U.S. Military: Military Mafia in Iraq

Apparently the U.S. Military is not influencing the Iraq Military, it's the other way around. There are muted reports of American Military Officers stealing large sums of cash appropriated to the Iraqi people.There are reports of murder, bribery, shakedowns and general corruption with in and out of the U.S. military in Iraq. To top it off, our government isn't influencing the Iraqi nation to become more Democratic: the Iraqi's are influencing the U.S. to become more "fundamentalist".

       

Amy Goodman was interviewing Seymour Hersh on how the Bush Administration tried to fix the elections in Iraq and Hersh mumbled something about the American Military being corrupted in Iraq. He began to say he has heard so many stories about colonels (in the U.S. military) being corrupted by large sums of cash. They he cut himself off. Here's the transcript:

.

AMY GOODMAN: Seymour Hersh, there was a report in the Financial Times right before the election in Iraq -- it was around January 10 -- that said the electoral group headed by Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi Prime Minister, handed out cash to journalists to insure coverage of the press conferences. Your response to that?

SEYMOUR HERSH: I just don't know that but, you know, when you talk about cash in Iraq, you don't just talk about cash. You talk about pallet loads of cash. There's an awful lot of money.

If anybody wanted to read about this -- the London Review of Books recently did an amazing article -- they took the six last State Department and U.N. reports on the missing cash in Iraq. Twenty billion dollars, much of it Iraqi oil money, has just disappeared, and there's no accounting for it. I shouldn't say all of it has disappeared, but the accounting is very lax. The corruption of Iraq and the corruption of our military by the dollars around, the invidious and systematic corruption of our military is just beyond belief. And we will pay a price for that in the end, too. You just cannot have that much money around. There were all kinds of colonels -- look, and it just doesn't matter. I'm getting ahead of myself, because I -- I don't want too talk about things I can't prove, but I can tell you in the London Review of Books in the last issue, the most recent issue, was a very, very serious essay about the extent of financial corruption and how much money simply disappeared from view, and we're not talking about hundreds of millions, we're talking about billions.)

...Of course this is a very natural occurrence. The Bush Administration is incompetent. The Military is therefore ordered to act outside it's own competence as it follows Bush's orders to destroy- and then rebuild- Iraq in an illegal, pointless, self destructive and indulgent war. It is no secret that millions and billions of dollars in cash have been used by the U.S. to pay- to and to pay off- Iraqi and American Contractors.

There is this famous picture showing how contractors are paid: Contractors Payment

It appears and entire company of 130 soldiers of the California National Guard may have been using old style mafia tactics to extort money from Iraqi shop owners. They offered "protection" from "terrorists" to shop owners if the shop owners paid them. This is just like mobsters walking into a business and saying. "nice place you got here, we'd hate so see anythiing happen ot it. If you pay us, will protect you." Translation: " We won't blow up your shop and then blame it on the terrorists if you pay us off! " So the army is extorting money from innocent Iraqi's in addition to all the other things they have been accussed of. Here we have an entire company put on restrictive duty. Other companies appear to be involved too, so it is endemic, not an isolated case. Lt. Col. Patrick Frey, has been suspended while the investigation is conducted, he is the battlion commander.Shakedown

The result of this corrupt war so far is an alliance with the Shiites of Iraq with the Shiites of Iran and the hoped for replacement of the U.S. support of the Jaafari government by the on coming military and financial support of the Iranians. Bush is nurturing fundamentalism here and abroad. He appears to be working for Bin Laden, for terrorism and not against it. Could this be? Could it be that Bush is simply a very disturbed, self destructive, perverse man surrounded by other like-minded people who know not their own motivations? Well.. That's ridiculous! Like Seymour Hersh, I think I must be getting ahead of myself. Let's get back to the corruption.

This from the London Review of Books

London Review of Books

"Staff at the CPA head office in Baghdad usually worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, often on three-month postings. They didn't trust the computer network so many of them put their records on USB sticks and in private computer files that couldn't be opened by their replacements. At one point there was only one officer at the CPA account manager's office clearing all the paying agents throughout Iraq. Paying agents in the field often couldn't get - let alone be bothered with - the paperwork, which was frustrating for the honest ones and a boon to their crooked colleagues. So where did the money go? You can't see it in Hillah. The schools, hospitals, water supply and electricity, all of which were supposed to benefit from this money, are in ruins. The inescapable conclusion is that many of the American paying agents grabbed large bundles of cash for themselves and made sweet deals with their Iraqi contacts. "

....Isn't using pallet loads of cash to pay people for work done, kind of a questionable idea? This money has to be delivered to Iraq by someone: Military personnel. Then it is kept somewhere by someone: more military personnel. Colonels, Generals, high-ranking military and perhaps civilian personnel have easy access to this cash that is lying around on pallets. If it's so easy to get at, and, the record keeping is known to be sometimes non--existent, what's to stop military personnel who are so inclined from making arrangements to have the money shipped back to the U.S. ? Is this happening? Why wouldn't it be? The U.S. military is not only being corrupted by the cash floating around Iraq, they are being corrupted by the situation they are in. They are an illegal occupying force sent to a sovereign nation on false pretenses. They are there immorally. They are not liked and not wanted by anybody. Not even the current Iraqi government wants them there.

The current Jaafari government no longer is feeling so strongly that U.S. support is required for their protection. Jaafari and Talabani feel they can get that from Iran, very soon. And they feel the withdrawal of the U.S. army will weaken the motives for the insurgency more than any continued U.S. "presence". Additionally Iraq's government wants to use the militias against remaining insurgents. But they are afraid to tell the Americans to leave. The Americans might kill them for asking. Dale Stoffel a contractor in Iraq (and not necessarily an honest one) did not like the shakedown he was getting from his Iraqi counterpart a Mr. Zayna, in a deal to rebuild Iraq. "Rebuilding " consisted in this case of 283 million dollars so Iraq could have a new. ...Tank brigade for the Iraqi Army. What a tank brigade can do against insurgents is another question.

Stoffel it turns out worked for Wye Oak Technologies a company whose website describes it's work as bascially a software company. The Website just doesn't look right. Perhaps it is a Brewster-Jennings type company. The kind that Valerie Plame worked for. It turns out that Mr. Stoeffel has a record as an arms dealer. Perhaps he is working as an operative in Iraq, keeping an eye on the Iraqis and our own military for the CIA in regard to weapons of mass destruction. In any case, he sent an E-mail to General Petraeus: Stoffel complained to General Petraeus:

""If we proceed down the road we are currently on, there will be serious legal issues that will land us all in jail," Stoffel wrote in an e-mail to a senior assistant to U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who was overseeing the task force in charge of the arms deal, according to the story."

