Category: Iraq War
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Missing ’28 Pages’ of the 9/11 Report Released into Blitzkrieg of World Events / Politics / Iraq War
By: Jeff_Berwick
We have been massive and outspoken proponents that 9/11 was an inside job since our inception in 2010. Five or more years ago that was a fairly extreme stance. We’d often get people calling us “crazy,” but I’m used to it.
In the last few years, however, it appears that anyone who has a decent internet connection and has looked into the details of what happened on September 11, 2001, probably agrees with our stance.
For the last few years this has caused an outcry that the “missing 28 pages” from the 9/11 Report be released. Eventually, as the pressure increased, we became confident the pages would be released and began to wonder about the timing.
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Saturday, January 02, 2016
Iraq’s Longstanding Nightmare Continues / Politics / Iraq War
By: Stephen_Lendman
Washington bears full responsibility for the Middle East’s longstanding nightmare, partnered with rogue Israeli, NATO and Arab regimes. Call it the curse of oil - Iraq Exhibit A.
From America’s orchestrated Iran/Iraq war to Operation Desert Storm, to years of genocidal sanctions, to Operation Iraqi Freedom, to ongoing out-of-control raging violence and chaos, its imperial madness destroyed the cradle of civilization, replacing it with endless dystopian harshness - one of history’s greatest crimes, accountability nowhere in sight.
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Sunday, May 10, 2015
Splitting Up Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
“Iraq’s fate was sealed from the moment we invaded: it has no future as a unitary state … Iraq is fated to split apart into at least three separate states…This was the War Party’s real if unexpressed goal from the very beginning: the atomization of Iraq, and indeed the entire Middle East. Their goal, in short, was chaos – and that is precisely what we are seeing today.” — Justin Raimondo, editor Antiwar.com
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Are We Ready for the Fall of Baghdad? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Ron_Holland
I recently was in Vietnam and spent some time in prosperous, capitalist Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City, and toured the American War Museum. I believe there are a number of parallels between the Vietnam and Iraq War and that history could repeat itself now in Baghdad. Who can forget the former Vietnamese supporters of America being left behind as the last helicopter left the roof of the US embassy?
Today, America still has the strongest military in the world but our manufacturing capacity and financial situation shows the US is on a downhill slide like earlier over-extended and bankrupt empires throughout world history.
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Thursday, October 09, 2014
America’s Terrorist Academy in Iraq Produced ISIS Leaders / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
The Obama administration’s determination to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is pushing the Middle East towards a regional war that could lead to a confrontation between the two nuclear-armed rivals, Russia and the United States.
Last week, Turkey joined the US-led coalition following a vote in parliament approving a measure to give the government the authority to launch military action against Isis in Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made it clear that Turkish involvement would come at a price, and that price would be the removal of al Assad. According to Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily
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Monday, August 18, 2014
Ron Paul Asks - What Have We Accomplished in Iraq? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
We have been at war with Iraq for 24 years, starting with Operations Desert Shield and Storm in 1990. Shortly after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait that year, the propaganda machine began agitating for a US attack on Iraq. We all remember the appearance before Congress of a young Kuwaiti woman claiming that the Iraqis were ripping Kuwaiti babies from incubators. The woman turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US and the story was false, but it was enough to turn US opposition in favor of an attack.
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Thursday, August 14, 2014
Back In Iraq: We Only Want To Save You / Politics / Iraq War
By: Danny_Schechter
New York, New York: Welcome back to Iraq—complete with our ever present WMD’s --- Weapons of Mass deception.
Suddenly, the country we never wanted to have to think about again is back in the news and on our military agenda. So, after a few denials that troops would not, never, and no way be sent, sure’nuff, U.S, boots are back on the ground, but to play a very different “mission.”
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Monday, August 04, 2014
Three Countries to Emerge from Iraq as We Know it Now! / Politics / Iraq War
By: Julian_DW_Phillips
In the last few weeks the story of Iraq has faded from the headlines to be replaced by the story on the Ukraine, Gaza and on the business front the tumble of the Dow on the New York Stock Exchange.
But right now in the world we are watching many structural changes taking place quietly but completely. One is the shift of wealth and power to the east, the rise of the Yuan and its use in a growing number of global transactions in the place of the U.S. dollar. At the moment Russia is turning its economic head towards China and the developed world doing its best to do so too. And still the east is gaining ground and its share of global cash flow has doubled from 20% to 40% since the beginning of the century. This is set to continue strongly.
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Sunday, July 06, 2014
Iraq Reverse Evolution - Iraqi Warriors Scattered Sand / Politics / Iraq War
By: Stephen_Merrill
Reverse EvolutionThe geographical region of Iraq is the place in the world most credited with starting human civilization, circa 3100 B.C., along the Euphrates Valley. Ancient Mesopotamia was the very tip of modernity at the outset of recorded history.
Now it seems Iraq is bent on undoing civilization altogether with a return to the chaos of a state-of-nature, where warlords, religious and secular, terrorize the population.
