He's in the place most rational Americans are in with Foreign Policy. What he needs to do is give the same exact answers when War Mongering idiots like Bull O and Hannity ask him the same questions and aggressively press him on his sane views about American intervention, and not pander to those fools and their audiences.
Neville Chamberlain: 'Peace In Our Time'
Munich Agreement: Neville Chamberlain returns to Britainfrom Munich where he, Benito Mussolini of Italy and Édouard Daladier of France have agreed to allow Adolf Hitler seize the ethnicGerman Sudetenland regions of Czechoslovakia.
When he arrives at 10 Downing Street he delivers his infamous speech in which he says that he is delivering "peace for our time" to the British people. It will be remembered largely for its irony because in eleven months, NaziGermany will invade Poland and start World War II.
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| UN experts confirmed in 1986 that Iraq had contravened the Geneva Convention by using chemical weapons against Iran.
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Iraq is known to have used the blister agent mustard gas from 1983 and the nerve gas Tabun from 1985, as it faced attacks from "human waves" of Iranian troops and poorly-trained but loyal volunteers. Tabun can kill within minutes.
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Some Kurdish guerrilla forces had joined the Iranian offensive.
On 16 March 1988, Iraq dropped bombs containing mustard gas, Sarin and Tabun on the Kurdish city of Halabja.
Estimates of the number of civilians killed range from 3,200 to 5,000, with many survivors suffering long-term health problems.
Chemical weapons were also used during Iraq's "Anfal" offensive - a seven-month scorched-earth campaign in which an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 Kurdish villagers were killed or disappeared, and hundreds of villages were razed.
A UN security council statement condemning Iraq's use of chemical weapons in the war was issued in 1986, but the US and other western governments continued supporting Baghdad militarily and politically into the closing stages of the war.
[h=1]Saddam drains the life of the Marsh Arabs: The Arabs of southern Iraq cannot endure their villages being bombed and their land being poisoned, and are seeking refuge in Iran. Michael Wood reports from Huwaiza Marsh on the death of a 5,000-year-old culture[/h]
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MICHAEL WOOD
Saturday 28 August 1993
BEYOND Susangerd the road heads westwards and straight for 50km to the Iraqi border. By mid-morning the heat and humidity are barely endurable. Soon the scrubby desert gives way to intermittent pools, and then suddenly the marsh opens out on both sides of the causeway - a great sheet of water stretching to the horizon, dotted with clumps of reed. This is Huwaiza Marsh.
'Wait until we enter the reedbeds,' says the driver, 'it's like hitting a wall of heat.' Finally you reach a place called Himmet - not really a place at all, just a spot on a dirt road raised a few feet above the swamp. This is where the Iraqi refugees live, Marsh Arabs who have fled Saddam's terror. Their shelters straggle along four kilometers of road to the last military post. There is not a drop of shelter here, but the Marsh Arabs are adept at making something out of nothing and they've thrown up reed shanties all over the levees.
In the haze on the horizon, Iraqi military vehicles and dump-trucks can be seen raising clouds of dust; they are building a massive new dyke running north-south through Huwaiza which will cut off the last line of escape from Iraq to Himmet. President Saddam Hussein's slow genocide of the Marsh Arabs is reaching its climax.
The encirclement and destruction of the Marsh Arabs and the annihilation of their 5,000-year-old culture have been brought about by the deliberate draining of their unique habitat - the 6,000-square-mile marshes of southern Iraq. This environmental and human disaster has been long in the planning. The Iraqi regime continues to deny it. It claims the draining is part of an agricultural improvement plan which will benefit the people of the region.
Documents captured during the Kurdish uprising show that President Saddam approved the plan for the marshes in December 1988. Burning, terror, murder and starvation of the marsh people, poisoning the water, economic blockade and damming the rivers - were all part of the plan. When the Shia revolt had been crushed in the cities, President Saddam turned his fury against the people in the marshes.
According to the Iraqi army, in December 1991 and January 1992 over 70 marsh villages were destroyed and 50,000 people removed. The assault continued throughout 1992. There are records of attacks almost every day. Huge tracts of the marshes were drained by using earth barriers to block the tributaries of the Tigris which feed the Amara marshes and by damming the Euphrates below Nasiriyah.
Satellite photos taken last August showed the big lakes shrunken and a 1,000-square-mile rectangle of marsh dried out north of Qurnah and west of the Amara-Basra highway. When an Iraqi engineer was captured by the mujahedin last October with his plans and maps of the earthworks, they confirmed the scale and objective of President Saddam's campaign. New satellite photos and eyewitness accounts show that the whole of the central marshes between the two rivers are now dry.