....I assume that Stoffel is saying here that the U.S. Military, specifically General Petraeus and his assistant, Colonel David Styles were engaging in illegal activity and it had to stop or they might all go to jail.

The London Book Review article continues:

"Stoffel complained about the situation in letters written to Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn Hills) and to a senior Pentagon official. Stoffel also e-mailed U.S. Army Col. David Styles, who is Petraeus' assistant on the project. "

Stoffel was murdered 8 days after sending the E-mail to General Petraeus.

Immediately after his killing a never heard of before "terrorist group" claimed credit for the killing on another odd looking website. Was this a phony website? A phony terrorist group? Who would have wanted him killed: Mr. Zayna? Col. David Styles or General Petraeus? Seymour Hersh's comment about corruption rings loudly. Mr. Stoeffel is now dead and General Petraeus is doing business with Mr. Zayna. What does that say?

It says at least this much...in spite of the fact that Stoeffel complained about the corruption of Mr. Zayna, and was subsequently killed (and as a result of the suspicious circumstances the FBI is investigating), General Petraeus and Colonel Styles went ahead with and did business with Mr. Zayna. Why would they do that under the circumstances? What would Mr. Zayna do if he was not allowed to continue to do business with the General and his colonel? Did he know something that perhaps the General and the Colonel didn't want made public about their dealings with him? Was that something their actions "along the path" that Stoffel alluded to that could wind them up in jail?

The London Book of Review article continues:

.

"Since the killing, U.S. military officials have continued working with Zayna. He is doing construction work on a U.S.-controlled military base outside Baghdad related to the project, said officials with the U.S.-led coalition.

"Stoffel's firm tried unsuccessfully to keep the contract. Wye Oak Technology sent a letter to U.S. and Iraqi officials on Jan. 25 saying it was prepared to resume work so long as "transparency and accountability" were established."

....Summing up the overall attitude of the U.S. Military in Iraq is this from one of our colonels in Iraq just after the war began in 2003, as quoted in the New York Times:

"With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them." That colonel is our representative in Iraq. He is the ambassador of our values. He speaks for you and me. If he is the ugly American, so are we. ". . .

.

Judith Miller a Government Operative?

It seems apparent to me that Judith Miller worked for the Vice Presidents Office of Special Plans and was in fact a formal or informal government agent.

Wolfowitz and Feith set up the OSP. They urged against CIA advice not to use the claim that Sadaam had sought Uranium from Niger in Bush SOTU speech. The idea of using what was probably an earlier CIA black ops report on Iraq trying to get yellow cake uranium from Niger began in this office. This is another case of one branch of the government believing a false story planted by the CIA (at an earlier time for reasons having nothing to do with an invasion of Iraq) and acting on it as reality. Some of these schemes have been outlined in the documentary "The Power of Nightmares". I had the opportunity to see the entire 3 part series on video tape.

http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares

The Office of Special Plans provided much of Powell's speech to the U.N., which was at odds with the CIA. This is the backdrop to the CIA purge and the resignations of Tenet and Pavitt.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4157.htm

The main source of information for the Office of Special Plans on Sadaams WMD was Ahmed Chalabi. His relationship with Judith Miller was very special.

This from
http://www.williambowles.info/media/massing_media.html

"Last May, Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post wrote of an e-mail exchange between Miller and John Burns, then the Times bureau chief in Baghdad, in which Burns rebuked Miller for writing an article about Chalabi without informing him. Miller replied that she had been covering Chalabi for about ten years and had "done most of the stories about him for our paper." Chalabi, she added, "has provided most of the front page exclusives on WMD to our paper."

Ahmed Chalabi always thinking into the future arranged interviews for Miller with people like Khidir Hamza who was seen frequently on US television glibly assuring all Americans that Sadaam was months away from having Nuclear Weapons and possessed WMD. These were set-ups by Chalabi. Perhaps he paid these people off to tell Miller what Miller and the OSP were only to glad to here.

Chalabi's plan was for a US invasion, overthrow of the Sadaam Regime and then removal of U.S. forces as quickly as possible to be replaced by Iranian financial and military support. He all along was working for and with Iranian, not U.S. interests. We now see this more clearly with the current governments close ties to Iran, which includes a recently signed agreement authorizing Iranian training for Iraqi troops. We are also to understand that the Bush Administration no longer favors Chalabi. The Administration is fearful of him as he can easily expose them publicly as to how he duped them and then some. He is clearly head and shoulders on another level of political intelligence, worldliness and savvy than the provincial (Jackson Hole Wyoming) Dick Cheney. Using the United States to invade Iraq was like taking candy from a baby. It is certainly what the baby wanted anyway.

Judith Miller is in jail. I believe she is in jail because she is the first member of the press to learn that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. She learned this from Cheney's office, apparently from Libby. I believe that she informed other members of the press and was part of an OSP operation to discredit Joe and Valerie Wilson. This is the "plot against Wilson" that one appellate judge referred to. Judith Miller is not merely a reporter, she is an operative herself who worked for the OSP, which stood in opposition to the CIA. Miller has never written about Valerie Plame, her job was to spread the information, not to write about it. The OSP with Fieth, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz sought to replace the CIA as the fulcrum of influence in espionage activity. Miller like many other journalists, we are finding out, works for the government first and in her case, the New York Times second.

Judith Miller cannot testify because she would incriminate herself on a number of levels. She may be part of the plot to discredit Wilson, not just reporter receiving information. She might have to reveal that she in fact works for the government planting stories as other reporters have been know to do. She may be on a government payroll or perhaps her work is fee based or perhaps she receives nothing and she works out of a sense of what I would call misguided patriotism. That's another word for being stupid.

Now what gets complicated is Patrick Fitzgerald's position toward her from a political point of view and from a procedural one I don't think anyone wants to hear about that at this time.

Plame Case Going Nowhere. Is it Fitzgerald or FIXgerald

Tim Russert asked Matt Cooper today on NBC:" Is this going anywhere?"
Matt Cooper replied that he "didn't know", sometime it seems like it could be big and sometimes it just looks like" politics as usual."

