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A Brief History of Iraq for Westerners
Iraq was saved from ignorant subhuman barbarism by a gentlewoman named Gertrude at the time that the civilized nations of the world were, in a quite advanced and sophisticated manner, slaughtering their young men in a project now called the First World War.
Because the Arabs were too backward to be allowed to govern themselves, or even to contemplate creating a world war, and because tribes and ethnicities and religions never really garner much loyalty or support that can't be wiped away with a good cup of tea or a few clouds of poison gas, and because the French were too dumb to know where the oil was, it became necessary for the British to install an Iraqi leader who wasn't Iraqi, through a democratic election with one candidate running.
The great Winston Churchill explained the governance of Iraq and the new civilizing technique of bombing civilians thusly: "I am strongly in favor of using poison gas against uncivilized tribes." Others failed to see the wisdom, and the Royal Air Force used non-chemical "terror bombing, night bombing, heavy bombers, [and] delayed action bombs (particularly lethal against children)" to police disobedient Iraqis. Only by developing these techniques on Iraqis were the world's civilizers prepared to use them on Nazis when the time came to level German cities in the name of defeating Nazis, which of course also places the rest of this paper beyond the reach of moral criticism.
Iraqis, from the formation of Iraq by Gertrude to this day, were never quite able to create a democracy for the CIA to overthrow as in neighboring Iran. But the idea that Iraqis have been violent or resistant to control because of lack of representation misses the central fact that people in the Middle East enjoy killing each other over sectarian differences. Of course it's hard to find evidence of significant sectarian fighting in Iraq prior to 2003 and some say there wasn't any. There was violent looting of Jewish neighborhoods in 1941, but the British government keeps all information on that event secret. There was bombing of synagogues in Baghdad in 1950-51 but that turned out to have been done by Zionists trying to convince Jews to come to Israel. And "until the 1970s nearly all Iraq's political organisations were secular, attracting people from all religions and none." But what was simmering just below the surface waiting to burst out at the slightest scratching?
Think how little it took. Supporting and arming a brutal dictator in Saddam Hussein and his catastrophic war against Iran, then bombing Iraq and imposing the most murderous sanctions in history, and then newly bombing Iraq and occupying it for 8 years while arming and training death squads and torturers and imposing sectarian segregation, creating 5 million refugees, and killing a half-million to a million-and-a-half people, while devastating the nation's infrastructure, and then imposing a puppet government loyal to one sect and one neighboring nation. That, plus arming the new government for vicious attacks on its own people, while arming mad killers in neighboring Syria, some of whom want to combine parts of Syria and Iraq: that was all it took, and suddenly, out of nowhere, ignorant Arabs are killing each other, just out of pure irrationality, just like in Palestine.
During the 8 years of U.S.-led occupation people mistook purely irrational violence that had been bubbling under the surface for centuries for resistance to the occupiers, and now some imagine that part of the violence against the puppet government is motivated by grievances against that government. But this misses the fundamental truths here, which are:
1. Shock and Awe was meant to put people at ease and make them comfortable.
2. The plan to rid Iraq of weapons it was about to use against those of us who matter was successful beyond the wildest expectations, working retroactively by a decade.
3. Our great leaders, Bush and Cheney, meant well in giving Iraqis freedom even if they weren't ready for it.
4. The election of Maliki was even more legitimate than the election of Faisal.
5. When the Bush-Maliki treaty ended the U.S. military presence in Iraq, that was thanks to President Obama who is way smarter than Bush but couldn't get Iraq to let U.S. troops stay with immunity for crimes -- crimes of course being necessary for policing, just ask Winnie.
6. When Iraq remained a disaster, that was President Obama's fault for focusing too much on murdering people in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Yemen, and never Iraq -- as if we just don't care about Iraq any more.
7. The U.S. weapons being seized and used against the U.S. puppet government in Iraq are no match for the vast stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction that we can and must ship into Iraq now to be seized and redirected later on down the road.
8. The few people getting rich from all of this misery mean well.
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I've edited this a number of times to try to get the formatting to be consistent and this hasn't been working out. Hopefully, it will this time.
This piece is, at first, a shocking and comical parody and I thought the sarcastic aspect was to somehow juxtapose criminal actions of western governments today with actions of a heroic humanitarian woman named Gertrude. But then I read the article at TheDailyBeast about Ms Gertrude and it isn't comical at all. She clearly wasn't at all humanitarian; a British spy wittingly working for imperialist, colonialist, ... corporatist power(s).
Iraq, today:
ISIS/ISIL, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, so-called part of Al Qaeda, fighting against the very much puppet Iraqi government of Washington's making and, thereby, indirectly against Washington; supposedly against, except ....
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-third-battle-of-fallujah/5364369
Quote:
The Third Battle of Fallujah
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, January 09, 2014
Iraq today is a grim reflection of America’s ruthless imperial agenda. It includes mass slaughter, destruction, devastation, deprivation, human misery and unending violence.
...
Will the third battle of Fallujah repeat what happened earlier? US forces aren’t directly involved. Iraqi government troops are battling Anbar Province Al Qaeda affiliated Sunni militants.
In December, Washington began supplying Nuri al-Maliki’s government with dozens of Hellfire missiles, other weapons and drones.
It’s unclear whether US operators will wage drone warfare like what’s ongoing in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere. If al-Maliki’s forces can’t contain things on their own, bet on US involvement.
...
Al Qaeda is a US creation. It’s used strategically as both ally and enemy. ... (emphasis added)
...
Iraq is a failed state. It’s a dysfunctional wasteland. Nightmarish conditions exist. Multiple car bombings occur almost daily.
...
So does other nationwide violence. Iraq is a virtual war zone. Dozens die daily. Fighting never ended. Al-Maliki is a convenient US stooge.
Al Qaeda affiliated elements largely gained control of Ramadi and Fallujah. Al-Maliki reinforced nearby Iraqi forces. Air strikes and artillery shelling followed.
...
End quote
Stephen Lendman is right for the most part, but evidently not with what's said in the last quoted paragraph, above. There're other articles that give a slightly different version of about what's really been happening. Sure, there were western media, msm and alternative, reports that said that ISIL took over Fallujah, f.e., but while these criminals seemed to have set up some of their flags, these were promptly taken down, because Iraqi tribal leadership and other Iraqi citizens/residents acted.
