Iraq

New Study Documents Depleted Uranium Impacts On Children In Iraq

September 21, 2019 David Swanson, Let's Try Democracy. Educate! Depleted Uranium, Environment, health, Iraq

In the years following 2003, the U.S. military dotted Iraq with over 500 military bases, many of them close to Iraqi cities. These cities suffered the impacts of bombs, bullets, chemical and other weapons, but also the environmental damage of open burn pits on U.S. bases, abandoned tanks and trucks, and the storage of weapons on U.S. bases, including depleted uranium weapons. This map and the other illustrations below have been provided by Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the authors of a forthcoming article in the journal Environmental Pollution. The article documents the results of a study undertaken in Nasiriyah near Tallil Air Base. Nasiriyah was bombed by the U.S. military in 2003 and in the early 1990s. Open-air burn pits were used at Tallil Air Base beginning in 2003.

Iraqis Prepare A Carnival For Peace As US Plans For More War

June 20, 2019 Laura Gottesdiener, Wagingnonviolence.org Create! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Iraq, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Two Iraqi peace activists discuss their commitment to peace and undoing the violence wrought by the last two U.S. wars in their country. There’s a dark joke going around Baghdad these days. Noof Assi, a 30-year-old Iraqi peace activist and humanitarian worker, told it to me by phone. Our conversation takes place in late May just after the Trump administration has announced that it would add 1,500 additional U.S. troops to its Middle Eastern garrisons. “Iran wants to fight to get the United States and Saudi Arabia out of Iraq,” she began. “And the United States wants to fight to get Iran out of Iraq.”

In Iraq, As US Influence Ebbs, Iran’s Flows

April 3, 2019 Staff, Landdestroyer.blogspot.com Educate! Iran, Iraq, US Imperialism

March 31, 2019 (Gunnar Ulson - NEO) - In the dead of Christmas night last year, to evade possibly being shot down, US President Donald Trump made a surprise, whirlwind visit to US troops in Iraq. He visited Al Asad Air Base about 100 miles west of Baghdad in Al Anbar province, or about halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border where US forces are also operating. Between Al Asad and Baghdad are the notorious cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, hotbeds of resistance after the 2003 US invasion, and since then, hotbeds of extremism fueling the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

Why Did Bush Go To War In Iraq?

March 22, 2019 Ahsan I Butt, Aljazeera.com Educate! George W. Bush, Iraq, Wars and Militarism

Sixteen years after the United States invaded Iraq and left a trail of destruction and chaos in the country and the region, one aspect of the war remains criminally underexamined: why was it fought in the first place? What did the Bush administration hope to get out of the war? The official, and widely-accepted, story remains that Washington was motivated by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programme. His nuclear capabilities, especially, were deemed sufficiently alarming to incite the war.

US Shifts Weapons From Iraq To Syria

March 15, 2019 Jack Detsch, Al-monitor.com Educate! Iraq, Syria, US Imperialism

The Pentagon rerouted millions of dollars’ worth of weapons and vehicles from Iraq to Syria in the second half of 2018, Al-Monitor has learned, as US-backed forces cornered the last remnants of the Islamic State (IS). In a series of notifications to Congress reviewed by Al-Monitor, the Defense Department said it had determined that a bevy of supplies purchased by the Pentagon for the Iraqi military would instead go to the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Pentagon sent lawmakers its last reprogramming notification for 2018 on Dec. 31, 12 days after President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria.

Top Iraqi Scholar Rejects Trump’s Plan For ‘US base’ In Iraq

February 9, 2019 Staff, Aljazeera.com Educate! Iraq, Military bases, US Imperialism

Iraq's most senior Shia religious scholar on Wednesday joined a chorus of criticism aimed at President Donald Trump who said US troops should stay in the country to keep an eye on neighbouring Iran. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said Iraq aspires to have "good and balanced relations" with all of its neighbours "based on mutual interests and without intervention in internal affairs". Iraq "rejects being a launching pad for harming any other country", he said during a meeting with UN Iraq envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert at the Muslim leader's base in Najaf.

Iraq Rejects Iran Sanctions And US Troop Presence

January 8, 2019 Jim Carey, Geopoliticsalert.com Resist! Iran, Iraq, Sanctions, US Imperialism, US military

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali al-Hakim laid out the latest step on the path to independence for Baghdad from the US concerning sanctions on Iran by Washington. Although Iraq currently has a 90-day waiver to trade with Iran issued on December 20th, Hakim let reporters know Iraq would be pursuing their own policy on Iran should the waiver not be renewed. Hakim explained to reporters that “These sanctions, the siege, or what is called the embargo,” imposed by the US is “unilateral, not international,” and Iraq is “not obliged [to follow] them.”

