Tipping point

UK Telegraph, November 20:

“Col Tim Collins, the controversial Iraq war commander, trained his soldiers to use white phosphorus, which burns through flesh to the bone, in combat against enemy troops.

“The admission by the former Special Air Service officer, revealed in his autobiography Rules of Engagement, contradicts claims by the Ministry of Defence that the chemical was only ever used to create a smokescreen.

“British troops also used white phosphorus to kill Argentinian troops during the Falklands conflict.”

Another day and yet another lie by the occupiers of Iraq exposed. The winds of change are blowing through the Iraq quagmire. Murdoch’s mouthpiece, the Australian, still talks about “staying the course” and “angry voices on the Left” but only ideologues fail to see the disaster the West has created in fractured Iraq.

The Toronto Star sees clear comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq. Public support has crashed, some Democrats and Republicans are growing a backbone and questioning their “wartime” President and American soldiers keep on getting killed in large numbers. And let’s not forget the Iraqi deaths. Impossible to calculate, but hundreds, if not thousands, per month. And this is “liberation”? The occupation is making the country more dangerous and provides a rallying cry for jihadists around the world.

The “liberal” Sydney Morning Herald still refuses to endorse a call for withdrawal but it’s only a matter of time. As usual, and despite some qualifications, the SMH advocates exactly the same policy as the Murdoch mouthpiece. “Staying the course” is the catch-phrase for the intellectually unimaginative and politically naive. Besides, how many Iraqis need to die before the Western media elite accepts reality? But then, the daily carnage is barely reported and exact casualty figures are unknown.

Western imperialism has been dealt a deadly blow in Iraq and it couldn’t have come a day too soon. A superpower on its knees, and its lap-dog allies, have finally realised that Western “democracy” is not transportable. Cronyism, torture chambers, death squads, random kidnappings – largely committed by US-backed Shiite militias – is the new Iraq.

Welcome to liberation.

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