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Thursday, July 03, 2014
Iraq: Examining the Professed Caliphate / Politics / Iraq War
By: STRATFOR
Summary
The Islamic State, previously known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, has changed its name, but otherwise the militant group remains the same. Over the past weekend, a spokesman for the group announced that it had established a caliphate stretching from Diyala province, Iraq, to Aleppo, Syria. The caliphate is a political institution that the Islamic State claims will govern the global Muslim community. "Iraq" and "Levant" have been dropped from the organization's name to reflect its new status.
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Tuesday, July 01, 2014
The Sunni Ramadan Offensive and the Lessons of Tet / Politics / Iraq War
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writesIn February 1968, the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong launched a general offensive in Vietnam during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. From mid-1966 onward, the North Vietnamese had found themselves under increasing pressure from American and South Vietnamese forces. They were far from defeated, but they were weakening and the likelihood of their military victory was receding. The North Vietnamese decided to reverse the course of the war militarily and politically by marshaling available forces, retaining only limited reserves and going on the offensive throughout South Vietnam.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Did U.S. State Deptartment Organize the Fall of el-Maliki's Iraq? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Andrew_McKillop
Divide and Rule
Push the talk button and the special crowd of American commentators at all times poised to launch a new conspiracy theory will tell you, hand on heart, that the US State Dept. and the Pentagon want the fall of Iraq's el-Maliki regime. They want to divide Iraq into Shia and Sunni camps engaged in constant sectarian warfare. The conspiracy crowd – always reflecting credit on the devious all-knowing American elite that most of these commentators pretend to hate – are rushing to tell us that the ISIS onslaught in Iraq “was all planned by the State Department”.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Iraq - Time To Do Less Not More / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_Browne
The current situation in Iraq is a modern tragedy. But in more practical terms it is a very stark illustration of the folly of central planning and the limits of state power in the face of entrenched traditions and proven history. Although the parallels aren't perfect, the rapid dissolution of the puppet Iraqi state can offer some stark lessons to those who are optimistic about our current experiment in central bank dominated economic planning.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Secession in Iraq, Sunniland, Shialand and Kurdistan / Politics / Iraq War
By: Jack_D_Douglas
Jack D. Douglas writes: ISIS is getting most of the Sunni tribes and areas North and East of Baghdad to join them in a new nation-state. The Sunni are doing so, partly because ISIS is a powerful guerrilla army, but also because they want to be free from Shia Baghdad, just as the Kurds are north of them in Kurdestan creating their own independent nation-state.
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Sunday, June 22, 2014
Splitting Up Iraq - It’s All For Israel / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
“It is no longer plausible to argue that ISIS was a result of unintentional screw ups by the US. It is a clear part of a US strategy to break up the Iran-Iraq-Syria-Hezbollah alliance. Now that strategy may prove to be a total failure and end up backfiring, but make no mistake, ISIS IS the strategy.” - Lysander, Comments line, Moon of Alabama
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Friday, June 20, 2014
Should The West Save Iraq? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Andrew_McKillop
Why Does Obama Hesitate?
Obama hesitated for some while before deciding not to bomb Syrian president Bashr el-Assad out of power. To be sure, Russia helped that decision in a big way. If el-Assad had been chased from power and given a show trial like Saddam Hussein before being killed, or not even given a show trial like Muammar Gaddafi before being killed, fundamentalist Islamic forces would have held sway in Syria.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Iraq: The Cost of Building a Failed State / Politics / Iraq War
By: Steve_H_Hanke
"Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other." - Thomas Jefferson
Nobel Laureate George Akerlof uses this edifying quote from Thomas Jefferson to good effect in his foreword of Hossein Askari's excellent read, Conflicts and Wars: Their Fallout and Prevention (Palgrave MacMillan, New York, 2012). Indeed, Prof. Akerlof has this to say about Askari's work:
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Wednesday, June 18, 2014
ISIS Crisis Only Tip of the Sunni Ice-berg in Iraq, Whilst Blair Goes Mad / Politics / Iraq War
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The mainstream press has been awash with commentary over the past few days of the apparent miraculous speed at which ISIS has conquered approx 1/3rd of Iraq and now threatens the capital Baghdad, which has prompted has been's such as Tony Blair to step forward and offer his tuppence worth of recommendations for apparently an Iraq War 2 style western assault on the region, suggestions which were immediately denounced by many, including Boris Johnson as being mad.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Ron Paul - Haven't We Already Done Enough Damage in Iraq? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
In 2006, I invited the late General Bill Odom to address my Thursday Congressional luncheon group. Gen. Odom, a former NSA director, called the Iraq war "the greatest strategic disaster in American history," and told the surprised audience that he could not understand why Congress had not impeached the president for pushing this disaster on the United States. History continues to prove the General's assessment absolutely correct.
