Irag Part I another end did the USA learn anything?

Another conflict brought about by the USA is about to end and the question is have we learned anything from these two engagements?

The first gulf war was about nothing but OIL of that there can be little doubt. This engagement was fought at a monetary cost of $60 billion of which the government of Saudi Arabia paid $36 billion or more than half. Within 100 hours a ceasefire was declared as the ill-equiped Iraq was no match for the aerial bombardment and ground forces mounted against them. It was a short lived conflict which occurred between August 2, 1990 and February 2, 1991.

Iraq had reasons economic and historical in regards to Kuwait as Kuwait was Iraqi territory prior to British Colonialism. They also had issues with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait who had helped to fund the Iraq war with Iran. You wonder how Saddam Hussein got some of those so-called weapons of mass destruction? The USA in seeing that Iraq was winning the conflict with Iran had begun to covertly supply Saddam Hussein in the early 1980’s as they wished to be on the winning side of this engagement

As with much of the Middle East and large chunks of Europe after World War I and II the superpowers America, Britain and Russia had arbitrarily carved up new nations and reduced others drastically. These little chess games of the superpowers have created many of the ongoing and past wars since with the oil rich Middle East suffering the most.

Britain which desperately tried to hold on to what little control it had the oil revenues being at the top of their list did not make matters any better. This little game of playing with the lives of other countries did not end in this arena until 1963. Still having governments accept new lines in their peoples nations does not mean that there will not be trouble later. As the British had attempted to strangle Iraq so that they could not compete with their oil and British dominance did not exactly make the Iraqi people trustworthy of outside occupiers.

So on August 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait and within 48 hours they had succeeded in taking the country which was once theirs prior to British Colonialism.

From the beginning the USA called for unilateral withdrawal by the Iraqi army disregarding the Arab League and it’s neighbors. Mostly this was all politically driven with some economics only important to the US thrown in.

As a foot note: This was also the time during which the USA had begun to amass on Saudi Arabian soil with airbases and troops. This would begin the birth of a new threat in coming years. Osama Bin Laden did not take kindly to American Imperialism as well as others.

Iraq made a number of proposals to the USA during this period one of which talked about Banning WMD’s in all of the Middle East. Of course the USA totally disregarded out of hand any negotiations. Even if these agreements or negotiations would benefit the entire world not just the USA. Again the US staunchly held it’s position towards Iraq leave Kuwait and then we might talk, that is when you have no leverage Saddam.

So even after multiple countries had proposed various agreements the British, USA and the Soviets had condemned them out of hand. As is shown again this first war was about nothing but OIL. Famine, drought and death in other countries was of little importance OIL ruled the day now as it did then.

There were also those False Pentagon satellite photos which showed a massive force of Iraqi military and tanks which were used to strengthen the call to arms, however again these proved to be lies. A newspaper publication acquired photos of the same time which showed nothing but an empty desert.

President George H Bush said, ““Within three days, 120,000 Iraqi troops with 850 tanks had poured into Kuwait and moved south to threaten Saudi Arabia. It was then that I decided to act to check that aggression.”

Of course Kuwait got involved hiring a public relations firm in the USA to call for an armed intervention and many millions of dollars were spent on that angle.

There were also the concerns of Saddam’s use of WMD he had been at war with Iran for around 10 years during which the US had supplied him albeit covertly with weapons. So they would have probably had a good idea what they had sold him now wouldn’t they?

There was the meeting with the US Congress set up by the public relations firm with a group of Iraqis’ to push even harder for US intervention, was this by chance or carefully orchestrated propaganda to help sell a war to the American people as would be done in the future.

However it was latter found out that the most damming testimony given was nothing but a Lie the woman who gave the testimony was not even living in Kuwait at the time and was also a member of the Kuwait Royal Family. The American public had been duped again by their own government of course this was not to be a new phenomenon.

Of  course this did not stop George H Bush from repeating these lies to the American public via Television, why would the American public not believe him.

