Feeling a little bored? Looking for excitement in… your life? How about some military tourism…in Iraq?
Showing all posts tagged Iraq
Ali Allawi: The attempt to refashion Iraq was doomed
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: The Iraq war has barely registered in this election campaign (except Murdoch cheerleader Andrew Bolt declaring last week that the battle has been “won”). Clearly Bolt must have missed the millions of displaced refugees both inside and outside the ravaged country during his visit to the…
Send your daughters, George
Bush reality: President Bush offered an upbeat assessment on Friday of progress in Iraq, saying that while corruption remained a problem and unemployment was high, the economy was growing, violence was down and, “slowly but surely, the people of Iraq are reclaiming a normal society.” Reality: The Army began its recruiting year Oct. 1 with…
Maybe freedom tomorrow
As Iraq fades from the daily news and civilian casualties rising again in October, we need now more than ever the reality on the ground, this time from Baquba: The much touted “surge” of U.S. troops in Baquba has caused more problems that it has solved, residents say. Baquba, capital city of Iraq’s Diyala province…
Declaring victory
One of Australia’s major Murdoch commentators offers his insights into Iraq: There is a reason Iraq has almost disappeared as an election issue. Here it is: The battle is actually over. Iraq has been won. I know this will seem to many of you an insane claim. Ridiculous! After all, haven’t you read countless stories…
Killing Ayrabs is part of the mission, yes?
Jeremy Scahill, Huffington Post, October 30: Apparently there is one set of rights for Blackwater mercenaries and another for the rest of us. Normally when a group of people alleged to have gunned down 17 civilians in a lawless shooting spree are questioned, investigators will tell them something along the lines of: “You have the…
Heal me, Moses
Ladies and gentlemen, we seem to have found a modern-day Moses. Who, you may ask? AKA Nashville-based blogger Webutante – barely knew Jewish Republicans existed until last week, when she met former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, whom she now views as “a modern day Moses leading his people out of slavery, into freedom.…
Failing at the most basic tasks
Sidney Blumenthal, Salon, October 25: As [Walter] Lippmann observed almost ninety years ago, the crisis of journalism cannot be disentangled from the crisis of national government. Government and journalism now share a crisis of credibility, trust, and competence. At the least, the crisis of journalism reveals a changing standard for and definition of “objectivity.” Journalism,…
America does not control Iraq
Dahr Jamail, author of the wonderful Beyond the Green Zone – I’m currently reading this fine book about the real Iraq, away from the embedded perspective and hearing real Iraqis talking about the effects of the occupation – recently talked on Al-Jazeera English with Riz Khan:
The liberation equation
With one month until the Australian election, the issue of Iraq has been discussed only briefly in the campaign. After all, they’ve been over one million Iraqi deaths and millions of displaced refugees. There’s certainly no chance this kind of news will even enter the minds of our politicians (or the sheep-like journalists following their…