?
Tom,
Where did our wise sage Bruno go?
The library has closed for the day in South Africa. And Bruno doesn't have either a home computer or internet connection. Yes, we should probably offer him a tin-cup and a banjo or something so at least he could make a little cash in front of the library and maybe save for a computer. Anyway, you'll have to wait until about 2 a.m. Eastern Standard Time when the libraries re-open in Jo-burg.
*
Juan Cole?
JUAN COLE???
Jesus H. Christ!
Tom, you really seem like an asshole!
So according to your logic,
Tom ='s An Asshole.
Seems about right!
Johann Hari, columnist in the Independent, who now regrets deeply that he supported the Iraq war in 2003, had some advice this week for our prime minister:
"This is the chance to go down with all guns blazing"
Then there is the greatest black mark on Labour's record (and, more trivially, on my own as a commentator). Nothing Gordon Brown can do now will bring back the 650,000 Iraqis who have died as a result of the invasion. But he can do something for the 5 million who have been driven from their homes. At the end of the Vietnam war, the US felt obliged to take in 800,000 refugees from the country they had destroyed, and to pay for the resettlement of others elsewhere. (Those refugees, by the way, went on to enrich America massively.) Brown should issue an apology to the Iraqi people on behalf of Britain, and fly in a fair share of the Iraqi refugees rotting and penniless in camps in Syria and Jordan as the most minimal act of compensation. Instead, we are actually deporting many of the Iraqis who make it to our shores, on the grounds that it is "safe" there, even though the US aerial bombing campaign has been stepped up once more in the past few weeks.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opi...ing-
834327.html
GEORGE BUSH NOT WELCOME HERE ON 15 JUNE
War criminal George Bush will be visiting Britain on Sunday 15 June. No doubt he will receive a nauseatingly sycophantic welcome from Gordon Brown. The anti-war majority on the other hand will recall the hundreds of thousands who have died, the millions driven from their homes and the utter
devastation resulting from the illegal attacks on Iraq. Stop the War will be organising a very different kind of welcome - a protest that calls for George Bush to be put on trial for what is under international law "the supreme international crime… to initiate a war of aggression."
The protest will be in London on Sunday 15 June and will also call for an end to the British government's support for these shameful wars.
BUSH NOT WELCOME HERE protest.
Muqtada al-Sadr urges demonstrations to protest long-term U.S.-Iraq agreement
Baghdad, May 27, (VOI) - Young Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on Tuesday for loyalists to stage weekly protests against a U.S.-Iraqi security deal currently under negotiation that could lead to a long-term U.S. troop presence.
“What comforted me are the oral and written edicts, fatwas, which forbid the agreement between the occupation forces of darkness and the Iraqi government,” a statement cited Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as saying.
“It is necessary to take action rather than remain helpless,” he noted.
Sheikh Salah al-Ubaidi, al-Sadr’s aide, confirmed the statement and said “a recent fatwa issued by Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri was proclaimed inside Ayatollah Sistani’s office in Najaf.”
The outcry by al-Sadr could sharply heighten tensions over the proposed deal, which is supposed to be finalized by July to replace the current U.N. mandate governing U.S.-led troops in Iraq.
Al-Sadr is one of the most vocal opponents of the U.S. presence in Iraq. Mahdi Army militia loyal to the cleric have often battled U.S. and Iraqi forces. Many Iraqis have expressed concern over any final deal that involves permanent American bases.
Al-Sadr did not issue any specific guidelines for the planned demonstrations according to a statement issued by top Shiite religious officials. Any major marches, however, could put added strain on a tenuous truce between the Mahdi Army and the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after weeks of battles that began in late March.
Al-Sadr's statement urged “Iraqis across the country to hold demonstrations every week after Friday prayers until further notice or until the agreement is canceled." He also urged politicians from all factions “to work against the agreement.”
He also demanded that “any agreement brokered with the U.S. be put to a popular referendum.” He vowed to “gather 1 million signatures rejecting the deal.”
http://www.aswataliraq.info/look...e=2&
NrSection=1
Um Ayad is still fighting the McBushitlerburtonburg. Poor girl your mind is lost.
Disneyland by the Tigris
Iraq, before the holocaustal thirteen year embargo, the 2003 illegal invasion and subsequent countrywide massacre and reign of terror over its population - not by a ‘few bad apples’ of the US and British army, but by an entire infested, diseased orchard – was, according to United Nations indices, a largely developed country.
Having nationalised its oil, revenues were utilised for modernising infrastructure, health, education (the latter two of high standard and free.) All now lie in ruins, the might of the two ‘most professional armies in the world’, apparently able only to blow up bridges, not build them, orphan not heal, bereave, destroy and devastate, poison and pollute.
Iraq now lies at the bottom in every aspect of UN indices, its sick untreated, its children uneducated, the ‘cradle of civilisation’ victim of a scorched earth policy – from its agriculture, date and citrus groves to its archeological wonders. The orphans, traumatised, displaced, widowed, mutilated, beheaded, fleeing, stateless, dead, in just five years, equal history’s most chilling infamies.
From 1st June, add starvation. The food rations, already cut to the barest minimum, of woeful quality, beset by (US overseen) governmental corruption, but on which much of the population exists, are to be abolished.
Additionally, in the nightmare scenario of everyday life in the democratic freedom of occupied Iraq, is a vast unknown: the number of amputees and limbless, those liberated from arms legs or both, by the ongoing orgial use of an eye watering array of weapons, including, allegedly, cluster bombs, from 1991 onwards.
But in the true tradition of ‘only in America’ fantasies, the US has a make believe answer. Not refurbished hospitals and schools, not clean water coming out of dysentery, typhoid and cholera inducing taps, not welcoming and healing orphanages for the estimated 4.5 million traumatised orphans they have created, not centres for and training of staff and technicians to provide prosthetic limbs for maimed children and adults. Baghdad instead, is to have a Disneyland theme park (on appropriated land.)
‘The imagery and motion simulations intended for Iraqi children are to provide a “human face” to the American invaders’ and breaking down the reality between ‘.. reality and dreams.
A constant refrain during the embargo years, in media parroting Washington and Whitehall’s propaganda, was that the ever busy Iraqi President, when not personally making fairy story weapons of mass destruction, or throwing babies on bonfires, or putting fellow citizens through shredding machines (that one courtesy of the reality-challenged Ann Clwyd, M.P.,) was that he was ‘building palaces whilst his people starve.’ Culturally, it is incumbent upon leaders to leave behind something more magnificent than their predecessor and in dark times, they also provided work to a swathe of the population, as did maintenance, care of and repair to historic sites, of whose responsibility for and guardianship Iraqis are acutely aware.
That these great state buildings (and archeological wonders) are now illegally squatted, by illegal invaders (in contravention of yet another swathe of international law) seemingly does not strike lawmakers by the Potomac or the Thames as either ironic or criminally outside the law’s provisions.
In an ‘agreement’ with the ‘Mayor’ of Baghdad, the fifty acre Zawra Park is to be developed into a trashy Disneyland by the Tigris, complete with malls, hotels, housing, amusements, entertainment and a museum. Iraq’s National Museum with its millennias of treasures and the National Library’s irreplaceable ancient volumes and manuscripts were looted and destroyed under US watch in 2003. A replacement by a Disneyland version is a concept devised by the seriously psychologically challenged.
A skateboard park will introduce the residents of a city thought to have been first settled eight thousand years before Christ, to the culture of inner city USA. Announcing his plans in Baghdad, financier Llewellyn Werner stated: ‘I’m not here because I think you are nice people. I think there is money to be made here … I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t making money.’
Speculating as to what the ‘agreement’ with the ‘Mayor’ might have been, might stray in to libel land. Zawra Park, however, has a special place in the heart of Baghdadis. Its great zoo, summer theatre, children’s game area, fountains, lakes, coffee shops, restaurant, sculptures, monuments, and Olympic swimming pool, became somewhat run down during the embargo, but nothing could take from its great, expanses of lushness, its acres of ancient palms, royal indeed, stretching skyward. Wonders in which generations of children, become adult, become mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, great grandmother … had played and revisited throughout their lifetime. Will Mr Werner and his RSE developers call in General Petraeus’s boys with chain saws to destroy groves which have witnessed hundreds of years of Mesopotamia’s history, to make way for make believe tack? General Petraeus is a ‘big supporter’ of the project. And destruction is his business.
The zoo in Zawra Park became one of the poignant symbols of the embargo years. With every kind of diagnostic aid and treatment vetoed for patients, by the UN, the needs of the zoo animals came low down the priority list. But Dr Adil Salman Musa, zoo Director, loved them all. He tried to create better conditions for the great brown bear, whose mate had died for lack of treatment. Year after year, the bear lay, seldom moving, except to occasionally roll in her great pool of filthy water, repairs for pipes, impossible. She was clinically depressed said Musa.
The lion too had lost his mate and his roars of grief rang across the great Park, from within his spacious den. He refused to come out roam between the sun dappled, abundant greenery of his territory.
Musa communicated with colleagues across the world for help with his animals and birds, the swinging, chattering monkeys, the array of vibrant coloured rare birds. But like the people, they were trapped by the embargo’s all pervasive, silent decimation.
As parents took their children to the orphanages, unable to afford to feed them, promising to collect them when the embargo was over, families also took their domestic pets to the zoo, vowing the same. Dogs and cats looked wistfully through the bars and canaries in every paint box hue, perched on their indoor trees, tweeted and soared. Iraqis have a passion for birds.
Dr Musa too dreamed of the embargo’s end, always planning for what it would bring to his zoo, his improvements, and work with rare and endangered species again with breeding programmes to swell their numbers.
When one of the three remaining Bengal tigers, Mendouh, became ill, Dr Musa somehow acquired enough vital antibiotics to inject her. But there were no anesthetic darts available. ‘I held her tail, while the vet gave her the injection’, he said, adding: ‘This is a very dangerous practice.’ He risked much for his beloved animals.
On 17th September 2003, six months into the occupation, American soldiers had a drunken party in the park. One tried to feed the Mendouh through the bars. Predictably, she bit him. The soldier shot her.
And what has happened to the lynx? On one visit, rounding a corner, I came on a surreal sight : a lynx, in a miniature carved palace, carpeted, with adequate food, looking, I thought, distinctly smug. Noting the plaque above the spacious area, the penny dropped. The lynx was a gift to the zoo, on a recent anniversary, from Saddam Hussein’s eldest son, Uday.
‘What happens if the lynx dies?’ I asked. The young zoologist walking with me looked over his shoulder, then whispered: ‘Madam Felicity, we all run a very, very long way.’ I have written of Zawra Park before and its resonance for Baghdadis, the sad, the surreal, the peace and laughter of days spent there.
On 9th May, Dick Cheney, on the Paul Gallow Show in Mississippi, told Americans that the proposed development was a sign that things in Iraq were ‘going swimmingly.’ The Pentagon is fast tracking this development as a centrepiece for the new Baghdad in the new Iraq. Legalities, as ever, have not appeared on the agenda. Pentagon backed purloining of a vast swathe of municipal reality with the collusion of the occupying forces is yet another shocking grand theft.
But a word of warning. The Islamic fundamentalists who the invaders brought in with them, who behead women for wearing make up or western clothes - or just not covering from head to toe - and abhor theatre, art, dance, entertainment, music, alcohol, will not take kindly to this project. Contractors should have up to date life in insurance. A lot of heads will roll between conception and possible completion.
And about those 200,000 free skateboards, the Baltimore Project which provides prosthetic limbs to Iraqi children, wrote, in July 1996, of just one child’s transformed life:
’Not only can he now ride a bicycle like other boys his age, but more importantly he can go to school. There are no wheelchair ramps in Iraq, no buses equipped with lifts, no way to ease a child back into the world after amputation.’
The obscenity of this project - before limbs, wheelchairs, clean water, hospitals, schools, sufficient food, decontaminating the radioactive waste from weapons designated three times by the United Nations, as weapons of mass destruction which litters the country and the region from US and UK weapons - beggars belief. When Medical Aid for Iraqi children sent children's wheel chairs after the invasion, the US Army disappeared them. But with countless hundreds of thousands of legless, limbless children, throughout Iraq, resultant from their actions, not medical help, but free skateboards can be funded.
Oh, and where do you put your elbow pads, when you have
Continued;-
Oh, and where do you put your elbow pads, when you have no elbows?
Battery Park in Manhattan is named after the British battery stationed there, its monument marking the monumental disgrace upon which New York City was founded. Hard to know what to call the modern day equivalent, perhaps the ‘Grand Theft Experience Park.’ Suggestions welcome.
http://globalresearch.ca/index.p...ext=va&
aid=9083
Um Ayad, do you think Saddam was a war criminal?
_
@Marcus: You mean Bergen in Norway where it rains all the time and the winter days are short AND a regular pizza costs about 25 Euros and a beer 10 Euros?
Doesn't that last bit apply to whole of Scandinavia?
Pete
Scandinavia is expensive as a whole, yes, but Norway is insane.
But I guess they do alright anyway, what with that nationalised (Eeeeeevil) Statoil and the trillion dollar in surplus funds.
I mean, if it hurts even the USA to piss away a trillion on an unnecessary war, imagin the benefit it brings to have that amount to do GOOD things for such a small country with only about 5 million people. They are set for a long, long time after the oil has run out.
I bet the Norwegians are pretty happy to have kept all that money themselves, don't you think? Instead of, say, inviting BP, Shell, Exxon, Conoco Phillips and Chevron to make a killing.
Those companies could have sucked the north sea dry, so to speak, way faster than Statoil, I'll give you that. So if anyone believed oil would be obsolete in 2000 they might have argued that it was very urgent to get it on the market and scrap Statoil and set up some PSA's with Big Oil. They'd be insanely wrong of course and Norwegians many hundred billions poorer.
You know anyone who makes similar claims when it comes to todays situation?
News:
"Iraq's main Sunni Arab political bloc said on Wednesday it had suspended talks to rejoin the Shi'ite-led government after a disagreement with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki over a cabinet post. "We have suspended negotiations with the government and pulled out our candidates," said Salim al-Jibouri, spokesman for the Accordance Front. He said the decision was taken after Maliki objected to a candidate for a cabinet position."
