Thursday, December 15, 2011

PM in Moscow for India-Russia summit!Putin says US involved in Gaddafi killing!Pentagon warns on additional budgetary cuts!Putin regrets that USSR did not fight for survival!US ends mission in Iraq: An unpopular conflict comes to an uncertain end! U.

PM in Moscow for India-Russia summit!Putin says US involved in Gaddafi killing!Pentagon warns on additional budgetary cuts!Putin regrets that USSR did not fight for survival!US ends mission in Iraq: An unpopular conflict comes to an uncertain end!
U.S. renews imperialist offensive in Asia

India opting for Free Market Economy joined the Nuclear strategic alliance led by US, UK and Britain. And the South Asian Geopolitics is struck with War Civil War epidemic instantly. Monopolistic AGGRESSION against Aborigin Mulnivasi Humanscape continues unabated. The Ruling Zionist Manusmriti Hegemony and Brahaminical Political Economic Class do work jointly to boost the interest of Global US Weaponand War Economy. Since USSR and later Russia had been the greatest Suppliers of arms despite Indo US Nuclear Treaty, Manmohan Putin Dialogue has greater strategic dimension of balancing Act!The Cold War era is over and Russia is also in a grip of Free Market Economy as the World on Fire is ruled by Zionist Corporate Brahaminical Imperialism! Neither Marxists Maoists nor Ambedkarites address the Global Phenomenon and hence, Under US pattern US sponsered Civil Society Campaign and Media Blitz, we may not mobilise whatsoever Resistance against the edthnic Cleansing of the Mulnivasi Bahujan!

Anna Hazare threatens 'jail bharo', Congress says 'no need to hurry'!In what promises to be an anti-Congress show, several political parties includingBJP and Left plan to participate in the Team Anna-organized debate on the Lokpal bill at Jantar Mantar on December 11. Reports Times of India!

Defence spend in 5 years to cross Rs 5,20,000 crore

Lockheed Martin in $4 billion US F-35 fighter deal!US Defense Department suspends F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, air tests after device failure!

State units plan to raise Rs 6,000 crore via selling bonds to pension funds, PF at higher cost

FDI in retail BJP's baby, we are trying to nurse it: Pranab


Ajit Singh may get civil aviation as part of deal with Congress

India's billionaires frustrated, want to shift base overseas

Indians pay $700M yearly as bribe for land services: Study
US setting up secret drone bases in Africa, Indian Ocean

Cabinet meet on Food Security Bill: Sonia Gandhi asks minister to work for consensus among allies



Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams ,Chapter 721


Palash Biswas


http://indianliberationnews.com/

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/





http://basantipurtimes.blogspot.com/

*



Bengal hooch tragedy: Death toll rises to 143; over 350 still in hospital
Monideepa Banerjie


India opting for Free Market Economy joined the Nuclear strategic alliance led by US, UK and Britain. And the South Asian Geopolitics is struck with War Civil War epidemic instantly. Monopolistic AGGRESSION against Aborigin Mulnivasi Humanscape continues unabated. The Ruling Zionist Manusmriti Hegemony and Brahaminical Political Economic Class do work jointly to boost the interest of Global US Weaponand War Economy. Since USSR and later Russia had been the greatest Suppliers of arms despite Indo US Nuclear Treaty, Manmohan Putin Dialogue has greater strategic dimension of balancing Act!The Cold War era is over and Russia is also in a grip of Free Market Economy as the World on Fire is ruled by Zionist Corporate Brahaminical Imperialism! Neither Marxists Maoists nor Ambedkarites address the Global Phenomenon and hence, Under US pattern US sponsered Civil Society Campaign and Media Blitz, we may not mobilise whatsoever Resistance against the edthnic Cleansing of the Mulnivasi Bahujan!

Irony is that Vladimir Putin dismissed the thousands of protesters who have massed against his rule as agents of the west in his first response to the growing discontent during a marathon phone-in show.the Careless methodlogy is well adopted by Indian Prime Minister!At Home, the Lokpal bill is likely to be discussed and approved at a special cabinet meeting to be held Sunday, official sources said.

