Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Whoever Wins, Iraqis Lose
BAQUBA - Iraqis seem divided on who they would like to see as the next U.S. president, but few believe that either will end the occupation.
"The U.S administration has committed a big mistake in Iraq," Adil Ibrahim, a local physician in Baquba, capital city of Diyala province, located 40 km northeast of Bagdhdad, told IPS. "We hope that whoever wins the election, the new administration can mend the huge mistakes of this one."
Some wish for Barack Obama to win because he claims to represent a great change in the history of the United States.
"Being a black man, he definitely carries different thoughts about the world," Ali Hussein, a city employee, told IPS. "We sympathise with him since he has some kind of Muslim origins. He may view Arabs in a new and different way."
Adding to this view, Naser Mahdi, a secondary school teacher, told IPS, "I feel he is totally different. The world needs new blood in rulers, and we hope that he might decrease the dominating authority of the United States."
"Because the result of the race affects the lives of Iraqis, I wish that a Democrat could win the round in order to give Iraqis a better future," schoolteacher Khalid Abid told IPS. "We still hope to be viewed with care and consideration. Things surely must change in Iraq after the elections."
But Abdulla Hamid, a city resident, expressed deep concern over Obama's recent speech at the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby in the U.S.
"What hope is there in a man who wears the Israeli flag and calls for a Jewish state with a unified Jerusalem," Hamid told IPS. " Obama clearly couldn't care less about the Palestinians and the Arabs."
Hamid referred to the fact that Obama appeared at the speech with a lapel pin comprised of both the U.S. and Israeli flags. In his speech, Obama's call for a unified Jerusalem omitted Palestinians' demands for their share of Jerusalem, which is a sacred city for them too.
Like most U.S. citizens, most Iraqis are not familiar with U.S. foreign policy. While Obama, the Democratic presidential hopeful, calls for a shift in the U.S. policy in Iraq, neither he nor his Republican rival, John McCain, talk about changing the National Security Strategy of the U.S., or the military document Joint Vision 2020, which calls for "full spectrum dominance" of the world by the U.S. military by the year 2020.
'Full spectrum dominance' means not just total control of land, air, and sea, but also of information and of space.
"The U.S. strategy is firm and unchanging," a political analyst at Diyala University told IPS on condition of anonymity, given widespread fear of U.S. forces. "It makes no difference whether one wins or the other. The general strategy is well established, and is never affected by the changing of the president."
"I do agree with this point of view," local merchant Abdul-Rahman told IPS. "During the nineties we wished that Bill Clinton would win in order to stop the economic sanctions that caused us so much suffering. When Clinton became president, sanctions remained as they were, and even worsened."
At that time, the majority of Iraqis had wished for Clinton to be president, but year after year of sanctions left them embittered.
Barak Obama has made public statements that he will withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. But his advisors speak of plans to keep at least 60,000-90,000 troops in Iraq, and at least until 2013, the year his first term in office would end if he is elected.
Many Iraqis appear to be skeptical of the promises made by Obama.
"I'll believe the troops are gone from Iraq when they are no longer on our streets and their warplanes no longer bomb our homes," a local merchant told IPS. " All politicians are liars, even school children know this."
Ahmed, our correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East.
© 2008 Inter Press Service
37 Comments so far
Show AllCheck out the Creative New Thinkers in Obama's 'Senior Working Group on National Security'.
Absolutely correct - NO difference.
The oil companies want the price to remain high. The only way to reduce oil prices is to pull US troops entirely.
Too bad the US public can't put 2 and 2 together and demand the withdrawal.
The U.S. strategy [full spectrum dominance of the world by the U.S. military by the year 2020] is firm and unchanging ...
It seems quite clear that the U.S. electorate is also firm and unchanging in its dedication to the "two-party" system that invariably supports that kind of geopolitical strategy -- a system that they expect the rest of the world to accept as the only form of "democracy" that can be tolerated under their imperial dominance. In the circumstances, I often wonder if Americans have ever really considered the actual implications of true democracy in the global context that their country's declared strategy seeks to achieve.
