Newest Iraq
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- Thursday, Dec 31, 2009
Commentary In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell described a superstate called Oceania, whose language of war inverted lies that "passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past', ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past'." -
- Wednesday, Dec 23, 2009
ZNet Article Why War Will Take No Holiday in 2010 -
- Wednesday, Dec 02, 2009
ZNet Article On September 13, I got a call from FOX News asking me to go on the O'Reilly Factor program that night, two days after the tragic events of September 11, to debate O'Reilly on War v. Peace. It is pretty clear where I stood and where he stood. I had been on this program before. I knew what I was getting in to. But I felt it would be important for one lawyer to get up there in front of a national audience and argue against a war and for the application of domestic and international law enforcement, international procedures, and constitutional protections, which I did. -
- Thursday, Nov 12, 2009
Commentary In an interview last week, Jeremy Paxman - leading interviewer on BBC 2's flagship Newsnight programme - claimed that he had been "hoodwinked" by US government propaganda prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003... -
- Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009
ZNet Article On June 7, 2006, a 28-year-old Army lieutenant named Ehren Watada released a video press statement announcing that he was refusing to deploy to Iraq because the Iraq War was illegal and his "participation would make me party to war crimes." After three years of trying to convict him by court martial, the Army has finally given up and allowed Lt. Watada to resign. Despite his direct refusal of an order to deploy, Watada did not spend a single day in jail. -
- Thursday, Oct 01, 2009
Commentary In 2001, the Observer in London published a series of reports that claimed an "Iraqi connection" to al-Qaeda, even describing the base in Iraq where the training of terrorists took place and a facility where anthrax was being manufactured as a weapon of mass destruction. It was all false. Supplied by US intelligence and Iraqi exiles, planted stories in the British and US media helped George Bush and Tony Blair to launch an illegal invasion which caused, according to the most recent study, 1.3 million deaths. -
- Friday, Aug 21, 2009
ZNet Article Book review of Ministry of Defeat. The British War in Iraq 2003-2009 by Richard North -
- Friday, Aug 14, 2009
ZNet Article On Troops That Don't Depart, Experts Who Never Leave the Scene, an Air Force That Suddenly Wasn't There, and a War That No Longer Needs a Justification -
- Tuesday, Aug 04, 2009
ZNet Article Civilian casualties are frequently defined as little more than a massive public relations headache. Such casualties cause the US allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan to constantly complain, indicating the depth of popular resentment. In June, Kai Eide, UN special envoy to Afghanistan, told NATO defense ministers of an “urgent need’’ to control raids because civilian casualties are “disproportionate to the military gains.’’ -
- Thursday, Jun 04, 2009
ZNet Article A non-delivered graduation speech -
- Monday, Jun 01, 2009
ZNet Article At least 20 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq in May, the most since last September, along with more than 50 wounded. Iraqi casualties are, as usual - and in both categories - at least ten times that number. -
- Monday, May 25, 2009
ZNet Article On Monday, Iraqi government security forces arrested two prominent Sunni leaders in Iraq's volatile Diyala Province. One of them, Sheikh Riyadh al-Mujami, not coincidentally, is a prominent leader in the local Sahwa (Sons of Iraq), the 100,000-strong Sunni militia that was set up by the US military to quell attacks against occupation forces and launch an effort to battle al-Qaeda in Iraq. Both of those objectives were accomplished, but these efforts are being erased by ongoing missions by Iraqi government security forces, sometimes backed by the US military, to kill or capture both Sahwa leadership and fighters. The results of these attacks against the Sahwa are already evident in an escalation in violence that has taken two forms - a dramatic increase in spectacular attacks against Iraqi civilians and increasing attacks against occupation forces. -
- Sunday, May 10, 2009
ZNet Article A Historic Day For Iraq But not in the way the British want to believe ZNet Article Throughout history, those who collaborate with the occupiers of their country tend to end up hung out to dry, or dead. The occupation of Iraq is no different - collaboration and the poison fruits that come of it are on full display for the history books once again. Only now, the rapidity with which this is happening is staggering. -
- Tuesday, May 05, 2009
ZNet Article As the murder campaign targeting Iraqi gays intensifies, a leading Arabic television network last week revealed the use of a horrifying new form of lethal torture against Iraqi gay men -
- Wednesday, Apr 29, 2009
