Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

Nuclear Armageddon anyone? (more, more)

So we all know that Saddam is a “brutal dictator”… However, it's probably important to look at a few of the things that sets him apart from the other “brutal dictators” in the region, since he's the one that both Osama bin Laden and Junior have called for the death of. Anyway, a few interesting tidbits about what Saddam has done in Iraq (more).

Did you know that Saddam ended discrimination against women in Iraq, and that he was instrumental in making sure that women were well educated and held positions of power? Did you know that the people that Saddam abused were the feudalists and the religious extremists — “the terrorists”? Did you know that Saddam brought higher education into Iraq, and that as a low-income Iraqi you are more likely to be able to receive a university education than as a low-income American?

Am I saying he's a good guy? No, that's not what I'm saying. But what I am saying is that he may well be the most progressive and pro-Western leader that region has ever seen — and ever will if the US has any say in it. He's not getting hit by the US for hurting his people — he's getting hit because he's the best chance they have to become a first-world nation.

The quote above (more) is from an Iraqi family killed by US soldiers… the US dropped leaflets on their homes showing a happy family with the caption “be safe”… While Iraqis claim that's what the pamphlet says, the US claims their translators wrote “to be safe, stay in your home”. The Iraqi family dressed up in their best clothes and tried to flee the danger zone. The US troops opened fire on them for doing so.

But who cares about murder when Cheney et al are getting rich? (more, more)

Whatever you do, don't protest this war in America… Part of the reason for the “meaningless” Iraq war is to cover up the death of civil rights in America (more). The terrifying truth is that in America, in many areas people have less “rights” than those people living in non-democratic “axis of evil” countries… In Oregon, a new law would make anti-war protests punishable by 25 to life (more)… as if the death threats weren't enough (more)!

Remember Afghanistan? It's not over yet. They told you it was, didn't they? Bush himself declared it a victory as he vowed to similarly “free” the Iraqis, declaring both the Taliban and al Qaeda extinct. The US troops are still sustaining heavy losses there (more) and the Taliban still holds significant amounts of power and public support. Radical Islamic groups including terrorist groups like al Qaeda are making a come-back in Afghanistan and throughout the world thanks to US bungling of this horrid world war it seeks to bloody us all with (more).

But don't worry! The oil pipeline deal got signed!

The Red Cross — who's casualty numbers are far higher than anything the propaganda masters (more) in both the US and Iraq are spinning — say that the wounded and death toll is getting too high to count… Bodies are literally coming too fast to record (more, more).

Hospitals in Baghdad have run out of anesthetics and are doing amputations and other procedures without supplies (more), and US doctors helping treat injured US troops in Germany report on horrific injuries (more) and say that media coverage is only scraping the tip of the true horrors that are going on in Iraq.

I can give endless quotes and pictures of the horrors being committed in the name of the American people (more, more, more). Today I'm just not up to it though. One reporter struggles to make sense of it… and can't (more).

Maybe I should quote Geoff Hoon, the British defense minister… When presented with Iraqi mothers who's children had been ripped to shreds by their “cluster bombs” (more, more), Hoon was asked what he thought they'd think — “one day they'll thank us”, he said (more) — yeah… right…

I'll briefly mention Russia again. When the Russia convoy of diplomats was attacked (details a couple entries down), the US issued statements saying that it was impossible that they had anything to do with it since they claimed to no troops anywhere near the area (let me remind you that Iraq is only a few hundred miles across — it's a tiny nation; more)… Anyway, now they've changed the story to “the convoy must have been caught in a cross-fire”.

Problem is, the Russian diplomats and the journalists are denying that story, saying that the US forces opened fire on them without provocation (more). The other recent “friendly” fire incident is of course the one where a convoy of US special forces and Kurds as well as British media broadcasting it all live (video) called in an air strike on a nearby Iraqi tank… Apparently the F15 pilots could not tell the difference between an old Russian tank and a convoy of trucks, and bombed their own forces, killing killing killing killing…. (more)

As you know if you read my page, when the war first started, the US issued statements that any foreign media that were not specifically approved by and embedded with US military forces would have their satellite uplinks considered “legitimate military targets” and they'd be treated as POWs. That wasn't a bluff, and it has been happening — the first bunches are starting to be released to their governments now — two Portuguese journalists are telling a story about being beaten, caged, and starved by US forces (more). Journalists captured by Iraq describe horrific scenes in the prisons, but describe their own treatment as decent and humane (more).

I've mentioned military strategy a lot here… Because the private satellite feeds are not being censored during this war, everything the US does is available for public inspection, which reveals strategies used, strategies failed, and strategies corrected (more). As has been said over and over, Iraq is one of the smallest weakest targets the US could choose. North Korea is far more powerful, and conflict seems certain (more, more). The high level of media scrutiny during this war is “teaching” future combatants what works against the US and what doesn't. Every “public war” that goes on, the US puts itself at a greater disadvantage in the next.

In the double-talk department, the US decries Iraq for using plainclothes troops, while at the same time doing the exact same thing (more)… Along those lines, the US has also been occupying schools in Iraq as bases (more), and in the US regularly places military bases in civilian areas at home. Which means that when China and Russia bomb these targets, American civilians will be killed in massive numbers, just like America is killing massive numbers of Iraqi civilians.

More on strategy, the US for some reason seems to be trying to cause more guerrilla warfare (more) by its bungling of city sieges, the “on to Baghdad bungle” (more), leaving looting and anarchy in its wake (more, more). And what is becoming clear is that the different Iraqi forces are not entirely in unison, and may not even be under the same command — so by attacking one, by weakening one, the other may even become stronger (more).

The rift between the British forces and the US forces is growing, and among other things, British troops have been told that they may not hand over Iraqi POWs to the Americans, since under British and International law the way the US treats POWs is a war crime — since the US claims the right to execute them if they choose (more)… All the time claiming that Iraq is executing its POWs, a claim which was of course shown to be false.

I read someone say a while back that the new US propaganda game (more) is “tell a lot of lies with a short half-life” (more). That is, constantly give new reasons for invading Iraq. Constantly present new evidence. Every time it's disproved, make up a new one. On and on. Sound familiar? How many “we found WMDs… oh, I guess not…. we found more WMDs!” stories have you heard so far? (more, more)

Remember 9/11? Osama was target #1. Then it was the Taliban. Then it was Saddam. Now it's become a strange nebulous “freedom through bombing” theory… That's right up there with “Arbeit Macht Frei” (more), isn't it? Does no one even notice when America first drops the WMD story, and now drops the Saddam story, saying that “it's not important if we don't get Saddam” (more)?

Maybe you think I'm not to be trusted. What does Edward Peck, the former US ambassador to Iraq have to say about all this (more)?

Did you know that the Iraqis have figured out how to take out US tanks? It's almost David-and-Goliath (more), and it makes one wonder how a nation that spends approximately four hundred times more on its military every year can even get a scratch from little dirty dudes with old Russian rockets fired from the back of rusty pickup trucks.

PS. The economy is screwed, is getting worse, and is expected to keep on getting worse. America is running out of money. Do you really think it's a good idea to spend the last of it bombing a bunch of people who you don't even know and haven't done anything to you? (more, more)