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Wars and conflicts

  • Let Bush and Kerry Lead With their Children Into Iraq and Afghanistan
    18 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    Let Bush and Kerry Lead With their Children Into Iraq and Afghanistan
    By Sam Hamod
    It is clear that if Bush really believes in sacrifice for Iraq and Afghanistan, he should send Barbara to Iraq as a U.S. Army soldier and Jenna to Afghanistan as a soldier; in this way, he’ll show that he really believes in these two wars he’s put our young men and women into. If Kerry wants to lead, he should do the same; as should Edwards. Otherwise, they must capitulate and say publicly that Nader, (…)

  • Britain’s worst intelligence failure, and Lord Butler says no one is to blame
    17 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    What a shame that Anthony Eden did not have a Butler around to explain he was not responsible for Suez
    By Robin Cook
    What a wonderful specimen of the British establishment is Lord Butler of Brockwell. Urbane, unflappable and understanding. He should be put on display somewhere as a prize example of our ruling classes. Possibly the Victoria and Albert Museum would provide the right grandeur and period ambiance.
    There is an emotional disconnect between his measured tones and the brutal (…)

  • Iraqi academics targeted in murder spree
    16 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    Robert Fisk
    The Mongols stained the Tigris black with the ink of the Iraqi books they destroyed. Today’s Mongols prefer to destroy the Iraqi teachers of books.
    Since the Anglo-American invasion, they have murdered at least 13 academics at the University of Baghdad alone and countless others across Iraq. History professors, deans of college and Arabic tutors have all fallen victim to the war on learning. Only six weeks ago - virtually unreported, of course - the female dean of the college (…)

  • BOYCOTT THE MILITARY
    15 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    by TED RALL
    NEW YORK—A haunted young man whose face bears too many lines for his years, jetlagged and limping from a wound sustained in the defense of his country half a world away, emerges from a jetway at San Francisco International Airport. A woman about the same age awaits in the terminal. A peace-sign necklace hanging above a loose floral-print dress billowing about her unshaven legs, the hippie chick scornfully scans his uniform, spits in his face and screams: "Baby killer!" The (…)

  • Remember the 1991 Gulf War: The Massacre of Withdrawing Soldiers on "The Highway of Death"
    14 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    Joyce Chediac
    I want to give testimony on what are called the "highways of death." These are the two Kuwaiti roadways, littered with remains of 2,000 mangled Iraqi military vehicles, and the charred and dismembered bodies of tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, who were withdrawing from Kuwait on February 26th and 27th 1991 in compliance with UN resolutions.
    U.S. planes trapped the long convoys by disabling vehicles in the front, and at the rear, and then pounded the resulting traffic (…)

  • The day Jawad saw the birds fall from the sky and the villagers lying dead at his feet
    12 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    by Robert Fisk
    AWAD’S job yesterday was to find The Independent a new fir tree - or at least some foliage which would colour the sun-bleached balcony of the paper’s office in Baghdad. The fine little Christmas fir which graced the apartment had, despite promises of constant watering by colleagues, turned into a black, carbonised tree of tiny dark prickles. So it was that I set forth for the market garden behind Palestine Street, a place that reeks of hot flowers and undergrowth and pot (…)

  • How the Iraqis See It
    11 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    by Sam Hamod
    I think it’s about time that someone told the American people how the Iraqis see it. I am not talking about the puppet regime installed by Bush, that was opposed, and is still opposed by the Iraqi people, Brahimi and the experts at the UN and in the US State Department, but about the vast majority of non-Kurd Iraqis (over 90% of the country).
    The American troops are colonial occupiers, similar to the old British colonialists who tried to run Iraq in the past. They feel our (…)

  • So this is what they call the new, ’free’ Iraq
    7 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    By Robert Fisk
    He drafted a new piece of legislation forbidding Iraqi motorists to drive with only one hand on the wheel. Another document solemnly announced that it would henceforth be a crime for Iraqis to sound their car horns except in an emergency. That same day, three American soldiers were torn apart by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, one of more than 60 attacks on US forces over the weekend. And all the while, Mr Bremer was worrying about the standards of Iraqi driving.
    It (…)

  • Justice, Gas and Tears
    6 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    by Uri Avnery
    In the silence of the courtroom, there was an audible gasp of surprise and shock when Supreme Justice Aharon Barak, reading the court’s decision, reached the words: “The military commander did not use his discretion in a proportional way, as required.”
    At that moment the veteran peace activists who filled the room realized that they had won.
    Four days before, we could not have dreamt of that. We were far from the sterile silence of the beautiful Supreme Court building: a (…)

  • Confused? Shadow of His Old Self? Hardly
    4 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Robert Fisk Bags beneath his eyes, beard greying, finger-jabbing with anger, Saddam was still the same fox, alert, cynical, defiant, abusive, proud. Yet history must record that the new "independent" government in Baghdad yesterday gave Saddam Hussein an initial trial hearing that was worthy of the brutal old dictator.
    He was brought to court in chains and handcuffs. The judge insisted that his own name should be kept secret. The names of the other judges were kept secret. (…)