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=186738
Sadr on permanent occupation of Iraq by the US:
"Al-Sadr said in a statement issued Tuesday that Iraq’s top Shiite religious authorities have issued edicts banning the agreement, “and it is necessary for me to support (this position) as much as I can.” He said Iraqis across the country should hold demonstrations every week after Friday prayers “until further notice or until the agreement is canceled.” He urged politicians from all factions to work against the agreement."
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/c...d=17562&
ccid=11
" UN: over 500,000 people uprooted by conflict this year [...] 'In Iraq, sectarian violence, as well as armed confrontations around Basra and Sadr City, have forced more thousands from their homes,'' Holmes said. ''In Afghanistan, conflict-induced displacement continues to undermine the gains made in the return or resettlement of those previously displaced.''"
http://www.newspress.com/Top/
Art...305197791150654
"Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden urged the US and European countries on Tuesday to admit more Iraqi refugees and said his Scandinavian nation had shouldered too much of the burden.[...] “I understand that for some of the people in Iraq, the United States is the No. 1 aggressor, so not all of them would like to see a future in the US,” the center-right leader said. “But still I think it is (fair) to say they (Washington) should take their responsibility in this circumstance.”"
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/c...d=17550&
ccid=11
Former aide Scott McClellan blasts Bush in new book:
"In excerpts from a 341-page book to be released Monday, Scott McClellan writes on Iraq that Bush "and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war.""
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLI...?
iref=hpmostpop
"Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" and "downplaying the major reason for going to war.""
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24848910/
The US invasion of iraq is leaking money like a sieve:
""We don't know what we paid for." That's a quote from Mary Ugone, the Defense Department's deputy inspector general for auditing, concerning massive Pentagon payments made during the occupation and war in Iraq for which there is no existing (or grossly inadequate) documentation. In fact, according to the inspector general for the Defense Department, "the Pentagon cannot account for almost $15 billion worth of goods and services"
http://www.antiwar.com/
engelhard...articleid=12909
... whereas the victims of the invasion don't even get a fraction of that money just to survive:
"Last month in Jordan, more than 30,000 refugees from Iraq received food assistance and almost 19,000 received subsidised medical care, while in Syria, more than 128,000 Iraqi refugees received food assistance and close to 40,000 received subsidised health care, according to the UN agency. But that could all change as the UNHCR, facing a shortage in funding, said this month that many of its assistance programmes run the risk of closure. In January, the UNHCR appealed for US$261 million for its operations on behalf of some of the 4.7 million people uprooted by the conflict in Iraq, but so far it has received only US$134m."
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m44410&s1=h1
"US military figures show nearly 40,000 diagnosed cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among U.S. troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, since 2003, according to data released on Tuesday. The figures surged nearly 47 percent in 2007, following President George W. Bush's surge in troop levels in Iraq and extended Army tours from 12 to 15 months."
That's funny, Jeffrey still hasn't gotten back to me on what a fool he made of himself. Gosh, what could be keeping him?
That's a good post, Marcus:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments...?
a=24604#393095
Iraqi oil under Iraqi control is the best for Iraq. Iraqis know it, and we know it.
Tom, I think that you're rather confused on (a) what I believe and (b) your twisted, tangled line of reasoning that makes absolutely no sense at all. Well, it does make sense if one considers it in the light of being a strawman being set up to shoot at, which is about its only value.
John -
That's an interesting extrapolation you made from Tom's logic.
The article Um Ayad posted, Disneyland by the Tigris, was a good read. thanks.
Badger at Arablinks posts Sadr's reaction to the Sistani fatwas against the Agreement for permanent occupation:
"How pleased I am and gladdened, with the issue of two fatwas, one written and the other oral, ruling out the agreement or security treaty between the oppressive power, and I mean by that the occupation, and the current government of Iraq. Because now it is incumbent on me not to stand with my arms folded, as I was before the issue of these their blessed fatwas, and I am obliged to do what I can to support them via the people, to the extent I am able, and to the extent I have earned any esteem among the beloved people of Iraq, who do not exhaust me, nor do they exhaust the marja'iyya; rather we propose to issue directives and orders, some to the people, and some to the specialists. To wit: [9 points follow]"
http://arablinks.blogspot.com/
20...mobilizing.html
Thanks Bruno.
As you say obviously "Iraqi oil under Iraqi control is the best for Iraq".
Still we have people here who argue that it's a good thing to ratify an oil law at the height of an occupation when the Iraqi government is not really in control.
They claim #1 that it's needed for reconciliation since it stipulates profit sharing. But it doesn't. The document is an act describing how to open up and "liberalize" Iraqs oil and it contains only a vague description on a "profit sharing" law that is to come AFTER the initial oil law is ratified.
Why start in the wrong end I usually ask? If the profit sharing is what is important for reconciliation then why not begin with that and leave production details to the future? Because, of course, the "sharing" is not at the top of the agenda at all but merely a cynical pretext to push the law through.
Another argument that comes up, #2, is that it's so very urgent because Iraq needs the money so badly now in their time of need. And the multinationals can get the production going faster making money faster. Well, first of all I'm not that convinced that Iraqis should be paying themselves to rebuild what others destroyed. And second this is also bullshit. They HAVE money, a lot of money, sitting in foreign accounts but they are unable to use them because there is no security. More money now won't mean a thing alone.
But, they say, #3, surely you realise that Iraq needs help with production? As a matter of fact no I don't. Why should they? They have been producing 2 million plus barrels a day during ten years of sanctions and bans on imports all by themselves. Why should they suddenly be unqualified to run the show?
But, but, but, #4, since oil will soon be replaced with other fuels it will lose its value and therefor the time to sell it is now, they shout! Eh, excuse me but when a commodity is getting scarcer and there is projected increases in demand for said commodity for at least the next 20 years please tell me what economic model predicts said commodity to be worthless any time soon. Because I would have thought it might actually be quite valuable, silly me.
But #5 free markets, they snivel, surely you know capitalism beat communism. Free markets good - nationalised assets bad! Really? Always? Why it is that EVERY other country in the world with oil reserves on Iraqs level or even with much smaller reserves have CHOSEN to have their oil nationalised. Are they ALL stupid? If it's so much better to open up the market why have none of them realised this? Because, again of course, it's bullshit! It is obviously more beneficial for Iraq to keep oil nationalised. Actually this applies especially to Iraq with such a high quality crude at such easy access.
And there are more reasons, more ammo in the clip to fire away at those thinking THEIR oil has been unfairly hidden under ground in Iraq.
Excellent arguments, Marcus. A lot of what you said reflects my feeling on the matter as well. I have to add, though, that there has been some sort of profit sharing agreement worked out since we last discussed the matter. I'll try dig it up for you. Of course, that's no reason why that agreement has to specifically be tacked onto the "let's hand Iraqi oil over to foreigners" law.
@ Bruno, 05.28.08 - 3:05 am.
Dear Bruno, be careful, 'Tom' is just a troll of the warmongering persuasion.
He/it peeped in in the past as well: the best thing is to ignore his rants (which want to be a parody of anti-war, anti-Bush people); after a while he goes back to his sewer.
I'm aware of that, Italian! I'm just having a little fun with him, that's all ...
Did anybody else notice that the entire Jeffrey crew got mass-banned by Abbas? Those guys, always making friends and influencing people ...
@ All.
The Kid, Abbas Hawazin, has banned at last ALL the Rats from Rats' Sewers Central:
http://ejectiraqikkk.blogspot.co...p-
blogiraq.html
Better late than never !
And those filthy rodents have the incredible cheek to fake that they 'care' for the Iraqis, LOL !
Like especially RhusRat loves to do here !
Just in: looks like the peace in Sadr city has broken with a clash between the Iraqis and the invaders:
"Fighting between U.S. troops and militant forces in Baghdad's Sadr City killed five people and wounded eight, Iraq's Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
The fighting occurred in Sadr City's Fadhailiya district, scene of several clashes between U.S.- and Iraqi-led forces and supporters of rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, CNN reported."
http://www.postchronicle.com/
new...212149741.shtml
@Marcus: But, but, but, #4, since oil will soon be replaced with other fuels it will lose its value and therefor the time to sell it is now, they shout! Eh, excuse me but when a commodity is getting scarcer and there is projected increases in demand for said commodity for at least the next 20 years please tell me what economic model predicts said commodity to be worthless any time soon. Because I would have thought it might actually be quite valuable, silly me.
That's because you are ignoring the cyclical boom and bust nature of the economy. High oil prices are going to drive down demand either through increased efficiency or global recession or both. I'll be reminding you of this when oil prices double over the next couple of years or two and then fall back under $40/bbl. You can tell the Iraqis how it was so important for them to keep their oil in the ground until it was more affordable.
Marcus -- nobody gets production licenses from Norway in the North Sea??? There were 37 PLs granted just last year! Check their National Petroleum Directorate online!
Yep ... I see Conoco-Phillips are a licensee.
PeteS:
Why do you waste your time pointing out facts and making rational arguments with Bruno and Marcus?
It's futile to engage with stupid, smug ideologues who are blinded by hatred.
AAAAGH!
KILL! KILL!
Die die3 diedieieieieeiieiiiiiiie!
.....
Gosh, who turned off the lights?
[petes] "I'll be reminding you of this when oil prices double over the next couple of years or two and then fall back under $40/bbl."
Good point. Any indication that the majority of Iraqi oil will be pumped out via international oil companies "within the next year or two"?
What sort of timeframe would they be working to?
They ARE bound to a timeframe in the Draft Law, right?
Right?
[petes] "High oil prices are going to drive down demand either through increased efficiency or global recession or both."
Uh, that's a lot of speculation, Petes.
On the other hand, improved efficiency will stimulate demand.
On the other hand, a global recession will be followed by a (cyclical) boom period.
On the other hand, developing third world countries are going to want their share of the oil pie.
On the other hand, giants like China are voracious in their (growing) hunger for oil.
I don't think oil is going to be replaced as our primary fuel anytime soon. More likely, growing amounts of currency will shift themselves to the oil producing countries.
Now, having oil companies in one of the biggest oil producers in the world which is legally bound to favour US companies which can repatriate 100% of their profits makes the US a de facto oil producer as well.
Well, good thing we can trust the nice Americans to do the right thing.
Uh, that's a lot of speculation, Petes.
Speculation based on precedent, Bruno. It's just a question of how painful it will be.
(Sorry, Pete, for jumping in on your discussion. I couldn't resist.)
Exactly, Lynnette -- it's happened twice in the last three decades.
Anyway, who am I to care what Iraqis do with their oil. They're free to do whatever they want. However, it won't stop me remarking that their current policy is patently stupid*. Instead of investing in production and especially in refinery capacity they are, bizarrely, importers of fuel oil which -- presumably because it would be political suicide to force the public to pay the going rate for a commodity that is freely available under their feet -- the government subsidises to a ridiculous degree. Well done Iraq -- you're copying America's equally politically motivated and silly policy of the 1970s which had a calamitous effect on domestic production.
*stupid is a pejorative term -- it is more likely motivated by factional greed and mutual mistrust. The last thing it is motivated by is some genuine concern about an American hand in the draft oil law. That's a figment of our resident posters' imaginations.... but don't get me started!
Here - didn't have time to post the link earlier ...
Norwegian National Petroleum Executive (English site)
... have a browse : 37 production licenses granted last year, 52 on offer this year.
What is up with Haloscan? Seems to display a random subset of the comments... and the timestamp on that last one is only 100 minutes after the previous... even though I definitely posted it a good three and a half hours later. Weird.
I'd agree with weird, Shameous, both you and Haloscan seem to have a reasonably tight grasp on weirdness!
As for puppet governments, they have a somewhat more tenuous grasp on reconciliation or being able to embrace groups that seemed inclined to enter the fold of an Americanized version of 'imposed democracy'... "Iraq's main Sunni Arab political bloc said on Wednesday it had suspended talks to rejoin the Shi'ite-led government after a disagreement with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki over a cabinet post". Awwww!!
As for the occupier, they continue to kill people...After all, what else do occupying army's do?
"U.S. forces said they killed 10 people on Wednesday who they accused of....blah, blah, blah"
Whenever Americans kill people in Iraq, which they do on a regular basis, they always script their deaths so that they are, at the very least, somewhat pallitable, in terms of consumption, for people such as Shameous!
So that they fall within their perverted perspective of acceptability. Something that will play to their cynical notion that not all murder is wrong. Their 'thou shall not kill' christian inclination is cynically sacrificed in face of their acceptance of the 'evidence' that it might some how have been of benefit to all mankind?
Of course all murder is wrong, Cannibal. What have you been drinking?
On second thoughts, don't tell me.
Nuke 'em 'til they glow, then shoot 'em in the dark.
Kill them.
Kill them all.
Kill them now.
"Why it is that EVERY other country in the world with oil reserves on Iraqs level or even with much smaller reserves have CHOSEN to have their oil nationalised. Are they ALL stupid?"
Have a look at their economic output outside of oil and you will have the answer to your question.
Yous guys r tricky critters. Yeeeha, praise jesus.
You too, Tom. I'd say the attendants find it tricky to get you dressed.
Bush wants $600 million for Iraq police; but cuts aid to U.S. cops
WASHINGTON — At the same time the Bush administration has been pushing for deep cuts in a popular crime-fighting program for states and cities, the White House has been fighting for approval of $603 million for the Iraqi police.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/...tory/
38672.html
Tony Benn: A Million or More Dead
The destruction of Iraq continues; its people killed amidst bombings and atrocities, a million or more dead, many more than two million driven from their homes, the social and economic infrastructure shattered. In Afghanistan the US military is spending $65,000 a minute and there are four times as many air strikes than in Iraq.