Matt Cooper, who has testified before the Grand Jury, says he's not sure if this investigation will lead to anything. So before you start tuning in your TV sets to watch Karl Rove going to jail you must remember that all of this hinges on the attitudes and ambition of Patrick Fitzgerald who was appointed by James Comey who was appointed by George Bush to be the Deputy to John Ashcroft and it is John Ashcroft who asked Comey to pick a prosecutor (Fitzgerald describes Comey as his best friend). Would Fitzgerald screw his best friend Comey by making him look bad to Bush who gave him his job?

Ken Mehlman said today on Meet the Press that he has "tremendous faith in Patrick Fitzgerald". He said this REPEATEDLY. He did not need to say this, he did not need to point this out repeatedly in order to emphasize that everyone should wait until the Grand Jury has concluded. I think he was saying that Patrick Fitzgerald is one of our guys. He is correct. Fitzgerald is a Republican who was appointed by the Administration to investigate itself.

Why is Judith Miller in Jail? Judith Miller has been rumored to be an operative of the government while working as a news reporter. I think this makes sense. Her articles of WMD in Iraq were lies propagated by the government through the news media. Apparently she spoke to the Vice Presidents office, learned about Plames identity and then told fellow reporters who told Rove and then Rove told other reporters. This resulted in a kind of perfect circle that has no beginning or end.

Judith Miller is the only connection to the original source in the V.P. Office. That is why she will not testify. She has to go to jail. Since she is probably the original news source (and this surely would have come out in Grand Jury testimony), Fitzgerald would have no other option but to demand she go to jail, anything else would expose his probable prejudicing of this case. She will remain in jail for 5 months and sign book deals and become fabulously wealthy. It is very unpleasant in jail however and she is and will suffer greatly. I suspect she imagines herself to be a true patriotic operative for the government.

So, is this case going anywhere?

FIXGERALD: Fixing the Plame Investigation

Remember that Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed indirectly through John Ashcroft. Remember that Fitzgerald is a Republican. He is not an independent prosecutor at all. There is nothing independent about his investigation. Fitzgerald was appointed by partisan political officials and in all likelihood he is conductiing a partisan political investigation.

REMEMBER THAT NOVAK HAS IMPLIED THAT HE HAS IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION.

Novak has not been pressured like Miller and Cooper. Why is that? There certainly must be some agreement between Fitzgerald and Novak. Novak is the person who first published information outing Plame. Novak is not being pressured by Fitzgerald. He is a conservative columnist with a long history of ties to Republican administrations.

If he has in fact been granted immunity, does this mean that Novak can lie about his conversation with Rove? That Novak takes the heat but isn't liable and this gets Rove off the hook? That Novak says he told Rove about Plame being CIA operative and Rove merely mentioned it in passing to another reporter and therefore did not knowingly out a CIA agent, since a civilian member of the public press told him of her status. Is this then a set up by Fitzgerald to get Rove and the Whitehouse off the hook? Is it something that Fitzgerald is engineering to diminish the fall out from this scandal?

Joe Wilson has said he thinks Fitzgerald is doing a good job. But he could not be expected to say anything else.

If Fitzgerald is acting as a partisan politician, it is within his power to arrange the presentation of the facts in the case without himself breaking the law. He has a great deal of power in his presentation to build, formulate and arrange the sequence and flavor of events so that they yield a desired result.
.
So far the investigation has been attacking reporters from the so-called liberal Time magazine and the New York Times. So far it has been the press that has been put on trial and punished as a result of the investigation, not Karl Rove. There has been much speculation about Karl Rove but the only results so far have been the real effects of censoring the press. Political news stories by investigative reporters involving corruption have been held back as a result of this investigation as reporters no longer feel they can protect their sources.

These actions, so far, are to the administrations liking. The administration and Bush do not like leaks, unless they are doing the leaking

If you want to know what's going on in this investigation you must understand where Patrick Fitzgerald's sympathies lie. There is precious little about him on the internet except for his prosecution of Islamic extremists and his prosecution of George Ryan a Republican Governor of Illinois who is clearly being railroaded by Fitzgerald. Ryan was perhaps, one of the most liberal governors in America. Ryan was more liberal than any Democratic governor I can think of. He was not liked by the administration. He was the first Governor to stop the use of the death penalty in the nation and commuted numerous sentences of death row inmates based on DNA evidence presented in their defense. There was nothing unusual about his activities as a politician though he is presented as a villian by the Chicago Press. His actions as governor were very humane and reasonalbe and he got along very well with Democrats in the state..

The question is: Just how well is Patrick Fitzgerald getting along with Republicans these days?

Charges to Be Dropped That Saddam Gassed His Own People

Soon to be made pulbic is the fact that the Iraqi prosecutor in the forthcoming
trial of Sadaam Hussein is dropping charges Sadaam gassed his own people

http://www.lewrockwell.com/wanniski/wanniski44.html

This follows of course the fact that Saddaam did not have chemical weapons, nuclear weapons,
mobile gas labs, drones, anything to do with 911 or Al Queda and he did not bury 400,000
people in mass graves.

http://sf.indymedia.
org/news/2003/04/1602606.php

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/
0%2C12956%2C1263901%2C00.html

http://www.13wham.com/news/national/story.aspx?content
_id=422B960A-26BA-4891-9E60-21C8818788D4

Iran is Central to the Support of the Iraqi Government-Not the United States

It may come as a great surprise to hear that the Iraqi government headed by Jaafari and Talabani do not like their own army or the United States Army. The two most hated entities in Iraq are the United States Army and the Iraqi Army. Hated by Shiite and Sunni alike. The American soldiers by and large detest the Iraqi Army. The Iraqi people no matter what their persuasion dislike the army. Who does like the Iraqi Army? No one. Not even the Bush administration. For all their public ranting about progress, the Bush administration recognizes that the Iraq Army is a failure. But they will not say so in public. They hint at their dissapointment.

This from Baghdad Burning website referring to Bush's presidential address.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

"As to Iraqi forces...there was too much to quote on the new Iraqi forces. He failed to mention that many of their members were formerly part of militias, and that many of them contributed to the looting and burning that swept over Iraq after the war and continued for weeks.

"The new Iraqi security forces are proving their courage every day."

Indeed they are. The forte of the new Iraqi National Guard? Raids and mass detentions. They have been learning well from the coalition. They sweep into areas, kick down doors, steal money, valuables, harass the females in the household and detain the men. The Iraqi security forces are so effective that a few weeks ago, they managed to kill a high-ranking police major in Falluja when he ran a red light, shooting him in the head as his car drove away."

