Saturday, November 27, 2010

Next he'll go shopping for a veil










That's not democracy, that's thwarting the will of the people.





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"Hard working Barry"

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Hard working Barry






Myra MacPherson wrote:
"There was increased reliance at home and abroad on suppression by force and an increasingly arrogant determination to 'go it alone' in the world." This was not written when George W. Bush ignored the United Nations, colleagues, international treaties, and advice of allies and started a war but by Stone during Cold War escalation.
"All governments are run by liars . . ." This was not about the weapons of mass destruction or subsequent other Iraq War lies but those told during the Vietnam War.
That's from the foreword to her much lauded 2006 book All Governments Lie! The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I.F. Stone. All governments lie. And continue to lie. And then lie some more. Lies started the illegal war. Lies continue it today. UPI noted that day that the handover of a Basra airbase was the UK "formally ending its Iraq mission." But it wasn't the end. In that day's snapshot (where it's noted it's not the end) the most telling detail may have been CNN reporting that England was the location for a meet-up between then-UK prime minister Gordon Brown and then-Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki where they "discussed opening Iraq up to more investment opportunities." There's actual withdrawal and there's faux actions designed to confuse the public and tamp down on outrage.
Sam Marsden (PA) reports, "Most of the 150 British troops still serving in Iraq are set to be brought home next spring, the military said today." That's reported today and it's probably confusing to some since the British 'withdrew' some time ago. April 30, 2009, BBC News offered video and proclaimed, "A ceremony has been held in Basra to mark the official end of the six-year British military mission in Iraq."
Land of snap decisions
Land of short attention spans
Nothing is savored
Long enough to really understand
In every culture in decline
The watchful ones among the slaves
Know all that is genuine will be
Scorned and conned and cast away
Lies and liars keep the illegal wars going. All governments lie, stated I.F. Stone though the useless whores among us -- such as Katrina vanden Heuvel -- insist there must be some sort of an exception for St. Barack of Obscurantism. There are no exceptions and there has been no end to the Iraq War.
It hasn't ended but it has created the region's largest refugee crisis. It's done that by targeting the vulnerable which can be defined as all the Iraqi people who were not among the select group of Shi'ite exiles plotting the illegal war before the start of it and then rewarded by being put in charge of Iraq by the occupying powers. These thugs also sometimes protect their 'followers' (muscle; goon squads). Everyone else has a target drawn on their backs. Maybe they're part of Iraq's LGBT community? Or maybe they're just thought to be part of it. That's enough to be kidnapped and murdered by the thugs the US and the UK put in charge of Iraq. Or maybe you're a doctor or a professor? That's enough to have your name on the targeted list. Shi'ite exiles really can't re-write history and present themselves as brave warriors for their country as long as academic pursuit isn't controlled or intimidated by them. Or maybe you're part of Iraq's religious minority which also includes the Sunni population. Or maybe you're a part of any of that or none of that because you're a woman? Women are among the most victimized in Iraq. First thing the thugs did once installed was take a country that had long had equality written into the law and instead attack the rights of women.
All governments lie. Which is how Barack claimed Iraq was a success and something to be proud of in his August 31st speech. There's no denying it is a success for the criminals who plotted it -- both the exiles and the US and UK governments. It's not a success for the Iraqi people but Barack Obama is not of the people. From where he sneers down, it's a 'success.' But that's nothing to be proud of as the ongoing violence, destruction and genocides demonstrate.
Michaela Yule (Global Post) reports from Syria on the estimated 1.5 million who have sought asylum there including a young woman whose family left Iraq 3 years ago and who states, "Personally, I do not even have a slight hope that Iraq will recover. It is impossible because of greed, and the fact that everyone wants to have a piece of Iraq." Yule observes:

The Iraqi refugee crisis is currently the worst humanitarian crisis in the Middle East since the start of the Palestinian refugee crisis in 1948.
An estimated 2.5 million Iraqis are displaced abroad, and an equal number are internally displaced. With little hope for immediate return, these displaced Iraqis live in a state of limbo, most unable either to return to their homes or settle in their new locations.