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Sunday, June 15, 2014
Mena War Fever And The Iraq Crude Oil Price Spike / Politics / Iraq War
By: Andrew_McKillop
Libyan Precedent
Whatever Libya's oil production is, this week, it is a lot less than the approximate 1.6 million barrels a day it regularly extracted and shipped during the Muammar Gaddafi era. Libya has no effective government and its last prime minister Ali Zedan fled to Europe in March, replaced by a shifting coalition of rival forces with changing strongmen. His supposed replacement, former Defence minister Abdullah el-Thinni has since late April kept a low profile, sometimes saying he has “stepped down”, and sometimes not. As recently as June 4, he told Reuters that he was stepping down but was also staying on as “interim PM”!
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Black Flags Over Mosul / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
"The whole of Mosul collapsed today. We’ve fled our homes and neighborhoods, and we’re looking for God’s mercy. We are waiting to die." – Mahmoud Al Taie, resident of Mosul, Wall Street Journal
An army of Sunni fighters affiliated to al Qaida crossed the Syrian border into Iraq on Tuesday, scattering defensive units from the Iraqi security forces, capturing Iraq’s second biggest city of Mosul, and sending 500,000 civilians fleeing for safety. The unexpected jihadi blitz has left President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy in tatters and created a crisis of incalculable magnitude.
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Friday, June 13, 2014
Who Is To Blame For Iraq? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Andrew_McKillop
Bloomberg Tells All
In a strange article signed only “The Editors” and posted to Bloomberg's web sites, 13 June, its few published Comments were mostly flippant. One said Iraq is or was an illusion that could only be propped up by bombs, but destroying the illusion would also need bombs – therefore Iraq was or is a paradox. In fact, as I have argued in several articles, Iraq was an artificial entity, not created for any specific purpose other than developing its then unknown-size oil resources, without any credible claims to national identity – or unity – and created with no particular life expectancy or “shelf life”, that is either short, medium or long. Concerning the Kurds, however, the Iraq of post-1923 obliterated an existing and functional national entity – Kurdistan – which as we know has returned to the headlines, this week, because it can and will effectively resist any attempt by ISIS, formerly 'Al Qaeda in Iraq' to encroach on Kurdistan. Kirkuk is probably now under Kurd military control.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Iraq Perfect Storm as ISIS Islamic End Times Prophecy Seeks Fulfillment in Sham / Levant / Politics / Iraq War
By: Nadeem_Walayat
It's mission accomplished for George Bush the 'manchurian candidate's' decade long the war on Iraq which has finally succeeded in delivering the country to the Saudi funded ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham), even more extreme than Al-Qeeda that it split from just over a year ago in Syria, who's ultimate aim is to create an Islamic state spanning Syria and much of Iraq that they seek to pull back in time to the 7th century.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Iraq Worsening Violence Threatens Regional Security / Politics / Iraq War
By: STRATFOR
Battles continue to rage across northern Iraq, pitting jihadist group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant against Iraqi security forces and their allies. The growing reach of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant has escalated an already brutal campaign in Iraq. Alarmingly quick advances by the militants across an important region of the Middle East could draw in regional powers as well as the United States
Thursday, June 12, 2014
The Fiction Of Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: Andrew_McKillop
Can You Trust This Man
Iraq was a prime example of post-World War I dithering and influence trading among the three Allied Powers, in Iraq's case especially concerning the UK and US. Everybody has heard about its early version with a 19th Province called Kuwait, and Imperial Iraq's incorporation – totally against their will – of the Kurds from 1923 to 2005. Its president today, Nouri el-Maliki is probably the last who can pretend the country is united and has “internationally recognized borders”, but he is not just anybody. Levering him into power, and his attempts at staying there, only since 2003, have cost more than one hundred thousand human lives and well over 100 billion US dollars.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
1 Million Killed, Iraq the Biggest Petroleum Heist in History? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
“Prior to the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, US and other western oil companies were all but completely shut out of Iraq’s oil market. But thanks to the invasion and occupation, the companies are now back inside Iraq and producing oil there for the first time since being forced out of the country in 1973.” – Antonia Juhasz, oil industry analyst, Al Jazeera.
These are the ‘best of times’ for the oil giants in Iraq. Production is up, profits are soaring, and big oil is rolling in dough. Here’s the story from the Wall Street Journal:
Read full article... Read full article...“Iraq’s oil production surged to its highest level in over 30 years last month, surprising skeptics of the country’s efforts to restore its oil industry after decades of war and neglect.” (Wall Street Journal)
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Iraqi Government Threatens Action Against Kurds as Oil Exports Set to Begin / Politics / Iraq War
By: OilPrice_Com
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs firmly stated the central government will take action, "including fiscal measures," if Kurdistan begins exporting oil without coming to an agreement with Baghdad. The remarks came as Minister Hussain al-Shahristani spoke at a conference in London on January 28. The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) announced in mid-January that oil had begun to flow through a pipeline towards Turkey and that exports would officially start by the end of the month.
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Thursday, March 21, 2013
Iraq War: Worth It Or Not? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Andrew_McKillop
THE SIMPLE ANSWER IS NO
Writing for Bloomberg (19 March), Meghan O'Sullivan who is a professor of international affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government avoids any real answer and bows out by saying "we need more time". Nice answer!
