Free Iraq
The US's occupation of Iraq will see to it that the Lion of Babylon rises again .. سنـُبعـَث ُ من جَديد ، وإلى ضَـيـرِِهِـم
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| Unrevealed Milestones in the Iraqi National Nuclear Program: 1981-1991 | معالم وأحداث غير مكشوفة في البرنامج النووي الوطني العراقي 1981-1991 | 
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Monday, April 17, 2006
Planning an attack on Baghdad ... التخطيط للهجوم على بغداد
.
When cornered (and defeated), smash what is left to get out (if you can).
"The American military is planning a “second liberation of Baghdad” to be carried out with the Iraqi army when a new government is installed.
Pacifying the lawless capital is regarded as essential to establishing the authority of the incoming government and preparing for a significant withdrawal of American troops. Strategic and tactical plans are being laid by US commanders in Iraq and at the US army base in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, under Lieutenant- General David Petraeus. He is regarded as an innovative officer and was formerly responsible for training Iraqi troops.
... Sources close to the Pentagon said Iraqi forces would take the lead, supported by American air power, special operations, intelligence, embedded officers and back-up troops.
... The sources said American and Iraqi troops would move from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, leaving behind Sweat teams — an acronym for “sewage, water, electricity and trash” — to improve living conditions by upgrading clinics, schools, rubbish collection, water and electricity supplies.
... “They have to show they can liberate their own capital,” he said. “Baghdad is the key to stability in Iraq. It’s a chance for the new government to stand up and say, ‘Here we are’. They can’t do that if they are hunkered down in bunkers.” (emphasis added)
... The operation is likely to take place towards the end of the summer, giving the newly appointed government time to establish itself. If all goes to plan, US troop withdrawals could take place before the end of the year. In the absence of progress by then, the war may come to be seen by the American public as a lost cause.
... US forces would try to avoid the all-out combat that was used to subdue Falluja in 2004. “If you cut up the city into pieces neighbourhood by neighbourhood, you can prevent it from becoming a major urban fight,” said Gouré."
US plots ‘new liberation of Baghdad’ April 16, 2006
"Of all the war crimes that have flowed from the originating war crime of George W. Bush's unprovoked invasion of Iraq, perhaps the most flagrant was the wanton destruction of Fallujah in November 2004.
Now, as ignominious defeat looms for Bush's Babylonian folly, some of the key players in fomenting the war are urging that the "Fallujah Option" be applied to an even bigger target: Baghdad.
What these influential warmongers openly call for is the "pacification" of Baghdad: a brutal firestorm by U.S. forces, ravaging both Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias in a "horrific" operation that will inevitably lead to "skyrocketing body counts," as warhawk Reuel Marc Gerecht wrote cheerfully last week in the ever-bloodthirsty editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal.
Gerecht's war whoop quickly ricocheted around the rightwing media echo chamber and gave public voice to the private counsels emanating from a group whose members now comprise the leadership of the U.S. government: The Project for the New American Century.
As often noted here, PNAC was founded by Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush, Zalmay Khalilzad, and the now-indicted Lewis Libby, among others. In September 2000, they publicly called for sending American forces into Iraq – even if Saddam Hussein was already gone – as well as planting new U.S. bases in Central Asia, putting weapons in space, building new nukes and funding a vast militarization of American society. Being such savvy inside players and all, they recognized that this lunatic program of aggression and world domination would not be accepted by the American people – unless, of course, the nation happened to be struck by a "catalyzing event" like "a new Pearl Harbor." Who says dreams don't come true?"
Dead Cities: The Fallujah Option in Iraq? April 8, 2006
When cornered (and defeated), smash what is left to get out (if you can).
يتم التخطيط الآن من قبل القيادة العسكرية الأمريكية للقيام بهجوم كاسح على بغداد في الخريف القادم وبعد "تأليف الحكومة الوطنية الديمقراطية" من أجل توطيد أركان هذه الحكومة ... هولاكو أتاكم، ويأتيكم مرة أخرى، أيها العراقيون، إن لم تدركوا بعد
أنظر المقال السابق - اللوبي الإسرائيلي .... والعُملاء المحليين
"The American military is planning a “second liberation of Baghdad” to be carried out with the Iraqi army when a new government is installed.
Pacifying the lawless capital is regarded as essential to establishing the authority of the incoming government and preparing for a significant withdrawal of American troops. Strategic and tactical plans are being laid by US commanders in Iraq and at the US army base in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, under Lieutenant- General David Petraeus. He is regarded as an innovative officer and was formerly responsible for training Iraqi troops.
... Sources close to the Pentagon said Iraqi forces would take the lead, supported by American air power, special operations, intelligence, embedded officers and back-up troops.
... The sources said American and Iraqi troops would move from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, leaving behind Sweat teams — an acronym for “sewage, water, electricity and trash” — to improve living conditions by upgrading clinics, schools, rubbish collection, water and electricity supplies.
... “They have to show they can liberate their own capital,” he said. “Baghdad is the key to stability in Iraq. It’s a chance for the new government to stand up and say, ‘Here we are’. They can’t do that if they are hunkered down in bunkers.” (emphasis added)
... The operation is likely to take place towards the end of the summer, giving the newly appointed government time to establish itself. If all goes to plan, US troop withdrawals could take place before the end of the year. In the absence of progress by then, the war may come to be seen by the American public as a lost cause.
... US forces would try to avoid the all-out combat that was used to subdue Falluja in 2004. “If you cut up the city into pieces neighbourhood by neighbourhood, you can prevent it from becoming a major urban fight,” said Gouré."
US plots ‘new liberation of Baghdad’ April 16, 2006
"Of all the war crimes that have flowed from the originating war crime of George W. Bush's unprovoked invasion of Iraq, perhaps the most flagrant was the wanton destruction of Fallujah in November 2004.
Now, as ignominious defeat looms for Bush's Babylonian folly, some of the key players in fomenting the war are urging that the "Fallujah Option" be applied to an even bigger target: Baghdad.
What these influential warmongers openly call for is the "pacification" of Baghdad: a brutal firestorm by U.S. forces, ravaging both Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias in a "horrific" operation that will inevitably lead to "skyrocketing body counts," as warhawk Reuel Marc Gerecht wrote cheerfully last week in the ever-bloodthirsty editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal.
Gerecht's war whoop quickly ricocheted around the rightwing media echo chamber and gave public voice to the private counsels emanating from a group whose members now comprise the leadership of the U.S. government: The Project for the New American Century.
As often noted here, PNAC was founded by Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush, Zalmay Khalilzad, and the now-indicted Lewis Libby, among others. In September 2000, they publicly called for sending American forces into Iraq – even if Saddam Hussein was already gone – as well as planting new U.S. bases in Central Asia, putting weapons in space, building new nukes and funding a vast militarization of American society. Being such savvy inside players and all, they recognized that this lunatic program of aggression and world domination would not be accepted by the American people – unless, of course, the nation happened to be struck by a "catalyzing event" like "a new Pearl Harbor." Who says dreams don't come true?"
Dead Cities: The Fallujah Option in Iraq? April 8, 2006
Comments:
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“Ultimately we want a police solution in Baghdad.” [first article]
(. . . and will 'pacify' as many newly liberated Iraqis as necessary.)
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"An effective military campaign could provide the White House with a bounce in the polls before the mid-term congressional elections in November." (Ah, yes, telling point.)
(. . . and will 'pacify' as many newly liberated Iraqis as necessary.)
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"An effective military campaign could provide the White House with a bounce in the polls before the mid-term congressional elections in November." (Ah, yes, telling point.)
Malcom Lagauche, REVISIONISM AT ITS WORST: One point that I have been making all along has left some naysayers, and even anti-war people, shaking their heads: Desert Storm’s main goal was not to remove Iraqi troops from Kuwait, but to stop at least one generation of Iraqis from becoming productive citizens.
One point that I used for my original theory was the bombing of almost 4,000 schools in Iraq. That’s right; every known Iraqi school was targeted by the U.S. in Desert Storm. ...
The destruction of the Iraqi education system was devastating and the number one reason why Iraq was kept in a "pre-industrial" mode for years after the U.S. assault in 1991. However, few people in the U.S. have a clue to the former crown jewel of the country. ...
In the 1980s, the Iraqi education system was universally acknowledged by the U.N. and many international education organizations as the best in the world for developing countries. Officials from many nations visited Iraq and took notes at how the system worked. ...
By 1990, the literacy rate in Iraq had grown from about 40% in 1973, to almost 90% This success rate was unheard of in the Arab world.
Because of the Iraqi education system, engineers, professors, scientists and doctors were being churned out regularly. In other words, by 1990, Iraq was the most by far advanced Arab country. This fact alone was enough to upset the U.S. The occupation of Kuwait was only a convenient excuse to destroy all educational facilities in Iraq.
On January 16, 1991, Iraq had the most-educated public in the history of the Arab world. Then the bombs fell.
One point that I used for my original theory was the bombing of almost 4,000 schools in Iraq. That’s right; every known Iraqi school was targeted by the U.S. in Desert Storm. ...
The destruction of the Iraqi education system was devastating and the number one reason why Iraq was kept in a "pre-industrial" mode for years after the U.S. assault in 1991. However, few people in the U.S. have a clue to the former crown jewel of the country. ...