ZNet Article Last week found Iraq swimming in blood once again. Attacks last Thursday brought the worst violence Iraq has seen in over a year, with at least 96 Iraqis killed and 157 wounded in two massive suicide bombings. Over 35 bombings have rocked Baghdad this month alone. There appears to be no end in sight for the escalating violence. For an Obama administration that plans to keep at least 50,000 US troops in Iraq indefinitely, look no further for a justification in doing so. -
- Saturday, Apr 25, 2009
  Commentary When I testified last year before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties about Bush interrogation policies, Congressman Trent Franks (R-Ariz) stated that former CIA Director Michael Hayden had confirmed that the Bush administration only waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zabaydah, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashirit for one minute each. I told Franks that I didn't believe that. Sure enough, one of the newly released torture memos reveals that Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times and Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times. One of Stephen Bradbury's 2005 memos asserted that "enhanced techniques" on Zubaydah yielded the identification of Mohammed and an alleged radioactive bomb plot by Jose Padilla. But FBI supervisory special agent Ali Soufan, who interrogated Zubaydah from March to June 2002, wrote in the New York Times that Zubaydah produced that information under traditional interrogation methods, before the harsh techniques were ever used. ZNet Article On April 23, over 73 Iraqis were killed in two separate suicide attacks. One bomber detonated his explosives in central Baghdad as a group of policemen were distributing relief supplies to Iraqis who had been driven from their homes during the US-fomented sectarian bloodshed of 2006 to mid-2007. Police said that at least 50 people were wounded; at least five children and one woman were among the dead. -
- Tuesday, Apr 21, 2009
Commentary Instead of focusing attention on the devastation caused by an unjust, imperial war, the US media deliberate on the success of 'surge' and cheer for the troops. ZNet Article Everyone knows the analogy of the beehive. When it is goaded, countless bees emerge, attacking the tormentor. Right now in Iraq, the formerly US-backed al-Sahwa (Sons of Iraq) Sunni militia, ripe with broken promises from both the occupiers of their country and the Iraqi government that they would be given respect and jobs, have gone into attack mode. -
- Saturday, Apr 18, 2009
ZNet Article As organized killings of Iraqi gays have escalated in recent months amid a homophobic campaign in that nation's media, openly gay Democratic Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado has asked the US State Department to investigate. -
- Thursday, Apr 16, 2009
ZNet Article On Wednesday, March 25, Major General David Perkins of the U.S. military, referring to how often the U.S. military was being attacked in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad, "Attacks are at their lowest since August 2003." Perkins added, "There were 1,250 attacks a week at the height of the violence; now sometimes there are less than 100 a week." -
- Monday, Apr 13, 2009
ZNet Article Following George W. Bush’s example of keeping war funding off the books, President Barack Obama is seeking $83.4 billion in additional “emergency†funding for the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which, if approved, would bring the 2009 funding to around $150 billion and the overall costs of the two wars to nearly $1 trillion. -
- Saturday, Apr 11, 2009
ZNet Article Killing 'Them' - Parts 1 & 2 -
- Saturday, Apr 04, 2009
ZNet Article Last weekend, the Iraqi government arrested an Awakening Group leader of a Baghdad neighborhood, then moved into the area. With the help of US occupation forces, they disarmed the militiamen under his control, but only after fighting broke out between US-backed Iraqi government security forces and the US-formed Sunni Awakening Group militia. This disturbing event is the realization of what most Iraqis have long feared - that the relative calm in Iraq today would eventually be broken when fighting erupts between these two entities. -
- Monday, Mar 16, 2009
ZNet Article It’s an inescapable truth on March 17th, inevitable as shamrocks and Guinness. Be you Irish or not, you are almost certain to hear the distinct lilt of the Emerald Isle’s music at one time or another this St. Patrick’s Day. Commentary Globalization was imposed on the world with a promise of peace and prosperity. Instead we are faced with war and economic crisis. Not only has prosperity proved elusive, the minimal economic securities of people and countries are fast disappearing. -
- Sunday, Mar 15, 2009
ZNet Article For centuries, artists, writers, and intellectuals have been meeting in Baghdad's teahouses over tulip-shaped glasses of sweet lemon tea, cigarettes, and shisha pipes. -
- Monday, Mar 09, 2009
Commentary The meaning of President Obama's Iraq withdrawal speech, and its influence on real U.S. policy in Iraq, will not be determined solely by his actual words. The import of the speech - and whether its promises become real - will be determined by a fluid combination of what Obama says, his own definitions of what he says, AND the disparate ways his speech is heard, perceived, described and contested by others - the mainstream media, Congress, the military, other centers of elite power, and crucially, the peace movement. -