The bill is then likely to be tabled in parliament Tuesday for urgent consideration and passage, the sources said.
The cabinet meeting will be held after Prime MinisterManmohan Singh returns from Russia Saturday evening.
Sources said that while the government is all set to bring the prime minister under the anti-graft ombudsman, it has to work out a mechanism to keep the 57 lakh lower bureaucracy (Group C staff) under the Lokpal as well as finalise the role of the Central Bureau of Investigation under it.
A three-member team of the cabinet -- comprising Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V. Narayanasamy -- will hold discussions to finalise the clause by clause amendments to the bill, with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee overseeing the exercise, the sources said.
They said the proposed amendments would take into consideration the views expressed by the various political parties on the issue. The government would also consider the recommendations made by the parliamentary standing committee on the Lokpal bill, said sources.
"We will have to draft the amendments in such a way that they are acceptable to the political parties," a cabinet minister said.
Sources said the government would also propose ways to remove the Lokpal, if there is a need, to make the anti-graft ombudsman accountable.
The consultations come in the wake of the meetings of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) leaders on Tuesday and the all-party meeting Wednesday on the contentious legislation.
Sources said during the all-party meet, divergent views were expressed on the role of the CBI. While some parties wondered how the Lokpal could supervise a CBI probe, others were of the opinion that the ombudsman would be toothless without the agency being fully under it.
Stating the government was committed to pass the Lokpal bill before the winter session ends Dec 22, the sources said parliament may be extended for a day for this.
Government sources said the opposition BJP has assured that no disruptions would take place in parliament next week and it was prepared to skip the lunch recess and work till late evening to pass the key legislation.
Social activist Anna Hazare has threatened a 'jail bharo' agitation from Jan 1 if a "strong Lokpal bill" is not passed by then.

State-owned oil companies will not change prices of petrol tonight as they have not yet got a very clear signal from the government on raising rates in line with international cost and fall in rupee.

"The review may take place tomorrow," a source privy to the development said.

While a fall in the rupee to an all-time low of sub-Rs 54 per US dollar has resulted in an increase in the cost of oil imports, international rates of gasoline -- against which domestic petrol prices are benchmarked -- had also increased, necessitating a price hike.

But there was no clear signal from the political leadership if the oil companies, who had been given the so-called freedom to fix retail rates in June last year, can go ahead with an increase of Rs 0.60-0.70 a litre.

"We need a minimum of 3 years to arrange for logistics of implementing a new price. And since the decision has not come by now (2100 hours), it will be logistically difficult to implement it," another source said.

State-owned oil firms have cut petrol prices on two occasions in the past one month after international oil rates eased.

The companies reduced petrol prices by Rs 2.22 per litre, or 3.2 per cent, from November 16 and followed this with a Rs 0.78 per litre cut from December 1.

Public sector oil firms, which revise petrol prices on the 1st and 16th of every month based on the average international rates of the previous fortnight, informally consult the parent Petroleum Ministry before taking a decision.

Parliament is in session and an increase in petrol prices may lead to protests by Opposition parties.

The price of gasoline has averaged about $111.11 per barrel in Singapore this month, up from $108.25 a barrel in the previous fortnight.



US setting up secret drone bases in Africa, Indian Ocean

Spurred by runaway success of drones in Afghanistan, US is setting up an array of secret killer unmanned spy plane bases in Africa, Middle East and Indian Ocean to chase al-Qaedatargets and confront pirates.


The move comes as Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and top US military officials have predicted that remnants of the al-Qaeda may be planning to shift bases out of the South Asia following unprecedented American pressure which has already led to the killing of their top leader Osama bin Laden in May.


Fleets of 'hunter-killers' drones - capable of firing hellfire missiles and satellite guided bombs - have already been based on the Indian Ocean island of Seychelles and in Ethiopia to form a ring round Yemen and Somalia, The Washington Post reported.


"The rapid expansion of the undeclared drone wars is a reflection of the growing alarm with which US officials view the activities of al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen and Somalia, even as al-Qaeda's core leadership in Pakistan has been weakened by US counter-terrorism operations," it said.


Another installations is being established in Ethiopia, a US ally in the fight against al-Shabab, the Somali militant group that controls much of that country, the paper said.


According to The Wall Street Journal, the US has used the Seychelles base for flying surveillance drones, and for the first time will fly armed MQ-9 Reapers from the Indian Ocean site, supplementing strikes from a US drone base in Djibouti.


"US officials say they are concerned that al-Qaeda -- under pressure from US operations in Pakistan -- is moving to expand operations through its affiliates in East Africa, and that a new charismatic militant leader could emerge there," The Journal reported.

Defence spend in 5 years to cross Rs 5,20,000 crore

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NEW DELHI: Defending long unresolved borders against two potentially hostile nuclear-armed neighbours does not come cheap. Besides, acquiring a wide array of weapon systems for billions of dollars,India will spend upwards of Rs 60,000 crore over the next five years on developing military infrastructure and capabilities for the western and eastern fronts.

If the cost of raising the already-sanctioned new mountain strike corps in the north-east is pegged at another Rs 60,000 crore and a conservative estimate of defence capital outlay in the 2012-2017 timeframe crossing Rs 4,00,000 crore are taken into account, it adds up to a staggering Rs 5,20,000 crore. This does not include the huge day-to-day cost of maintaining a 13-lakh armed forces.

Defence minister A K Antony on Monday gave figures for the planned development of military infrastructure, with new fighter bases, helipads, bunkers, forward ammunition dumps and the like, to strategically counter China and Pakistan.

Responding to queries on major projects of Military Engineer Services (MES) in Lok Sabha, Antony pegged the planned ``development'' of Army infrastructure and ``improvement'' of IAF infrastructure in the north-east at Rs 7,374 crore and Rs 1,753 crore, respectively.

Similarly, capability development along the northern borders will cost Rs 24,312 crore, while upgrade of storage facility for ammunition will come for Rs 18,450 crore.

Construction of suitable habitat for soldiers deployed in high-altitude areas like Kargil, Siachen-Saltoro Ridge and Ladakh, which includes insulation, dome and fibre-glass based shelters, will cost another Rs 6,000 crore.

Sources say the infrastructure coming up in the Eastern Army Command includes 5,572 ``permanent defences and bunkers'' along the Line of Actual Control with China as well as helicopter and drone bases at Missamari, Kumbhigram and Lilabari in Assam.

This is in addition to IAF deploying Sukhoi-30MKI fighters in Tezpur and Chabua as well as progressively upgrading ALGs (advanced landing grounds) in Arunachal and eastern Ladakh.

The Army's offensive punch will, however, come when the new mountain strike corps, with headquarters in Panagarh (West Bengal), takes concrete shape in the 12th Plan, with two new specially trained and equipped divisions under it.

Two divisions, with 1,260 officers and 35,011 soldiers, with their HQs in Zakama (56 Div) in Nagaland and Missamari (71 Div) in Assam, have been raised over the last couple of years.

Together, the four new divisions add up to around 75,000 troops. ``For decades, our posture against China in North-East has been defensive. This is the first time we will have offensive capabilities in the mountains if they are needed,'' said a source.

They are needed, even if for deterrence. With five fully-operational airbases, an extensive rail network and over 58,000-km of roads in Tibet Autonomous Region ( TAR), China is capable of rushing over 30 divisions (each with over 15,000 soldiers) at their ``launch pads'' on LAC in double-quick time, outnumbering Indian forces by at least 3:1 in the region.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/defence-spend-in-5-years-to-cross-rs-520000-crore/articleshow/11089314.cms

US wants to sell drones to India
The Obama administration has been quietly pushing to sell armed drones to key allies, including India, but it has run into resistance from lawmakers concerned about the proliferation of technology and know-how, media reports said.  US is eyeing to sell its battle proved armed drones to key allies, including India, but the move is being opposed by lawmakers who don't want the technology to be exported.

The Pentagon wants more North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members to have such pilotless aircraft to ease the burden on the US in Afghanistan, and in future conflicts like the alliance's air campaign in Libya this year, the Wall Street Journal reported.


India, which has been purchasing drones from Israel for quite some time now, could also be one of the potential buyers.


India has been developing its drone capabilities too, but does not have armed drones like the Predators and Reapers used by US security agencies with devastating effect against Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan.


Obama administration officials recently began informal consultations with lawmakers about prospective sales of armed drones and weapons systems to NATO members Italy and Turkey, while several US allies in the Persian Gulf have been pressing Washington to authorise drone sales, officials were quoted as saying by Fox News.


The Pentagon's proposed sales have set off a behind-the-scenes debate between the administration and some members of Congress over whether the US should speed the spread of a technology that will allow other countries to carry out military strikes by remote control, it said.


So far, the US has sold unarmed drones to several countries, including Italy, but has only allowed sales of armed drones to Britain, citing its relationship with the US and large troop presence in Afghanistan.


The administration is required by law to notify key congressional committees about prospective arms sales. The Congress generally signs off quickly when deals involve NATO allies, but officials said the proposed transfer of armed drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), faces added scrutiny.
US ends mission in Iraq: An unpopular conflict comes to an uncertain end
Thom Shanker and Michael S Schmidt, New York Times | Dec 15, 2011, 09.21PM IST

BAGHDAD - The United States militaryofficially declared an end to its mission in Iraqon Thursday even as violence continues to plague the country and the Muslim world remains distrustful of American power.


In a fortified concrete courtyard at the airport in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta thanked the more than one million American service members who have served in Iraq for "the remarkable progress" made over the past nine years but acknowledged the severe challenges that face the struggling democracy.


"Let me be clear: Iraq will be tested in the days ahead - by terrorism, and by those who would seek to divide, by economic and social issues, by the demands of democracy itself," Mr. Panetta said. "Challenges remain, but the U.S. will be there to stand by the Iraqi people as they navigate those challenges to build a stronger and more prosperous nation."


The muted ceremony stood in contrast to the start of the war in 2003 when an America both frightened and emboldened by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, sent columns of tanks north fromKuwait to overthrow Saddam Hussein.


As of last Friday, the war in Iraq had claimed 4,487 American lives, with another 32,226 Americans wounded in action, according to Pentagon statistics.


The tenor of the 45-minute farewell ceremony, officially called "Casing the Colors," was likely to sound an uncertain trumpet for a war that was started to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction it did not have. It now ends without the sizable, enduring American military presence for which many military officers had hoped.


Although Thursday's ceremony marked the end of the war, the military still has two bases in Iraq and roughly 4,000 troops, including several hundred who attended the ceremony. At the height of the war in 2007, there were 505 bases and more than 170,000 troops.


According to military officials, the remaining troops are still being attacked on a daily basis, mainly by indirect fire attacks on the bases and road side bomb explosions against convoys heading south through Iraq to bases in Kuwait.


Even after the last two bases are closed and the final American combat troops withdraw from Iraq by Dec. 31, under rules of an agreement with the government in Baghdad, a few hundred military personnel and Pentagon civilians will remain, working within the American Embassy as part of an Office of Security Cooperation to assist in arms sales and training.


But negotiations could resume next year on whether additional American military personnel can return to further assist their Iraqi counterparts.


Senior American military officers have made no secret that they see crucial gaps in Iraq's ability to defend its sovereign soil and even to secure its oil platforms offshore in the Persian Gulf. Air defenses are seen as a critical gap in Iraqi capabilities, but American military officers also see significant shortcomings in Iraq's ability to sustain a military, whether moving food and fuel or servicing the armored vehicles it is inheriting from Americans or the fighter jets it is buying, and has shortfalls in military engineers, artillery and intelligence, as well.


The tenuous security atmosphere in Iraq was underscored by helicopters that hovered over the ceremony, scanning the ground for rocket attacks. Although there is far less violence across Iraq than at the height of the sectarian conflict in 2006 and 2007, there are bombings on a nearly daily basis and Americans remain a target of Shiite militants.


Mr Panetta acknowledged that "the cost was high - in blood and treasure of the United States, and also for the Iraqi people. But those lives have not been lost in vain - they gave birth to an independent, free and sovereign Iraq."


The war was started by the Bush administration in March 2003 on arguments that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and had ties to Al that might grow to an alliance threatening theUnited States with a mass-casualty terrorist attack.


As the absence of unconventional weapons proved a humiliation for the administration and the intelligence community, the war effort was reframed as being about bringing democracy to the Middle East.


And, indeed, there was euphoria among many Iraqis at an American-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. But the support soon soured amid a growing sense of heavy-handed occupation fueled by the unleashing of bloody sectarian and religious rivalries. The American presence also proved a magnet for militant fighters and an Al Qaeda-affiliated group took root among the Sunni minority population in Iraq.