The aerial bombardment began on January 17th 1991 with over 100,000 sorties and 88,500 tons of bombs. This of course destroyed much of Saddam’s military however it also destroyed leagues more of civilian Infrastructure all in the name of OIL. Most of these sorties originated from Saudi Arabia as US airbases which would become permanent in the ensuing years hosted them.

Iraq had declared with no ambiguity that if attacked it would commence SCUD missile attacks against Israel and of course it did. However the Israeli’s did not counterattack at the request of the USA. If they had this would have thrown a wrench in the works as other Arab nations would not have any part as being perceived as fighting along with the Israeli’s. For forty years the Israeli’s had a policy of retaliation yet that never occurred during this conflict only showing that the USA’s control of Israel during this period.

The ground battle during this first conflict were wholeheartedly in favor of the coalition another argument that the Pentagon’s intelligence photos were false there was little if any resistance.

On February 1991 the Iraqi’s were retreating en-mass as this had been guaranteed by the coalition that if retreating they would not be attacked. However contrary to the agreement the retreating Iraqi’s were obliterated on the, “Highway of Death”. While during the conflict the coalition had encountered little resistance and few causalities.

The war or engagement was over hostilities had ceased and the generals met the Iraqi’s and Kurds had been told to overthrow Saddam Hussein and to this end they were trying. An Iraqi General requested that they be allowed to use helicopters as much of their infrastructure had been destroyed. He went further and asked for Armed helicopters which amazingly was approved by a US General. The Iraqi’s then turned those Armed helicopters against their own people who were attempting to overthrow Saddam yet no help came.

In 1992 Dick Cheney made this quote;

I would guess if we had gone in there, we would still have forces in Baghdad today. We’d be running the country. We would not have been able to get everybody out and bring everybody home. And the final point that I think needs to be made is this question of casualties. I don’t think you could have done all of that without significant additional U.S. casualties, and while everybody was tremendously impressed with the low cost of the (1991) conflict, for the 146 Americans who were killed in action and for their families, it wasn’t a cheap war. And the question in my mind is, how many additional American casualties is Saddam (Hussein) worth? And the answer is, not that damned many. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the President made the decision that we’d achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.

Yet Millions of Kurds fled Iraq and over 400,000 were expelled and an untold number of deaths occurred. Even as radio broadcasts implored them to revolt against Saddam Hussein and overthrow the government via CIA run radio stations outside of the conflict. Where were we then where will we be the next time?

Did we enter this first Iraq engagement with false intelligence, Yes

Did our President make false statements to the American public, Yes

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The US State department attempts to corrupt the Constitution and diminish Obama

Barack Obama made a speech in Germany today which is now receiving rave reviews from around the world. However the State Department of the United States of America forbid any Foreign Service personnel from attending Mr. Obama’s speech, John McCain on the other hand is treated differently.

The State Department memo basically said:

The U.S. Embassy in Berlin has instructed Foreign Service personnel stationed there not to attend Sen. Barack Obama’s public rally today. However had the speech occurred in the US they would be allowed thanks to the Hatch Act which allows all government employees serving in the United States to attend such events.

But thanks to the Bush administration American citizens working in Germany were not allowed to attend a speech given by the presumptive future President of the United States.

However when John McCain recently gave a speech in Canada on June 20^th of this year no such memo was sent out by the State Department. It just shows how corrupt our government has become under George Bush thank God this war criminal will be gone soon.

But Mr. Obama as always took the high road and did not sink to the level of pond scum like our current administration and the world listened. Rather than be an isolationist nation that unilaterally attacks foreign countries for their oil, the world is really becoming quite fond of our soon to be President of this country.

Here is a sampling of the glowingly rave reviews from American media outlets:

Time Magazine:

Saying he had come to Berlin “not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen — a proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen of the world,” presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama on Thursday night gave a soaring address that invoked echoes of the famous speeches in this city in which John F. Kennedy made common cause with Berliners against communist oppression in 1963 and Ronald Reagan called nearly 20 years ago to tear down the Berlin Wall.

The Times Online:

If the intended message was to show American voters that he could restore the tarnished image of the US abroad, then the rally – the only such event in his overseas tour – succeeded. Young girls dyed their hair red, white and blue, hand-scrawled placards declaring” President B.O” – most banners were removed by security guards – were held aloft and a few enthusiasts hung vertigously from the lampposts first erected by Nazi town planner Albert Speer.

The New York Times:

The response to Mr. Obama has been so warm that the coordinator for German-American relations in the foreign ministry here, Karsten D. Voigt, has tried to scale back expectations. He reminded Germans in interview after interview that Mr. Obama would have to support positions unpopular with the German public, like a stronger presence engaged in more fighting for the Bundeswehr, the German army, in Afghanistan.

First and foremost, Mr. Obama is popular because he is not Mr. Bush, who is wildly unpopular in Germany. Asked why they support Mr. Obama, his opposition to the Iraq War usually comes up first.

The Atlantic:

What’s so bad about Germans cheering an American, especially when the visuals were stunning? Hundreds of American flags, waving. 200,000 Berliners cheering an American presidential candidate.

A short speech, mostly, carrying the message that animates Obama’s presidency:

The message of the speech was the common values that unite the citizens of the world. Obama’s Berlin is a shining beacon of hope to the world, “where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is so challenge too great for a world that stands as one.”

Of course John McCain chimed in; “I’d love to give a speech in Germany … a political speech or a speech that maybe the German people would be interested in, but I’d much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate … for the office of presidency,” McCain told reporters in Ohio.

So for Mr. McCain to constantly attempt to denounce Barack Obama and his so called lack of foreign policy understanding here is John McCain telling the citizens of Germany I don’t want to talk to you unless it is as president, that’s real mature John.

Also Mr. McCain has shown again that his mental faculties are already failing him as MSNBC points out from a quote during an interview with John McCain which will air today.

“I would rather speak at a rally or a political gathering any place outside of the country after I am president of the United States,” McCain told O’Donnell. “But that’s a judgment that Sen. Obama and the American people will make.”

However, on June 20, McCain himself gave a speech in Canada — to the Economic Club of Canada — in which he applauded NAFTA’s successes. An implicit message behind that speech was that Obama had been critical of the trade accord. Also, McCain’s trip to Canada was paid for by the campaign.

The more you read about John McCain with his less than glorious past using the family name to get a free ride in the Navy. The unceremoniously dumping of his first wife so he could marry into money with his second wife. John’s first wife had an accident and had put on a few pounds while he was being treated like a foreign dignitary during his confinement in Vietnam. That really shows dedication John, no really it shows an opportunist at work that will do whatever he can to further His wants and wishes.

Barack Obama on the other hand wants to rebuild the deteriorating perception of the United States across the globe and his speech in Germany showed just that to the world at large. So he is traveling across the globe as well as the United States on his road to victory come Election Day. His speech today was a promising development and the people of this nation should be proud of our next President.

From the reaction overseas the people of the world are feeling better about the US as they see that a man with sound ideas and a comprehensive view of the world is about to take over the reins of the United States. The world witnessed that Barack is not going to wait until he is President before he begins his job of leading this nation out of the abyss that George Bush has placed us.

They see the realization that the American people will not be fooled again by voting in another Bush term by bringing in John McCain. No Barack Obama will not be able to make all the world’s problems disappear, however he will lead with a sound mind and body dedicated to all the people of this nation. Our standing across the planet will grow once again and we will not be perceived as a nation of war mongers who torture and kill without regard to the consequences.

Mr. McCain on the other hand would just mimic George W and the USA would suffer greatly under his style of leadership. But thanks to the stars above John McCain will never be President of this country.

George W Bush and his homegrown Terrorists here and abroad

Diya Muhammad Hussein while not related to the disposed dictator of Iraq does have a common belief which is held by many of his countrymen and that is his desire to rid his country of the American occupiers.