It's the Iraqi government's forces that most violently attacked Fallujans with the false excuse that this was to stop ISIL fighters.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/iraq-al-anbar-under-siege-crimes-against-humanity-under-the-pretext-of-war-on-terrorism/5366051
Quote:
Iraq: Al-Anbar Under Siege – Crimes Against Humanity Under the Pretext of ‘War on Terrorism’
By Global Research News
Global Research, January 23, 2014
Geneva International Centre for Justice
While the world was celebrating the coming New Year with champage and firework, Iraqi families living in the province of al-Anbar were hiding from explosions of a very different kind. The alleged “anti-terrorist attacks” conducted by Iraqi government forces from 22 December 2013 on turned into a full-scale military attack against residential areas, resulting in numerous civil casualties and destroyed public and private properties. (emphasis added)
Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ) has sent a new urgent appeal and various letters to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, UN Special Procedures and other Un bodies regarding the seriously deteriorating situation in Iraq. In the appeals, GICJ highlighted the large-scale military operations carried out by the government forces in the al-Anbar province since 22 December 2013, including a suffocating siege on several cities from beginning of January 2014 on. (emphasis added)
During the military operation several attacks on the civil neighbourhoods were undertaken, including the use of heavy artillery, tanks and airplanes. Even injured civilians were executed, (emphasis added) against the UN Security Council' presidential statement from January 2014, in which it highlighted clear provisions of the international humanitarian law on the protection of the injured and wounded.
The so-called “anti-terrorism assails” are led under the pretext that the cities of al-Anbar - notably the largest of them, which are Fallujah and Ramadi - have been infiltrated by al-Qaeda, although the citizens themselves have repeatedly and clearly refuted such claims. (emphasis added) Due to the siege and in the fear of an imminent attack by the government forces, which are known for their ruthlessness and indiscriminate brutality, countless people have fled the cities. The current situation has reached a dangerous level. Densely populated cities of Saqlawiya, Karma and Khalidiya are directly targeted, besides Ramadi and Fallujah, which are already under heavy non-discriminative bombardment by artillery and military aircrafts. (emphasis added)
GICJ concludes that al-Maliki’s forces clearly commit crimes against humanity in the al-Anbar province. In addition, GICJ finds that the elements of the crime of genocide in al-Maliki’s policies and actions is proven beyond reasonable doubt. His army targets specific religious groups in Iraq, which fits into the legal definition of genocide of intent and action. ...
Background
Since the end of 2012, many peaceful protests and demonstrations were organized throughout Iraq against the sectarian policy of the government and continuous human rights violations committed by Maliki’s forces under the pretext of national security. The protests also focused on the devastating corruption in the country and deeply flawed judicial system with detainees being frequently convicted to death penalty solely on the basis of testimony provided by the secret informants or confessions extracted through torture. (emphasis added)
Instead of answering to the demands of the demonstrators, the crackdowns against protesters became increasingly draconian over time. As GICJ repeatedly pointed out, the official justification of the government for the excessive use of force always was the interests of “national security” and the "fight against terrorism". Under the justification that terrorists were hiding among protestors, the government forces frequently imposed heavy restrictions of movement and stormed protest camps. This was despite the fact that many leaders of these peaceful protests fought and defeated al-Qaeda during the past years. Soon it thus became clear that the government’s proclaimed “fight against terrorism” was mainly a stalking horse for the PM Al Maliki’s efforts to eradicate leading opponents from the government. (emphasis added)
In order to have an official justification to act against the protests the government declared that terrorists were hiding among the protestors and that protest camps were infiltrated by al-Qaeda. Such claims never proved to be true and many times, such as in Hawija, the list of names published after the storming of protest camps did not include any person with a criminal records and even unarmed children and handicapped were among the wounded and killed.
...
In the wake of the 1st of January 2014, the 600.000 residents of Fallujah, one of the main cities in al-Anbar, found themselves encircled by the government forces. The residential areas were under the military attack. This time it was claimed that al-Qaeda and ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) had taken over the city. Indeed some fighters wearing such signs were seen to have set police stations and government buildings on fire; however these people encountered strong resistance from the local residents. (emphasis added)
Furthermore, the witnesses mentioned that these acclaimed terrorist fighters appeared as soon as the government’s army arrived and took positions in the surroundings of the city. Many of the contacts of GICJ in Fallujah and Baghdad therefore believe that disguised militia groups affiliated with the al-Maliki’s party were channelled into the city in order to provide the necessary pretext for an attack and gain the military support from the Western countries. (emphasis added)
...
Developments over the New Year’s Eve
...
Al Maliki’s official portrayal of terrorists brought him the immediate support from the USA as well as from Iran. Also, Russia announced its support. Other voices however, such as the senior EU lawmaker Struan Stevenson, a member of the European parliament, warned in an open letter published on 7 January 2014 that “Iraq is plummeting rapidly towards civil war and genocide”. In a second letter published on 20 Januaray 2014 Stevenson’s further warned that claims by al-Maliki were "utter nonsense". (emphasis added) Still, he had "convinced his American allies that he is fighting a war on terror and they are pouring in rockets, drones and other military hardware which Maliki is using to bomb and kill civilian targets".
Al-Maliki insists once again to demolish all demonstrations and to use force against all the cities that witness resistance against his policies. The continuing use of the army against densely populated cities can only lead to another huge humanitarian disaster. Many residents are fleeing, not in fear of terrorists but in fear of the government forces (emphasis added) and over hundred people have already lost their lives during the attacks by tanks and by air that mainly targeted the residential areas in the outskirts of the city.
... People on the ground say that a terrible bloodshed can only be avoided when al-Maliki immediately resigns.
...
End quote
Contrary to what Struan Stevenson said, Al-Maliki didn't need to convince Washington that his govt forces were fighting against terrorists, for Washington definitely knew what was really happening. Struan Stevenson is right, enough, in the rest of what's cited from his words, albeit I'm not sure if it's accurate to say that Iraq is heading towards civil war, per se.
Ross Caputi:
The following is cited his profile at The Guardian.
Bio: "Ross Caputi is a former US marine, having served from 2003 to 2006. He took part in the second siege of Fallujah in November 2004. He became openly critical of the military and was discharged in 2006. Ross holds an MA in linguistics and is the founding director of the Justice for Fallujah Project. He is also the director of the documentary film Fear Not the Path of Truth: a veteran's journey after Fallujah".