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index....id=446&
Itemid=1
Bush misled U.S. on Iraq, former aide says in new book
WASHINGTON — In a book due out Monday, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan offers a blistering review of the administration and concludes that his longtime boss misled the nation into an unnecessary war in Iraq.
http://www.ajc.com/meetro/
conten...nbook_0527.html
Bush's Iraq wrangles alarm lawmakers
Legislators in both Baghdad and Washington are concerned over talks between Iraq and the United States over a deal to determine the relationship between the countries. Iraqis feel they are being rail-roaded, while US Democrats fear President George W Bush's attempts to set the Iraq framework will tie the hands of the next president - whom Democrats strongly hope will come from their ranks.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Mid...t/
JE29Ak01.html
Iraq alcohol sellers pray bombers won't return
After living in fear for months, liquor store owners in Baghdad are proudly displaying everything from Iraqi Asriya Arak to Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky, a sign that peace and stability may return.
http://www.reuters.com/article/i...080527?rpc=401&
Former anti-terror czar Clarke: Staying in Iraq 'helps Al-Qaeda'
Maintaining US combat troops in Iraq "helps Al-Qaeda" and Washington should pull them from the ravaged country if it wants to see progress in the war on terror, former US anti-terror czar Richard Clarke said Tuesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
dailynews...taryqaedaclarke
Rally's veterans, activists seek to avoid glorifying war
The night before he hanged himself with a garden hose in the basement of his parents' home, Jeffrey Lucey asked if he could sit on his father's lap. For the better part of an hour, Kevin Lucey quietly held his 23-year-old son, an Iraq war veteran who had returned depressed and deeply ashamed of what he said was his brutal treatment of Iraqis. When Kevin Lucey discovered his son's body the next night, there was a suicide note: "I am totally embarrassed at the man I have become and I hope you can remember me only as a child."
http://www.boston.com/news/local...glorifying_war/
War disabled the most marginalised in Iraq
According to a recent study, more than a million people have been disabled on account of the war. The government and civil society are not taking care of them, with serious psychological consequences and tensions within families.
http://www.asianews.it/index.php...?l=en&
art=12335
Activists and UN: Iraqi women need more security
Stockholm_(dpa) _ Increased security for women and other vulnerable groups needs to be further strengthened in Iraq, Iraqi women organizations and UN representatives said Wednesday.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb....ment&RSS20=02-
P
US 'close' to Iraq military deal
Pact to seal details of long term US presence but official denies seeking permanent bases.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/
...F8CF9937761.htm
Blackwater grand jury hears from Iraqi witnesses
Three Iraqis, including the father of a slain 9-year-old boy, appeared Tuesday before a federal grand jury investigating a deadly Sept. 16 shooting in Baghdad involving Blackwater Worldwide contractors.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
dailynews...er_prosecutions
Iraq's main Sunni bloc suspends government talks
Iraq's main Sunni Arab political bloc said on Wednesday it had suspended talks to rejoin the Shi'ite-led government after a disagreement with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki over a cabinet post.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews.../
iraq_sunnis_dc
UNHCR faces difficulty helping neediest Iraqis in Jordan
Amid rising food and energy prices, exacerbated by the withdrawal of state fuel subsidies, the UN refugee agency will find it increasingly difficult to help the growing numbers of Iraqi refugees in need of assistance in Jordan.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb....ment&RSS20=02-
P
Sweden PM: US, EU must admit more Iraq refugees
Sweden's prime minister urged the United States and European countries to step up and admit more Iraqi refugees and said Tuesday that his Scandinavian country has shouldered too much of the burden.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
dailynews..._iraqi_refugees
Al-Sadr calls for protests against US occupation and security deal
Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Tuesday called on followers to hold weekly protests against a long-term security deal that the Iraqi and US governments are negotiating. A statement from al-Sadr said Iraqis should hold demonstrations every week after Friday prayers in every part of the country "until further notice or until the agreement is cancelled."
http://www.earthtimes.org/articl...urity-
deal.html
Sadr City truce strains as militia leaders grumble
AP - An angry Shiite militia commander complained Wednesday that "we were duped" into accepting a cease-fire in Sadr City — remarks that point to a potentially damaging rift within the movement of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
dailynews...sadrist_dissent
Iraqi women speak out against daily violence
AFP - Women activists and UN officials testified Wednesday in Stockholm about the violence Iraqi women are subjected to in their daily lives, on the eve of an Iraq conference in the Swedish capital.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
dailynews...nrightsunsweden
Haditha court martial trial opens
The court martial begins of US Lt Andrew Grayson, charged with destroying evidence of a massacre in Haditha, Iraq.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2...ast/
7424090.stm
Marines pass out Gospel verse to Iraqi Muslims, Iraqis say
FALLUJAH, Iraq — At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure that he was a city resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin out of his pocket and put it in his hand.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/s...tory/
38820.html
The internally displaced people in Iraq - Update 33
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb....ment&RSS20=02-
P
US: Defeat at clusters parley
US efforts to undermine a new treaty banning cluster munitions met with significant defeat today at the final negotiations in Dublin, Human RightsWatch said. Preliminary agreement on a draft treaty text on the afternoon of May 28 indicated that virtually all of the 110 countries gathered in Dublin favor a more comprehensive ban of cluster munitions than the US itself can tolerate.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb....ment&RSS20=02-
P
Human Rights Report Assails U.S.
Amnesty International in a report again urged the United States to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/2...=rssnyt&
emc=rss
Where Is the Outrage?
Are we Americans truly savages or merely tone-deaf in matters of morality, and therefore more guilty of terminal indifference than venality? It’s a question demanding an answer in response to the publication of the detailed 370-page report on U.S. complicity in torture, issued last week by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/i...is_the_outrage/
Pentagon to shift funds to pay for Iraq war
The Pentagon plans to shift $9.7 billion of its overall budget to pay for war operations but warned on Wednesday it will run out of money if the U.S. Congress does not approve more funding by mid-July.
http://www.reuters.com/article/p...080528?rpc=401&
Iraq War May Have Increased Energy Costs Worldwide by a Staggering $6 Trillion
The Iraq War means oil costs three times more than it should. How are our lives going to change with oil heading toward $200 a barrel?
http://www.alternet.org/story/86515/
McClellan First Noticed Bush’s Habit of Lying during Campaign Flap over Cocaine Use
In his new tell-all book, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs), former Bush flack Scott McClellan says the first time he caught George Bush lying was during the 2000 campaign when Bush was being accused of having used cocaine.
http://www.pensitoreview.com/200...9-cocaine-flap/
Scott McClellan is an idiot...and a sell-out. No better than the likes of Hillary CLinton or Jack Murtha.
Sure he's a sell-out. He sold out moral and decency while working for Bush. Now he tries to make money out of faked concern, as if his moral and decency has somehow returned unflawed.
someone stole CH's identity above.
Marcus, I always liked Scott McClellan . . . he seemed to be one of the most decent and honorable press secretaries I have ever seen or read about. I liked him before, and still like him now.
Marcus, do you really believe that cellulosic ethonal will not cost less than $1.50 a gallon within 10 years. Do you really think that new wind, emerging thin film PV technologies, new technologies for existing cell based PV, and concentrated Solar will not cost less than $0.10 cents per kilowatt hour within 10 years?
Oil will become increasingly obsolete for energy purposes over the next two decades. When in the last 150 years has technology not advanced rapidly?
Oil will still remain valuable for plastics, chemicals, and other non-energy uses. But please do not insult our collective intelligence by implying that total oil demand for energy use will not drop sharply if oil remains at current elevated inflation adjusted prices. That is insane.
Once battery life crosses 300 Watt hours per kilogram, we can expect to see electric vehicles replace most gasoline based cars and SUVs. Currently the Tesla roadster is at 120 Watt Hours per kg.
Currently 200-240 watt hours/kg is being tested in the lab.
watt hours/kg doubles every 6 years or so. We should cross 400 watt hours/kg within about 14 years at current rates.
Marcus, don't forget carbon sequestration that should make low carbon footprint coal power plants much cheaper per kilowatt hour.
We have 300 years of coal left at current output rates.
You do know that Aramco (KSA) and Norway's national oil company let out a lot of contracts to transparent competitive global bidding?
Why every other country in the world can let out contracts to competitive RFQ style competitive bidding, but not Iraq is beyond me. Many people seem to want to keep Iraqis down. But it won't work. Iraqis will rise to new greater heights than ever imagined before inspite of all of them.
News:
Iraqis eye WP as possible cause of increased birth defects in the ruined city of Fallujah. I would point to DU instead.
"Families in the Iraqi city of Fallujah are calling for an investigation into their claims of a rise in the number of birth defects. They have raised concerns about the weapons used by American forces in 2004 - when Fallujah suffered one of the heaviest bombardments of the entire war in Iraq."
http://news.sky.com/skynews/arti...8,00.html?
f=rss
Iraqi Army fans political tensions:
http://www.thenational.ae/articl...RT&
Profile=1011
Muqtada analysis:
http://
seattletimes.nwsource.com..._muqtada28.html
Wednesday: 31 Iraqis killed:
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?
...articleid=12910
"In a White House full of Bush loyalists, none was more loyal than Scott McClellan, the bland press secretary who spread the company line for all the government to follow each day. His word, it turns out, was worthless, his confessional memoir a glimpse into Washington's world of spin and even outright deception. Instead of effective government, Americans were subjected to a "permanent campaign" that was "all about manipulating sources of public opinion to the president's advantage," McClellan writes"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar.../
w141657D78.DTL
"The State Department has begun to identify diplomats who could be forced to serve in Iraq next year unless enough volunteers come forward to fill about 300 positions, The Associated Press has learned."
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=187090
"So, it was understandable that when Al-Ghizzawi heard American troops were coming, he tried to get himself turned over to them. As Al-Ghizzawi later told me, he thought he would be safe with the Americans “and have rights” and be treated “with respect.” Al-Ghizzawi convinced the Americans to take him when they learned he spoke English. That was all the troops knew about him. Ignorance of who he was or why he was there, however, proved no impediment to torture."
http://www.inthesetimes.com/arti...entler_torture/
"A Devon soldier shot in the back of the head while on patrol in Iraq was wearing a helmet that could not protect him from sniper fire, said a coroner. In a narrative verdict Dr Elizabeth Earland accepted that Daniel Coffey's helmet was not designed to protect against small arms fire. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/engla...von/
7424532.stm
Interesting analysis on why AQ has not attacked the US again:
"With daily television coverage of suicide car-bomb attacks, ambushes, drive-by shootings, stabbings, and other Intifada-type attacks around the world, the question arises as to why al-Qaeda does not stage such small-scale but deadly operations in the United States."
http://www.antiwar.com/scheuer/?
...articleid=12911
Iraqis and computers:
"Once a mortar fell near to our house. Everyone stopped what they were doing, I mean if it was eating, watching TV, sleeping — except Rana. She kept on typing and typing. I yelled at her: “Rana leave the PC and come here, you are sitting near the glass!” She told me, “Just a minute, I want to talk to my friend, she is online and it has been a long time since I connected with her.”"
http://baghdadbureau.blogs.nytim...=rssnyt&
emc=rss
"Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq is expected to push for debt relief and demand that some countries cancel debt and war compensation dating to Saddam Hussein's regime when he addresses a UN conference today."
http://www.boston.com/news/world..._seabed_claims/
One has to wonder why this comment of mine on the oil contracts as they stand in the Draft Oil Law was not addressed by PeteS:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments...?
a=19182#393117
Could it be that turning oil production over to foreign companies does not, in fact, guarantee quick oil production? Could it be, in fact, that those companies could treat Iraqi oil as part of their "proven reserves" for stock purposes without actually having to develop them?
Those are some good links by American Jarab. Thank you.
Josef 'The Bruno' Goebbels, you seem to be running out of truly bad news to post. It must be very frustrating for you.
Good for Iraq.
_
Bruno is running out of propaganda stories? That's good. God bless Iraq.
37 Iraqis dying in violence is "good", to you?
You truly are an enemy of Iraq.
"An agreement between the United States and Iraq to allow U.S. troops to remain operating in Iraq past 2008 should be put to a popular referendum, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged in an online message to his followers.
art.sadr.afp.gi.jpg
A Baghdad street is reflected in the glass over a poster of Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The message also calls for weekly protests against the agreement, being negotiated by the two governments.
Al-Sadr also called for "an organized media action" and "a unified political and parliamentary movement" to oppose the standards of forces agreement, which would replace the U.N. resolution that allows U.S. troops to operate in Iraq when it expires at the end of the year."
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORL...27/iraq.alsadr/
"' Sources close to the office of the Shiite Supreme Exemplar, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, told al-Hayat that he called on the Iraqi prime minister during the latter's visit to Najaf recently, to deal cautiously with the agreement and called on him to organize a national referendum on it.'"
http://www.juancole.com/2008/05/...fa-
sistani.html
It seems as though the political pressure against the US occupation is growing. It is going to be interesting to see what happens. On the one hand, I'm guessing that the US will *not* accede to any referendum demand. If it does, it will be sunk. On the other, what can anti-occupation Iraqis do about it, if Maliki signs without a referendum or even parliamentary ratification? If Sistani is against it, I can't see it going through.
The end of 2008 will be very "interesting".
Let's hope that the political pressure wins out and that the US realises that it faces a dark future if it insists on occupying Iraq despite what Iraqis think. If it does not, and insists on Occupation, well, there could be another upsurge in violent resistance if that is the case.
Josef 'The Bruno' Goebbels: "there could be another upsurge in violent resistance if that is the case."
Hope springs eternal.
_
"A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police recruitment center in a town in Nineveh province on Thursday, killing 16 recruits and wounding 18 others, a local medical source said."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
englis...ent_8277802.htm
Rhus, if the US can be ejected through political means, then HURRAH! That would be great. Its just that America is notorious for saying things like "fuck you and your constitution" to countries it perceives as its underlings. I hope, but don't expect, America to honour the wish of 99% of Iraqis opposed to permanent US bases in that country.
Josef 'The Bruno' Goebbels: "A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police recruitment center in a town in Nineveh province on Thursday, killing 16 recruits and wounding 18 others, a local medical source said."
Was that "resistance" Bruno? If so, are you happy? If not, do you support efforts of the IA* and IP* to hunt those responsible and to prevent further attacks like that?
* IA = Iraqi Army
IP = Iraqi Police
_
Josef 'The Bruno' Goebbels: "99% of Iraqis opposed to permanent US bases in that country."
How long can a base be there before it's "permanent"? If the US has bases there for "that long" and no longer, would you forgo your support for the violent "Resistance"? Do you oppose US bases in Germnay, Japan, and North Korea? Are those countries "occupied" by the US? Do you support violent "resistance" to the US presence in those countries, if so? If not, what makes them different?
_
Evil Americans:
Report on growing disparities in the concentration of U.S. aluminum-can wealth:
http://www.theonion.com/content/
...ow_controls_two
[rhus] Was that "resistance" Bruno?
No idea who bombed it or why or who the recruits were or what their intentions were.
[rhus] If so, are you happy?