The Iraqi Army does not work and never will work.

The Iraqi government prefers the Badr Brigade. These are Iraqi Shiite but Iranian trained troops who were trained to overthrow Sadaam and are now being used as death squads in the South. The Iraqi government also likes the 100,000 man Peshmerga Army of Kurds in the North.

Jaafari and Talabani are allied to Iran - not the United States. This is the conundrum the U.S. is finding itself in. They have arranged for an election that has produced a government that appears to be getting stronger in their alliance with Iran. Iran is the biggest supporter of the Iraqi government, not the United States.

I have long said that soon we will discover the United States will switch sides and support the insurgents who are the United States natural allies compared to the Fundamentalist in Iran who are actively involved, encouraging and supporting the Jaafari/Talabani Government that is getting stronger. But it is not getting stronger form the U.S. it is getting stronger with aid and direction from Iran. Chalabi is playing a big role in all of this.

Iranians who once lived in Iraq and were kicked out by Sadaam are being allowed to return and claim their homes!

This from Juan Coles website a quote from a Iraqi homeowner:

http://www.juancole.com/

"When Iranians were kicked out of Iraq some years ago, their homes were confiscated and sold to Iraqis. Now the new government has granted but 60 days to those now occupying those homes to vacate, so that they can be returned to the original Iranian owners.

"This is causing a lot of consternation in Baghdad for at least two reasons:

there is a property claims order and commission that could be utilized to mediate and find an equitable solution to this problem, which all admit is difficult; and

this again exemplifies the close position of the government to Iran. As the weeks go on, we are becoming more and more convinced that Iran and the Badr Brigade are running the country. Your blog has been particularly helpful at making that trend known"

This affirms that in the opinion of the man quoted, the Badr Brigade is taking over from the Iraqi Army in some areas and the Iranians not only have influence but appear to be calling the shots for the government. The Iraqi government will continue to act on their own in concert with Iran and ignoring the United States government which is incompetent and unable to communicate anything in Iraq except to it's own soldiers. The language barrier alone has defeated the U.S. military in Iraq.
The Iraq invasion has been based on many lies, and is a total, complete, final military, political, ideological and moral defeat for the United States.

The United States cannot hope to stay because it is incompetent.

The U.S. is unable to communicate in the language of Iraq. Simple items like fixing a road, water, oil pipelines become fiascos due to language. The Iraqi government as personified by Ahmed Chalabi simply talks circles around the U.S. like a Cantinflas character leaving them confused, frustrated and defeated.

For all the condescension of the United States has exhibited in Iraq, it seems clear that the "strongest military and economic power" in the world, is just " livin' in a fools paradise" in Iraq.

What's Really Going on In Iraq

The Actual political situation at this moment in Iraq is that the Jaafari and Talabani government seems to want the U.S. out as well. They are shifting their strategy. They hope to rely on Iran, not the U.S. for support against the resistance. I believe their hope is that with the Americans gone, the resistance will decrease in numbers and become more manageable than with the Americans present.

Removal of American forces combined with overwhelming support of Iranian arms and Iranian training of troops replacing U.S. training is the objective of the Jaafari/Talabani Government. The use of the Badr Brigade (An Iranian trained Iraqi Militia of about 20,000 with the Kurdish Peshmerga numbering 75.000 will be enough to contain the insurgents pending negotiations with them, they hope. The Badr Brigade is, at the moment, apparently being used as a death squad against Sunnis in the South of Iraq.

http://atheism.about.com/b/a/138282.htm?iam=sherlock_abc

Talabani and Jaafari believe they have a better chance at solving the problem of warfare than the Americans. This probably cannot work because the Americans don't want to leave. Until they do the plan cannot be enacted.The Americans, have no intention of leaving as they are building permanent U.S. bases.

The resistance are a varied people who are fighting for a variety or reasons. Most simply want the U.S. to leave. If the U.S. leaves it seems reasonable to assume only a portion of that resistance will remain to fight the U.S. installed government.

What is not being reported or brought out by the news media is that the Talabani/Jaafar government is allied with Iran and seeks to make Iraq similar to Iran along fundamentalist lines. If Jaafari/Talabani government is to survive without U.S. presence that won't be an option: it will be a demand the Iranians make in exchange for their support of the Puppet Talabani -Jaafari government. But it will be a Iranian demand that Shiite Iraquis embrace and are embracing, I feel.

The problem for Jaafari is that the Kurds really don't want to be part of Iraq. They want their own nation. To commit 75,000 Kurdish Peshmerga to fight for Iraqi unity seems to be inconsistent. But Talabani (a Kurd) and Jaafari are hoping to use the possibility of this and make it into a reality for their own specific personal and political goals. This will be difficult. But it is, I sense what they are trying to pull off. The idea is that we have to get the Americans out first and foremost. Only then can we establish the government and get a foothold of control through a diminishing resistance (with the U.S. gone) and through alliance and support with Iran. The Kurds are not inclined as the Shiites to ally with Iran, but Iranian support may help them in their struggle to fend off the Turks.

The bottom line is that the U.S. should pull out immediately. Allowing the resistance to fight the fundamentalists ,defeat the current government and secure at least the central portion of Iraq. Otherwise there will be a horrible stalemate involving U.S. forces that will go on throughout the Bush Administration and well into the next no matter who is elected. It will take years after Bush is gone for a U.S. pull out to be arranged. No sooner than 2013.

Everything Bush is doing is supporting the establishment of fundamentalist's regimes, not democratic regimes in Iraq and the Mid East. If there is a traitor among us it would be Bush.

He is sending U.S. troops to fight for the fundamentalists who are more likely to be sympathetic to the fundamentalists who were responsible for 911 than the Insurgents who have had no interest previously in fighting the U.S. Don't forget: They withdrew when U.S. forces arrived in Kuwait.

Sadaam Hussein's cruelty was real but greatly exaggerated by the U.S.

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/1602606.php

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0%2C12956%2C1263901%2C00.html

http://www.13wham.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=422B960A-26BA-4891-9E60-21C8818788D4

A much. ...or at least equally cruel person is George Bush who is killing his own troops to support the people who are more likely to be allied with those who attacked the United States. Remember: it is not the Fundamentalist we are fighting in Iraq: it is the a wide variety of insurgents with a wide variety of agendas but which is most probably more secular than religious. Many of whom who are people who supported the secular- not fundamentalist government of Sadaam. They would have to be consideredliberals in Iraq. We should never have opposed Saddaam.