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/10/iraq-fallujah-destruction-alqaida-maliki
Quote:
I helped destroy Falluja in 2004. I won't be complicit again
The media accepts the overly simple narrative that al-Qaida took over. The reality is Maliki is crushing dissent with US-made arms
Ross Caputi
theguardian.com, Friday 10 January 2014 12.45 GMT
I am having flashbacks to my time as a marine during the second siege of Falluja in 2004. Again, claims are being published that al-Qaida has taken over the city and that a heavy-handed military response is needed to take the city back from the control of terrorists. (emphasis added)
The first time around, this claim proved to be false. The vast majority of the men we fought against in Falluja were locals, unaffiliated with al-Qaida, who were trying to expel the foreign occupiers from their country. There was a presence of al-Qaida in the city, but they played a minimal and marginal role in the fighting. The stories about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the alleged leader of al-Qaida in Iraq who was said to be recruiting an army in Falluja, were wildly exaggerated. There is no evidence that Zarqawi ever even set foot in Falluja. (emphasis added)
This week, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior's assertion that al-Qaida's affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has taken over half of Falluja is being parroted in headlines by almost every major media network. But again, it appears that the role of al-Qaida in Falluja is being exaggerated and used as a justification for a military assault on the city. (emphasis added)
The violence began just over a week ago, when Iraqi security forces disbursed a protest camp in Falluja and arrested a politician who had been friendly to the protestors' goals. This camp was part of a non-violent protest movement – which took place mostly in Sunni cities, but was also receiving some support from the Shia community – that began a year ago. Iraqi security forces have attacked protestors in Falluja and other Sunni cities on several occasions, the most egregious example taking place in Hawija, when over 50 protestors were killed. (emphasis added)
One of the results of the US occupation was that Sunnis came out feeling like a targeted community, with Falluja being more marginalized than most Sunni cities because of its history as a center of resistance. These feelings have only been exacerbated over the past year of protests and government repression.
The Iraqi government's recent actions in Falluja turned the non-violent movement violent. When the protest camp in Falluja was cleared, many of the protestors picked up arms and began fighting to expel the state security forces from their city. It was local, tribal people – people not affiliated with transnational jihadist movements – who have taken the lead in this fight against the Iraqi government. (emphasis added)
...
Feurat Alani, a French-Iraqi journalist with family ties in Falluja, has reported that Isis is not playing a significant role in the fighting in Falluja. Much has been said and written about Isis raising their flag over a building in Falluja. This has been taken to be a sign of their power in the city. But Alani told me: (emphasis added)
"They took the flag down five minutes later when ordered to by tribal leaders. This shows that the tribes control Falluja." (emphasis added)
...
End quote
For people who haven't read or learned details about the massacre in Hawija a little over a year ago, the following article short but nonetheless provides readers with a good understanding of what happened and, again, it's the extremely corrupt and violently oppressive, sectarian, totalitarian Iraq govt of Washington's making that's at fault; not ISIL/ISIS.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/crimes-against-humanity-who-is-behind-the-iraq-hawaija-massacre/5333298
Quote:
Crimes against Humanity: Who is Behind the Iraq Al-Hawija Massacre?
GICJ – Urgent Appeal on the massacre of Iraqi demonstrators in Al-Hawija
GICJ requests that an independent international investigation mission be dispatched to Iraq
In wake of the current attack and killing of demonstrators in Al-Hawija, GICJ has sent an urgent appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly requesting that immediate action be taken with regards to these new grave human rights violations perpetrated by the government of Nouri Al-Maliki.
For the last four days, 4,000 peaceful demonstrators in Hawija have been surrounded by army troops, sent by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, who have prevented all access to food, water and medical aid. Access to all forms of media including journalists and news casters has also been prevented and anyone who was inside had their equipment confiscated.
... (photo)
GICJ has informed UN officials that the army and militias stormed the demonstration area at about 5 a.m. Iraqi time, Tuesday, 23 April 2013, attacking protestors who have been demanding that their basic rights be respected. This was a direct attack where forces went in and began to shoot heavily and indiscriminately using live ammunition, tanks and helicopters. Forces also brought in trucks with water hoses and hosed demonstrators down using extremely hot water, causing serious burns and deaths. According to our direct source in Hawija, at least 50 demonstrators have been killed, an additional 150 injured, and more than 400 have been arrested. Forces were also reported to have attacked the injured and set fire to civilian vehicles.
... Also, according to sources on the scene, after Iraqi forces took control of the area where protestors were gathered, they brought in military weapons and dispersed them around the vicinity in order to be able to accuse the protestors of being armed and violent. ...
...
End quote
The following video is 11 minutes and was published by TheRealNews on January 9th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZYV6ohFxCM
Transcript:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11306
Quote:
Sectarian War Arises in Iraq as Violence Kills 250+ in a Single Week
Raed Jarrar: Growing violence in Iraq is the result of the US-backed central government cracking down on grassroots Sunni protestors in Ramadi - January 9, 14
... (video)
Bio
Raed Jarrar is an Arab-American architect, blogger, and political advocate based in Washington, DC. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Jarrar led the first door-to-door civilian casualties survey in the country. He then he founded an organization that completed hundreds of community-based reconstruction projects. After moving to the United States in 2005, Jarrar dedicated himself to ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq. ...
Transcript
JAISAL NOOR, TRNN PRODUCER: ...
... According to the website Iraq Body Count, 251 civilians have been killed in Iraq so far in January alone.
Meanwhile, the United States has accelerated the delivery of missiles and other missile equipment, including drones, to support the Iraqi military.
...
JARRAR: The situation is at its worst in Iraq in the last few weeks. I am one of the people who were very careful in describing the situation in Iraq as a civil war. I never used the word before. I usually refer to it as a civil conflict. Unfortunately, I think the last few weeks can be described as a full-on civil war. There is a full-on sectarian civil war between a central government that is mainly a Shiite government at this stage and popular uprising in the Sunni areas in Iraq. (emphasis added) And it's the worst conflict that the country has witnessed when it comes to domestic conflict, Iraqis against Iraqis, since 2003.
NOOR: And talk about the groups that are participating. We know the Iraqi military has partnered with some Sunni tribes to fight this group called the Islamic State of Iraq, who also have forces in Syria as well. (emphasis added) ...