In the 1980s, the Iraqi education system was universally acknowledged by the U.N. and many international education organizations as the best in the world for developing countries. Officials from many nations visited Iraq and took notes at how the system worked. ...
By 1990, the literacy rate in Iraq had grown from about 40% in 1973, to almost 90% This success rate was unheard of in the Arab world.
Because of the Iraqi education system, engineers, professors, scientists and doctors were being churned out regularly. In other words, by 1990, Iraq was the most by far advanced Arab country. This fact alone was enough to upset the U.S. The occupation of Kuwait was only a convenient excuse to destroy all educational facilities in Iraq.
On January 16, 1991, Iraq had the most-educated public in the history of the Arab world. Then the bombs fell.
US firms suspected of bilking Iraq funds: A US law that allows citizens to recover money from dishonest contractors protects only the US government, not foreign governments.
In addition, an Iraqi law created by the Coalition Provisional Authority days before it ceded sovereignty to Iraq in June 2004 gives American contractors immunity from prosecution in Iraq.
"In effect, it makes Iraq into a 'free-fraud zone,'" ...
In addition, an Iraqi law created by the Coalition Provisional Authority days before it ceded sovereignty to Iraq in June 2004 gives American contractors immunity from prosecution in Iraq.
"In effect, it makes Iraq into a 'free-fraud zone,'" ...
The Ongoing Attacks on Baghdad -
Where Date Palms Grow, The Clown & I: 20 years old Haider Jawad and 25 years old Fouad Radhi are two actors belonging to the Happy Family Theater Group, this group target is bringing back the smile to the Iraqi children, on the first day of the Children theater festival “neglected for the past fifteen years” held in Baghdad on the 1st of April 2006, dedicated for Iraqi children and after they finished rehearsals on "The Clown and I”, both were assassinated when they were on their way back home near the “Al-Ameriyah District” North west Baghdad.
Need I say more…
Where Date Palms Grow, The Clown & I: 20 years old Haider Jawad and 25 years old Fouad Radhi are two actors belonging to the Happy Family Theater Group, this group target is bringing back the smile to the Iraqi children, on the first day of the Children theater festival “neglected for the past fifteen years” held in Baghdad on the 1st of April 2006, dedicated for Iraqi children and after they finished rehearsals on "The Clown and I”, both were assassinated when they were on their way back home near the “Al-Ameriyah District” North west Baghdad.
Need I say more…
(A testament to the best of the human spirit. May Baghdad survive; then, once again, thrive.)
Nermeen Al-Mufti, City born of a dream: Across Baghdad are broken memories and roots of endurance
Nermeen Al-Mufti, City born of a dream: Across Baghdad are broken memories and roots of endurance
Bush's bogus document dump: The administration seeded its new public archive of Iraq documents with jihadist materials completely unrelated to Saddam.
... Once the [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] had released the material, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave it a nod of approval, telling NBC's Tim Russert on March 26, "We're going to find some important and surprising things in these documents."
The first surprising thing we find in the documents, which are available here through the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office's Joint Reserve Intelligence Center, is that they are not necessarily from, or even about, Iraq. ...
How did these highly suggestive materials end up in the Operation Iraqi Freedom Documents? The site's disclaimer warns that "the US Government has made no determination regarding the authenticity of the documents, validity or factual accuracy of the information contained therein," ...
Strikingly, many of the interlopers share some key characteristics: Their origins trace to al-Qaida or other jihadist groups, they frequently involve unconventional weapons -- and they have nothing at all to do with either Saddam's regime or prewar Iraq. ...
Further suspicious linkage lurks at the bottom of each page in the Operation Iraqi Freedom Documents archive, where visitors learn that "Other released documents can be found at http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony_docs.asp." This link leads to the Harmony Database at the West Point Combating Terrorism Center, a collection of recently posted al-Qaida documents that have no connection, real or claimed, to Iraq.
... Once the [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] had released the material, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave it a nod of approval, telling NBC's Tim Russert on March 26, "We're going to find some important and surprising things in these documents."
The first surprising thing we find in the documents, which are available here through the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office's Joint Reserve Intelligence Center, is that they are not necessarily from, or even about, Iraq. ...
How did these highly suggestive materials end up in the Operation Iraqi Freedom Documents? The site's disclaimer warns that "the US Government has made no determination regarding the authenticity of the documents, validity or factual accuracy of the information contained therein," ...
Strikingly, many of the interlopers share some key characteristics: Their origins trace to al-Qaida or other jihadist groups, they frequently involve unconventional weapons -- and they have nothing at all to do with either Saddam's regime or prewar Iraq. ...