A Loose Cannon For Peace

January 6, 2019 Robert Koehler, Counterpunch. Educate! Iraq, Media, Syria, Wars and Militarism

Apparently what’s under assault is war itself, or so the Establishment believes, in the wake of the shocking announcement by the president that he plans to withdraw all 2,000 U.S. troops now deployed in Syria and 7,000, or half, the U.S. troops in Afghanistan. No, can’t do that! Can’t do that! This screws everything up. “. . . we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours,” writes Defense Secretary Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis in his resignation letter to Donald Trump over the issue.

Toxic Legacy Of US Assault On Fallujah ‘Worse Than Hiroshima’

December 28, 2018 Patrick Cockburn, Independent.co.uk Educate! Bombing, Iraq, US Imperialism

Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study. Iraqi doctors in Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the battle for Fallujah between US troops and insurgents. Their claims have been supported by a survey showing a four-fold increase in all cancers and a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer in under-14s.

Did Defense Secretary Nominee James Mattis Commit War Crimes In Iraq?

December 22, 2018 By Aaron Glantz, Revealnews.org Educate! Department of Defense, Iraq, Trump Administration, War crimes

Retired Gen. James Mattis earned the nickname “Mad Dog” for leading U.S. Marines into battle in Fallujah, Iraq, in April 2004. In that assault, members of the Marine Corps, under Mattis’ command, shot at ambulances and aid workers. They cordoned off the city, preventing civilians from escaping. They posed for trophy photos with the people they killed. Each of these offenses has put other military commanders and members of the rank and file in front of international war crimes tribunals. The doctrine that landed them there dates back to World War II, when an American military tribunal held Japanese Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita accountable for war crimes in the Philippines. His execution later was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Suicide Rate Surging Among Afghanistan Iraq War Veterans

September 30, 2018 Whitney Webb, Mintpress News. Educate! Afghanistan, Iraq, suicide, Veterans

Washington - New data released Wednesday by the Department of Veterans Affairs has shown that the suicide rate among young military veterans continues to climb, despite a decline in the overall suicide rate among U.S. military veterans, amid department efforts to combat the problem. The new data was made available in the VA’s National Suicide Data Report, which found that, in 2016, 6,079 veterans ended their own lives compared to 6,281 in 2015. However, the suicide rate for veterans between the ages of 18 and 34 increased from 40.4 deaths per 100,000 veterans in 2015 to 45 in 2016, four times higher than that of other age groups.

Mass Social Unrest Leaves Iraq’s Oil Capital In Flames

September 11, 2018 Bill Van Auken, Wsws.org Resist! Class Struggle, Iraq, Oil, Protests

Iraq’s southern city of Basra, the country’s oil capital and center of its Shia majority, has seen mass protests that have left many of the buildings housing offices of the government, the main political parties, Shia militias and even the Iranian consulate in flames. Iraqi security officials announced a curfew Friday across this city of 2 million, warning that anyone found in the streets would be arrested. An earlier attempt to impose such a curfew was rescinded after crowds defied the government and set up blockades across the Basra-Baghdad highway and the main port of Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf, through which flow both Iraqi oil exports and food supplies as well as other goods imported into the country. At least a dozen protesters have been killed in the course of the demonstrations, many of them victims of live fire by security forces.

We Stand In Solidarity With The Resilient People Of Iraq

August 3, 2018 Staff, Iraqitransnationalcollective.org Resist! Class Struggle, Iraq, Solidarity

Major, nationwide protests are currently raging throughout Iraq. Beginning in Basra among young oil workers demanding jobs for locals, the movement has spread to other major cities in Iraq. As reported by Human Rights Watch, during the protests, which began earlier in July, peaceful demonstrators, including children, have been targeted, killed, wounded, and arrested by Iraqi security forces, paramilitary forces and militias run by members of the political elite. Demonstrators are mainly young people, and while there are no centralized leader or political party affiliations, their demands are clear. Protesters are calling for fundamental necessities like clean running water, electricity, healthcare, and jobs. However, they signal a deeper call for human dignity and for radical political change in Iraq.

The US, Electricity And Iran: What’s Behind The Iraq Protests?

July 23, 2018 Imran Khan, Aljazeera.com Educate! Iraq, Protests, US Imperialism

Baghdad, Iraq - Is the United States behind the protests in southern Iraq? Well, the answer to that question is both yes and no. Yes, because the US led the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, which destroyed much of the infrastructure the country needed to remain a modern society. No, because before the US, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein punished the south's residents by not building infrastructure after they rose up against him during the 1990-1991 Gulf War. But there was another game afoot here that did allegedly involve the US. The protests in the south, which kicked off in Basra almost two weeks ago, were sparked when Iran stopped supplying electricity to that region after it said it was owed $1.5bn in unpaid bills. The protesters didn't blame Iran but pointed to what they called an inept and corrupt Iraqi government. However, in recent days Al Jazeera has been told, off the record, that the US put pressure on Iraq not to pay the Iranians.

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