Seven Generational Ruminations

In the news right now are many articles talking about a "UN Mandate" that will expire at the end of 2008, beyond which U.S. presence would not be allowed. UN Mandate? What Mandate? In Feb 2003 the United Nations voted against approving the invasion of Iraq, and (former) Secretary General Kofi Annan said the U.S. war in Iraq was illegal.

There's long been a question whether the Bush Administration was knowing telling falsehoods to justify the Iraq War or whether they were just confused. There's no doubt that the justifications they used were false ... but impeachability or culpability in a large extent rests on whether they purposely lied. Of course being so completely confused as to threaten us with Iraqi nuclear weapons, that did not exist, doesn't give any confidence as to their qualifications for high office.

Senate Intelligence Committee has finally released a long delayed report which covers these questions.

In EXCLUSIVE: Daniel Ellsberg Says Sibel Edmonds Case 'Far More Explosive Than Pentagon Papers' is a mindblowing set of claims. In the Vietnam War era the main event which blew apart support for continuation of that war was the bravery of Daniel Ellsberg to reveal the truth, and leak the 'Pentagon Papers'. Ellsberg faced severe criticism and danger but he did it thereby stopping that war. The Brad Blog discusses the case of Sibel Edmonds and her attempt to reveal the truth she discovered about the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"Thanksgiving Day" is an invented holiday which commemorates "the massacre of 700 Pequot Indians in 1637". This article connects that invented holiday with "The US manufactured the phantom 'Al Qaeda' which is the translation of the CIA 'data Base' and fabricated an Islamic enemy which does not exist and is terrorizing the world under the guise of its Fake War on Terror." With the phantom Al Qaeda in Iraq always dogging U.S. Soldiers we have justified the slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Iraqi people.

The current U.S. strategy in Iraq is called "The Surge", and the idea is to bring more forces into Baghdad to stop the violence that's threatening to destabilize the U.S. puppet government, and give that government breathing room within which to establish stability. The "Surge" has been going for several months and in the news are many articles glowingly claiming there is a decrease in violence and therefore that means The Surge is working.

This is an analysis, before the launch of the Iraq war, of the illegality of the proposed war. There was no valid justification for war and they go through the international law step by step.

Key United Nations Security Council Resolutions Concerning Iraq

Full Text of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 ... Resolution 1441 was passed in November 2002 and then Iraq's noncompliance was used as the pretext for war. Hmm...

And as I said in other commentaries, I have always thought the issue of what essentially amounts to what is often called pre-emptive, preventive action on the part of some countries to secure resources or something else like that, it's an issue that goes back to the Cold War, when we had the very difficult moral dilemma of what do you do when you think a missile is coming in our direction and you’re not sure whether it’s an accident or not an accident.

An "alternative intelligence" unit operating at the Pentagon in the run-up to the war on Iraq was dedicated to establishing a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, even though the CIA was unconvinced of such a connection, the US Senate was told yesterday.

..."The office of the under-secretary of defence for policy developed, produced and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al-Qaida relationship, which included some conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the intelligence community, to senior decision-makers," the report says.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia accused the United States on Saturday of provoking a new nuclear arms race by developing ballistic missile defenses, undermining international institutions and making the Middle East more unstable through its clumsy handling of the Iraq war.

In an address to an international security conference, Mr. Putin dropped all diplomatic gloss to recite a long list of complaints about American domination of global affairs, including many of the themes that have strained relations between the Kremlin and the United States during his seven-year administration.

In Background material for the second Gulf "War" and Is Syria (or Iran) next? and Next: Iran? and Er... What's this about threatening Syria? I long ago noted that the launch of the Iraq invasion was exactly in line with the strategy outlined by the Project for a New American Century way back in the mid 1990's. All through the invasion of Iraq the administration has been demonizing both Syria and Iran, making not-so-idle threats, etc. The pattern of the administration in the past has, before launching a war, to demonize the designated target so that by the time you're ready to launch the war your populace already has a dim view of the target.