Meanwhile, with the water receding, the people have been forced to move - first to find drinking water, then to escape the area altogther. The exodus had begun.
In the last two months 5,000 Marsh Arab refugees have arrived at Himmet - to add to the ten times as many Shia who have lived in nearby camps since their failed uprising against the regime after the Gulf war. The newcomers live on the road, and more refugees are expected soon, as President Saddam's ring of steel closes. No one knows how many are still trapped inside: estimates range from tens of thousands to a quarter of a million.
Those who have managed to get out describe artillery attacks by the Iraqi army. Many say they travelled through the night with their children and hid during the day. 'We covered ourselves with mud and hid in a fetid pool at one point so they wouldn't see us,' said an elderly woman from Al Agger.
Most of the people at Himmet have witnessed President Saddam's atrocities. The story of one village - Al Agger, in the Amara marshes - can stand for hundreds of others. The people were shelled several times in October 1991 and April 1992 before the notorious attack of 20 May last year, when two helicopter gunships rocketed a wedding. At least 13 people were killed, including the groom and his nine-year-old sister. More than 20 others were injured. Several members of the two families have escaped to Himmet and have recounted what happened.
But this was not the end of the suffering of the people of Al Agger. In July last year 30 people were killed by an attack with shells and firebombs.
A witness recalls that by early August last year 'We were brought under by drought and lack of water. The farm animals were dying and the rice crops were lost. Then the people started to leave, to follow the water and stay alive.' Those who remained were ferociously attacked again for two days in December when the temperatures were below zero.
By February of this year, Al Agger was deserted, the houses burnt, the school and clinic smashed. In the centre of the village were graves marked by a lettered black flag on which were painted in Arabic the words 'Redeemer Save Us'.
'We used to be people who gave to others,' said one old man of the village. 'We were always generous to people in need. This was our tradition. We had a guest hut where we fed strangers and travellers. Now we have no buffalo, no cows, no boats. Now we have to sit here and wait for someone to come and give us enough flour to make one piece of bread. Now we have to search the marsh shore to find some drinkable water for our children.'
Many of the refugees are women with their children whose menfolk have been killed. One day a volunteer working with the refugees was crossing Um al Naj lake in Iraq and spotted a young woman with three small children, struggling to pole her canoe. When he got closer to her, he saw a newborn baby in the bottom of the boat which she had just delivered. Though exhausted and bleeding profusely, she had rigged a cloth to shade her baby from the burning sun and was trying to get across to Iran. He was able to help her, to guide her to one of the passages through the marshes. He fetched a pick-up truck to meet her at Tabr, the nearest levee on the Iranian side. From there his colleagues got her to hospital in Susangerd.
There is a strained atmosphere here in Himmet. People who have lived in freedom are now confined. There are occasional fights, there is anger and much frustration. People queue at the medical tent; many of the young children have bloody diarrhoea or amoebic dysentry; there's a six-month-old girl with bad conjunctivitis. Most of the mothers have trouble giving milk, and of the 250 nursing infants here a dozen have died in the last few weeks.
In a shelter near the tent, a group of women quietly mourn a dead three- year-old girl with the beautiful laments which are at the heart of the Shia faith. Below them, in the marsh, two women punt towards the shore, their boat stacked with green reed stalks to make a roof for their hut.
Around eight o'clock in the evening there's a distant rumble of artillery, like a far-off roll of thunder. A spurt of flame leaps on the horizon - the rush of dried reedbeds going up. The Iranian border troops say the Iraqis are attacking one of the passages by which the refugees escape through Huwaiza. According to the refugees this happens most days, morning and evening. The fire in the reedbeds flares for a while and then dies down, leaving a smudge of smoke on the darkening skyline. We prepare to head back to Susangerd for the night.
'Please take us with you,' laughs one of the boys. 'Just help us to get out before the rest of our babies die,' says a woman from Al Agger.
Twenty supporters of the Marsh Arabs and their environment began an indefinite hunger strike on Wednesday outside the American Embassy in London.
I'm not a pacifist at all, and don't like ISIS and am fine with them being annihilated, I just want to be smart about it. I'm not a fan of endless war either though. Do you think the different groups in Iraq can live together without ruthless control of region? Do you think the state of Iraq can stay together without military occupation, or a ruthless dictator? What's your opinion on dividing it into three states?
Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, on August 2 1990,
More than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers backed up by 700 tanks invaded the Gulf state of Kuwait
The death toll at about 1,000,
After the Iraqi victory, Saddam Hussein installed Alaa Hussein Ali as the Prime Minister of the "Provisional Government of Free Kuwait" and Ali Hassan al-Majid as the de facto governorof Kuwait.
