If there’s a man writing for a British newspaper today who is more arrogant, stupid and ignorant than David Aaronovitch, his name must be John Rentoul.
Latest Updates: iraq war RSS
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thabet
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thabet
Stephen Walt thinks Tony Blair’s appearance at the Chilcot inquiry vindicates the basis of the book he co-authored with John Mearsheimer, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.
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johnpi
Blair plays the ‘9/11, get out of jail free card’ that has worked so well for criminals formerly in government on this side of the Atlantic.
An unrepentant Tony Blair defended his decision to join the United States in attacking Iraq, arguing Friday before a panel investigating the war that the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks made the threat of weapons of mass destruction impossible to ignore.
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thabet
Why was Iraq important to the UK?
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johnpi
Plight of contractor raped in Iraq spurs push in Congress.
Under a proposal before Congress, the federal government would not be able to do business with companies with $1 million or more in contracts that require the people they hire to agree to arbitration for claims of assault, false imprisonment or emotional distress. The proposal was prompted by the plight of a woman who worked for KBR in Iraq who couldn’t seek restitution in court after fellow contractors raped her.
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johnpi
CNN feature story on the increase in child marriages in Iraq.
Parents have responded to instability and security fears by attempting to marry off their daughters earlier to husbands who they feel will be better able to protect them.
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johnpi
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johnpi
Women fight new battle in Iraq’s restive corner.
In what was once one of Iraq’s deadliest areas, women who survived sectarian carnage and insurgency now fight a new battle to feed families whose menfolk have been killed, jailed or left jobless.
Violence has abated in the past 18 months in the infamous “Triangle of Death” hotbed of insurgent activity near Baghdad, but years of daily attacks in rural towns like Latifiya have killed scores of men and left the rest in prison or unemployed.
….Cultural norms mean that few among the town’s mostly illiterate menfolk have opted to help their women in the fields.
“There is no way to change our lifestyle. This is our fate,” said Um Sajad, 35, whose blistered palms reflect long hours on the farm. Her husband has given up hope of finding a job.
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johnpi
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told Fox News she had learned the dead shooter was scheduled for deployment to Iraq, and “I think that there was some measure of being upset about that.”
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thabet
Tony Blair told he has ‘blood on his hands’ by father of a dead soldier:
[...]
The snub came at a reception held after the memorial in St. Paul’s Cathedral, where the archbishop of Canterbury criticised policymakers for failing to properly consider the human cost of the Iraq war.
Peter Brierley, whose 28-year-old son Shaun died in March 2003, refused to shake Blair’s hand when he offered it, telling the ex premier: “I’m not shaking your hand, you’ve got blood on it.”Blair was ushered away, but afterwards Brierley said: “I understand soldiers go to war and die but they have to go to war for a good reason and be properly equipped to fight.
“I believe Tony Blair is a war criminal. I can’t bear to be in the same room as him. I can’t believe he’s been allowed to come to this reception,” he added after the reception at the Guildhall in central London.
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buzz
Osama Bin Laden poked his head out of his cave again this fall indicating atleast 6 more months of Jihad. However, he also indicated there was a path towards truce: Screw Israel.
I’m on board.
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thabet
Sticking with the Iraq War, Con(man) Coughlin says:
I’ve been sceptical about what yet another inquiry into the Iraq war might achieve…
The reason Coughlin is sceptical is because he is well-known conduit for the lies that were fed to the public in the run up to the war. Any inquiry which reminds the public of the lies that Coughlin promoted has to bad for his ‘journalistic’ credentials.
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thabet
Some shocking statistics from the Iraqi government on the impact of the US-led invasion on the country:
1. One million widowed Iraqi women (according to Iraqi Ministry of Women Affairs).
2. Four million orphaned Iraqi children (according to estimates by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning).
3. Two and a half million (2,500,000) Iraqis killed (according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Forensic Medicine).
4. 800,000 Iraqis have disappeared in secret holding places connected with the different ruling parties (according to registered complaints at the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior).
The numbers of Iraqis killed since or due to the 2003 invasion became part of the political football over the Iraq invasion in the UK and US, especially due to the ‘controversial’ Lancet studies. I am sceptical of headline figures like ‘1 million killed’ that have been extracted from numerous studies (anti-war campaigners did a disservice to the studies with such abuse of the work). The emphasis of the studies was to show if the invasion of Iraq had made things better or worse; the general conclusion was that things had become a lot worse. I don’t know how robust the figures cited above are, but they can only add to the general sense the Iraq invasion was a disaster.
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johnpi
ABC affiliate right-wing hate radio station host Lee Rodgers wants to “massacre all Iraqis” if they give the US any trouble.
Lee Rodgers on the Iraq people. “You people do what ever you want to each other and this country just don’t give us a reason to come back or we’ll massacre every last damn one of you.”