For example, in a democratic global parliament of 500 members, China, with 20 percent of the global population, would have 100 of the total 500 members. India, with 17 percent of the population, would have 85 members. After China and India, there is a big drop-off in the numbers of members for countries or groups of countries. All the countries of the European Union (EU) combined have only 7.4 percent of the global population and would have 37 members in the global parliament. The U.S-Israeli partnership would be fourth on the list, and it would have only 5 percent of the world's population and 25 members in the global parliament. The EU and the U.S. and Israeli partnership combined would have fewer members in the parliament than either China or India separately.
One other statistic deserves mention. Of the continents, Asia is by far the largest in population. As of mid-2007, it had an estimated 60.6 percent of the global population. In our imaginary democratic global parliament, it would therefore have 60.6 percent, or 303, of the 500 seats. (All figures are based on data from the World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2008.)
The "bottom line" question for Americans to consider is whether they actually support real worldwide democracy or your own country's global "full spectrum dominance". You cannot possibly support both. Any such pretense is blatant hypocrisy that fools no one but yourselves.
Iraqis seem divided on who they would like to see as the next U.S. president, but few believe that either will end the occupation.
So true. The Iraqis are smarter than we are. Maybe they should have occupied us.
Abdul-Rahman and Abdulla Hamid are two reasonable voices that accurately describe years of destructive US policy. The militants who've run the US for decades now aren't too concerned about winning hearts and minds anywhere apparently.
Starving the enemy, bombing them, locking them up or paying them off - that old ponderous brutality of empire thing that the criminals turned to in desperation during the planning stages of their War of Terror.
Hello , 2006 election , Democrats voted in and took over,
We demanded the end of the War, that was the mandate,
but the Democratic party is really Republican in disguise.
70% of Americans want to end the war and pull out.
They Play good cop-bad cop, Repubs and Dems take turns and we go round and round.
Maybe both Obama and Mccain are 4 more years of Bush!!!!!
REvolution is imminent its not a question of if, but when.
I just have to hear a call to arms,save our democracy and the Constitution, and I will march to washington with my brother Americans to reliberate the United States of America.
Live Free or Die. God Bless Liberty.
bornfreemen June 24th, 2008 1:22 pm -- 'REvolution is imminent its not a question of if, but when.'
I wish I could agree, but while there are some signs of rising discontent, I see nothing to suggest that any real revolutionary spirit remains in the country that once saw that kind of action as the only response to tyranny.
In fact, it appears to me that recent U.S. governance has already provided an extremely severe test of current tolerance for unconstitutional and tyrannical activities. And the elite, having discovered that that level of tolerance appears almost infinite, seem likely to continue pressing their advantage to the point where any further delay in resistance will make it virtually impossible -- if it hasn't already reached that point.
Sorry for saying so. Nothing would make me happier than to be proven wrong.
We are the real losers.
We lied to start a conflict in which millions of lives were lost.
We decimated a country and lynched it's sovreign out of greed.
We turned our back on our own beliefs and violated the rights of our own citizens.
We have embraced hatred, paranoia, and bigotry.
The bloodstains on our hands and our flag may never wash off.
The so-called strategic doctrine of "full spectrum dominance" articulated in Joint Vision 2020 has never been studied, debated, or approved by the United States Congress, nor was that doctrine's sweeping, grotesque Roman Empire-styled militarism ever publicly advocated by George Bush or Dick Cheney when they campaigned for public office. This strategic vision is wholly the brainchild of right wing neo-con think tanks, and various highly placed true believers who earn their generous livelihoods running the Pentagon's military/industrial/national security complex.
Sure, I would like to see Barack Obama condemn full spectrum dominance in his standard stump speech. I would also like to see Obama routinely condemn torture, extraordinary rendition, warrantless NSA wiretapping, the use of Predator drones for assassinations, presidential signing statements, the unitary executive branch war powers theory, suspension of habeas corpus by means of secret executive orders, and a host of other high crimes and misdemeanor mischief that the outgoing junta has wrought upon the land.
But none of these shameful policy choices of the Bush/Cheney regime were ever subjected to public, popular democratic debate in the first place, even during the late lamented 2004 Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign.
