Iraq War and Occupation

Orwell in charge? Kucinich compares Iraq ‘exit’ to Bush’s ‘Mission Accomplished’

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Ron Brynaert writes for Raw Story:

Congressman "Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today challenged the notion that removing ‘combat brigades’ but leaving 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq constitutes an end to combat operations, let alone an end to the war," a press release sent to RAW STORY on Thursday stated."

US exit from Iraq is a phoney withdrawal

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Ranj Alaaldin writes for the Guardian UK:

The media and commentators alike have hailed the so-called US withdrawal as the end of the US in Iraq. It is, however, no withdrawal – combat or otherwise – no matter how many times you call it that.

Healthcare Not Warfare Vigils in 82 Districts on March 17th

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HEALTHCARE NOT WARFARE VIGILS IN 82 DISTRICTS ON MARCH 17 | Press Release

Labor and advocacy groups organized "brown bag" lunch vigils against war funding in 22 congressional districts in January and 67 in February. Currently 82 are planned for March 17th, with more being added. Organizations participating include: Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), AfterDowningStreet, the Backbone Campaign, Democrats.com, the California Nurses Association / National Nurses Organizing Committee, Healthcare Now, CodePINK, and United for Peace and Justice.


On March 10th, 65 members of Congress voted to end the occupation of Afghanistan.  Yet only 14 have publicly committed to voting No on funding the same war.  A $33 billion supplemental spending bill for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is expected to be voted on in April or May.  
Brownbaggers are asking members of the House to publicly commit to voting No on any bills that fund wars, and to publicly urge their colleagues and the House leadership to make the same commitment. As lesser steps in the same direction, the Brown Bag Vigils are encouraging congress members to cosponsor HR 2454, calling for an exit strategy from Afghanistan, and HR 3699, prohibiting any increase in the number of U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan. Congress members' commitments are tracked at defundwar.org.

Vigil participants, who support a shift in resources from warfare to healthcare, are also asking their representatives to join the growing movement calling for "Medicare for All" by demanding passage of the Kucinich amendment facilitating state-level single-payer healthcare and by offering their support to single-payer efforts moving forward in state legislatures, including in California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Soldier Marc Hall's Freedom Rap Song Lands Him in Liberty Jail

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By Dave Lindorff

In the ironically named Liberty County Jail since December 11 sits Army Specialist and Iraq War veteran Marc Hall, a rap musician who had the audacity to write a song attacking the Pentagon for subjecting him to a so-called stop-loss order after he had finished his Army tour and had returned from a posting in Iraq.

Democrats and the Corporate Media: Looking for Green Shoots in an Economic Desert

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By Dave Lindorff

So much for economic “green shoots.”

The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve, along with the servile corporate media, have been quick to grasp at and trumpet every little suggestion that things might be improving, as they did when the Labor Dept. announced last week that new unemployment claims had dropped to “just” 434,000, from a high of 684,000 in the week ended March 28 or last year.

Or when the Commerce Dept. reported last month that November housing starts had risen by 8.9% compared to the prior month.

What a Hell of a Year! Good Riddance to It!

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By Dave Lindorff

You know, the year 2009 started out kind of nicely. We watched Barack Obama take the oath of office, serenaded by the awesome Aretha Franklin (wearing her awesome hat), after first hearing Pete Seeger sing the real Woody Guthrie verses to "This Land Is Your Land" on the steps of the Lincoln Monument.

Barack Obama: Manchurian Candidate Version 2.0

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By Dave Lindorff

I once wrote an article
about former President George W. Bush saying that he was a perfect
Manchurian candidate. That is, if his missing year when he was supposed
to have been flying fighter jets with the Texas Air National Guard was
actually spent in the former Soviet Union being reprogrammed as a
covert KGB agent whose job it was to go back to America, win election
to the White House, and proceed to destroy the US, he couldn’t have
done a better job than he actually did.

Now I wonder whether President Obama might not be a perfect
Manchurian Candidate of the Republican Party, or perhaps of some
nefarious foreign entity—perhaps the China or the always-enigmatic Al
Qaeda. How else to explain policies that have wreaked such destruction
on the Democratic Party in Washington and on the nation at large.

UK Inquiry: Blair Conspired with Bush as Early as February 2002 to Plot Iraq Invasion

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By Dave Lindorff

Most Americans are blissfully in the dark about it, but across the
Atlantic in the UK, a commission reluctantly established by Prime
Minister Gordon Brown under pressure from anti-war activists in Britain
is beginning hearings into the actions and statements of British
leaders that led to the country’s joining the US invasion of Iraq in
2003.

Even before testimony began in hearings that started yesterday,
news began to leak out from documents obtained by the commission that
the government of former PM Tony Blair had lied to Parliament and the
public about the country’s involvement in war planning.

Britain’s Telegraph newspaper over the weekend published
documents from British military leaders, including a memo from British
special forces head Maj. Gen. Graeme Lamb, saying that he had been
instructed to begin “working the war up since early 2002.”

Obama Must Toss the Bums Out of Treasury, End the Wars and Start Leading

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By Dave Lindorff

If you are sitting in class taking a test, and you’ve chosen to sit
amongst your bone-headed, slacker friends, don’t turn to them for help
when you can’t figure out of any of the answers. They may all tell you
the same thing, but they’ll all be wrong.

President Obama: Don't Lecture China on Censorship

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By Dave Lindorff

President Obama, in his visit to China, held a “town meeting” with
Chinese students in which he praised openness and lectured them on the
value of freedom of information, saying that he is a “supporter of
non-censorship” and that open access to information was a “source of
strength.”

And yet America is hardly free of censorship. Heck, the president
himself has gone to court to prevent the release of photographs of US
troops torturing captives in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo. Talk
about censorship! But it goes way beyond just such crude, totalitarian
style control over information.

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