Wishful thinking indeed. A pragmatist will tell you the mess in Iraq will not clean up easily. I also believe any solution Hillary might come up with as president will be a damn sight better than any fix the current administration might come up with in the next two years.

But what’s nagging at me is why did she say she would bring the troops home in the first place?
(from the 2.17.07 Reuters report on the speech)”

Clinton’s bill would cap the number of troops in Iraq at the January 1 level, prior to Bush’s decision to add 21,500 to the approximately 130,000 soldiers already there…
…If George Bush doesn’t end the war before he leaves office, when I’m president, I will,” Clinton said in the video.

So first we see she never really said it in the first place although she had received catcalls about a week earlier enticing her to “Do more” and “Bring them home now”. Nevertheless in todays world of perception politics it’s been noted now in all the MSM that she reversed herself. It’s a “fact” that will remain with this campaign through to the end whether any of us like it or not.
My personal opinion was that she had a bad week (troops, immoral homosexuality).
These things happen and neither is anything that cannot be recovered from.

I am a huge fan of Charlie Cook and The Cook Political Report. On March 6th in a column focused on Rudy Giuliani he posted the following:

Consider a contrast between the two front-runners for their respective party’s nomination. A strong argument can be made that the shortcomings and vulnerabilities of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., are well known to virtually all; on Wall Street, they would say her numbers have already been discounted for her negatives. Over the last 15 years, Clinton has been loudly accused of just about everything short of murder, so what new and derogatory thing could anyone say or write now that would change minds?
For Giuliani, the story is quite different. A cursory glance at not just Giuliani’s stands on social and cultural issues, but also his complicated marital and personal life and the circumstances around his ability to avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War reveal ominous warning signals.

In other words she has an underlying bias of voters who are against her and yet she is still the front runner! She garners such high respect that even taking a hit of -10% or more she remains, appointed by the MSM, as “the one to beat” in the Democratic Party. Cook correctly points out that were it not for the “anybody but her” ranting her numbers could easily be over 60%.

jje
Pigeons Don’t Lurk

Bart, I don’t agree with you on this one and I’ll try to explain why. What I think is happening over there right now is what they did at the beginning. We’ve brought in extra troops to try and give some control to the situation in Bagdad. But they merely hide it out in the face of our forces’ presence. They slip back into society or go into hiding. They know they can’t beat us in a fight, they also know we can’t hold out forever. So they will wait it out and then reappear when the “surge” is over.

So this cycle may repeat itself over and over again with no resolution. And there really is no comprehensive strategy for ending this war either, except the strategy to steal their oil. So with the current administration continuing their strategy, there will be no pull-out of troops, becauase they aren’t planning for a way for this country to be at peace, they don’t want peace, they want oil. I do want peace, so I believe the only thing we can do at this juncture is to impeach Bush and Cheney and get someone into office who will formulate a comprehensive plan to start withdrawing from the war. Impeachment must come first.

Keeping the troops there is wishful thinking. Clinton did not explain “why” she would keep troops there. Trying to have it both ways, as usual. Of course, Bartcop feels that he has to defend any foolish position of the Clinton “frontrunner”. The vast majority of Iraqis want us out–that should be enough.

Bartcop keeps “hammering” US with the Bush-like lies about 100 million East coast civilians (how ridiculous) who would have been killed by a Saddam strike with his ICBMs and MIRVs. Any ridiculous statement to support Clinton. How many times have he asserted that–more than half a dozen I bet. 100 million dead from Saddam. Do any of you Ditto Heads catch that?

I expect that he will pull this as he now blocks my email, but I’ve moved on.

VT, obviously you are a Limbaughtomized dittohead and must be a repug for only neocon repugs write such incoherent, erroneous drivel.

You might try absorbing some information from bartcom and make an effort to think for yourself instead of spouting such ignorant misinformation. If you did you would understand how the bushreich has made their “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” fiasco into “MISSION IMPOSSIBLE” bloody quagmire and civil war with dimwit dubya, an incompetent, insane moron as their leader!

[Moved on?] Like all chickenhawks, you are too cowardly to face up to Bart!!! Dare you to debate him!!! LOL

Kerry:

By Dittoheads, I meant YOU “Kerry”.

I have never listened to Limbaugh, except in clips on Crooks and Liars and other web sites. And you did not address any of the points I made, just spouted off in an offensive way–so, suck me.

I have corresponded with BC for a few years now, but cannot take his Hillary love anymore; it is toxic. And by the way, he certainly is no fount of wisdom–his truest statements are about his IQ.

He is good at stealing others material, cartoons, etc., often without attribution, and often violating copyright law.

