DON’T BOMB IRAN>>>AGIT-POP VIDEO
Posted by leftofdayton on May 14, 2008
Posted in Iran, Iraq War, John McCain, PRESIDENTIAL RACE, Republican Party, US Government | No Comments »
Archive for the 'Iran' Category
Petraeus Testimony Next Week May Signal Iran Attack/By Paul Craig Roberts
Posted by leftofdayton on April 7, 2008
April 05, 2008
Today (April 5) the London Daily Telegraph reported that “British officials gave warning yesterday that America’s commander in Iraq will declare that Iran is waging war against the US-backed Baghdad government. A strong statement from General David Petraeus about Iran’s intervention in Iraq could set the stage for a US attack on Iranian military facilities, according to a Whitehall assessment.” [British fear US commander is beating the drum for Iran strikes - Telegraph, By Damien McElroy, April 5, 2008]
The neocon lacky Petraeus has had his script written for him by Cheney, and Petraeus together with neocon warmonger Ryan Crocker, the US governor of the Green Zone in Baghdad, will present Congress next Tuesday and Wednesday with the lies, for which the road has been well paved by neocon propagandists such as Kimberly Kagan, that “the US must recognize that Iran is engaged in a full-up proxy war against it in Iraq.”
Don’t expect Congress to do anything except to egg on the attack. On April 3 the International Herald Tribune reported that senators and representatives have made millions of dollars from their investments in defense companies totaling $196 million. (AP).
Rep. Ike Skelton, the Democrat chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is already on board with the attack on Iran. The London Telegraph quotes Skelton: “Iran is the bull in the china shop. In all of this, they seem to have links to all of the Shi’ite groups, whether they be political or military.”
All Skelton knows is what the war criminal Bush regime tells him. If Iran really does have all these connections, then it behooves Washington to cease threatening Iran and to make nice with Iran in order to stabilize Iraq and extract the US from the nightmare.
Reporting from Tehran on April 4, Reuters quotes Mohsen Hakim, whose father, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leads the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, an ally of the Maliki US puppet government in Iraq: “Tehran, by using its positive influence on the Iraqi nation, paved the way for the return of peace to Iraq and the new situation is the result of Iran’s efforts.”
Instead of thanking Iran and working with Iran diplomatically to restore stability to Iraq, the Bush regime intends to expand the nightmare with a military attack on Iran. Ryan Crocker was quick to dispute Hakim’s report that Iran had used its influence to end the fighting in Basra.
Crocker alleged that Iran had started the fighting. The absurdity of Crocker’s claim is obvious as even the neocon US media reported that the fighting in Basra was started by the US and Maliki in an effort to clear out the Shi’ite al-Sadr militias. Most experts saw the attack on al-Sadr for what it was: an effort to remove a potential threat to the US supply line from Kuwait in the event of a US attack on Iran.
Crocker alleges that the rockets dropping on the Green Zone during the Basra fighting were made in 2007 in Iran. As should be obvious even to disengaged Americans, if Iran were to arm the Iraqi insurgency, the insurgents would have modern weapons to counter US helicopter gunships and heavy tanks. The insurgents have no such weapons. The neocon lie that Iran is the cause of the Iraqi insurgency is just another Bush regime lie like the lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and connections to al Qaeda and the lie that the Taliban in Afghanistan attacked the US.
The Bush regime will tell any lie and orchestrate any event in order to “finish the job” in the Middle East.
“Finishing the job” means to destroy the ability of Iraq, Iran, and Syria to provide support for the Palestinians and for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon against Israeli aggression. With Iraq and Iran in turmoil, Syria might simply give up and become another American client state. With Iraq and Iran in turmoil, Israel can steal the rest of the West Bank along with the water resources in southern Lebanon. That is what “the war on terror” is really about.
The entire world knows this. Consequently, the US and Israel are essentially isolated. The US can only count on the support that it can bribe and pay for.
At the NATO-Russian summit in Bucharest, Romania, on April 4, Russian President Putin said:
“No one can seriously think that Iran would dare attack the U.S. Instead of pushing Iran into a corner, it would be far more sensible to think together how to help Iran become more predictable and transparent.”
Of course it would, but that is not what the warmonger Bush regime wants.
Perhaps the British government has derailed the plot to attack Iran by leaking in advance to the London Telegraph the disinformation Cheney has prepared for Petraeus and Crocker to deliver to the complicit US Congress next Tuesday and Wednesday.
On the other hand, the US puppet media is likely to bury the real story and to trumpet Petraeus claims that Iran has, in effect, already declared war on the US by sending weapons to kill US troops in Iraq.
By next Thursday we will know. from how the Petraeus-Crocker dog and pony show plays in the US Congress and media. whether the Bush Regime will commit yet another war crime by attacking Iran.
Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Francois Mitterrand. He is the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider’s Account of Policymaking in Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. Click here for Peter Brimelow’s Forbes Magazine interview with Roberts about the recent epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct.
Posted in Afghansitan, Iran, Iraq War, Middle East, US Government | 2 Comments »
IRAQ WAR PROTESTS TO RESUME @DAYTON DRAGON’S GAMES/5TH THIRD FIELD
Posted by leftofdayton on March 31, 2008
The war in Iraq continues on into it’s 6th year, and so begins our 4th year of Bannering at the Ball Park.
I
Please come & join us Monday, April 7, Opening Day for the Dayton Dragons at 5th/3rd Field, on the corner of 1st Street & Patterson in Dayton, from 6:00 to 7:00pm. The game starts at 7:00. We have some signs or bring your own. Rain or shine — last year it was really cold and the year before it poured, so come prepared for the weather.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
Monday, April 7, Opening Day 6:00 for 7 PM game
Sunday Home Game dates:
**Note: the Sunday games are at varying times this season
April
20 @ 1:00 for 2 PM game
May
4 @ 1:00 for 2 PM game
11 @ 1:00 for 2 PM game
18 @ 1:00 for 2 PM game
June
Opening Day 2007: 3265 US troops killed. Current number: 4,010
1 @ 3:00 for 4 PM game
8 @ 1:00 for 2 PM game
22 @ 1:00 for 2 PM game
July
6 @ 6:00 for 7 PM game
13 @ 6:00 for 7 PM game
27 @ 6:00 fro 7 PM game
Aug
17 @ 6:00 for 7 PM game
31 @ 6:00 for 7 PM game
Sept - Closing Day
1 @ 1:00 for 2 PM game (Labor Day Weekend, Sunday 8/31 game is at 7:00, Monday game is at 2:00. Details of which game we do to follow.)
Opening Day 2007: 3265 US troops killed. Current number: 4,010
Support our troops, bring them home now,
and take care of them when they get here!
Posted in Afghansitan, Iran, Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Iraq War, Middle East, US MILITARY | No Comments »
ANTI WAR BILLBOARDS/DAYTON OHIO/SEPT 11 COALITION
Posted by leftofdayton on March 29, 2008
We sponsored anti-war billboards like those above in recent months at ten locations in the Dayton area. Our latest will soon be along the eastbound lane of Needmore Road, between Wagoner Ford Road and Old Troy Pike. Anti-war advertisements like this are important and need your support. Please help us continue this effort. Donations can be made by mail to Dayton Peace Action, 1717 Salem Avenue, Dayton, OH 45406. Kindly make checks payable to Dayton Peace Action. Another option is to make a secure donation through PayPal by clicking the “Make a Donation” button below. For questions about donations, which are not tax deductible, email us at donation.
Posted in Afghansitan, Iran, Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Iraq War | No Comments »
Soldiers Testify at Second Winter Soldier:Veterans from Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Describe Systematic Brutality
Posted by leftofdayton on March 20, 2008
By Spencer Ackerman
March 17, 2008The Washington Independent http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/soldiers-testify-at
Out of context, the picture seemed ordinary, open to interpretation. It showed the butt end of five or six rifles, sloppily stacked in a pile inside an armored vehicle. In context, it documented a cover-up of accidental-or even intentional-shootings of Iraq in on combatants by U.S. Marines in Iraq’s Anbar Province in 2005 and 2006.
At least three Marines who served in Anbar during that period said that their platoons carried “drop weapons”or tools that Iraqis were not permitted to possess to plant on the bodies of Iraqi noncombatant corpses incase of a wrongful killing.
They did so with the approval of their chain of command. “It was encouraged, almost with a wink and anudge, to carry drop weapons and shovels with us,” said Jason Washborn, a Marine corporal who served three tours in Iraq between 2003 and 2006. “In case we accidentally did shoot a civilian, so we could toss weapon on the body to make [him] look like an insurgent. I was told that if [the Iraqis] carried a shovel, or if they dig anywhere, especially near roads], then we could shoot them [on suspicion of planting roadside bombs]. So we actually carried tools in our vehicles.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Afghansitan, Anti-war Veterans, George Bush, Iran, Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Iraq War, US MILITARY, Veterans Issues | No Comments »
COUNTING THE UNCOUNTABLE:The Human and Economic Costs
Posted by leftofdayton on March 15, 2008
Counting the Uncountable
The Human and Economic Costsof 5 Years of War and Occupation in Iraq
Michael McConnell, the American Friends Service Committee’s Great Lakes Regional Executive Director and creator of the national “Eyes Wide Open” exhibit, will present his new program on the Cost of War as part of the Wednesday, March 19th program at Mack Memorial Church of the Brethren, 1717 Salem Avenue, Dayton. This presentation is both powerful and instructive on the true costs of the war in Iraq. The program begins at 7:30pm.
The Human and Economic Costs
The economic cost of the Iraq war is far greater than most people imagine, with more than $1 trillion tax dollars spent in the first five years of the war — which translates to $720 million a day or $500,000 per minute. This figure is based upon the work of Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Business School professor Linda Bilmes. This money should be spent in more effective and humane ways: aid to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, an eventual Iraqi-led repair and reconstruction, and funding vital needs — such as health care, jobs and education — here in the United States.
Sources: http://www.epsusa.org/StiglitsBilmes10-06.pdf
The Human Cost of War-Iraq
The Iraq war and U.S. occupation has been a catastrophe for Iraqis. The violence has touched every corner of the country, killed hundreds of thousands, and displaced millions. Casualty numbers are difficult to calculate but using statistical methods tested in other conflict zones, a Johns Hopkins study published last year estimated that there have been 655,000 war-related deaths since March 2003. Other estimates put the toll at more than one million. In addition, more than 4.5 million Iraqis have been displaced by war and occupation, making it the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.
Sources: http://www.opinion.co.uk/Newsroom_details.aspx?NewsId=78 , http://www.thelancet.com/webfiles/images/journals/lancet/s0140673606694919.pdf
The Human Cost of War-U.S.
The cost of the war for U.S. servicepeople and their families has been high indeed. Four thousand U.S. military personnel have been killed in Iraq, leaving children, parents and spouses behind. But this tells just part of the picture. Iraq veterans who return home must deal with the consequences of physical and emotional wounds for the rest of their lives. The Department of Defense reports that 28,000 servicepeople have been seriously wounded. And according to a CBS news report, 6,256 U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed suicide in 2005 - an average of 17 a day - with veterans overall more than twice as likely to take their own lives as the rest of the general population.
Sources: http://www.icasualties.org; http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/ 2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml
For more Info: AFSC, 915 Salem Avenue, Dayton, OH 45406 937-278-4225 broberts@afsc.org
Posted in 1, Iran, Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Iraq War, Middle East, POLITICAL ANALYSIS | No Comments »
Karl Rove & John McCain:Evil Twins???
Posted by leftofdayton on February 12, 2008
In this YouTube video presumptive Republican presidential nominee McCain says of Karl Rove:
“Nobody denies he’s one of the smartest political minds in America. I’d be glad to get his advice. I get advice from a lot of people. I’d be happy to have his advice”
This is just another sad example of how McCain is embracing the failed policies of the Bushies. Fair warning to all who think McCain is moderate or centrist in his politics. When you accept the endorsement [and the maximum $2300 donation] from Karl Rove you are indeed embracing the Dark Side.
The Huffington Post has an excellent article:
End of a Romance: Why the Media and Independent Voters Need to Break Up with John McCain
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/end-of-a-romance-why-the_b_86086.html
Posted in Afghansitan, Iran, Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Iraq War, Middle East, PRESIDENTIAL RACE, Republican Party | No Comments »
LESS JOBS, MORE WAR/JOHN McCAIN’S PRESCRIPTION FOR THE FUTURE/VIDEO
Posted by leftofdayton on February 8, 2008
With W Mitt Romney’s withdrawal from the Presidential primaries the field has shifted , or should I say tilted to the Right. Don’t be fooled by Romney’s incessant attacks on McCain as being too moderate to be a “conservative” spear carrier for the RePugnikkkkans. NOT SO. John McCain is for endless war. And he and his party will unite to sell that war to the American people again and again. Time to fight back.
The two videos come from a great web site, Brave New Films:
FEEL FREE TO PASS THESE ON!!
Posted in Afghansitan, Iran, Iraq War, Middle East, PRESIDENTIAL RACE, Republican Party | No Comments »
JOHN McCAIN>>WAR HERO OR WAR MONGER??
Posted by leftofdayton on February 6, 2008
This video was originally released last April in response to John McCain’s callous and infamous remake of the rock song, Barbara-Ann, which he had morphed into Bomb Bomb Iran. In light of McCain’s most recent bellicose statements in support of the current US war endeavors in the Middle East, and his victories in the Super Tuesday primaries, it seems appropriate to revisit last years version of the Senator.
Posted in Iran, Middle East, Nuclear weapons, PRESIDENTIAL RACE, Republican Party | No Comments »
Study: Bush Led US To War on ‘False Pretenses’ [all the lies, quantified and catalogued...]
Posted by leftofdayton on January 23, 2008
Published on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 by Associated Press
by Douglass K. Daniel
A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The study concluded that the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”
The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration’s position that the world community viewed Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat.
“The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world,” Stanzel said. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Afghansitan, Dick Cheney, Iran, Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Iraq War, Middle East, Republican Party, US Government, US MILITARY | No Comments »
