The Common Ills: Reactions to Barack's Iraq revisionary history continue

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Reactions to Barack's Iraq revisionary history continue

Yesterday, US President Barack Obama made a fool out of himself as he attempted to justify and re-sell the Iraq War. DS Wright (Firedoglake) notes:

Yesterday President Barack Obama tried to claim that the United States government’s actions in the 2003 Iraq War were legal and different than Russia’s actions in Crimea because the US had “sought to work within the international system.” Apparently merely seeking to work within the international system is some kind of get out of jail free card. If one follows Obama’s logic then Russia need only to have “sought” a doomed UN resolution justifying the annexation of Crimea before doing so, this would have made their actions legitimate under Obama’s standard.

Pravda points out the curious nature of the speech itself, "The key event of Obama's European tour was his speech in the Brussels Palace of Fine Arts in front of 2,000 people. His lengthy discourse on the history and common values with Europeans was very quickly replaced with anti-Russian rhetoric.The speech turned out to be a dispute with Russian authorities, entirely devoted to the situation in Ukraine." Yes, it was a strange speech, both for topic and for tone. In fact, it was more of a spew than a speech. A Nation friend called to ask for a link to Greg Mitchell's blog post on Barack's remarks. The Voice of Russia notes:

Matt Howard and Ross Caputi, members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, spoke with Common Dreams by phone and said that the president's narrative on the events that led up to the Iraq invasion, inside or outside the context of Ukraine, was simply "not grounded in reality." "We went from one lie, which was weapons of mass destruction, to another lie which was liberation and freedom," said Howard. "This idea that Iraq is somehow better off or that the US waged a so-called 'Good War' is ridiculous."

As Barack attempts to re-write the illegal war, Iraq Body Count notes 875 violent deaths through yesterday for the month thus far.

And today?

National Iraqi News Agency reports a roadside bombing ("between Balad and Samarra") left 4 "women inspectors killed and eleven other women" injured, an Alzgartah Village home invasion left 1 woman dead and another woman and one child injured, a Mosul battle left 1 rebel dead and another injured, a Mosul roadside bombing left two Iraqi soldiers injured, security sources say they killed 3 suspects in Sinsil Village, a Tabbana Village battle left 1 police member and 1 rebel dead and a civilian injured, and, dropping back to last night, Nouri's continued shelling of Falluja's residential neighborhood left 2 civilians dead and five injured. Also again shelled by the military, Alsumaria notes, is Falluja General Hospital. Alsumaria adds an Ishaqi roadside bombing (south of Tikrit) left two Iraqi soldiers injured, 1 woman was shot dead and another civilian left injured in Kirkuk, a bombing northeast of Falluja left 5 Iraqi soldiers dead, a Tikrit bombing left a police member and his wife dead,

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley, the Guardian and Antiwar.com -- updated last night and this morning: