Iraq War

Rumsfeld Was Not ‘Controversial’

July 2, 2021 William Rivers Pitt, Truthout. Educate! Iraq, Iraq War, Media, Rumsfeld, Wars and Militarism

When word came down yesterday that former Defense Secretary and brazen orchestrator of mass death Donald Rumsfeld had shuffled loose the mortal coil at age 88, CNN and the other networks began to do their standard back-and-fill exercises to shore up the fiction while burying the truth after a genuine monster drops dead. “Controversial,” they called Rumsfeld, while showing footage of him scurrying around the wreckage after the Pentagon attack on September 11. “I think that’s what we’ll all remember,” said one talking head of those images. Not if I have anything to say about it. See, on the same day he was doing no more or less than what any average citizen would likely do at an emergency scene, Rumsfeld returned to his office and immediately began scheming to use the attacks as a pretense for invading Iraq.

ICC Drops Inquiry Into British War Crimes In Iraq

December 17, 2020 Robert Inlakesh, Last American Vagabond. Educate! International Criminal Court, Iraq War, United Kingdom (UK), War crimes

The International Criminal Court (ICC) decided, on December 9, to abandon its inquiry into war crimes committed by British forces during the Iraq war, despite its investigation having concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe war crimes were in fact committed. Fatou Bensouda, the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor, announced in a public statement that she had decided to close the preliminary examination and not pursue an investigation into war crimes committed by the British Armed Forces in Iraq. The Chief Prosecutor also confirmed in her statement that despite closing the case, the report had found “…that there is a reasonable basis to believe that members of the British armed forces committed the war crimes of willful killing, torture, inhuman/cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, and rape and/or other forms of sexual violence.”

Day 12: Julian Assange Hearing

September 19, 2020 Craig Murray. Educate! Extradition, Iraq War, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

Yet another shocking example of abuse of court procedure unfolded on Wednesday. James Lewis QC for the prosecution had been permitted gratuitously to read to two previous witnesses with zero connection to this claim, an extract from a book by Luke Harding and David Leigh in which Harding claims that at a dinner at El Moro Restaurant Julian Assange had stated he did not care if US informants were killed, because they were traitors who deserved what was coming to them. This morning giving evidence was John Goetz, now Chief Investigations Editor of NDR (German public TV), then of Der Spiegel.

‘Reducing Troops Not The Same As Ending Wars’

September 11, 2020 Brett Wilkins, Commondreams. Educate! Iraq, Iraq War, Trump, US military

The U.S. military's announcement Wednesday that thousands of troops will soon withdraw from Iraq was met with skepticism by peace activists, who were quick to note that a reduction in troop strength is not the same thing as ending the war. U.S. Central Command (CETCOM) commander Gen. Frank McKenzie said Wednesday that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will be reduced from 5,200 to 3,000 during the month of September, but critics said this should not be seen as President Donald Trump fulfilling his campaign promise in 2016 to end the nation's wasteful overseas wars.

Love In A Dangerous Time

April 11, 2020 Mike Ferner, Counterpunch. Educate! COVID-19, Iraq War, Quarantine, US Empire

A profusion of anonymous axioms and memes floods social media these days but one remains my very favorite: “It’s like we’ve all been sent to our room to think about what we did.” My friends, if there ever was a nation that needed a “time out” for that purpose, it’s ours. With nearly every minute of round-the-clock news cycles dedicated to updates on the Covid-19 pandemic, one needn’t restate examples of the plague’s panic, suffering, fear or insecurity. It’s all right there, worsening with each iteration. Fortunately, we’re also witnessing an abundance of human compassion that assuages some of the pain and fear. Every day people find creative ways to express their concern and confirm our common humanity. In a stellar essay, New York Times columnist David Brooks reflects, “Already there’s a shift of values coming to the world. We’re forced to be intentional about keeping up our human connections."

The Iraq Death Toll 15 Years After US Invasion: More Than 2 Million

March 18, 2018 By Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J S Davies, Common Dreams Educate! Iraq War, Wars and Militarism

March 19 marks 15 years since the U.S.-U.K invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the American people have no idea of the enormity of the calamity the invasion unleashed. The US military has refused to keep a tally of Iraqi deaths. General Tommy Franks, the man in charge of the initial invasion, bluntly told reporters, “We don’t do body counts.” One survey found that most Americans thought Iraqi deaths were in the tens of thousands. But our calculations, using the best information available, show a catastrophic estimate of 2.4 million Iraqi deaths since the 2003 invasion. The number of Iraqi casualties is not just a historical dispute, because the killing is still going on today. Since several major cities in Iraq and Syria fell to Islamic State in 2014, the U.S. has led the heaviest bombing campaign since the American War in Vietnam, dropping 105,000 bombs and missiles and reducing most of Mosul and other contested Iraqi and Syrian cities to rubble.