She claims this is the "frustrating reality" and, anyway, as she says, talking about Iraq is emotional for many Americans and even for some Brits, given that the 2003 war was a co-production of George W. Bush and Tony Blair, both of them heavily guarded today in sumptuous retirement hideaways, but with problems concerning which countries they could visit without being indicted: for war crime. Costs of the war, as well as the number of deaths are instantly controversial, as well as hard to estimate. Joseph Stiglitz guesses $1 trillion, which could be compared with the number of years of average US oil import spending this equals: given that US imports are on an increasingly steep downtrend, due to rapid shale oil output growth and very slow demand growth, the number of years stretches onward and upward. To be sure, this would imagine the US took all Iraq's oil exports and received it gratis!
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Iraq, America's Arab Slaughterhouse / Politics / Iraq War
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Ten years ago today the Bush regime invaded Iraq. It is known that the justification for the invasion was a packet of lies orchestrated by the neoconservative Bush regime in order to deceive the United Nations and the American people.
The US Secretary of State at that time, General Colin Powell, has expressed his regrets that he was used by the Bush regime to deceive the United Nations with fake intelligence that the Bush and Blair regimes knew to be fake. But the despicable presstitute media has not apologized to the American people for serving the corrupt Bush regime as its Ministry of Propaganda and Lies.
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Friday, March 09, 2012
The Real Situation in Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: OilPrice_Com
A delegation from the International Energy Agency spent two days in Baghdad speaking with high-ranking officials in preparation for an end-of-year report on the country's oil sector. By some estimates, Iraq could hold some of the largest oil reserves in the world and an international auction for oil and natural gas blocks is planned for May. Without a hydrocarbon law, and considering the fractured political system, the IEA's report may be more about political obstacles than oil potential, however.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 15, 2011
U.S. Wastes $3.5 Trillion on Iraq War, Prepares for War Against Iran / Politics / Iraq War
By: Global_Research
Bill Van Auken writes: The White House has used the imminent withdrawal of all but a handful of US troops from Iraq to promote Barack Obama’s reelection campaign. The president’s strategists are conducting a cynical propaganda operation aimed at simultaneously identifying him with the military and pushing the claim that the pullout is a fulfillment of his 2008 campaign promises.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Could War Flare Again Between Iraq and Kuwait? / Politics / Iraq War
By: OilPrice_Com
According to Iraqi Council of Representatives Oil and Energy Committee member Furat al-Sharei, the 10 oil fields that spread across the Iraqi-Kuwaiti frontier are still waiting to have a line drawn through them to delineate the border, more than eight years after a coalition led by U.S. forces toppled the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Wikileaks, U.S. Iraq War Genocide Civilian Deaths Could Top 1million / Politics / Iraq War
By: Global_Research
Nicolas Davies writes: The documents on the U.S. War in Iraq published by Wikileaks contained data on 15,000 Iraqis killed in incidents that were previously unreported in the Western media or by the Iraqi Health Ministry, and therefore not counted in compilations of reported Iraqi war deaths by Iraqbodycount.org. The Western media are dutifully adding these 15,000 deaths to their so-called "estimates" of the total numbers of Iraqis killed in the war. This is deceptive. What the unreported deaths really demonstrate is that the passive methodology of these body counts is a woefully inadequate way to try and estimate the number of deaths in a war zone. These 15,000 deaths are only the tip of an iceberg of hundreds of thousands of unreported Iraqi deaths that have already been detected by more serious and scientific epidemiological studies, but the U.S. and British governments have successfully suppressed these studies by confusing the media and the public about their methods and accuracy.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Wikileaks Nukes Pentagon's Lies and Deceit on Iraq and Afghanistan Wars / Politics / Iraq War
By: Pravda
Wikileaks may cause irreparable damage to the United States as it continues to declassify the information about the activities of US and allied troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. On October 19th, the Pentagon urged mass media not to distribute the information which appears on Wikileaks not to make the controversial website obtain the reputation of a reliable source of information.
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Iraq War End or Escalation? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Amid much fanfare last week, the last supposed "combat" troops left Iraq as the administration touted the beginning of the end of the Iraq War and a change in the role of the United States in that country. Considering the continued public frustration with the war effort, and with the growing laundry list of broken promises, this was merely another one of the administration's operations in political maneuvering and semantics in order to convince an increasingly war-weary public that the Iraq War is at last ending. However, military officials confirm that we are committed to intervention in that country for years to come, and our operations have in fact, changed minimally, if really at all.
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Thursday, August 19, 2010
U.S. Operation of Destroying Iraqi State Almost Complete / Politics / Iraq War
By: Global_Research
Elena Pustovoitova writes: There is no question where the US forces withdrawn from Iraq will go – Afghanistan is known to be the next destination.