What would Barack Obama or the Democratic party in general gain by initiating and ventilating specific policy fights over these issues right now, other than guaranteeing themselves an instant Faux News backlash of fear mongering demagoguery in return?
Obama should better focus first and foremost upon his promise to end the military occupation of Iraq within 16 months. The rest can be renounced, abolished by quick presidential pen stroke or (if need be) be outlawed by the future Congress in due course.
I certainly don't blame the Iraqi man in the street for being suspicious or cynical about whether the outcome of the American presidential election might not change US policy for the better overnight.
But I do believe that Barack Obama knows better than to make the same sort of pathetic, triangulating mistakes that John Kerry and Hillary Clinton made.
Bill from Saginaw
^^^^ Since the U.S. Congress has abdicated all responsibility for almost everything, I would hardly regard their lack of formal approval of a joint doctrine as having any significance whatever. Neither they nor any other authority has repudiated it as publicly declared U.S. policy. And you can be sure that "the Iraqi man in the street" is not the only person amongst the global community who suspects that US policy might not change for the better regardless of one more switcheroo in the series of red-blue facade changes. When did it ever? The U.S., along with its "ally" Israel, is now generally regarded as the primary threat to world peace and security -- deservedly so. That "good cop/bad cop" crap just doesn't wash anymore with anyone except the domestic masses.
Hey folks, fellow news junkies, we can let go of the political tensions that drive us in 2 dimensional media and embrace each other in our 3-d day to day,
These presidents of our media headlines and fantasies can't change things from their end but will listen to our economic choices. It all comes down to all of us living our values everyday in everyway but less 'politically' (translated as 'the workings of the many') and more 'economically' (management or care and nurture of the household). The Economic Democracy tradition of First Nations was built in universal progressive ownership by each member of the Production Societies, growing in string-shell from the age of an apprentice to the wisdom of the elder.
The string shell according to many records provided share voting rights in these societies (similar to old European guilds), exchange value for goods and services, social security during illness or death of members, diplomatic conveyance for shared resource harvesting balances between nations, communications, costume and many other functions to individuals, families, communities, regions, nations, confederacies, continentally and hemispherically as well as linked much further.
A group of us here in Canada are working together to establish these open livelihood welcoming practices among ourselves and our communities. Anyone looking to get involved is welcome to join us.
Peace
"All politicians are liars" 'even school children know this.' Perfect. But, what about Adult Americans?
Our politicians have learned to rise above the so-called "educated scientists", "creative artists", and other hedonists. They know that JESUS has a PLAN for good ol' chickenpluckin' Americans.
They tell the TRUTH, always, just like you tell your Fellow CHRISTIANS the truth! CHRIST works trough McCain, Obama, Bush, Cheney, and all our other inspired leaders.
Iraqis believe they are losing because their Muslim hedonism is defective. But they are now converting to CHRISTIANITY in droves, Praise Jesus!
"...which calls for "full spectrum dominance" of the world by the U.S. military by the year 2020."
If we are honest we must admit the overwhelming majority of Americans are in full agreement. Almost half of which will vote for the party of George W. Bush. A good portion (40%?) of Hillary supporters would rather vote for McCain than Obama who is only slightly better. We do have our work cut out for us, don't we?
IF...IF (and dreams are still Free) The lobbiest for Oil and General Motors and Exxcon, Caltex ect, ect leave Obama alone and with a lame-duck House on THE HILL, there just could be a slight chance the troops will be home by April or July 09...remember DREAMS ARE FREE!!
WP IS COMMITTING bs CENSORSHIP, MUCH, here, and this is censorship of totally valid and important information. CD allowing that means CD supports it and that, in turn, means that CD is worth little other than for censorship contributor.
It is not too difficult to understand why there may be quite a bit of skepticism among Iraqis in general about whether either presidential candidate would be beneficial to them as a people, a nation or a culture (or several cultures). The fact of the matter is that neither Obama or McCain have taken a stance that offer much in the way of hope for the Iraqisor for peace in the Middle East because they both still, in their differing approaches, have the U.S. as the principal actors in attempting to clean up the mess that we, the U.S. have created there. It is time for the U.S. leadership to divorce us from the corporate contractors who are virtually running the show and amke an appeal to the United Nations to supervise the means of our withdrawal in favor of a real coalition of European and Middle east countries to administer the political, economic and the reconstruction of the country of Iraq, with the cost of that recovery and rebuilding of its infrastructure BEING BORNE BY THE U.S. It would be far less expensive for the U.S. taxpayers to be done this way than the way we are currently operating, to say nothing about re-establishing quite a bit of our credibility with the rest of the world.