U.S. media coverage has presented a confused picture of the reality of Iranian politics. Maybe I haven't helped in this exposition. We are fighting our natural allies and supporting our natural enemies.

.

Iraqui Insurgents are America''s Natural Allies

The US should be negotiating with the Iraqi Army (insurgents). The so called "insurgents" are more the natural allies of the United States, than the Fundamentalist leaning puppet government that the U.S, has installed. The Fundamentalist leaining Jaafari governments ties to fundamentalist Iran are stronger than their ties to Fundamentalist America.
.
The Baathists, who represent a large group which the US is fighting are historically secular. They are fighting for a variety of reasons among them to get the United States out of Iraq and to a lesser degree to eventually regain power.The insurgents are not unified in their motivations for fighting, but they are unified in their opposition to U.S. presence.

It is my outlandish opinoin that It is in the interests of the United States that they suceed! It is now a forgone conclusion that in the future the US will support these same insurgents they are fighting in the unlikely event that the Jaafari government is able to develop a power base in Iraq. Most likelyl success with building a power base lies with Iran, not the United States. Iran can provide limited support where the Jaafari government may be able to control areas in the south of Iraq near Iran where the Shiites are strongest. Talabani (a Kurd ) has a nominal position in the government but attempts to weild informal power by aligning himself with Jaafari on the idea of getting the U.S. out and using Kurdish forces along with Badr Brigande forces to hold off the insurgents long enough for Iran to enter the picture.

Don't forget the following, the United States has a habit of switching sides and or finding itself fighting or undermining the people it once supported.

Saddam Hussein
Osama Bin Laden
The Taliban
Manuel Noriega Panama
Mossedegh of Iran
The Shah of Iran
Munuwar Kaddafi Libya
Idi Amin Nigeria
Diem Vietnam
Aristide Haiti
Marcos Philippines
Pol Pot Cambodia
Somoza Nicaragua

These names come to mind. There are more. Doesn't it occur to anyone that the United States does not know what it is doing in Iraq? Why do so many people along with Air America, Move On, even Bill Mahr and Jon Daily support the presence of US troops in Iraq "until the job gets done".

Hey! They don't know what they are doing! And there isn't a job
that they can get done. They are not doing themselves or anyone else any good. They should leave. It's none of their business. The US Military from Rumsfeld to the soldiers on the ground that don't speak the language of the people in Iraq are not doing anyone any good.. The soldiers are not competent. Something is wrong with them. That something has to do with their training. They are torturing and raping and stealing on a wide scale. Every day we are hearing are more and more. Even showing Saddaam in his underwear. How pathetic.

By some accounts (Dahr Jamail) the US military has used poison gas in Fallujah. They have wiped out entire towns. 300.000 people have had to evacuate as the city of Fallujah was destroyed by US troops.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/28/1346252

The most likely scenario is a destructive stalemate where as long as the US stays there will be fighting. The US cannot defeat the insurgents. Nobody in Iraq wants the US in Iraq except for a dwindling number of people the puppet government.

The Iraqi Army (insurgents) are going to win this war against Shiites. They have already defeated the United States. They will defeat whoever challenges them in Iraq because they are the Iraqi army. It is "insurgents" who will be fighting THEM and they don't have the organization to defeat the Iraqui Army (insurgents). It's a forgone conclusion. There is no way the United States can defeat the "insurgents" or should want to defeat them. The Baathists are closer to our own "interests" than the powerless, impotent fundamentalist puppet government that is pretending to govern Iraq. The puppet government is not doing anything, just hanging around and gambling against all odds they will survive.
So there was absolutely no point at all in going there in the first place.

No WMD
No Nuclear weapons
No 400,000 people buried in mass graves (5,000 according to the British)
Saddam did not gas his own people, (Iran gassed them during the Iran-Iraq war)
No Iraqui drones headed from Canada to wipe out US cities with poison gas.
No mobile labs

The list of lies does not stop with WMD and Nuclear weapons.

The Republicans Will Win the Next Election

The Republicans are now deeply entrenched

TRICKLE DOWN FREEDOM

Freedom in America has never been derived from the Constitution but has evolved from a primitive competition between religious groups to a modern competition between large corporate entities. These large corporate entities and the laws and regulations which govern and protect their interaction with each other are the laws and rules which trickle down to the general population in the form of individual protection and security. .

As the corporate entities coalesce or "merge" there are fewer of them and less competition and therefore less need for regulation and less trickle down laws regulating and guaranteeing the freedom for the general population.

Now we have an attack on the general populations security (Social Security pension funds for ex.) and individual freedoms
(Homeland security acts, immigration restrictions, national identification cards).

Foremost we have an age of deregulation. Deregulation of corporate monopolies results in an all-consuming corporate gobble of their smaller competition, then the suppliers and then their supplier's suppliers.

If we want to know why the Bush administration is in the Whitehouse and can maintain itself there you simply need to observe the formula above. As corporations merge, and the need to regulate them is abolished, we have fewer choices, and consequently we are rendered less perceptive. There is less to perceive, less to see. Singularity and homogeneity become the norm. Perception is weakened and it becomes easier to manipulate perception when there are fewer choices imaginable.

In view of the above, Republicans are a shoe in for the next election. Republicans are entrenching themselves in the courts and, in the media, Control of media sources have caused the swing of the democratic party to the right to such an extent that it has for all practical purposes, become a branch of the Republican party and a faux competitor while being perceived as an actual competitor.

An American nation that does not respond to the multitude and magnitude of lies put forth before it by government /corporate entities is hopelessly lost and sadly bereft of the capacity to act on it's values or to feel hope.

The citizenry of the United States have decided not to protest the War in Iraq and the government's active torture, rape and destruction of entire cities in Iraq.

The basis of the war has been manufactured governmental lies about WMD among other things. Colin Powell was perceived to be a respected statesman and he was used to deliver these lies to the UN on the basis of how he was perceived.

There is no reason to think that in an upcoming election the Republicans will be held accountable by the Democrats who oppose them because the Democrats will undoubtedly present a candidate who has supported all the major Republican initiatives like the War in Iraq and even Social Security "reform". As corporations merge, so do the political parties and so does the perception of the individual citizen become more narrow.

The lies about Iraq did not end with Weapons of mass destruction by the way but go on: Saddam Hussein did not gas his own people. He did not bury 400,00 in mass graves and an eyewitness account by a soldier who was present said he was not capture in a hole.