He looks more and more like Limbaugh, with jerk offs like you defending him. And the huge amount of activity on his blogs shows how respected and prominent he is in the Blogsphere–NOT.

I doubt that he needs defending, but he does print the email addresses of those who disagree with him, in the hopes that his Dittoheads, that means YOU Kerry, will assault the one who disagrees. It’s a cowardly tactic and I have told him so. Ever notice it?

I don’t need information from Bartcop, I have many credible sources, and in fact BC has often published things I sent him, becaue they have appeared on the web page the day after I sent them (some from obscure, or European sources, so I knew they were the ones I sent).

And I know all about Bushco, for Christ’s sake, that is obvious to any idiot. Even you apparently. So don’t lecture me. I’ve been on the web high speed for over ten years; my former job was Internet research and testing. I read more in one day than you do in a week, or month, I am sure. In fact I spend far too much time reading on the web. I’ve recently cut back, and Bartcop is one I have cut back on. I just skim it to look at the cartoons he has “borrowed”.

But “Kerry”, tell me if you’ll take my bet. Will Hillary “donate” her child Chelsea to her plan to continue to occupy Iraq for years? I bet BC $1K that she wouldn’t win the election, but he wouldn’t take the bet; he’s afraid to, said it was a lot of money (it is, for both of us).

And do you believe that we were ever in danger of losing 100 million of us on the East coast from Saddam’s WMD? Tell me if you believe that statement. Keep to the issues.

And that quote in my post was from the Nation, a Progressive magazine that you probably have never heaard of. You’re the one who should think before spouting off.

Bl4ckP0pe seems to know you well BC, even if he is a little hard on you. I think your heart is usually in the right place; its just that your brain sometimes is not.

Kerry, you seem to have a comprehension problem. I volunteered for the Air Farce (after a friend in the Air Farce talked me out of becoming an Army green beret–he convinced me that the AF had more class) in 1968 (that was probably before your time–Viet Nam) as I was sure to be drafted.

As luck would have it, after the physical, testing , etc., they tried to reneg on my choice of assignment, which was the incentive to sign up. I was all set to go, just needed to take the oath and get on the plane to basic.

But after the jerking around for a few months (they wanted me to go into intelligence, I wanted to go on the AF bike racing team, yes the Army had one too, and most of the 68 Olympic team to Mexico was Army bike team), I told the recruiter to shove it, and took my chances with the draft.

During that time, I became educated about the war and joined the protest movement. I got a high lottery number and the war ended before I could be called. Some of my close buds were not so lucky; none died but a few were “damaged’.

And I could have made it into the Berets, I was a state champion amateur athlete and Olympic trials qualifier in bicycle road racing (think Lance) in 1968, one of two in my sport from Mass. So initially, at 17, I was more hawk than chickenhawk, in fact I was a gung ho idiot for a while. What about you–have you served?

That brush with the military was the first time the government lied to me, and they’ve been lying since–a good lesson. The government always lies, always.

Here is the effect of US troops “surge” in Iraq. Guess we should keep doing it for a few years, right Hillary?:

http://www.firedoglake.com/

U.S. soldier kicking open a cupboard in a building to search for suspicious items while on a joint patrol with Iraqi National police in a suburb of Baghdad March 7, 2007. (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

After 4 years of Bush’s war, escape from “prison walls, martial laws and secret police” are more remote than ever for the people of Iraq. As Tim Lambon of The New Statesman reports from his embed position with the new US surge troops in Baghdad:

It’s hard to describe the noise when a whole cabinet of crockery is emptied on to the floor. Even harder not to shout in indignation when the American soldier who intentionally tipped it forward, until the plates and dishes slid smashing to the floor, says without regret, “Whoops!” and crunches over the shards past the distraught owner. “Cordon and search” they call looking for Sunni insurgents and their arms and explosives. But at what cost to the battle for “hearts and minds”?

By the time we rolled into the middle section of the Baghdad neighbourhood of Ghazaliya, there wasn’t a single shot being fired in our direction. Any insurgents were long gone. But the hapless residents were not. They watched, almost impassively, the random violence of the searching troops, too frightened to object. Some of the houses, whose Christian or Shia owners had fled, were empty.

Occupied or not, if no one quickly answered the demands to open up, gates, doors and windows were smashed down or blown open with shotguns. Inside, damage was done to anything breakable. Living-rooms became a jumble of furniture. Beds were overturned, cabinets thrown down, shelves emptied on to floors and beds: an orgy of destruction and arbitrary searching.