The exiled Kuwaiti royal family and other former government officials began an international campaign to persuade other countries to pressure Iraq to vacate Kuwait. TheUN Security Council passed 12 resolutions demanding immediate withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait, but to no avail.
Following the events of the Iraq-Kuwait war, about half of the Kuwaiti population, including 400,000 Kuwaits and several thousand foreign nationals, fled the country. The Indian government evacuated 111,711 overseas Indians by flying 488 flights over 59 days. It was the largest civilian evacuation in the history.
Alaa Hussein Ali was placed as head of apuppet government in Kuwait, prior to its brief annexation into Iraq.
During the 7-month occupation, the forces of Saddam Hussein looted Kuwait's vast wealth and there were also reports of violations of human rights.
A 2005 study revealed that the Iraqi occupation had a long-term adverse impact on the health of the Kuwaiti populace.
IRAQ IRAN WAR
Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq, quite deliberately started the war.
During the eight years between Iraq’s formal declaration of war on September 22, 1980, and Iran’s acceptance of a cease-fire with effect on July 20, 1988, at the very least half a million and possibly twice as many troops were killed on both sides, at least half a million became permanent invalids, some 228 billion dollars were directly expended, and more than 400 billion dollars of damage (mostly to oil facilities, but also to cities) was inflicted, mostly by artillery barrages.
They are a real threat in terms of killing some people, but they are not a real threat to America. Neither was Saddam. They are cave dwellers. If we didn't go to Iraq we'd be no less or more safe than we are right now. What a silly comment. By those standards we should wage a trillion dollar war against right wing extremist groups.
The destruction militarily of ISIS has to be total, just like the destruction of the AXIS (Germany Italy Japan). ISIS has to be destroyed along with its Sunni supporters in Iraq and Syria. Martial law is imposed in these areas and the tribal militias are ruthlessly annihilated and disarmed, the tribal system is destroyed. The Sunni areas are under strict control of the central government. Russia controlled all territory post second World War until the USSR collapsed, the defeated areas East Germany, Part of Berlin, Balkan States, Czechoslovakia, Romania etc . Even the US and Europe left large military presence in Germany and Japan after Hitler's defeat.
Kurds can have their own autonomous region. The Kurds are organised and respond to a central Kurdish command structure.
The Sunni areas of IRAQ can't be autonomous, because they will always try to take more territory and look towards an independent ISLAMIC state, which would be a cesspit for terrorism. The Sunni areas were the areas of troble that cost thousands of US lives post Gulf war (Sunni Triangle).
The Shia areas of IRAQ South of Baghdad are fine, they don't hardly know that there is a war going on in their own country.
Cave dwellers NO. JV Team NO.
[h=1]ISIS is 'beyond anything we have ever seen': Chuck Hagel warns terror network is an 'imminent threat to every interest we have'[/h]
- Defense Secretary spoke alongside Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey on Thursday
- Terror network in Iraq and Syria is 'an imminent threat to every interest we have,' he said
- Tensions are high in the Obama administration following a gruesome video showing an ISIS Islamist beheading American journalist James Foley
- Earlier in the day Texas Gov. Rick Perry warned that ISIS militants could be sneaking into the US across its border with Mexico
- A State Department spokeswoman said hours earlier that 'we do not pay ransoms' for prisoners
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel dramatically upgraded the U.S. government's estimation of the threats America faces from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Thursday, saying its jihadi network represents 'an imminent threat to every interest we have, whether it's in Iraq or anywhere else.'
ISIS is 'as sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen,' Hagel told a group of reporters during a joint press conference he held with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.
'They're beyond just a terrorist group.They marry ideology and a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess. They are tremendously well funded. ...This is beyond anything we've seen, so we must prepare for everything.'
'And the only way you do that is that you take a cold, steely, hard look at it and – and – and get ready.'
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Grave threat: Secretary of Defense Chuck hagel and Chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey at the press conference where they delivered the dire warning
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We did wage a war against extreme right wing and it was called Nazism ([FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, serif]Second World War, put at some $4.1 trillion in today's prices by the Congressional Budget Office.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, serif]They are a real threat to America. Or do you think we should go back to the American mentality of 1930's Isolationism.[/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, serif]Was Hitler a real threat to American soil.[/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, serif]They are a threat to America because American regional interests are threatened by them. The middle east is Militarily strategically important to America and it is economically important to America.
America is not defended by its borders, by its land mass. American security depends upon its bases and fleets around the world and its economy and it is the economy that finances its military security depende upon open and free trade routes and oceans around the world and the free flow of oil. ISIS running rampant in in the Middle East does threaten American security. [/FONT]
