Iraq

US To Deploy More Troops To Iraq

July 1, 2014 Al Jazeera, www.aljazeera.com Educate! Barack Obama, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Wars and Militarism

President Barack Obama has said he will send about 200 more US troops to Iraq to protect Americans and the US embassy in Baghdad amid fierce fighting in the country between government forces and Sunni armed groups. The US is also sending a detachment of helicopters and drone aircraft. Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said on Monday about 200 forces arrived in Iraq on Sunday to reinforce security at the US embassy, its support facilities and the Baghdad International Airport. Another 100 personnel were also due to move to Baghdad to "provide security and logistics support." "These forces are separate and apart from the up to 300 personnel the president authorised to establish two joint operations centres and conduct an assessment of how the US can provide additional support to Iraq's security forces," Kirby said in a statement. Of the initial deployment to the embassy of 275 troops earlier this month, 100 had been on standby outside the country, but are now moving into positions in Baghdad, the Pentagon said. The announcement will bring to nearly 800 the total number of US forces in and around Iraq to train local forces, secure the embassy and protect Washington's interests.

Congress Demands A Vote Before Bombs Fall On Iraq

June 28, 2014 Win Without War, www.winwithoutwar.org Resist! Barack Obama, Budget, Congress, Iraq, Wars and Militarism

The current situation in Iraq has grabbed the nation’s attention, and President Obama has already deployed U.S. military assets in response to the crisis. The President has also suggested that the U.S. military may take further action, such as drones or airstrikes. Many reports have also suggested that, unlike in the case of Syria last fall, the President may not seek authorization from Congress before bombing Iraq. Thankfully, many Members of Congress are speaking up and calling on President Obama to come to Congress for authorization before using military force. Our best tool to stop this rush to war is to press President Obama to come to Congress for authorization before using military force, as required by the U.S. Constitution. Read what Members of Congress are saying, and then ask your Representative to add his or her name. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR)- “As broad as it was, the AUMF for Iraq does not cover this instance, and… the president should come to Congress and sketch out a plan [and] ask for authorization. Because I’m not sure what the plan is.” [6/24/14]

In Iraq, U.S. Is The Problem…

June 27, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Government, Iraq, Syria, Video, Wars and Militarism

The oil rich country of Iraq is facing a possible collapse. Again. Sunni militants, largely shut out of the new government installed by the U.S. after our illegally invasion and occupation are overtaking large parts of Iraq in a quickly developing story. U.S. foreign policy seems to lack the imagination to do anything but intervene militarily. How that intervention takes shape, whether it be in aid, advising, air strikes, boots on the ground, or the kind of shock and awe only a Nobel peace prize winning Commander in chief can deliver remains to be seen. Joining Dennis on Acronym TV this week to discuss the situation in Iraq are Lila Garrett and Dr. Dennis Loo. Lila Garret is a two time Emmy winner for her work in TV comedy as a writer/producer. For her progressive political activism, in 1991 she was the recipient of Senator Barbara Boxer’s WOMEN MAKING HISTORY AWARD. . In 2004 she was So. Cal. Chair of the Kucinich for President campaign. For the last 9 years she has hosted the radio political talk show, “Connect the Dots” heard every Monday morning at 7 on Pacifica’s KPFK in Los Angeles and on line atKPFK.org.

Media Shows Pro-War Bias In Covering Iraq

June 27, 2014 Sam Stein and Michael Calderone, http://www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Iraq, Media, Wars and Militarism

The architects of the Iraq war are back in TV studios and on op-ed pages, as are journalists and pundits who promoted the Bush administration’s ultimately bogus case for invading. But Conrad, a former senator who was one of only 23 to vote against authorizing the war in October 2002, hasn’t heard from CNN, MSNBC or any other TV outlet. "Not once," he said, when asked if anyone in the press had reached out regarding the current crisis in Iraq. In an email to The Huffington Post, Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, offered two possible explanations. The first, he said, is “simply the incompetence of the media.” The second is "the shrillness of those trying desperately to rewrite history to cover their own devastating failures."

Americans Don’t Support Another Iraq War

June 26, 2014 Jeffrey M. Jones, www.gallup.com Educate! Foreign Policy, Iraq, Public Opinion, Wars and Militarism

Americans mostly oppose direct U.S. military action to help the Iraqi government fight Islamic militants threatening to take control of that country. A June 20-21 Gallup poll finds 54% of Americans opposed to and 39% in favor of taking such action, lower than the level of support for other potential U.S. military actions in recent decades. Americans were much more likely to favor taking military action against Iraq before the previous wars in 1991 and 2003, although both of those efforts were undertaken to oppose Saddam Hussein's regime. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the percentage in favor of sending U.S. troops there started out low at 23%. By the fall, after President George H.W. Bush built an international coalition in favor of military action, a majority of Americans were in favor, including 55% in January 1991 just before the Persian Gulf War began. A consistent majority of Americans supported sending U.S. ground troops to Iraq "in an attempt to remove Saddam Hussein from power" from the time the question was first asked in 1992 until the U.S. actually did so in March 2003. A March 14-15, 2003, poll conducted on the eve of the war found 64% of Americans in favor of taking such action.