And while troops are kicking in the doors, they are also taking prisoners - in fact, perhaps the biggest surge in Iraq right now is the surge in the number of detainees being held. As Marsi Abugtaug of Azzaman reported yesterday :

The population of prisons in Iraq has soared in recent months with tens of thousands of Iraqis currently in U.S. custody without trial. U.S. troops and Iraqi government are investing heavily in the construction of prisons in the country with more than 100,000 Iraqis currently behind bars. A parliamentary investigation commission has found that U.S. troops alone now detain more than 61,000 Iraqis and the figure is expected to swell as the Americans press ahead with their military operations.

More than 50,000 Iraqis were reported to have been arrested in the past four weeks as part of the joint U.S.-Iraqi military campaign to subdue Baghdad. U.S. troops detain Iraqis merely on suspicion. Once detained, Iraqis may stay indefinitely as they are denied access to lawyers and Iraqi courts and government have no right to question U.S. troops’ actions. Even Iraqi troops operations and activities now fall beyond the Iraqi judicial system as the country has been placed under emergency rule under which the courts have no power to question what the security forces do.

Many of the detainees are subjected to torture by military interrogators who use all means to extract confessions. The detainees are denied visits by family members or relatives and they usually have no means to get in touch with them until they are released. Many Iraqi families continue a hopeless search for relatives detained by U.S. troops. The search starts with hospital morgues and government-run prisons. U.S. prisons are off bounds. U.S. troops do not inform relatives of the Iraqis they capture.

This new “emergency rule” was announced on February 13th by al Maliki to coincide with the surge. According to Human Rights Watch :

The decree grants far-reaching powers to conduct searches and seizures without warrants; to arrest, detain and interrogate people; to monitor, search and confiscate “all mail parcels, letters, cables, and wire and wireless communication devices”; and to restrict all public gatherings, including “centers, clubs, organizations, unions, companies, institutions, and offices.”

The vaguely worded decree provides few details on how the regulations will be implemented, and includes no time limits for most of its provisions. It provides no specific limitations on searches of private property or searches and confiscation of private correspondence.

The decree provides for broad use of the death penalty… for those found guilty of a wide array of offenses, including rape, theft, murder, abduction and destruction of private and public property, as well as the commission, participation or encouragement of crimes cited in the decree. The absence of due-process protections under the decree greatly increases cause for concern.

As Human Rights Watch Middle East Director, Sarah Leah Whitson, notes: “The security situation in Baghdad is dire, but giving the military free rein to violate the basic rights of Iraqis is not the answer. International law strictly limits the restrictions a government can place on fundamental rights during a public emergency. Iraq’s new martial law provisions open the door to easy abuse. “

Don’t you People get “Reality Channel” over there ??

@ VTindependent - No, I am being scrupulously fair to this despicable BlurtCrap handjob - busting his nose with the truth is the least this bully and coward deserves. There is a war on, and we are on opposite sides, believe me. Tell me, do you think an Iraqi Resistance sniper is ‘being a little hard on’ some skYanki GameBoy he dispatches to Hell for invading his country? Well, I don’t, I KNOW he is 100% justified (legally and morally) in serving terminal justice on such a pig, regardless of race, colour or creed. And it doesn’t matter a twopenny fuck if that skYanki GameBoy’s heart is usually in the right place when he’s back home; he has earned the summary death penalty by just being there armed and breathing.

Let me put that another way - if my own brother, whom I love, were down in Iraq in any way supporting the crimes of the USA (even just carrying water to their troops) - I would salute the Resistance Fighter who ‘decommissioned’ him by any means necessary. (if it could be a quick and painless execution, well, so much the better - but if my dummy brother would have the brains to pack up and leave before being wasted, and join me to turn our anger to those who sent him to participate in the crime, that would obviously be best)

(PS: my name has been cosmetically changed because BushCock censored my previous account from posting - yeah, he’s a typical jesuit-style hypocrite who only knows this way to win at ‘free speech’)

Wake up Yanks !! The Age of Empire is LONG OVER !! You are not the MasterRace and there is no Glorious New American Reich (or PNAC Century), nor even an Old One, just some shitty AIPAC propaganda you all willing lap up like good dumb poodles at the feet of your ruling classes. Your alleged ‘patriotism’ is a mindless, sick 2-party shell game to cover for rape, torture and murder worldwide - it is a major ‘control mechanism’ they use to keep you (willingly) in line, pulling the weight of their imperialist shitcart (religion is another), bound into THEIR system by ideological chains.

But the wheels are being IED’d off the shitcart as we speak - it is falling apart - USA is a (dys)functional bankrupt nation, and I mean bankrupt in every sense - and guess what? - it deserves not to be rescued and restored to former ‘glory’, but consigned to the dustbin of history.

