Showing posts with label War On Iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label War On Iraq. Show all posts
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Tragedies Of War, Mothers Day Edition: 6 Years After Watching US Soldiers Kill Her Parents, 11 Year Old 'Tal Afar Girl' Samar Hassan Still Traumatized
Alternate version, OnIslam.netMOSUL, Iraq — Until the past week, Samar Hassan had never glimpsed the photograph of her that millions had seen, never knew it had become one of the most famous images of the Iraq war....
[The photo for Samar, then 5 years old, showed her screaming and splattered in blood, mostly of her parents,]
"Samar, almost 12-year-old now, lives the outskirts of Mosul in a two-story house with four other families, mostly relatives.
Losing her brother Rakan, who died when an insurgent attack badly damaged the house, she currently lives with her older sister, Intisar, and her husband, an unemployed former police officer.
Intisar’s husband, Nathir Bashir Ali, says that the family could not pass the accident psychological trauma, in a country with a failing health system.
“The pains of war have been visited on thousands of Iraqis, but even here Samar’s story stands apart. Three years after her parents were killed, her brother Rakan died when an insurgent attack badly damaged the house where she lives now. Rakan had been seriously wounded in the shooting that killed their parents, and he was sent to Boston for treatment after Mr. Hondros’s photos were published. An American aid worker, Marla Ruzicka, who helped arrange for Rakan’s treatment, was herself later killed in a car bomb in Baghdad.
Intisar’s husband, Nathir Bashir Ali, suspects his house was bombed by insurgents as retribution for sending Rakan to the United States. “When Rakan came back from America, everyone thought I was a spy,” he said.
Samar left school last year because she was too shy and not doing well, Mr. Ali said, although Samar said she would like to return and hoped to be a doctor when she grew up. She leaves the house only on infrequent family excursions and has two friends who visit to play with dolls and chat. She spends her days cleaning, listening to music on her purple MP3 player and watching episodes of her favorite television show, the Turkish soap opera “Forbidden Love,” about lovers named Mohanad and Samar.
“I am Samar,” she said, wearing a long red dress and sitting on the couch next to Mr. Ali. Two of her siblings, also in the car when their parents were killed, sat nearby.
“I’ve taken them many times to the hospital, where they get pills” for emotional problems, Mr. Ali said. “All of them take pills.”
He says Samar’s 8-year-old brother, Muhammad, talks to himself when he is alone.
“When we go out and see a family, they get sad,” he said.
Sometimes he finds the children in a room together, crying.
“When they remember the accident, it’s like they just died.”
Under George W. Bush’s administration, the US invaded Iraq in 2003 to oust the Saddam Hussein regime on claims of possessing weapons of mass destruction, a claim never proved true.
Since the 2003 US invasion, Iraq has plunged into abyss with overlapping civil conflicts that have left tens of thousands of civilians dead... [Much more @ the New York Times]
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."Preamble to the "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe.
One of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Christmas Wish List... The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
"All I need is a Grand Jury in some little town in America, and
things will change very quickly, I promise" ~~Vincent Bugliosi
This video is 9:44 minutes Use The Pop Out Player?
In The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, (Vincent) Bugliosi presents a tight, meticulously researched legal case that puts George W. Bush on trial in an American courtroom for the murder of nearly 4,000 American soldiers fighting the war in Iraq. Bugliosi sets forth the legal architecture and incontrovertible evidence that President Bush took this nation to war in Iraq under false pretenses—a war that has not only caused the deaths of American soldiers but also over 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women, and children; cost the United States over one trillion dollars thus far with no end in sight; and alienated many American allies in the Western world.
As a prosecutor who is dedicated to seeking justice, Bugliosi, in his inimitable style, delivers a non-partisan argument, free from party lines and instead based upon hard facts and pure objectivity.
A searing indictment of the President and his administration, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder also outlines a legally credible pathway to holding our highest government officials accountable for their actions, thereby creating a framework for future occupants of the oval office.
Vincent Bugliosi calls for the United States of America to return to the great nation it once was and can be again. He believes the first step to achieving this goal is to bring those responsible for the war in Iraq to justice.... [More]
Friday, October 22, 2010
Every Known Death In The Iraq War Google Mapped From WikiLeaks Data
"We don't do body counts" ~~General Tommy Franks src
Wikileaks Iraq war logs: every death mapped
"The Wikileaks Iraq war logs provide us with a unique picture of every death in Iraq.
These are those events mapped using Google Fusion tables."
When the Hand Cursor points at a red dot, click once for the specifics of that particular death.
Go To The Guardian (UK) For More
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) responded to the WikiLeaks release on Friday with a statement saying, "We need a true accounting of the war in Iraq. The American people have a right to know how many innocent civilians were killed in a war based on lies."