Further suspicious linkage lurks at the bottom of each page in the Operation Iraqi Freedom Documents archive, where visitors learn that "Other released documents can be found at http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony_docs.asp." This link leads to the Harmony Database at the West Point Combating Terrorism Center, a collection of recently posted al-Qaida documents that have no connection, real or claimed, to Iraq.
"Some of you will remember that an issue of John F. Kennedy's presidential candidacy was his Catholic religion. People raised concerns that his religion would affect his leadership. Now we have a president who hears God talking to him, telling him what to do. When I worked in the psychiatric hospital we called these people paranoid schizophrenics and put them on thorazine and Haldol. Then again, Bush has that glazed look like he may already be on something like them."
Justices Reject Gitmo Detainees' Appeal: The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from two Chinese Muslims who were mistakenly captured as enemy combatants more than four years ago and are still being held at the U.S. prison in Cuba.
James Brooks, US to Palestinians: Vote, then starve; democracy as instrument of mass control: Apparently a critical piece of information was left out of our recent (inept) campaign to promote democracy in the Middle East. It was never mentioned that if Arabs used this wonderful system to elect the wrong people, they could face an externally imposed economic disaster.
The Palestinians’ latest catastrophe shamefully reveals one of the ulterior motives behind Washington’s “democratization” agenda: Democracy will make Arabs accountable for their politics.
Arabs in non-democratic states have always been fundamentally beyond the political control of the United States and Israel. For pro-Israel neoconservatives and their allies, this is an unacceptable situation.
Democracy is the answer. It sounds good and discourages objection. And in the corrupted, trap-door form these people have in mind, democracy will “liberalize” Arab economies, exposing them to foreign predation. It will shatter traditional political cultures and induce periods of chaos that they expect to manipulate to their own ends. And, as an instrument of diplomacy, democracy will saddle Arabs, as individuals and as groups, with whatever responsibilities the self-appointed ‘masters of democracy’ care to assign to them.
Our “Arab democracy” turns out to be a kind of electoral Russian roulette (with two chambers loaded), in which voters leave the ballot booth wondering whether they have elected a successful government or consigned their nation to diplomatic isolation and economic siege.
Our warlords in Washington have joined Israel as an equal partner in its war against the Palestinians, delivering an economic knockout blow to supplement Israel’s overwhelming military force. We will starve women and children in order to overturn the results of a free and fair election, or, failing that, to force dramatic political concessions from an occupied people.
For us, democracy has become little more than a bedtime story we read to hostage nations, just before we put them to sleep by dismemberment or starvation.
The Palestinians’ latest catastrophe shamefully reveals one of the ulterior motives behind Washington’s “democratization” agenda: Democracy will make Arabs accountable for their politics.
Arabs in non-democratic states have always been fundamentally beyond the political control of the United States and Israel. For pro-Israel neoconservatives and their allies, this is an unacceptable situation.
Democracy is the answer. It sounds good and discourages objection. And in the corrupted, trap-door form these people have in mind, democracy will “liberalize” Arab economies, exposing them to foreign predation. It will shatter traditional political cultures and induce periods of chaos that they expect to manipulate to their own ends. And, as an instrument of diplomacy, democracy will saddle Arabs, as individuals and as groups, with whatever responsibilities the self-appointed ‘masters of democracy’ care to assign to them.
Our “Arab democracy” turns out to be a kind of electoral Russian roulette (with two chambers loaded), in which voters leave the ballot booth wondering whether they have elected a successful government or consigned their nation to diplomatic isolation and economic siege.
Our warlords in Washington have joined Israel as an equal partner in its war against the Palestinians, delivering an economic knockout blow to supplement Israel’s overwhelming military force. We will starve women and children in order to overturn the results of a free and fair election, or, failing that, to force dramatic political concessions from an occupied people.
For us, democracy has become little more than a bedtime story we read to hostage nations, just before we put them to sleep by dismemberment or starvation.
(Thank you, Greg Palast.)
Greg Palast, Desert rats leave the sinking ship: Why Rumsfeld should not resign: It wasn't Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who stood up in front of the UN and identified two mobile latrines as biological weapons labs, was it, General Powell?
It wasn't Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who told us our next warning from Saddam could be a mushroom cloud, was it Condoleezza?
Yes, Rumsfeld is a swaggering bag of mendacious arrogance, a duplicitous chicken-hawk, yellow-bellied bully-boy and Tinker-Toy Napoleon -- but he didn't appoint himself Secretary of Defense.
Let me tell you a story about the Secretary of Defense you didn't read in the New York Times, related to me by General Jay Garner, the man our president placed in Baghdad as the US' first post-invasion viceroy.
Garner arrived in Kuwait City in March 2003 working under the mistaken notion that when George Bush called for democracy in Iraq, the president meant the Iraqis could choose their own government. Misunderstanding the president's true mission, General Garner called for Iraqis to hold elections within 90 days and for the U.S. to quickly pull troops out of the cities to a desert base. "It's their country," the General told me of the Iraqis. "And," he added, most ominously, "their oil."
On April 21, 2003, three years ago this month, the very night General Garner arrived in Baghdad, he got a call from Washington. It was Rumsfeld on the line. He told Garner, in so many words, "Don't unpack, Jack, you're fired."
Reading this, it sounds like I should applaud the six generals' call for Rumfeld's ouster. Forget it.
For a bunch of military hotshots, they sure can't shoot straight. They're wasting all their bullets on the decoy. They've gunned down the puppet instead of the puppeteers.
Generals, let me give you a bit of advice about choosing a target: It's the president, stupid.
Greg Palast, Desert rats leave the sinking ship: Why Rumsfeld should not resign: It wasn't Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who stood up in front of the UN and identified two mobile latrines as biological weapons labs, was it, General Powell?
It wasn't Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who told us our next warning from Saddam could be a mushroom cloud, was it Condoleezza?
Yes, Rumsfeld is a swaggering bag of mendacious arrogance, a duplicitous chicken-hawk, yellow-bellied bully-boy and Tinker-Toy Napoleon -- but he didn't appoint himself Secretary of Defense.
Let me tell you a story about the Secretary of Defense you didn't read in the New York Times, related to me by General Jay Garner, the man our president placed in Baghdad as the US' first post-invasion viceroy.
Garner arrived in Kuwait City in March 2003 working under the mistaken notion that when George Bush called for democracy in Iraq, the president meant the Iraqis could choose their own government. Misunderstanding the president's true mission, General Garner called for Iraqis to hold elections within 90 days and for the U.S. to quickly pull troops out of the cities to a desert base. "It's their country," the General told me of the Iraqis. "And," he added, most ominously, "their oil."
On April 21, 2003, three years ago this month, the very night General Garner arrived in Baghdad, he got a call from Washington. It was Rumsfeld on the line. He told Garner, in so many words, "Don't unpack, Jack, you're fired."
Reading this, it sounds like I should applaud the six generals' call for Rumfeld's ouster. Forget it.
For a bunch of military hotshots, they sure can't shoot straight. They're wasting all their bullets on the decoy. They've gunned down the puppet instead of the puppeteers.
Generals, let me give you a bit of advice about choosing a target: It's the president, stupid.
Greg Szymanski, UK And US Involved In Selling Illegal Weapons To Iran And Iraq, As 55 Million Pounds Traced to Government Coffers: [ . . . ]
New developments in the July 2003 murder of scientist and arms inspector, David Kelly, reveal one of the many reasons he may have been killed was due to his knowledge of covert research of the "black only bomb" in South Africa.
Another reason for Dr. Kelly's murder surrounds his knowledge of the B52 incident in Iran, where the U.S. is said to have drop-shipped or lost nuclear weapons in 1991 without reporting the incident to the United Nations authorities.
The British source provided new information about what Dr. Kelly really knew about the lost nuclear weapons, suggesting Vice President Dick Cheney had a very strong motive to keep Dr. Kelly silent about the B52 incident.
"In July 2003 when Kelly was murdered the fear in The White House (USA) must have been Kelly would claim that the WMD not found in Iraq during Gulf War-2 were in fact the (smaller) lost nukes. ...
"This revelation would have been most untimely for The White House in summer 2003. ...
New developments in the July 2003 murder of scientist and arms inspector, David Kelly, reveal one of the many reasons he may have been killed was due to his knowledge of covert research of the "black only bomb" in South Africa.
Another reason for Dr. Kelly's murder surrounds his knowledge of the B52 incident in Iran, where the U.S. is said to have drop-shipped or lost nuclear weapons in 1991 without reporting the incident to the United Nations authorities.
The British source provided new information about what Dr. Kelly really knew about the lost nuclear weapons, suggesting Vice President Dick Cheney had a very strong motive to keep Dr. Kelly silent about the B52 incident.
"In July 2003 when Kelly was murdered the fear in The White House (USA) must have been Kelly would claim that the WMD not found in Iraq during Gulf War-2 were in fact the (smaller) lost nukes. ...
"This revelation would have been most untimely for The White House in summer 2003. ...
Gideon Polya, Science, Humanity and the Iraq Holocaust: Scientific approaches have dramatically improved Man’s lot since the beginnings of sophisticated, agriculture-based civilization in the Fertile Crescent encompassing lands from Egypt to present-day Iraq. The scientific approach involves truth, reason, sensible communication and the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses. The scientific approach was implicit in the process whereby the earliest farmers carefully selected seed for sowing and applied a process of reiterated selection to eventually yield the cereal staples that became the mainstay of humanity. ...
The tragedy of post-colonial Iraq since the return of Western armies in 1990 illustrates the perversion of humanitarian values, scientific approaches and rational risk assessment. The bottom-line parameter in any discussion about social policy is the human cost. The bottom-line parameter in any discussion about social policy is the human cost. According to the latest, Web-accessible UN Population Division data (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/) and UNICEF data (see: http://www.unicef.org/index.html), the "under-5 infant deaths per 1,000 births" in oil-rich Iraq versus impoverished Syria were 200 vs 170 (1953), 50 vs 44 (1990) and 125 vs 16 (sixteen) (2004) i.e. infant mortality decreased enormously under the dictator Saddam Hussein but increased hugely after 1990 due to Western intervention. The post-1990 under-5 infant mortality in Iraq under war-criminal UK-US sanctions, bombs and occupation now totals 1.6 million and the post-1990 excess deaths (i.e. avoidable deaths) now total 2.2 million. The 1990-2003 under-5 infant mortality and excess mortality in Iraq under sanctions and bombing totalled 1.2 million and 1.7 million, respectively; the 2003-2006 figures for post-invasion Occupied Iraq are 0.4 million and 0.5 million, respectively. In comparison, the post-invasion under-5 infant mortality and excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan now total 1.4 million and 1.8 million, respectively (see MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5948/26/).
... The horrendous under-5 infant mortality in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan (1,300 infants dying every day, 0.5 million infants dying each year and with 90% of these deaths avoidable) is occurring because of the non-provision by the Occupying UK-US-led Coalition of the life-preserving requisites demanded unequivocally of Occupiers by the Geneva Conventions (see: (http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm). Indeed these horrendous crimes constitute “passive genocide” and are the subject of formal complaints to the International Criminal Court (see Countercurrents: http://www.countercurrents.org/us-polya211205.htm).
... While this carnage has been occurring, the very people who can save societies from irrational perversion have been targeted, threatened and killed in Coalition-occupied Iraq, namely Iraq’s intellectuals, academics, lawyers, scientists, teachers and health professionals. According to the eminent Brussells Tribunal, about 220 Iraqi academics have been killed, hundreds of have been forced into exile, hundreds of Iraqi teachers have been murdered and there is evidence for targeting of professionals by death squads (see: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/academicsList.htm and http://www.brusselstribunal.org/SeminarMadrid.htm ). ...
The tragedy of post-colonial Iraq since the return of Western armies in 1990 illustrates the perversion of humanitarian values, scientific approaches and rational risk assessment. The bottom-line parameter in any discussion about social policy is the human cost. The bottom-line parameter in any discussion about social policy is the human cost. According to the latest, Web-accessible UN Population Division data (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/) and UNICEF data (see: http://www.unicef.org/index.html), the "under-5 infant deaths per 1,000 births" in oil-rich Iraq versus impoverished Syria were 200 vs 170 (1953), 50 vs 44 (1990) and 125 vs 16 (sixteen) (2004) i.e. infant mortality decreased enormously under the dictator Saddam Hussein but increased hugely after 1990 due to Western intervention. The post-1990 under-5 infant mortality in Iraq under war-criminal UK-US sanctions, bombs and occupation now totals 1.6 million and the post-1990 excess deaths (i.e. avoidable deaths) now total 2.2 million. The 1990-2003 under-5 infant mortality and excess mortality in Iraq under sanctions and bombing totalled 1.2 million and 1.7 million, respectively; the 2003-2006 figures for post-invasion Occupied Iraq are 0.4 million and 0.5 million, respectively. In comparison, the post-invasion under-5 infant mortality and excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan now total 1.4 million and 1.8 million, respectively (see MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5948/26/).
... The horrendous under-5 infant mortality in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan (1,300 infants dying every day, 0.5 million infants dying each year and with 90% of these deaths avoidable) is occurring because of the non-provision by the Occupying UK-US-led Coalition of the life-preserving requisites demanded unequivocally of Occupiers by the Geneva Conventions (see: (http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm). Indeed these horrendous crimes constitute “passive genocide” and are the subject of formal complaints to the International Criminal Court (see Countercurrents: http://www.countercurrents.org/us-polya211205.htm).
... While this carnage has been occurring, the very people who can save societies from irrational perversion have been targeted, threatened and killed in Coalition-occupied Iraq, namely Iraq’s intellectuals, academics, lawyers, scientists, teachers and health professionals. According to the eminent Brussells Tribunal, about 220 Iraqi academics have been killed, hundreds of have been forced into exile, hundreds of Iraqi teachers have been murdered and there is evidence for targeting of professionals by death squads (see: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/academicsList.htm and http://www.brusselstribunal.org/SeminarMadrid.htm ). ...
(Political philosophy as current events)
Kurt Nimmo, Straussians: Mass Murder at the Mall as Gospel: According to Tim Harper, writing for the Toronto Star, a neocon attack unleashed against Iran may result in the following: “Poison-laced missiles raining down on U.S. troops in Iraq or Afghanistan, the downing of a U.S. passenger airliner, suicide bombers in major cities, perhaps unleashing their deadly payload in a shopping mall food court. It could be 9/11 all over again. Or worse…. On the political front, more anti-Americanism…. Renewed venom aimed at Washington from European capitals, greater distrust from China and Russia, outright hatred in the Arab and Muslim world. Oil prices spiralling out of control, a global recession at hand…. In Iran, a galvanizing of a splintered nation. An end to hopes for political reform, a rally-around-the-leader phenomenon common among the victimized, an ability to rebuild a nuclear program in two to four years.” In other words, disaster.
Disaster—political, social, and economic—is what the Straussian neocons want. It’s important to stress the Straussian aspect of the neocons. Not all neocons are Straussian but the guys pulling the levers for the next phase of the “clash of civilizations” agenda against the Islamic world and beyond are.
Shadia Drury is one of a few scholarly critics of Strauss and his philosophy. ... “Leo Strauss repeatedly defends the political realism of Thrasymachus and Machiavelli,” Drury told Danny Postel. “This view of the world is clearly manifest in the foreign policy of the current administration in the United States.” ... “The people will not be happy to learn that there is only one natural right—the right of the superior to rule over the inferior, the master over the slave, ...
For the Straussian neocons, we—the people of the United States—are the “vulgar many,” chumps, dupes, and ciphers to be manipulated, poked, and prodded in the direction of the “Long War,” a new Hundred Years’ War, as spelled out by Rumsfeld’s latest Quadrennial Defense Review. “A policy of perpetual war against a threatening enemy is the best way to ward off political decay. And if the enemy cannot be found, then it must be invented,” writes Drury (Leo Strauss and the Grand Inquisitor). “Even though they are not hardcore Straussians, neoconservatives share Strauss’s view that wealth, freedom, and prosperity make people soft, pampered, and depraved. And, like Strauss, they think of war as an antidote to moral decadence and depravity. ...
“With the neoconservatives and the Christian Right in power, Americans can forget about the pursuit of happiness and look forward to perpetual war, death, and catastrophe,” Shadia Drury continues. ... Protestant Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism, or Dominionism, especially Christian Reconstructionism (and also Christian Zionism), is a perfect fit for the Straussian neocons. Strauss “believed in, and proposed, a state religion as a way of reviving absolutes, countering free thought, and enforcing a cohesive unity.
Drury: “Using religion as a political tool has two equally unsavory consequences. First, when religious beliefs become the guide for public policy, the social virtues of tolerance, freedom, and plurality are undermined, if they are not extinguished altogether. Second, the use of religion as a political tool encourages the cultivation of an elite of liars and frauds who exempt themselves from the rules they apply to the rest of humanity. And this is a recipe for tyranny, not freedom or democracy.”
Richard Haass, representing the globalist view of the “non-partisan” Council on Foreign Relations, cautions moderation in dealing with Iran and its phantasmal, two week out nukes. “Iran would be sure to retaliate, using terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas and attacking U.S. and British forces and interests in Iraq and Afghanistan. What would begin as a limited strike would not remain limited for long.” Haass made sure to mention skyrocketing oil prices, “setting off an economic chain reaction that could lead to global recession,” Harper adds for the Toronto Star.
Or depression—and the Super Dome of New Orleans revisited on a far larger and more horrific scale.
As usual, the CFR crowd, basically kissing cousins of the daredevil neocons, are preaching the go-slow approach, as their long range plans (dry-nursed for centuries) dictate a frog-in-a-pot-of-water approach (the heat is increased incrementally, unbeknownst to the frog). However, for the Straussian neocons, time cannot wait—they are restive Jacobins, believers in the Trotskyian concept of “permanent revolution,” and glean a window closing as people come around, slowly but in numbers, to their scam.
It’s now or never for the Straussian neocons.
Kurt Nimmo, Straussians: Mass Murder at the Mall as Gospel: According to Tim Harper, writing for the Toronto Star, a neocon attack unleashed against Iran may result in the following: “Poison-laced missiles raining down on U.S. troops in Iraq or Afghanistan, the downing of a U.S. passenger airliner, suicide bombers in major cities, perhaps unleashing their deadly payload in a shopping mall food court. It could be 9/11 all over again. Or worse…. On the political front, more anti-Americanism…. Renewed venom aimed at Washington from European capitals, greater distrust from China and Russia, outright hatred in the Arab and Muslim world. Oil prices spiralling out of control, a global recession at hand…. In Iran, a galvanizing of a splintered nation. An end to hopes for political reform, a rally-around-the-leader phenomenon common among the victimized, an ability to rebuild a nuclear program in two to four years.” In other words, disaster.
Disaster—political, social, and economic—is what the Straussian neocons want. It’s important to stress the Straussian aspect of the neocons. Not all neocons are Straussian but the guys pulling the levers for the next phase of the “clash of civilizations” agenda against the Islamic world and beyond are.
Shadia Drury is one of a few scholarly critics of Strauss and his philosophy. ... “Leo Strauss repeatedly defends the political realism of Thrasymachus and Machiavelli,” Drury told Danny Postel. “This view of the world is clearly manifest in the foreign policy of the current administration in the United States.” ... “The people will not be happy to learn that there is only one natural right—the right of the superior to rule over the inferior, the master over the slave, ...
For the Straussian neocons, we—the people of the United States—are the “vulgar many,” chumps, dupes, and ciphers to be manipulated, poked, and prodded in the direction of the “Long War,” a new Hundred Years’ War, as spelled out by Rumsfeld’s latest Quadrennial Defense Review. “A policy of perpetual war against a threatening enemy is the best way to ward off political decay. And if the enemy cannot be found, then it must be invented,” writes Drury (Leo Strauss and the Grand Inquisitor). “Even though they are not hardcore Straussians, neoconservatives share Strauss’s view that wealth, freedom, and prosperity make people soft, pampered, and depraved. And, like Strauss, they think of war as an antidote to moral decadence and depravity. ...
“With the neoconservatives and the Christian Right in power, Americans can forget about the pursuit of happiness and look forward to perpetual war, death, and catastrophe,” Shadia Drury continues. ... Protestant Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism, or Dominionism, especially Christian Reconstructionism (and also Christian Zionism), is a perfect fit for the Straussian neocons. Strauss “believed in, and proposed, a state religion as a way of reviving absolutes, countering free thought, and enforcing a cohesive unity.
Drury: “Using religion as a political tool has two equally unsavory consequences. First, when religious beliefs become the guide for public policy, the social virtues of tolerance, freedom, and plurality are undermined, if they are not extinguished altogether. Second, the use of religion as a political tool encourages the cultivation of an elite of liars and frauds who exempt themselves from the rules they apply to the rest of humanity. And this is a recipe for tyranny, not freedom or democracy.”
Richard Haass, representing the globalist view of the “non-partisan” Council on Foreign Relations, cautions moderation in dealing with Iran and its phantasmal, two week out nukes. “Iran would be sure to retaliate, using terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas and attacking U.S. and British forces and interests in Iraq and Afghanistan. What would begin as a limited strike would not remain limited for long.” Haass made sure to mention skyrocketing oil prices, “setting off an economic chain reaction that could lead to global recession,” Harper adds for the Toronto Star.
Or depression—and the Super Dome of New Orleans revisited on a far larger and more horrific scale.
As usual, the CFR crowd, basically kissing cousins of the daredevil neocons, are preaching the go-slow approach, as their long range plans (dry-nursed for centuries) dictate a frog-in-a-pot-of-water approach (the heat is increased incrementally, unbeknownst to the frog). However, for the Straussian neocons, time cannot wait—they are restive Jacobins, believers in the Trotskyian concept of “permanent revolution,” and glean a window closing as people come around, slowly but in numbers, to their scam.
It’s now or never for the Straussian neocons.
Doug Sonderstrom, The Most Evil People in the World: I have come to the conclusion that the Christian fundamentalists, also known as the religious right, are the most evil people in the world. ...
However, in order to support my assertion that those of the religious right are such a nasty crew, it is necessary that I clarify what I believe it means to be evil. The minimal test of evil is, of course, one of awareness, an intent, an abject willingness to be malicious, a willingness to go out of one’s way to harm others, a lack of concern for the welfare of another person, an unwillingness to place one’s self into that of another’s shoes, a grudging reluctance to acknowledge the pain one may have caused another. Such is bad, but not as bad as having slipped to the point of having become psychically blind, effectively unable to face up to what one has done. ...
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However, in order to support my assertion that those of the religious right are such a nasty crew, it is necessary that I clarify what I believe it means to be evil. The minimal test of evil is, of course, one of awareness, an intent, an abject willingness to be malicious, a willingness to go out of one’s way to harm others, a lack of concern for the welfare of another person, an unwillingness to place one’s self into that of another’s shoes, a grudging reluctance to acknowledge the pain one may have caused another. Such is bad, but not as bad as having slipped to the point of having become psychically blind, effectively unable to face up to what one has done. ...
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