The first time I ever heard of Jason Kenney was the lead up to the call for a war in Iraq. Our PM Chretien was standing up to Bush as were most nations around the globe. But one little porcine man five o’clock shadowed an ugly anti-Canadianism on the horizon
Continue readingTag: Iraq
The Disaffected Lib: That Was Fast. Iraq Stumbles Into Civil War.
Iraqis knew they were getting something special for Christmas this year, the departure of American combat forces. And a good many Iraqis also knew that marked the time for settling old scores and balancing the books. Power struggles are opening in Iraq, several of them. That’s largely because the central
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: North Korea: Moving the doomsday clock closer to midnight
It’s been a little over thirty six hours since North Korea revealed that Kim Jong Il died from an apparent heart attack on Saturday. It was well known that Kim was in ill health for years but his passing poses a huge risk for the West. Having dealt with Libya
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: Molly’sBlog 2011-12-18 23:26:00
POLITICAL HUMOUR: WAR IN IRAQ ENDS AS US FORCES LEAVE UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS:
Continue readingTrashy's World: The US says bye-bye to Iraq…
… and it’s about time… The last U.S. soldiers rolled out of Iraq across the border to neighbouring Kuwait at daybreak Sunday, whooping, fist bumping and hugging each other in a burst of joy and relief. Their exit marked the end of a bitterly divisive war that raged for nearly
Continue readingHitchens: a contrarian view
Nobody should have to silently watch someone with this history * be converted into some sort of universally beloved literary saint. * Or as Murray writes: A strange and extremely unpleasant manifestation of intellectual prostitution.
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Bradley Manning and the Horror of Haditha
What perfect timing. Just as the U.S. ends its war in Iraq, not with a bang but a whimper. Bye bye Big Lie. Bye bye Shock and Awe. Bye bye mass murder. Bye bye Abu Ghraib. In a junkyard near Baghdad, somebody came across the true horror of Haditha. The
Continue readingThe invisible dead Iraqis
U.S. President Barack Obama has declared the Iraq war over. While he proclaimed what he once termed a “dumb war” a success, he lamented the heavy cost. “Over 30,000 Americans have been wounded and those are only the wounds that show. Nearly 4,500 Americans made the ultimate sacrifice,” he said.
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The expanding War on Terror: their hypocrisy, and ours
It is hard to imagine how the timing could have created a more poignant juxtaposition. At the same time as the Obama administration triumphantly withdraws from Iraq, Congress is set to institute the legal codification of the largest expansion in the War on Terror yet, up to and including the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s Over. US Troops Leave Iraq.
The United States military mission in Iraq is over, eight years, eight months and 26-days after American tanks first poured in from Kuwait. Some 4,500 US soldiers have died. No one can be sure how many Iraqi civilians were killed. The usual, obscene estimate is “more than 100,000.” The departure
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fracking Ohio’s Utica Shale to "Boost Local Economy"? A "Total" Sham
Total Energy Logo.jpg It is a well-known fact that the unconventional gas industry is involved in an inherently toxic business, particularly through hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), which the EPA just confirmed today has contaminated groundwater in Wyoming. The documentary "Gasland," DeSmogBlog's report "Fracking the Future: How Unconventional Gas Threatens our Water, Health,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: ExxonMobil and Shell Stamp Huge Oil and Gas Deals in Iraq
Rumaila Oil Field Explosion.jpg Just a few weeks after President Barack Obama announced U.S. troops are "leaving" the war-torn country, ExxonMobil and Shell each announced major new oil and gas production agreements in Iraq. On November 12, ExxonMobil signed an oil production deal with the Kurdish Regional Government to drill in Iraqi Kurdistan, located
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: GOP Foreign Policy Debate: Iran, Covert Ops, and Sanctions
While most of the CBS GOP Presidential Nomination debate on foreign policy in South Carolina was predictably following the standard script, there was one issue that somewhat surprised me. That is, the extent to which multiple candidates were very empha…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Price of Western Media Complicity – War in Iraq and Afghanistan
Media Lens does fantastic, if grim work, in describing the system we live in. We are insulated from other narratives other ideas, other peoples sufferings. How can a public become informed with no other sources to cross reference? You cannot triangulate with only one point. Media Lens, Al-Jazeera and other alternative news sources provide […]
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: WikiLeaks: State Did It For Lulz
The State Department is one of those organizations that deems a hyperlink as “publication” of the material it links to. Publicity, almost certainly, but it’s impossible to knowingly and forever publicize what is being linked to, because websites are dynamic and links get broken due to their targets’ changes. And the State is eager to […]
Progressive Proselytizing: Nuclear weapons and motivations for Libya and Iran
Perhaps one of the greatest triumphs of the non-proliferation movement was the 2003 decision by Colonel Qaddafi of Libya to entirely abandon his nuclear, chemical and biological weapons program, throwing open the doors to inspectors and allowing the pr…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Seamless Transition: Pentagon Spokesman Geoff Morrell Moves to BP America
Geoff Morell.jpg
Last week, BP America hired former Department of Defense spokesman, Geoff Morrell, as its head of communications.
The move sheds light on the central tenet of American natio…
RedBedHead: I Refuse To Read 9/11 Memorial Coverage
If you’re reading this right now you are doing something that I have refused to do: read any coverage or analysis of 9/11. I am boycotting the wall to wall coverage – the pull-out specials in the newspapers, the live coverage of ceremonies at ground ze…
Continue readingbastard.logic: Looking Backward in the Year 2011
by matttbastard Der Spiegel runs down W’s “tragic legacy” in the long, long, looooong decade of U.S. decline that followed 9/11: America was trapped in Iraq for years, where a victory was a long time coming and was never a … Continue reading →
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: WikiLeaks: Biggest Cock-up Ever
A collection of diplomatic history since 1966 to the present day. This sentence is changing the world, unintentionally. The US State Department would have given its left testicle for this code phrase until last week. Maybe they didn’t have to, because it was published in a fracking book by an arrogant ass of a journalist […]