No, I'm not happy. They wasted a bunch of explosives that could have been used against the foreign invader.
Interesting that Rhus suddenly wants to discuss the meaning of "permanent" as opposed to discussing WHY the US should keep Occupying a country where 99% of the residents are opposed to having said permanent bases there.
Rhuslancia, Repeat after me .....Iraq is not Japan ,,,Iraq in 2003 did not attack America like Japan did in 1942. It was America which attacked Iraq. Even by international law ,every Iraqi is obligated to defend his homeland against a foreign invader. So the question of permanent bases does not arise. Permanent American bases in Iraq would be seen as a symbol of perpetuating the occupation. They would be seen as easy pickings for attack by the Iraqis. Your analogy is completely false.
Rhuslancia,,Repeat after me. The overwhelming majority of Iraqis oppose any permanent American presence in Iraq. So if you are going to have any permanent bases in Iraq,it would have to be against the wishes of the Iraqi people.
Well said, Iraqi_in_Jordan.
Rhuslancia will now discuss the meaning of "base".
I think we will see a lull in the violence, thank goodness, until the end of the year, which is when the issues of US occupation and the regional elections comes up. I'm expecting the US to pull out every dirty trick it can at about that time.
Rhus bites the dust:
http://bp3.blogger.com/_o6VvJ-
3z..._by_Latuff2.jpg
Here's another cartoon depicting the double standards applied in the case of Arabs:
http://bp1.blogger.com/_o6VvJ-
3z..._by_Latuff2.jpg
Funny, Rhus never did get back to me on how much he appreciated Al Qaeda's explanation that it does not target "innocents". I can't imagine why.
Notice how Rhuslancia disappeared after I linked to that Onion article.
Hmmm.
I think I've been on the wrong track, all these years.
@Bruno: One has to wonder why this comment of mine on the oil contracts as they stand in the Draft Oil Law was not addressed by PeteS... Could it be that turning oil production over to foreign companies does not, in fact, guarantee quick oil production? Could it be, in fact, that those companies could treat Iraqi oil as part of their "proven reserves" for stock purposes without actually having to develop them?
Could it be that the Iraqi government might negotiate the timing in each individual contract depending on the scale and complexity of the job at hand. Or could it be that Bruno suddenly wants everything to be nailed down in the oil law. Funny, I could have sworn he was against prescribing too much in legislation.
In other words, PeteS agrees that yes, the Draft Law does guarantee foreign company involvement, but does not lay the onus on the said companies to quickly develop the resources in question. Thank you.
Wow, lots to scroll past.
PeteS, why do you hang out with deranged radical leftists? You seem like a normal person.
I sense the saliva dripping out the corner of Bruno's mouth.
Bruno,
I think we will see a lull in the violence, thank goodness, until the end of the year, which is when the issues of US occupation and the regional elections comes up.
Bruno is WAVING THE WHITE FLAG.
First, his beloved Sunni-led insurgency was defeated and flipped by the IA and the Coalition forces. Bruno quickly decided that Muqty was his guy. Then the Madhi militia was routed. Now Bruno has no more insurgencies to cheer for.
All gone!
And IRAQIS are happy about that.
And Bruno is now predicting a "lull in violence."
Ya think?
*
I gather from my investigation that young Zeyad posts on Holoscan as An Italian and Realist. Sad stuff Zeyad, you act like you posses a superior philosophy, but the must ugly and hatful rants come from you. You have such ugliness on the inside and phony compassion on the outside. What a joke.
hatful=hateful
Small article of interest to Italian, re. our bet on whether the US will strike Iran or not:
"One of the areas of frequent disagreement between myself and Cernig is the probability of an overt US military strike against Iran."
http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/...ing-
carrie.html
Looks like he will win, if these people are to be believed. I can't say I'm sorry.
ie- I'm glad about that.
[jeffrey] "First, his beloved Sunni-led insurgency was defeated and flipped by the IA and the Coalition forces."
Jeffrey, just make sure that you pay your taxes, this year. The Anbar sheikhs get itchy trigger fingers if their 200 million dollar yearly tribute is late. Now, we wouldn't want that, would we?
Tom, my investigations conclude that you're a nitwit that doesn't have a clue about what he's talking about*. Why are all yank warmongers so sad and deluded?
It's no wonder the rest of the world hates your guts.
* Unless Zeyad is able to speak fluent Italian, that is.
Bruno,
C'mon. Even YOU can admit that the so-called resistance is finished. One of their main problems was that, like AQI, they killed far too many Iraqi citizens and very few Coalition forces.
As of today, this is the lowest number of US casualties in a 29-day period since we pushed across the border into Iraq back in March, 2003. It is also a month with the lowest number of Iraqi casualties since icasualties began counting in January, 2006 (stats here).
The bottom line is that you cheered on people who killed many more Iraqi citizens than Coalition forces. I would like to count up how many errant mortar rounds fired by your incompetent "resistance" killed Iraqi men, women, and children just going about their daily lives.
*
Sorry, Jeffrey, your bill is somewhat higher. I miscalculated. 175000 "Awakening" guys at 375 $ per month comes to 65,6 million dollars every month, coming to 787 million dollars a year America is forking over to keep the Sunnis quiet.
I refer:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/...tory/
24971.html
Gosh, inflation is stiff, nowadays, isn't it?
Just make sure you cough up on time.
Those Ay-rabs can get mighty short tempered ...
[jeffrey] "The bottom line is that you cheered on people who killed many more Iraqi citizens than Coalition forces."
Um, no.
The Death Squads were a US creation, together with the Badrists. I can't say I ever supported them.
Bruno,
Jeffrey, just make sure that you pay your taxes, this year. The Anbar sheikhs get itchy trigger fingers if their 200 million dollar yearly tribute is late. Now, we wouldn't want that, would we?
The Anbaris were flipped because they got tired of losing and they got tired of getting blown up by AQI, whom they had mistakenly thought were their allies.
By the way, our GDP is 13 TRILLION, by far the largest economy in the world. Even if what you claim is true, that Anbaris were only flipped because of money, hey, 200 million is PEANUTS to us.
*
Um, read again:
787 million dollars a year
Have a nice day.
Iraqi_in_Jordan, occupation-wise, Iraq is Iraq, but it is more similar to South Korea than Japan or Germany (who didn't attack us like Japan did, although they did declare war).
Iraqi_in_Jordan: "Even by international law ,every Iraqi is obligated to defend his homeland against a foreign invader."
I would love to hear more about this. Can you cite the relevant articles of the Geneva Conventions or the UN charter to back up your assertion?
Iraqi_in_Jordan: "The overwhelming majority of Iraqis oppose any permanent American presence in Iraq."
and
Josef 'The Bruno' Goebbels: "Rhuslancia will now discuss the meaning of "base"."
Rather, I would like to discuss the meaning of "permanent" since the overwhelming majority of Iraqis want the US presence and help right now for security, training & standing up the ISF, reconstruction, and fighting AQ.
Iraqi_in_Jordan, the Kurds may even want longer-term bases in Kurdistan. Are you OK with that if it happens?
_
Bruno,
Those Ay-rabs can get mighty short tempered
Jeezus. What a racist.
*
Bruno,
By the way, you should feel no shame in WAVING A WHITE FLAG now. It was bound to happen, sooner or later.
Fewer Iraqis and fewer Coalition forces have died this month than in years. Why? Your so-called resistance is on the ropes. I know you have mixed feelings. Sorry, bud.
*
Me: "Was that "resistance" Bruno?"
Josef 'The Bruno' Goebbels: "No idea who bombed it or why or who the recruits were or what their intentions were."
So it may have been legitimate "resistance"? You need more info before you decide if you're happy about it? Are you just giving them the benefit of the doubt, waiting for facts & details that you know will probably never come?
In the meantime, is it OK with you if the IA and IP pursue the perpetrators and try to prevent further attacks, or should they hold off a bit, or what?
Iraqi_in_Jordan, what do you think? Was that "resistance"? Should the IA and IP pursue the perps etc.?
_
Bruno,
I guess math was not one of your strong subjects at school. For a country with a 13 trillion-dollar GDP, 787 million is STILL peanuts. But with the Anbaris it wasn't just about money. They realized who was actually killing them -- AQI -- and who they wanted to fight alongside -- the Coalition forces.
*
Jeffrey: "I know you have mixed feelings. Sorry, bud."
I'm not sorry. The image of Bruno crying into his pillow every night because the pipe dream of a pan-sectarian uber-resistance has crumbled like a crack whore's teeth is one I will cherish forever.
Meanwhile, Iraq emerges from its decades-long struggle against tyranny and oppression, leaving Bruno behind and slowly getting on track to being the stable and prosperous country it ought to be.
_
RhusLancia,
[to Bruno] So it may have been legitimate "resistance"? You need more info before you decide if you're happy about it? Are you just giving them the benefit of the doubt, waiting for facts & details that you know will probably never come?
I've been following your exchange with Bruno on that suicide-bombing. It's classic Bruno, to be sure.
What did you think of his sly admission (capitulation, in this situation) that there may be a "lull in violence"? Talk about a pre-emptive strike. Get ready for Bruno to change the subject in the next few weeks as his so-called resistance falls apart. He's jumped back and forth between the Sunnis and the Shias several times already, but now it looks like there's nowhere to turn. Muqty is back at Qom Qommunity Qollege laboring over his assignments with his team of exasperated tutors. The Anbaris patrol alongside American forces. Bruno's worst nightmares are coming true.
*
RhusLancia,
The image of Bruno crying into his pillow every night because the pipe dream of a pan-sectarian uber-resistance has crumbled like a crack whore's teeth is one I will cherish forever.
Oh, SNAP!
Ha ha ha ha!
Okay, Rhus, that was beautiful.
We're not worthy!
*
How's the Healing coming along? How many Iraqis did the resistance kill today?
Zeyad, do you check other blogs ? You should check Konfused Kids blog he put a nice slap - ban across the faces of the IBC trash. I suggest you do the same thing Zeyad. They have destroyed the comments section of many blogs with their Hitler attempts to push American propaganda. And look at how they fill with gossip the pages of their own blog. Did Omar F post about his engagement on any blog? No ok then why the hell did those homosexuals post about it? Did Basem S post on his blog about his work? No ok then why the hell did they post about what he wants to do with his life? Did you make an announcement fo r your facebook page? No ok then why they did that? Why? Because they are worst than women when it comes for gossip those pigs come number 1. Also I hope you and everyone else will ignore the treacherous Iraqi Mojo that did show his face on his own blog he did say somethings about how he gets attacked when he comes to your blog and he can't understand why so look at how he came back today to make his stupid comment hoping that he will get attacked again so that maybe inshalla 1 person will go to his blog and tell him that he is a poor guy for being picked on. But if anyone wants to laugh look at how the outcomes of doing a google search on him
http://www.google.com/search?
hl=...G=Google+Search
Mouse,
Say cheese!
*
Beware the Words of Satan
The earthly husk of Rachel (alias Indigo) still retains enough bodily integrity to post to this comment thread. Be aware that she has been called home by her Satanic master and that her thrice-damned soul now rests head down in a pit full of boiling excrement in Hell.
Her every bodily orifice is penetrated regularly by the gigantic, scale covered, double barbed male member of the archdemon Allah and she is covered by his pus-like, corrosive ejaculate.
There is no Internet access in Hell. The soulless husk of her rotting body still stumbles about the fetid alleyways of London, servicing the thralls of Allah and posting the words of Satan on sites like this.
Be aware that when you read one of her vile posts, you are reading the very words of Satan himself.
Pray that her rotting carcass soon falls apart and oozes down the sewers of London.
Praise Jesus!
Realist = Zeyad
Tom = Faggot
@ Multifarious Troll, as 'Realist', 05.29.08 - 3:13 pm.
Dear Multy, have merci on your poor pal and brethren PeteS !
With such suggestive fantasies you compel that hapless Oyrish satanist to masturbate: the trouble being that he needs his Anal Plug™ to obtain his 4-millimetres erection, so that your posts greatly disrupt his life and work !!!
Have merci !
And PeteS is NO Muslim, anyway, but of your same noble persuasion (i.e., satanist) ...
This place has gone very surreal of late. Very entertaining, mind.
Did nobody see fit to comment on today's Iraqi development conference in Sweden. Maybe it's not making the news where you are like it is here, but surely Marcus has something to say?
Highlights -- Iraq doesn't want your money, but appeals for international expertise. Infrastructural projects with a time horizon of a couple of years are now being considered in areas where heretofore security was the only concern. Unfortunately, some of the provinces don't have the expertise to spend their budgets and it's not just because of the exodus of professionals -- it's also because of the traditional levels of central control of funds, i.e. by Saddam's regime. Anbar only spent 20% of last year's budget.
(Any problems with that -- you know who you are, Bruno and Um Ayad -- take it up with the conference ... I am only quoting).
Got bored with this lately, came back for a look, and came across this classic:
"PeteS, why do you hang out with deranged radical leftists? You seem like a normal person.
Tom | 05.29.08 - 10:04 am | # "
He was once, he was!
then he got religion.
Guess who that was. (Haloscan forgot me.)
Sorry Anonymous, you ain't famous enough. You'll have to clue us in.
Bruno, 9:55am : In other words, PeteS agrees that yes, the Draft Law does guarantee foreign company involvement, but does not lay the onus on the said companies to quickly develop the resources in question. Thank you.
Nice bit of conjuring Bruno, but it won't wash.
[Anonymous, quoting Tom]: "PeteS, why do you hang out with deranged radical leftists? You seem like a normal person.
{Anonymous all by his self]: He was once, he was! then he got religion.
I prefer to call it a sixth sense.
Oops... nearly forgot....
"Did you make an announcement fo r your facebook page? "
Did anyone know Zeyad had a facebook page until this idiot posted it?
$34 Billion in Oil Money Goes Missing
Before Bruno and Marcus have an orgasm, let me hasten to add that this happened in Iran not Iraq. Oh, the joys of nationalized oil!
That would be half of Iran's oil revenue for the year. Gone missing.
"Why it is that EVERY other country in the world with oil reserves on Iraqs level or even with much smaller reserves have CHOSEN to have their oil nationalised. Are they ALL stupid?"