While most sixteen year old children would be interested in school studies and their growing attraction to the opposite sex and the latest video games the teenagers of Iraq have much more dire thoughts on their minds.

After many years of American occupation and death and despair always at the door, hatred for the imperialists who occupy the land is foremost on their minds. After the many thousands of deaths in the quagmire of American design it is only logical that the youth of such a country would be more than willing to kill or be killed to put and end to the occupation.

The United States’ new backyard

When the US decided that its backyard would in future be a greater Middle East – from Pakistan to Morocco – it imagined that it could rearrange the region to suit itself. The results have been disastrous and will be long-lasting

By Alain Gresh

The End of Journalism and Confidential Sources the Constitution be Damned!

Journalists across the globe have much to worry about if present legislation in Germany makes its way to the United States. Many European nations have began the practice of retaining all their countrymen’s communications since the 9/11 attack in New York.

The German Bundestag or parliament has now drafted legislation which would make their collection of all data including all voice communications received by the countries journalists which would effectively end the freedom of the press or allow for confidential sources to expect anonymity.

The future does not look bright for Germanys many news gathering organizations as confidential sources will no longer be afforded to secretly reveal any information. As all data that the German press receives will be available for the government to collect and quite possibly go on the attack against once confidential sources.

For a concerned German citizen to send an email, fax, text or voice communication they would be taking their life in their own hands. While they might attempt to alert the press of government malfeasance or inappropriate conduct the government will then know who they are and this will have a chilling effect on the freedom of the press.

The bill if passed would take effect on January 1^st, 2008 and it will remove any and all protection of a journalist’s sources in regards to Internet and Telecommunications information they might receive.

This legislation will destroy the freedom of the press in Germany and Christoph Gusy an authority on constitutional law points out that, “An enormous hole is being torn in the freedom of the press; Protection of sources will be largely left up to the judgment of law enforcement agencies. This de facto puts an end to confidentiality.”

The editor in chief of the German public television network ZDF was quoted as saying, “If the state holds confidential information for a period of preventive detention, this amounts to an attack on the very foundation of our work.”

The legislation requires all of Germany’s telecom providers to retain all communications data from their customers, all landline and mobile calls, faxes, text messages and e-mails. This would mean that all electronic communications in Germany would be recorded whether the parties concerned are under investigation or not.

There are many critics of the German governments attempt to destroy the freedom of the press and its attempts to violate the principle of communications secrecy and the right to privacy in the information age.

The general public in Germany is largely unaware that their Justice Ministry wants to remove two levels of the right to refuse to give evidence to the government. Only defense lawyers and members of the clergy would be allotted a top level which would not allow for them to be wiretapped and their private communications would still be private.

The press would not be afforded this protection as they would fall into the second class bearers of secrets and would be forced to reveal the sources which would effectively end the freedom of the press in Germany. The day of confidential sources in reporting would come to an end and the people and the press of Germany would suffer the penalty.

The right to a free press would be left up to the local magistrate who would work with and by all accounts for the prosecution.

A former Justice Minister described the proposed legislation as, “opening a massive gateway to access information that journalists possess, and then decide if it may be used or not”. While Christoph Gusy an authority on constitutional law points out that by that time it would already be to late, “There’s not an investigator in the world who would spontaneously forget new information that he has discovered”.

The legislation would have a chilling effect on the press as no one would pass sensitive information, especially from a government agency, if they assumed that the police and domestic security officials were recording all forms of communication.

For those brave journalists who once reported on government corruption or corporate misdeeds this law would in effect end an historic era. Where once the freedom of the press was regarded as an important facet of information and whose journalists were provided some protection from persecution by the government this would no longer be the case.

The journalists in Germany are fighting back and attempting to apply as much pressure as possible to avoid the introduction of this current legislation and some government officials are listening. There are some proposals that are gaining some strength with the government only being allowed access to their data if the reporter was a suspect of a serious criminal offense, of course this would be left up to the prosecutors discretion.

Still the politicians of Germany have little regard for the journalists of their country and they are not at all inclined to give them anymore protection than is minimally needed as they believe the power of the state overrides the freedom of the press.

The prosecutors of Germany want full access to various journalists’ confidential sources for use in whatever action they might feel prudent and they are applying as much pressure as possibly to make that a reality.

The ZDF television editor in chief is beside himself with the governments attempts to destroy the once confidential resources so desperately needed in reporting that he stated, “These days, with the free press already treading on thin ice, this is a devastating blow.”

The government official who introduced the legislation doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about as she believes she was following a European guideline. She is just following a European Union directive which makes the collection of all data a mandatory requirement.

She is quick to point out that the German requirements are less than the other European nations who will retain data for longer than 24 months this in comparison to Germanys six month retention policy.

Throughout history journalists have fought for their right to publish the truth and confidential sources have only strengthened this honorable tradition. Also during this period corrupt governments and corporations have wanted to squash these freedoms so that they may do as the please without any outside interference.

Government officials have often attacked the journalists by invoking the war on terror or any other term at their disposal to attack the media who might find out about government malfeasance or maybe government sponsored torture or the violation of citizen’s rights.

The days of Freedom of the Press may be coming to an end for our European counterparts and it is only logical to assume the American government and our current administration will only attempt to pass a similar law in the near or distant future.

What will our world be like when our journalists and reporters are no longer allowed to effectively report the news, will we just turn on state sponsored television to learn all we need to know?

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

 

Donny’s Crazy tales to Protect His Wacky Bosses Back!

We all have friends who will take the heat for us while our other coworkers or neighborhood friends will cut and run and leave us to the wolves so they might have their dinner snack.

Donald Rumsfeld the former Defense Secretary for the Bush administration is one who would dig in and attack anyone who had the audacity to question any of George’s crazy wacky ideas.

As King George wants to wrestle control of the Middle East so that he can have access to all that oil and build spiffy military bases Donny Rumsfeld always came to his defense. In so far as George wanting to be the only hegemonic power in the region and topple the country of Iran as he is destroying Iraq and Afghanistan again Donny would lend his helping hand.

In what are called snowflakes, (ironic as both George and Donald are rather flaky in my opinion) good ole boy Don beat whatever drum he needed to keep Americans in the dark about foreign affairs. He wrote of the need to keep on elevating the terror threat level and that all government officials should try to link Iraq and Iran together to keep the public under the thumb of George’s wild ideas for global domination.

You see the former defense secretary hates the media especially when they try to tell the average American citizen the truth. Donald wants it to be his way and vision, or the highway for any other diverging view, even if the opposing view is valid and shared by the ordinary people in the United States and Europe. The former secretary didn’t like views that differed from his and via his propaganda machine he would attempt to reform public opinion, no matter that the public disagreed.

So on average Mr. Rumsfeld would write about 20 to 60 snowflakes a day, no matter that these destroyed relations with his fellow cabinet members, his thoughts must become part of the lexicon and quite possibly shape future policy for the United States.

During the year in 2004 Rummy was worried that the American public was waking up to the fact that the Iraqi conflict had been a mistake. He marshaled his minions to attack the pessimistic reports from the media, how dare they try to tell anyone the truth. Different standards just needed to be applied to turn around the American public and he wrote this missive, “They are looking for leadership. Sacrifice = Victory.”

We can clearly see today that the Sacrifice angle isn’t working anymore, but Donald kept up the delusion telling his staff to bring up various regional conflicts and to attempt to imbed the terrorist cry into our subconscious so that we would rally behind George and his far fetched ideas all logic be damned.

His underlings were also called to rally around Donny as many former United States generals who had been boots on the ground robots for him began to call for him to resign as they now questioned his power to reign supreme. No matter that these generals has served in Iraq and realized that the entire war had been a huge mistake Donald went on the offensive in the month of April in 2006 as they had the audacity to question his and King George’s wacky ambitions.

