Bill Moyers program “Selling the War” aired last night on PBS is perhaps the best documentary ever seen on America’s media and its collusion with Washington and without doubt an indictment of the independence of media as guardians of the debate over public issues, especially with important issues such as going to war. Read the rest of this entry »
The Cheney-Bush War on Iraq is not going as planned and is not going like all those who planned it, organized it, managed said it will go. The Cheney-Bush administration will no doubt go down in America and world history as the worst, the most incompetent administration in the history of the US. Read the rest of this entry »
On page 11 of Friday’s (December 22, 2006) Washington Post, Secretary Rice is quoted as saying the Iraq War “ Worth the Investment” and this is the entire quote from the Washington Post “ Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said yesterday that Iraq is “worth the investment “ in American lives and dollars” and I continue to quote the Washington Post “When asked whether throwing $100 billion the Pentagon wants for the Iraq and Afghanistan might amount to throwing good money after bad in Iraq, she replied ‘ I don’t think it’s a matter of money. Along the way, there have been plenty of markers that show that this is a country that is worth the investment”.
Now who could ever accept such an absurd statement to come of the Secretary of State, when she and her Boss and all their friends are not the one that has to pay for the this war, not in their lives and certainly not by their money.
One has to wonder what criteria does Secretary Rice used when she describe wasting the lives of more than 3,000 of our men and women, wasting the lives of some 700,000 Iraqi, and of course not counting the hundreds of billions of dollars wasted down the drain on this war. Of course, if Secretary Rice thinks that giving the opportunity to many contractors to steal, rob and waste taxpayers money is worth it, then she is right. I am not so sure this can be the case of the lives of those lost. I am sure their families may think other wise.
The late president Johnson got us in the Vietnam War on false pretenses and lies and now president Bush is doing the same thing, and the those in the military have to pay with their lives for such lies and false pretenses. Yes, those of us who served in the military do expect to fight for and defend the USA. No one can disagree on that, but no one should go to war and fight personal wars and fight and die for wars that are totally based on false pretenses and lies.
Perhaps Secretary Rice needs to travel around this country, to states in the South like Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, and travel to states in the North West and Mountain States like Idaho and Wyoming to check and see what are the “markers” and indicators she sees that these states and their citizens are worth the investment. I am sure few hundred billion dollars invested in housing, education, medical care, environmental protection and preservation, child care, job training and job creations will also be worth while in these states and in the rest of the country. One has to wonder how many hospitals and clinics and how many elementary, grade and high schools can be build with these wasted billions. One has to wonder how many universities and job training program that can give the people the opportunity for a decent living and decent lives can these wasted billions for our citizens and taxpayers. The only beneficiaries out of this war are the many contractors and subcontractors who are robbing the Pentagon and the taxpayer’s blind. Of course giving the money to the military industrial alliance may be worth the investment, but I think that our people and our tax payers are more worthy than corporations with big fat checks to their managers and shareholders. Perhaps we the citizens should incorporate and seek contracts from the federal government to send our kids to decent schools and give them the kind of education that at least give them the chance to have a decent job in a changing work environment. No, Dr. Rice, the decision to go to war is not worth the investment. Perhaps you can come back again in few days and says that the US and Israel decision to drop more than 5 million cluster bombs on Lebanon was also worth the investment.
Any one, whether Arab, Muslim, or American must wonder what in the hell is going on in Iraq not today but for the last 30 years. Iraq was a blood bath for over centuries ever since the days of the Umayyad Empire and nothing has changed.
Arabs who are familiar with Iraq will tell you that “only a dictator could ever rule Iraq” may be right. The Umayyad rulers tried to subdue Iraq some centuries ago and succeeded only when they send Alhajaj Yousef Althaqafi to rule Iraq. On his first sermon in Al-Kufa he stood there silent for few minutes and as expected, some of the believer sitting waiting to hear the new ruler started to throw small pebbles at Alhajaj who was diminutive in stature. The scene continued for few minutes until Ahajaj began his most famous sermon, which we as young students had to remember and recite. He called the Iraqis “hypocrites” who deserver severe punishment and he ended his sermon with the beheadings of few people and that was the only way for the Umayyad to subdue Iraq. Saddam sad to say followed the same advice of Alhajaj to the letter. The daily carnage and the savagery of the crimes and the daily statements coming out of Iraq, make so many others and me a believer that Alhajaj may have been right!