Pretty Damned Stupid
Jeffrey: "I've been following your exchange with Bruno on that suicide-bombing. It's classic Bruno, to be sure. "
It IS classic, isn't it? He is almost recognizing how pointlessly, indiscriminately violent his heroes are, but he can't admit it to us yet. Instead, there is some kind of flow chart in his mind that he must work through to determine if a suicide bombing on a group of Iraqis is okey-doke or not.
And if it's not okey-doke, is it OK for the ISF to pursue the perps? Unless he's a full-on psychoBa'ath he'd have to admit that yes it is. I eagerly await his reply. Maybe he can consult Muqtada's exasperated tutors?
Hey, lay off Bruno. Have you no regard for the 100,000 people internally displaced in South Africa in the past 19 days of violence? Bruno's busy ... trying to figure out how to blame the US, instead of that pathetic excuse of a bungling incompetent leader that South Africa has been straddled with for the last nine years.
Stashing the kruggerrands can occupy one's spare time as well.
booga
booga booga booga
booga booga
racist honkey muthafukka
booga booga booga
booga booga
allah akbar
Marine 'lied' over Haditha deaths
A US marine lied to cover up a squad's killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005, prosecutors say at a court martial.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2...ast/
7426429.stm
Marine says he was ordered to delete Iraq photos
A Marine who took pictures of Iraqi men, women and children killed by U.S. forces testified Thursday that he deleted the photos under an officer's orders and later lied repeatedly to investigators about what happened to the images.
http://ap.google.com/article/
ALe...EYsm9AD90VL8OO1
Colonel Says Speaking Out Cost a Medal
The former chief military prosecutor for terrorism trials at Guantanamo Bay thinks the Defense Department has punished him for testifying publicly that he faced political pressure to speed up the cases and to use evidence derived from torture.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp...d=moreheadlines
'Nothing the White House can do to stop it:' 109 countries agree to ban cluster bombs
After more than a year of contentious negotiations, diplomats from 109 countries meeting in Dublin agreed Wednesday on a treaty that would outlaw the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions, which have killed and wounded thousands of civilians over the last four decades.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
arti...rticle_id=92579
Army suicides rise again despite new focus by military
WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. soldiers committing suicide rose again last year, according to a U.S. Army report released Thursday, despite the military's heightened efforts to encourage troops to seek care.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/...tory/
38915.html
First I wish to adress our anonymous genius. He goes:
Iran has nationalised oil. Iran is corrupt and messed up in many ways. Hence nationalised oil is STUPID.
It's kinda like...
A guy drives a Corolla. When he drives it into a brick wall he dies. Hence driving a Corolla is lethal.
Way to use your analytical skills you clever and oh so intelligent one.
There are nations with nationalised oil who are doing well indeed. Norway is the obvious example. Kuwait is another one.
Russia is a very good example. Its economic upswing would hardly have been in the annual 6+ percent range we have seen the last several years if the oil money ended up in the pockets of Chordokowsky and Abramovich instead of in the state finances, like it used to do. Tell them they'll benefit from "liberalising" again, why don't ya!
(The obvious way for our geniuses to attack this is to say: Oh really? What about womens rights in Kuwait? Freedom of religion? You agree with that? Or the democracy in Russia, huh? You a little good Putinist? And for your info Norway does have International Oil pumping in the North Sea, what about THEM apples?
All of it being beside the point of course.)
Marcus - them apples is hardly beside the point. To say the money is going to "the State" because Khodorkovsky is languishing in jail is a joke. Russia is a basket case. Putin makes Muqtada look like a democrat.
PeteS
"Did nobody see fit to comment on today's Iraqi development conference in Sweden. Maybe it's not making the news where you are like it is here, but surely Marcus has something to say?"
It's been the same reporting in Sweden as elsewhere except for a lot of reporting on the "massive" security surrounding the conference. And how, supposedly, this can benefit our PM who is alledgedly seen as weak on international issues to become more stateman-like. Which is not that interesting.
Otherwise the conference is portrayed as having had a "good result" in terms of the positive dialogue but without much substance when it comes to real actions.
*Neighboring countries will "work towards" debt forgiveness but gave no promises.
*A new conference will be held every year until 2012 and hopefully the next will be in Baghdad.
*The US will supposedly admit 12.000 refugees from Iraq.
*The international community shall "work towards a positive development in Iraq", whatever that means in reality.
My opinion:
All in all a good thing that a UN conference on Iraq is held at all and in a seemingly positive spirit. No concrete steps forward at this point however. I think it would have been overly optimistic to expect much more. A decent start, that's about it.
Pete, Russias "democracy" IS a joke, agreed. But that does NOT prove in any way that nationalised oil is bad for a country. If they had no oil Putin would still be Putin, don't you think?
Khodorkovsky wasn't thrown in jail when the oil was nationalised, he was thrown in jail later when he challenged Putin and tried to enter politics. Which I agree is all fucked up, but it is STILL beside the point.
News:
29 Iraqis killed, 76 wounded:
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?
...articleid=12914
Haditha massacre cover-up:
"A Marine who took pictures of Iraqi men, women and children killed by U.S. forces testified Thursday that he deleted the photos under an officer's orders and later lied repeatedly to investigators about what happened to the images."
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=190077
Iraqis unfit to build in their own country:
International firms are competing for one of the largest construction schemes in the country at a total cost of nearly $15 billion, a statement by Baghdad Municipality said."
http://www.azzaman.com/english/i...8-05-
29kurd.htm
Standing up against the War Party:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?
a...articleid=12918
Jessica Yellin: "“The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president’s high approval ratings,” she said."
http://www.progressive.org/mag_wx052908
More CENTCOM claims. Later it'll turn out to be people on a stroll:
"U.S. troops killed ten suspected Shiite militiamen backed by Iran in eastern part of the Iraqi capital, the U.S. military said on Thursday."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
englis...ent_8277232.htm
"THE US army said suicides among active duty troops in 2007 had reached the highest level on record, due partly to the stress caused by deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan."
http://www.news.com.au/
heraldsun...5005961,00.html
Refuse to deploy. That has to be better than putting a bullet in your head.
Uh-oh Bruno, the resistance is crumbling...
"BAGHDAD -- Four summers ago, when militiamen loyal to hard-line Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr were battling U.S. forces in the holy city of Najaf, Mohammed Lami was among them.
"I had faith. I believed in something," Lami said of his days hoisting a gun for Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. "Now, I will never fight with them."
Lami is no fan of U.S. troops, but after fleeing Baghdad's Sadr City district with his family last month, when militiamen arrived on his street to plant a bomb, he is no fan of the Mahdi Army either. Nor are many others living in Sadr City, the 32-year-old said. Weeks of fighting between militiamen and Iraqi and U.S. forces, with residents caught in the middle, has chipped away at the Sadr movement's grass-roots popularity, Lami said."
http://www.latimes.com/news/
nati...0,2392748.story
[jeffrey] "Fewer Iraqis and fewer Coalition forces have died this month than in years. Why?"
Because you're handing over giant wads of cash to resistance groups in order that they stop beating up on your waifs. You DO know what that cash is being invested in, don't you?
[jeffrey] "For a country with a 13 trillion-dollar GDP, 787 million is STILL peanuts."
For a country with a trade deficit of 700 billion dollars on that GDP and a debt of around 30000 dollars a head, I'd say that you need every million you can scrape together.
But then, that's not the point, is it?
The point is, the utter embarrassment you must feel at the "mightiest military in the world" travelling thousands of miles to get creamed by the home team, consisting of mostly miscellaneous tribal guerrillas and some eeeevil Baathists that you swore you'd get rid of. Instead, you're paying them tribute.
Just make sure you pay your taxes, this year.
You don't wanna piss those sheiks off.
Bruno,
Instead of cheering on homicidal mass murderers in Iraq, perhaps you could help raise awareness about the things that are happening in your own country.
http://www.iht.com/articles/
2008...iefssafrica.php
"Violence has become so pervasive in South African schools that children as young as 7 play games such as "rape me, rape me," where students simulate sexual attacks," according to a chilling report issued Wednesday by the nation's human rights commission."
Josef 'The Bruno' Goebbels, are you sad about this?
U.S. Cites Big Gains Against Al-Qaeda
Less than a year after his agency warned of new threats from a resurgent al-Qaeda, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden now portrays the terrorist movement as essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive throughout much of the rest of the world, including in its presumed haven along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
In a strikingly upbeat assessment, the CIA chief cited major gains against al-Qaeda's allies in the Middle East and an increasingly successful campaign to destabilize the group's core leadership.
While cautioning that al-Qaeda remains a serious threat, Hayden said Osama bin Laden is losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Islamic world and has largely forfeited his ability to exploit the Iraq war to recruit adherents. Two years ago, a CIA study concluded that the U.S.-led war had become a propaganda and marketing bonanza for al-Qaeda, generating cash donations and legions of volunteers.
All that has changed, Hayden said in an interview with The Washington Post this week that coincided with the start of his third year at the helm of the CIA.
_
Interesting that Rhus demonstrates so much faux-concern for Iraqi deaths when it was the US plan all along to turn Iraqi against Iraqi in an effort to abate attacks on its troops. Some people are really brazen.
Rhus, you know very well my position on Al Qaeda.
The crumbling of your beloved pipe-dream "resistance" benefits all Iraqis, Bruno. The crumbling of AQ benefits all Iraqis and all the world.
_
So you are glad the MNF and ISF are defeating AQ?
_
[rhus] "So you are glad the MNF and ISF are defeating AQ?"
Glad that you are recruiting them too? No, not really. But then, the US stoops to any level in order to achieve its aims.
Also, let's not forget who helped create Al Qaeda in the first place. Yeah, wave those Old Glories about now.
I thought Usama bin Ladin created Al Qaeda.
Bruno, do you think the US should arrest/kill Iraqis who worked with Al Qaeda in the past?
Bruno,
I am praying that South Africa will succeed as a prosperous nation just as much as I pray for Iraq. We Americans stand with you...our brothers in SA, who much like our brothers in Iraq, are facing a difficult time. Let's all work together to solve these problems
Bruno: "Also, let's not forget who helped create Al Qaeda in the first place."
The Islamic Army and the 1920s, and other non-sectarian mostly Sunni "Resistance" groups? Nah, they didn't create them, they just welcomed them into Iraq en masse & embraced them as allies and brothers- as long as AQ was merely mass-murdering Shia.
_
A tribute to Al Qaeda:
"Freedom movements arise and assert themselves. They're doing so on almost every continent populated by man — in the hills of Afghanistan, in Angola, in Kampuchea, in Central America ... [They are] freedom fighters.”
There's more:
"Is this a call to jihad (holy war) taken from one of Islamic fundamentalist Osama bin Laden's notorious fatwas? Or perhaps a communique issued by the repressive Taliban regime in Kabul?
In fact, this glowing praise of the murderous exploits of today's supporters of arch-terrorist bin Laden and his Taliban collaborators, and their holy war against the “evil empire”, was issued by US President Ronald Reagan on March 8, 1985."
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2001.../2001/465/
25199
[mojo] "I thought Usama bin Ladin created Al Qaeda."
Read CIA and its protege in Pakistan, ISI. Bin Laden just decided to "freelance" a little. I'm sure that iraqis are SO GRATEFUL that the US removed all law and order and invited Al Qaeda into Iraq to fight there.
After all freedom ain't free, right, Rhus?
Iraqis had to die for 'freedom'.
Right, Rhus?
"As his unclassified CIA biography states, bin Laden left Saudi Arabia to fight the Soviet army in Afghanistan after Moscow's invasion in 1979. By 1984, he was running a front organization known as Maktab al-Khidamar ["Services Office"] — the MAK — which funneled money, arms and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan war. What the CIA bio[graphy] conveniently fails to specify (in its unclassified form at least) is that the MAK was nurtured by Pakistan's state security services, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the CIA's primary conduit for conducting the covert war against Moscow's occupation."
http://www.msnbc.com/news/190144.asp
The US invited Al Qaeda into Iraq? Damn! And all this time I thought it was Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency that invited AQ into Iraq and sheltered them until AQ banned pickled veggies & women driving. Thanks for clearing all this up Bruno!
The US wanted the Russians out of Afghanistan yesterday, not tomorrow. Eventually we got our way and then the world left the Afghans to sort out the aftermath for themselves. How'd that work out for everybody?
_
US military strategy - let's let Iraqis die instead of Americans:
"U.S. Army General Ricardo Sanchez, who is commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq: "This is what I would call a terrorist magnet, where America, being present here in Iraq, creates a target of opportunity... But this is exactly where we want to fight them. ...This will prevent the American people from having to go through their attacks back in the United States."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly...eory_(strategy)
[mojo] "And all this time I thought it was Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency that invited AQ into Iraq and sheltered them"
Al Qaeda was coming in no matter what anybody wanted. I agree that (some) resistance groups made a major tactical error in allowing AQ operating space. (The same as the US is making a major error in recruiting these people today, AFTER we know what they have been up to.) But then, as I have also pointed out before, it would have been kinda difficult fighting the US military and the deathsquads and the Kurds and AQ all at once. It was understood from the beginning that sooner or later AQ would have to be chased out.
Bruno, your work of propaganda neglects to mention that it was the "resistance" which CHOSE to "liberate" Iraq by blowing up Iraqis and focusing their campaign of destruction on the Iraqi people in the first place. I do not understand why you cannot get that through your head.
Why don't they fight us in Dubai or Kuwait?
_
[rhus] "The US wanted the Russians out of Afghanistan yesterday, not tomorrow. Eventually we got our way"
In other words, creating and working with a network of fanatical jihadis was OK so long as US foreign policy was being advanced? Well, Rhus, that must be reassuring to hear for all those dead Afghans and Iraqis.
"You died for US foreign policy."
Whew, now, that makes everybody feel better.
[ch] "it was the "resistance" which CHOSE to "liberate" Iraq by blowing up Iraqis and focusing their campaign of destruction on the Iraqi people in the first place."
Uh, no.
The US invasion began well forward of any 'resistance'.
The terrorist doctrine of Shock and Awe was applied during that invasion.
And the people "blowing up Iraqis" have largely been Americans and the Al Qaedists that they INVITED into Iraq.
Of course, getting Iraqis blown up instead of Americans was the right thing to do, according to US generals.