~ MIKE CORBEIL ~
You'll know it's really baD
WHEN all of your previous posting dis_ap_pear
I'm totally BE'ing SUP.PRESENCED (nam_aste)
If one isn't YET,
than one's not trying
_____ h a r d ____
___ e n o u g h ___
Ali and Jamail made a very important reference, to Joint Vision 2020, and Wikipedia has a page on this, but there's an evidently much more thorough section at F A S, Federation of American Scientists. Censorship promoter WP is rejecting many valid links that I post these days, so CD's complicit, given there are OTHER SERVERS available for switching to. So I won't include the link, which people can easily find it with a simple Web search.
Before I'd donate to any website, it would have to prove that it does not permit censorship of totally valid and important references and links. CD's had a long time to do the switch, several or more years, already; but silently prefers to use the WP censorship crutch. For several months, now, WP has not been blocking any of my www.globalresearch.ca links, but I started posting some other totally valid links along with some GR links this week and I've had posts rejected several, not a couple, but several times already; in only two or three days. TOTALLY VALID links and to important resources!
Anyway, with all of the 'full spectrum dominance' objectives of the psychopathic elites of the West, and with Obama not needing federal monies for campaigning, because he's well or strongly backed by rich people among ruling elites (including Buffet, Soros, and others); heh, STOP DREAMING that he's going to do any good once elected. He's most surely not; the odds are 99% against him doing good, and his voting record as a senator already is strong proof that he's NOT trustworthy like AT ALL. It's not for good reasons that ruling elites have adopted Obama!
But the so-called progressive Americans who believe otherwise about him aren't having bombs dropped on their towns and families, families massacred by ground troops, and so on, so they treat life as if we have "all the time in the world" to play around with testing out if Obama might make a very remarkable switch of course if and when elected president. All these councher "progressives" don't care; it's not their lives and society that's being destroyed, certainly nothing comparable to Iraq and Afghanistan, anyway. And the well-to-do Americans really do NOT care about the others who've been economically pushed into total bankruptcy, losing homes because of major financial industry racketeering, and so on.
They feel NO PAIN, so make NO GAINS of any really substantial kind!
True, real activists in the U.S. are extremely few, proportionally speaking. They do not include the Obama supporters, for they know that Obama is NOT what he pretends to be, what he wants to fool everyone into believing that he is. He's another hypocrite, liar, and so on; just that he is in a slightly different way. Slightly different makes NO real difference! The underlying objectives are the same.
Him or McCain? There'll be at most superficial differences in terms of appearances, and I'm not talking about skin pigmentation or even political party. They will work to the same ends, for the president does NOT really [lead] in teh USA! Clinton and Bushes are an example of this; really. Clinton really was NO better and the real objectives did NOT change.
I 've had some weird shit happen. I don't think it's intentional, at least for me. After having technical difficulties on rare occasions I usually got my posts back up. I did send CD a contribution a couple months ago. Greasing wheels usually helps them run smoother. Perhaps that has made the difference.
ps Yesterday my posts were disappearing for a while and then I reposted them and they stuck.
sup.presence,
Buzz off, fly. You're worse than a house fly on a hot and muggy August day.
Is it possible that posting on CD is not an inalienable right?
That those who own and run CD have, actually, some small say in the matter?
I was recently eradicated from the CD universe because, only maybe now, but just maybe, my toe went over the line.
But as Namaste points out, you gotta try. You gotta want it. You gotta have that hot blood and a bad mouth.
Then you resurrect and chill a little.
And be grateful dead listening happy to be here.
The 'heck' w/ inalienable rights in another person's publication-I saw it, it's mine; that's childthinking.