Stop talking about ‘Bush’, as if that puppet were somehow in control or reponsible for the situation - look at the SYSTEM behind him, and that includes the entire DEMOCRAT PARTY down to its most worthless fraction, i.e. Bartcop and similar warmongering ilk. That SYSTEM is called Imperio-Capitalism, and it has made a desperate power-grab on the excuse of 911 (the convenient new ‘Pearl Harbour’ event your PeeKnackers foretold they would need - gee, what a lucky coincidence - just another ‘guess I hit the trifecta’ moment?) to launch a massive worldwide crime spree. Do you think that is OK, just as long as you are not the immediate target of this aggression? Don’t worry, you already are and this will become very clear, except to the most boneheaded, with the passage of time.

Yes, this fake ‘War on Terror’ is simply another massive LIE, a pre-emptive strike on democratic rights worldwide, to secure dictatorial power for a small ‘elite’ of truely insane persons who are with relish engineering the slaughter of half the planet in a geocidal global gambit, to terrorise whole populations (including you) into submission. But the world does not consist only of sap-assed skYanks, the resistance to US EXPORT TERRORISM is growing inexorably, and your misleaders are bringing you down, down, down a long dark path to utter failure, if you allow them to do so.

First, you born-again hypocrites, take the plank out of your own eye before arrogantly commanding your neighbour to remove a speck of dust from his - i.e. depose the bankrupt neo-fascist military 2-PARTY dictatorship installed in skYankiLandia and give yourselves a democracy which is not just a perverse joke - until you succeed in that, just STFU about managing the affairs of other nations!

There is ONLY ONE solution:

America must admit, not ‘defeat’, but that it cannot achieve ANY of its objectives, the most noble being (I clutch my own throat when thinking anything Bush ‘does’ can be described that way, but that’s how he presented it) ‘bringing democracy’.

But the solution lies therein: America must offer TO PAY to replace itself, based on a poll of Iraqis’ ANOTHER COUNTRY or ‘Coalition’ to take over security for 12-24 months.

“Dear Iraqi Citizen: WHICH country would YOU respect, if it replaced the American Occupying Forces, and allowed you a transitory force to shore up security? If you choose a, b or c, America WILL LEAVE NEXT MONTH; if you choose d, e or f, America WILL LEAVE IN THREE MONTHS.”

If a clear voted majority could pick from the list, and if that country agreed, it would logically (cough) allow tensions to dissipate.

Throw them a carrot: 1000 USD per legitimate vote.

Throw them a banquet: all voting for peace would earn: 5,000USD at the end of a year, if not associated with sectarian violence.

I wrote this a long time ago , but no one in Washington DC wants to pay me (enough) to implement the salvation of the United States! (if this link works, it’s the first time I’ve succeeded with Bart’s blog-admin-system!)

aka Drew

I’m all for impeaching Bush & Cheney, but how will that enable us to bring the troops home?

People need to understand that things change.

Invading Iraq was such a bad move - we have no idea how much damage that idiot has done until this is over - but the fuse has been lit.

We can’t just close our eyes and hope that everything is going to be OK.

Consider the point that saying “Bring the troops home now” is kinda like saying “Bring the fireman home now” while the fire is still raging thru buildings downtown.

We have a BIG problem and it needs to be taken care of before we walk away from it.

VT Lots of ranting babble from you but only pitiful excuses for not having the ballz to debate Bart mano-a-??? whatever you are! LOL

Are you also so afraid of Hillary (A WOMAN! and front runner)that you would vote the warmongering chickenhawk party in again?

Didn’t notice you suggesting the drunken bush twins or unka dick’s daughter go to Irag! LOL

I would discuss the reasons why bushidiot’s quagmire has become America’s tar baby but Bart has covered that over and over and over and you still can’t seem to get it. The same with his backing of the Democrats front runner Hillary or whomever it turns out to be as the election gets closer.

You just go ahead and abandon the U.S., you will have a whole lot of repugs to keep you company after the next election. ;O)

Kerry:

Just a quick post to ask you which of “your” cartoons BC has published. Give me Issue# and date. As for the others he posts, well, he knows what I mean. “Get Your War On” is one that he got his butt kicked for posting without permission, and I have sent him copies of Ted Rall’s, but I make sure that Rall’s copyright notice is on the ones I send him. Ted would probably have no problem with BC putting them is if asked. Hey, I read the treehouse mostly for the cartoons, and the travel section. But BC could do a “h/t, meaning hat tip, to those who contribute. Other bloggers do.