Friendship In Defiance Of War

February 26, 2017 Kathy Kelly, www.counterpunch.org Create! Education, Iraq, Iraq War, Peace

By Kathy Kelly for Counterpunch. Before making their home in Damascus, Gabe Huck and Theresa Kubasak had regularly visited Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, where they developed lasting friendships and deepened cultural awareness. Iraq was steadily deteriorating under thirteen years of U.S./UN imposed economic sanctions. Despite iron clad determination by U.S. policy makers to isolate Iraq, Gabe and Theresa repeatedly challenged the economic sanctions by carrying medicines and medical relief supplies to Iraqi children, families and hospitals. They also helped organize opportunities for scores of other U.S. and U.K. people to visit Iraq as part of Voices in the Wilderness (VitW). Voices delegations politely but firmly notified U.S. authorities that they would break the economic sanctions by personally carrying duffel bags filled with children’s vitamins, antibiotics, medical textbooks, surgical kits, first aid material and medical relief supplies, all of which the economic sanctions prohibited.

Most Labour MPs Opposing Corbyn Are Stained With Blood

July 7, 2016 Nafeez Ahmed, www.middleeasteye.net Educate! Iraq, Iraq War, Jeremy Corbyn, Wars and Militarism

By Nafeez Ahmed for MEE - A new analysis by Middle East Eye finds that nearly 100 percent of the Labour MPs who have moved to oust Jeremy Corbyn voted against an investigation into the Iraq war. The analysis is based on a detailed examination of the voting records of all the MPs who chose not to support Corbyn’s leadership. Amongst the Labour MPs who had voted in 2003 on the Iraq war, an overwhelming majority who voted against Corbyn were in favour of the military invasion of the country

Four Lessons We Must Learn From Iraq War And Chilcot Report

July 7, 2016 Joe Glenton, www.ibtimes.co.uk Educate! Iraq, Iraq War

By Joe Glenton for International Business Times - All the evidence discouraged an attack on Iraq yet it looks like Tony Blair and his close allies lied to take Britain to war. It cost the lives of 179 soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. In the end the war also gave us Islamic State (Isis/Daesh) and so the horror slithers on. In recent and coming weeks the real issue – why we went, the deadly deception – will be blurred by references to peripheral issues about the conduct of the war. Let's be clear. Bad equipment, for example, is secondary in the big scheme of things.

Chilcott Report Oroves Iraq War Was A Mistake

July 7, 2016 Staff, www.indcatholicnews.com Resist! Iraq, Iraq War

By Staff of ICN - Christian peace campaigners have welcomed the release of the Chilcot Report into the 2003 war on Iraq, which directly cause the deaths of many thousands of people and destabilised the region - leading to the deaths of millions and conflicts continuing today. The report states: " We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort.

New Documentary: Necessary Reminder Of Gigantic Scandal

November 2, 2015 Peter Bradshaw, www.theguardian.com Educate! Documentary, Iraq War, Peace, Wars and Militarism

By Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian. We Are Many is a new documentary which is on the list for an Academy Award. Several showings are coming up. This film does a necessary job. It’s a piece of history that must grapple with both the success of the Stop the War march and its manifest failure: a staggeringly huge demonstration of public opinion that nevertheless did not stop the war. But Amir Amirani makes a bold case for understanding the march in a larger context: that over the next decade it re-energised people power, sowed the seed for Egypt’s Arab spring and laid the foundations for Labour’s sober, courageous refusal to countenance the attack on Syria. Meanwhile, we wait for the Chilcot report. A very valuable film.

A Moment That Changed Me – The Day I Discovered Protest

July 17, 2015 Ellie Mae O'Hagan, www.theguardian.com Resist! Activism, Iraq War, Protest, Taxes, United Kingdom (UK)

By Ellie Mae O'Hagan in The Guardian - It was an email. It read: “No, but you could always organise something.” It arrived in my inbox on a Wednesday afternoon in October 2010. At the time I was working in a poorly paid job in Liverpool, unsure of what I wanted to do with my life, bored out of my mind and fidgety about the recently elected coalition government, which was teetering on the edge of enacting “swingeing” cuts to the public sector. At some point that day – 11am, I think – I was idly scrolling through Twitter (some things don’t change) and I noticed something stirring. A group of activists hadoccupied Vodafone’s flagship store in protest against the company’s alleged tax avoidance. .They shut Vodafone down. It was amazing: new, young, immediate, exciting – and totally different from the A-to-B marches I’d taken part in beforethe UK invaded Iraq in 2003.

Former US Attorney General Files Brief In Lawsuit Against Iraq War

June 10, 2015 Michael Eisenscher, www.uslaboragainstwar.org Resist! Criminal Justice, Iraq War, Law, Wars and Militarism

By Michael Eisenscher in US Labor Against War - An Iraqi single mother has assembled an international team of lawyers who are now asking the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit to hear her claim that the Iraq War was illegal under laws set down at the Nuremberg Trials, which govern when and how a country can go to war. Sundus Shaker Saleh, through her pro bono counsel Comar Law, filed papers last Wednesday, May 27, 2015 urging the Ninth Circuit to review facts and statements made by high-ranking Bush Administration officials—including former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard Cheney, and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld—in the run-up to the Iraq War. On Tuesday, June 2, 2015, an international group of lawyers—including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark—filed an amicus brief in support of her claims.

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