The flypaper strategy, yes. Being the maggots the 3arab jarab are, they fell for it, traveled hundreds of miles to Iraq, via Damascus, to kill invader-infidels, and to bomb Iraqi cafes, bakeries, book markets, weddings, funerals, police stations, and bus loads of apostate Shia. I remember when the fans of Angry Jarab said two years ago the bombings were done by Americans!
I don't think American strategists were counting on the 3arab jarab to mass murder Iraqis.
[rhus] "Why don't they fight us in Dubai or Kuwait?"
Good question. Ask Zawahiri, next time you chat to him.
You ask him, next time you send him a check or when you return his bestiality porn that you borrowed from him.
_
"Why don't they fight us in Dubai or Kuwait?"
Yes, an excellent question. Bruno's answer: "Ask Zawahiri, next time you chat to him." RIGHT! Isn't Zawahri on the FBI's top ten most wanted list or something?
Saddam welcomed the jihadis into Iraq well before the invasion. They were streaming in by the hundreds. He welcomed busloads of western useful idiot human shields, too. Whatever tools he could use to hold onto power, he used.
_
Mojo, I guess the FBI "wants" him to give him a job. Right, Bruno?
"I remember when the fans of Angry Jarab said two years ago the bombings were done by Americans! "
There is circumstantial evidence of US involvement in some attacks. On the other hand, I don't know how reliable the witnesses involved are. It wouldn't be the first time the US was involved in 'false flag' black ops. Just the other day Iraqis reported masked men firing mortars from US-controlled neighbourhoods and questioned how this was allowed.
[mojo] "I don't think American strategists were counting on the 3arab jarab to mass murder Iraqis."
Yeah, because those Al Qaedists are so PEACEFUL, right? And American strategists are OVERJOYED when foreign radicals blow up a bunch of Iraqis. It makes their job so much easier. You want quotes?
"And American strategists are OVERJOYED when foreign radicals blow up a bunch of Iraqis."
Bruno, there was a time when I believed your posts would actually make some connection to reality. The only people who seem to be overjoyed when foreign radicals blow up Iraqis are the so-called "antiwar" types who are determined to bring down the president. After all, it is you who has called for the killings of Iraqis who "betray their country" by collaborating with Americans.
"Saddam welcomed the jihadis into Iraq well before the invasion."
Jihadis, or Al Qaeda?
I know that all Arabs look the same to you, but there is a difference.
To be fair to Josef, C.H., to him it's not so much about bringing down Bush as it about bringing down the imaginary US empire.
_
Josef 'The Bruno' Goebbels: "Jihadis, or Al Qaeda?
I know that all Arabs look the same to you, but there is a difference."
Are you saying all Arabs are Al Qaeda? What a racist d*ck! If this was my blog, I'd ban you!
_
And they came to Iraq to be jihadis, even to fight Amreekans, but it was often the AQ recruiters & facilitators who got ahold of them and gave them their "missions". All part of the "Resistance" anyway, right?
_
"Jihadis, or Al Qaeda?"
Many Arabs saw no difference between the two, even when Al Qaeda was mass murdering Iraqis.
[ch] "The only people who seem to be overjoyed when foreign radicals blow up Iraqis are the so-called "antiwar" types"
Um, no.
American PSYOPS soldiers rejoicing at AQ attacks on Iraqis, just like I said:
"When I was in Fallujah, a prominent Sunni Imam was murdered in his Jolan district mosque by a suicide bomber. "Unfortunately, as tragic as an event that is, it's great for me," Marine reserve Colonel Wally Powers, an information operations officer, told me the next day. "When they [the jihadists] are just attacking us, people are like, 'yeah, whatever.' They don't care. Now they're attacking mosques, too. That pisses people off. Beautiful! We didn't have to do anything!"
http://blog.wired.com/defense/20...ological-
o.html
Although this does beg the question of, what would him 'doing something' entail?
Tragic post by Mohammed today:
http://www.last-of-iraqis.blogspot.com/
Heartbreaking to read about the fear and devastation.
Marcus, that's fucking terrible. That's just really bad.
"I know that all Arabs look the same to you, but there is a difference."
"Are you saying all Arabs are Al Qaeda?"
No, but I will say that you need to study comprehension.
i don't get it
One of Iraq's top Sunni Arab leaders, Harith al Dhari, supported Al Qaeda until AQ started murdering Iraqi Sunni Arabs. He had no problem when AQ was blowing up Iraqi cops and mass murdering Iraqi Shia.
http://www.time.com/time/world/
a...1620607,00.html
"He had no problem when AQ was blowing up Iraqi cops"
Not unlike you, right Bruno?
Still recruiting AQ that blew up Shia and killed Iraqis cops, CH?
Speaking of recruiting for AQ, anybody see this?
http://http//www.nytimes.com/200....html?
ref=world
"Still recruiting AQ that blew up Shia and killed Iraqis cops, CH?"
I am recruiting AQ fighters in Iraq? really? I didn't know that, but who are we to question Bruno, right?
"He had no problem when AQ was blowing up Iraqi cops"
"Not unlike you, right Bruno?"
Then again, who are we to question CH?
http/.com?
Nice one, Mojo.
Thanks, Bruno. The correct link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/2...rld&
oref=slogin
I found that link on Molly's Angry Arab Comments Section blog: http://angryarabscommentsection....n.blogspot.com/
I believe it's where Zeyad found the story for this post: http://angryarabscommentsection....syria-
plan.html
Iraqi police defeating terrorist slime:
http://talismangate.blogspot.com...clash-
near.html
That is good news, Mojo
That story I have come across before, Mojo. But I read the truncated form. It seems that AQ is having problems with women's lib ... :/
I read it too. I must say there's an example of a true Internet terrorist helper. The sort RhusLancia likes to accuse people of being if they have a different opinion than him on the war in Iraq...
"Why it is that EVERY other country in the world with oil reserves on Iraqs level or even with much smaller reserves have CHOSEN to have their oil nationalised."
Not Canada.
"The Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq, headed by Harith al-Dhari, the most important single spokesman for the Sunni resistance, issued a statement today that it introduced as follows: "The long-term agreement with the American occupation will have no weight with the Iraqi people, and the nationalist forces will take it upon themselves to reply to those responsible, and to hold to account those who are involved in it, and without a doubt there will be a new price to pay in the blood of pious martyrs"--but that ends with a call to every anti-occupation segment of Iraqi society to participate in resisting this move, each in whatever way they can."
http://arablinks.blogspot.com/20...let-us-
all.html
So, what we have here are Sistani, Sadr, Dhari strongly rejecting the Security Agreement the US wants. Even Hakim has weighed in with dissatisfaction on parts of it, although he's not exactly one of the Iraqi Nationalists.
Are you listening, warmongers?
Did you hear?
"Not Canada."
OK, taking oil derived from tar sand into account Canada is an exception. And since tar sand oil is no longer considered too expensive to produce I guess it's reasonable to take it into consideration.
The degree of nationalization of the oil industry varies in direct proportion to the difficulty of extraction.
bruno, i check badger a few times a day. an incredibly valuable site. if we had to rely on our lame msm we would know nothing. did you check out the post before the one you posted? snarkly titled A radical Sunni argument against the treaty
A Sunni member of parliament by the name of Omar al-Jabburi .... opposes the proposed treaty with the United States because in order to be sound and binding, an agreement would have to be between two parties each with an independent will, and as long as the American occupation continues, that cannot be said of any Iraqi government.
"Iraq is still a country under occupation, and consequently it is one of those countries that lacks political stability and security, and consequently any pact arrived at in these difficult circumstances will be deemed to be not agreed to. We fear that [any such pact] would have negative effects on the future and on the independence of Iraq." He added, "For us to be sure of the soundness of the security agreement, it would have to be arrived at between two independent wills, and we are convinced that the Iraqi will, under the continuation of the occupation, is not present. And therefore we fear for the good relations [of Iraq] with its Arab and regional environment, as long as such an agreement were to continue".
no wonder nary a mention in the western press! how 'bout the post Basra paper: Secrecy about the contents of the treaty reminds us of 1948
It is worth mentioning that the Iraqi people, up to now, know nothing about the course of these negotiations on an important agreement that could bind Iraq forever, because Iraqi politicians don't think it necessary to inform people about the details of these negotiations, in spite of the fact that this agreement relates exclusively to the land of Iraq, and to the future of the people of Iraq, and not to the future of the political parties and blocs, or to the personalities, that are currently in charge of this matter. Those that are negotiating with the United States are obliged, legally and also morally, to give people the details of what they are doing behind the scenes, so that there isn't a repeat of the famous story of Portsmouth, which was one of the causes of the aggravation of popular resentment against the regime of the monarchy.
this is what people in iraq are saying, as if they matter one iota...
Iraqi police defeating terrorist slime:
nice framing mojo, only considering the propaganda/cleansing campaigns going on against sunnis in mosel i would trust this title as far as i could spit. i think if my people were being rounded up by sectarian peshmerga vying to take over my city i might try to get the hell outta dodge too. don't make em terrorists. the suicide vests story.. yeah right. file that under 'planted rifles next to the warm dead body for a photo op'
don't trust propaganda trolls. this includes you and your source.
i don't trust you, annie the paid TACbot
_
Nobody trusts you or the dogs on your blog either.
At 12:34 AM, Blogger Bruno
While the news is very good news, (congratulations, Omar!) somehow I think it was up to OMAR to publish the news, IF he wanted it published. Why do some people have to pry everywhere?
At 3:00 AM, Blogger RhusLancia
It IS up to Omar to publish the news, Bruno. We are just congratulating him on it.
At 6:34 AM, Blogger Jeffrey
Bruno,
Omar is a JOURNALIST. Live by the sword, die by the sword. I sat on that information far longer than any journalist would have.
At 12:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous
if i am not mistaken you totally outed both Omar and BT on your site when you posted. really, i was initially so astounded i didn't know what to say (imagine me, speechless!). don't you know their families in iraq could be at risk? maybe their is a REASON they post anonymously. oh well, i know you know that. i guess you don't care. i hope nothing bad comes of it.
annie
"only considering the propaganda/cleansing campaigns going on against sunnis in mosel i would trust this title as far as i could spit."
annie, I'm willing to bet the local cops who defended themselves against the terrorist slime are Sunni Arab. It doesn't surprise me that you think it's propaganda.
At 7:46 PM, Blogger Jeffrey
Both Bassam Sebti and Omar Fekeiki have let their real names and even photos of themselves be used on major news outlets with far more reach than IBC. This is stupid.
At 11:22 PM, Anonymous Anonymous
Jeffrey I just did a google search and could find nothing where BT or 24 Steps used their real names and identified themselves to their blogs. You are an incredible douche bag. Get a life you fuckin loser.
At 4:25 AM, Blogger Bruno
I agree with Anonymous. Jeffrey should get a life. Khalid once remarked that he wouldn't be surprised to find Jeffrey hiding behind the pot plants, trying to get a second of his attention. I wouldn't be surprised to find Jeffrey rummaging through the rubbish bags the Iraqi bloggers throw out, like a common bum, in the hopes of finding a personal scrap of information or item.
It's all a big game to him, and he evidently doesn't care that these people and their families can come to serious harm through his actions.
No wonder he's been banned by half the Iraqi blogosphere already.
At 6:54 AM, Anonymous Anonymous
I just did a google search and could find nothing where BT or 24 Steps used their real names and identified themselves to their blogs.
no brainer
are you listening PBC (psyops bloggers central)??? you can play dumb or be responsible and delete the outting.
annie
At 8:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous
It's an arrogant American sense of entitlement the savages over at IBC think that they have the right to out anyone that they wish. Neither BT or 24 have ever publicly stated using their own names that they run these blogs, obviously, because this is the place where they can rant pretty anonymously about Iraq. Yet the IBC bitches think that they are entitled to private information about Iraq bloggers that Iraq bloggers did not even post on their own blog. Didn't Jeffrey do the same thing to Zeyad from Healing Iraq? I remember some brouhaha over the fact that Jeffrey contacted Zeyad's professor and asked what his immigration status in the country was. Does anyone know what the hell is wrong with that man? It's sick.
At 6:34 AM, Blogger Jeffrey
Bruno,
Omar is a JOURNALIST. Live by the sword, die by the sword. I sat on that information far longer than any journalist would have.
Anonymous is right, Shoester is a douche bag with no life. And so are all the faggots that post on his silly gossip coloumn.
Why am I not surprised that annie doesn't believe this story?
Iraqi troops kill 11 suspected Qaeda fighters
5 hours ago
MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) — Iraqi security forces shot dead at least 11 suspected Al-Qaeda operatives who were hiding in a sheep truck near the northern city of Tikrit on Friday, the defence ministry said.
The men were killed in fighting at a checkpoint between ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and Baiji, ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari said.
"Members of the Iraqi special forces intercepted a truck transporting animals, but there were 11 Al-Qaeda fighters hiding in it," Askari told AFP, adding that one of the men was a foreigner from an unidentified Arab nation.
Askari said the truck was believed to be fleeing the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where the Iraqi army has been conducting a large-scale crackdown on Al-Qaeda since May 14.
In a separate incident in Tikrit, the US military said its troops shot dead a suspected Al-Qaeda weapons dealer and detained another man.
On Thursday, 15 suspected Al-Qaeda members were gunned down in the same region by a militia group loyal to the government.
Askari said a senior Al-Qaeda member was also arrested in Mosul on Friday and a haul of weapons, ammunition and bombs had been seized.
"Iraqi forces arrested the notable terrorist Usama Khalil Ibraheem al-Ahtabi in a house early on Friday morning, in the Al-Kalak region. This terrorist is one of the most important targets we have been chasing," Askari said.
In other violence, six people were killed in the restive province of Diyala north of Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
"A mortar attack took place on a house this morning, killing three women and wounding two members of the same family," said a police officer from Jalawla, east of Baquba.
"This attack targeted Jalawla police station in the heart of the village, which is close to the victim's house," said the officer, who requested anonymity.
In other incidents in the province, two roadside bombs killed a man and a child while unidentified gunmen shot dead a member of a US-backed anti-Al-Qaeda group.
http://afp.google.com/article/
AL...GTM6zErvDD4iMGA
Anonymous is right, Shoester is a douche bag with no life. And so are all the faggots that post on his silly gossip coloumn.
fuck u Rhus | 05.30.08 - 12:05 pm | #
@ all I am thinking of creating a new Iraqi blog called "Read Me Before Starting Your New Iraqi Blog" and have it utilized as a warning to all Iraqi bloggers over the dangers of befriending the dogs at IBC central.