While the terrorist group has been rendered ineffective by a punishing series of Special Operations raids that have killed or captured several Qaeda leaders, intelligence specialists fear that it is in resurgence. The American military presence in Iraq, viewed as an occupation across the Muslim world, also hampered Washington's ability to cast a narrative from the United States in support of the Arab Spring uprisings this year.


Even handing bases over to the Iraqi government over recent months proved vexing for the military. In the spring, commanders halted large formal ceremonies with Iraqi officials for base closings because insurgents were using the events as opportunities to attack troops. "We were having ceremonies and announcing it publicly and having a little formal process but a couple of days before the base was to close we would start to receive significant indirect fire attacks on the location," said Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the military in Iraq. "We were suffering attacks so we stopped."


Across the country, the closing of bases has been marked by a quiet closed-door meeting where American and Iraqi military officials signed documents that legally gave the Iraqis control of the bases, exchanged handshakes and turned over keys.


The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey of the Army, has served two command tours in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, and he noted during the ceremony that the next time he comes to Iraq he will have to be invited.


"I kind of like that, to tell you the truth," General Dempsey said.

©2011 The New York Times News Service
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/US-ends-mission-in-Iraq-An-unpopular-conflict-comes-to-an-uncertain-end/articleshow/11122727.cms


During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the United States pursued an aggressive policy of expansionism, extending its political and economic influence around the globe. That pivotal era in the history of our nation is the subject of this on-line history.
http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/toc.html

Anna Hazare threatens 'jail bharo', Congress says 'no need to hurry'!

Indians pay $700M yearly as bribe for land services: Study!

Putin regrets that USSR did not fight for survival!

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday expressed regret that the leaders of the USSR did not fight to the last to prevent its collapse two decades ago.


"The USSR should have started timely economic reforms and changes as well as reforms to strengthen democratic change in the country," ex-KGB agent Putin told Russian television viewers in a phone-in.


"They should have consistently, fearlessly and steadfastly -- without burying their heads in the sand or waving their arses in the air -- fought for the territorial integrity of our country," he said.


Putin's comments were his latest expression of regret that the USSR collapsed 20 years ago in December 1991, after he in 2005 memorably described its demise as the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century.


Meanwhile, Putin implicated Washington in the killing of Libyan dictator Moamer Gaddafi and launched a tirade against Senator John McCain in an extraordinary attack on US policies.


The Russian premier used his annual televised phone-in to unleash the type of no-holds-barred attack that characterised his 2000-2008 term as president and threatens to shadow his expected return to the Kremlinin March polls.


Putin turned stone-faced when asked about a tweet from McCain -- one of Washington's fiercest critics of Putin -- warning Russia it faced an "Arab spring" revolt over the disputed December 4 parliamentary elections.


"Mr McCain fought in Vietnam. I think that he has enough blood of peaceful citizens on his hands. It must be impossible for him to live without these disgusting scenes anymore," Putin said in reference to Gaddafi.


"Who did this?" Putin demanded. "Drones, including American ones.


"They attacked his column. Then using the radio -- through the special forces, who should not have been there -- they brought in the so-called opposition and fighters, and killed him without court or investigation."


The Pentagon immediately dismissed the charge as "ludicrous".


"The assertion that US special operations forces were involved in the killing of Colonel Gaddafi is ludicrous," spokesman Captain John Kirby told AFP on the sidelines of US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta's visit to Iraq.


"We did not have American boots on the ground in the Libya operation. All our support was done through the air and on the seas."


Russia had initially allowed NATO's air campaign in Libya to go ahead by abstaining in a UN Security Councilvote. But it then vehemently criticised a campaign that Putin at one stage compared to a Western "crusade".


The former KGB agent is widely expected to return to the Kremlin despite a recent dip in public approval and mass street protests -- the first of his rule -- over the outcome of this month's legislative elections.


Putin last week blamed US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of sparking the rallies by questioning the vote's legitimacy and had earlier accused the State Department of trying to destabilise Russia by funding the opposition.


But his response was even more icy when asked about McCain's comments on he his planned return to the presidency and the street protests rocking Moscow.


"I know Mr McCain," said Putin while stressing that he prefer not to refer to him as a "friend".


