The Iraq War

[Michaelangelica]

Well i've searched and can't find a thread on this.

A bit surprising

 

Some background opinion

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Bush's Shadow Army

Bush's Shadow Army

By the end of Rumsfeld's tenure in late 2006, there were an estimated 100,000 private contractors on the ground in Iraq -- an almost one-to-one ratio with active-duty American soldiers.

Blackwater to work in Afghanistan in the early stages of US operations there. In the ensuing years the company has become one of the greatest beneficiaries of the "war on terror," winning nearly $1 billion in noncovert government contracts, many of them no-bid arrangements.

It's one of the reasons why we didn't have a withdrawal strategy from Iraq -- we didn't intend to leave. Several people who retired from the Pentagon in protest at the start of the war -- I'm thinking of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Hoffman particularly -- have testified that the purpose of the invasion was to establish a new, stable pillar of power for the United States in the Middle East.

 

Is the American Empire on the Brink of Collapse?

 

By Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash. Posted March 24, 2007.

 

U.S. military expert Chalmers Johnson argues the catastrophe in Iraq and the staggering cost of running a military that stretches across 130 countries on 737 bases may finally cost America its empire.

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Is the American Empire on the Brink of Collapse?

 

It's Asymmetrical Warfare, My Dear Watson

 

By Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet. Posted March 20, 2007.

 

Short of genocide -- dropping nukes -- there is no military solution to guerrilla insurgencies in Iraq. It's elementary, really.

AlterNet: War on Iraq: It's Asymmetrical Warfare, My Dear Watson

 

I have been looking for other more 'in-depth' reports on the war rather than just news.

Any suggestions?

[Freddy]

This story was published on January 25, 2007. US mercenaries Iraq have become a shadow army. Now I know where the $600 billion went! Who oversees them? From the article:

 

"Already, private contractors constitute the second-largest "force" in Iraq. At last count, there were about 100,000 contractors in Iraq, of which 48,000 work as private soldiers, according to a Government Accountability Office report. These soldiers have operated with almost no oversight or effective legal constraints and are an undeclared expansion of the scope of the occupation. Many of these contractors make up to $1,000 a day, far more than active-duty soldiers. What's more, these forces are politically expedient, as contractor deaths go uncounted in the official toll."

 

Our Mercenaries in Iraq

[Michaelangelica]

US must meet human rights obligations over Iraq

 

* Published on 19/03/2008

 

Five years after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Countless civilians have been killed by all sides.

The US-led Multi-National Force (MNF) has been responsible for many of these killings.

 

Over 60,000 people are being detained by the MNF and the Iraqi security forces.

Most are held without charge or trial.

Torture and other ill-treatment have been routine. Women face additional gender-based violence such as rape.

Many have have been executed since the reintroduction of the death penalty in 2004.

 

Amnesty International raised concerns over the conduct of the MNF with US authorities in 2003.

However, necessary changes to the rules of engagement apparently were never made and the killings still continue.

US must meet human rights obligations over Iraq, Act Now, Amnesty International Australia

[Michaelangelica]

The three trillion dollar war

 

Listen Now - 30032008 |Download Audio - 30032008

 

Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, and co-author Linda Bilmes, argue the Iraq war has led directly to America's current economic crisis. The price of a barrel of oil has quadrupled since the war began and the total cost of the invasion is staggering. Stiglitz and Bilmes describe how they came to the figure of three trillion dollars, and how difficult such an estimate is to achieve in the face of the Pentagon's accounting procedures.

 

This talk was recorded at the Commonwealth Club in California.

Background Briefing - 30 March 2008 - The three trillion dollar war

The audio of each Background Briefing is available on-line for four weeks after the program goes to air. To listen back to recent programs or download them to your computer or mp3 player, click on the links below.

[nutronjon]

Your best source of information for this subject is Welcome to the Project for the New American Century The site is a neocon site, and I believe it still contains a letter from them to President Clinton explaining why we needed to invade Iraq. Hilary is lying when she says she didn't know more about the Iraq invasion than anyone else. Bill, had the CIA bending over backwards to stir the Kurds into a rebellion against Sadam, and was really angry when the CIA failed.

 

The Military Industrial Complex is

By the end of Rumsfeld's tenure in late 2006, there were an estimated 100,000 private contractors on the ground in Iraq -- an almost one-to-one ratio with active-duty American soldiers.

 

Quote:

Blackwater to work in Afghanistan in the early stages of US operations there. In the ensuing years the company has become one of the greatest beneficiaries of the "war on terror," winning nearly $1 billion in noncovert government contracts, many of them no-bid arrangements.

 

I am getting very frustrated with the efforts to discuss such things. A discussion requires at least two people and it isn't happening.

 

The Military Industrial Complex is also the New World Order Hitler attempted to establish. This is the same subject as the oil power thread. Mass production requires mass resources and mass markets, and this requires military control of resources and market regions. It is a marriage of industry and government that creates an industrial/military complex, that is nothing as the past history of the US.

 

I wish everyone had a copy of "The Anglo-Germany Problem" by Charles Sarolea published in 1915. That could be rewritten today, by replacing those things said of Germany with what there is to say about the US. Being alone with this information is like being cursed. Google the Bahgdad railroad. Everyone should have done this when Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq.