As to your comprehension problem, I have never voted Republican except for Jim Jeffords in VT, who later quit the Rethugs and became an Independent, voting with the Dems. I probably will never vote for a Rethug, so I don’t know where you’re coming from in projecting that I do.

As to Hillary, a front runner in your dreams. And being pushed by the corporate media, because the Rethugs want her to be the candidate, because they assume they can beat her–with dirty tricks and smear–but beat her never-the-less. I think they have a plan.

And I explained why I won’t debate Bartcop on-line, besides the fact that I have two full time jobs.

And I’m all for a universal draft if that should happen, but a draft should be used only in the time of a critical national emergency, or invasion. We don’t have that now. And yes, the Bushes and the Cheneys can all go, pregnant or not.

And you assume that I defend the Rethugs and Bush; where does that come from? I have been against the Bush family for as long as they have been in politics. I hate the Rethugs, all of them.

I would consider debating BC through this blog though. But only on the condition that he doesn’t edit “snippage” my posts, as he has my emails.

Or is a biased debate the only thing acceptable to you “Kerry”. Cute name–are you a man?

Of course one of the great benefits of leaving the US (and I have lived in S. America, Canada and Europe) is that I don’t have to deal with people like you. I feel fine with that.

“VT” your nic or is that a typo on VD?

You still here??? I thought you were jumping ship and hauling off to parts unknown!

Like Bl4ckPOOp you just can’t tear yourself away.

Why not spend that hate you spew on writing to our “ELECTED EMPLOYEES” instead of bashing one of the fairest, kindest and most decent people I ever knew!

As for the comprehension problem you mentioned, I think you have a serious case of “transference”!

Bart has published 65 of my “TOONS” over the past year! Does GKerry or GK ring a bell?
OR IS IT JUST POSSIBLE THAT LIKE MOST PEOPLE YOU DON’T EVER LOOK AT WHOSE SIGNATURE IS ON A “TOON” OR REALLY GIVE A DAMN EXCEPT
FOR SOMETHING TO BITCH ABOUT! Look them up!

Bart had a toll free number up for a long time but none of the bitchers took him up on
debating anything. He has “LIVE CHAT” listed on his web page or are you still going
to wussy out of debating him?

Whether I am male or female does not matter for in either case YOU ARE NOT MY TYPE!

If your IQ were only half of Bart’s “64″ you could understand what he is saying and why.

Being only a “56″ myself, Bart is my HERO!

Now if you folks are though ranting and playing word cutesy we might be able to discuss
the subject matter of this thread with a modicum of civility and intelligence.

I am afraid that pulling 140,000 troops at once will create such a vacuum, that the whole region will explode…the Donald is correct
a phased pull out though, should begin immediately, so whatever security forces Iraq has, can start doing their job without thinkg ‘the americans will do it’
we can’t be there forever, we can’t have a base there…we all know how well that turned out, with saudia arabia
but 4 years, my god…USSR fought of the Nazis from their soil, and chased them back to Germany…and we are the superpower of the world, and can’t finish this?

oops. i forgot tobacco. it’s poison like booze. the acid environment in your body is part of the problem. become more alkaline and oxygenate.
this is not bullshit.

… Does anybody remember the immortal words of Ronnie Reagan … when he met the Pope of Rome in 1979, he said,

“Gawd-dang-it, JP, you know my ole Paw, he always said it, the only good Pole is a Dee Pole!”

Could that mean like the kind Bush/Clinton has dug for the skYanki army in Iraq? St. Ronnie truely was a Prophet!

Maybe it would save transport costs (and help the environment) if those 150,000 skYanki GameBoy warcriminals could just be sacrificed down there, their blood used to water the tree of Iraqi Patriotism - then the Ay-Raab Sand-Niggers won’t feel the urge to surge and purge any of us Homelander Rapists for revenge.

Keep payin them Taxes, Good Monkey, as wars don’t pay for themselves, despite what your PNAC brainbugs try to tell you. Over

OK, people, just for a test, right-click-save to download + watch , the type of thing your petty 2-party PSYop’s opinion-controllers like BlurtCrap will never show you - LEARN SOMETHING, then ask yourself - “Is it POSSIBLE for Bush/Clinton and their whole skYanki Army to beat this? What would it take to enable ME to do something like THAT?” - because if you truely loved freedom and democracy, or had a clue what those words mean, this is exactly what you would be doing RIGHT NOW to the Bush/Clinton SYSTEM and THEIR troops also.

Al Furqan Multimedia Foundation - (5 minute clip, 33MB .rmvb)

PS: BushCock has not yet censored this material, but I remain confident he will reflexively do the bidding of his masters just as soon as he wakes up from his latest drunken dreams of slobbering over Clintona’s soiled Übermensch unterkacks - such politically illiterate little automata make the best Nazi party functionaries, just give them the armband, they get all high on it.

