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Iraq

Majorities Of U.S. Veterans, Public Say The Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan Were Not Worth Fighting

January 4, 2020 By Ruth Igielnik and Kim Parker, Pewresearch.org , ,
Nearly 18 years since the start of the war in Afghanistan and 16 years since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, majorities of U.S. military veterans say those wars were not worth fighting, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of veterans. A parallel survey of American adults finds that the public shares those sentiments. Among veterans, 64% say the war in Iraq was not worth fighting considering the costs versus the benefits to the United States, while 33% say it was. The general public’s views are nearly identical: 62% of Americans overall say the Iraq War wasn’t worth it and 32% say it was.

Wearing Out A Welcome In Iraq

January 3, 2020 Paul R. Pillar, Responsible Statecraft. , , ,
The scene in the Green Zone in Baghdad easily evokes memories of Tehran forty years ago. A U.S. embassy in the Persian Gulf region is under siege by an angry mob. The protestors, predominantly young, break through the outer walls of the compound as U.S. diplomats take refuge in a safe room. President Trump implicitly extends the parallel by reacting in the narrowly anti-Iran terms that have defined his policies in this part of the world. “Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq,” Trump tweeted from Mar-a-Lago. “To those many millions of people in Iraq who want freedom and who don’t want to be dominated and controlled by Iran, this is your time!” But a closer look at what has been happening in Iraq suggests that genuine anger had much more to do with events than any orchestration did. The protestors who smashed their way into the embassy compound did so in defiance of appeals from leaders armed with loudspeakers.

How Trump Got Himself Into A World Of Trouble In Iraq

January 3, 2020 Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, Independent Media Institute. , , ,
It’s a new year, and the U.S. has found a new enemy—an Iraqi militia called Kata’ib Hezbollah. How tragically predictable was that? So who or what is Kata’ib Hezbollah? Why are U.S. forces attacking it? And where will this lead? Kata’ib Hezbollah is one of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) that were recruited to fight the Islamic State after the Iraqi armed forces collapsed and Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, fell to IS in June 2014. The first six PMUs were formed by five Shiite militias that all received support from Iran, plus Muqtada al-Sadr’s Iraqi nationalist Peace Company, the reincarnation of his anti-occupation Mahdi Army militia, which he had previously disarmed in 2008 under an agreement with the Iraqi government. Kata’ib Hezbollah was one of those five original Shiite militias, and it existed long before the fight against IS. It was a small Shiite group founded before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and was part of the Iraqi Resistance throughout the U.S. occupation.

Response To US Strikes: A United Opposition To Occupation Of Iraq

January 3, 2020 By Julia Kassem, Ahtribune.com , , ,
US airstrikes Sunday targeted locations in Anbar, Iraq, as well as four other locations in Iraq and Syria. The attacks targeted a Katai’b Hezbollah military site, killing 27 and injuring 51. The Iraqi Kata’ib Hezbollah, a paramilitary group part of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU) umbrella group, was one of the popular grassroots militias that played a major role in fighting ISIS in Iraq after the PMU’s formation in 2014. According to the US, the strikes were in response to attacks near US military bases over the past couple months.

National Day Of Action: US Out Of Iraq, No War On Iran

January 2, 2020 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance , ,
On Saturday, January 4 Popular Resistance along with the ANSWER Coalition, CODEPINK, United AntiWar Coalition (UNAC), World Beyond War, Voices for Creative Nonviolence and others are calling on people from around the United States to organize local demonstrations to demand:  NO MORE U.S. TROOPS TO IRAQ OR THE MIDDLE EAST! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ NOW! and NO WAR/NO SANCTIONS ON IRAN!

Washington Escalates Mideast War Threat With Strikes On Iraq, Syria

January 2, 2020 Bill Van Auken, Wsws.org , , , ,
A wave of US airstrikes against targets in Iraq and Syria Sunday linked to elements branded by Washington as Iranian “proxies” has sharply escalated the threat of a direct military confrontation between the US and Iran. Targeted in Sunday’s attacks were bases of Kata’ib Hizbullah, an Iraqi Shia militia that the Trump administration has blamed for a series of mortar and rocket attacks on bases in Iraq where US troops are stationed. These attacks allegedly culminated Friday in the launching of 30 Katyusha rockets against an army base near the northern Iraqi city...

After U.S. Strike On Iraqi Forces Its Troops Will (Again) Have To Leave

January 2, 2020 Staff, Moonofalabama.org , ,
On Friday a volley of some 30 107mm Katyusha rockets hit the K1 base which houses Iraqi and U.S. troops near Kirkuk, Iraq. One U.S. mercenary/contractor died, two Iraqi and four U.S. soldiers were wounded. Instead of finding the real culprits - ISIS remnants, disgruntled locals, Kurds who want to regain control over Kirkuk - the U.S. decided that Kata'ib Hizbullah was the group guilty of the attack.

Baghdad Demonstrators Demand ‘U.S. Out Of Iraq!’

