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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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.

Former Blackwater Contractor in Iraq Responsible for Murder while Drunk, is apparently back in Iraq again!

On October 5^th Chairman Henry Waxman sent an inquiry to Condoleezza Rice the Secretary of State amid reports that a Blackwater contractor, who had been fired previously. Has now been given new employment by another contractor and is working in Iraq only two months after his former employer fired him. Chairman Waxman opines in his letter, “Serious questions now exist about whether the State Department may have withheld from the U.S. Defense Department facts about this Blackwater contractor’s shooting of the Iraqi guard that should have prevented his hiring to work on another contract in support of the Iraq War.”

Below is the full text of the letter sent by Henry Waxman to the Secretary of State:

Bush Administration Lies on Torture, well at least it’s not Unexpected they have no Morals!

Recent documents have come to light that while the Bush Administration stated they would not use torture, they in fact did. Many foreign governments and intelligence agency specialists have also reported that the Torture of prisoners is extremely questionable. The information gathered is of little use as the tortured prisoner will tell the torturer anything they want to stop the pain and suffering.

The Torture techniques include painful physical and psychological methods, which include simulated drowning (water-boarding), frigid temperatures and head slapping to name just a few.

Middle Eastern Peace Process Summit to occur in November

The countries of the European Union, Russia and the USA as well as the United Nations have agreed to include Saudi Arabia, Syria as well as ten Arab League members to the summit. How kind of them to invite those who would be most affected by the peace talks as they are being called.

The talks are being put forth to find an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, however these talks would not have been necessary if in 1948 the world’s superpowers after World War II had not carved up the Middle East so horribly in the first place for political and economic gains.

Condoleezza Rice stated that the Arab nations are as she calls them “natural invitees” but said they would have to renounce violence. Think of it the United States telling others to renounce violence as they have invaded and are still at war in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the realm of reality how could anyone take Condoleezza Rice seriously? And how does she have the gall to make such statements with the way the US government is acting in this day and age, especially in the Middle East?

The North Korean government has agreed to a nuclear deadline

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

By the end of December Chinese officials have reported that North Korea had agreed to shut down its main nuclear reactor.

The parties involved in the negotiations were China, Japan, Russia, North Korea, South Korea and the USA. The talks that brought forth the agreement occurred in Beijing last week. Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei of China was the chairman of the talks.

Along with shutting down the main reactor North Korea also agreed to shut down a processing plant that was being used for producing fuel rods. North Korea has also made its intent known that they will give a comprehensive declaration of its nuclear activities. It should also be noted that they have allowed inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into their country for inspections as well.

The North Korean government made this agreement after they had received diplomatic and economic benefits from various countries involved in the talks. The North Korean government had attempted for years to engage the current US administration to no avail, wasn’t North Korea one of the Evil Empires? However after many disappointments and pressure from foreign governments the USA finally relented to talking with the government they held and probably still do hold in disdain.

Congressional investigation of Blackwater USA and attempts to block it

The committee on Oversight and Government Reform made clear that hearings will commence on October 2, 2007 in regards to Blackwater USA, the private contractor used by our government in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Information gleaned from the Congressional letter which used various sources below:

Three key questions are to be addressed:

1. Is Blackwater’s presence advancing or undermining US Efforts in Iraq?
2. Has the State Department responded appropriately to shooting incidents involving Blackwater forces?
3. What are the costs for US taxpayers of the reliance on Blackwater and other military contractors?

Of interest is some new information the committee states it has acquired:

Bankrupting the USA from Agent Orange in Vietnam to depleted Uranium shells in The Gulf War the costs in dollars and lives lost is not yet known!

Monday, October 01, 2007

The US has recently pledged $400,000 towards a $1million dollar study to help in the clean up of an Agent Orange storage site in Vietnam which was used by US forces during the Vietnam War.

The USA still to this day denies that there is any link between the excessively high cases of illness and deformities in the region. Which was sprayed from the air on combatants and innocent civilians, as well as are own soldiers. However the United States does accept that the dioxin left behind is dangerous.