JOINT VISION 2020 and the above from CCPA, besides FIVE Western oil cies moving into Iraq now and with 'NO-BID CONTRACTS', like Tom Engelhardt's article posted here yesterday stated; although I read the original copy at TomDispatch, which I've found to normally be the copy to read, since CD omits part of his original pages. WELL, NOW, it does not matter whether Obama or McCain wins the November election! Either way, plans are not going to significantly change; they may be given slightly differing appearances on the surface, but no significant changes will happen.
Tangentially, or perhaps more strongly related, is what the following article is about, too.
""The Hunt: "Me and Military Criminals"
A book on man-hunt by the Tribunal' s prosecutor general
by Elena Guskova",
June 22 2008,
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9418
QUOTE: "The presentation of memories of Carla del Ponte slated for April 3, 2008 just days after she had left her post of the Hague Prosecutor General for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. ..."
It's very incriminating for the U.S., the Clinton administration, the subsequent Bush-Cheney administration, NATO, UNMIK, the ICC that murdered former Pres. Slobodan Milosevic, and of course the psychopathic lunatics of the KLA. No, not all Albanian Kosovans, but the extremist, gangster, ... KLA; and crimes described in Carla del Ponte's book, those mentioned in the above article, alone, are horrible and extreme, and against Serbs. Innocent Albanian Kosovans were (and are) also and very harmed because of the KLA psychopaths, too; but I expect not as badly as the Serbs were harmed, killed, mutilated, killed for their vital organs, and who knows what other crimes against them.
How that relates is perhaps not stated in the article, for I've only read the first two paragraphs so far; but there are other articles at GR and surely found through the oil and energy index there. GR has posted articles by a number of writers for a year or more now and about what the real intent is for separating Kosovo from Yugoslavia and/or Serbia; definitely not for any reasons related to the human rights of anyone, but heroin trafficking, which the KLA apparently is much into doing, besides their other crimes, as well as for establishing mega-base Camp Bondsteel.
According to the GR articles on that topic, that U.S. military base will serve to protect an oil and/or natural gas pipeline, the one that the CCPA article provides a map for and for piping oil to Turkey. And then there's the heroin trafficking route that apparently has long passed through Albanian territory, onward to Europe.
Carla del Ponte's is relevant, however, in terms of what she or the tribunal she was General Prosecutor for describes of the extreme criminality of the KLA, but also the many govt officials that did all they could to obstruct her. That's easy to believe, for anyone who is even little, yet still reasonably informed about the trial of Slobodan Milosevic [knows] that it was a trial and treatment intended to kill him using the disguisement of the "soft" approach, to try to fool us all into stupidly believing that he was being justly treated according to law and facts; facts that did not exist. The few facts that were reality-based weren't related to him, but the puppet Clinton administration made sure to carrying out the orders of the ruling elites and to get Milosevic OUT of the way.
~ lisa3210peace ~
I'm not RIP'ing -- thanks for noticing
My above post refers to a CCPA article and I tried posting a modified copy of the post I made here for this two days ago, but WP censors it; evidently due to something in the modifications made. So I'll just provide a link to the post.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/22/9805/#comment-306561
JV 2020, 'FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE', including via space, USSPACECOM Vision 2020. I'm therein also referring to the resource pages at FAS (dotty org), for which people can quickly find the link with a simple Web search.
And I haven't mentioned Africa and AFRICOM, yet, in this post, heh. Well, this post is long enough as it is, so I'll just leave this closing reference for oil and natural resource project AFRICOM. Heh, when these criminals say 'full spectrum', they obviously aren't exaggerating in terms of the scope of their psychopathic dreams (our nightmares).
People who DREAM that Obama may make a good President are better off moving to the children's section of disneyland. He is a proven candidate for the ruling elites; NOT LAW, PEOPLES, and so on!
Ali/Jamail sez: "... neither (Obama) nor his Republican rival, John McCain, talk about changing the National Security Strategy of the U.S., or the military document Joint Vision 2020, which calls for "full spectrum dominance" of the world by the U.S. military by the year 2020.
***
And this is compatible with democracy how, exactly?
p.s. - How's Hitler coming with that "Thousand-year Reich"?