Saddam gassed his own people:
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/1602606.php

Saddam murdered 400,000 and put them in mass graves:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0%2C12956%2C1263901%2C00.html

Saddam found hiding in a hole. Rumsfeld:"Saddam not very brave"

http://www.13wham.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=422B960A-26BA-4891-9E60-21C8818788D4

What reason on Earth would anyone have to doubt the accuracy of Karl Rove's statement that the Republicans intend to say in power for a very long time after George Bush?

The Republicans are more connected to corporate power and corporate power is unified through merger more than ever before. The democrats are burdened with remnants of their historical connection to the individual. But they are trying to maintain that connection with the people and a connection with corporate America and this allows the Republicans to attack them as being wishy washy and weak. And they are right.

Move on has decided not to organize protests for an immediate withdrawal. Air America's Randi Rhodes and Al Franken state we must stay in Iraq until the job gets done. That is exactly what the Republicans are saying. They don't disagree with what the Republicans have done in Iraq but HOW they have done it. That's not much of a difference. Not going to war in the first place is the position the democrats should have taken. But I guarantee that all of those who will be running as serious contenders in the Democratic Party will have had to have voted for the war.

Once again, the reason for our current state of affairs regarding power is there is less competition between corporate entities and therefore less freedom, diversity and personal and economic security. It has shrunk. It has nothing to do with the great American values of freedom and equality. Freedom and equality are no longer needed in the quantity they once were by Corporate and Global America. So the ordinary citizen is deprived.

Diversity disappears without our even being aware that it's gone.

Why I think Bush is not the Anti-Christ

Though there are reports that the recently deceased Pope worried that Bush may have been the Anti-Christ, Vatican Intelligence sources have offered no verifiable proof. Link

Accusations that George Bush was a bisexual, alcoholic, cokehead have never been proven. However, it is known that as a middle aged 30 and 40 year old he participated in numerous youthful pranks such as drunk driving, petty vandalism and theft. This hardly suffices as a prerequisite to full blown Anti-Christ hood.

No mark of the beast has ever been found on his body. Though it is true that George=6 letters, Walker=6 letters and Busche (the original spelling of his name) =6 letters do equal the mark of the beast. It's probably a coincidence. I am still not convinced.

Nostradamus was said to have predicted:  "Come the millennium, month 12/ in the home of greatest power / The village idiot will come forth/ To be acclaimed the leader." Village idiot" is not the same as Anti Christ.

Biblical sources reveal, "Like most false prophets, he will shall show himself as sincere and compassionate. But he is the liar. He adds dashes of truth to the his foul mix, so that the lie tastes like truth. He will use the language of the church."

It is true that Bush calls himself a compassionate conservative and he certainly is known for his apparent sincerity and "regular guyness". And he does invoke the language of the Church in many of his speeches -this does not constitute "proof".

Now it is true that he's been said to lie about why we invaded Iraq. But  we now know- through a recent extensive intelligence investigation by specially trained experts- that all this was all due to- other badly specially trained experts interpretation of special intelligence gathered from dubious specially trained undisclosed sources .

Disseminating bad intelligence or having bad intelligence is not the same as lying. He's made that clear and I think he may be telling the truth.

The bible says," The Antichrist goes about his business by speaking the lie.  II Thessalonians 2 says that he comes "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness."   Isaiah mentions him: first as the "Assyrian", "the Rod" of God's anger, then as "the King of Babylon".

It is true that Bush sort of rules Baghdad and Babylon. There is a US military base sitting right on top of the ancient, now unprotected, ruins of the city of Babylon at the heart of the cradle of civilization. But Bush certainly is not the "King of Baghdad"...maybe the Green Zone. And don't forget, he's finally a legitamately  elected president, at least that's what most of the electronic voting machines said.

Even Jesus spoke of him (the AnitChrist-not necessarily Bush)  as the one who should "come in his own name", and who would be "received" by Israel (John 5:43).

 Bush has been received well by Israel and some say so well that Israel really directs US foreign policy, But Bush has only been known to the press and general population as George or GWB or President Bush and never as George Jesus Bush or just "Jesus". So he's has never used Jesus name... to refer to himself.

It is true that Bush has said that he speaks to God and God commanded unto him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. But Bush has never said, " I am Jesus or I am the savior".

(see last paragraph of article) Link

The bible describes the Antichrist as a man with blood on his hands. Although Bush as Governor of Texas presided over 152 executions of presumably guilty men and women, he only mocked one of them: Karla Faye Tucker for pleading for her life. That's not so bad. Doesn't sound like an Anti Christ to me.

The sexual perversion and torture at Abu Ghraib was not instigated by Bush. There are no photos showing Bush attaching painful electrodes to the private parts of Iraqi prisoners. It is true that as a boy, Bush enjoyed torturing frogs. Bush has admitted this publicly as a point of male pride. But torturing frogs is something that only some children do who later grow up to be serial killers. Bush has never been accused of being a serial killer except by the most radical of fundamentalist Islamic terrorist groups.

The torture rooms that were taken over from Sadaam and used by American soldiers for that same purpose were used by a few bad apples who were taking their orders from people who misunderstood what Rumsfeld-not the president- said. A few bad apples, an Anti-Christ does not make.

So unless we can come up with a better intelligence estimate of the probability that our President is the Anti Christ I am going to go on assuming he's a loyal American who love's his country and is doing what he truly really believes is right: Making America strong and safe for Americans - and the rest of the world too!

SADDAM A VICTIM OF LIES?

What is going to Happen in Iraq? If you can predict the future it can be said you understand the present. The present is fillled with Myth. Not only in Iraq but all human history is largely Myth. From Jesus to Muhammed and before to George Bush and the Saudi Royal Family. History is one lie built upon another and another over centuries. In the end we poor humans have fallen victim to our own lies to the point where we no longer can see. We are blind. That’s why nothing changes in human history. Technology changes but people don’t. We keep making the same mistakes because we cannot learn from one generation to another. Each generation, instead of passing on it’s understanding of itself, it’s wisdom, passes on it’s lies and the pain that results from lies. All major human culture is diseased like this. We have long forgotten what we are. We are left with a consensual pretense. We all pretend together and agree that what we imagine together is real. But what we imagine together is crooked and convulted and we cannot act on it effectively. We imagine we are central to the Universe. But we are not special. Everyone, everything that lives ends up dead. We insist we are collectively and individually special or immortal and It seems we are doomed in our fixation. As the Universe moves it's impact appears incidental to a tiny piece of it's periphery, the place we call Earth and the beings that make life on it.

