Iraq: A Tale of One City, Now Two

I am so proud of dictator pupet Bush, not only has he scared millons of family, friends and wounded soldiers from the needlees senseless war who's scars will dictate there entire lives. Also we have managed to kill or cause decent millions of Iraq's people. No Vietnam didnt teach us anything we are to smart to learn. Now that Pakistan has marshall law democracy as a result of dictator Bush's fine example he wont ever get impeached and tried as the real terrorist and war criminal he is. Even Bush's dog is smart enough to figure out at the rate of 100 million we give pakistan per month that they are not held acountable for is little more than a garantee the al-Queda will never be caught or prosecuted,but we have a new allie in protecting the drug traffic (more profitable than oil). In the region. Thats why enough money (your money) has been spent to make every american a muti-millionair in the past 5 years. So sing along to the tune of this land was your land, but now its bush's and tell your radical friends who still had dreams for there children.

Hey Rick:

Political Council...Reistance. Sounds like it fills the bill. Something to nucleate Iraqi patriotism around. If they can keep the lid on things and chase off al queda until Mr. Cheney realizes no one is going to sign his PSAs (or retires in about 14 months, hooray!), and the American public gets tired of an expensive but uneventful occupation, maybe it will all be over.

(Lets also hope the 5th Fleet isn't on the bottom of the Persian Lake, and our kids aren't being drafted by then.)

to the posters who insist on excusing the prominent role of Israel in the illegal invasion/occupation of Iraq:

no matter how much you try to rewrite history Iraq was a true beacon of hope in the middle east under Saddam.

The Iraqis had universal health coverage and free education, including university level. They had the best health care due to an abundance of doctors, scientists, researchers,etc.

The oil was a bonus, a secondary consideration. There was no pushing for invasion from the huge oil corporations, they dealt with Saddam for years with no problems.

The division of Iraq has been a zionist dream for decades and they're not shy about advocating for it. Now they are pushing the USA to nuke Iran, for phony security reasons.

Israel is projecting their actions onto Iran. This is classic projection as believable experts such as ElBaradei say Iran is years away from being able to produce weapon grade enriched uranium.

Michael Schoer, the former intelligence expert said recently on Bill Maher's "Real Time":
Not one more dead american soldier or one more american taxpayer dollar for Israel to the SHOCKED & AWED Bill Maher, many in the
audience booed relexively -- but just as many DiD NoT.

Aren't we USAns tired of being zionistic lackeys?
Start with ridding the government of all officials--elected or appointed--with dual citizenship. No to all Israel Firsters in
the government.

Then we need to get some balance in the media/entertainment field.

Time for level playing field in politics, publicly financed campaigns, get the money & corruption out & maybe we'll get rid of the worst of Tom DeLay sorts.

Yup, the "surge" has worked - everyone left, have been killed or segregated themselves into religious ghettos. What's worse is that the killing and separation is directly linked to the ruling ministers and police. More chaos down the pike like Kosovo.

This is Great news, now I can start planning my vacation again, I was thinking about a lovely room with a view along the Tigris or Euphrates rivers.

I am sending an invitation to Laura Ingraham to see if she would like to join me?

It is very difficult to focus on any news from Iraq or Baghdad, it is all bad even if some bureaucratic idiot is trying figure out a way to sugarcoat a major disaster.

With just over a year left before we finally get rid of the troglodyte who engineered this war, I am trying to concentrate my efforts on his replacement.

The world under the Bush administration has become a gloomy place; one might say that living on the dark side of the moon for 7 years would be an accurate comparison.

So lets ponder what is ahead when Bush finally leaves office.

The urgency and importance of the next election, will determine if America is going to continue on a path of self-destruction where the dollar plunges to worthlessness and the worlds nations begin to sanction us for crimes against humanity.

Or are we going to elect a person that will take us in a new direction and revive our standing in the world and learn how to get along with everyone without simplistic rhetoric about good and evil.

Right now it does not look very promising for liberal progressive candidates.

The only candidate I wholeheartedly support is the laughing stock of the mainstream media. Just the mere mention of the name Dennis Kucinich evokes instantaneous laughter among the pundits.

The pig farmers of Iowa and their political operatives decided last Saturday not to invite Kucinich to the Jefferson/Jackson dinner.

While I am happy to report that Obama did very well and got great reviews from the local papers, it was a slap in the face to all progressives that the only really sane candidate in the race was excluded.

With just about 6 weeks to go before Iowans caucus, it is essential that Dennis start prodding his horse to make a dash for the finish line.

If he is to have an impact on the direction of the party he must show some ability to control an important block of voters.

Otherwise he will continue to be written off as just a marginal candidate that believes in UFO's.
(thanks Shirley Maclaine for your help)

Lets hope he does well in the Vegas debate on Thursday provided the moderator Wolf Blitzer gives him more than 1 minute of air time?