"This was not addressed in my direction. This was said about Russia. Some people want to move Russia aside somewhere in a corner, so it does not intervene -- so that it does not intervene in the ruling of the world," said Putin.


"They still fear our nuclear capabilities," he said in reference to the West.


"That is why we are such an irritant. We have our own opinion and are conducting our own independent foreign policy ... And it clearly bothers someone."


Putin has spent years carefully crafting a strongman image that combines feats such as hunting and whaling with a Cold War-style foreign policy that recalls Moscow's might and seems to have especially appealed to voters.


That approach worked throughout the past decade and kept his approval at meteoric highs. But his ratings appear to have been hit by the September announcement that he planned to swap jobs with President Dmitry Medvedev next year.


The dip in support suggests that Russians may be tiring of hostilities with the West and Putin stressed that the country was not moving into isolation despite his problems with Washington.


"The West is far from homogeneous. We have more friends than enemies," Putin said.

12 DEC, 2011, 01.27AM IST, SUGATA GHOSH,ET BUREAU

State units plan to raise Rs 6,000 crore via selling bonds to pension funds, PF at higher cost


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MUMBAI: As banks shut their doors, arms of different state governments are turning to provident funds (PFs) to raise money. State-owned corporations are desperate to sell bonds to PFs and other retirement benefit funds with the help of brokers and investment banks hired for the job.

In the coming weeks, these state-level undertakings will inundate the market with new papers - more than double of what they float every year - at a time money is tight and banks, fearing defaults and a rise in sticky loans, are reluctant to lend to borrowers with lower ratings.

These entities are planning to mop up about Rs 6,000 crore and may be forced to pay a significantly higher returns to push the papers which are comparatively illiquid, despite state-government guarantees. With supply far exceeding demand, some states undertakings will find it difficult this year to organise funds that are needed to tide over cash losses and mismatches between expenditures and earnings.

Already, there are some signs of crunch in the market. Bond market sources confirmed that two leading state undertakings had a nasty experience recently after their issues bombed and two small-time i-banks, mandated to sell the issue, failed to meet the underwriting commitments.

The concerned issuers have blacklisted the intermediaries. "The issues were priced unrealistically and their choice of intermediaries was wrong," said a senior trader. One of the intermediaries has been black-listed for all prospective issues of different corporations in that state for three years and the earnest money and brokerage for the amount mobilised was forfeited, he said.

So far this year, state-guaranteed institutions have floated bonds worth Rs 1,800 crore, and Rs 6,000 crore more is expected to hit the market by March. Compared to this, they issued bonds of Rs 2,000-3,000 crore in other years. Till now, they have sold bonds by paying a return of 9.60-10% with semi-annual interest payment. "Despite government yields softening, it's unlikely to be lower than 10.5% now. If supply is as high as expected, then some undertakings will have to pay a return of even 11%," said a senior official of a bond house.

These rates are lower than what most state arms will have to pay for bank loans and finance from central government institutions like PFC or REC. "But the trouble is banks are not lending and are unlikely to subscribe to the bonds unless RBI eases monetary policy and yields go down significantly.

Many banks have suffered treasury losses and are likely to participate in the short-term rally in government bonds rather than buy bonds of state-level undertakings," said a banker.

As a result, they are banking on PFs, gratuity and superannuation funds, but there are doubts how much appetite they will have. "Some funds don't invest due to fear of credit risk and defaults because of a few instances in the past. Often, it can be difficult to invoke state guarantees following a default," he said.

Commodities: Steep Fall & Caution
Rich Indians & Lifestyle
Businessmen turned polo players form teams to popularise the sport
Earlier the sport was ruled by the Royals & Army men, now it is the turn of corporate honchos and entrepreneurs to sport their passion.
The Lethal Strike of Drones
US mulling sale of armed drones to allies including India
India has been purchasing drones from Israel for some time now, and has been developing its own but does not have armed drones.


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/bonds/State-units-plan-to-raise-Rs-6000-crore-via-selling-bonds-to-pension-funds-PF-at-higher-cost/articleshow/11075101.cms

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singharrived here Thursday on a three-day visit for a bilateral summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at which the two sides will discuss proposals to ramp up their strategic relations and also sign agreements in the fields of defence, health and science technology.