A very small number of Iraqi refugees have been accepted by the US and England -- despite both countries being the chief leaders of the march to illegal war. Those few allowed into the US often continue to struggle. Tara Bahrampour (Washington Post) reports on Manal Jafer and her family. She and her husband lived well in Baghdad prior to the start of the illegal war. He was a professor, she was a medical doctor. After the illegal war began, things changed. A fall 2003 home invasion left her husband dead and her wounded, she believes the stress from all the violence is what killed her teenage son. With her remaining three children, she went to Jordan and then to the US where the economy and the cheapness of the Bush administration -- which was continued by the Barack administration -- means that refugees are receiving a tiny and limited stipend and then on their own -- in a country where the real unemployment rate is estimated to be around at least 17.3% but officially at 9.6%. Meanwhile BBC News reports that the UK Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt has announced this week that England will continue deporting Iraqi refugees. Amnesty International issued the following:

Responding to comments from UK Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt, saying that the UK would continue to remove refused Iraqi asylum seekers to Baghdad, Amnesty International UK Refugee Programme Director Jan Shaw said:

"The UK should listen to the European Court of Human Rights and, like the Dutch authorities, suspend removals to Baghdad until it's safe.

"The authorities are, of course, entitled to remove people if they don't need international protection and it's safe to return them. But Iraq is still incredibly dangerous.

"Amnesty is opposed to all forcible removals to central and southern Iraq until the security situation improves considerably.

"The UK government knows full well that anyone applying to the European Court under 'Rule 39' will have their removal suspended. So effectively they are just trying to catch out anyone who doesn't know about this ruling, or who doesn't have decent legal representation. Sadly this still includes far too many people."

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

No MoJo




UH . . . NO.




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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