- Friday, Mar 06, 2009
ZNet Article Prompt medical care is at last on offer in Iraq, for those who can find the dollars for it. - All Newest Iraq
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Featured ZNet 
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- Tuesday, Apr 21, 2009
ZNet Article Everyone knows the analogy of the beehive. When it is goaded, countless bees emerge, attacking the tormentor. Right now in Iraq, the formerly US-backed al-Sahwa (Sons of Iraq) Sunni militia, ripe with broken promises from both the occupiers of their country and the Iraqi government that they would be given respect and jobs, have gone into attack mode. -
- Monday, Mar 16, 2009
ZNet Article It’s an inescapable truth on March 17th, inevitable as shamrocks and Guinness. Be you Irish or not, you are almost certain to hear the distinct lilt of the Emerald Isle’s music at one time or another this St. Patrick’s Day. -
- Sunday, Mar 15, 2009
ZNet Article For centuries, artists, writers, and intellectuals have been meeting in Baghdad's teahouses over tulip-shaped glasses of sweet lemon tea, cigarettes, and shisha pipes. -
- Saturday, Feb 21, 2009
ZNet Article Seventy percent of Iraq's doctors are reported to have fled the war-torn country in the face of death threats and kidnappings. Those who remain live in fear, often in conditions close to house arrest. -
- Friday, Feb 20, 2009
ZNet Article "We only want a normal life," says Um Qasim, sitting in a bombed out building in Baghdad. She and others around have been saying that for years. -
- Sunday, Feb 01, 2009
ZNet Article After strong polling for the provincial elections Saturday, Iraqis are looking out for new signposts of political recovery from the U.S.-led invasion and occupation. -
- Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009
ZNet Article On January 21, President Barack Obama will take personal responsibility for the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan launched under President Bush. The Afghan- Pakistan war is uniquely Democratic in origin, however. Since John Kerry's 2004 campaign, hawkish Democratic security and political consultants have asserted that Afghanistan is a good and necessary war in comparison with Iraq which they label a diversionary one. -
- Wednesday, Oct 29, 2008
ZNet Article Whatever the U.S.-Iraqi "agreement" ends up looking like, it is unlikely to have much of an effect on the occupation. -
- Thursday, Sep 18, 2008
ZNet Article One week ago today U.S. State Department officials announced successful achievement of their goal to admit 12,000 Iraqi refugees into the U.S. before the fiscal year end on September 30th... -
- Thursday, Jul 31, 2008
ZNet Article Every day, it's becoming clearer that the Bush administration, Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, and presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are reaching a new consensus, which can be summed up as "let's not and say we did." - All Featured ZNet
Featured ZMag Articles.jpg)
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- Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008
ZMag Article Juan Cole, a widely respected expert on the Middle East, teaches history at the University of Michigan. He is a guest on major news programs. He is the author of many books including Sacred Space and Holy War. His latest is "Napoleon’s Egypt." I talked with him at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. -
- Thursday, May 01, 2008
ZMag Article Having brought up Iran [in Part I], we might as well turn briefly to the third member of the famous Axis of Evil, North Korea. The official story right now is that after having been forced to accept an agreement on dismantling its nuclear weapons facilities, North Korea is again trying to evade its commitments in its usual devious way—“good news” for superhawks like John Bolton, who have held all along that the North Koreans understand only the mailed fist and will exploit negotiations only to trick us. -
- Wednesday, Apr 02, 2008
ZMag Article Iraq remains a significant concern for the population, but that is a matter of little moment in a modern democracy. -
- Saturday, Mar 01, 2008
ZMag Article ZMO ONLINE-ONLY ARTICLE: A primary stated justification for continuing the U.S.-led military occupation of Iraq is that a withdrawal of Western forces would result in a “bloodbath”.... [T]hese images make two basic assumptions: that the U.S. presence in Iraq is reducing violence, and that a U.S. withdrawal would bring a dramatic increase in violence levels. - All Featured ZMag Articles
Iraq Blogs
Blog Post More on the abduction of an employee with the U.S. Human Terrain System in Iraq... -
- Saturday, Mar 07, 2009
Blog Post Don't we owe the Iraqis money? Don't we owe it to them to restore their livelihoods first? Don't we owe it to them to demonstrate that this is a priority, and that we will pay back the untold billions we have plundered from them thus far? -
- Saturday, Dec 20, 2008