JARRAR: Well, this is the mainstream story. I think the real news story is what's going on is more a conflict between the Iraqi central government, with its Shiite parties and Shiite militias, and Iraqis who are Sunnis who live in Ramadi and other Sunni provinces. It has more to do with this than a fight against al-Qaeda. (emphasis added)
I think the claims that this is a fight against al-Qaeda are political attempts to get some international support or to create a narrative to support the Iraqi government's actions. (emphasis added)
Things on the ground suggest something else. This particular spike of violence can be very easily traced back to a government crackdown against a political sit-in the city of Ramadi. There is a political sit-in in one of the central squares in Ramadi. It has nothing to do with al-Qaeda. It has nothing to do with terrorism. It has everything to do with grassroots organizers who are Sunnis in Ramadi and elsewhere organizing against a central government that they see as corrupt, sectarian, supporting a few Shiite political party agendas. (emphasis added)
When the crackdown happened the last week of December, there were dozens of people who were killed and injured in that square, although many people from the province threatened that if an attack happened against the peaceful demonstrators, there will be a violent reaction. After the attack happened, there was a violent reaction. There is an uprising by Iraqi tribal leaders and their forces against the Iraqi government's forces and those who work with the Iraqi government. (emphasis added)
Now, there might be a component of, you know, people who exist within this conflict, on the margin of it, who are affiliated with al-Qaeda, but this is definitely not a conflict between a legitimate central government that is trying to fight terrorism the way that the al-Malki government and the Obama administration have been portraying the violence in the last few weeks. (emphasis added)
NOOR: ... Talk about the fact -- well, talk about the role of the U.S. They haven't sent troops, but they have sent weapons.
JARRAR: Correct. I think the U.S. involvement, although the U.S. military occupation ended officially the last week of December 2011, it's an irony that in the two-year mark, the two-year anniversary of the withdrawal of the U.S., the U.S. is still very much involved in domestic Iraqi politics. The U.S. is still taking sides in the Iraqi domestic political conflict, and now in the Iraqi civil war. (emphasis added) The U.S. is funding the Iraqi government, which has been accused of committing mass crimes against its people. And the Iraqi government is definitely using U.S. weapons and U.S. training to attack its own people.
Unfortunately, the U.S. military withdrawal was not accompanied by an end of U.S. political intervention in the country. ... And now we see that the military intervention continues .... (emphasis added)
... There is no questioning of the Iraqi government's agendas or real intentions behind this brutal attack against Sunni provinces and cities in Iraq.
On the ground in Iraq, people don't really believe that this has to do with al-Qaeda. They've been hearing the same broken record for a decade now, (emphasis added) that we are attacking this because of al-Qaeda, we're doing that because of al-Qaeda. This one is clear-cut for Iraqis. There was no al-Qaeda in that central square. There was no al-Qaeda in another central square in the north of Iraq, where the Iraqi forces attacked other peaceful demonstrators four or five months ago and killed and injured hundreds. (emphasis added)
So this is, from a domestic perspective, when I read things on the Iraqi press or Iraqi TVs, no one is talking about this being a real attack against al-Qaeda. (emphasis added) This is definitely a continuation of a sectarian attack against people who don't like the central government.
And just to give you another proof that this has nothing to do with al-Qaeda and has a lot to do with sectarian politics, the day that the government's crackdown happened, 42 members of the Iraqi parliament resigned. These are mostly or almost every Sunni in the Iraqi parliament. Why would 42 members of parliament resign if the Iraqi government is conducting an operation against al-Qaeda? That will never happen. People hate al-Qaeda in Iraq. They hate al-Qaeda in Falluja and in Anbar. (emphasis added) There is no popular support to that. But there is popular support to the grassroots activists who are sick of this central government that is among the most corrupt governments in the world, among the most brutal governments in the region.
...
End quote
The following article is one that somewhat supports the claim that ISIL is powerful in Iraq, and, imo, the Geneva International Centre for Justice and Ross Caputi are more surely right but a link for the following piece will be included nonetheless for greater openness, say. There's no point in trying to present only one part of what's been and continues to be reported.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/bombings-invasion-misery-fallujah-symbol-of-iraqs-unending-tragedy/5363747
Quote:
Bombings, Invasion, Misery: Fallujah, Symbol of Iraq’s Unending Tragedy
“It wasn’t a war, it was a massacre”
By Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, January 04, 2014
...
Fallujah, nearby Ramadi in Anbar Province, this Western region of Iraq which borders Syria, now faces a new threat.
At Friday prayers (27th December 2013) a masked fighter of the self declared Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
“took the podium and addressed the crowd, declaring the establishment of an ‘Islamic emirate’ in Fallujah … promising to help residents fight the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Iranian allies.”
...
Fallujah, Ramadi and much of western Iraq has been demonstrating for a year against the vicious, sectarian, US imposed puppet government of Nuri al Maliki. (emphasis added) Now this ancient “City of Mosques”, dating back to Babylonian times, is threatened with the most fundamentalist perversion of Islam, which is also (literally) invading neighbouring Syria via Western backed insurgents.
...
The region is now largely fighting against the imposed government, whose horrendous execution rate makes the excesses of Saddam Hussein pale and even has the supine UN vocally appalled, and a brand of fundamentalism which was introduced by the US-UK invasion, whether intentionally or through complete ignorance of the region. (emphasis added) Also their feckless lack of management of the borders, certainly never a problem to the government they overthrew. Saddam certainly understood the multi complexities of the region. Al Maliki is equally manifestly border inept.
Further: “A group representing the tribal fighters, calling itself the Military Council of the Anbar Rebels, posted a video on YouTube in which masked men declared their opposition to Maliki’s government but made no mention of al-Qaeda. The fighters called on local members of the Iraqi security forces to desert, hand over their weapons ‘and remember always that they are the sons of Iraq, not slaves of Maliki.’“ Up to nine thousand people died in America’s “New Iraq” in violence in 2013.
...
End quote
I'll bet my money on the Geneva International Centre for Justice, Ross Caputi and Raed Jarrar being right, while Stephen Lendman and Felicity Arbuthnot are slightly, say, wrong about the significance of ISIL in Ramadi, Fallujah and other parts of Al Anbar province or other Sunni areas of Iraq; saying the latter in case any Sunni areas are also located outside of Al Anbar province.
