These people have a Ph.D in lying

very much in line with my own reactions at the despicable, implied declarations of "victory" in iraq, jeremy scahill and keith olbermann try offering up a little dose of reality...



if you don't watch it, you should know that they pull no punches...

Discussion centered around President Obama's address on the Iraq war and the ensuing criticism from neocons who complained Obama should've thanked and praised President George W. Bush for the 'success' of the surge in Iraq.

"These people have a Ph.D in lying and a master's degree in manipulating intelligence," Scahill says of the neocons, "And it is, it's really sobering to see this kind of brash historical revisionism happening in real time. The idea that these people want to post some kind of false flag of victory on the corpses of all who have died in Iraq because of their decisions. These people destabilized Iraq, they destabilized the Middle East, with their neo-con vision of redrawing maps, and they didn't even succeed in their own stated mission. This is a special kind of pathological sickness that these individuals are plagued with."

Scahill then begins to bust the 'surge' myth, "Pardon me for introducing a little bit of fact onto cable news over these 24 hours, but the reality is there was no success of the surge. The fact is that Bush's policy in Iraq caused massive destabilization, led to a civil war that killed upwards of a million Iraqis; there were ethnic cleansing campaigns. When the surge troops went in there, Baghdad was a walled-off city, the Sunnis had been pushed out and sided with the United States, Muqtada al Sadr responded to the announced timetable for withdrawal that the neocons so opposed by saying he considered it a truce with America and pulled his forces off the street... So, the entire surge myth permeates to this day, and its actually one big lie."

"Let's remember... that it was the Bush administration's policy in Iraq that created an al Qaeda presence in that country. It was their policies that destabilized that country and caused the deaths of so many Americans and so many Iraqi civilians. Stephen Hadley probably sees Osama bin Laden at his corner store or hiding in his bathroom somewhere, so... These people have ZERO credibility, and have no business in public life anymore." In conclusion the award-winning investigative journalist declares, "They shouldn't be able to leave their houses without being confronted with the death and destruction that their lives caused."

and these criminals are still walking around free...

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Today in Baghdad: "The occupation has destroyed us and divided us. We want them to leave."

what we hath wrought...



i've been watching al jazeera english regularly since i've been here in kabul... when i first got here and before my satellite receiver blew a power circuit, bbc world, cnni, and al jazeera were all available... for some reason i don't have the energy to get to the bottom of, the replacement satellite receiver only delivers al jazeera and france 24, france's english-language competition to bbc, cnni, and al jazeera... i'm not complaining... while different both from each other and from bbc and cnni, both are a broad, intelligent, and, occasionally, truly outstanding news alternative... the above al jazeera clip on the current situation in baghdad is a small but pointed example of perspectives that none of the so-called "news" media in the u.s. seem to be able or willing to provide...

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Last of Iraqis

i stumbled across the last of iraqis blog the other day... it's the product of an iraqi named mohammed...

i'm a 25 years old dentist i live in iraq (Baghdad) i was born and raised here but unfortunately i'm thinking that the iraqis are going to extinct so i made this blog wishing that i can make a difference or even share my greif with the whole world and give them an idea about what's happening here from the point of view of a civilian living in the war zone not from the politicians nor people who gets their benefits from the conditions.

it's so rare to read an honest, first-person account of life in baghdad, altho' i'm sure i could dig out more if i tried... riverbend, via her weblog, baghdad burning, was one of those voices until she and her family had had enough and escaped to syria...

mohammed offers this up close and personal view of a 25 november suicide car bomb explosion through the eyes of one of his friends, followed by an eye-opening first hand account of an experience with the iraqi police...

The incidents in the last couple of days was really frustrating for me and my hopes for a better future, because again I figured that I was so naïve to think things will improve, it's true that some areas changed from very troubled to "Iraqi normal" areas, that means it's dangerous but like the others not more……
Today there has been an explosion by a suicide car bomb in Bab AlMuatham providence near the square , where many important buildings lies; the ministry of health, a governmental clinic, the dentistry, medicine and pharmacy colleges, the dental technical institute and a very crowded transportation garage all of these near the are of the explosion.
I have many friends who works at that clinic, one of them was so close to the explosion on his way to work , in fact he was two cars away from it…. He was with his mother in the car when the explosion happened, the car was totally destroyed and his mother was seriously injured, he survived the incident with scratches only because the explosion was at his mother's side so she took the shock instead of him, the explosion was so sever that even his mobile phone was broken, his mother is in hospital now, they are doing operations for her.
My friends said that at least 15 people have died in this explosion till now, and many are seriously injured, most of my friend's cars have been damaged by this explosion they said that it was so sever.
Another huge explosion was near my house today, I don't know about it, but the explosion was so strong.
Before that, At Friday I was really sad and heart broken for the poor people who died in AlGhazil market, the sick bastard who planned the explosion placed an explosive pack in the middle of birds-filled cage, because this market is for pets, and they only open at Fridays, more than 15 people have died in this explosion.
What I feared from has occurred, the relative peace and quietness that we have witnessed in the past couple of weeks was just for terrorist's re-evaluation, it seems that the terrorists from all the sides were just planning what to do next, they were planning how to overcome the current changes and achievements, I don't know why but they always seem to succeed, why can't we have peace for at least a month?
Well, I think I know part of the answer, because today as the ministry of anterior has announced in a survey that they made that: 19,000 of it's members can't read or write!!!! 12% of the police force can't read or write!!! I just want to know how could they do their job when they can't even read the cars papers or even the IDs? That's a shocking part of the answer.
Now I know why these incidents happened with me in which I laughed my guts out, once a checkpoint stopped me and the policeman asked for my ID and the car papers, to my surprise, he hold the paper upside down and pretended that he is checking them, he looked at it for a moment and then told me I can go, what a farce.
And now I know why many times when they take the ID and the papers they stare at them like they were comparing a drawings to find the differences!!
I just want to know how could a force that 12% of it can't read or write bring peace and settlement back to a torn-up country like Iraq?