Moving from that gigantic idea to the mundane and using this brief moment and possibly insiginificant moment in history as an example let’s look at a man who will be relaively obscure and possibly soon forgoteen in in future Human and Earth history: Sadaam Hussien. And though this example may be a poor one and is really nothing special, further exposition of the above would require more skill and more time than I have.

Saddaam Hussien, say it over and over again. Sadaam gassed his own people. He brutally murdered over 400,000 people and put them in mass graves. He was found hiding in a hole like a coward. Everyone agrees that Sadaam was “Evil” and the world is better off without him.

But did he gas his own people? Did he murder 400,000 people and bury them in Mass Graves? Is Al Queda planning another attack against the US? Is a Pope Catholic? Only a mad man would believe otherwise…

Sadaam gassed his own people:
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/1602606.php

Saddaam murdered 400,000 and put them in mass graves
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0%2C12956%2C1263901%2C00.html


Sadaam found hiding in a hole.
http://www.13wham.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=422B960A-26BA-4891-9E60-21C8818788D4

And more peripherally related items offering perpective…

Sadaams torture chambers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2930739.stm

American Torture Chambers
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/iraqis_tortured/

Sadaams Hostages
http://www.house.gov/young/press/fs030891.htm

American Hostages
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/040605Y.shtml

Sadaam Hussein is a human being. He should be seen if at all possible, with a view to what actually trasnpired in his life, rather than what is passed on as an imagined lie. It’s just a small example and it’s easier than tackling a figure like Muhammed. Few who are believes in Muhammed would allow themselves to consider that the stories about him may have been exaggerated. Should they?

POPE REFUSED ENTRY INTO HEAVEN

Early reports from Vatican sources who did not want to be identified indicate that Pope Paul was refused entry into heaven early last night on the basis of an impure thought he had in his dormitory room in Lublin Village Skansen, Eastern Poland on the night of August 17th, 1937 at 2:32 a.m. lasting until 3:17 a.m. He did not confess of, or in any way seek forgiveness for the impure act. Little is known about the incident but it suggests that at the time the Pope may have been leading a secret life.

God told the Pope the intense nature and length of the impure thought qualified it as a Mortal Sin. An All Powerful, Omniscient God read the Popes mind and told him that this incident was not a Nocturnal Emission as the Pope was sheepishly about to suggest. God told the Pole Pope that he wasn’t kidding when his only Son, Jesus - who is also God, and the Holy Ghost, and… a damn good billiards player.said, “Many are called, but few are chosen”.

The Pope was sent to Hell immediately for a period of not less than but no more than eternity itself. In Hell the hooded Pope is being water boarded naked by Spanish Jews from 15th century Seville. The bearded Jews fondle the Pope while he is forcibly made to stand in uncomfortable positions for hours at a time. Tomorrow Indigenous Mexican Aztecs are scheduled to supervise ripping his heart out with obsidian knives and having his flesh burned with aviation fuel and then frozen as he is crushed by giant razor sharp super cooled Martian glaciers. All this while the Devil’s familiars suck out all his remaining blood from the grotesque wens and bunions that are growing all over his body.

Tough break for a nice Catholic boy. Don’t let it happen to you! Believe in Jesus. Believe in America!

AMERICA IS A PATHETIC HORROR. WHO ARE WE KIDDING?

Americans are the dumbest, most ignorant, juvenile and asexual people on Earth. Americans are not aware how astonished "foreigners" are at our ignorance and violence. Americans can read and write, yet our formal and informal education is strictly local and we are not taught to think or feel - only to come up with the right answer. This is a shallow empty nation of shallow empty people. Our culture avoids introspection to it's detriment. Culture is enduring. Culture like personality and character, cannot easily be changed.

We have a virgin as Secretary of State.

A President who has hallucinations.

President Bush's claim to Abu Abbas (not reported nationally- only in the Israeli newspaper, Harretz) that he invaded Iraq and Afghanistan because God told him to is available and known in the US but ignored.

Liberal Americans cannot blame the media anymore or George Bush or 911.

Americans must acknowledge that it is the people of America who are culturally and psychologically flawed and deprived. We have become awful. All of us. Something is wrong with a people who are made aware of their horrible acts of predation, abuse and torture and then say that we must support the troops (who the government uses and then throws away) in Iraq.

Troops should not be supported but disbanded. And they should be called what they are: Child Puppets. They are under a hypnotic spell and act in vile ways as all soldiers have throughout history. Ask the people of Falllujah how they feel about American troops who are "just following orders." A large percentage of the troops are base individuals...criminals. No one can say that except his or her victims- and victims are hardly ever heard from. Abu Ghraib and Mai Lai are very common occurrences. That's what John Kerry said. Disband the armies, they are worthless

When the troops return many are unable to completely come out of their trance. They call that Post Traumatic Syndrome. What that means is that they have given up themselves to be used and have acted against their own nature. They have gone mad. Our government and all governments do not consistently care for soldiers after they have fought. That's universal, that's historically true. Soldiers are people who get used.

Something is wrong when those who protest these activities do so mildly for fear of offending, losing their jobs, becoming ostracized or marginalized. Something is wrong when those who do scream out are not heard. But very few are screaming. Very few persist. Something is wrong when MoveOn - born on the high ground -sells out and subcontracts it's protest work to a wimpy "faith based" organization that doesn't protest but holds "vigils". MoveOn is into power now. Move On has decided to play politics for power and profit instead of opposing the war.

That's so typically American.

MOVE ON SELLS OUT. SUPPORTS THE WAR IN IRAQ!

Why hasn't Move On encouraged demonstrations against the war in Iraq! It's because they support the war! The anniversary of the most idiotic adventure of the Neolithicons against what someone calls the "Iraqazoid people" is met with total silence from Move On. Not a word.This is racism at best.


Perhaps Move On has moved on. They are now supportive of the idea that democratic candidates should copy the stategy of Republican model. To lie cheat, befuddle, terrorize and further confuse the dumbest people on Earth...the American People. American is the suburb of the Planet Earth. It has become an awful place.

