Posted on Monday, 1 February, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Tony Blair takes a photo of himself in front of the human rights travesty he helped create.
Tony sends George a text from Iraq: “LO George. jst writiN U frm Iraq whr wer dstroiN evrtng n cite 4 oil, cash & contRL. thx putting me n yor posse.”
A while ago a mobile phone video emerged showing some Kurdish village where this horde was stoning a girl to death because she married the wrong guy. It sparked international outrage as it should have. This photo reminds of of that for some reason.
Posted on Sunday, 31 January, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
“Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don’t understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it’s profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it’s profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it’s profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it’s profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us.” — Mike Prysner
This guy should have been invited to speak at the Iraq Inquiry opposite Tony Blair. Thanks IVAW.
Posted on Wednesday, 27 January, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Ah, the good ol'e days.
I’m old enough to remember the televised Iran/Contra hearings long, long ago in the United States. Now in the United Kingdom the Iraq Inquiry seems a little like Déjà vu minus Oliver North’s hot secretary.
If the former is to offer any spoilers on the latter: Nothing much will come of it. Still, it’s interesting how the UK is at least willing to explore the illegality of the the invasion of Iraq while President Obama has more or less offered unqualified amnesty to the previous White House wrecking crew that set about demolishing Iraq without any legal or logical security rationale what so ever. So it goes.
As Bush’s prayer buddy Tony Blair is to give his account in the next couple of days, 38 Degrees is asking people in the UK to press Sir John Chilcot to not go light on the New Labour patriarch.
What question would you like Tony Blair to answer?Visit the 38 Degrees website to sign their petition and let the Iraq Inquiry know what you want him to answer.
Here are the questions 38 Degrees have put forth, with my own amendments in red.
Being that the reasons given for the invasion were widely known at the time to be based on missing or questionable evidence and misleading statements, what were you offered from the White House When did you first promised George Bush you’d back an invasion?
Since there was no evidence of a stockpile and quite a bit of publicly available evidence that there wasn’t one before you made your decison, When did you really realise Saddam Hussein probably didn’t have WMD?
To what extent Did you cover up advice that the war mightwould be illegal?
Given that there was no legal basis for the war, Why did you decide to ignore the anti-war protests by the British people?
Given the highly corrupt and illegal nature of what you’ve done, why shouldn’t you be in prison right now?
Yeah, they probably won’t get asked, much less with my amendments. Maybe Cherie can make a documentary about it some day. I can likely guess what the real answer would be regarding to the protests: why would you pay attention to protesters when you’re not in any danger of losing their support at the polls?
Posted on Monday, 15 December, 2008 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
I could watch the first few seconds of this clip in a loop for hours. The only thing that could have improved it would be if the guy actually nailed him with one of his shoes. Though, had he pegged him, I’d be writing right now that it would have been better if he had brought soccer shoes with metal cleats instead. You can’t have everything, I guess. Still, he delivered George the news about what people in Iraq actually think of him. It’s an appropriate send off, and fairly polite considering what the U.S. has thrown at Iraq over time.
In a little over a month, the U.S. will have been occupying Iraq for 5 years. It’s hard to believe.
Even when looking at the awful numbers — more than 1 million Iraqis and nearly 4,000 U.S. servicepeople killed, 2 million Iraqis living as refugees in other countries, with another 2.5 million displaced within Iraq, more than 1 trillion dollars spent — I find it difficult to grasp what 5 years really means. What is the full sum of the destruction and suffering that has taken place? And what does it mean for the future of our country and our world?
Posted on Friday, 21 March, 2008 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
And the clownshoes award for the day goes to… drum roll, Sen. Hillary Clinton, for coming up with a quote about Iraq that could basically be described as freaking idiotic. I know she’s pictured with a book about Iraq here, but I’m figuring that on the other side of those covers is a cooing love letter from Joe Lieberman seeking another chance at the VP spot.
Let’s see, we’ve got anarchy running on five years since the U.S. stormed into Iraq in search of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction ((There was no proof of a weapons stockpile when the allegation was made, which was known by Congress and the White House. UN weapons inspectors only proved this.)) and basically broke every international law in the book ((There are no preventive wars. GlobalLaw)). Now, half a decade on, they’ve got no running water or reliable electricity for the vast majority of the population, daily murder counts in the double digits, suicide bombings, civil war, more torture centers than Saddam himself was operating, theft of natural resources by foreign companies, gangs of military contractors shooting up the place, scared shitless, ill trained and ill equipped U.S. soldiers shooting at anything that moves ((The Winter Soldier testimonies cover this better than any media has. Iraq Veterans Against the War.)), a death toll somewhere in the high hundred thousands to a cool million ((In determining any resulting death toll, all deaths, including those that may not have occurred if the invasion hadn’t happened must be counted. MWC.)), and what does the Presidential hopeful let crawl out of her mouth:
Sen. Hillary Clinton: “I have been outlining plans as to what we can and must do to begin bringing our sons and daughters home. I am convinced that we can start within sixty days and do it in a responsible and careful manner, recognizing that the Iraqi government has to take responsibility for its own future, that we have given them the precious gift of freedom, and it is up to them to decide whether or not they will use it. But we cannot win their civil war. There is no military solution.” ((Quote can be found all over. Here it is in all it’s glory at Democracy Now.))
Again, that’s the “precious gift” of freedom. Freedom from what? A chance to live? Priceless. Fucking priceless. In the Mastercard ad sense of the word.
And the clownshoes award for the day goes to… drum roll, Sen. Hillary Clinton, for coming up with a quote about Iraq that could basically be described as freaking idiotic. I know she’s pictured with a book about Iraq here, but I’m figuring that on the other side of those covers is a cooing love letter from Joe Lieberman seeking another chance at the VP spot.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”