The election in Iraq has disappointed the vast majority of Arab people. The whole process made us wonder whether this election was to serve the Iraqi or the American purpose. Even before the results were declared, American leaders started claiming the credit for the conduct of the election.

http://207.44.245.159/article7987.htm

The Republican Party spin machine was bouncing around the airwaves like an overloaded washing machine on Sunday attempting to obscure from the American public that they had by their actions managed to install a Shiite religious ruling class in Iraq.

http://207.44.245.159/article7993.htm

Is The U.S. Military Guilty Of War Crimes In Iraq?

By Jeremy Iggers

It isn't only a question about the moral culpability of American troops, their commanders or their political leaders. While they bear moral responsibility for their actions, we as citizens in a democracy share responsibility for actions undertaken in our name. That responsibility is not diminished by the fact that Iraqi insurgents are committing horrific crimes against their own people. In years to come, the world community will likely ask of us: Did we know? Did we care? Did we speak out?

http://207.44.245.159/article7988.htm

by Jacob G. Hornberger

Future of Freedom Foundation

02/04/05

Are you familiar with the big 'shock' that neoconservatives have experienced over the financial scandal arising out of the infamous 'oil-for-food' government program, which was the subject of an investigative report issued Thursday by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker? The oil-for-food program was the socialist program established in 1995 by U.S. officials and UN officials to alleviate the horrific suffering of the Iraqi people arising out of the brutal system of sanctions that the U.S. government and the UN imposed against the Iraqi people in 1991 and which lasted for more than a decade...

http://www.fff.org/comment/com0502d.asp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Jim Hightower

AlterNet

02/05/05

One inaugural visual summed up the moral divide between those few so gaily dancing the war away in Washington and those many trapped so miserably in the brutal reality of Iraq. It was the recurring scene of stretch Hummer limousines ferrying the resplendent Gucci crowd from one gaudy gathering to the next --while soldiers driving real Humvees have been denied the protective armor that could save their lives. Indeed, $40 million could buy quite a bit of armor. In 1945, when our troops were in another raging war, Franklin Roosevelt rightly insisted on modesty and austerity for his inaugural, even noting in his formal address that it was appropriate 'that the form of this inauguration be simple and its words brief.' But in the Wonderland of BushWorld, modesty is no virtue, and hubris is to be celebrated -- so party down, y'all!

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/21190/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Justin Raimondo

AntiWar.Com

02/07/05

We can't leave until the insurgency is quelled, but our presence is the cause of the insurgency in the first place. We proclaim the advent of 'democracy' and 'self-determination,' yet the American occupation continues. We celebrate the 'rule of law,' even as we insist American soldiers and military contractors cannot be prosecuted or sued in Iraqi courts -- because Americans are above the law. The longer the occupation lasts, the more glaring the contradictions between the official reality of Iraq's 'liberation' and the very real vassalage of the Iraqi people...

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4740


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Already about 100 soldiers from Iraq have turned up at homeless shelters around the country. And a study released last summer found that 17 percent of early returning Iraqi soldiers suffered from PTSD. Less than half of them had sought mental health care. The article below describes the ordeal of one Vietnam War veteran.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2787

Prichard native Tyson Johnson and other soldiers returning from Iraq try to rebuild their lives as they grapple with symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder...

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2786

The Iraq war is a new kind of hell, with more survivors - but more maimed, shattered limbs - than ever.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/pain.html


From Information Clearing House