"We must remember that the Iraqi people are still grieving over the loss of husbands, wives, sons and daughters who were innocent noncombatants," Kucinich stated. "We have a moral responsibility to acknowledge the massive loss to the people of Iraq and the world. ... The suffering of the Iraqi people is unfathomable." source
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Of Wars, And Rumors Of Wars: It's Been Said That The War On Iraq Is Over... Then Why Is The Pentagon Coming For Your Children?
Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
The alleged U.S. "Withdrawal from Iraq" and the much parroted statement: "President Obama reaffirmed on Monday that the US would have all combat troops out of Iraq by the end of August," is a MYTH and a LIE!
...And of course, our ONGOING war consists of MORE than just soldiers. Blackwater, Armorgroup, and their Mercenary friends need work too!"Obama did not say that all the combat troops were leaving (Iraq) this month. He certainly didn’t say this yesterday, and to my knowledge he has never said it."The six units are thought to be:
• 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division
• 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division
• 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
• 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division
• 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division
• 4th Brigade, 1st Armored Div
I’m going to be just a bit repetitive and say this as clearly as possible—just in case any journalist comes slumming through FDL and actually reads this. Here goes:
Each of these units will be in Iraq after 8/31/10, and each will be as fully combat-capable as any brigade combat team or armored cavalry regiment currently in Iraq.
They have all the guns, bombs, rockets, tanks and artillery required to pound the living crap out of anything or anybody they choose.
For any journalists who haven’t left to write about how some people think Amanpour is probably a taliban sympathizer, here is the DOD press release from October of last year announcing four of the above units for deployment.
They’re described by DOD very clearly as “combat brigade teams”—because that’s what they are—but also listing them as “advise and assist brigades”. [In Full]
Jeremy Scahill:
There are also—the State Department also has plans to remake some US bases into what they call “enduring presence posts,” EPPs. And so, you’ll have these outposts around the country that are essentially—what is essentially unfolding here is a downsized and rebranded occupation, Obama-style, that is going to necessitate a surge in private forces. The State Department is asking for MRAP vehicles, armored vehicles, for Black Hawk helicopters and for these paramilitary forces.Also see: Obama Drops 2009 Pledge to Withdraw Combat Troops from Iraq
So, yes, you can say that officially combat has ended, but in reality you’re continuing it through the back door by bringing in these paramilitary forces and classifying them as diplomatic security, which was Bush’s game from the very beginning. (Source)
So, it IS NOT over... Worse still, they are coming for your children, for their next illegitimate war. Afghanistan, where MOST of the soldiers removed from the field of combat in Iraq will be going, or perhaps our dirty not-so-covert war on Somalia and the Horn of Africa, or the war soon to be fought next door in Latin America...
After all, it would be so much less expensive to be able to drive from America to our resource wars.
Fortunately your children can learn how to resist, vocally, and more, thanks to organizations like We Are NOT Your Soldiers:
War is terrorism. Soldiers are not heroes. Presidents are not saviors. A powerful call to action, to move from ritualized 'protests' to sustained rebellion. Filmed at UC Santa Barbara on May 7, 2010. Thanks to Emma Kaplan and Matthis Chiroux.
[Pop Out Player]
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned -
Everywhere is war -
Me say war.
That until there no longer
First class and second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes -
Me say war.
That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race -
Dis a war.
That until that day
The dream of lasting peace,
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never attained -
Now everywhere is war - war.
[It Goes Like This...]
Saturday, April 17, 2010
In Re: WikiLeaks - An Open Letter Of Reconciliation & Responsibility To The Iraqi People From Current and Former Members of the U.S. Military
"Our government may ignore you, concerned more with its public image. It has also ignored many veterans who have returned physically injured or mentally troubled by what they saw and did in your country. But the time is long overdue that we say that the value of our nation's leaders no longer represent us. Our secretary of defense may say the U.S. won't lose its reputation over this, but we stand and say that our reputation's importance pales in comparison to our common humanity.
We have asked our fellow veterans and service-members, as well as civilians both in the United States and abroad, to sign in support of this letter, and to offer their names as a testimony to our common humanity, to distance ourselves from the destructive policies of our nation's leaders, and to extend our hands to you."
From Democracy In Action:
A newly released Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” video has made international headlines showing a July 2007 shooting incident outside of Baghdad in which U.S. forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees. Two soldiers from Bravo Company 2-16, the company depicted in the video, have written an open letter of apology to the Iraqis who were injured or lost loved ones during the attack that, these former soldiers say, is a regular occurrence in this war.
You can view the Wikileaks video here: http://wikileaks.org/ and you can view the Press Release here
Peace be with you.