Those savages are hostile to every single Iraqi that does not follow their sick views on the war. At first the loser Jeffrey (it appears his life is the most pathetic so he has more time than the rest, RhuslanCIA comes in 2nd) will go to the new blog and "welcome" them to the community because these ignorant Americans think they "own" the internet and that they have the role to "welcome" new Iraq blogs/ers. Then they begin to closely monitor all communications of that blogger and as soon as that blogger says that they dont like war and occupation that homosexuals from IBC turn against them and start attacking.
Lets count
They did this to
Omar
Bassam
Zeyad
Abbas
BlogIraq
Who else?
Thanks to Allah that most Iraqi blogers are seeing through this and banning those pigs.
You forgot what they did to Raed Jarrar, he had to take a restraining order against Shuscter because he was watching everything that he did and making threats. Eventually Schuster was forced to go to therapy to get over his twisted obsessions but I dont think it helped much as he did not learn a lesson look at him he is still doing the same thing.
Oh, the MICE are scurrying around today!
Hello, fellas!
*squeak squeak squeak*
Yeah, I could probably do that.
*squeak squeak squeak*
Oh, two more for the other guys? Okay, that's THREE Iraqi Bloggers Central coffee mugs. Anything else?
*squeak squeak*
What size?
*squeak*
Super-Tiny? Is that a size?
*squeak*
Okay, okay. Let me check on that. Hey, anything for OUR FANS, Not.
*
Russian oil production has started to decline.
Zeyad is not Italian.
Pete, maybe you meant "saddled" rather than "straddled"?
And now I gotta go mow grass. See ya.
I'm not sure what you were commenting on Lynnette with "Russian oil production has started to decline" but I'd like to questiion it.
Because in the "US Department Of Energy, International Energy Outlook 2007, table G2" the claim is that the actual Russian oil production in 2005 was 9,5 mbd and the projected production for 2030 is 10,7 mbd. Not a major increase over so many years but no decrease.
Do you suggest this is incorrect? In that case, what is your source?
(When you said you had to go "mow grass", did you perhaps mean graze? )
If she had meant inhale, it might have helped stem some of her 'blood lust'?
I gather from my investigation that young Zeyad posts on Holoscan as An Italian and Realist. Sad stuff Zeyad, you act like you posses a superior philosophy, but the must ugly and hatful rants come from you. You have such ugliness on the inside and phony compassion on the outside. What a joke.
Tom | | 05.29.08 - 10:20 am | #
Then
Zeyad is not Italian.
Lynnette in Minnesota | | 05.30.08 - 3:57 pm | #
Does that mean Zeyad is Realist?
Of course not. Indigo is Realist! Anyone that confused has to be schizoid.
Rhus: "i don't trust you, annie the paid TACbot"
Just out of curiosity, paid by whom?
Jeffrey really is such a prick.
I think the idea of the "Read Me Before Starting Your New Iraqi Blog" blog is a GREAT idea.
Jeffrey's bunch have no compunction about posting and disseminating information that could easily bring harm to Iraqi bloggers and their families.
Iraq is not nice, safe, America. It's a war zone. There can be very real consequences for the bloggers. It seems as though these 'IBC' war pigs would derive real Schadenfreude from seeing something happen to the Iraqi bloggers they don't like.
Idiots.
"Thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr protested Friday in Shiite enclaves across Iraq against plans for a long-term security pact that would allow for an extended U.S. military presence in the country."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp...8053000502.html
Question: where are the thousands of Iraqis demonstrating for the US NOT to leave? Awfully scarce, those.
US BRIBES IRAQI MP's:
"Sources in Iraq's parliament told Press TV on Thursday that Washington has offered three-million dollars in bribe to the lawmakers who sign the "framework accord." Under the agreement, the US would be allowed to set up at least 13 permanent military bases in Iraq and US citizens would be granted immunity from legal prosecution."
http://www.presstv.ir/
Detail.asp...ionid=351020201
American war crimes in action:
""More than ten times the amount of radiation released during atmospheric testing [of nuclear bombs] has been released from DU weaponry since 1991," said Leuren Moret, a U.S. nuclear scientist. "The genetic future of the Iraqi people, for the most part, is destroyed. The environment now is completely radioactive." Because DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the Middle East will, for all practical purposes, be radioactive forever."
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m44484&s1=h1
But its not even limited to Iraqis. US servicemen are also paying a hefty price, even though they have medical care.
Iraqis, however, can take solace from the perpetrators of this crime telling them that the problem doesn't exist. If they're lucky, Rhus might issue a note of condolence, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Here is an interesting site:
It is a Brazilian cartoonist drawing cartoons on the Iraq war:
http://tales-of-iraq-war.blogspot.com/
Bruno,
It's truly amazing. You still have a hard-on for Muqty.
*
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Marcus,
Do you suggest this is incorrect? In that case, what is your source?
It was something I read in a Wall Street Journal article regarding why oil supplies may not be sufficient. Unfortunately I left that copy at work so I can't cite the proper article. If you have a copy I think it was in either Wednesdays or Thursdays. Otherwise I will try to look it up Monday.
When you said you had to go "mow grass", did you perhaps mean graze?)
Ahhh, wouldn't that have been "moo" the grass?
Huh,
Does that mean Zeyad is Realist?
No, it means Italian is Realist.
Zeyad,
Lt. Col.(Ret.) Nathan Sassaman has published a book, "Warrior King". You may want to read it. Or you may want to just skip to the end where he talks about what happened with Zaydoon.
Rhus: "i don't trust you, annie the paid TACbot"
Just out of curiosity, paid by whom?
good question jarn. i keep asking him that because i would naturally love to get paid for what i do for free. i have yet to find any corporate or government entity to pay for bloggers on the left. naturally he doesn't answer me. as for the rightwing trolls, heck, our taxes pay for them, or there's always megaphone, run out of the israeli foreign ministry, or many corporate entities who salivate and get richer every time one of out helicopters crashes they hear the chaching of government appropriation contracts.
Jeffrey's bunch have no compunction about posting and disseminating information that could easily bring harm to Iraqi bloggers and their families.
they get to haul out the crocodile tears when one of them dies. bwaaaah, the 'we didn't agree w/everything but i respected him..bwwwaahahaha.' it is worth an iraqi death for a sympathy nod to daddy warbucks.
Under the agreement, the US would be allowed to set up at least 13 permanent military bases in Iraq and US citizens would be granted immunity from legal prosecution."
i think this may be 387 bases off bruno.
Political and religious currents came together yesterday in rejection of the proposed Iraq-US treaty, considering it "an infringement on sovereignty" and "binding future generations"; and observers stressed that the latest version includes text relating to the establishment of 400 locations and bases [for the American forces], exemption [from Iraqi legal process] for American soldiers and citizens, and elimination of any responsibility [on the American side] for participation in the rebuilding of Iraq.
badger citing al hayat.
here's more from the post
Moreover, according to a SupremeCouncil website, another cleric in the Sistani group, Sheikh Sadreddin Qubanji, said in his Friday sermon at a major Najaf place of worship that the people reject any agreement that doesn't protect the complete sovereignty and interests of Iraq.
shocking
"However, he stressed that this rejection does not go to the root of the agreement, as is being propagated in channels of communication outside of Iraq to the effect that this is the selling of Iraq to America....The Imam urged those in authority in Iraq and outside of Iraq to study the agreement carefully, and to respect the views of Iraqis, and not to launch emotional images and generalities against them, and to be objective in disussions of this matter.
it is a long post, worth reading many parts
Another point that calls out for comment this morning is that the Bush administration and the right generally do not appear to have a strategy for dealing with the problem of having this in the spotlight. For instance, last Tuesday it was reported that US officials were telling Iraqi authorities to hurry up and reply to charges (in Nasrullah's speech) that the GZ politcal process is a sham, and to assert that it is purely Iraqi and that the politicians are completely autonomous.
haha i remember that article, the absurdity of the US demanding the iraqi government to announce how sovereign they were.. right.
also bruno, you notice how the PBC (psycobloggerscent guys, hey maybe we should call them psycobabblecentral?, ha) don't respond to the arab press posts... hmm. out of their league i presume.
The Dec07 resolution which prolonged the occupation to the end of 2008 according to the Security Council's press office:
Recognizing the request from Iraq, the Security Council today decided to extend the mandate of the multinational force in that country -- “for the last time”, according to its Permanent Representative -- until 31 December 2008.
Acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 1790 (2007), deciding further that the mandate would be reviewed at the request of the Government of Iraq or no later than 15 June 2008.
hmmm.. time is ticking, no? and iraqis don't seem to be in any hurry to sign up...as another blogger puts it..
There is a real bind here. Bush/McCain need to point to a peaceful Iraq where the Iraqi forces have everything under control to have a chance to get another republican presidency. But the same picture makes a prolongation of the UN sanctioned current status of forces impossible.
Without a UN mandate and without a SOFA agreement U.S. forces in Iraq are illegal.
So unlike what Crooker tries to imply, that "Iraq were unable to exit from Clause 7", is not the problem - at least not for Iraqis. The problem is that any UN legal authority for U.S. forces in Iraq would run out and that on January 1 2009 the U.S. forces in Iraq would be just another rogue militia.
they are already just another rouge militia as far as i am concerned. as long as no iraqi law impacts their actions, what is the difference. maybe they will get more slaps on the wrists for deleting photos of iraqis slaughtered. well, not if they were killed by the 'terrorists', only their own trophy shots.
Lt. Col.(Ret.) Nathan Sassaman has published a book, "Warrior King". You may want to read it. Or you may want to just skip to the end where he talks about what happened with Zaydoon.
you mean zaydoon's murder? pushing propaganda? is he donating the proceeds to the victims? a review
Lt. Col.(Ret.) Nathan Sassaman has published a book, "Warrior King". You may want to read it. Or you may want to just skip to the end where he talks about what happened with Zaydoon.
Oh yeah, I'm so interested in reading what this criminal says about how he covered up the crime of his unit and how they were all let off the hook by the US military. I would sooner read Mein Kampf.
Zeyad, Zaydoon is your cousin that was murdered in cold blood by the filthy American occupation regime that the filthy slut Lynnette defends on a daily basis all over the internet?
"As a result of this information, I made a poor hasty decision to have everyone involved just talk about dropping the Iraqis off on the road...I have made hundreds of decisions out herein combat. In all cases I know I made the right call - but in this instance, I did not. I do not excuse the behavior of those involved in having the Iraqis jump into the water - it was an act of stupidity, but no one drowned. I also do not excuse my decision. I should have conducted a formal commander's inquiry...I wish I could have a're-do' on this part. So I take full responsibility for what has happened since the incident."
Is this what you want me to read, Lynnette? Are you serious? Why do you bring this up at this time? Why do you want to antagonise me more, as if your comments elsewhere have not been enough? Imagine if I tried to whitewash a criminal who had killed a family member of yours and who showed no remorse. What would you think of me? I ask you to leave this blog and not show your face here again.
Zeyad,
"Oh yeah, I'm so interested in reading what this criminal says about how he covered up the crime of his unit and how they were all let off the hook by the US military. I would sooner read Mein Kampf."
Well said. How could you read a book written by this criminal....It would be too painful.... after all Zaydoon was your cousin. Buying this book would contribute to filling the criminal's pockets with money he does not deserve. My thoughts are with you and all of Zaydoon's family, they do not deserve more suffering. May Zaydoon rest in peace and his murderers rot in hell.
Here's an article on the "security agrement":
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/3...ial&
oref=slogin
One thing that kind of surprised me was this:
“We think that this agreement will guarantee the rights of Iraq and the United States,” said Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leader of Tawafiq, the largest Sunni political bloc. “If the American forces withdraw from Iraq before the right time, a state of chaos and civil war will ensue.”
Appparantly some factions who previously fiercely opposed the precense of foreign troops now feel a need for them to stay for protection.
This COULD from one viewpoint be seen as a positive sign.
Our warmongers will tell us that it means the "insurgency has seen the light" and so on.
However, it also could mean that the internal Iraqi war is so serious that one faction is prepareed to ally itself with its former mortal enemy for temporary protection. If this is the case it does not bode well for true reconciliation.
Zeyad, are Zaydoon's immediate family members okay?
I am very sorry about what happened. I know that no words I can write can give you or his family any comfort.
Zaydoon is back home . . . back to his eternal home. A place of limitless joy and peace. But even that gives little comfort for the many he has left behind . . . who miss his company.
I wish we could bring him back . . . but we can't. Zaydoon must have been a great guy. We can tell from the way you obviously loved him and are saddened by his passing. I would love to learn a little more about Zaydoon. What he was like . . . what your interactions with him were like. But I'll understand if your grief is still too raw, if it is still too soon to talk about it.
Anand you filthy disgusting Indian go shove your condolences up your ass you ignorant Indian. Do you really think our host would sit here and tell you and all the filthy warmongering American slime that visit his blog quaint stories about his cousin that was massacred in a war that you and your filthy friends support and applaud? You ignorant cow fucking Indian blow job.
And I saw your comments over at Konfused Kid you know which comments I am talking about ?? The ones where you suck on Hitler's Aryan cock and talk about how wonderful and prosperous Germany was under his reign. In case you were unaware because you were too busy worshipping rats and cows I will have you know that Iraqis enjoyed better lives than many of their neighbors in the Mideast before the filthy disgusting country whose cock you suck destroyed that nation with wars and sanctions. So think about that next time you are shoving rats up your ass and praying to your pagan half cow and rat female goddesses you filthy pig.
In case you were unaware because you were too busy worshipping rats and cows I will have you know that Iraqis enjoyed better lives than many of their neighbors in the Mideast before the filthy disgusting country whose cock you suck destroyed that nation with wars and sanctions. So think about that next time you are shoving rats up your ass and praying to your pagan half cow and rat female goddesses you filthy pig.
@ Zeyad, 05.31.08 - 6:26 pm.
Thanks be to God, dear Zeyad !!!
At last, you did what was sorely needed re: this revolting beast Lynnette.
Now, put a final stop to this reptile 'anand', which is of incredible grotesqueness, and to the criminal rats' gang from IBC, to 'C.H.', and to the anti-Iraqi American 'Mojo'.
Do set some limits to the barbarousness of these corrupt animals, please.