They're evidently wrong about the strength or significance of ISIL. The appear to also be wrong about the role that is "playing", for their fighters arrived in Fallujah at the same time that Iraqi military did, and this is highly suspect. Again, the GICJ article says, quote:
"Furthermore, the witnesses mentioned that these acclaimed terrorist fighters appeared as soon as the government’s army arrived and took positions in the surroundings of the city".
I read this past week with respect to ISIL and the Iraqi government's military fighting in Mosul that these ISIL fighters numbered around only 300, while the Iraqi military force that dropped their guns, ..., and ran away consisted of I think something like 30,000. That 300 fighters would frighten off 30,000 military and possibly other security forces that're well to heavily armed and capable fighters is very suspect; saying the least that can be legitimately said about it.
The text editor for these comments is faulty. F.e., it doesn't properly recognize or treat paragraph breaks. It also causes other problems for consistency of formatting. All of this comment should be of the same paragraph spacing, but I'm not seeing that with published results. It seems mostly consistent to me, but not for the whole comment.
All bold typefacing of parts of main bodies of text excerpted from the articles was added by me, except when there're subheadings.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/iraq-puppet-government-offers-financial-bounty-to-extrajudicial-killers-america-is-not-involved/5370203
Quote:
Iraq Puppet Government Offers Financial Bounty to Extrajudicial Killers. “America is Not Involved”.
By Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, February 23, 2014
“A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.” (Albert Camus, 1913-1960.)
On September 7th 2012, the US Department of State (“Diplomacy in Action”) assured on their website:
“The U.S. Mission in Iraq remains dedicated to building a strategic partnership with Iraq and the Iraqi people … Iraq continues to develop as a sovereign, stable … country … a voice of moderation and democracy in the Middle East.
...
On February 21st, al- Maliki, in Wild West (or rather Wild East) mode, announced bounties of up to $25,000 (thirty million Iraqi Dinars) to any one who kills or captures a “foreign terrorist.”(2) So much for: “ … the development of a modern, accountable, and professional Iraqi military capable of defending Iraq and its borders.” Extrajudicial punishment of course, is a feature of politically repressive regimes, resorted to without the permission of a Court or legal authority.
Further, quite how the dead summarily executed in Iraq are to be identified as “foreign terrorists” is a mystery. But who in authority will care, in a country whose government is unashamed of having the third highest execution rate on earth and described by Human Rights Watch in their 2013 Report, “Iraq a Broken Justice System”, as having a leadership which uses: “draconian measures against opposition politicians, detainees, demonstrators and journalists, effectively squeezing the space for independent civil society and political freedoms … the Iraqi people today face a government that is slipping further in to authoritarianism and doing little to make them safer.”(3)
...
Nouri al-Maliki has a novel view on his bounty hunter initiative. In a recent article on the website of the publication Foreign Policy, he writes: “Iraq has defeated Al Qaeda before and we have a holistic strategy to defeat Al Qaeda again.” He is surely including in his “holistic strategy” all those across Iraq, not alone in Western Anbar Province, who are demonstrating, rising up and have had heartily enough of his brutal, divisive, sectarian regime.
Coincidentally surely, he has stated, as voting cards are handed out for the April elections, that due to the situation in Anbar, distributing cards there will be problematical if not impossible. What a fix – voters unlikely to cast their tick in al-Maliki’s direction denied voting access at all.
...
Were ever the lies about the “liberators” and “liberation, freedom and democracy” laid barer?
End quote
http://www.globalresearch.ca/ten-years-on-the-us-are-helping-to-destroy-fallujah-again/5370050
Quote:
Ten Years on, the US is Helping to Destroy Fallujah Again
By BRussells Tribunal
Global Research, February 22, 2014
BRussells Tribunal
by Mike Phipps
The Iraqi Government’s accusation of an external Al-Qaeda takeover was made to justify a ferocious siege and bombardment of the Fallujah and Ramadi.
Conflict and carnage on a scale unseen since the height of the Occupation nearly a decade ago have broken out in Iraq’s Anbar Province. ...
...
The pernicious narrative, peddled by the Iraqi Government and picked up in the mainstream media, that Al-Qaeda had taken over Fallujah, was a long way from the truth. But it helped to secure an immediate delivery of arms to the Iraqi regime from its US puppeteers to help quell the protests in Anbar.
For protests is what they are. They began over a year ago, demanding the freeing of tens of thousands of detainees held without charge by the security forces. Brutal torture and rape – regardless of gender – are widespread in Iraq’s jails. Last year alone, the state executed 169 people, putting it third in the league behind China and Iran.
The Iraqi Government’s accusation of an external Al-Qaeda takeover was made to justify a ferocious siege and bombardment of the Fallujah and Ramadi. As Iraqi activist Haifa Zangana has pointed out, “Al-Maliki selectively chooses not to mention the regime’s own militias: Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Iraqi Hezbollah, the Badr brigades, factions of the Mahdi army and the Mokhtar army. The latter’s leader has bragged on Baghdadiya TV, about their responsibility for several attacks. No investigation has been done and no one was arrested. There is also hardly any mention of the Iraqi Special Forces inherited from the occupation, especially trained by Colonel James Steele under US ambassador John Negroponte and attached now directly to al-Maliki’s office. Above all, there is no mention of the plethora of foreign-led special operation agents, private security contractors, and organised networks of professional killers, some of whom, many Iraqis believe, are protected by the regime, in the shadow of the US’ biggest embassy in the world, in the fortified green zone in Baghdad.” http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/01/here-list-real-forces-behind-violence-iraq-201411613100570815.html
...
One commentator who has seen through the current misinformation is former US marine Ross Caputi. Writing in The Guardian, he said,
...
End quote
See my prior/first comment for excerpts from Ross Caputi's article, unless wanting to read the complete piece, which is certainly worth doing.
Negroponte and Steele, dirty, hell-bent! They have disgusting criminal history in Latin America. Anyone not aware of this can do a Web search of GlobalResearch.ca for "James Steele", and also do searches that aren't specific to any websites, while being careful which ones to use. I'll include excerpts from another BRussells Tribunal article at the end of this comment and it's about death squads and "Salvador Option" in Iraq, "thanks to", Washington and possibly London, but especially Washington.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/iraqi-mp-government-attack-on-fallujah-amounts-to-genocide/5382452
Quote:
Iraqi MP: Government Attack on Fallujah Amounts to Genocide
Member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq Ahmed el-Masary accused government forces of genocide against the residents of Fallujah city on Friday.
...
In a press statement, El-Masary described the bloody attack as “a genocide war”, and demanded an urgent session at the CORs to discuss what he dismissed as “heinous crimes committed against the people of Anbar province and Fallujah in particular, which led to the destruction of its hospitals, mosques, homes and infrastructure.” He held all political forces responsible for the continuation of this crisis.
El-Masaray stressed that his coalition denounced terrorism of all forms, and that the people of Anbar “were the first to confront terrorism”. ...
End quote
Death squads and "Salvador Option" in Iraq:
The article, a little further below, is very important, but it begins, for main content, with a photo of a death squad in Iraq and one of the killers is wearing what I call a death mask. I've seen these for several years or more with photos of some killers and, recently, with some neo-nazis in Ukraine. So, when a sizable guy dressed in some military sort of outfit like for fighting and wearing a death mask that covered his whole face, besides the eyes and, I suppose, nostrils, as well as mouth, riding on a large motorcycle in this small city of the province of Quebec one morning around 3 weeks ago, well, I of course "freaked out". This was in a poor section of this small southern Quebec city, the only thing not being poor being bars or pubs, which draw in people from other parts of town as well as from outside of town, and it was around 9 am. This biker was like suited for war and the fact that he wore a death mask was like he intended to be menacing.
I go there in the morning to attend a community organization and he drove right past us, at most 20 feet away. So, I could see him very clearly and wondered how it is that the government could tolerate such behaviour in this province. Because of what's been going on and continues to go on in Ukraine, and the West backing this hellbent violence of the criminal putsch govt there, my guess is that this "death rider", say, did this in relation to these events located half way across this planet. Canada is, in social geography, considered multi-cultural, but this is stretching the concept a little too far. Police weren't within eye-shot and maybe none had seen this biker, but I don't think that this silent form of "freedom of speech" should be tolerated, here, or anywhere else. It wasn't Halloween, either.
The Canadian Parliament and municipal govt of Ottawa, Ontario, did support a neo-nazi conference held at the downtown Westin Hotel's Conference Centre a few minutes walk away from Parliament Hill in 1992, and there were neo-nazis from Ontario, Quebec, etc., plus the US who were to attend and plenty of hi-tech and possibly other businesses in Ottawa, and area, also supported this; but, I didn't see anyone wearing "death masks", which only killers would wear, unless it's for a Halloween costume. Halloween is in October, not June.
In the following article, reference #28 is for a PDF consisting of several articles by Max Fuller and I strongly recommend reading these. He has an additional article or two at GlobalResearch.ca and the index for copies of his articles there is easily found by using the Authors index, or a Web search of GR using his name for search term. Copying the following search terms and pasting them in a Google, IXQuick or StartPage search page, f.e., will work very quickly:
"Max Fuller" site:globalresearch.ca
Several of his articles in the PDF are also at GR.
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/article_view.asp?id=849
Quote:
2003-2013: Iraqi Resistance, American Dirty War, and the Remaking of the Middle East – PART 3
by Dirk Adriaensens on 21-03-2013
The American forces recruited the most criminal layers of the Iraqi population. Pentagon-hired mercenaries, like Dyncorp, helped form the sectarian militias that were used to terrorize and kill Iraqis and to provoke Iraq into civil war.
...
Dirty war as a key strategy to subdue the Iraqi people
The Salvador Option
Dirty war as a key strategy to subdue the Iraqi people[1]
“Insurgents in Iraq are right to try to force US troops out of the country”, Commander Gen Sir Michael Rose told the BBC's Newsnight programme. He also said that the US and the UK must "admit defeat" and stop fighting "a hopeless war" in Iraq. Iraqi insurgents would not give in, he said. "I don't excuse them for some of the terrible things they do, but I do understand why they are resisting."[2] On 9 January 2006, Rose called for Tony Blair to be impeached over the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, saying: "To go to war on what turns out to be false grounds is something that no one should be allowed to walk away from."
The US and UK armies, faced with a fierce resistance but unwilling to admit defeat, drastically changed their tactics, as described by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker on 15 December 2003: "An American adviser said: 'The only way we can win is to go unconventional. We’re going to have to play their game. Guerrilla versus guerrilla. Terrorism versus terrorism. We've got to scare the Iraqis into submission.' (… ) 'The proposed operation - called 'preemptive manhunting' by one Pentagon adviser - has the potential to turn into another (Vietnam) Phoenix Program' (…) We do need a more unconventional response, but it’s going to be messy."[3]
...
On January 1st 2004, Robert Dreyfuss reported that the US government planned to create paramilitary units comprised of militiamen from Iraqi Kurdish and exile groups including the Badr brigades, the Iraqi National Congress and the Iraqi National Accord to wage a campaign of terror and extra-judicial killing, similar to the Phoenix program in Vietnam: the terror and assassination campaign that killed tens of thousands of civilians.
... “All those people shouting, ‘Down with America!’ and dancing in the street when Americans are attacked? We have to kill them.”[5] Over that period, reports of death squads and ethnic cleansing emerged, described in the press as “sectarian violence”, the new central narrative of the war and the principal justification for continued occupation. Some of the violence may have been spontaneous, but there is overwhelming evidence that most of it was the result of the plans described by several American experts in December 2003.
An Alternet article of 16 June 2004, titled “Here come the Death Squad Veterans” stated: "Blackwater USA has sent recruiters to Chile, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Guatemala for one specific reason alone," said an intelligence officer in Kuwait who requested anonymity. "All these countries experienced dirty wars and they have military men well-trained in dealing with internal subversives. They are well-versed in extracting confessions from prisoners.” As the security situation in Iraq deteriorated in the spring of 2004, more "dedicated recruiting" began.[6]
In June 2004, Gen. David H. Petraeus took the assignment of organizing training for all Iraqi military and police forces following their collapse during the Shiite and Sunni uprisings two months earlier. During this period he was instrumental in forming government-sponsored militias throughout Iraq that operate as anti-Sunni death squads, and which have plunged the nation into civil war. In the fall of 2004, Petraeus was arming, equipping and funding the Special Police Commandos, calling them "a horse to back."[7]
The Salvador Option
The first reference to the “Salvador Option” and comparison with the death squad atrocities in Middle and Latin America in the 1980’s was made by Ghali Hassan on 12 October 2004 in his article: “Iraq’s Democracy: The El Salvador Model”: “The core of the current US-appointed Iraqi Interim Government (IIG) are: The Allawi’s group of exiles (INA), the Ahmed Chalabi’s group of exiles (INC), the Peshmergas of the two Kurdish parties, and the Badr Brigade (Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, SCIRI – currently the DAWA party), mostly of Iranian origin. Furthermore, each group has its own mafia-style death squad, and links to the CIA or the Israeli Mossad agents. Since they entered Iraq with the US invasion, the four groups have taken the law into their own hands and have killed many innocent Iraqis, including hundreds of Iraqi scientists and community leaders. The Occupation authority has never investigated their crimes. They entered Iraq on the backs of US tanks. Their relations with the Occupation are fully symbiotic relations. They co-exist in a mutually beneficial relationship with their US master. They are participating in the upcoming elections, because they want the Occupation to continue.”[8]
...