To all of those who were injured or lost loved ones during the July 2007 Baghdad shootings depicted in the “Collateral Murder” Wikileaks video:
We write to you, your family, and your community with awareness that our words and actions can never restore your losses.
We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van, and when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. Josh Stieber was in the same company but was not there that day, though he contributed to the your pain, and the pain of your community on many other occasions.
There is no bringing back all that was lost. What we seek is to learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to tell others of our experiences and how the people of the United States need to realize we have done and are doing to you and the people of your country. We humbly ask you what we can do to begin to repair the damage we caused.
We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region.
We acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones as we tell Americans what we were trained to do and what we carried out in the name of "god and country". The soldier in the video said that your husband shouldn't have brought your children to battle, but we are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. We did unto you what we would not want done to us.
More and more Americans are taking responsibility for what was done in our name. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny.
Our government may ignore you, concerned more with its public image. It has also ignored many veterans who have returned physically injured or mentally troubled by what they saw and did in your country. But the time is long overdue that we say that the value of our nation's leaders no longer represent us. Our secretary of defense may say the U.S. won't lose its reputation over this, but we stand and say that our reputation's importance pales in comparison to our common humanity.
We have asked our fellow veterans and service-members, as well as civilians both in the United States and abroad, to sign in support of this letter, and to offer their names as a testimony to our common humanity, to distance ourselves from the destructive policies of our nation's leaders, and to extend our hands to you.
With such pain, friendship might be too much to ask. Please accept our apology, our sorrow, our care, and our dedication to change from the inside out. We are doing what we can to speak out against the wars and military policies responsible for what happened to you and your loved ones. Our hearts are open to hearing how we can take any steps to support you through the pain that we have caused.
Solemnly and Sincerely, Josh Stieber, former specialist, U.S. Army
Ethan McCord, former specialist, U.S. Army [Source]
UPDATED- U.S. Army jails Hip Hop artist/soldier in Kuwait for seeking PTSD help
Update:BAGHDAD — A U.S. soldier who threatened to shoot fellow troops and sent the Pentagon a violent rap song he wrote to protest plans to send him back to Iraq has been thrown out of the Army, officials said Saturday.
The dismissal for misconduct means Spc. Marc A. Hall will avoid criminal charges but lose all military benefits earned over at least four years of service, including an earlier tour in Iraq.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom said Saturday that top brass decided to discharge Hall instead of taking him to trial in part because he admitted his guilt... MORE
Monday, April 5, 2010
MURDER! Watch A US Helicopter Aircrew Lie To Fire-Control And Kill A Number Of Absolutely Unarmed Iraqi Citizens Including Two Reuters Reporters
"And the rest of the world is expected to mourn dead Americans? Fuck the United States, and fuck its citizens....they're all animals."From the Guardian (UK):
A secret video showing US air crew falsely claiming to have encountered a firefight in Baghdad and then laughing at the dead after launching an air strike that killed a dozen people, including two Iraqis working for Reuters news agency, was revealed by Wikileaks today.MORE
The footage of the July 2007 attack was made public in a move that will further anger the Pentagon, which has drawn up a report identifying the whistleblower website as a threat to national security...
...and then they "Grease" some civilians who volunteer their van as an ambulance for the survivors, joke about the supporting ground troops who "drove over the body" of one victim and comment on a wounded child:
"It was their fault for bringing their kids to a battle"
Not for the weak at heart:
[Pop Out Player]
The unedited 39:14 minute version is [Here]
And it certainly isn't the ONLY time innocents have been killed indiscriminately:
The soldiers standing in the dusk had called "halt," the story said, but no one did. Maybe the soldiers' accents were bad. Maybe the car motor was unduly noisy. Maybe the children were laughing loudly -- the way children do on family trips. Whatever the case, the car did not stop, the soldiers shot with deadly accuracy, seven lives changed in an instant: two died in body, five died in soul. (source)
Labels:
Civilian Casualties,
Collateral Damage,
Murder,
War Crimes,
War On Iraq,
Wikileaks
Friday, March 26, 2010
U.S. Army jails Hip Hop artist/soldier in Kuwait for seeking PTSD help
BAGHDAD — A U.S. soldier who threatened to shoot fellow troops and sent the Pentagon a violent rap song he wrote to protest plans to send him back to Iraq has been thrown out of the Amry, officials said Saturday.
The dismissal for misconduct means Spc. Marc A. Hall will avoid criminal charges but lose all military benefits earned over at least four years of service, including an earlier tour in Iraq.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom said Saturday that top brass decided to discharge Hall instead of taking him to trial in part because he admitted his guilt... MORE
U.S. Army jails HipHop rapping soldier Marc Hall in Kuwait for seeking PTSD help
[Donate to help defend Marc - 146 people have given $5,408 (March 26 2010).