Folks, I invite you to dl this short REALITY SHOW, the type of thing opinion-controllers would not want you to see - then ask yourself - “Is it POSSIBLE for the whole skYanki Army to beat this? What would it take to enable ME to do something like THAT?”

“Iraqis Welcome US Invaders to Ramadi - 14 Mar 2007″
h.ttp://ia300003.us.archive.org/2/items/jhwqAY/V1.rmvb

To get around BlurtCrap’s warmongering censorshit, paste the URL-address for video above, remove the dot from h.ttp et voila, DL + save

-or-

use this HOTLINK (between the “–>… …… Iraqis Welcome US Invaders to Ramadi - 14 Mar 2007 …

Gee! I go away a few day and lookit!. Hokey smoke, it’s halfway up the walls!

Ok, not to fan the flames but…
this little thingie right above the comment field that begins

You can use these tags:

has been wrong since bartblog day one. I ran across it within the first six posts in this blog. Wrote a letter to TPTB - never got a reply or nothing (unusual)
Now I will agree oh NubianHeterophant, it sure do “look” like you are being censored when it happens - but you isn’t!
It’s just the HTML that’s totally FUBARed.
Plus a wee bit of Wordpress weirdness.
Format your next post on a WYSIWYG editor and see if’n it don’t turn out a whole lot better.

jje

Kerry said:

“Being only a “56″ myself, Bart is my HERO!”

I believe you.

“Now if you folks are though ranting and playing word cutesy we might be able to discuss the subject matter of this thread with a modicum of civility and intelligence.”

Hey DumbAss, you were the one who started the shit. You sound like the rethugs after they got their asses kicked–oh can we be non-partisan now? Hypocrite.

3- The Zionist Neo Cons’ plan, was to colonize and transform Iraq into a basis to an absolute and direct control over the petrol and the countries of the region, and move from Iraq and through the main strength of Iraq, to impose a new world colonialist order blackmailing every single nation in the world through using the petrol. This blackmail can’t be opposed for to resist against such a black mail will lead to the halt of every modern life phenomenon and to the destruction of the countries’ economies.. thus achieving the old and most beloved dream to the hearts of the Anglo-Saxon elite : making out of the present century, a US century.. But the Iraqi national Resistance with all its factions has destroyed the basis of this project which was to occupy Iraq successfully, rendering absolutely impossible to achieve the second plan i.e. to be fully in control of all the regional petrol countries and the third plan being to colonize the world.

The Iraqis in this very sense have achieved a formidable global strategic coup d’état against the US colonialism - preventing it from holding successfully to Iraq, i.e. forcing it to a halt and preventing it from achieving any progress, then confronting it through combat and finally make out of it, a daily target which endures killer blows, in order to bleed the US economy and its human resources and destroy its reputation of the black mail and assert to the whole wide world that the US is (a paper tiger) with all the very meaning of this saying.. Failed Nikita Khrushchev, the former USSR Premier when it uttered that..when applying it to a nuclear super power. Mao Tse Dong the historic China leader mocked the Soviet leader at that time saying.: ( It is a tiger paper indeed but with nuclear fangs) !Only the Iraq of the Resistance and the Baath has ascertained that the US is a paper tiger when Iraq succeeded into uprooting the US nuclear fangs and made of the US a mangy itchy errant dog looking for a place to hide fleeing the blows and the wrath of the lions of Iraq!

Following the defeat of the US, the world over freed itself from the blackmail of the US force, challenging the US. as it happened in South America known as the (US back yard). Furthermore the armed Resistance against the US-European Occupation in Afghanistan has evolved fast affected by and imitating the Iraqi revolution and learning from the Iraqis developed combating means and styles which were a creative and unique mix on how to use a guerrilla war and the styles of a regular army which changed into a guerrilla….This army is army of Iraq! The army of one million soldiers, the armly of the experienced one million combatants.. and the world over saw for the first time ever in its history a guerrilla war relying mainly on a regular and formidable developed army.. Thus the US and the NATO alliance realized that they were trapped into a killer quagmire they won’t be able to quit except to the grave of the fatal defeat.

The Iraqi Resistance has severed the claws of the West’ colonialist savages’ and mainly those of the beastly US when they realized that the colonialist era will not rise from its grave after the Soviet Union death except for a glimpse of time because the popular forces combating for freedom, specially in Iraq and Palestine, enjoys a Resistance’ and a sacrifices’ will far greater than that of the Soviet Union’. That is why and for this very reason they succeeded into bringing colonialism to its grave while still alive and kicking!

