Violations of human rights by the US are undermining international law and eroding its role on the world stage, a leading campaign group says.

Human Rights Watch says the US can no longer claim to defend human rights abroad if it practises abuses itself.

The group, the largest US-based rights organisation, says the actions of the US in such detention centres have undermined Washington’s credibility as a proponent of human rights and a leader of the war against terror.

“Its embrace of coercive interrogation [is] part of a broader betrayal of human rights principles in the name of combating terrorism,” HRW says.
(Source: BBC News)

A simple point, well made.

Intelligence officials have confirmed the US has stopped searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

They say the chief US investigator, Charles Duelfer, is not planning to return to the country.

Mr Duelfer reported last year that Iraq had no stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons at the time of the US-led invasion nearly two years ago.
(Source: BBC News)

I’ll just put this in bold in big letters so even Tory/Republican fuckwits can follow the facts:

THERE ARE NO WMDS IN IRAQ. THERE WERE NO WMDS TWO YEARS AGO. THE US AND UK INVADED A NON-AGGRESSOR COUNTRY ILLEGALLY AND KILLED 100,000 CIVILIANS FOR NO PURPOSE BUT OIL AND POWER.

Chief U.S. weapons hunter Charles Duelfer is to deliver his final report on the search next month. “It’s not going to fundamentally alter the findings of his earlier report,” McClellan said, referring to preliminary findings from last September. Duelfer reported then that Saddam Hussein not only had no weapons of mass destruction and had not made any since 1991, but that he had no capability of making any either.
(Source: ABC News)

Bush lied. Blair lied. Both deceived the public, manipulated data and manufactured phony evidence to support their grand Middle-Eastern adventure.

All the cunts who supported the invasion of Iraq will wash away these facts as easily as they wash away the blood of the Iraqi dead. Remember Geoff Hoon claiming that Iraqi mothers would thank the UK for killing their children? Remember the arrogance of the US military stating baldly that it didn’t care about Iraqi casualties? Remember how the US and UK government supported Hussein when he gassed the Kurds, when he was still one of their official “friends?” Then, when it suited them, they cried crocodile tears over the Kurds. They’re not shedding any tears for the hundred thousand Iraqi dead that they killed.

Those Iraqis don’t count. They’ve been slaughtered by us so it’s okay. We’re good murderers, Hussein was a bad murderer.

Maybe some people were genuinely fooled by Bush and Blair. Maybe, in good conscience, they thought that Iraq posed a real threat to Britain or had stockpiles of WMDs. That’s understandable. Sad, but not that surprising.

But if you still support the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq now…

You won’t believe the bloodthirsty shit that’s out there on the net. Warmongers crowing at the slaughter of women and children in Fallujah, demanding that Iraq be nuked, rejoicing that so many ‘towelheads’ are being killed by their brave soldier boys. These people, these armchair generals, are basically Nazi scum.

I want to see all British forces out of Iraq. And if there’s any justice in the world, I want to see Tony Blair tried for his warcrimes. I don’t want to be severe.

Let’s just let him serve one year in prison for every Iraqi life he’s taken.

Fourteen Iraqis were reported killed and five injured early yesterday morning after an American war plane obliterated a family house in the north of the country. The military said it was a mistake.

Last year, US forces mounted frequent air strikes on houses in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah ahead of a major ground offensive, claiming the houses were being used by insurgents.

In May, US marines outraged ordinary Iraqis when they attacked an isolated villa in western Iraq, claiming it was an insurgent base and killing 40. Survivors said they were all civilians.
(Source: Common Dreams)

Which has killed more Iraqis: US military evil or US military incompetence?

Either way, these fourteen innocent civilians will now join the 100,000+ other Iraqis killed by the foreign invaders.

It seems for the US government, liberation = death.

The US government has so far pledged $350m to the victims of the tsunami, and the UK government £50m ($96m). The US has spent $148 billion on the Iraq war and the UK £6bn ($11.5bn). The war has been running for 656 days. This means that the money pledged for the tsunami disaster by the United States is the equivalent of one and a half day’s spending in Iraq. The money the UK has given equates to five and a half days of our involvement in the war.
(Source: The Guardian)

Think about the above figures the next time you see Butcher Blair on TV, doing his oily serious face and talking about helping the tsunami victims.

There’s always money for war, always money to drop thousands of bombs on Iraqi civilians. Always money for missiles, rockets, state-of-the-art military computer tech.

But when we need money for education, for hospitals, for building homes for the homeless, all the basic infrastructure every civilised country should have, the money isn’t there. We must listen to the “free” market, we must be realistic about taxation, we musn’t reward undeserving scum by providing them with healthcare/homes/jobs.

Why is it that the only public spending program Tories / Republicans approve of unreservedly is the killing of other humans?

Let’s take the US government figures:

$148 billion for killing people
$350 million for helping people

Bit of a disparity there, hmmm? It shows the US government’s priorities. Note that I say government. What the average American wants may have nothing in common with what his/her government actually does.

I’ve already heard grumbling about the aid being given to tsunami victims, all from Tory twats of course. It’s the same old racist shite: why should we be giving our money to those foreigners? Funny how the people complaining are the same flag-waving cretins only too happy to see their tax money being spent on bombing foreigners.

Here’s an idea: let’s privatise WAR!

All those who want to wage war on Iraq can simply buy the planes, rockets, bombs directly from the military corporations. Then they can employ mercenaries to fight and die with their own money too. No government should use public funds to wage war, it should all come from private investors. So should any money for research and development programs – why should they get billions from public funds? Isn’t that the COMMIE way to run the military?

After all, isn’t the “free” market the best way to run the world? Don’t all the bourgeois economists and politicians agree that it’s the most “efficient” economic system? If it’s so great, why don’t we apply it to waging war?

Let’s make war properly subject to the laws of supply and demand. The corporations want to sell us war, let’s see if anyone’s buying at those prices.

Look at those figures above again. That’s your money being spent on war, that’s money directly from your family’s pocket. Imagine if our governments’ priorities were based around nurture rather than murder. Imagine if helping the tsunami victims was truly as high a priority as war…

How different would the world be?