"US Army Specialist Marc A. Hall sits in a military brig at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, facing an imminent court martial for challenging the US military’s Stop-Loss policy in a song — his pre-trial hearing was held last week on March 17. Yet it was not the hip-hop song he wrote criticizing the Stop-Loss policy that landed him in trouble.
What put the 34-year-old New York City native in the brig were his persistent assertions of inadequate mental health care that culminated in a Dec. 7 complaint to the Army Investigator General.
Just five days later Hall was charged with violating “good order and discipline” at Fort Stewart, Georgia, and was shipped out of the country.
Hall’s court martial is likely to occur late April or early May.
The jailing occurred a full five months after Hall wrote a rap song protesting the Stop-Loss order that halted his discharge after he served his country for 14 months of combat in Iraq.
Hall was charged with 11 counts of “communicating threats” related to the song and has since been charged with violating Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Conduct. All the alleged violations occurred between last July and December, yet not one warranted warning, counseling, or non-judicial punishment at the time.
.
.
.
"...the military took the nearly unprecedented step of moving Hall overseas for court martial, instead of putting him on trial in Georgia where the alleged threats occurred.
On Feb. 26 Hall was put on plane to Iraq and transferred to Kuwait for pre-trial confinement. This put him out of reach of his civilian legal defense team, friends, and family. It will also make it extremely hard for defense witnesses to appear at trial on his behalf.
“Not just the Constitution, but the rules for courts-martial, prohibit prosecutors from holding a court martial in a combat zone as pretext for depriving an accused of a public trial, counsel of his choice and necessary witnesses,” said Hall’s attorney David Gespass, President of the National Lawyers Guild.“Whatever the Army may claim, that is exactly what the Army is doing...”Read More
[African Americans Sang About The Vietnam War Too]
Saturday, March 13, 2010
"Imperial Hubris" - Another Way To View "The Hurt Locker"
"It is imperial hubris turned into an art form in which the Iraqi people appear as numbed bystanders when they are not deranged extras. It is a perverse tribute to the film’s accuracy in portraying the insanity of the U.S. invasion—while ignoring its root causes—that the Iraqis are at no point treated as though they are important.
They never have been, at least in the American view. No Iraqi had anything to do with attacking us on 9/11, and while we are happy to have an excuse to grab their oil and deploy our bloated military arsenal, the people of Iraq are never more than an afterthought.
Whatever motivates Iraqi characters in the movie to throw stones or blow themselves up is unimportant, for they are nothing more than props for a uniquely American-centered show. It is we who matter and they who are graced by our presence no matter how screwed up we may be."
Truthdig
Labels:
Dehumanization,
Disinformation,
Iraq,
Iraq War,
Movies,
Propaganda,
US Military,
War On Iraq
The Iraqi Elections: "Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss"
Meet the New Iraqi Government Coalition, (Probably) the Same As the Old Coalition
In Full, FiredoglakeBy: Swopa Saturday March 13, 2010 5:00 pm
So the election results are trickling in slowly from the Iraqi parliamentary elections, and the coalition led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expressing confidence that they will come away with the largest share of the votes — a confidence that may or may not be related to the gradually accumulating accusations of fraud in the ballot-counting process.Although all of the blocs that made up the Iraqi national legislature have frayed somewhat since the last round of elections at the end of 2005, virtually all of the major players are expected to return when the dust settles this time… most likely including al-Maliki as the prime minister.
Labels:
al-Maliki,
Allawi,
Elections,
Empire,
Empire Building,
Imperialism,
Iraq,
Iraq Elections,
War On Iraq
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Lied To Again? General Odierno Requests More Combat Forces In Iraq (beyond the Obama deadline)
Odierno requests more combat forces in Iraq -- beyond the Obama deadlineIn full at The Best Defense, Foreign Policy Magazine
by Thomas E. Ricks
February 25 2010
In a move that could force President Obama to break his vow to get all combat troops out of Iraq by August of this year, his top commander in Iraq recently officially requested keeping a combat brigade in the northern part of the country beyond that deadline, three people close to the situation said Wednesday.
Gen. Raymond Odierno asked for a brigade to try to keep the peace in the disputed city of Kirkuk, but only got a polite nod from the president when the issue was raised during his recent meetings in Washington, according to two of the people familiar with the discussions. If the brigade in northern Iraq is indeed kept in Iraq past the deadline, there will be a fan dance under which it no longer will be called a combat unit, but like the six other combat brigades being kept past the deadline, will be called an advisory unit.
I can imagine the press releases that will follow-
"Three U.S. Army soldiers were killed last night in an advisory operation . . . ."
Labels:
Disinformation,
Endless War,
Imperial War,
Iraq,
Lies,
Oil War,
Pentagon,
US Military,
War On Iraq
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