Thursday, February 15, 2018

Iraq snapshot

Thursday, February 15, 2018.  15 years ago today . . .


Today's an important day.


15 years ago today Jeremy Corbyn spoke at the historic protest against the Iraq war




Today is the 15-year anniversary of the largest protest event in history – the Feb. 15, 2003 demonstrations against the imminent US invasion of . On this occasion we republish an article detailing concerns that drove millions to take the streets.




Why so little coverage of today?

Well, it's not like the press can call us treasonous -- that is what some of them called us in 2003, remember?

"Treason."  To protest an impending war was "treason."

To protest a war being built on lies was "treason."

We knew.

The 'experts' didn't know, but we did.

That's why we turned out in the largest numbers ever around the world.

Because we knew this was an illegal war.  We knew we were being lied to.

And the press spat on us, lied about us, called us names.

That same press isn't interested in telling us today about the protests.

They sold the IraqWar.

They sold it with lies as well as with character attacks on us.

Remember, they're about making money, not about telling the truth.

And the truth about what they did 15 years ago doesn't fit with their image of 'truth tellers' today.

Meryl Streep was no where to be found 15 years ago.  But today she whores her ugly ass to prop up the press as some wonderful body out to protect us.  To do that, she has to appear in a film that lies and that's set in the early 70s which says a great deal -- all bad -- about the press itself.

We stood together 15 years ago and we were a rebuke to the governments wanting war and to the press selling it.

Our actions were evidence that it was obvious all along that the Iraq War was built on lies.

Honoring us, remembering us, today would be to indict themselves.

So they instead they try to disappear us.

Because we did make a difference.

We hoped to stop the war before it started.

That we failed at.

But we were a living testament against the war.

And we were right.

And that doesn't just sting them to this day, it's helped prevent larger wars, it's made them scared to get honest about troops stationed here and there.



15 years ago on this day, millions of people took to the streets across the world to protest against the invasion of Iraq. The Anti-War movement at the time, predicted huge unrest and instability in the Middle East and Iraq if an invasion where to take place. Sadly proven right.


The was very important ad showed large numbers of people in US and UK didn’t accept the lies and propaganda of the warmongers. The movement also politicised a generation of activists such as myself who were outraged by the sheer barbarity of the war in Iraq and the lies told.




And whilst we didn’t stop the war on Iraq , the war machine that wanted to invade and target more countries was halted. We can be proud of that. Also, ultimately the anti-war movement eventually brought down Tony Blair, the “peacekeeper” with blood on his hands.




The protests 15 years ago mattered and they matter to this day.


To get the war they wanted, they had to lie.  They lie to this day.

Take the Secretary-General of the United Nations.


The fighting in Iraq is over, but the task ahead is enormous. The UN stands with Iraqis as they build a country that is committed to unity and inclusivity.





The fighting is over?

Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) just reported:


At least 15 people were killed, and two were wounded in recent violence:
A bomb killed a cattle rancher in Muqdadiya.
A sticky bomb in Ilam killed one person.
In Baghdad, a bomb at a market left two wounded.

Thirteen militants were killed in airstrikes on Tal Afar, near Mosul.


But, hey, the fighting's over.

Once again, it's don't believe what's happening, believe what we tell you is happening.




Iraq held a fundraiser in Kuwait.  They wanted between $88 and $100 billion dollars.  They only got $30 billion.  Worse, not all of that was a gift/donation -- that figure also includes loans.

REUTERS reports:

Iraq received pledges of $30 billion, mostly in credit facilities and investment, on Wednesday from allies but this fell short of the $88 billion Baghdad says it needs to recover from three years of war.
[. . .]
“If we compare what we got today to what we need, it is no secret, it is of course much lower than what Iraq needs,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told a news conference.




The following community sites -- plus PACIFICA EVENING NEWS, BLACK AGENDA REPORT, GORILLA NEWS and LATINO USA -- updated: