Free Iraq

No Exit?: What It Means to "Salvage U.S. Prestige" in Iraq: In the Vietnam era, President Richard M. Nixon went on a well-armed, years-long hunt for something he called "peace with honor." Today, the catchword is finding an "exit strategy" that can "salvage U.S. prestige." What we want, it seems, is peace with "dignity." In Vietnam, there was no honor left, only horror. There is no American dignity to be found in Iraq either, only horror. In a Washington of suddenly lowered expectations, dignity is defined as hanging in there until an Iraqi government that can't even control its own Interior Ministry or the police in the capital gains "stability," until the Sunni insurgency becomes a mild irritation, and until that American embassy, that eighth wonder of the world of security and comfort, becomes an eye-catching landmark on the capital's skyline.

Now, the dreamers, the greatest gamblers in our history, are departing official Washington and the "realists" have hit the corridors of power that they always thought they owned. It wouldn't hurt if they opened their eyes. Even imperial defenders should face reality. Someday, it's something we'll all have to do. In the meantime, call in the Hellfire-missile-armed Predator drones.


Bomb Aimed at Iraqi Speaker Hits Green Zone


Bush, Maliki to meet on Iraq violence


Violence in Iraq declined Tuesday, with police, morgue and hospital officials reporting 33 people killed in sectarian violence. At least 44 tortured bodies were found dumped throughout central Iraq.
 

Israel opts for MAJOR war in Gaza
 

Israel Opts for Major War Campaign in 11th Hour of Hamas Build-up: DEBKAfile’s military experts point out that the impending Gaza campaign will be the second war Israel has fought in five months. In most senses, it will be the sequel to the war offensive Hizballah launched from Lebanon in July. Hizballah may decide, or be instructed from Damascus and/or Tehran, to initiate another attack across Israel’s northern border to ease the pressure on Hamas by splitting Israeli forces on two fronts. The counter-argument to this depends on developments in Lebanon: The deeper the domestic crisis erupting in Lebanon in the wake of the assassination of Pierre Gemayel on Tuesday, Nov. 21, the less Hizballah will be free to start another war against Israel.
 

Israeli troops advance into northern Gaza towns; Red Cross suspends activities
 

Kurt Nimmo, Olmert and the Baker Boys: It’s a nightmare scenario for Olmert and the neocons.

James Baker, the consiglieri of the Bush crime family, brings Syria and Iran to the table and they hammer out an understanding on Iraq and, horror stacked upon horror, “some kind of long-term Israeli-Arab diplomatic agreement,” as the Jerusalem Post puts it.

It should be obvious Israel’s Mossad engineered the assassination of Pierre Gemayel in Lebanon as a response to the Baker Boys and the emerging recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. It was, in effect, a stone thrown to kill two birds—one, to sully Syria and thus make any accommodation proposed by Baker and Hamilton untenable and second to ratchet up ethnic and religious animosity in Lebanon, a process well underway in the wake of Pierre Gemayel’s timely murder.
 

Iraqis Overwhelmingly Demand U.S. Troops Withdraw Within One Year
 

Britain may hand Basra to Iraqis soon, but no rapid pullout


More than 140 bodies turn up on Baghdad streets


U.N. says Iraqi deaths hit new high, many flee
 

Tom Hayden, U.S. Retreat from Iraq? The Secret Story - According to credible Iraqi sources in London and Amman, a secret story of America’s diplomatic exit strategy from Iraq is rapidly unfolding. The key events include:

First, James Baker told one of Saddam Hussein’s lawyers that Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister, would be released from detention by the end of this year, in hope that he will negotiate with the US on behalf of the Baath Party leadership. The discussion recently took place in Amman, according to the Iraqi paper al-Quds al-Arabi. [ . . . ]

It must be emphasized that there is no reason to believe that these US gestures are anything more than probes, in the historic spirit of divide-and-conquer, before escalating the Iraq war in a Baghdad offensive. Denial plausibility – aka Machiavellian secrecy – remains American security policy, for understandable if undemocratic reasons.
 