He doesn't like working







The US government has made quite clear it doesn't give a damn about Iraqi citizens. Feisal Amin Rasould al-Istrabadi (Today) observes, "Seven months after Iraq's national elections, the United States has publicly denied taking sides in the wrangling over who will be Prime Minister. Privately, however, the US is backing the incumbent, Mr Nouri Al Maliki. The US has applied tremendous diplomatic pressure on Iraq's Arab neighbours to get them to accept another Maliki term. Most have refused. Initially, the US backed Mr Maliki in order to keep the Sadrist bloc from gaining a share of power. However, that has now backfired, since the Sadrists are the only group other than Mr Maliki's coalition of Shia parties that supports him."
Well what about the US citizens?
Another US soldier dies in Iraq and Joe Biden's flapping his gums about what the US has to do for Iraq? In what world does that make sense?
Maybe in the same world where everything he publicly predicted about Nouri has come true but, being vice president, he has to toe the line when, if he'd stayed in the Senate, he could take credit for just how right he was about Nouri.
Once upon a time, not all that long ago, the US Congress expected Iraq to be wrapped up and for the puppets to get their act together enough for the US to leave. Let's drop back to April 2, 2008 and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing, that then-Senator Joe Biden chaired, which was entitled "Iraq After The Surge." Let's zoom in on US Senator Barbara Boxer speaking to Stephen Biddle:
Biddle: Yes.
Eight months after an election and no government. Does Barbara Boxer think that's evidence of the puppets finding the way? In that hearing, she declared, "There is no good solution to this nightmare so why not just figure out a way to tell the Iraqis, 'We've spilled the blood, now it's your turn'." It's over 2 years later and still the US government isn't sending that message.
Is there any accountability at all? Does no one but US House Rep Lloyd Dogget even remember the 18 benchmarks the White House proposed and Nouri signed off on in 2007? Dropping back to the September 16, 2008 snapshot for that day's US House Committee on the Budget hearing on Iraq's Budget Surplus and this exchange is between US House Rep Lloyd Doggett and the GAO's Joseph A. Christoff:
Joseph Christoff: Based on that prior report correct.
Joseph Christoff: And that's still true.
Joseph Christoff: That's correct.
Joseph Christoff: Correct, and no progess this year either.
Lloyd Doggett: Right, but we're not there yet.
What was the point of the benchmarks? The people were told it was to ensure progress in Iraq and that progress could be measured. Why present the benchmarks to Congress, get Nouri to sign off on them and then ignore them?
It makes no sense and it cheapens the lives lost in this illegal war.
No, we scream in cathedrals
Why can't it be so beautiful
Why does there
Gotta be a sac-sac-sacrifice
Gotta be a sac-sac-sacrifice
-- "iiiee," written by Tori Amos, first appears on her From The Choirgirl Hotel
Was Saddam Hussein a man of peace? Was he the new Ghandi? No, he wasn't. Not by any means and it's indicative of just how badly the US government screwed up everything that the exiles they have put in place, installed into power, have made things worse for Iraqis. This is the US-installed regime that's targeting Iraqi Christians. Iraqi Christians have been targeted since the start of the illegal war. The latest wave started on October 31st when assailants attacked Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad and at least 70 people died with at least another seventy wounded. Iraqis covered in the press -- in the foreign press, little coverage on this comes from the domestic press -- would state in that immediate aftermath that they were thinking of moving to Mosul but a relative or friend warned them that it wasn't safe there. Mosul was the focus of a 2008 wave of assaults on Iraqi Christians and, since the siege of the Church in Baghdad, Mosul's again become a place where Iraqi Christians are targeted. Over the weekend Sam Eyoboka (Vanguard) reported, "Peeved by the continued massacre of Christians in Iraq, the umbrella body of Christians in Nigeria, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has appealed to the United Nations, UN, to intervene and save the lives of the Christian hostages in interest of world peace. Speaking in an interview, the National President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor also appealed to the Muslim fundamen-talists in that country to take advantage of the Muslim feast of Eid el Kabir to ensure that lasting peace reigns in that region." From Nigeria to Rome, Asia News noted, "Card Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI), said that the Italian Catholic Church was close to all 'those who are victims of violence'. He made the statement as he promoted a Day of Solidarity with Iraqi Christians, who are persecuted in their own country. The event includes prayers in all Italian parishes this Sunday." Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco is quoted stating, "Inviting everyone to pray for the persecuted Christians of Iraq in all the churches of our country on the occasion of the Solemnity of Christ the King is a concrete way to express our faith and show our closeness to all those who are victims of violence, like the people affected by the 31 October carnage in Baghdad's Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral." Catholic News Agency reports, "Pope Benedict XVI prayed for Christians suffering from persecution and discrimination throughout the world, especially those in Iraq, during the Angelus on Nov. 21. The Italian bishops invited the faithful to a day of prayer for the persecuted and for their persecutors after the Oct. 31 massacre of dozens of Iraqi Christians celebrating Mass in a Baghdad cathedral. Violence continues to be directed against the country's Christian minorities. The day of prayer was promoted as a sign of closeness and solidarity to Iraqi Christians and all those persecuted for their faith."

The targeting continues today. Jomana Karadsheh (CNN) reports two Iraqi Christians, brothers, were at the Mosul welding shop they owned and worked at when assailants burst in and shot them dead while "an elederly Christian woman [was] strangled in her home in central Mosul." AFP identifies the two brothers as 40-year-old Waad Hanna and 43-year-old Saad Hanna. Asia News reports that "Saad dies instantly, Hanna, two hours later." Catholic Culture notes, "After months of occasional bombings, the targeted attacks on Christians have taken a more personal turn, with murderers breaking into homes and workplaces to murder the Christians they have targeted."
Internal and external refugees are created by the violence. Internal? Asia News reports that 40 Chrisian faimilies have left Baghdad for northern Iraq while Randa Habib (AFP) reports the latest wave has resulted in many Iraqi Christians seeking safety in Jordan:


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