Another trigger happy bloodbath courtesy of the 'Hurt Locker' boys. The usual sham 'investigation has been launched' statement followed of course.
Some of his friends enjoy a joke at Peter Robinson's expense at the recent Stormont Press Conference.
I have now seen this movie, expecting it to be better than the washouts which preceded it in the bid to be the 'Apocalypse Now' of the Iraq War. Despite Katherine Bigelow's merits as a director, it is another flop. Iraqis and 'insurgents' are treated as a backdrop and no more to the struggle of the noble American soldiers, trying their best against the odds. The civilian population are given no dimensions at all as portrayed in the film. They scarcely have any human characteristics. A bit the same as how they have been treated by the US military. An obscene travesty to anyone who has been interested in the history rather than the fiction. Bigelow's lame acceptance speech at the BAFTA'S 'to honour the men and women in the field ... never abandoning the need to find a resolution for peace' was not only incoherent but also authentic Hollywood bullshit.
'Nour's family, all middle-class Sunni Muslims, were caught up in a brutal contest for allegiance that saw neighbours and clans pitted against each other on a scale that caught Britain and the US totally unprepared. There are tens of thousands of such stories throughout Iraq's communities. And while levels of violence have continued to fall in Iraq since Nour's family was slain (last year, 2,800 civilians were killed, according to the Brookings Index, compared with 6,400 in 2008 and 34,500 at the height of the sectarian war in 2006), a gnawing fear remains that, as the general election approaches next month, this relative calm is merely a lull before another round of vengeance and blood letting.'
A harrowing story of life in Iraq. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/17/baghdad-iraq-residents?
Thanks to the Staggers for this anecdote, an old one but worth the repetition as the same mistakes are repeated in Afghanistan. Armando Iannucci, while researching his movie, In The Loop, hears some grim tales in Whitehall about how the liberation of Iraq proceeded… Donald Rumsfeld weeded out from those going to help the reconstruction of Iraq anyone who could speak Arabic, on the grounds they would be pro-Arab. As a result, it took the Americans 18 months to realise that when marines held up the flat of their hand to oncoming cars to signal them to stop, they were actually using the Iraqi hand-signal for “come forward”. That’s why so many families in cars were shot. Weren’t we told that we were invading because we are pro-Arab? You know, human rights, Saddam is a monster and have a look at this shredder? Still, no regrets, eh?
In the political and media cut and thrust around Chilcott, anyone remember Iraq? . It’s easy to forget that what with all these politicians’ fragile egos, reputations and book sales to worry about. Seven years after the invasion, achieving democracy in Iraq remains very much an ‘aspiration’ (New Labour, after all, loves a good aspiration, they’re so pleasingly lacking in concrete and promise). When giving evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry, Blair said: ‘It is too early to say right now whether the Iraqi democracy will take root and will function effectively, although… there are really hopeful signs.’ Are there? Last month, an unelected commission held over from the early days of the US occupation of Iraq, the Justice and Accountability Commission, issued a shocking ruling banning more than 500 candidates from taking part in the election, including a number of members of the current parliament running for reelection… Secular politicians, nationalists, former Baathists with low-level positions, dissident Baathists who left the party in the 1970s (such as Allawi and Mutlaq), and many others are painted as blood-stained criminals and “Saddamists.” The fact that Maliki has descended to such bitter and petty name calling signals that the prime minister has abandoned any pretense of trying to rise about sectarianism to become a national leader. For the election, at least, Maliki has thrown his lot in with the pro-Iranian clique. The Justice and Accountability Commission is run by Ahmed Chalabi. He, for those who don’t remember, was the Iraqi exile and ‘convicted fraudster‘ who helped supply the pisspoor intelligence on Iraq’s WMD that made the ‘case’ for war. Funny how all the comedians with a hand in doing that are still around and doing well. So much for the ‘really hopeful signs’ for Iraqi ‘democracy’. Meanwhile, how are things for ordinary Iraqis? Let’s have a look… As per my previous post, more than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels or radiation and dioxins, with three decades of war and neglect having left environmental ruin in large parts of the country, an official Iraqi study has found. Areas in and near Iraq’s largest towns and cities, including Najaf, Basra and Falluja, account for around 25% of the contaminated sites, which appear to coincide with communities that have seen increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years… Anyone see ‘really hopeful signs’ there? And to think Blair is worried about his toxic legacy.
Blair said on US Television yesterday that the Chilcott Inquiry Into the Iraq debacle is just a 'search for conspiracies'. This would be true if the search for truth was a search for conspiracies. Not that Chilcott will blame Blair, but at least some more light is being shed on the scuttling creatures in the dark,dank corners of neoconservatism(British style). Here's a quote for Blair from Michael Parenti, Dirty Truths, City Lights Books, 1996: "Those who suffer from conspiracy phobia are fond of saying: "Do you actually think there's a group of people sitting around in a room plotting things?" For some reason that image is assumed to be so patently absurd as to invite only disclaimers. But where else would people of power get together – on park benches or carousels? Indeed, they meet in rooms: corporate boardrooms, Pentagon command rooms, at the Bohemian Grove, in the choice dining rooms at the best restaurants, resorts, hotels, and estates, in the many conference rooms at the White House, the NSA, the CIA, or wherever. And, yes, they consciously plot – though they call it "planning" and "strategizing" – and they do so in great secrecy, often resisting all efforts at public disclosure. No one confabulates and plans more than political and corporate elites and their hired specialists." 
A British MP has said he has a memo showing Tony Blair and George Bush struck a secret deal to invade Iraq.
Elfyn Llwyd told the BBC he had written to the Iraq Inquiry saying he would be prepared to hand the document over.
He said the memo - which is marked "Top Secret and Confidential" - contradicts statements made by Mr Blair.
The former British Prime Minister told the Iraq inquiry there had been no "covert" deal with Mr Bush. This story could grow legs. More to follow.
17 year old Muhammad Ahmed of Gaza with White Phosphorous burns courtesy of Israel. A couple of officers were tapped on the wrist for this and the other Gaza atrocities which the world witnessed.
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