Spocko’s suggested letters to the show’s advertisers:
Dear Bay Area BMW. Are you aware you are sponsoring someone who is calling for America to massacre the Iraqi people? If you don’t want to support this serious suggestion of genocide, please stop advertising on KSFO.
Dear Bay Area Mercedes dealers. Will you sell a car to an Iraqi? Or do you, like Lee Rodgers, want to kill all of them? It seems bad for business to call for all of your future Iraqi customers to be massacred. Please advise me of your views on massacring Iraqis. Are you for or against it?
If you don’t want to support serious suggestions of genocide, please stop advertising on KSFO.
Dear Toyota Repair Centers. Would you print an ad in a paper saying, “Toyota supports the future massacre of every last damn Iraqi. We sponsor Lee Rodgers, the KSFO host who said that. Come and get your car tuned up! Iraqis need not schedule an appointment.”
If you won’t do that with a print ad, then why do you do it with your radio ads?
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plimfix
Sir John Chilcot, chair of the UK inquiry into the Iraq war, has confirmed his final report will not be published until after the next general election. In Britain, dates for national parliamentary elections are effectively decided by the Prime Minister, subject to a cut-off date, which in this instance is 03 June 2010.
See also: MPACUK Press Release: Iraq Inquiry Opens.
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johnpi
Soldiers from an Army unit that had 10 infantrymen accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter after returning to civilian life described a breakdown in discipline during their Iraq deployment in which troops murdered civilians, a newspaper reported Sunday….
“Toward the end, we were so mad and tired and frustrated,” said Daniel Freeman. “You came too close, we lit you up. You didn’t stop, we ran your car over with the Bradley,” an armored fighting vehicle.
With each roadside bombing, soldiers would fire in all directions “and just light the whole area up,” said Anthony Marquez, a friend of Freeman in the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment. “If anyone was around, that was their fault. We smoked ‘em.”
Taxi drivers got shot for no reason, and others were dropped off bridges after interrogations, said Marcus Mifflin, who was eventually discharged with post traumatic stress syndrome.
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thabet
Is this meant to be a joke? Cherie Booth complains about the African Union’s refusal to handover Omar al-Bashir:
For those who don’t know Booth is the wife of Tony Blair. You know the man who lied to the country; took part in illegal (corrupt) invasion of another country; did his best to conceal our involvement in torture of terrorism suspects; and actively opposed an investigation into corruption involving Saudi Arabia and a British firm.
(Also I doubt anyone is going to believe The Guardian ‘forgot’ to open the piece to public scrutiny. The comments were conveniently opened when the article disappeared off the front page.)
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johnpi
Mr. Asali cautioned that it is bound to irk Palestinian and Arab leaders who interpret U.S. willingness to resettle Palestinians — which comes with full rights such as citizenship down the road — as “a conspiracy to liquidate the Palestinian refugee issue.” With the exception of Jordan, no country in the Middle East has granted citizenship to Palestinian refugees. Many Arab countries believe that fully integrating large numbers of Palestinian refugees would undercut their demand for an independent state.
At least one pro-Israel group in the U.S. deems it a mistake to absorb the Palestinian Iraqis, who were welcomed by Saddam Hussein and regarded as loyal supporters of his regime. “We don’t think that Washington should be bringing in a group of people who we know were publicly and consistently hostile to the United States and its closest ally, Israel,” said Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America.
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thabet
The public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel worker who was liberated from his life while in British custody, has opened:
The film shows Corporal Donald Payne, formerly of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, shouting and swearing at the Iraqis as they are forced to maintain painful “stress positions”.
The video is a key piece of evidence in a wide-ranging inquiry into the death of Mousa, which got under way today. Mousa died after sustaining 93 injuries while being detained by soldiers from the former Queen’s Lancashire Regiment in Basra, southern Iraq, in September 2003.
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thabet
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thabet
So, the inquiry will indeed be bullshit:
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thabet
Gordon Brown has announced another bullshit inquiry into the Iraq invasion which will no doubt ultimately exonerate the government of any wrongdoing (such as lying).
The inquiry will be held in secret and will probably be published after the next General Election (which means whoever wins will bury the report quietly).
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johnpi
The first US citizens tried in Iraqi courts since being returned to the control of an Iraqi sovereign government will be military contractors (ie mercenaries) accused of murder – of another contractor.
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thabet
Charles Moore lands the BBC into trouble:
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aziz
Bush to Chirac regarding Iraq War: “this confrontation is willed by God.”
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johnpi
Rumsfeld’s Crusades memos – Donald Rumsfeld sent Bush daily intelligence briefings adorned with biblical quotes that affirmed aggression.
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thabet
While it is true the expenses scandal points to something very rotten amongst our political class, consider the lack of any great concern over an illegal invasion that has cost the country billions of pounds.
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johnpi
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thabet
Gordon Brown and The Scum agree about our ‘war efforts’.
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thabet
