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[Emptywheel] Emptywheel » Anthrax Attack Used to Justify the Iraq War: Also, on September 26, well before any reports of real anthrax attacks, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd will write, “Americans are now confronted with the specter of terrorists in crop dusters and hazardous-waste trucks spreading really terrifying, deadly toxins like plague, smallpox, blister agents, nerve gas and botulism. Women I know in New York and Washington”¦ share information on which pharmacies still have Cipro, Zithromax and Doxycycline, all antibiotics that can be used for anthrax, the way they once traded tips on designer shoe bargains.” [New York Times, 9/26/2001]

[openDemocracy] The waning influence of political Islam in Iraq | openDemocracy: However, it has since been shown that these Islamic parties were only united because of their hostility to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. After taking power, the Islamist parties have been hampered by their political, ideological and religious differences, which later led to a power-sharing government based on ethnic or sectarian identity.

[AboveTopSecret.com New Topics In Breaking Alternative News] UK diplomat: U.S. was 'hell bent' on Iraq invasion, page 1: Tricked again by the United States whose Secretary of State Madelyn Albright pretty much gave everything butwritten assurances that the United States wouldn’t take exception to Iraq going to war with Kuwait which was once a part of Iraq before the Britishredrew the maps of the region when they finally gave up colonial rule of the area. Most of Iraq’s infrastructure was bombed into a parking lot bythe 1st Gulf War where much to the chagrin of many Iraqis we didn’t even bother to remove Saddam from power but instead proceeded for the nextdecade to force them to endure withering sanctions that the United Nations Secretary General’s family and the Hussein family profited nicely off ofbut led to massive hardships and premature death for well hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

[Care2 News Network] Casualties in Afghanistan & Iraq - Iraqi civilians seriously ...: [18] U.S. troops seriously injured in Iraq: Based on numbers announced by US Department of Defense and CENTCOM, and tracked by the good folks at Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. (According to this article by Salon reporter Mark Benjamin, an additional 25,289 service members had been evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan for injuries or illnesses, but not included in the official numbers and not included in the numbers presented on this page.)

[Alan OldStudent's Musings Blog] The Real Reason For The War in Iraq. « Alan OldStudent's Musings Blog: f and when the Iraqi government collapses and plunges that unfortunate country into yet another orgy of bloodletting, there will suddenly be a large and vicious argument about “who lost Iraq,” and all that sweet talk about bipartisanship and looking to the future instead of the past will become very unfashionable indeed.

[News, Opionion and Features from Asharq Alawsat English Edition] Iran's Grand Design for Iraq Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English): Official mullahs, such as Ahmad Khatami, a preacher at the Friday prayers at Tehran University, pretend to have never heard the word "Iraq." To them, Iraq is either "Bayn al-Nahrayn" (Mesopotamia) or "Atabat al-Aliyat" (The Holy shrines). Apparently, even the war that lasted eight years and left a million dead has not convinced them that Iraq is a sovereign state.

[Men's Journal] Why Haven't We Cleaned Up Iraq? | Men's Journal: Founded in 1972 and based in Nairobi, the environmental arm of the United Nations launched a comprehensive investigation in response to claims of DU poisoning in the Balkans, where NATO aircraft used the penetrators to destroy Serb armor in the 1990s. Seven years after the end of hostilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they could only conclude that, given proper containment, “the levels of DU contamination are not a cause for alarm.”

[Dave's Part] Chilcot Inquiry: shoot first, ask questions later (Dave's Part): THE most sensible time to ponder reasons for going to war is surely prior to the commencement of hostilities, and not six years after the fighting finishes. Whatever the outcome of Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the whys are wherefores of the occupation of Iraq, the entire exercise can only ever be about as useful as an investigation into world war two might have proved, if staged circa 1951.

[blogfrommiddleeast.com] Iran's Grand Design for Iraq: The threat was that Iraq, the only country apart from Iran where Shiites are a majority, might become a modern democratic state and a rival for the Khomeinist model. The opportunity was for Iran to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of the Iraqi state, thus realizing the dream of dominating Iraq.

Mudville Gazette: The government killed the civilians out of fear that they would help the Communists who were invading from the north and forcing South Korean and American forces into retreat during the first desperate weeks of the war, the commission said. Although the panel has reported on similar civilian massacres in the past, the announcement Thursday represented the first time that a state investigative agency confirmed the nature and scale of what is known as "the National Guidance League incident" - one of the most horrific and controversial episodes of the war.

[SWJ Blog] 27 November SWJ Roundup (SWJ Blog): Metz concludes that the United States has a long-standing, continuing problem “developing sound assumptions when the opponent operates within a different psychological and cultural framework.” He sees a pattern of misjudgments about Saddam and Iraq based on Western cultural and historical bias and a pervasive faith in the superiority of America’s worldview and institutions. This myopia contributed to America being caught off guard by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, then underestimating his longevity, and finally miscalculating the likelihood of a stable and democratic Iraq after he was toppled.

Mudville Gazette: Obama's budget experts size it up at twice that much. The Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq has rebounded in strength in recent months and appears to be launching a concerted effort to cripple the Iraqi government as U.S. troops withdraw, Iraqi and American officials say.

[America at War] The Folly of Persistent Warfare/Engagement: Reflections of U.S. ...: America’s decision to garrison Iraq after its initial goals of removing Saddam and eliminating WMD were achieved added little, if anything, of strategic value to American security, but the presence of so many conventional American forces did present America’s enemies in the Muslim world with an opportunity they would have otherwise missed: the chance to directly attack U.S. forces, damage American military prestige and exhaust American economic resources while strengthening their own. By the beginning of 2008, the most serious unanticipated outcome of this exposure was a monthly bill of $12 billion to maintain U.S. forces in support of a Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad that was and is effectively tied to Iran.

[Therearenosunglasses's Weblog] The Shia-Sunni faultline « Therearenosunglasses's Weblog: Another leading Iraqi MP, who is a member of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Sami al Askari, averred: “Saudi Arabia is not happy that Shias lead this country.” The Iraqis note that three Sunni Arab countries ”” Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt ”” are yet to establish diplomatic missions in Baghdad.

Mudville Gazette: The Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq has rebounded in strength in recent months and appears to be launching a concerted effort to cripple the Iraqi government as U.S. troops withdraw, Iraqi and American officials say. The group asserted responsibility for four powerful bombings that targeted five government buildings in Baghdad in August and October -- the deadliest attacks directed at the government in more than six years of war.

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