Sunday, March 06, 2022

Look who remember Iraq long enough to use it as a political football

 Aaron Mate responds to Ben Burgis:


"What Putin is doing in Ukraine really is like what Bush did to Iraq", and those lefties who "don't get that are deeply unpleasant weirdos,"

declares. Let's put aside his totally pleasant ad hominem and evaluate his argument.


Bush fabricated a pretext & sabotaged diplomacy to invade Iraq, thousands of miles away. In neighboring Ukraine, Russia saw US back a 2014 coup; fuel a proxy war that has killed 14,000; try to expand NATO there; & meanwhile kill arms control treaties that limit US-RU arsenals.


A peace accord to end the Donbas war was reached in Minsk in 2015. The US says it supports it, but has put no pressure on Kiev to implement it, and the reason is obvious: it would take NATO membership off the table. See e.g. Anatol Lieven:
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US responded to Russia's proposals by refusing to abandon NATO for Ukraine. As I've said, I wish Putin had continued diplomacy instead of invading. But to say what he's doing is "really is like what Bush did to Iraq" is Iraq WMD-level US apologia.


Here's my response to Ben Burgis: Don't you dare use Iraq as a political football.  You're a piece of trash that never covers Iraq.  You're also a racist by your reading habits and literary god.  Take Iraq out of your whore mouth and let's all pretend like JACOBIN isn't really US SOCIALIST WORKER -- even though we know it is and even though we know racism and sexism ended US SOCIALIST WORKER.  It was so bad and so oppressive that it also took down ISR.  It wasn't that long ago and our memories are not that short.  Crawl back in your gutter and hope no one smells you.


I am so sick, as someone who deals with Iraq every day, of these piece of crap idiots thinking they can ignore Iraq for years yet still use it as a bullet point for one of their bad arguments.


I'm not surprised at all that Iraqi hackers went after CBS NEWS.  If anything surprises me, it's that they haven't gone after crap like Ben Burgis -- people who ignore what's going on but make room to toss Iraq into a conversation as an aside when they want to make a political point about something else.



Ajuma Baraka Tweets:


With all of the crimes by the U.S. state in global South, the people's in the South always separated their criticism of U.S. govt from the people of the U.S. But the crude, ignorant, liberal led public opinion in the U.S. does not seem to be making that distinction with Russia.



Exactly.  And their egged on, in this age of impotency (a concluding point in Ava and my latest that goes up in a second or two -- by 'leaders' like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton who openly call for the people of Russia to be brought to their knees.


I'm sorry, Hillary was First Lady.  Did she forget her place?  She complreted one full term as a senator and had an embarrassing run as Secretary of State -- statistcs demonstrate that harassment claims went up under her 'leadership.'  What exactly does she think makes her capable of commenting?


All her lying about Russia to excuse her s**t poor campaign?  If not locked up in prison, her latest behavior demonstrates she should be locked up in a mental care facility because, clearly, she's no longer just rabid, she's also delusional.  Very much a threat to herself and others.


On corrupt officials, let's note this ALJAZEERA report on corruption in Iraq.



Meanwhile  Julian Bechocha (RUDAW) reports:                                                                             

The US ambassador to Iraq pledged to support the country in battling water scarcity and various other water-related issues in a conference held in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Saturday, state media announced.

Matthew Tueller, the US ambassador to Iraq, addressed "important challenges affecting climate change and water resources" with Iraqi officials at the Second International Water Conference in Baghdad, as climate change worsens the availability of water in Iraq.  

According to Tueller, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Iraq's Ministry of Water Resources signed a memorandum of understanding to "support the Iraqi government in water resource operations," and reaffirmed US support to tackle water shortage in Iraq.

Water stress is a severe issue in Iraq. The country is the fifth-most vulnerable nation to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity, according to the United Nations (UN), yet it is lagging behind its neighbors when it comes to a plan to protect its water resources.

The World Bank warned in October that Iraq is running out of water with devastating consequences on its economy, stressing the failure to manage water resources as a key damaging factor. 


Interesting report, but one thing:

The US ambassador to Iraq pledged to support the country in battling water scarcity and various other water-related issues in a conference held in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Saturday, state media announced.


Tuller's pledging his support, is he?  On his way out the door?  The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held their confirmation hearing on Alina Romanowski to become the new Ambassador to Iraq.



The following sites updated:



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