Category Archives: Iraq

Updated: Revving Up for Ramadan

You’d think that violence—Muslim on Muslim and Muslim on non-Muslim—would abate somewhat during the holy month of Ramadan. You’d be wrong. The religion of peace marches to a different drum beat (or is it a machine gun).

“The U.S. military spokesman says there has been a 22 percent jump in attacks during Ramadan,” reported the AP. Imagine a scenario whereby murder rates in Israel skyrocket during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Doesn’t happen; will never happen.

CNN confirmed the trend:

“This week’s suicide attacks were at their highest level of any given week. About half of those attacks targeted security forces… around 50 percent of car bombings were suicide strikes… murders and executions were the largest cause of civilian deaths in Baghdad… attributed … to sectarian fighting between Sunnis and Shiites.”

Res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself).

Democracy à la Dubya

America, Bush, Democracy, Iraq, Middle East

For someone who is willing to kill for the false idol of democracy, Dubya sure flouts the will of the people.

Polls indicate most Americans want to see troops withdrawn from Iraq; Bush refuses to listen or obey his bosses.

A majority of Americans wants the bleeding on the Southwestern border stopped and immigration levels vastly reduced; Bush doesn’t and won’t hear of abiding by the people’s wishes.

Updated: Rotten Reporting Again (About Those 650 Thou Dead in Iraq)

Iraq, Journalism, Media, The Zeitgeist, War

The Associates Press (via Rational Report) reports that:

A “controversial new study contends that nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died in the three-year-old conflict in Iraq—more than 10 times higher than other independent estimates of the toll.”

Dubya and his Oh-What-A-Wonderful-War contingent dispute these figures. And so they should.

The latest Lancet report has never claimed 655,000 civilian deaths total, but rather that, “An estimated 655,000 more Iraqis have died as a consequence of the March 2003 military invasion of Iraq than would have been expected in a non-conflict situation.”

What we have here, once again, is rotten reporting. When the first Lancet report appeared two year ago, mainstream press also fudged the facts. I think I was the only writer who made the necessary distinctions. I explained:

“In the final days of Saddam’s reign of terror, i.e., in the 15 months preceding the invasion, the primary causes of death in Iraq were natural: heart attack, stroke and chronic illness. Since Iraq became another neocon object lesson, the primary cause of death has been violence, according to the report.
Since March 2003, Iraqis have suffered from an excess of deaths, if you will. As Dr. Les Roberts, author of the study, told BBC News, ‘About 100,000 excess deaths, or more, have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.’
According to the study, “The relative risk, the risk of deaths from any cause was two-and-a-half times higher for Iraqi civilians after the 2003 invasion than in the preceding 15 months. But ‘the risk of death by violence for civilians in Iraq is now 58 times higher than before the U.S.-led invasion.”

Update: My thanks to Bob Murphy and Sean Mercer for demanding further clarification: My point is non-ideological; I’d simply like to see accurate reporting. The 650,000 figure would include deaths due to a greater incidence of heart attacks, cancer, strokes, stress and displacement-related deaths, deaths associated with a lack of health care and potable water, etc. Thus, silly journalists build doubt into the report because they give the impression that this many people died directly because of the war. Rather, the figure represents both direct and indirect casualties of the invasion, which is why it’s believable.

It goes without saying that the report is a criminal indictment of the invasion. If not for the invasion, the leading cause of death in Iraqi would still be natural, as it was during Saddam’s suzerainty.

Axis of Illogic

Bush, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Politics

Don’t forget that at the time Bush was preparing to invade Iraq, he was giving North Korea room to maneuver freely on the axis of evil. While Iraqi palm dates were being subjected to strict trade embargoes, North Korean Scud missiles were allowed to safely reach their destinations: the jammed-with-Jihadist nations of Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Libya and Yemen.

In 2002, a North Korean vessel was not allegedly—but actually—apprehended in the Arabian Sea, carrying 15 well-concealed Scud missiles. At the time of its invasion, Iraq was suspected of hiding a total of 60 Scud-variant missiles. While Bush was revving up for war with Iraq, North Koreans were sailing the seas in search for markets for the equivalent of a fourth of the entire Iraqi arsenal.

You see, North Korea didn’t and apparently doesn’t sell missiles to Al-Qaida. While Iraq might have. That’s an important distinction.

The weapons inspectors, who were criss-crossing Iraq before the invasion, were not allowed to finish their uneventful task (Bush threw them out so he could invade). At the same time, Bush exempted North Korea’s Yongbyon research base from inspections, but not before bribing the North Koreans with $95m.

So long as you understand that North Korea’s belligerence is ultimately all Clinton’s fault.