A big hug,
Zeyad,
Did IraqSlogger work out an H-1 visa for you?
*
Oh Zeyad please do answer our dear Jeffrey as quickly as humanly possible since we all know that he lives, works, dreams and breathes gossip about Iraqi bloggers 24 hours a day and 7 days a week because he has no life of his own and can't stand his obnoxious mail order bride's accent so he spends as little as possible time with her as he possibly can. Also his work at a cut rate trash "school" isn't fulfilling at all since he isn't a "real" teacher. So please do answer him or he will be dying with anticipation and probably beat his woman tonight. Poor fuckin chink.
Hi Jeffrey
The boys over at BT and 24 Steps never asked to be outed by you. Do you think Yee would mind being outed as to her place of work, etc.?
Zeyad,
Did IraqSlogger work out an H-1 visa for you?
*
Jeffrey -- New York | Homepage | 05.31.08 - 10:46 pm | #
Only in the American Parallel Universe (APU) can this dog Jeffrey think that Zeyad would degrade himself to speak to him.
Isn't the general consensus that Jeffrey is a son of a bitch? Didn't that cock sucking faggot just state that he outed (on purpose) BT and 24STL's identities even those their wish was to continue blogging anonymously merely because he didn't like their attitudes or politics?
LOL you are a cock sucking faggot Jeffrey and if I lived in your country I would take you up on your offer to meet and then I would beat your ass to a bloody pulp. And we both know that you wouldn't be able to fight back because you are a little faggot ass bitch.
US Paying Allies to Fight War in Iraq
The tale of massive fraud and embezzlement of millions of dollars by the US military in its operations in Iraq continues. Testifying before the US Congress Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on 22 May, Mary Ugone, deputy inspector general of accounts in the Pentagon said that an audit of $8.2 billion spending related to the Iraq war showed that $7.8 billion had been improperly spent.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.c...how/
3087326.cms
'US Bribing Iraqi MPs To Sign Deal' Sources in Iraq's parliament told Press TV on Thursday that Washington has offered three-million dollars in bribe to the lawmakers who sign the "framework accord."
http://www.presstv.ir/
Detail.asp...ionid=351020201
Sadrists Want Referendum on U.S.-Iraq Pact
Widespread opposition to the deal has raised doubts that negotiators can meet a July target to finalize a pact to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after the current U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.
http://www.newsmax.com/internati...?
utm_medium=RSS
*squeak squeak squeak*
*squeak squeak*
*squeak squeak squeak squeak*
Hey, you guys, time for bed.
*squeak squeak squeak*
Not tonight. No bedtime stories.
Night, boys.
*squeak*
*squeak*
*squeak*
*
US chopper shot down in Afghanistan Taliban in Afghanistan on Thursday claimed to have shot down a chopper of a United States private security company, Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), in the restive province of Khost.
http://paktribune.com/news/index...ex.shtml?
201133
Shiites in Iraq protest US occupation, answering al-Sadr's call
Demonstrators in Baghdad's Sadr City district chanted "no to America, no to the occupation." A statement from al-Sadr's office has called the negotiations "a project of humiliation for the Iraqi people."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2...aq-
Protests.php
Shiite clerics step up opposition to security deal
New waves of dispute have risen between Iraqi political forces in Baghdad as the Iraqi and US authorities aim to reach a long-term strategy by July 31.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/I...q/
10217144.html
Pentagon fires Khadr judge
The U.S. Pentagon abruptly replaced the military judge in the Omar Khadr case yesterday after he chastised the prosecution at a recent Guantanamo Bay hearing.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news....html?
id=549763
Government Spying On US Muslims
A report that mosques in Los Angeles and San Diego are under federal surveillance has resurrected fears in the Muslim community about government monitoring and led two civil rights groups Wednesday to call for congressional hearings.
http://www.latimes.com/news/
loca...0,5084366.story
US men face court over 'terrorism-aligned TV'
Two men in the United States have been sent to trial accused of agreeing to broadcast the Hezbollah television channel in Lebanon to US customers.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stori...?
section=justin
Real News Video: Iraqi clerics against US bases
"The Bush administration will have a hard time extracting a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) from the government in Baghdad – indefinitely stationing US military troops in the country just as in Japan and South Korea. Muqtada al-Sadr wants any agreement to be submitted to a national referendum. Grand Ayatollah Sistani has recently been visited by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Najaf. And he practically ordered Maliki to call a national referendum. Now Ayatollah Kazim al-Haeri – the 5th grand Ayatollah of Iraq - has issued a fatwa against the agreement."
http://therealnews.com/t/index.p...31+09%3A38%
3A05
Mother who defied the killers is gunned down
Five weeks ago Leila Hussein told The Observer the chilling story of how her husband had killed their 17-year-old daughter over her friendship with a British soldier in Basra. Now Leila, who had been in hiding, has been murdered - gunned down in cold blood. Afif Sarhan in Basra and Caroline Davies report on the final act of a brutal tragedy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/...&
feed=worldnews
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb....ment&RSS20=02-
P
Girls denied education
Parents concerned about militia violence are pulling their daughters out of school.
Me: "i don't trust you, annie the paid TACbot"
jarn: "Just out of curiosity, paid by whom?"
Beats me! She's convinced I'm paid, so I like to pretend I'm convinced she is paid. Like she says, she isn't, but gladly would be if she could find someone to pay her!!
Ooo- but, late breaking news: today I was with my son at Chuck E. Cheese's for a birthday party. Do you know it? The mascot is a giant mouse. So, they have a big animatronic mouse set up there. I couldn't hear it ever say anything, but it was moving constantly in nonsensical ways. Twisting it's arms, turning side to side, nodding, looking around, etc. The kids seemed to think it was kinda creepy. All ignored it as far as I could tell.
It inspired me to revise my handle for annie:
The Anniematronic TACbot
Do you like it?
Hey Jarn, maybe AQ is hiring? They have so many vacancies lately. I think she should get a job with them. It would be the final blow against them.
Bomb Haters, Unite!
Here is a bit of good news that should put a smile on the faces of the would-be victims of these weapons i.e. you and me. On 28th May 2008, in Oslo, Norway, more than 100 governments have agreed on a draft convention to ban cluster bombs. The agreement outlaws the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of this weapon. It also entails a commitment to remove cluster bombs from national arsenals within eight years and to provide for the welfare of the victims of cluster bombs. 111 states are expected to approve the draft text on Friday the 29th May, the final day of the conference. It will be signed in December in Oslo.
The bad news; just like in the landmine treaty of 1997, the biggest producers/inventory holders/users/likely users of cluster bombs the United States, Israel, China, Russia, India and yes the land of the pure Pakistan are among the chief opponents of the treaty making it unclear what effect it will have once it comes into power.
Bomb haters, unite!
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m4450...&hd=&size=1&
l=e
Australia withdraws troops from Iraq
NASIRIYAH, Iraq (AFP) - The 550-strong Australian contingent in Iraq withdrew from its bases in the south of the country on Sunday as most of the troops prepared to head home, Iraqi and Australian officials said.
Australia has offered permanent residence status to hundreds of Iraqi employees who worked with the Australian troops.
Immigration officials would travel to Iraq and neighbouring nations to process applications from Iraqi employees of the military, the Australian government said last month.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
2008...ry_080601125825
dumpster diving rhus? what your posts lack in bite (ouch/not), they make up in smiley faces. side kicks feign solidarity.. blaaaboring.
zat all ya got??
limpdik
Um Ayad, another nick in the psyops multi meme.
rhus so I like to pretend
finally, an honest statement from the king of limp.
@ Um Ayad | 06.01.08 - 9:16 am
Good for Australia- that's the right thing to do to help their Iraqi friends.
_
The Iraqi Upturn
THERE'S BEEN a relative lull in news coverage and debate about Iraq in recent weeks -- which is odd, because May could turn out to have been one of the most important months of the war. While Washington's attention has been fixed elsewhere, military analysts have watched with astonishment as the Iraqi government and army have gained control for the first time of the port city of Basra and the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, routing the Shiite militias that have ruled them for years and sending key militants scurrying to Iran. At the same time, Iraqi and U.S. forces have pushed forward with a long-promised offensive in Mosul, the last urban refuge of al-Qaeda. So many of its leaders have now been captured or killed that U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, renowned for his cautious assessments, said that the terrorists have "never been closer to defeat than they are now."
That's good for Iraq, Iraqis, and the US, right? I wonder who it's bad news for? Sound off, TAC!
_
Robert Fisk: So al-Qa'ida's defeated, eh? Go tell it to the marines
Last week the head of the CIA claimed it was winning the battle. Nonsense, argues Robert Fisk. The extremists in the Middle East are growing stronger.
So al-Qa'ida is "almost defeated", is it? Major gains against al-Qa'ida. Essentially defeated. "On balance, we are doing pretty well," the CIA's boss, Michael Hayden, tells The Washington Post. "Near strategic defeat of al-Qa'ida in Iraq. Near strategic defeat for al-Qa'ida in Saudi Arabia. Significant setbacks for al-Qa'ida globally – and here I'm going to use the word 'ideologically' – as a lot of the Islamic world pushes back on their form of Islam." Well, you could have fooled me.
Six thousand dead in Afghanistan, tens of thousands dead in Iraq, a suicide bombing a day in Mesopotamia, the highest level of suicides ever in the US military – the Arab press wisely ran this story head to head with Hayden's boasts – and permanent US bases in Iraq after 31 December. And we've won?
Less than two years ago, we had an equally insane assessment of the war when General Peter Pace, the weird (and now mercifully retired) chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said of the American war in Iraq that "we are not winning but we are not losing". At which point, George Bush's Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, said he agreed with Pace that "we are not winning but we are not losing".
James Baker, who had just produced his own messy report on Iraq then said – reader, please do not laugh or cry – "I don't think you can say we're losing. By the same token, I'm not sure we're winning." Then Bush himself proclaimed, "We're not winning; we're not losing." Pity about the Iraqis. But anyway, now we really, really are winning. Or at least al-Qa'ida is "almost" – note the "almost", folks – defeated. So Mike Hayden tells us.
Am I alone in finding this stuff infantile to the point of madness? As long as there is injustice in the Middle East, al-Qa'ida will win. As long as we have 22 times as many Western forces in the Muslim world as we did at the time of the Crusades – my calculations are pretty accurate – we are going to be at war with Muslims. The hell-disaster of the Middle East is now spread across Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, even Lebanon. And we are winning?
Yes, we've bought ourselves some time in Iraq by paying half of the insurgents to fight for us and to murder their al-Qa'ida cousins. Yes, we are continuing to prop up Saudi Arabia's head-chopping and torture-practising regime – no problem there, I suppose, after our enthusiasm for "water-boarding" – but this does not mean that al-Qa'ida is defeated.
Because al-Qa'ida is a way of thinking, not an army. It feeds on pain and fear and cruelty – our cruelty and oppression – and as long as we continue to dominate the Muslim world with our Apache helicopters and our tanks and our Humvees and our artillery and bombs and our "friendly" dictators, so will al-Qa'ida continue.
Must we live this madness through to the very end of the Bush regime in Washington? Is there no one in that magnificent, imperial city who understands what "we" are doing out here in the Middle East? Why on earth does The Washington Post even give room to the fantasies of a functionary from the CIA, the very organisation that failed to prevent 9/11 because – if we are to believe what we are told – a phone call in Arabic about crashing planes into the twin towers hadn't been translated in time? Are we going to bomb Iran? Is this what we are waiting for now? Or is it to be another proxy Iranian-American war in Lebanon, fought out by Hizbollah and the Israelis? And does Mike believe al-Qa'ida is in Iran?
Israel continues to build settlements for Jews – and Jews only – on Arab land. And Washington does nothing. Illegal though these settlements are, George Bush goes along with it. They fuel anger and frustration and a righteous sense of grievance – and Washington will not prevent this outrage from continuing. I open my Arab papers each morning to find new reasons why the Bin Ladens of this world will not go away.
Take the story that came out of Gaza this week. Eight Palestinian students won grants from the Fulbright scholarship programme to study in the United States. You'd think, wouldn't you, that it was in the interest of America to bring these young Muslim people to the land of the free. But no. Israel won't let them leave Gaza. It's all part of the "war on terror" which Israel claims it is fighting alongside America. So the US State Department has cancelled the scholarships. No, it's not worth turning yourself into an al-Qa'ida suicide bomber for such a nonsense. But it would be difficult to find anything meaner, pettier, more vicious than this in yesterday's papers.
Does Mike Hayden read this stuff? Or is he, like most of Washington, so frightened of Israel that he wouldn't say boo to a goose? Doesn't the CIA realise – or imagine – that as long as we allow the Middle East to fester under a cloak of injustice, al-Qa'ida will continue? Why are our forces – and this is a question I was asked in Baghdad – in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria (yes, US special forces have a base near Tamanraset), Bahrain, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Tajikistan? (Yes again, French bomber pilots are based at Dushanbe to fly "close air support" for our lads in Afghanistan.)
And as long as we have stretched this iron curtain across the Middle East, we will be at war and al-Qa'ida will be at war with us. This new iron curtain, by the way, starts up in Greenland and stretches down through Britain and Germany, through Bosnia and Greece to Turkey. What is it for? What's on the other side? Russia. China. India.
These are questions we do not ask; certainly they're not the kind of questions that The Washington Post would dare to put to Mike and his chums at the CIA. Yes, we huff and we puff about democracy and freedom and human rights, though we give little enough of them to the Muslim world. For the kind of freedom they want – the kind of freedom that allows outfits like al-Qa'ida to flourish – is freedom from "us". And this, I fear, we do not intend to give them.
Mike Hayman may think the Muslim world is "pushing back" al-Qa'ida's "form of Islam", but I doubt it. Indeed, I rather suspect al-Qa'ida is growing stronger. Mike says they're defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. But are they defeated in London? And Bali? And in New York and Washington?
http://www.independent.co.uk/new...nes-
837843.html
Zeyad,
Is this what you want me to read, Lynnette?
No, that is not the portion I meant for you to read. Look further.
Are you serious?
Quite.
I ask you to leave this blog and not show your face here again.
As you please.
What would you think of me?
Now you will never know, will you?
Bye, Zeyad.
Dear host, I hope you don't this link about Palestine but I just came across this video and thought that the American Jarab scum should watch their beloved Jewish