his 4 december post offered this heartbreaking video...

In this video I used a song called "The new country" for a very popular Iraqi singer who is Husam AlRasam, it's not a new song, and it was released when I started blogging.
This song is very popular between Iraqis, I can say that more than 80% of Iraqis have it either on their mobile phones or computers.
There is something strange in this song, whenever I hear it I twitch although I've heard it countless times, believe me in Arabic it's much more effective, because the emotions were lost in translation, but I think the images compensates for that loss.
There is one thing that I want to make it clear, you will notice in the video the name Khansa`, she is a well known Arabic historic character and a poet, her brother died in a battle and she was blind from crying him, then in AlQadesia battle her four sons died too.
I'd like to dedicate this video to all the innocent Iraqis who died for a reason or no reason at all, to all the Iraqis who had to leave their country or home, to all real Iraqis who had to suffer from the situation, for everyone who loves his country, to all the innocent men in the world who died for no mistake they have done and to anyone who cares for the human race.

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There are two very clear options: Option A) Get everybody out by midnight tonight. Option B) Get everybody out by midnight tomorrow

spiegel interviews seymour hersh...

key points...

• We have this wonderful capacity in America to Hitlerize people.

• I have this theory in life that there is no learning. There is no learning curve. Everything is tabula rasa.

• I always thought Henry Kissinger was a disaster because he lies like most people breathe and you can't have that in public life.

• This guy [Bush] believes he's doing God's work.

• There are two very clear options [in Iraq]: Option A) Get everybody out by midnight tonight. Option B) Get everybody out by midnight tomorrow.

• The fuel that keeps the [Iraq] war going is us.

• [T]he president has accepted ethnic cleansing [in Iraq].

here's some of the meat...

Hersh: We have this wonderful capacity in America to Hitlerize people. We had Hitler, and since Hitler we've had about 20 of them. Khrushchev and Mao and of course Stalin, and for a little while Gadhafi was our Hitler. And now we have this guy Ahmadinejad. The reality is, he's not nearly as powerful inside the country as we like to think he is. The Revolutionary Guards have direct control over the missile program and if there is a weapons program, they would be the ones running it. Not Ahmadinejad.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Where does this feeling of urgency that the US has with Iran come from?

Hersh: Pressure from the White House. That's just their game.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What interest does the White House have in moving us to the brink with Tehran?

Hersh: You have to ask yourself what interest we had 40 years ago for going to war in Vietnam. You'd think that in this country with so many smart people, that we can't possibly do the same dumb thing again. I have this theory in life that there is no learning. There is no learning curve. Everything is tabula rasa. Everybody has to discover things for themselves.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Even after Iraq? Aren't there strategic reasons for getting so deeply involved in the Middle East?

Hersh: Oh no. We're going to build democracy. The real thing in the mind of this president is he wants to reshape the Middle East and make it a model. He absolutely believes it. I always thought Henry Kissinger was a disaster because he lies like most people breathe and you can't have that in public life. But if it were Kissinger this time around, I'd actually be relieved because I'd know that the madness would be tied to some oil deal. But in this case, what you see is what you get. This guy believes he's doing God's work.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So what are the options in Iraq?

Hersh: There are two very clear options: Option A) Get everybody out by midnight tonight. Option B) Get everybody out by midnight tomorrow. The fuel that keeps the war going is us.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: A lot of people have been saying that the US presence there is a big part of the problem. Is anyone in the White House listening?

Hersh: No. The president is still talking about the "Surge" (eds. The "Surge" refers to President Bush's commitment of 20,000 additional troops to Iraq in the spring of 2007 in an attempt to improve security in the country.) as if it's going to unite the country. But the Surge was a con game of putting additional troops in there. We've basically Balkanized the place, building walls and walling off Sunnis from Shiites. And in Anbar Province, where there has been success, all of the Shiites are gone. They've simply split.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is that why there has been a drop in violence there?

Hersh: I think that's a much better reason than the fact that there are a couple more soldiers on the ground.

SPIEGEL ONLINE:So what are the lessons of the Surge ... ?

Hersh: The Surge means basically that, in some way, the president has accepted ethnic cleansing, whether he's talking about it or not.

and check out what hersh has to say about his old employer, the new york times...

The First Amendment failed and the American press failed the Constitution. We were jingoistic. And that was a terrible failing. I'm asked the question all the time: What happened to my old paper, the New York Times? And I now say, they stink. They missed it. They missed the biggest story of the time and they're going to have to live with it.

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