FULL SPECTRUM IMPEACHMENT
Important End the War Conference in Cleveland this weekend!
The broadest antiwar conference since the Vietnam War will be held June 28-29. It is an unprecedented opportunity for the antiwar movement to plan demonstrations around the call "Bring the Troops Home Now" from Iraq. Poll show Americans have had it with the Iraq war. Yet the major party candidates plans ignore this and instead call to occupy Iraq indefinitely. The potential for this conference to mobilize 100's of thousands to march for OUT NOW is huge. It deserves our support!
natassembly.org
Obama is keeping us in Iraq.
What say you, Obama voters?
Why vote for the guy?
Arvy:
Completely got it right on all three statements. I see no change coming whatsoever in the long run. Obama will probably be the next president, and my prediction is that he will be just another mediocre president with close ties to the status quo corporate/military world order, laughing at the morons who continually fall for the pretty words people want to hear, but with no true substance or honesty.
From the website of the Prince of Peace:
He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda isn't expected to exit Iraq anytime soon. Obama is blowing hot air when he says he's against the war. In order to protect the Greeen Zone and the bases many tens of thousands of troops will need to remain in Iraq fighting and dying for Big Oil, Haliburton, KBR, Raytheon, Blackwater and a host of mercenaries and assorted profit seekers drawn to war zones like vultures.
The only reason to vote for a Democrat is if you believe in lesseroftwoevilism which has been shown to not work. Lesseroftwoevilism allows the Republicans to lurch ever rightward with the Democrats tracking ever so slightly to their "left" thereby claiming the mantle of the lesser of the two evils. Both have become evil. In the most important issues of the day, like war, the disagreement isn't on whether to have it, but rather should we have 160k(R) troops or 90k(D) troops.
The only way to stop the war is to dump both pro-war parties of Big Business and the Military Industrial Complex. Progressives need to vote 3rd party and convince all your family, friends and coworkers to do the same. Writing your congress sell-outs and marching is a waste of time but we should continue doing it.
Go Cynthia McKinney, Ralph or 3rd party!
World Renowned Philosopher Slavoj Zizek told Democracy Now in April:
Everyone in the world ought to vote for the next US president, EXCEPT AMERICANS.
Are we finally ready to prove the rest of the world wrong this time around?
8:17 a.m. post: Good Morning.
I say it will be Obama or McCain.
Therefore I'll vote for Obama.
Pragmatism before unrealizable principle.
Obama '08.
When you all vote for a third party, if McCain gets elected, (Bush 00, Bush 04-God Job Idealists!) Remember, you voted against Obama, who could have beat him.
The hell with bomb-droopping rascist McCain. Follow your hearts.
You all cry principle with furious indignation.
Do you all ride bicycles?
It is my only mode of transport. Principle Realizable Americanus.
Vote for Nader if it feels right. Drive to the polls I bet too.
lisa3210peace sez: "When you all vote for a third party, if McCain gets elected, (Bush 00, Bush 04-God Job Idealists!)"
***
Thanks for the illumination. All this time, I was under the impression the fascist coup of 2000-02-04 was the result of
•Bush's brother and campaign chair purging the voter roles in Florida;
•Bush's cousin on the Faux News election desk, which jumped the call when there was no clear leader and set the frame for everything that followed as "loser" Gore trying to steal the election from "winner" Bush;
•Cheney's hunting buddy helping sway the Supreme Court into an unconstitutional shutdown of the vote count;
•The selling off of The People's ballot to private corporations;
•Another Bush campaign chair caging voters in democratic precincts and closing the doors on a precinct count on the grounds of a non-existent "terror alert."
•A corporate press jointly owned and run by directors on interlocking boards with each other and with defense/energy/biotech firms.
•An American public woefully ignorant of its own history and its responsibilities under the Constitution.
Man, was I ever wrong.
Thanks again for cracking the case and demonstrating that our corporate masters were actually installed through a brilliant takeover engineered by a small handful of anti-corporate progressives. Can't believe I didn't see that before!
IDEALS over pragmatism.
Thanks Goebbels for that breakdown... hey when are you gonna come out of retirement? You were so good to us compared to the new guys.