In the process, Washington manages to demonstrate a commitment to peace. The US President is convinced that the US mission in Iraq can be “safely” finished by the end of August and the US will pull out by the end of the year, says White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
U.S. Iraq Withdrawal Limited Options / Politics / Iraq War
By: STRATFOR
It is August 2010, which is the month when the last U.S. combat troops are scheduled to leave Iraq. It is therefore time to take stock of the situation in Iraq, which has changed places with Afghanistan as the forgotten war. This is all the more important since 50,000 troops will remain in Iraq, and while they may not be considered combat troops, a great deal of combat power remains embedded with them. So we are far from the end of the war in Iraq. The question is whether the departure of the last combat units is a significant milestone and, if it is, what it signifies.
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Sunday, March 21, 2010
Iraq War Seventh Anniversary Muted Media Coverage / Politics / Iraq War
By: Danny_Schechter
On The Seventh Anniversary of the War On Iraq: Spotty Coverage, A Few Protests, and A Desire to “Move On” To Make It All Disappear
American media loves anniversaries of major events. They become ideal “news pegs” to do follow-up stories. You would think that they would have pulled out the stops for the seventh anniversary of the US war on Iraq, a war that was described by the Pentagon in its first days as a “cake walk” and designed as a quick intervention modeled after the in-out combat of Operation Desert Storm ending Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
Friday, March 05, 2010
Iraqi Elections Likely To Fuel Ethnic Tensions, Further Delay Access To Kirkuk's Reserves / Politics / Iraq War
By: OilPrice_Com
The elections in Iraq on March 7, 2010, are likely to serve as an important indicator of the prospects for a resolution of the long-running dispute over the administration of the ethnically mixed and resource-rich province of Kirkuk in the north of the country.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tony Blair's Justification for Waging War in Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: Washingtons_Blog
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Iraq War investigation that - whether or not Iraq had weapons of mass destruction - he would have backed the Iraq war.
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Saturday, November 28, 2009
The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict / Politics / Iraq War
By: Submissions
In 2003 Donald Rumsfeld estimated a war with Iraq would cost $60 billion. Five years later, the cost of Iraq war operations is over 10 times that figure. So what's behind the ballooning dollar signs? Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilme's exhaustedly researched book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict," breaks down the price tag, from current debts to the unseen costs we'll pay for years to come. In 2003 Donald Rumsfeld estimated a war with Iraq would cost $60 billion.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Iraq Security Report, Rebounding Jihad? / Politics / Iraq War
By: STRATFOR
On Oct. 25, militants in Iraq conducted a coordinated attack in which they detonated large vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) at the federal Ministry of Justice building and the Baghdad Provincial Council building nearly simultaneously. The two ministries are located in central Baghdad near the Green Zone and are just over a quarter of a mile apart.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
United States Defeated in Iraq? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
The United States did not invade Iraq to "stop the violence". That was never the goal. So, it's foolish to say that the surge achieved its objective. It hasn't. Nor has the surge "created the space for a political solution"; another meaningless slogan regurgitated endlessly by the Bush troupe. The political agenda in Iraq has failed utterly. We know that because the Shiite-led government has asked the US to leave "as soon as possible" and for the Bush administration to set a "timetable for withdrawal". Not a "time horizon" as the administration-spinmiesters like to say; a Timetable, which means a fixed time when the United States must leave. So, if the Iraqi government has asked the US to leave; where is the "political solution" the surge was supposed to create? There isn't one. The mission has failed; it's as plain as day. This is not an arguable point. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
What's the Cost of the Iraq War on US Economy? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
What is the importance of the war in Iraq relative to other current issues? This is a question I am often asked, especially as Americans continue to become increasingly aware that something is very wrong with the economy. The difficulty with the way the question is often asked relates to the perception that we are somehow able to divide such issues, or to isolate the cost of war into arbitrarily defined areas such as national security or international relations. War is an all-encompassing governmental activity.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Financial Collapse will End the Occupation of Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
The US Military has won every battle it has fought in Iraq, but it has lost the war. Wars are won politically, not militarily. Bush doesn't understand this. He still clings to the belief that a political settlement can be imposed through force. But he is mistaken. The use of overwhelming force has only spread the violence and added to the political instability. Now Iraq is ungovernable. Was that the objective? Miles of concrete blast-walls snake through Baghdad to separate the warring parties; the country is fragmented into a hundred smaller pieces each ruled by local militia commanders. These are the signs of failure not success. That's why the American people no longer support the occupation. They're just being practical; they know Bush's plan won't work. As Nir Rosen says, “Iraq has become Somalia”. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Pentagon Iraq War Cover-up - Actual US Casualties Over 15,000! / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
The Pentagon has been concealing the true number of American casualties in the Iraq War. The real number exceeds 15,000 and CBS News can prove it.
CBS's Investigative Unit wanted to do a report on the number of suicides in the military and “submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense”. After 4 months they received a document which showed--that between 1995 and 2007--there were 2,200 suicides among “active duty” soldiers.
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Sunday, October 28, 2007
No Plan, No Peace – The Inside Story Of Iraq's Descent Into Chaos - BBC1 Documentary 10.15pm - 28th Oct 07 / Politics / Iraq War
By: BBC
For the first time on British television, John Ware looks at what became of the Bush-Blair dream of turning Iraq into a stable, democratic, human rights-respecting showcase for the Middle East.