Robert Fisk, Civil war in Lebanon: Civil war - the words on all our lips yesterday. Pierre Gemayel's murder - in broad daylight, in a Christian suburb of Beirut, his car blocked mafia-style by another vehicle while his killer fired through the driver's window into the head of Lebanon's minister of industry - was a message for all of us who live in this tragic land.
 

Israel's nuclear arsenal 'not a secret,' says Straw
 

Neil Bush's family values (A whole bushel of rotten apples)
 

10 lessons from the toilet presidency of George W. Bush
 

The Truth will set you Free, The hidden agenda behind Beit Hanun: It is crystal clear to me that destroying the ancient mosque was israel's PRIMARY MILITARY OBJECTIVE and that the loss of Palestinian lives was just a fringe benefit for them.
 

xymphora, Who killed Pierre Gemayel? Olmert obviously isn’t as smart as Noam [Chomsky], as he apparently believes in the existence of a Lobby which Noam tells us, like Santa Claus, doesn’t exist and/or has no power. The Lobby could use a PR hand, and what better hand would there be than to assassinate a Lebanese anti-Syrian leader, and blame the whole thing on Syria? The Israeli spy rings in Lebanon are certainly capable of the assassination, and Israel, unlike Syria, has a good motive.
 

It was my duty to refuse to go to Iraq, says first American army officer facing court martial: Yesterday Lt Watada said every officer had a duty to consider whether they could serve in a campaign that made troops a party to war crimes. It was "the responsibility and obligation of members of the military" not to follow "unlawful and immoral orders".
 

The Most Revealing Wink of The 20th Century
 

Gemayel Deception -
Who uses assassinations
And false flag operations
As regular policy?
Now put them together
If you are willing,
And what do you get,
A false flag killing.
It's perfectly clear to me.
(David Martin)
 

The Invisible Hand of Mossad; Assassination of Pierre Gemayel: "Israel Wants A Lebanon Civil War"
 

HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED
READING -
Paul William Roberts, Decline and Fall - America in Retreat: According to the Iraqi newspaper Al- Quds al-Arabi, James Baker, the Bush family’s Mr. Fixit , recently met with one of Saddam Hussein’s lawyers in Amman, Jordan, and told him that the former deputy prime minister of Iraq, Tariq Aziz, would be released from detention by December in order to negotiate with the US on behalf of factions of the Iraqi resistance movement still controlled by old Ba’ath Party leaders. Sources in Jordan tell me that the first stage of such negotiations has indeed already taken place. Two weeks ago, Aziz was whisked from his jail cell and, along with other representatives of Iraq’s Sunni Resistance, taken for three days’ of secret discussions in Amman with senior US officials. ...

The official wing of US Government ... presented the following proposals regarding the future to Iraqi officials during his recent trip to Baghdad:

* Any initiative towards national reconciliation must now include Iraqi resistance and opposition leaders
* There must be a general amnesty for armed resistance fighters
* There must be a disbanding of militias and death squads
* Any federalist proposals dividing Iraq into three states must be abandoned in favor of a strong centralist authority combined with greater self-rule for local governors
* That oil revenues must be distributed more equitably for the benefit of all Iraqis, including the Sunnis whose region contains little of the resource

Washington has accepted it is not in any position to call the shots in Baghdad any more, yet that will not mean it won’t try to call them. One major condition of the deal under which US troops will withdraw from Baghdad (but only to their desert bases) is that Iran does not try to extend its sphere of influence. Since Iran alone has the power to make sure this deal goes through, the best that US negotiators can do is get an agreement that Iran will not try to extend its sphere of influence immediately. This, and making sure Saddam isn’t released from jail, is all that victory amounts to these days at mission control in the home of the brave. ...
 

Survey: Israel worst brand name in the world: ... [T]he index indicated that Americans ranked Israel just slightly above China in terms of its conduct in the areas of international peace and security.
 

