War and recriminations
alternet.org
As the war on Iraq nears an end, it is time for finger-pointing and blamemongering. E.J. Dionne offers a handy list of likely accusations and possible responses on both the left and the right.
Posted on April 9, 2003 @ 11:58AM.
U.S. takes Baghdad
With a Marine tank plowing down a giant statue of Saddam in the heart of the city, the Pentagon has declared the battle for Baghdad to be at an end. Iraqis are celebrating the fall of Saddam, but it remains to be seen whether they welcome Jay Garner in his place.
Posted on April 9, 2003 @ 11:00AM.
The ghastly U.S. arsenal
Thus far in the war on Iraq, coalition forces have used such "irregular" weapons as cluster bombs and munitions, "bunker-buster" bombs, depleted uranium, and even napalm. As Simon Helweg-Larsen writes in ZNet, using these weapons "adds an element of lasting terror and suffering which significantly worsens this already horrific and illegal war."
Posted on April 9, 2003 @ 9:57AM.
From his stash of war porn
"We are happy to send them to hell. You would not believe the carnage. Imagine body parts about knee deep, with hundreds of (Iraqi) vehicles burning, occupants inside. We fill up trucks with body parts daily."
-- From spinner Bill O'Reilly's latest column, a haunting, if unwitting, anti-war tract, which quotes extensively from an anonymous U.S. officer boasting of killing 10,000 Iraqis.
Posted on April 9, 2003 @ 1:08AM.
Barreling along
Remember the other day there were some barrels found by American troops in Iraq and "preliminary reports" found them to contain chemical weapons? Got big play in the mainstream media on Sunday and Monday. But tonight, at the end of a very long MSNBC summary of the day's events in Iraq, in the very last sentence we find out that, "Analysis indicated that chemicals in suspicious barrels found in central Iraq were not chemical weapons agents, but U.S. troops said they found more barrels of suspicious substances Tuesday."
Posted on April 9, 2003 @ 12:53AM.
The Onion was right
Sometimes you don't know how bad you've got it until you look back at how bad you thought it was going to get and ... oh, never mind. Just take this eerily prescient article from the Jan. 2001 issue of The Onion. Back in those dreary but relatively dewy days, Onionesque lines like, "Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years" read as outrageous satire. Read it now -- and weep.
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 9:53PM.
Military targets the press
Today's news from Iraq brings two reports of journalist headquarters coming under attack. Al-Jazeera was once again bombed by coalition forces, killing one journalist and wounding another. Al-Jazeera's management has painstakingly informed coalition leaders of the location of their headquarters, and hung large Al-Jazeera banners from the roof of their apartment block.
In another incident, a U.S. tank fired on the Palestine Hotel, killing two cameramen. According to CNN correspondent Rym Brahini, the Palestine was the sole residence for journalists in Baghdad, and she questions the likelihood that the attack was an accident.
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 4:44PM.
Patriotic consumerism
Forget flagwaving. There are plenty more options for the true patriot these days. What about Tampons of Glory or the Udderly American Breastpump -- all for sale at the satirical TotalObscurity.com.
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 4:15PM.
No good answers
Here's an antiwar quiz for those who support the war on Iraq. The questions pretty much answer themselves. A sample: Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida has the stated desire of establishing a unified Muslim theocracy. Saddam Hussein maintains his power by operating a separate secular dictatorship. Why do you believe that Saddam Hussein supports an organization whose stated goal is to eliminate him?
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 4:10PM.
Return of the Taliban
The Bush administration is busy claiming that Iraq will be as great a success as Afghanistan -- and perhaps they're right. Turns out the Taliban is busy reorganizing and making their presence felt. The police and military who are supposed to stop them haven't been paid for months.
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 2:20PM.
Media bias in war coverage
Bulletin Board for Peace is watchdogging the media and presenting insightful weekly reports on media bias in war coverage. Websites aren't exempt, either. They're taking screen shots of major news websites to document their evolving coverage.
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 2:09PM.
Who likes Ahmed Chalabi?
The CIA issued a classified report last week claiming that Ahmed Chalabi, the man annointed by Donald Rumsfeld to head a post-war Iraq, has little popular support. A former U.S. intelligence official familiar with the report told UPI, "They basically say that every time you mention Chalabi's name to an Iraqi, they want to puke." Not surprisingly, the neocons and their golden boy disagree.
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 2:03PM.
Big media lines Bush pockets
Campaign donations made by media companies have doubled in the past year. The Guardian reports, the most prolific donors are NBC network owner General Electric and News Corporation, owner of the Fox and Sky television networks and the New York Post, who gave the bulk of their soft money to Republicans. Yet another reason why our TV coverage of the war is terrible.
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 12:30PM.
Globe pulls antiwar Boondocks
The Boston Globe pulled the Boondocks comic strip in its Mar. 29 issue because it contained an antiwar message. Responding to outraged readers, Globe editor Martin Baron said, ''What I saw was not a comic strip. It was a written statement on the war. For such commentary, we have the op-ed page and letters. We reserve the comics page for comics.''
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 12:22PM.
Art of war
WNYC asked listeners to submit artwork responding to the war -- both opposing and in support of it. The result is an online gallery that highlights a wonderful range of photographs, cartoons, and paintings that express a visceral response to war.
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 12:10PM.
Arab world in despair
Ahmed Kamal Aboulmagd has spent a lifetime promoting dialogue between the West and the Arab world. But now the former aide to Anwar Sadat is filled with pessimism: "People in Egypt and many parts of the Arab world used to love America, and now they have a sense of being betrayed, misunderstood, taken lightly. And when it comes to the central problem of the Middle East -- the Arab-Israeli conflict -- we feel that even a minimum of American even-handedness is missing."
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 12:04PM.
Death penalty for Saddam?
Iraqi exiles want Washington to back them in their plan to execute Saddam Hussein and his close associates if they are captured alive. Imposing the death penalty is obviously no problem for the former governor of Texas, but it would likely make both the U.N. and Britain very unhappy.
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 11:02AM.
Warmongering country song wins awards
"Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" by Toby Keith won three awards at a country music video awards show last night. Keith's dedication speech went to "Mr. Rumsfeld and Tommy Franks, and all the people over there (in Iraq) putting it down for us tonight." Continue »
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 10:49AM.
Military jumps to conclusions about "smoking gun"
When coalition forces detected minute traces of the nerve gas sarin on Monday, rumors spread like wildfire up the command chain. A U.S. Army spokesman said they had finally discovered evidence of Iraq's chemical weapons program.
However, further testing showed the chemicals to be nothing more harmful than pesticides.
Posted on April 8, 2003 @ 10:07AM.
Conflicts upon conflicts
Arms supplier The Carlyle Group will be awarded a billion dollar contract by the U.S. to redevelop Iraq, according to a report by the Portugal News. The Group is managed by a team of former feds including James Baker and represented by George Bush senior and former British Prime Minister John Major. The group also manages the financial assets of the Saudi Binladen Corporation. That firm is headed up by members of Osama bin Laden’s family, who played a principle role in helping George W. Bush win petroleum concessions from Bahrain when he was head of Harken.
Posted on April 7, 2003 @ 3:50PM. |