We Can Stop The Next War In Iraq: Take Action Now

June 25, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Iraq, Wars and Militarism

Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Scott Rigell (R-VA) have come together and written a letter to President Obama urging him to seek congressional authorization before taking any military action. In the letter they write: As you consider options for U.S. intervention, we write to urge respect for the constitutional requirements for using force abroad. The Constitution vests in Congress the power and responsibility to authorize offensive military action abroad. The use of military force in Iraq is something the Congress should fully debate and authorize. Members of Congress must consider all the facts and alternatives before we can determine whether military action would contribute to ending this most recent violence, create a climate for political stability, and protect civilians from greater harm.

The Ghoulish Face Of Empire

June 24, 2014 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Educate! Foreign Policy, Iraq, Middle East, Wars and Militarism

The black-clad fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, sweeping a collapsing army and terrified Iraqis before them as they advance toward Baghdad, reflect back to us the ghoulish face of American empire. They are the specters of the hundreds of thousands of people we murdered in our deluded quest to remake the Middle East. They are ghosts from the innumerable roadsides and villages where U.S. soldiers and Marines, jolted by explosions of improvised explosive devices, responded with indiscriminate fire. They are the risen remains of the dismembered Iraqis left behind by blasts of Hellfire and cruise missiles, howitzers, grenade launchers and drone strikes. They are the avengers of the gruesome torture and the sexual debasement that often came with being detained by American troops. They are the final answer to the collective humiliation of an occupied country, the logical outcome of Shock and Awe, the Frankenstein monster stitched together from the body parts we left scattered on the ground. They are what we get for the $4 trillion we wasted on the Iraq War. The language of violence engenders violence. The language of hate engenders hate. “I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn,” W.H. Auden wrote. “Those to whom evil is done do evil in return.” It is as old as the Bible.

Call Congress: Stop The New US Invasion Of Iraq

June 24, 2014 Justin Raimondo, www.antiwar.com Resist! Barack Obama, Iraq, Syria, Wars and Militarism

President Obama’s announcement that the US is sending 300 "advisors" back to Iraq to stave off the rising Sunni insurgency was couched in assurances that "American forces will not be returning to combat in Iraq" – but who really believes that? This President has absolutely no qualms about engaging in systematic deception if it serves his purposes. Indeed, his version of the numbers is in itself a blatant lie: in reality, we are sending 625 military personnel into Iraq, including the 325 Marines sent to guard the now-imperiled US Embassy — and that’s just what they’re announcing publicly. God knows what the real numbers are. Furthermore, the President told us "we will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it." This will presumably come in the form of air strikes, but the vague wording gives Obama lots of leeway. Americans have had it up to here with Iraq, and want no part of another war in the Middle East. We did it when Obama announced he was going to bomb Syria: the War Party was taken aback by the sheer spontaneous power of the protest. Many thousands called their congressional representatives and made it crystal clear that they opposed any new war in the region, whether it be on "humanitarian" or "strategic" grounds.

The Sectarian Myth Of Iraq

June 23, 2014 Sami Ramadani, www.theguardian.com Educate! Iraq, Religion, Wars and Militarism

Tony Blair has been widely derided for his attempted justification of the 2003 Iraq invasion, and his claim last weekend that he's blameless over the current turmoil. Unfortunately, though, many of his critics have also bought into a central plank of his argument: that Iraqi society is no more than a motley collection of religions and ethnicities which have been waiting for decades, if not centuries, to slaughter each other and plunge the place into a bloodbath. The main difference between the two sides seems to be that Blair believes western intervention is the answer; some of his critics say Iraq needed a dictator like Saddam to hold the nation together. Neither side, though, has yet produced historical evidence of significant communal fighting between Iraq's religions, sects, ethnicities or nationalities. Prior to the 2003 US-led occupation, the only incident was the 1941 violent looting of Jewish neighbourhoods – which is still shrouded in mystery as to who planned it. Documents relating to that criminal incident are still kept secret at the Public Records Office by orders of successive British governments. The bombing of synagogues in Baghdad in 1950-51 turned out to be the work of Zionists to frighten Iraq's Jews – one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world – into emigrating to Israel following their refusal to do so.