Today while we enter the fifth year of the Occupation, the world over has become convinced that the armed Iraqi Resistance has been the only super power which dwarfed the US hegemony and has dragged the US filthy nose into the mire of the bitter defeat.. bringing to a halt the rampaging US buffalo’s global and regional ambitions.. and forcing it to delay or to cancel its expansionist projects and completely re consider its global strategy! The most striking proof of the US strategic defeat is when it frankly admitted that the US military strategy relied upon for decades and based on undergoing two wars at the same time in two different countries or regions, has been wrecked by the Iraqi Resistance, for the US failed in one single war which is the Iraq war!

4- The US Zionists have widely spread a false opinion that the Arab nation is the nation of the defeats, underdevelopment, cowardice, egoism and scattering that is why its destiny is to disappear or to be enslaved to the West and to Zionism.. and to Iran..these days..But the Iraqi Resistance has wrecked this theory and proofed to the world over that the Arab is not only more courageous than the Colonialism and the Zionism armies but he is even smarter and more genius and has deeper humanity and farther vision than any Western and Zionism models..Sometime this truth was shaken and has replaced in others the well know model of the Arab in the world and drew a new picture for the Arab known for his rare courage and wisdom and his wish to lead the way.

The greatest and the outstanding incarnation of the mythical and heroic Arab is the image of Saddam Hussein as a combatant who started and led the Resistance, and as an intrepid detainee who put fear into his jailers’ hearts and made the world mock the US.. and as a martyr mounting the execution stage smiling and praying God and cursing the US and Iran. This picture has attracted the admiration of the world.. shook and changed the given ideas and prejudices of millions of people who knew martyr Saddam through a western Media which wanted to demonize him though lies but when the decisive moments arrived, every body discovered that Saddam Hussein refused to make any compromise with the US while he was threatened with death and refused every backing off over principles and Iraq and the Arab nation interests. The Baath has drawn again the image of the Arab in the world as it is in reality and this an outstanding formidable achievement.

On the fifth year of the occupation, the Arab will not be seen by the world with his ogal and keffiah, his fat protuberant potbelly and through the fleet of his concubines’ cars as drawn by the Zionist west, but the Arab has become Saddam Hussein with his nobility, heroism, purity, wisdom, a symbol and a good example to follow, smiling, while the jailer- torturer puts the death rope around his neck.

I’m sure Bart must be tired of explaining every day to every obnoxious ranter who cannot explain why he hates Hillary and why backing her as the Democratic front runner makes sense and why Democrats should unite and stop bashing her and why it would accomplish nothing for her to admit guilt for the bushgangs lies.

I wish Bart would write it up in detail, put it on a separate page with a link to it on his WebPage for those who only “look at the “cartoons” and humor then bitch about your views without knowing the facts. Then do the same thing with the “troop withdrawal” information so those with a lesser ability
to think and reason for themselves may just possibly be able to understand.

There was a point when we could have started bringing the troops home but thanks to chickenhawk dubya’s fake machismo “Bring ‘em on!” and “Staying the Course” BS we have passed the point of no return and our exhausted troops are mired in bush’s quagmire with no end in site.

Evidently no one ever explained to the idiot-in-chief that to continue hitting a hornet’s nest will not calm the hornets or that you cannot put out a fire by throwing more wood on the flames!

VT, I’m sure we are all waiting breathlessly to see the creative endeavors of your GENIUS mind. So won’t you please tell us where they are published…. or do you only use your computer to look at “TOONS” and to bitch and bash those whose talents you envy?

And Kerry, if I ever needed a reason to abandon Bartcop, it has been provided in the form of his very own Dittoheads, like you. It is amazing, and amusing, that the person who he despises the most has provided the template for his own fan club. Dittoheads. Ditto, just as stupidly in lockstep. BC should be embarassed, but as we can see from the emails he posts, he loves it. Egotistical vanity is so…….Bill O’Reilly like.

The general interest is the justification and basis for the operation of the state, with every citizen, free of all forms of discrimination, sharing in the fruits of national wealth and social development.

The United States established a collision course confrontation with Iraqi society when it liquidated the Iraqi state, destroying its accomplishments and erasing its memory. It was oblivious to the simple truth that society is not a political movement or head of state that can be conquered, apprehended, bribed or killed; rather, it is all the living people in a given country.

