George W. Bush – bringer of peace, democracy and freedom to Iraq.

Here are some quotes from US soliders:

“[The photo] was very graphic… They open the body bags of these prisoners that were shot in the head and [one soldier has] got a spoon. He’s reaching in to scoop out some of his brain, looking at the camera and smiling.”

Specialist Aidan Delgado, 25, of Sarasota, Florida, 320th Military Police Company. Deployed to Talil air base for one year beginning April 2003

“The car was approaching what was in my opinion a very poorly marked checkpoint… and probably didn’t even see the soldiers… The guys got spooked and decided it was a possible threat, so they shot up the car. And they [the bodies] literally sat in the car for the next three days while we drove by them.

Sergeant Dustin Flatt, 33, of Denver, 18th Infantry Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. One-year from February 2004

“A lot of guys really supported that whole concept that if they don’t speak English and they have darker skin, they’re not as human as us, so we can do what we want.”

Specialist Josh Middleton, 23, of New York City, 2nd Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division. Four-month tour in Baghdad and Mosul beginning December 2004

All the above quotes are from The Independent:

Through a combination of gung-ho recklessness and criminal behaviour born of panic, a narrative emerges of an army that frequently commits acts of cold-blooded violence. A number of interviewees revealed that the military will attempt to frame innocent bystanders as insurgents, often after panicked American troops have fired into groups of unarmed Iraqis. The veterans said the troops involved would round up any survivors and accuse them of being in the resistance while planting Kalashnikov AK47 rifles beside corpses to make it appear that they had died in combat.
(Source: The Independent)

This is the truth behind Iraq: it is a brutal, barbaric occupation which makes victims out of the Iraqis and monsters out of the invading military.

I ask again, after reading the above quotes, how can any sane human being think the occupation of Iraq is a just and noble cause?

A state-of-the-art research study published in October 12, 2006 issue of The Lancet (the most prestigious British medical journal) concluded that — as of a year ago — 600,000 Iraqis had died violently due to the war in Iraq. That is, the Iraqi death rate for the first 39 months of the war was just about 15,000 per month.

That wasn’t the worst of it, because the death rate was increasing precipitously, and during the first half of 2006 the monthly rate was approximately 30,000 per month, a rate that no doubt has increased further during the ferocious fighting associated with the current American surge.

The U.S. and British governments quickly dismissed these results as “methodologically flawed,” even though the researchers used standard procedures for measuring mortality in war and disaster zones.

Reputable researchers have accepted the Lancet study’s results as valid with virtually no dissent. Juan Cole, the most visible American Middle East scholar, summarized it in a particularly vivid comment: “the US misadventure in Iraq is responsible [in a little over three years] for setting off the killing of twice as many civilians as Saddam managed to polish off in 25 years.”
(Source: AlterNet)

One of the top new stories yesterday on the BBC site was about the danger of salty sandwiches.

Meanwhile, the military occupiers of Iraq are killing 300+ civilians a day. But that’s not newsworthy. Nope.

Please read this bit carefully:

These shocking statistics are made all the more horrific when we realize that among the 600,000 or so victims of Iraqi war violence, the largest portion have been killed by the American military, not by carbombings or death squads, or violent criminals — or even all these groups combined.
(Source: AlterNet)

NOT “insurgents” NOT “sectarian clashes.”

The military occupiers. As Juan Cole said, “the US misadventure in Iraq is responsible [in a little over three years] for setting off the killing of twice as many civilians as Saddam managed to polish off in 25 years.”

That’s pretty good going. I mean, Hussein was a despot, a tyrant, a mass-murderer and a war criminal. All those are undeniable facts. The man was evil, a true horror. A vile, human-shaped cancer.

So, if Bush and Blair have outdone him in bloody murder, what does that make them?

Oh, I forgot. It makes them brave saints! When our side kills Iraqis, that’s for their own good. Regrettable, but necessary. (And it’s definitely not about oil, keep quiet you blabbermouth Aussies.) When Hussein killed Iraqis, that was a hideous, unspeakable crime! Can’t you see how it works? It’s very simple.

Only an idiot can’t get with this program.

So let’s keep ignoring the people we’re killing, let’s not mention it on our news. Let’s keep being mystified why so many people in the world apparently hate Britain and the US. After all, if your family had just been murdered by foreign invaders who then proceeded to steal your oil, you’d be perfectly happy with that, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t lift a finger against them, would you?

We have a new Prime Minister. This new leader needs to separate Britain from the US, he needs to acknowledge the terrible things we’ve been party to in Iraq. We need to stop all the bloodshed, on all sides. We throw bombs, they throw bombs…

The world is far too small for this. And it’s not getting any bigger. It may seem like a futile dream in the heat of this ghastly, bloody war but peace is the only answer. Peace is the dream which we must never let our leaders crush.

Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has admitted that securing oil supplies is a key factor behind the presence of Australian troops in Iraq.

He said maintaining “resource security” in the Middle East was a priority.

The remarks are causing heated debate as the US-led Iraq coalition has avoided linking the war and oil.

Anti-war protesters say the government’s admission proves that the US-led invasion was more of a grab for oil rather than a genuine attempt to uncover weapons of mass destruction.
(Source: BBC News)

Well, the above “revelation” is no surprise to anyone with even a shred of rationality. But let’s just follow where it leads.

The US enlists oil-hungry allies like the UK and Australia to invade a sovereign, non-aggressor nation on the pretext of finding WMDs.

No WMDs of any kind were found.

Then, having bombed Iraq flat and destroyed any pre-existing security infrastructure, these brave allies wring their hands at the carnage around them.

USA: “Oh look – Iraq is a bloodbath now! We have to maintain our presence to stamp out all the evil foreign invaders (apart from us)! We have to establish peace and democracy by torturing innocent Iraqis to death in Abu Ghraib and killing another 655,000 of them! THIS IS OUR CHARITABLE DUTY! It’s not about the oil, oh no…”

USA: “Shhhh…”

If you studied history, you’d be hard pressed to find any altruistic wars. Wars are always about resources and power. Whether the battles are over territory or oil, trade routes or goldmines, wars are always fundamentally about the same thing.

If anyone still believes the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq, a war crime in itself, was for the good of the Iraqi people, I’ve got some bridges I’d like to sell them.