Blog Post Investigative journalist Gareth Porter reveals push back from military and Pentagon officials against the US-Iraq withdrawal agreement. -
- Saturday, Dec 06, 2008
Blog Post An open letter to the New School community regarding the war profiteer L-3 Communications, and its connection with the New School. -
- Wednesday, Sep 10, 2008
Blog Post On Saturday, September 20, United For Peace and Justice and a host of other major antiwar groups will stage the largest national mobilization of the year. This mobilization, different in kind from previous ones, steers the antiwar movement back to an imp -
- Wednesday, Jun 25, 2008
Blog Post Email to Bret Stephens on the Wall Street Journal about his article 'Why Iraqis back McCain' -
- Monday, May 19, 2008
Blog Post A brief account of Army Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith's transformation from a young teenager swept-up in the jingoist hysteria following 9-11 to a dedicated 22-year-old antiwar activist who works tirelessly to end the US occupation of Iraq, based on Goldsmith -
- Saturday, May 17, 2008
Blog Post I doubt that Ware has anything like the direct experience in Iraq of Nir Rosen, Patrick Cockburn, and the few other journalist who actually know the country well. But put that aside. -
- Tuesday, Apr 22, 2008
Blog Post The Sunday edition of the New York Times ran a very candid cover story about a carefully orchestrated Pentagon propaganda campaign masquerading as objective journalism in the form of military analysts appearing on Fox News, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and the New -
- Thursday, Apr 17, 2008
Blog Post The implicit or explicit attribution of good intentions to political leaders has been common to most critical commentary on the Iraq occupation. Just as in corporatist and Fascist societies of the past, this assumption helps reinforce the illusion of comm - All Iraq Blogs
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ZWriter's on IraqIraq Classics & IntroFeatured Video
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- Tuesday, Jun 17, 2008
Video Afshin Rattansi interviews Noam Chomsky June 2008... -
- Friday, May 23, 2008
Video Reviewing the testimonies... -
- Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Video When The New York Times published its explosive "Pentagon Pundits" story on April 20, the result was a wave of criticism directed at the Defense Department for manipulating TV news coverage of the Iraq war. Critics also faulted the networks for failing to scrutinize the conflicts of interest of the "military analysts" who went on the air. Many of those retired military officers were being coached by the Pentagon to mislead the public, and many had personal financial stakes in corporations with major Pentagon contracts. -
- Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008
Video On loss of interest in the Iraq war... -
- Saturday, Feb 02, 2008
Video Media and contractors in Iraq... - All Featured Video
Iraq CommentsForum Post Hi Michael B., I just noticed this while looking in our new forum system. I would be happy for you to review. Please send to me when done...  Forum Post Speaking of celebrities, I think it is telling that so many celebrities who are not leftist radicals but fairly standard Hollywood liberals appear in "A People Speak." Zinn wrote with such a mild manner that I think he made non-radical liberals more comfortable but at the same time I think there are a alot of people who express admiration for Zinn who really don't understand his radicalism. There are a couple of non-radical liberal acquaintances on my facebook friends list who paid tribute to Zinn when he died and one young lady even allowed that she was very sad but I wonder if either of them have actually read any of his works. I remember an English professor at my undergraduate institution who expressed warm admiration for Zinn but she is a fairly standard liberal. Perhaps "A People's History" is going to become or has already become a book that you read, or pretend to read, if you want to seem sophisticated and part of the counter-culture. Perhaps some people have not read Zinn but have heard that he tells history from the point of view of ordinary Americans and think that it is a very nice thing even if they haven't read much about Zinn's interpretation of specific historical events and phenomenon.It's not a knock on Zinn but I can't imagine Ben Affleck and Matt Damon getting celebrities together to do a movie about one of Chomsky's books. Zinn probably had more mainstream acceptance than Chomsky because he often wrote in the manner of a kindly Catholic priest and didn't have the level of intellectual fierceness as Chomsky. And Zinn wrote little on Israel-Palestine, which is understandable and not a knock on him.. But if he did write on Israel-Palestine I'm sure he would not have been given a column in The Progressive.The quote from Zinn at the end of this article demonstrates why Zinn had a certain level of acceptance that Chomsky didn't have. He writes with such a mild manner. He says " I wish President Obama would listen carefully to Martin Luther King.....What would Martin Luther King do? And what would Martin Luther King say?’ And if he only listened to King, he would be a very different president than he’s turning out to be so far." Of course, I think Zinn knew that politics dosen't actually work that way. Substantial progressive change won't come about merely ("if only") when Obama starts paying attention to MLK's radical ideas. But Zinn chose the tactic in that interview of criticizing Obama in rather grandfatherly fashion and some folks might find that manner of speaking more palatable than Chomsky's more blunt appraisal. Forum Post Perhaps Goodman thinks that people who have never heard of Zinn who read this article might become interested in Zinn if they see he has credentials like being mentioned in Good Will Hunting or that a "star studded" cast appeared in a movie based on his work.Goodman did a better job covering Zinn's life in the segment of the show where Chomsky and Anrove and, I think Naomi Klein, appeared to discuss Zinn's life. Zinn had such a rich life it is difficult to fully impart that richness in a short article but I think more important than the celebrity connections were things like his work against the Vietanam war (e.g. getting beat up by the cops), his battles with John Silber, (the right wing lunatic former president of Boston University), how a People's HIstory has been taught in classrooms in this country (how many I would be interested to know), how the presence of the book has influenced efforts to teach kids history, how the book has caused controversy among elite intellectuals, the resistance to using the book as a textbook in schools, the resistance of some parents when Zinn was invited to speak to high school classes, and so on. Forum Post I am a daily user of the ZCom site, and I hadn't noticed the poll until yesterday. Since I like to participate in active debates, I usually navigate directly to the ZSpace page. But the poll isn't visible there. I went to the ZNet page proper last week, where I saw the "Endorse our proposal" box. I read it and being quite excited about it, I immediately clicked on the "Endorse" link... which means that I completely overlooked the last paragraph where the poll is mentioned.So for me, the poll was completely overshadowed by the "Fifth Internationale" proposal!I finally noticed a link to the poll yesterday; I can't even remember where. Anyway, I've started taking the poll. Forum Post Chris - such great comments. I concur on everything you say. I also did not really like that line on Obama and King, which didn't quite match up all that well with the wise counsel in A People's History or with HZ's wonderful recent political writings like this one. "Zinn had such a rich life it is difficult to fully impart that richness in a short article." I agree and so I really question the purpose of them putting up a 726-word quick-hit "star-studded" essay like the one above. (Do it right or don't do it at all ...and think twice about letting our underlings disregard the fact that your title has [again] already been used by a non-celebrity). Funny thing on left-liberal celebrity culture: that earlier and much better DN! reflection on Zinn's remarkable life (with NC, AW, AA, and NK) was broadast with AG speaking/interviewing from the posh Sundance Film Fesitival.I interact with more rank-and-file left sorts (left Marxists and left anarchs, working lass folks) who certainly value much of DN!'s content but can't relate to flying out to Sundance one day and Copenhagen the other day and so on (I wonder if AG will do a piece on her carbon footprint, which must be quite impressive) and who yes tire of the parade of "names" and folks with holy P(iled) h (igh and). D(eep) degrees (I gave mine to Goodwill). We are levelers on the whole and not very impressed by all the jet-setting, the fancy educational certificates, and such...I will add that I heard AG speak before hundreds at the ISO's socialism conference in Chicago last July and she opened with flattering comments about Obama's supposedly virtuous noble community-organizer past and about his supposed openness to being pushed left. These comments elicited well-deserved eye-rolling and one audible groan at the table where I sat. (I understand the tactical nature of AG's early response to Obama but I think it was already long past time to have abandoned such sillness by then.)Fortunately AG was followed by Jermy Scahill, who came out and said that Obama "is an Orwellian character. He makes people think war is peace." And of course AG has since had plenty of folks on to explain how terrible Obama has been...not however the leading left author on the Obama phenomenon, himself a non- [and in fact anti-] celebrity... Forum Post the folks who made the documentary Golden Rule have contacted DN numerous times to get on the show and not even response. unless matt damon or someone of notoriety is involved they dont care. maybe if AG knew chomsky plugs the shit out of Tom Fergusson, who is a professor too!, and who features widely in the documentary and whose book by the same name is the focal point of the film, then maybe she would have them on and talk about the investment theory of politics.maybe if alec baldwin reads the book aloud she will have them on. -
- Monday, Feb 08, 2010
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