I know I am going to wake up any minute and realize that the last 7 years was just a dream, that America does still exist as a beacon of hope and that a dreadful person like Cheney was just indigestion that caused a traumatic nightmare.

"In other words, Israel and America are their own worse enemies.

Try peace!" - andrewherman 11/12/07 4:55 p.m.

Fuggedaboutit!! Israel and America are their own worst enemies only if you include the needs of a majority of the population, which have nothing to do with policy. The needs of the people who control policy (the "deciders" to borrow a term) are that the strife, fear, bloodshed, and hatred continue ad infinitum.

Why as the sectarain violence slowed? Perhaps their is another reason?
The following excerpt was taken from and article written 10/20/07 by By Pepe Escobar entitled "It's The Resistance, Stupid".
" Six key, non-Salafi jihadist resistance groups, on a video on al-Jazeera, officially announced their union under the "Political Council of the Iraqi Resistance.
They are the Islamic Army in Iraq, the al-Mujahideen Army, Ansar al-Sunna, al-Fatiheen Army, the Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance (JAMI), and Iraqi Hamas.The whole process has been on the move since early summer. The council has a 14-point program. The key point is of course guerrilla warfare as the means to throw the occupiers out. A very important point - deriding the usual Pentagon rhetoric - is that the council is fiercely against al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers. The council also rejects all laws and the constitution passed under the occupation; calls for an interim government; defends Iraq's territorial integrity and rejects sectarianism.
As far as all the key Sunni and Shi'ite factions in Iraq are concerned, they all agree on the basics. Iraq won't be occupied. Iraq won't hold permanent US military bases. Iraq won't give up its oil wealth. And Iraq won't be a toothless pro-Israel puppet regime".

If the Iraqis were to 'play nice', but not give Exxon et al the oil, it would be interesting to see the response. My guess is that it would clearly reveal what's important to Cheney and friends ... ie, they want the oil. We'd be arresting the 'terrorists' who deny us that oil, ie the members of parliment who won't vote for it and the labor union leaders who fight against it.

Just a guess from someone on the other side of the world, but I'm thinking this calm is just a lull.

We had the wave of violence as the ethnic clensings took place. That phase seems largely ended. But now we have a lot of people who've been driven from their homes and their neighborhoods by violence and intimidation. We have a lot of people who have lost people dear to them.

My guess from the other side of the world is that this isn't over yet. These people who have been hurt are likely to want revenge and retribution. They may want to go back and reconquer their old neighborhoods and drive the others away. I hope I'm wrong, because the violence of this phase I see coming would be greater than what we've seen before.

Davewrite wrote: "Subtract Israel from modern history and voila!: We have a world with no Hamas, no Hezbollah, no war in Iraq, and little or no conflict between U.S. and Syria and Iran. Very likely there would have been little to fuel the hatred the likes of Osama bin Laden and, hence, no 9/11."

You're forgetting Osama was enraged mainly by the presence of U.S. troops, who would have been in Saudi Arabia because of the oil, regardless of Israel. And why use Israel to excuse Islamic terrorism outside of Palestine?

I have a better counterfactual scenario. Go back in time and kidnap Muhammad before he declared himself a prophet, and dump him in the Americas so couldn't get back to Arabia to start Islam. You would have a Zoroastrian Persia, a Christian Anatolia, Syria, Egypt and North Africa, and a shorter Dark Ages in Western Europe, thanks to the absence of Muslim piracy. And you would also have no Crusades and no 9/11. More documents would have survived from classical antiquity, and the (non-Muslim) Persians and Eastern Romans, rather than the Arabs, would have transmitted Chinese technology and Indian mathematics to the West. The great Buddhist statue at Bamiyan in Afghanistan would still be there, with its face (which the Arabs destroyed). For that matter, the Buddhists exterminated by the Arabs might still be there. The world would be a far better place, except that we would probably still have George Bush.

*A Thankyou Letter to the President of the USA*
__________________________________

Dear U.S. President,

I am all the kids who used to run around playing, and safely going off to skool in Iraq.

Thankyou for making my country Sooooo nice and quiet, -(now we aren't there).

I kinda wish us kids could be back there to enjoy all your selfless hard work, -but unfortunately most of us just BLEW UP,

-not *grew* up.

Yours etc,

All the silent, *uncounted* dead kids of Iraq
...

(sorry for the screwup; my hands have spasms that make me hit unintended keys)
To MaxheMust: Many thanx for your posting of the riverbend website.(Your postings reflect a higher level of insight, which I greatly appreciate.)I tried to read all of it but couldn't stomach it.
When I think of all the "good German" Amerikans who think we're the greatest nation on earth and the rest of the brainwashing, it makes me sick at heart.
Unfortunately, as many of us have noted before, most of us are only preaching to the choir on these posts, but I have a suggestion. As a college teacher, I sometimes email or give hard copies of certain articles to my fellow teachers and sometimes make them available to my students.