Kurt Nimmo, Olmert: Thank God for Dead Iraqis and U.S. Soldiers
 

Bush's Mysterious 'New Programs'
 

Robert Fisk, Gemayel's mourners know that in Lebanon nothing is what it seems
 

Israel rejects Palestinian offer to halt rocket fire
 

Analysis: Israel ponders Gaza escalation: Tank and infantry battalions are now inside the Strip clearing vegetation and structures. Then it would easier to monitor movements there. One force Wednesday killed a Palestinian militant and arrested another who tried to launch a rocket. The arrest and interrogation could produce intelligence Israel would need for further operations.

In what seemed be a reference to more targeted killings the Cabinet talked of "Specific countermeasures against those actively involved in terrorist operations." Sunday Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer noted that when he had been defense minister, "Targeted killings of all Hamas leaders and not just the activists in the field produced results ... such activity should be resumed."
 

Iraq war was good for Israel: Olmert - "I stand with the president because I know that Iraq without Saddam Hussein is so much better for the security and safety of Israel, and all of the neighbors of Israel without any significance to us," added Olmert, who was speaking in English.

"Thank God for the power and the determination and leadership manifested by President Bush."
 

In the interest of reporting good news . . .
International Meddling Continues to Backfire on Bush
 

Ted Lang, The Zionist Network: Israel is ... the primary driver of dumbing down Americans in order to persuade US to subjugate our own self-interests in favor of those advancing Israel's power and well-being. And the powerful means that provide continuing and unswerving success to Israel's success is the network of organizations and news and entertainment media that trumpet Israel's "rights" in subjugating and mass murdering the citizens of other nations in their never-ending quest for their rightful pedestal of vengeance due to the world's permissiveness in allowing the Holocaust. It is the world's collective guilt that now allows Israel to behave in precisely the same way as Hitler's Germany and its Nazis did in terrorizing the world more than half a century ago.
 

More good news . . .
Teens Frustrate Military Recruiter's ASVAB Scam
 

Australia's Howard Government 'knew Iraq plans a year before' 2003 Invasion
 

REALLY good news . . .
Mike Whitney, Iraqi Guerilla: Whether negotiations take place now or 5 years from now depends entirely on George Bush, but the outcome of the war is already certain. Bush’s imperial ambitions have been smashed by a small cadre of committed Iraqi nationalists. They’ve blocked the path to Tehran and Damascus and paved the way for their country’s liberation.
 

Making pale any good news . . .
New savage twist to violence in Baghdad
 

Kurt Nimmo, Electric Politics Interviews John Dugard, the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Palestine: "The occupation is the cause of all the problems."
 

Gilad Atzmon, Palestinian Solidarity Discourse and Zionist Hegemony: Once we manage to internalise that the discourse of solidarity with Palestinians is dominated by the malicious and brutal Israeli practices, we are more or less ready to admit: it is the Jewish State: a racist nationalist ideology that we must oppose primarily. It is Jewish State and its supporters around the world that we must tackle. It is Zionism and global Zionism that we must confront immediately. (emphasis added)
 

More . . .
"Our problem with Israel has nothing to do with its colonial characteristics. Our problems with the ‘Jews Only State’ have something to do with its racist, expansionist and nationalist qualities. Our problems with Israel have something to do with it being a Fascist State supported by the vast majority of Jewish people around the world."
 

William Blum, The Anti-Empire Report - November 24, 2006: France is on the verge of approving legislation which makes it a crime to deny the Turkish genocide of Armenians at the time of the First World War.

Denying the German Holocaust of Jews is a crime in Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and Israel.

In the United States it's not a crime to deny the American holocaust, (emphasis added) although this particular historical phenomenon encompasses Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, North Korea, Guatemala, El Salvador, Grenada, Indonesia, Iraq, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Greece, East Timor, Angola, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Haiti, Yugoslavia, Colombia, and several other countries upon whom Washington has bestowed its precious gifts of freedom and democracy.