Standing up for occupation

After three disastrous years in Iraq – the Sydney Morning Herald’s headline today is pure fantasy: “White House sees hope amid chaos in Iraq” – George Bush is now talking about using “military might” against Iran:

“The threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel. That’s a threat, a serious threat. It’s a threat to world peace. I made it clear, and I’ll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally Israel.”… 

Iran knows the US is heavily weakened by the Iraq war. When Bush talks about Iran’s “interference within a democratic process” in Iraq, one presumes he sees the irony of an occupier warning a neighbour to butt out. Australian Prime Minister John Howard seems remarkably ill-informed about the situation in Iraq and says that he defends the Iraq mission on “moral grounds” and “Iraqis have a better future now than they would have had if there had not been a military operation.” One of the Arab world’s finest journalists, Zaki Chehab, asks the obvious question: was life better under Saddam?

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