Before you even ask, yes, I have already lost one teaching position for speaking the truth about the American invasion before it even happened.
I truly wish that EVERY AMERICAN be required to read just a couple of the Iraqi woman's posts, though, obviously, that won't happen.

But to those of you on this site who want something concrete to do about this absolute disaster: read the articles she writes so clearly from her heart; really listen to what she says; print,copy and distribute her words to everyone who will accept one.

I'm not sure it's possible at this point to get American's attention away from the trivia and garbage they are so enthralled with; to shake their self-complacency and sickening self-centeredness; to get them to THINK for themselves (evidently, most don't WANT to). But we must never give up hope.

To several of you on this site: some of you seem to be quite aware of "what's coming down the pike" for all of us globally. While we may rant and rave for each other's ears and seem to get nowhere, I offer a different view.
It has encouraged me to see that there are MANY of us on the same Earth-walk, each in our own way. I pray (a term I rarely use) that we all will have the strength of heart and the determination of the Spirit to make ourselves known, that the Forces of Darkness will NOT prevail. This has been prophesied by many and foreseen by many of us.
To hi du. Senior Master Chuck Blackburn

What the Iraqis need to do is completely stand down the ethnic and sectarian warfare, and stay after "Al Quaeda in Iraq". Give the American military absolutely nothing to do except run drills and work on their tans. Turn on the charm, and be the hospitable people they were once known to be.

At the same time, absolutley refuse to have anything to do with the Big Oil Production Sharing Agreements that Cheney wants signed, sealed and delivered. Just pretend they don't exist. What's Cheney gonna do? Have parliament vote at American gunpoint?

For security, they should develop a coalition of tribal and religious leaders outside the puppet parliament, and form regimental militias from the provinces or tribes who report to the coalition. Something like the state and local militias that made up much of the Union and Confederate armies during the American Civil War. This way, kin and neighbors who can trust each other will form more cohesive and better disciplined units.

Iraqis - please play nice, smile at the Americans and politely tell them to keep their infidel paws the f### off your oil! Expose the occupation of Iraq for what it really is.

"Deception is the U.S. oligarchies most important ally. They are very skilled at twisting the truth to meet their
vile objectives."

If only it were this simple. It takes a willing audience, willing to be deceived, for this old technique to work.
Dumbing down is critical here. It doesn't happen without willing participants. No revolution has
ever occurred on full stomachs that i know of. Or full heads, full of The Survivor, or the epitomy of the enshrinement
of victimhood in this country, The Biggest Loser. Imagine this, if we spent the same amount of money on our
environment as we do losing weight or waxing our cars, global warming would probably be happening at a
gradual pace as opposed to its accelerated rate. And this only possible if the privileged were willing to give up
some of their privilege. Do you in the privileged one tenth of one percent of this population think that the law
that says what goes around, comes around isn't going to pertain in your case. Your/our denial is incredibly
mind boggling. Maybe the same mindset as those who fiddled and played while Rome burned. It's time we as
a society grew up.

The moment we privileged,
comfortable US residents realize this, the moment has come when we can turn this situation around.

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What law said the Jewish people had to have their own country? And if they did,what reasoning justified the taking of Palestine, an Arab country. And even if the reclaiming of land after 1900 years of absence was justified, how can Arabs ever forget or forgive the lies, terrorism, death squads, subversion, Christian militias, and illegal immigration that made it possible?

Subtract Israel from modern history and voila!: We have a world with no Hamas, no Hezbollah, no war in Iraq, and little or no conflict between U.S. and Syria and Iran. Very likely there would have been little to fuel the hatred the likes of Osama bin Laden and, hence, no 9/11. Millions of people could come out of their graves and hiding places into a much more peaceful world. Hundreds of billions of dollars would be savedGiven this alternative reality, one can only conclude that the British Mandate that fulfilled the Zionist's imagined covenant with God to return to the Promised Land of ancient history was easily the greatest blunder in Human history. Modern Israel -- no matter how democratic or well intentioned -- may well be the source of World War III – and a real and unprophesied Armegeddon.. Although the would arguably be poorer without Jewish culture, it's important to understand what the effects of Zionism and the taking of an Arab country have been.

It's time to come home. The Iraqis heard the message, so they're quitting fighting.

That means it's time to bring our troops home.

Abram said,
"The idea of blaming Israel for what the United States is doing seems a further step in depravity."

What is so depraved about pointing out real connections between powerful political players who commit wrongs? Are the Judeo-Christians above criticism?

What is so wrong in finding fault with nations who are quick to kill on a regular basis? Share the blame, but don't deny it. An old but good saying suggests that they are all to blame and if we don't change our thinking soon, one day it will be too late for humanity:

"If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting."