ISIS: Unsurprising Surprise Sweeping Iraq

June 22, 2014 Charles P. Blair, www.thebulletin.org Educate! Iraq, Syria, Wars and Militarism

Eighteen months later, as the final US military forces left Iraq, a similarly sanguine US Army Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick reflected on a bright future for the Iraqi security forces. Helmick, who led the attack on Mosul in 2003 before taking other senior US military leadership roles in Iraq, said that when he arrived, “The Iraqis did not have an army. They did not have a navy. They did not have an air force. So we didn't rebuild anything; we built their military.” And what a military it was: According to information released in the March 2013 "Final Report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction," from the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom until September 2012, the US alone spent $25 billion to equip and train Iraq’s security forces and build and maintain the military installations they needed. These billions represent one-third of all US aid to Iraq from 2005 through 2012. But just two and a half years later, Iraqi security forces have “crumbled in disarray”before the successor group to Al Qaeda in Iraq, ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

Despite Propaganda: Americans Oppose U.S. Intervention In Iraq

June 22, 2014 Staff, www.Reuters.com Resist! Democracy, Iraq, Wars and Militarism

The US media has been feeding the American people a steady diet of commentary by war hawks, the neocons and humanitarian war mongers from both parties who got the United States into the Iraq War and have kept the United States in Afghanistan. The media has been aggressively highlighting the violence and brutality of ISIS. Despite all of this the American public is saying 'no' to war. Only 20% favor military intervention according to a Reuters/ISPOS poll. These figures cross the political spectrum and are the same for people who say they are Democrats, Republicans and independents. And, antiwar activists are organizing opposition and speaking out throughout the country. Call Congress 202-224-3121 or find your representative here and let them know they should be doing their job and telling President Obama he cannot commit an act of war without congressional authorization.

Activists’ Quick Opposition To War In Iraq

June 22, 2014 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.alternet.org Strategize! Empire, Iraq, Wars and Militarism

Perhaps this is the President’s desired purpose. The goal of having US military bases in Iraq to control the region, which is the center of the Middle East at a time when oil is desperately needed, has not been achieved. A justification for intervention would provide an excuse to re-occupy those bases. If we re-occupy Iraq, we can expect a long-term presence. The (currently) most likely next president, Hillary Clinton, has a track record as a hawk. She has already signaled to the military-industrial complex that she is open to more war. Clinton recently said she was even open to staying in Afghanistan beyond President Obama’s already-too-slow exit from that country. Opponents of war organized opposition quickly.

Revisiting Iraq

June 22, 2014 John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us Educate! Iran, Iraq, Wars and Militarism

When we were teenagers, my brother and I lived in Iran for three years and traveled throughout the Middle East. We went to high school in the city of Shah-in Shah, and we enjoyed a great educational experience at the International School. We traveled to Afghanistan and other countries with the photography club and to Cairo with sports teams. There we had opportunities we never would have had in the US, to learn about ancient languages and cultures. Most importantly, we learned to respect the different cultures and beliefs of the people there. On one photography trip through the city of Yazd in the Southeast region of Iran, we came upon two groups of people fighting in the street. They were attacking each other with rocks and sticks.

Harsh Realities Of The Iraq War

June 20, 2014 Robert Brune, www.dcmediagroup.us Educate! Iraq, Wars and Militarism

Americans have grown weary of backing a war predicated upon a lie. In an op-ed, former congressman Denis Kucinich pulled a red flag on the Obama administration for failing to keep the promise to deal with the misdeeds of the prior administration. “The unwillingness to confront the truth about the Iraq War has induced a form of amnesia which is hazardous to our nation’s health. Willful forgetting doesn’t heal, it opens the door to more lying,” he wrote. Many lives have been lost, billions of dollars if not trillions have been squandered or poached in the pursuit of war oil in Iraq. Halliburton continues to fight the federal government to clear their alleged role in overbilling for services during the Iraq war.

IVAW Statement On The Crisis In Iraq

June 19, 2014 IVAW, www.IVAW.org Resist! Crisis, Iraq, Veterans, Wars and Militarism

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) – an organization comprised of individuals who served or continue to serve in the US Military following September 11, 2001 – calls on Congress, the President, and his administration to reject the use of violence and militarism in response to the current outbreak of violence in Iraq. Many of our members deployed to Iraq during the recent US occupation. Those of us who were there know first hand that US military solutions in Iraq do not serve the interests of the Iraqi people. We advocate for the self-determination of all people, in this case the people of Iraq. Any solution to this crisis must come from them. When the United States invaded and occupied Iraq, the formerly secular country was destabilized. The United States and the Department of Defense intentionally created and agitated sectarian divisions that would not have otherwise existed. The result of this is what we see today, and Iraqi civilians are paying for it.

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