The American forces recruited the most criminal layers of the Iraqi population. Pentagon-hired mercenaries, like Dyncorp, helped form the sectarian militias that were used to terrorize and kill Iraqis and to provoke Iraq into civil war.
It reveals the fundamental nature of “dirty war”, like in Latin America and the worst excesses of the Vietnam War. The purpose of dirty war is not to identify and then detain or kill actual resistance fighters. The target of dirty war is the civilian population. It is a strategy of state terrorism and collective punishment against an entire population with the objective to terrorizing it into submission. It is a strategy to cut off the people’s links with the resistance and break the popular support for the guerrilla. The same tactics used in Central America and Colombia were exported to Iraq. Even the architects of these dirty wars in El Salvador (Ambassador John Negroponte and James Steele) and in Colombia (Steven Casteel) were transferred to Iraq to do the same dirty work. ...
...
End quote
There's a lot more to that article by Dirk Adriaensens and, again, read the articles by Max Fuller. Want "Shock & Awe"? Then read these articles, then.
Dirk Adriaensens is right, including about "dirty war" being to target civilians, most definitely and, perhaps, mostly non-fighting ones.
Btw, GR has a Max Fuller article that isn't included in his author index. It's an older piece, possibly from 2002 or 2003, and it can be found using a search engine such as Google, IXQuick or StartPage.
The original title of the following piece is, "Confessions reveal who is responsible of abducting, torturing, and killing the Iraqis and throwing their bodies in streets".
http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-sponsored-commandos-responsible-for-abducting-torturing-and-killing-iraqis-the-role-of-paul-bremer/5363742
Quote:
US Sponsored Commandos Responsible for Abducting, Torturing and Killing Iraqis. The Role of Paul Bremer
Confessions reveal who is Responsible
Colonel Muntadher al Samaraee, (In charge of Interior Ministry Special Forces from 2004 to 2005)
Saying:
An order was initiated by the Minister of interior Baker Jabar Solagh, to stop and forbid the movement of any military unit within the forces of interior ministry without the approval of the minister of interior, exclusively. In other words, there is no way when the curfew starts every night at 11 PM, a force of 35 armed and totally equipped vehicles move around and have an access and pass through all check points with people helping and coordinating for them, raiding areas and arresting people, and bringing them to unidentified places, unless they have higher authority to command this force.
After a while they surprise the families of the arrested detainees by throwing their bodies in the streets or in the Forensic Madison centers. ...
...
It sounds unbelievable, torturing a person to death then threw his body in an unknown place. Just like what happened one week ago when people found 27 coffins of unidentified people at Badra Wa Jassan area. The bodies were totally torn apart and mutilated, only the bones were mostly in there.
People asked interior minister to investigate these crimes. Such as the Eskan area residents in Baghdad who found the bodies of their young men killed blind folded and thrown in the streets one week after the interior commandos arrested them.
...
The interior commandos with their costumes, artilleries, and advance gadgets get out raiding places, arresting people for investigation during late nights of curfews, torturing and killing them. Who is responsible for these crimes???
...
Scene 6:
Iraqi citizen: The Iraqi citizen is being taken from his house and nobody knows who is taking him, the Americans, the interior commandos, or Bader Brigade??
Scene 7:
Colonel Muntadher al Samaraee again:
We would like to ask about the results of the investigation committees of al A Ema Bridge event, where thousands of victims got hurt? how many days have passed and the people are waiting for the results of these investigations. A press release of the interior ministry assured people that the ministry is innocent and that they will announce who is behind and responsible of this tragedy, but none of this happened. Isn't this an obvious right of the Iraqi people?? To know the results of the interior ministry investigations and who is committing these crimes???
The End
End quote
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cias-mystery-man-in-bagdad-salvador-style-death-squads-in-iraq/5330445
Quote:
The CIA’s “Mystery Man” in Baghdad: Salvador-Style Death Squads in Iraq
Documentary on death squads, torture, secret prisons in Iraq
A recent British documentary Death squads, torture, secret prisons in Iraq, and General David Petraeus are among the featured atrocities in a new British documentary – “James Steele: America’s Mystery Man in Iraq” – the result of a 15-month investigation by Guardian Films and BBC Arabic, exploring war crimes long denied by the Pentagon but confirmed by thousands of military field reports made public by WikiLeaks.
...
End quote
http://www.globalresearch.ca/terrorism-with-a-human-face-the-history-of-americas-death-squads/5317564
Quote:
Terrorism with a “Human Face”: The History of America’s Death Squads
Death Squads in Iraq and Syria. The Historical Roots of US-NATO's Covert War on Syria
The recruitment and training of terror brigades in both Iraq and Syria was modeled on the “Salvador Option”, a “terrorist model” of mass killings by US sponsored death squads in Central America. It was first applied in El Salvador, in the heyday of resistance against the military dictatorship, resulting in an estimated 75,000 deaths.
...
Negroponte was the “man for the job”. As US Ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. Negroponte played a key role in supporting and supervising the Nicaraguan Contras based in Honduras as well as overseeing the activities of the Honduran military death squads.
...
John Negroponte and Robert Stephen Ford were put in charge of recruiting the Iraqi death squads. ...
Two other embassy officials, namely Henry Ensher (Ford’s Deputy) and a younger official in the political section, Jeffrey Beals, played an important role in the team “talking to a range of Iraqis, including extremists”. (See The New Yorker, March 26, 2007). Another key individual in Negroponte’s team was James Franklin Jeffrey, America’s ambassador to Albania (2002-2004). In 2010, Jeffrey was appointed US Ambassador to Iraq (2010-2012).