It is even harder to imagine that such sectarian crimes take place on a daily basis killing hundreds of innocent people every day. When one sees the daily statements made by many of the politicians, Shiite and Sunnis one has to wonder where were these people when Saddam ruled and was killing and murdering hundreds of thousands. The Sunnis and some of the Baathist Shiites were not only silent during this time, but also actively participated in Saddam’s killing machine. No one can convince me or any one that Saddam can carry on killing hundreds of thousands if not millions of Iraqis without the support of a large segment of society. The same is true of Hitler. He could not have carried his crime of murdering millions of Jews and others with the active support of substantial number of the German people. Too bad that the same Sunnis who now are speaking out about the murder of Sunnis where so silent for many years. I am not aware of one single Sunni leader who ever came out and publicly spoke out against Saddam and his crimes against the Shiite and the Kurds. (I invite corrections here).
It is also sad to see the Shiites who suffered so much under Saddam commit similar crimes against innocent Iraqi civilians. What is wrong with these people? It is so hard to even imagine that such killing is taking place on a daily basis in Iraq in 2006.
Why so much killing and why so much murder? Perhaps the Iraqis, both Sunnis and Shiites want to prove Alhajaj right? That Iraq as a nation could never be ruled by democratic means but instead must be ruled by bloodthirsty dictators. If this is the case then there is no reason to even have a country called Iraq, as the people and their leaders proved to be unfit and unqualified to rule and manage such a country. It is time for those with ‘blood on their hands” to step aside. George Bush and his Zionist mafia could not have chosen a worse model for implementing democracy in the Middle East.
The only way out of this blood bath and the only way out of the American military occupation and the only way to end the sectarian violence is to make Iraq a ward of the UN or some other organization and place it under a trusteeship, thus putting an end to the senseless and sectarian killings and murder, saving American lives and tax payers money and of course putting an end to the big fraud committed by Bush and his Tel-Aviv mafia.
It is sad and simply too bad that the Iraqi leadership, both Sunni and Shiite could not and is unable to rise up to the occasion and prove to the world that both Saddam and Alhajaj are wrong, that Iraq can be a peaceful democratic country and a model for others.
When it comes to Iraq, no Iraqis so far was and is able to describe the Iraqi situation and the failure of the Iraqi people to form and build a modern nation state than Foulath Hadid, the honory fellow at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford as he eloquently expressed his views in an article published in the International Herald Tribune (Friday, October 20, 2006).
Mr. Hadid quoting the late King Faisal I, shortly before his death describing the Iraqis as “ There is still— no Iraqi people but unimaginable masses of human beings, devoid of any patriotic ideas, imbued with religious traditions and absurdities, connected by no common tie, giving ear to devil, prone to anarchy, and perpetually ready to rise against any government what so ever” The late king Faisal was somewhat correct in the last instance. However the Iraqis did not rise in mass and throw out Saddam and his Ba’athist gang. Too bad the Sunni Muslims did not join the Shiites and Kurds when they revolted against Saddam.
It is very clear that not George Bush nor any one in his administration bothered to read the history of Iraq before they set of their reckless, ill advices, ill planned, and ill executed war on Iraq. It seems when it comes to history, members of this administration to do not bother to read, or are unable to read.
No one in their right mind, will disagree that Saddam Hussein is a killer, a murder, a war criminal who had to go, but many disagree with the lies of George Bush and with the way he ramp the war on Iraq, as a war on terror down the throat of congress and the public.
It is hard to believe how Bush allowed Paul Bremer to execute the plans for the post war Iraq without any due considerations to its history and its very complicated social, religious, tribal and ethnic structure.
More troublesome is the fact that Bush and Rumsfeld continue to believe in the same in what they are doing and thinking they are on the right course when the facts on the grounds tell them they better change plans and change tactics.
Bush afraid to admit he made a major blunder and made the biggest mistake of his presidency continues to make believe and continue to advocate, “staying the course”. What course are you talking about Mr. President? Your course is nothing but a disaster and all of the provado you can give and pretend will not change the facts on the grounds.