 

It's one of the reasons why we didn't have a withdrawal strategy from Iraq -- we didn't intend to leave. Several people who retired from the Pentagon in protest at the start of the war -- I'm thinking of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Hoffman particularly -- have testified that the purpose of the invasion was to establish a new, stable pillar of power for the United States in the Middle East.

 

Your explanations are in the history of German intensions that lead to the first world war and understanding the reality of the Military-Industrial Complex and how it has changed the dynamics of the US. Citizens being so completely unaware of their own reality, is awesome:eek:. Now we can know what happened to Germany and why the good German people didn't stop Hitler. Bush is likely to bomb Iran to further the neocon agenda, and the citizens of the US can not stop him, because they have not realized the urgent need to empeach him, and he is beating the wars again, just as he did before the invasion of Iraq and he is not being stopped but gave himself the power to attack any country he orders attacked, dramatically changing his power as president, as did Hitler. Knowing only US history and not German history may be the down fall of the US, because they are so blind to what has happened to their country.

[Michaelangelica]

Some stunning front-line Iraq photos in this book & exhibition.

Organisation: Obscura Gallery

Dates: 17 Feb 2008 - 17 Mar 2008

Region: Australia | Victoria

Sector: Visual Arts & Crafts

Email: [email protected]

Web: .: OBSCURA GALLERY :.

 

EXHIBITION and BOOK LAUNCH

5 – 7pm Sunday 17 February

Obscura Gallery

Level 1, 285 Carlisle Street, East St Kilda

9525 9377

 

Ashley Gilbertson's photographs of the occupation of Iraq, particularly his images from the battle of Falluja in 2004, have established him as one of the foremost photojournalists in the world.

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT is much more than just a photography book of the war, this is Gilbertson's personal memoir of a haunting and rewarding period in his life. The book lays bare the complex relationship between embedded photojournalist and soldier, and shows how young men grow up quickly in the face of combat—including himself.

 

The exhibition at Obscura Gallery in Melbourne's St. Kilda district, will showcase 30 prints and excerpts from the book. The exhibition opening is on Sunday 17th February 5-7pm. It will run from February 17 through March 17. Readings by the author at Obscura Gallery will take place on dates to be announced.

 

Ashley Gilbertson was born in Melbourne, Australia and lives in New York City. His photographs have appeared in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Bulletin magazine, The Good Weekend, Time, Newsweek, the New York Times among other publications. Among many honors, Gilbertson was awarded the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal (Overseas Press Club of America) for his photographs of the battle of Falluja, was a finalist in the 2006 Walkley Awards, and attended the World Press Photo Masterclass.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War - Event for the Arts | artshub.com.au | For Australian Arts Workers

[Michaelangelica]

The report shows that there was no intelligence to support the two most frightening claims Mr. Bush and his vice president used to sell the war: that Iraq was actively developing nuclear weapons and had longstanding ties to terrorist groups. It seems clear that the president and his team knew that that was not true, or should have known it — if they had not ignored dissenting views and telegraphed what answers they were looking for.

 

Over all, the report makes it clear that top officials, especially Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, knew they were not giving a full and honest account of their justifications for going to war.

 

The report was supported by only two of the seven Republicans on the 15-member Senate panel. The five dissenting Republicans first tried to kill it, and then to delete most of its conclusions. They finally settled for appending objections. The bulk of their criticisms were sophistry transparently intended to protect Mr. Bush and deny the public a full accounting of how he took America into a disastrous war.

 

The report documents how time and again Mr. Bush and his team took vague and dubious intelligence reports on Iraq’s weapons programs and made them sound like hard and incontrovertible fact.

. . .

We cannot say with certainty whether Mr. Bush lied about Iraq. But when the president withholds vital information from the public — or leads them to believe things that he knows are not true — to justify the invasion of another country, that is bad enough.

Editorial - Editorial - The Truth About the Iraq War - Editorial - NYTimes.com

So sad all those deaths for what?

[Michaelangelica]

Not even a quarter of a trillion- a mere tip for the doorman.

 

"DAYLIGHT ROBBERY" - 4 CORNERS MONDAY 30 JUNE

Next on Four Corners: Where did the money go?

An investigation into claims that up to US$23 billion has been lost, stolen or not properly accounted for in Iraq.

 

When the US goes to war, corporate America goes too.

 

If there’s a role to be filled, chances are a private company will fill it – whether it’s feeding troops, trucking goods, guarding facilities or even interrogating some prisoners.

 

Contractors now reportedly outnumber soldiers, and many of their contracts came through companies with connections to die for in Washington.

 

With up to $23 billion believed to have been wasted, thieved, lost or unaccounted for, the BBC’s Panorama program asks if a culture of cronyism explains where some of the money went.

 

"They are the quintessential war profiteers – they made money out of chaos ," says one witness.

 

More than 70 whistleblower cases could open the book on the missing billions – if it wasn’t for gagging orders issued by US justice authorities.

 

But Panorama hears from some people at the heart of the affair about who got rich and who got burnt. There are allegations of fraud and favouritism, contracts scored without competitive bidding, companies inflating their costs and double counting, and fortunes ending up in the pockets of Iraqi officials.

 

"Daylight Robbery" - on Four Corners at 8.30 pm Monday 30 June, on ABC1 .

 

WATCH A PROMO ONLINE NOW!

 

This program will be repeated about 11.35 pm Tuesday 1 July; also on ABC2 at 8 am Tuesday .

 

Four Corners