Negroponte also brought into the team one of his former collaborators Colonel James Steele (ret) from his Honduras heyday:
Under the “Salvador Option,” “Negroponte had assistance from his colleague from his days in Central America during the 1980′s, Ret. Col James Steele. Steele, whose title in Baghdad was Counselor for Iraqi Security Forces supervised the selection and training of members of the Badr Organization and Mehdi Army, the two largest Shi’ite militias in Iraq, in order to target the leadership and support networks of a primarily Sunni resistance. Planned or not, these death squads promptly spiralled out of control to become the leading cause of death in Iraq.
Intentional or not, the scores of tortured, mutilated bodies which turn up on the streets of Baghdad each day are generated by the death squads whose impetus was John Negroponte. And it is this U.S.-backed sectarian violence which largely led to the hell-disaster that Iraq is today. (Dahr Jamail, Managing Escalation: Negroponte and Bush’s New Iraq Team, Antiwar.com, January 7, 2007)
...
Reports confirm that “the US military turned over many prisoners to the Wolf Brigade, the feared 2nd battalion of the interior ministry’s special commandos” which so happened to be under supervision of Colonel Steele:
“US soldiers, US advisers, were standing aside and doing nothing,” while members of the Wolf Brigade beat and tortured prisoners. The interior ministry commandos took over the public library in Samarra, and turned it into a detention centre, he said. An interview conducted by Maass [of the New York Times] in 2005 at the improvised prison, accompanied by the Wolf Brigade’s US military adviser, Col James Steele, had been interrupted by the terrified screams of a prisoner outside, he said. Steele was reportedly previously employed as an adviser to help crush an insurgency in El Salvador.” (Ibid, emphasis added)
Another notorious figure who played a role in Iraq’s counter-insurgency program was Former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik [image: Bernie Kerik in Baghdad Police Academy with body guards] who in 2007 was indicted in federal court on 16 felony charges.
...
End quote
There's plenty more to that article as well, and, regarding Bernie Kerik, I recommend Web searches of Kevin Ryan's website, DigWithin.net, plus 911research.wtc7.net and 911review.com. Kerik had some very, very unusual conduct on 9/11, 2001. It's very suspect.
I didn't find it the last time checking the BRussells Tribunal website for a copy of the piece, which BT once had for a number of years, but there was one article related to so-called "suicide car bombings" in Iraq.
An Iraqi farmer, using his truck, was taking melons to market in Baghdad and his 10-year-old son or grandson, grandson I think, wanted to go along. The farmer didn't want this but finally accepted. They came to a US Army checkpoint and the farmer was told that he couldn't pass until he went to an adjacent police station for clearance. The boy, however, didn't have to go and sat a little distance away, while still able to see and watch the truck. When his grandfather returned, they were allowed through the checkpoint, but the boy then said that he saw the soldiers place some object among the melons. The farmer stopped the truck to check what this was and it was a bomb.
The article also told of another similar incident. This was about an Iraqi taxi driver. He was alone in his car and checkpoint soldiers told him he had to get clearance at the adjacent police station, before he could be allowed to continue on his way. When he returned to the checkpoint, he was allowed through, but as he drove he noticed that the car felt heavier than before. So, further on, out of sight from the checkpoint, he stopped the car to inspect it. It was loaded with explosives.
Credible stories? I definitely believe they are.
"DIRTY" hell-bent "WAR". These crimes were targeting Iraqi civilians, credibly so! It would've been brain-dead wrong for Iraqi Resistance to do this, for they had every right and reason in the world to resist against this hell-bent foreign aggression and wouldn't want to alienate non-fighting Iraqis who weren't definitely associated with the criminal occupation forces and puppet Iraqi govt. These crimes were clearly meant to mainly target Iraqi civilians, very possibly to try to get the non-fighting Iraqis to become opposed to the IR, for the West either always or else often claimed that the IR was responsible for the so-called "suicidal car bombings". Washington possibly accused some "Al Qaeda in Iraq" group, but also accused IR, and Washington is very responsible for the existence of the so-called Al Qaeda.
Another peculiarity about those bombings is they certainly weren't all suicidal, for some reportedly and credibly had no human occupants when the cars blew up. Some of these vehicles had been parked for a good while and had no human occupants when they blew up; and this also was in civilian neighbourhoods or areas. Washington knew this but didn't want to reveal it. Other people had to provide this revelation.
I caught on quickly and earlier, for the initial series of these car bombings were hitting primarily civilian areas and the IR was being accused by the West when it wouldn't make any sense whatsoever for the IR to commit such acts. Resistance fighters fighting against foreign aggression targeting a whole country wouldn't want to attack any citizens who weren't definitely working for the occupying foreign forces. Instead, the Resistance would want to gain as much support as possible from non-fighting citizens subjected to damn war of aggression. Even Dahr Jamail parrotted the mainstream nonsense and I wrote to him about this being non-credible, for it doesn't make sense. (It's the only flaw I ever noticed in any of his articles that I read about the war on Iraq, but it nontheless was, imo, a serious flaw.) Perhaps he hadn't yet read any of Max Fuller's articles.
Some might argue, f.e., "Well, Shia and Sunni Iraqis don't get along", but it's a very insufficient reason. Market areas in Baghdad could have both Sunni and Shia Muslims, as well as Christian and Jewish Iraqis, f.e., and there wasn't animosity between all Sunni and Shia Iraqis. Some even inter-married, besides others who peacefully co-existed in Iraqi towns and cities for centuries, 1,000 years, I believe to recall having once read. I read of towns or cities in Iraq where there were Sunni and Shia Muslims, Christians and Jews, all of whom, ancestrally, got along quite well for as many as 1,000 years; before 2003.
It's credible. F.e., prior to the criminal establishment of the state known of as Israel today, there were Jews who lived and worked in Palestine, and there was no conflict with other Palestinians, who included Christians, as well as Muslims, and possibly some Atheists.
Real IR wouldn't target civilian markets, schools, universities, hospitals, etc., but the US did and credibly would, given the real "track record" of Washington.
"DIRTY WAR"! Washington is very expert at this; Washington, Britain, Israel, ..., and surely even Canada. Dirty? Hell-bent!