Just when you thought Iraq couldn’t get more messed up and confusing, Kurdish rioters have destroyed their own shrine to the victims of Halabja.
And this is after Colin Powell was nice enough to show up for the commemoration ceremony in September 2003.
Not even Kurdistan is free from unhappiness with their elected leaders.
Yes associate with W. and your political capital at home goes to down the toilet..Even in Kurdistan.
While on Iraq, does anyone else think that Operation Swarmer is just part of a PR campaign/spin. Look the Iraqis are doing the job themselves…kinda “Vietnamization” of the Iraq war.
Meanwhile, “Operation Swarmer” seems to be not only a lame media stunt but a military dud as well. [Link here.]
I meant; Link here.
For some reason Operation Swarmer reminds me of the site below..”Catch and release”.
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2006031348922.jpg
Definitely inspired by the same mindset. In the case of “Op Swarmer”, someone on one of the blogs called it a “Potemkin operation”.
the character in the popular comedy movie to which the Abu Ghraib events were compared, in the findings of the Official Investigation.
They managed to bring some insurgents to justice and thwart what could have developed into a long-term anti-coalition strategy.
You can read all about it in the update in Arturus’ diary
I remember back in late 2003 all my friends and acquaintances dismissed out of hand my view that the construction of the embassy and the large military bases in Iraq were proof positive that BushCo had no intention of ever leaving the Middle East until they controlled all those energy resources.
Now of course, not only is the real neocon plan for perpetual war failing under the weight of it’s own brutal dysfunctionality, their false plan, (freedom, democracy, etc.), is being realized as the complete sham that it always was by more and more people.
Of course recent polling in the US indicated that a striking majority thought attacking Iran might be necessary, and this is alarming, even if not surprising, given the predilection for denial of reality in selfish and self-absorbed societies. But I predict that those numbers will be radically different the next time those questions are posed. There will always be a certain percentage of people who’s ignorance is weaponized beyond repair, (and whose nationalistic fervor is the only vehicle through which they can feel important), whjo will support any and all aggression against anyone and everyone by the Bush regime, but the neocons are losing the power to drive the rhetoric for more war successfully.
We’ll know more when Rumsfeld gets the axe, but that’s probably still some months away.
.
Initially, the US Defence Intelligence Agency blamed Iran for the attack. Halabja is around eight to 10 miles (14km to 16km) from the Iranian border.
However, the majority of evidence indicates that the gas attack was an Iraqi assault against Iranian forces, pro-Iranian Kurdish forces and Halabja’s citizens during a major battle …
Most of the wounded, who were taken to hospital in the Iranian capital Tehran, were suffering from mustard gas exposure. Those who escaped death have developed respiratory or visual problems from the cocktail of chemicals dropped on the city.
According to some reports, up to 75% of the victims were women and children.
United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need-to-know basis. That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Like who would have wanted security in the idea of food, medical care, atonomy, an economy, the right to be really free, to move beyond. Like who would have ever dreamed of such. <snark>