The programme asks how the American and British Governments undertook the biggest occupation of a foreign country in modern times without a coherent plan.
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Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Geopolitical Foundations of Blackwater in Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_Mauldin
This week in the Special Outside the Box, good friend George Friedman addresses the lax governance and control of Blackwater, a private security firm recently embroiled in the accusation of firing upon Iraqi civilians without provocation. George shows us that private security contractors' working beside the military is not a recent mode of operation but rather one that has long been employed by the US military. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Blackwater Accused of Murdering Innocent Iraqi Civilians / Politics / Iraq War
By: Anwaar_Hussain
So what are these Blackwater operatives? Peace keepers, law enforcers or dogs of war, armed goons? Or are they the new Stasi ?Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
The Movable Green Zone: Blanking the Beach - "The Second Tsunami" - Part 7 / Politics / Iraq War
By: Stephen_Lendman
For coastal Sri Lankans, like those in Arugam Bay, December 26, 2004 felt more like 1945 Hiroshima than life before that fateful day changing everything for them. A devastating tsunami took 250,000 lives and left 2.5 million homeless throughout the region. It affected Arugam Bay, "a fishing and faded resort village" on the island's east coast that government was showcasing in its plans to "build back better." Indeed, but not for the villagers hoteliers, developers and the government wanted removed but weren't sure how until nature did what they couldn't.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
The Shock Doctrine: Iraq, Full Circle - Overshock - Erasing A Country - Part 6 / Politics / Iraq War
By: Stephen_Lendman
Perhaps no country provides a greater untapped opportunity for unfettered capitalism than Iraq. It represents the planet's last remaining low-hanging oil resources fruit with potentially more of it than Saudi Arabia according to some oil analysts. It's also strategically located in the heart of the oil-rich Middle East (with two-thirds of proved reserves) Klein calls the "crusade's....final frontier." Iraq's potential alone is so enormous it made war the way to crack open its market potential because peaceful methods hadn't worked. Its conquest would then serve as "a different model in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world" that could become a catalyst to opening the whole region.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, September 14, 2007
War on Terror, Iraq, Psychology and Time / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_Mauldin
This week in a Special Outside the Box, George Friedman of Stratfor reflects upon September 11th, a monumental date in our country's history. George strives to discern the current and future ramifications of US military presence in the Orient, posits what - if any - reasoning stands to support and drive Osama Bin Laden's underlying motives and actions, and the impact the tragic event and our response have upon the American psyche.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, September 03, 2007
CIA Faked Photos Helped Lead US to Invade Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: Walter_Brasch
Add faked photos to the list of lies told by the Bush–Cheney Administration before its invasion of Iraq.
In a town hall meeting in Bloomsburg, Pa., this week, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a 12-term congressman, said that shortly before Congress was scheduled to vote on authorizing military force against Iraq, top officials of the CIA showed select members of Congress three photographs it alleged were Iraqi Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones. Kanjorski said he was told that the drones were capable of carrying nuclear, biological, or chemical agents, and could strike 1,000 miles inland of east coast or west coast cities.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
US Iraq War Policy "Intellectually Bankrupt" / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
In a scathing attack on Donald Rumsfeld and the US failed policy of invasion and occupation of Iraq by the former head of the British Army in Iraq, General Sir Mike Jackson stated :Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, August 10, 2007
The Major Diplomatic and Strategic Evolution in Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_Mauldin
This week in a Special Outside the Box good friend George Friedman addresses the Byzantine geopolitical ramifications of recent three party discussions between the Americans, Iraqis, and Iranians. With no obvious reason to trust one another and a good deal of reasons not to, why are we seeing evidence of more discussions.
As George tells it, there is more than meets the eye to these talks. The different parties all strive to extract the most favorable concessions from the Iraq War befitting their respective, and divergent interests; alas, both Iran and the US have come to the realization, albeit belated, that neither party can achieve their objective and the even far more politically grievous realization that no single party can aspire to control or stability in Iraq without the explicit cooperation of all parties, working in unison toward collective initiatives. Further, the risk that everything spins out of control is forcing negotiations among enemies.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
NHS Doctors are Terrorists, London and Glasgow Attacks / Politics / Iraq War
By: N_Walayat
Allegedly two of the suspect terrorists held by Police for the Glasgow and London bombings attempts are NHS Doctors.
One of the doctors was the person to emerge on fire from the burning SUV Jeep at Glasgow Airport and is said to be from Iran. The other alleged doctor arrested on the M6 and is said to be of possible Jordanian origins and is thought to be behind the planning of the attacks.
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Monday, June 25, 2007
Iraqis to Bush: “You have left us with nothing” / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
“Never had I fathomed, not even in my remotest imagination, that a day will come when God's houses will be attacked and destroyed. The way they are today, in Iraq...Never. This Red Line is now crossed...Crossed, transgressed, trespassed into blasphemy.” Layla Anwar “A Red Line” from An Arab Woman's Blues
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Tuesday, June 19, 2007
MOD Report - No Heads Should Roll Over the Fiasco of Captured British Sailors / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
In a Commons statement Defence Secretary, Des Browne released snippets of the MOD report on the capture of 15 british navy personnel in March 2007 and the continuing mistakes made following the subsquent release.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, June 17, 2007
End the Violence in Iraq? End Our Occupation / Politics / Iraq War
By: Dal_LaMagna
Today, my first full day in Amman, Jordan started off sharply. I met the most important person I will meet during this trip. And I was the first American he has agreed to meet with.
This in itself shows that the winds are slowly changing as he himself pointed out during our conversation.
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Saturday, May 19, 2007
Tony Blair Scuttles for Cover as Green Zone and Basra Come Under Mortar Attack / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
Tony Blair made his final farewell visit to Iraq today as British Prime Minister. The Invasion of Iraq is seen as the primary reason of why he is now being forced from office. As in the past no apologies were forthcoming on the disastrous decision to follow the Bush Administration into Iraq in 2003 on the basis of flimsy if not completely false propaganda.
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Monday, April 30, 2007
BBC Panorama questions MI5's defence of failure to prevent 7/7 bombers / Politics / Iraq War
By: Sarah_Jones
Peter Taylor , reporting for BBC One 's Panorama programme, has uncovered evidence that questions the Security Service's claim that under the circumstances, it did all it could to prevent the 7/7 bombings.
In Panorama: Real Spooks , to be broadcast at the end of the Operation Crevice trial, he reveals that MI5 failed to pass on relevant details about the individuals who turned out to be Mohammed Siddeque Khan and his accomplice, Shezad Tanweer , to West Yorkshire Police Special Branch when it followed the pair in 2004. At the time, MI5 did not know their identities.
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Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Newshour special investigation – Iraq War civilian deaths / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
Following a Freedom of Information request, BBC World Service Newshour has learnt that a senior British Government official advised ministers to show "caution" about publicly criticising a report published last October in the Lancet, which estimated that 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the war in Iraq.
If the Lancet survey is correct, two-and-a-half per cent of the Iraqi population - an average of more than 500 people a day - have been killed since the start of the war.
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Tuesday, March 20, 2007
BBC News poll: Optimism fades in Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
A nationwide opinion poll in Iraq conducted by BBC News suggests that people feel more insecure and increasingly pessimistic about the future of the country since a similar poll was conducted in 2005.
However, most do not believe that there is civil war in Iraq and only 17% of households polled had family members who were direct victims of violence.
Some key findings are:
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Saturday, March 10, 2007
Global GeoPolitical Realignment and the Decline of the USA as a Superpower / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
The United States has been defeated in Iraq. That doesn't mean that there'll be a troop withdrawal anytime soon, but it does mean that there's no chance of achieving the mission's political objectives. Iraq will not be a democracy, reconstruction will be minimal, and the security situation will continue to deteriorate into the foreseeable future.
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Tony Blair Starts UK Withdrawal of British Troops from Southern Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
Tony Blair has announced plans to reduce British forces in Iraq by 1600, or approximately 25% to 5,500, with further withdrawals planned during 2007 to bring the UK's troop presence to below 5000.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
How US Citizens are Sacrificing for the Iraq War - Cost / Politics / Iraq War
By: Dr_Martenson
“The average American has not been asked to sacrifice for the Iraq war…”
At least once a week for the past few years I've heard some version of the above quote and it implies that the average person has not been inconvenienced in any way by the war. Both the left and the right go to great lengths to perpetuate this illusion of no sacrifice while using the statement to fulfill whatever partisan goal they are currently chasing. Such vacuous statements leave me breathless mainly because they are so explosively ignorant that they suck all of the oxygen out of the air.
Every single person in America that uses money has sacrificed for this war. Anybody with savings, income, investments or who has bought anything over the past three years has sacrificed a significant portion of that money because of inflation brought on by excessive government spending on the Iraq War.
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Thursday, February 01, 2007
US Troop Surge in Iraq to Pacify Baghdad to satisfy Oil Majors - Is it destined to Fail ? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
“There is no solution. We’ve destroyed Iraq and we’ve destroyed the region, and Americans need to know this.”
Nir Rosen; interview with Amy Goodman, “Democracy Now”
Let’s assume for a moment, that Dick Cheney is the driving force behind the plan to surge in Iraq. Does anyone really believe that the vice president is genuinely concerned about the safety of the Iraqi people? And, yet, the media still insists that the purpose of the troop-increase is to improve security in Baghdad. Nothing could be further from the truth. The wellbeing of the Iraqi people has never been a factor in the administration’s decision-making and it isn’t now.
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Friday, January 12, 2007
Iraq War - Two lame duck leaders - George Bush and Tony Blair / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
Exactly how much damage can the two lame duck leaders of the USA and UK do during their remaining time in office ?
Both recently gave the same old tired speeches about how failed policies will win the war in Iraq, when the reality is that more UK and US solider's will die and many thousands more Iraqi's whilst they stave off the real tough decisions until after they have left office.
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Tuesday, December 05, 2006
We are losing the war in iraq, admits new US defence secretary , Robert Gates / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
Robert Gates, Ex Director of the CIA and George Bush's choice to succeed Donald Rumsfeld as US defence secretary, today admitted to the Senate that the US was not winning the war in Iraq and warned of the risk of conflagration in the Middle East because of the conflict.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Baker report on conduct of the Iraq war and options available / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
James Baker & Lee Hamilton heading the Iraq Study group commission report on the conduct of the war in Iraq and charged with correcting the US course in Iraq is due to be released by the end of this year. We look ahead at what the report is likely to contain.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Four more British soldiers killed on the Shatt al-Arab waterway - Basra, Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
Four British servicemen were killed and three seriously wounded on Sunday, after their boat patrol came under attack as it was caught in an explosion caused by an improvised bomb as it was going past, in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.The attack took place on the Shatt al-Arab waterway, the MOD added that the injured personnel were medically evacuated to Shaibah Logistics Base by helicopter.
The Shatt al-Arab waterway, flows into the Persian Gulf, and is a narrow stretch of river about 120 miles long. It is fed by the Euphrates, Tigris, and Karun rivers and the middle of which forms the border between Iraq and Iran. The stretch of water is heavily patrolled by the British and Iranians, as it is a key source for smuggling of goods and arms between the two countries.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
US Iraq War dead exceeds 9/11 as America ponders defeat / Politics / Iraq War
By: Sarah_Jones
With 2 weeks to go, the US war dead in Iraq reaches 71 and signals October is likely to be the worst month so far. Whilst at the same time exceeding the numbers killed on 9/11 In addition to the dead are the wounded numbering more than 25,000. Let alone the iraqi dead estimates of whom go as high as 600,000.
The talk in the White House is now of an exit strategy, the key phrase being used is 'redeployment' rather than withdrawal, redeployment in plain language is withdrawal out of Iraq.
Who will fill the void ? The only possibility is of handing over partial responsibility to Iran and Syria to subdue insurgent factions so as to prevent civil war in Iraq, as both countries presently as stoking the fires of civil war, whereas should the US leave Iraq, it is likely they would want a stable neighbor as the conflict could spill over into Iran and Syria.
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Friday, August 11, 2006
U.K. thwarts air terror plot !!! / Politics / Iraq War
By: Sarah_Jones
A plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said. It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled in hand luggage on to as many as 10 aircraft.
Police are searching premises after 21 people were arrested. Home Secretary John Reid said they believed the "main players" were accounted for.
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Saturday, January 28, 2006
The True Cost of the War on Terror / Economics / Iraq War
By: Sarah_Jones
NEW STUDY SUGGESTS ECONOMIC COST OF IRAQ WAR MUCH LARGER THAN PREVIOUSLY RECOGNIZED
A new study by two leading academic experts suggests that the costs of the Iraq war will be substantially higher than previously reckoned. In a paper presented to this week's Allied Social Sciences Association annual meeting in Boston MA., Harvard budget expert Linda Bilmes and Columbia University Professor and Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz calculate that the war is likely to cost the United States a minimum of nearly one trillion dollars and potentially over $2 trillion.
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Friday, July 08, 2005
The London bombs ! / Politics / Iraq War
By: Sarah_Jones
Four suicide bombers struck in central London on Thursday 7 July, killing 52 people and injuring more than 770.
The coordinated attacks hit the transport system as the morning rush hour drew to a close. Three bombs went off at 0850 BST on underground trains just outside Liverpool Street and Edgware Road stations, and on another traveling between King's Cross and Russell Square.
| The final explosion was around an hour later on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square, not far from King's Cross. |  |
The financial impact of the London Bombs after the initial disruption to the capitals transport system, will likely be felt in the tourism industry, due to the damage now done to London's reputation as a safe tourist destination.
Friday, June 10, 2005
How the US Stole Iraq's Oil ! / Politics / Iraq War
By: CarlosM
The UK-based PLATFORM has revealed the strategy to take over Iraq's oil in a new report, "Crude Designs."
According to the authors, it's not quite the ownership of oil reserves that western interests are after, but an arrangement that will allow governments and companies to deny that “privatization” is taking place at all.
The plan, which was developed by the US State Department's Future of Iraq Project, and supported by key figures in the Iraqi Oil Ministry, is to use highly complex contracts known as production sharing agreements (PSA's) , which have existed in the oil industry since the late 1960s.
PSA's are an ingenious arrangement that leaves intact state ownership of the untapped oil, while inverting the flow of payments between the state and companies. Whereas in a concession system, foreign companies have rights to the oil in the ground, and compensate host states for extracting their resources (e.g. via royalties or taxes), under a PSA foreign companies are compensated for their investment in oil production infrastructure and the risks they take in extracting the oil. Under PSA's, the private companies will continue to operate as "contractors" -- a label that is misleading because it gives companies control over oil development and access to extensive profits.
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