Here is an article by Norman Solomon about Move On.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0310-35.htm

AMERICAN TROOPS ARE TRAINED MORONS

Enough with the sentimentality of what a good job American troops are doing in Iraq. They are carrying out a disturbed policy invented by mad men. They are trained to kill and to enjoy the killing. They are generally ignorant, abusive, hostile, violent and stupid in their actions.

We can no longer afford to allow ourselves to be confused by the rationale that says we should discriminate between those who give the orders and those who carry them out - or the people of America who support the government in it's self destructive annihilation of all things human. This is about America's self-destruction as much as it is about the destruction of the Mid East.

We are all to blame for this madness. If the news is a commodity then the current state of affairs can be blamed squarely on the American people because when shopping for news they are purchasing Michael Jackson and leaving Iraq on the shelf. America wants to know what really happened. Did Michael really give Jesus Juice to the young cancer patient?

America is not interested in why no WMD were found in Iraq, Why the government lied about the invasion and why a hundred thousand people are dead. They aren’t even interested in who knocked down the Twin Towers. No thoroughly convincing, complete and credible explanation has ever been given.

Nothing will change in this country unless the economy collapses. That will limit the Freedom to Shop and have the effect of changing the focus of attention. Americans and stupid and superficial.

Meanwhile Iraq is not selling. Watch Michael and Baretta replace reality with reality TV. Sit back, relax and soothe your weary bodies with the warm swirling tension breaking feeling of free falling off the edge of the earth together.

MULTIPLE CIVIL WARS: THE ROADMAP TO PEACE

Lebanon, Like Iraq will not benefit from "elections and democracy". It will most likely revert to multiple civil wars with a influx of fundamentalist terrorists who will assist, as they do in Iraq, in fighting forces backed by the US and France. Syria's occupation of Lebanon and whatever negative aspects there have been is infinitely better than a repeat of the choas in Lebanon during the 80's. Bush is a divider not a uniter. The purpose of all this "democracy" is to create a situation of multiple civil wars in which Arabs and Muslims are fighting Arabs and Muslims. That is what Israel wants for it's "security". If that isn't the purpose, it will regardless, be the result

Iraq is in a state of civil war with more divisions soon to appear between Kurds and Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis, Kurds and Fundamentalists, Shiites of the South fighting with Shiites and Sunnis to the North. There's more possibilities.
Without American presence, the victors in Iraq would be, once again the Baathists. The Baathists are the best organized and most capable of administering (albeit with an iron hand).

In Afghanistan, there is civil war on a smaller scale but there are the fiefdoms of various so called "warlords", which upon the American exit, will move toward fighting each other once again.

It seems that America is opening up old sores all over the Mid East and allowing them to bleed profusely instead of containing them. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are targeted as well. Where does this lead? It can devastate the American Economy.

There is no solution. America is not seeking a solution. It is simply being destructive.

COLIN POWELL

Colon most Fowl is making excuses, blaming others.

I remember very, very distinctly a tone that Powell betrayed of not really believing what he was saying during his presentation before the United Nations on behalf of "others" regarding WMD and the need to justify an invasion of Iraq. He spoke in a laconic, drawn out trance like tone of defeat. His emotional state was visibly clear. He didn't want to be there. Please go look at that tape. It was very clear. I knew then he didn't believe what he was saying.

Powell, along with the rest of "them" have been blaming the so called "Intelligence community". This is ridiculous. Where was and is, the common sense intelligence community? Intelligence is not the amount of information you possess. It is simply acting in a way that is beneficial to your total being. Acting intelligently usually infers acting in a way that is beneficial or at least not destructive to others unless absolutely necessary. Intelligence has nothing to do with education, social position or wealth.

Intelligence is primarily an aspect of sensibility. Common sense is just what it sounds like... a sense...a sensation...a directive felt experience. Being sensible.

Powell didn't need intelligence information, he needed sensibility. I think he has some. But he ignored it. He knew better. He knew this was all wrong and phony. Yet he did it anyway. No apology for going along with the self destructive people in control of this country will suffice. If I were him I would withdraw and blame no one. Or...I could simply confess to the world to being a weak person who has failed horribly.

His revisionism is an attempt to get people to like him. That is his utmost consideration. How pathetic.

HUNTER THOMPSON

Hunter Thompson and Gary Webb (a journalist who wrote on the CIA involvement in the distribution of crack cocaine in Los Angeles) and James Hatfield (who wrote a book called Fortunate Son) have all been reported to have committed suicide. All the suicides have occurred in the last 12 months.

Thompson was concerned that he could have be suicided by the government in an interview he had with KDNK radio two years ago. He felt his anti Bush stance was dangerous and that one day soon he might join the ranks of others who as he put it "were eliminated by the government". This can be heard on Democracy Now! Wednesday, Feb 23rd.

While Thompson's death seems by all reports to have been a suicide, this is occurring while Death Squads are remerging and teams of secret Pentagon controlled security Police are being formed to root out "terrorists" nationally and internationally.

US TO SWITCH SIDES IN IRAQ...?

2/21/05

The US is arming Sunni Baathists (insurgents?) to fight Shiites already in
south of Iraq which wants, along with the Kurds to break away from Iraq!
see:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB15Ak02.html

Also there is now tremendous pressure on ordinary Iraqui women even in
Baghdad to follow Sharia and cover their bodies head to toe.

See...

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2005_02_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#1108
72871401791299

2/10/05

The US is bound to switch sides and start supporting the insurgents at least in the Shiite South.

The Shiites in Iraq are aligned with Iran. The Iraqui Shiites have won most
of the seats in the Iraqui government.

The Iraqui Shiites now have the military support of the United States
forces - a conundrum Bush has gotten the US involved in. It's a
contradiction. The US military supporting a conservative fundamentalist
regime that will impose a Taliban lite form of government in Iraq. Women are
not allowed to shake hands with men in Democratic Iraq according to
Ayatollah Sistani who leads the winning political party in Iraq's elections.
Sistani is in fact an Iranian citizen, not an Iraqui anymore, and could not
vote in the current elections in Iraq!

Bush and company must bomb Iran for this reason alone. To weaken the coming
alliance between Iraq and Iran. No matter what they do, they will find that
their true historical allies are, and always have been, the insurgents or
the Baathists, the Sunni groups who are more liberal and secular. The people
they are currently fighting for some reason.

Hard to believe? The US supported, Mossadegh, Bin Laden and the semi- mythical "Al
Queda" against the Russians/Communism, then went against them, supported Saddaam and
then went against him. They supported Noriega, then went against him. The
list is endless. This is an established pattern.