Nothing has increased terror more than the War Against Terror! There were 80,000 IEDs exploded in Iraq since the war began! In the previous five years before the war there were zero IEDs exploded in Iraq.

I know you will ask me, "So should the US just roll over and let more 911s occur?"

Duh, not if they can stop the next one. It will always be a challenge, however, to stop evil people from doing evil. Joining the evildoers is not a good option.

It is also important to ask yourself, "Will attacking whole nations against their will punish the terrorists and create a safer world with fewer terrorists or exactly the opposite?"

Again, duh! Extremists all across the Middle East have won elections with ease thanks to George W Bush's counterproductive war.

In other words, Israel and America are their own worse enemies.

Try peace!

During the Clinton negotiations, terror attacks in Israel came to a screeching halt. It was due to the hope for a just settlement. When the deal fell apart, Sharon and Bush were elected and the stuff hit the fan.

You are right that we can't blame Israel for the whole problem in the Middle East, but we can and should blame them for a good part of it.

Even if Israel has done nothing but defend itself, and that's debatable, the Arab world sees the plight of the Palestinian refugees as problem number 1. They also see our UN Security Council veto to allow Israel to do as it wishes without consequence as a major part of problem number 1. Therefore, we would be delusional to pretend, as our media does, that Israel has nothing to do with Bush's war.

Indeed things are getting so good (see Dreyfuss) in Iraq that US troops can foresee leaving the place as soon as the oil runs dry.

These days I am finding it harder to condemn Israel for its crimes against the Palestinians and Lebanese when I see my own country doing the same things but on a far larger scale in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The idea of blaming Israel for what the United States is doing seems a further step in depravity. I do not deny that many of the neocon camp and others who have participated in the making of this disastrous policy think what they are doing is in the interests of Israel as well as of the US. However, I don't think it is actually in anyone's interest, and not even those such as Profs. Mearsheimer and Walt, who have written eloquently about the power of the "Israel Lobby" believe that the Israeli government is simply pulling the strings here.

We cannot escape our own responsibility for these crimes by demonizing the Israelis (implicitly "the Jews") and blaming them for America's actions.

bligh, Unfortunately Iraq is one of mayn artificial creations. Others include Sudan and Pakistan.

Iraq is a country that should never have been created by the British. Three sects- Kurds, Shias, and Sunnis that had only had their ethnic hatreds held down by the fact that Saddam killed anyone that got out of line. Now the genie is out of the bottle and total separation of the three will be the only way to peace. Just like Tito and Yugoslavia.

Ethnically pure neighborhoods. Is this just another word for apartheid?

Robert Dreyfuss argues in a column, posted by truthout.org, that things HAVE gotten better in Iraq, not because of the "surge", but because Iraqi factions have gotten sick of the fighting, and the Sunnis have turned on their nihilist Al Qaeda-type "friends". Peace is breaking out and Iraqis may be willing to work together. His conclusion? It's time to bring home the troops.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111207H.shtml

The physical destruction and demographic separation of Iraq has been accomplished according to the regional hegemonic needs of Israel - the US acting as their agent in the grand social engineering experiment of 'ethnicly pure nation building.' Imagine the breaking up and erasing of one of the most educated, mixed, nationalistic and secular republics in the Middle East, one long opposed to Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians and other non-Jews...and without one Israeli even stubbing his little toe. What brilliance...to get the Americans to do Israel's dirty work...not that our leadership wasn't anxious to establish the New American Century on an ocean of blood and oil. And during this this whole operation...the US Congress manages to double its financial package to Israel...while one in four among the burgeoning numbers of homeless in the US are...veterans. Now that is real 'power'! While the US is getting Iraqis to kill Iraqis...Israel is getting the US to prepare to attack Iran...

The one thing these ethnic cleansers, the colonial 'humanitarians' forgot...the Iraqis' capacity to resist and re-unify to expell their invaders.

Most people blame the Iraqi police for the sectarian assassinations, and the U.S. military for doing little to stop them.

Stop them?! Are you out of your mind? Why on earth would the US want to end something that serves its own purposes? I can hardly believe that most Iraqis are so unaware of their own history that they can't recognize imperial 'divide and conquer' strategy when they see it.

Deception is the U.S. oligarchies most important ally. They are very skilled at twisting the truth to meet their
vile objectives.

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Read the Iraqi girl - River's views here - she's moved to Syria:

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

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Impeachment of both Bush and Cheney would be the wisest way to fight terrorism. It will send a message to the world, that the USA is not as hopelessly F'd up as they might have thought.

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"Without sharing there can be no justice;
without justice there can be no peace;
without peace there can be no future...
Man must change or die.
There is no other course."
Maitreya, the World Teacher