Donald wanted and needed a team to assist him in his quest and they needed to “go out and push people back, rather than simply defending” Iraq policy and strategy. “I am always on the defense. They say I do it well, but you can’t win on the defense,” he wrote. “We can’t just keep taking hits.”

He also lamented, “It is going to be a long war,” he wrote. “Iraq is only one battleground.” You see in Donny’s view Iraq and Iran are the same he even floated the idea of renaming the –war on terrorism- as a – Worldwide War on Insurgency. In his view no other nation in the world understood the so called big picture especially the United Nations as he thought he did.

In another of his reported quotations he stated that Muslims in general were nothing more than an oil rich lazy society who in his words were detached, “from the reality of the work, effort and investment that leads to wealth for the rest of the world. Too often Muslims are against physical labor, so they bring in Koreans and Pakistanis while their young people remain unemployed,” he wrote. “An unemployed population is easy to recruit to radicalism.”

In his mind if these not so lazy radicals got their hands on Saudi Arabia and its vast oil reserves this would become, “an enormous national security problem. On this point he is somewhat correct as it is the United States that wants to get its hands on Saudi Arabian oil fields as well as every other Middle Eastern oil field it can control with the United States vast hegemonic hands.

Later as calls for his resignation grew he demanded that a, “better presentation to respond to this business that the Department of Defense has no plan. This is just utter nonsense. We need to knock it down hard”, even in the midst that over 65% of Americans thought that George didn’t really have any plan and he still doesn’t to this day.

The New York Times had in his opinion the gall to say that the Army was ruined in November of 2006 in an editorial and Rummy said it was, “disgraceful”. There was a Brightside to the editorial which said that; “one welcome dividend” of Rumsfeld’s departure was that the United States would “now have a chance to rebuild the Army he spent most of his tenure running down”.

Donald Rumsfeld didn’t care for differing views on United States foreign policy and his tenure was one of attack and to never allow himself to be on the defensive no matter what the cost. The fact that over 3800 American soldiers and 90,000 Iraqis are now dead and over 3.2 million displaced is of little consequence to our government now or then for that matter.

Now we have George W Bush left to his own devices without Donny to help him out and Iran is firmly in the Presidents radar as his next victim. It doesn’t matter that the Russian and Chinese governments are adamantly against any military action in Iran, the rhetoric is already being ratcheted up to attack Iran.

This even as King George sees his legacy and public opinion crumbling around him. Even George must think if ever so rarely about the $4.2 trillion dollar debt for this needless unwarranted war that he will be remembered for placing this scar on American history. As the President makes no secret of his religious beliefs he must also occasionally think how he economically and spiritually took the United States down the path along with him.

How many laws were rewritten to allow for secret prisons and so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which other civilized people would call torture. One can only hope that our President comes to his senses before he mires us in another conflict. He has already bequeathed the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq to a future administration and the debt for the war to the young populace of our nation with the added peril to our economy as another gift to the future of our nation.

Is there no one in this administration or our government at large who can counsel George to mend his ways and attempt to begin rebuilding this nation’s moral standing in the world? Or are we doomed to leap from one conflict to another as our armed forces are stretched beyond the breaking point and our nation plunges into the depths of hell.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

Condi says No official of Iraq above the law; in the USA there is No Law

Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House oversight committee, said Thursday that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has issued an order requiring his approval of any corruption investigations of himself or senior ministry officials.

Forget a US green card the European Union wants you to try Blue instead!

The European Union is working on offering “Blue Cards” to entice the needed highly skilled migrants that are so desired for the growth of various members who total 27 nations.

They plan on offering housing and financial benefits as well as guaranteeing at least three times the minimum wage in the country concerned plus health insurance, as this is a requirement for an applicant to apply. Furthermore they will fast track the issuance to those who apply as long as they have a contract for one year’s labor and meet the salary and healthcare requirements.