The final pull-out of US troops from Iraq marks the end, or perhaps just one stage of the end, of the biggest military disaster since Vietnam. Every US-UK goal behind the invasion has been lost, in some cases humiliatingly. Iran, the target for revenge after the sacking of the US embassy in 1979, emerges as [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Iraq’
Iraq and the Arab Spring: a thought experiment
Dec 15th, 2011 by David Osler.Very few things about the political state of Iraq can accurately be described as clear. But now that the flag has been cased and the last 4,000 US troops are on the way home, some sort of preliminary balance sheet is finally possible. As president Obama told the troops at the military base in Fort [...]
Liberal interventionism: an excuse for yet another war
Nov 2nd, 2011 by Daniel Blaney.For 10 years the peace movement has been on continuous high alert. We have had ‘liberal intervention’ in Afghanistan, Iraq and most recently in Libya. Even before September 11th 2001, we had NATO intervention in Yugoslavia and regular US/UK bombing raids over the misnamed ‘no fly zone’ of Iraq. During this time, public opinion in the UK has [...]
Bush and Blair finally lose war in Iraq
Oct 24th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Buried in all the reporting about Gadaffi’s death was a much more significant piece of news about the Middle East. Obama announced late on Friday night – with a timing very likely connected to the news from Libya – that all US troops will be withdrawan from Iraq in 2 months time. This is a [...]
The meaning of 9/11
Sep 12th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.9/11 remains one of the most misunderstood events in modern history. The first myth is that it came out of the blue on an unsuspecting America. In fact it is known that 11 countries provided advance warnings to the US about the 9/11 attacks, including Russia and Israel which sent 2 senior Mossad experts to [...]
Baha Mousa: not due to just a few rotten apples
Sep 9th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The killing of Baha Mousa, who died from 93 wounds inflicted by British soldiers at Basra in September 2003, cannot be dismissed as the obscene work of a few violent bullies who got out of control in this shameful incident. Nor is it reassuring to hear the MOD intone that all necessary reforms have now [...]
RIP Brian Haw, peace campaigner
Jun 19th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Brian Haw, veteran Parliament Square peace campaigner, died yesterday aged 62. His death was announced today in a joint press release by the Parliament Square Peace Campaign and his family. Brian Haw set up camp in Parliament Square Gardens in June 2001 in response to sanctions against Iraq, and his campaign was widened following the [...]
Labour hasn’t learned the right lessons from Iraq
May 27th, 2011 by Owen Jones.The last of Britain’s troops left Iraq last Sunday with just a cursory mention in the press. What a contrast to eight years earlier, when they poured across the border with Kuwait in a hail of missiles, bombs and bullets, the international media following their every move. It’s true that a national debate on Iraq [...]
What Bin Laden’s death really means
May 3rd, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Osama Bin Laden’s killing is a huge symbolic victory for the US, but just that – symbolic. Al Qaeda always was, and remains, a quintessentially decentralised organisation and over the last decade Bin Laden has never been able to sustain any significant organisational capability because of the risk of electronic detection. To that extent his [...]
Accountability breakdown: they keep getting away with it
Jan 24th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Four breakdowns in the last three days all point to the same central flaw which is now endemic in British society. Public order policing is out of control and clearly would have remained so for many years had not the undercover police spy Mark Kennedy gone native. Phone hacking of public figures we also now see has [...]