Like other live societies, Iraqi society possesses huge capabilities — a sophisticated legacy based on ancient civilisations and an experienced patriotic movement. Occupation forces faced from the first day a resolute resistance, culminating in an uprising by all Iraqi movements and organisations, including those defending women or unemployed youth, human rights organisations, trade unions, professional syndicates, agencies defending Iraq’s environment and the rights of prisoners, and all other cultural and political organisations, side-by-side with provincial and tribal communities and peaceful and armed resistance groups. A national popular movement, opposed to occupation and sectarianism, developed taking various forms, from civil to armed resistance.

In struggling against military-imperial powers, Iraqis fight in defence of values around which a majority in the world gathers in consensus.

In contrast, the sheer level of force to which Iraqis have been subjected by imperial powers — from systematic murder and rape, the desecration of religious and cultural sites and the destruction of Iraq’s historic heritage, the poisoning of Iraq’s landscape and rivers by radioactive weapons that will mark the lives of its future generations for hundreds, if not thousands of years, the terrorising of a whole national population and its attempted division along lines leading to all out civil war, the plunder of its resources — prove the decadence and utter immorality of the neo-liberal/neo- conservative agenda.

The struggle of Iraq is a struggle for civilisation, for culture, for justice, and for not reducing human life to mere production and consumption or the conquest of others. Indeed, the present uprising of Iraqis is not only a part of the wider struggle against savage globalisation and “free” capital, it is its forefront battle. It is because the Iraqis refuse to surrender their sovereignty to multinational corporations that Iraq is being destroyed so viciously.

While the occupation is a disaster for the United States, for Iraqi society it is a catastrophe. With the aid of its allies, the US has destroyed all that Iraqis built in modern times.

It should come as no surprise that Iraqis will continue struggling against the occupation in order to restore their society. The large educated and marginalised middle class, along with the impoverished working class and unemployed youth deprived of state subsidies, have no interest in collaborating with the US policy of creating a class of blood-soaked feudal warlords. Resistance is the only path for Iraqis to true liberty, democracy, peace, dignity and achieving their interests, both as individuals and as a people. The US administration has succeeded in nothing but destruction, bloodshed and lies.

The Iraqi Resistance is by definition democratic as it is the spontaneous expression of a people who took its destiny into its hands, and is by definition progressive as it defends the interests of the people.

While Western societies pose as being democratic, street action and popular consensus over the past four years has proven that Western structures of political governance are impervious to popular will. Despite its failure to solidify our trust in our ability to change history, the anti-war and anti-globalisation movement, in its various forms of expression, proves that the people understand the current divorce between their aspirations and the individuals, parties and institutions that are supposed to represent and defend them and their interests.

New ways of civil struggle must be found, and urgently. While its failure is comprehensive, this US administration shows no sign of changing course. Iraq and the world cannot wait until November 2008, by which time this US administration and its local collaborators could have killed another one million Iraqis on top of the one million killed since 2003. Rigorous action is needed, including the impeachment and prosecution of responsible state leaders and officials for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide.

We should support the call of Tun Dr Mahatir Mohammed to criminalise war as a means of resolving disputes among nations. We should support this call not only because war is a crime, but also because war again has been proven useless. Iraq cannot be broken and cannot be subjugated.

The defeat of the United States and the occupation should be a lesson; that never again a military force tries to subjugate the people of another country. The US did not and cannot achieve its goals, even if it exterminates whole sections of Iraqi society. To succeed in stopping this insanity, the anti- war movement must revise all its terminology and refuse the terms dictated by the occupation.

We must condemn the ignorance that accepts the dehumanising of the other. We must refuse the word “insurgency” and substitute it for what exists in reality: legitimate and legal resistance against a vicious foreign occupation. Occupation is a de facto condition, not a de jure determination. With around 200,000 foreign forces on Iraqi soil, Iraq cannot be but described as an occupied country. Detainees in Iraq should thus be considered prisoners of war, with all the protected rights the Third Geneva Convention assures them.

We ought all to be humbled by the losses this people has been prepared to endure for our sake and demand the complete, unconditional and immediate withdrawal of occupation forces from Iraqi soil, along with the cancellation of any law, treaty, agreement or contract passed under occupation and the fair payment of reparations and compensations for the tragic human and material loses the Iraqis have suffered in defence of civilisation.

We must refuse in total the culture of the military-imperial state if we are to contribute to the wave of resistance rising worldwide in defence of civilisation, justice, independence and coexistence.

We must retrieve recognition from any entity imposed by the United States and that claims to represent the people of Iraq. Long live the Iraqi people and its sole representative, the Iraqi Resistance.

—

* The writer is a member of the Executive Committee of The BRussells Tribunal (www.brussellstribunal.org). A version of this article was first published on Global Research (www.globalresearch.ca).