Iraq Information and Commentary
Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.
-- African proverbLocal Costs of the Iraq War
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State and national information is also included.American Military Deaths in Iraq
ARTICLESThe media cover-up on Iraq In all the words churned out by journalists marking 10 years since the invasion of Iraq, one word apparently remains taboo: crime. By Daniel Simpson, March 5, 2013
New Documents Show Bush Administration Planned War in Iraq Well Before 9/11/2001 National Security Archive, September 22, 2010
Peace, or counter-insurgency without end? The leading Democratic presidential candidates all talk of ending the Iraq war. Overlooked is the fact that if and when they withdraw combat troops, they will leave troops behind to fight "terrorists," advise Iraqi forces, and protect the US embassy. By Tom Hayden, January 24, 2008
Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq An excess mortality of nearly 100,000 deaths was reported in Iraq for the period March, 2003–September, 2004, attributed to the invasion of Iraq. This study updated that estimate. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, October 11, 2006
10 Reasons Why the US Must Leave Iraq American Friends Service Committee, December 2005
A Wall Street Journal Reporter's E-Mail to Friends Despite President Bush's rosy assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a 'potential' threat, under the Americans it has been transformed to 'imminent and active threat,' a foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to come. By Farnaz Fassihi, published September 30, 2004
The Unfeeling President How can we sustain ourselves as the United States of America given the stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for ourselves. By E. L. Doctorow, September 9, 2004
Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia A country of 25 million would not be rebuilt as it was before the war; it would be erased, disappeared. In its place would spring forth a gleaming showroom for laissez-faire economics, a utopia such as the world had never seen. Every policy that liberates multinational corporations to pursue their quest for profit would be put into place: a shrunken state, a flexible workforce, open borders, minimal taxes, no tariffs, no ownership restrictions. By Naomi Klein, Harper's Magazine, September 2004Secret Obsessions at the Top The administration's recent effort to blame the intelligence community for the Iraq mess is as misleading as the drive to war itself. Nothing the CIA did was as harmful as the way administration officials systematically misled Americans about the incomplete and often contradictory mountain of intelligence. By Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times, February 7, 2004 Open Letter from the Women of Kosova to the Women of Iraq
We know there are strong, organized, intellectual women in Iraq as there were in Kosova or in any other country in the world. We, Kosovar women, don't support a US military administration in postwar Iraq. But if the UN takes on civic administration in Iraq, it's time they change the principle of their work and concentrate the work in cooperating with local experts, giving space and recognition also to the women's local NGOs. Igo Rogova, Kosova Women's Network, April 2003Iraq War Quiz
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher stormed out of a press conference when the assembled reporters broke into laughter after he declared that the U.S. would never try to bribe members of the UN. What should Fleisher have said to defend himself?
By Stephen Shalom, ZNet, March 26, 2003Mary A. Wright's resignation letter
Another U.S. diplomat resigns in protest of Iraq war. Articulate and remarkably wide-ranging statement. March 19, 2003Origins of Regime Change in Iraq
Long before September 11, before the first inspections in Iraq had started, a small group of influential officials and experts in Washington were calling for regime change in Iraq. Many are now administration officials. This article assembles links to the key documents produced since 1992 by this group, usually known as neo-conservatives, and analysis of their efforts.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, March 19, 2003Is Iraq the opening salvo in a war to remake the world? The Bush administration's hawks see the conflict with Iraq as a signal event, designed to create cataclysmic shock waves throughout the region and around the world, ushering in a new era of American imperial power. It is also likely to bring the United States into conflict with several states in the Middle East. Those who think that U.S. armed forces can complete a tidy war in Iraq, without the battle spreading beyond Iraq's borders, are likely to be mistaken.
By Robert Dreyfuss, March 2003Bush Sr. Warning Over Unilateral Action The first President Bush has told his son that hopes of peace in the Middle East would be ruined if a war with Iraq were not backed by international unity. The Times (UK), March 10, 2003. Interesting to compare with U.S. coverage of this speech. See, for example, the Boston Globe, which gave an opposite slant.
U.S. Diplomat Quits in Protest Over Iraq War The sacrifice of global interests to domestic politics and to bureaucratic self-interest is nothing new, and it is certainly not a uniquely American problem. Still, we have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam. By John Brady Kiesling, February 28, 2003
War If Bush starts a war, he will be responsible for the lives lost, the children crippled, the terrorizing of millions of ordinary people, the American GIs not returning to their families. And all of us will be responsible for bringing that to a halt.
By Howard Zinn, February 27, 2003The Case Against the War If Iraq does not have these weapons [of mass destruction], then the war will be an unnecessary, wholly avoidable slaughter. If Iraq does have the weapons, then there is a likelihood that it will use them. Why else would Saddam Hussein, having created them, bring on the destruction of his regime and his personal extinction by hiding them from the UN inspectors?
By Jonathan Schell, The Nation, February 13, 2003CIA Sabotaged Inspections, Hid Weapons Details CIA refused to cooperate fully with the UN. The Independent (London), February 14, 2003
CIA veterans' warning on Iraq war CIA veterans have warned the Bush administration not to go to war against Iraq, saying that doing so would further widen the divide between the Western and Islamic worlds and increase the incidence of terrorism. UPI, February 9, 2003
MI6 and CIA: the new enemy within Tony Blair and George Bush are encountering an unexpected obstacle in their campaign for war against Iraq – their own intelligence agencies. The Independent (London), February 9, 2003War on Iraq Double Disaster for Palestinians In the case of an American war on Iraq, Palestinians will not be watching for a "smart bomb" heading their way, but for the Israeli army forcing them out of their homes. This possibility is of greater danger that one might think. By Ramzy Baroud, editor, Palestine Chronicle, February 5, 2003
Talking Points on Iraq Key issues summarized. Campaign to End the Cycle of Violence (North Carolina), January 31, 2003
Overview of the foreign policy aspects of Bush's State of the Union address By Steven Zunes, January 29, 2003
Army gave chem-bio warfare training to Iraqis www.GovExec.com, January 28, 2003. (The source is "government's business news daily and the premier Web site for federal managers and executives.")
When will we resist?
The US is preparing to attack the Arab world, while the Arabs whimper in submission.
By Edward Said, The Guardian (U.K.), January 25, 2003Opposing War Is Good, But Not Good Enough By Faleh A. Jabar, The Progressive, January 2003
What Solidarity Requires By Joe Stork, The Progressive, January 2003
U.S. Corporations in Iraq that allegedly supplied Iraq with nuclear, chemical, biological, and missile technology up to 1991. ZNet, December 19, 2002
Talking with Friends and Family About Iraq Fact sheet on U.S. Iraq policy, November 2002. From MADRE, an international women's human rights organization.
Priorities and Realities Global military expenditures vs. global priorities.
Questions that won't be asked about Iraq Congressman Ron Paul, September 10, 2002
Why U.N. inspectors left Iraq - then and now In 1998, the UN ordered its inspectors to leave Iraq. Recently, many mainstream media are reporting that the inspectors were expelled by Iraq.
Trade Unionists Launch "U.S. Labor Against the War"
Spring 2003:
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Spring 2005:
Iraq is now a terrorist
training ground,
CIA says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA believes the Iraq insurgency poses an international threat and may produce better-trained Islamic terrorists than the 1980s Afghanistan war that gave rise to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, a U.S. counterterrorism official said on Wednesday.
A classified report from the U.S. spy agency says Iraqi and foreign fighters are developing a broad range of deadly skills, from car bombings and assassinations to tightly coordinated conventional attacks on police and military targets, the official said.
Once the insurgency ends, Islamic militants are likely to disperse as highly organized battle-hardened combatants capable of operating throughout the Arab-speaking world and in other regions including Europe. ...
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Fall 2006:
A stark assessment of terrorism trends by U.S. intelligence agencies has found that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks. ...
New York Times, September 24, 2006
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A wall in memory of each U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, and a memorial for the 100,000 Iraqi dead.
Video:
A concise history of the
U.S. relationship with
Saddam Hussein.
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