January 2, 2020 Mazda Majidi, Liberationnews.org , , , ,
On Dec. 31, hundreds of people protested at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, demanding an end to U.S. intervention in Iraq. As the protest went on for hours, dozens of the protesters managed to break into the main gate, go in, and set the main reception area on fire. Embassy officials frantically asked the Iraqi government for help. Shots were fired and several people were injured, but no deaths have, as of this writing, been reported in the incident.

Iraq Protesters Form ‘Mini-State’ In Tahrir Square

December 15, 2019 Qantara.de. , , ,
With border guards, clean-up crews and hospitals, Iraqi protesters have created a mini-state in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, offering the kinds of services they say their government has failed to provide. "We've done more in two months than the state has done in 16 years," said Haydar Chaker, a construction worker from Babylon province, south of the capital. Everyone has their role, from cooking bread to painting murals, with a division of labour and scheduled shifts. Chaker came to Baghdad with his friends after the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage to the Shia holy city Karbala, his pilgrim's tent and cooking equipment equally useful at a protest encampment. Installed in the iconic square whose name means "liberation", he provides three meals a day to hundreds of protesters, cooking with donated foods.

The Israel Lobby’s Hidden Hand In The Theft Of Iraqi And Syrian Oil

December 13, 2019 By Agha Hussain and Whitney Webb, Mintpressnews.com , , , ,
KIRKUK, IRAQ — “We want to bring our soldiers home. But we did leave soldiers because we’re keeping the oil,” President Trump stated on November 3, before adding, “I like oil. We’re keeping the oil.” Though he had promised a withdrawal of U.S. troops from their illegal occupation of Syria, Trump shocked many with his blunt admission that troops were being left behind to prevent Syrian oil resources from being developed by the Syrian government and, instead, kept in the hands of whomever the U.S. deemed fit to control them, in this case, the U.S.-backed Kurdish-majority militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Iraqis Rise Up Against 16 Years of “Made in the USA” Corruption

December 3, 2019 By Nicolas J S Davies, Commondreams.org , , ,
As Americans sat down to Thanksgiving dinner, Iraqis were mourning more than 60 protesters killed by police and soldiers on Thursday in Baghdad, Najaf and Nasiriyah. Nearly 400 protesters have been killed since hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets at the beginning of October. Human rights groups have described the crisis in Iraq as a “bloodbath,” Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi has announced he will resign, and Sweden has opened an investigation against Iraqi Defense Minister Najah Al-Shammari, who is a Swedish citizen, for crimes against humanity.

Plundering Iraq

November 20, 2019 Eric Margolis, Informationclearinghouse.info , ,
Welcome to modern Iraq. The British were always masters of efficient imperialism. In the 19th century, they managed to rule a quarter of the Earth’s surface with only a relatively small army supported by a great fleet. Many of their imperial subjects were so overawed by the pomp and circumstance of British rule that they often willingly cooperated, or at least bent the knee. Call it colonialism 101. Ardent students of Roman history, the British early on adopted the Roman strategy of ‘divide et impera’, divide and conquer.

US-Iran Standoff Moves From High Seas To Dry Land

November 3, 2019 By Alison Tahmizian Meuse, Asia Times. , , ,
A simmering regional standoff between the US and Iran shifted from the high seas to dry land over the past two weeks, as street protests from Beirut to Baghdad challenge existing political orders and alliances. The Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign, aimed at bringing the Islamic Republic to its knees, hit the rocks in the Persian Gulf over the summer. Explosions targeting oil tankers – capped by a precision attack on Saudi Aramco in September – drove home the message to Arab monarchies that their own interests would suffer should they continue to egg on the US campaign. But in October, first in Iraq and then in Lebanon, nationwide street protests erupted against dire economic conditions and endemic corruption of sectarian political elites.

The Test Of A Country Is Not The Number Of Millionaires It Owns…

November 2, 2019 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research , ,
At the edge of hope lies the gunfire from what Frantz Fanon called ‘the old granite block upon which the nation rests’. At the moment of protest, when the gunfire starts, clarity arrives. One should not be naïve about the character of the elite, whose smiles camouflage the instructions given through clenched teeth to the henchmen, their ‘simple men’ ready to kill the ‘simple people’. At its best, the ‘granite block’ shrugs, shuffles its cabinet, offers modest reforms; at its worst, its soldiers – their faces covered to prevent the tears from showing – fire at their family members.

Why Lebanon And Iraq Are At The Brink Of Further Strife

October 30, 2019 Staff, Moonofalabama.org , , , ,
An imminent breakdown of the very weak economy of Lebanon, partially caused by U.S. sanctions against Lebanese banks and the end of traditional Saudi subsidies to Lebanon, also led to protests and today to the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri. He will now lead a caretaker government which will have too little power to change anything. Both, Iraq and Lebanon, have ethnic-sectarian systems that are finely balanced. The warlords or clan leaders of the various groups use the state for their own enrichment. Providing services for the whole country mean nothing to them.
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