World-News

EACH time Uncle Sam ventures abroad he leaves an unfinished story, and nothing is most unfinished than the story of Iraq, where despite flowery speeches regarding freedom and sovereignty by the Obama administration, despite assurances that tyranny has been ''cast aside,'' the tragedy caused by the United States invasion, occupation and inevitable abandonment is on an epic proportion.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=492660&type=Opinion


From Information Clearing House



http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Obama
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http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=refugee
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http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/10831/



http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Iraq
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=contractor
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By Dahr Jamail

The state of the economy in Iraq is a disaster. Yet this irony is highlighted by the fact that Iraq has proven oil reserves third only behind Saudi Arabia and Iran, hence one would expect it to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30188.htm



Squad mate testifies in Marine s Iraq massacre trial

A former squad mate of a Marine implicated in the deaths of 19 Iraqis in 2005 has told a court-martial that after a roadside bombing the group raced to nearby homes, firing rounds and tossing grenades, even though he heard no gunfire and saw no weapons or Iraqis fleeing.

http://bit.ly/yD35Xp


From Information Clearing House



http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Iraq
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http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=oil+reserve
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Dahr+Jamail

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The end of the US military occupation does not mean Iraqis have full control of their oil.

http://bit.ly/zNYA1g



Perry: ''I would send troops back into Iraq''

''The idea that we allow the Iranians to come back into Iraq and take over that country, with all of the treasures, both in blood and money, that we have spent in Iraq, because this president wants to kowtow to his liberal leftist base, and move out those men and women.

http://bit.ly/ySpFJu



Iraqi Torture Scandal Touches Highest Levels of NATO

A scandal unfolding in Denmark over the transfer of Iraqi prisoners by Danish forces to Iraq authorities, even as they knew they would be tortured, threatens to implicate the current Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen, formerly prime minister of Denmark from 2001-2009.

http://bit.ly/ztm14D


From Information Clearing House



http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Iraq
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Shlomo Ben-Ami, Project Syndicate: ''After ten years of war, more than a hundred thousand casualties, mostly Iraqis, and an astronomical cost of almost $1 trillion, the US leaves behind an Iraq that is neither more secure nor especially democratic.... Violently torn by religious and ethnic rivalries, Iraq is in no condition to play its part in America s vision of an Arab wall of containment of Iran.''

http://www.truth-out.org/lasting-damage-iraq/1326043606



http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Iraq
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Jeffrey Kaye, Truthout: ''A November 2010 article at Ice News reported how a memo released by WikiLeaks described an inquiry by 'a Danish Defence Ministry official' regarding 'what happened at the American Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq after media reports of torture and abuse in 2003.' Subsequently, 'Danish soldiers continued to hand over prisoners to the facility, however, even after the torture was officially confirmed several months later.''

http://www.truth-out.org/iraqi-torture-scandal-touches-highest-levels-nato/1325794053



http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Iraq
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http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Jeffrey+Kaye


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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/04-1



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By William Blum

No matter ... drum roll, please ...And don t even think of ever apologizing or paying any reparations.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30155.htm



http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Iraq
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Dahr Jamail, Al Jazeera: 'Fallujah still bears the scars of war; skeletons continue to be pulled from the rubble of bombed buildings, and, worse, rates of birth defects and childhood malformations have skyrocketed. There is evidence of reconstruction, but shortages of electricity and clean water remain prevalent. The overall mood in the city is one of anger, hopelessness, and fear.'

http://www.truth-out.org/seven-years-after-sieges-fallujah-struggles/1325615444



Debacle! How Two Wars in the Greater Middle East Revealed the Weakness of the Global Superpower

Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch: 'It was to be the war that would establish empire as an American fact. It would result in a thousand-year Pax Americana. It was to be 'mission accomplished' all the way. And then, of course, it wasn t. And then, almost nine dismal years later, it was over (sorta).'

http://www.truth-out.org/debacle-how-two-wars-greater-middle-east-revealed-weakness-global-superpower/1325607241



Fallujah Babies: Birth Defects Blamed on US Weapons

Dahr Jamail, Al Jazeera English: ''The environment could be contaminated by chemical weapons and depleted uranium from the aftermath of the war on Iraq,' Dr. Alwachi told Al Jazeera. The US and UK militaries have sent mixed signals about the effects of depleted uranium, but Iraqi doctors like Alwachi and Alani, and along with researchers, blame the increasing cancer and birth defect rates on the weapon.''

http://www.truth-out.org/fallujah-babies-birth-defects-blamed-us-weapons/1325877537

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The Children of Fallujah

The Hospital of Horrors

By Robert Fisk

Stillbirths, disabilities, deformities too distressing to describe, what lies behind the torments in Fallujah General Hospital?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31189.htm



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Campaign For Liberty
by Doug Bandow

01/02/12

Remember that great success in Iraq? A wonderful multi-ethnic democracy which would highlight American freedom values around the region? Oops! It appears that a second round of de facto ethnic cleansing is occurring. Back during the worst of the sectarian violence mixed neighborhoods largely disappeared from Baghdad. Now the few that remain are seeing an exodus of minority Sunnis...

http://tinyurl.com/6p3rky6



The final disintegration of Iraq?

CounterPunch
by Patrick Cockburn

01/02/12

Is this the final disintegration of Iraq? Is Maliki turning into a Shia version of Saddam Hussein, abandoning compromise, centralizing power and relying on force alone? Does he have the means to do so? Even with Iraq?s $100bn-a-year oil revenues, a large if chaotic state machine and security forces numbering 900,000 soldiers and policemen, it will not be that easy...

http://bit.ly/tPeon1



Iraq: The aftermath

Unqualified Offerings
by Thoreau

01/01/12

I d be less worried about war with Iran if we had learned from Iraq. But we haven t. On the other hand, how much new is there for us to learn, really? The chief problems with the Iraq War were that it was a humanitarian disaster, it made nobody safer, it was unprovoked and based on lies, and it was horrendously costly. All of these things were utterly foreseeable in 2002...

http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2012/01/01/14164


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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The War Against the Shia

By Patrick Cockburn

It is a ferocious war waged by assassination, massacre, imprisonment and persecution that has killed tens of thousands of people.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33614.htm



http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/topics/Iran/
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