The Late president Lyndon Johnson lied to Congress when he claimed the North Vietnamese attacked US Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonking, thus escalating a conflict the murdered over 55,000 of our finest soldiers, crippled for life hundreds of thousands of GI’s and killed and murder over a million Vietnamese, he left in disgrace which he deserved.
Bush is doing the same like Johnson, lied about Weapons of Mass Destructions and continue to lie about the ties of Saddam to terror and of so far the number of murdered and killed Iraqis is approaching the 700,000. Do we expect that Bush will admit his lies and his failures before the death toll in Iraq reach a million, I doubt it?
The only beneficiaries of the Bush’s War on Terror are the so-called “security and terror experts” and those companies that sell to Department of Homeland Security. I do not believe the nation is safer or safer under Bush leadership.
It is time for Bush to admit to the people of the US that he lied, he made believe and he should apologies to the families of the more than 700,000 who died in Iraq so far. He should apologies to the nation and for taking the nation for a reckless, and joyless ride these past 5 years.
Original Post: 19 Nov 2005
Bayan Jaber Solaj, the Iraqi minister of interior not only should resign but should stand trial as well. The man is not only an arrogant minister who have a habit of insulting others (he called the Saudi “Bedouins” who could not teach him any thing) that is for sure, the Saudis could not teach such an arrogant and corrupt man any thing, he is too far gone to be salvaged by the Saudis and the Americans.
The discovery of “secret” prisons belonging to the ministry of interior where systemic abuse and torture takes places is enough reason for Solaj to step down and stand trial. The fact that he knew of such secrete prisons, and the fact that he know there was systematic torture of prisoners, are enough reasons for the man to get the hell out of the office and to take his place in the dock, in the court room with Saddam and his Baathist murderers.
Yes, one can understand the Shiite and what they had to endure during Saddam regime and one can understand the anger and frustration the Shiite have against the Sunnis who misruled and misused and abused Iraq and Iraqis for a long time, but that does not in any way ever, justify the abuses the Sunnis have to endure at the hand of Iraqi Shiites. This is not what this whole thing in Iraq is all about.
What the Iraqis need is not another Baathist regime like that of Saddam. What Iraqis need is not another Shiite regime like next door Iran responsible for the killing and murder of tens of thousands who challenged the mullahs of Iran. The Mullahs of Iran put to death, not supporters of the late Shah, but ordinary Iranians who saw that the Islamic revolution eating and devouring its sons and daughters. We do not need Shiite regimes like that of Iran. What the people of Iraq need is a democratic, secular state where citizens of Iraq can be equal in the eye of the law. What the Iraqi needs is not a secular criminal regime like that of Saddam’s Baathist regime, and do not need a regime of the Mullah, certainly, we do not need a regime like that of Paul Bremer and Solaj. Iraq and Iraqis more than ever needs freedom, freedom from fear, freedom of religion and from religion, freedom from war lords like those they had in Kurdish areas and certainly they do not need a Shiite or a Sunni majority, but an Iraqi democratic majority.
Hell broke lose when the Americans where caught on camera abusing prisoners in Abu-Ghraib prison, and the entire world jumped on the US demanding apologies and trials for those who committed such crimes. We should not demand less than that Now.
Well what the world now demands from Mr. Solaj is nothing less, and since he is directly responsible for authorizing such a systematic torture, then nothing short of resignation and trial will do.
I never could understand what is going on in Iraq and I like the recommendation of Dr. Salmeh, the former Lebanese minister of information and culture where he said in recent interview, that every one should have known that Iraq is quite an interesting and complicated country and once you open the door on such a complex problem you better come up with very original ideas, that address this strange combination of mosaic.
What is more surprising in the case of secret Iraqi prisons is the silence of the Shiite leaderships, a silence no less worrisome that the silence of the Sunni leadership at the ever increasing wave of suicide bombing and killing of innocent Iraqis committed by Sunni fighters. What Iraq needs is an outstanding secular leadership that keeps religious leaderships where it belong in the mosques and put criminal sectarian leadership behind bars for failing to stop all of the killings that is going on. The torture of Sunnis in secrete Shiite jails is no less dangerous that suicide bombing carried by Sunnis against Shiites. Iraq needs responsible leadership for a change not killers and murderers to rule it.
Loading ...