Manmohan Singh is also slated to meet Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Friday afternoon after the summit.

During the meetings, the two sides are likely to discuss their civil nuclear cooperation, in particular the setting up of units III and IV of the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu with Russian.

The Indian prime minister's visit comes at a time when Russia is rocked by political unrest and public protests over allegations of electoral fraud during the recently-held parliamentary elections.

On the other hand, an angry Anna Hazare on Thursday announced a 'jail bharo' agitation from Jan 1 and an indefinite fast either in Mumbai or Delhi from Dec 27, but the government tried to placate him by saying that the contentious Lokpal bill will be passed this winter session. In what promises to be an anti-Congress show, several political parties includingBJP and Left plan to participate in the Team Anna-organized debate on the Lokpal bill at Jantar Mantar on December 11. Reports Times of India!

Team Anna had extended invitations to all political parties urging them to discuss contentious issues of the anti-corruption bill earlier this week. While Congress has refused to participate saying that discussion on the bill outside Parliament will be "premature", other parties like Left, BJP, Biju Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party and AIADMK have expressed willingness to be part of the debate.

The debate will be held even as activist Anna Hazare will sit on a day-long fast on Sunday.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi turned down the invitation saying the final report of the parliamentary standing committee examining the Lokpal bill was expected to be tabled in Parliament. She said "it would be difficult for the Congress party to express its views before examining the final draft".

The Congress chief also said the government would examine the committee's report and a lengthy discussion in Parliament could be expected once the government introduces its amendments in the existing bill. Besides Sonia, invitations were extended to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh, finance minister and Lokpal joint drafting committee chairman Pranab Mukherjee and law minister Salman Khursheed.

Significantly, leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley confirmed his presence while senior leaders from CPI, CPM and AIADMK are expected to do so on Friday. The activists are also expecting members from BJD and SP in the debate.

Team Anna had on December 5 invited leaders of all parties to Jantar Mantar to put forth their views on Lokpal bill, a deviation from its stand on previous occasions when it did not allow politicians to share its platform.

"December 11th, Jantar Mantar debate with no adjournments on Lokpal. Come, listen, ask questions and clarify doubts. Political representatives are invited to speak," activist Kiran Beditweeted.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/BJP-Left-to-join-Annas-Dec-11-Lokpal-Bill-debate/articleshow/11039137.cms

FDI in retail BJP's baby, we are trying to nurse it: Pranab

TNN | Dec 9, 2011, 03.42AM IST
NEW DELHI: Taking a swipe at the BJP for not backing FDI in retail, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said the government was only trying to nurse the main opposition party's "baby" when it took the decision to allow FDI in retail.

Replying to a debate in the Rajya Sabha on price rise, Mukherjee read from a 2004 interview of leader of opposition Arun Jaitley in which the senior BJP leader had said that organized retail trade on the international pattern would be promoted as a new engine of growth and that sourcing of Indian products by foreign retail chains would be encouraged.

"Yes, I know that you said in 2009 that it was not necessary but I am giving importance to the 2004 statement because you were in government then and you knew where the shoe pinched," Mukherjee said.

"We adopted many of the measures which you initiated like PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill). My only request is that the baby you gave birth to, don't leave it with the bathwater. Allow me to nurse it and let it mature. Reform is a continuing process," he added.

Mukherjee said while FDI in retail may not solve all problems, it would definitely create infrastructure. "And if we cannot give it, if we do not have adequate resources, let some people come and make investment," he said. Mukherjee, however, was quick to describe it as the "story of yesterday" and urged the House to look forward.

Mukherjee also said the global economic downturn was having an impact on India's exports and FDI inflows and insisted that it was wrong to blame the UPA government for rising prices. Instead, he blamed the international situation. An angry opposition led by BJP, however, walked out saying the government had enough time to launch structural reforms and yet it was expressing helplessness.

Mukherjee said prices of many essential commodities had become cheaper or rose only marginally in the last two years. Retail prices of 30 essential commodities including that of rice, wheat and pulses had either fallen or registered only a marginal increase during the last two years, he said.

Mukherjee pointed out that food inflation had come down from 11.8% in the week ending October 29 to 6.6% in the week ending November 26. "Every week, it is coming down," he said.

"Over the years, inflation in food items is more or less steady - 15% -- but non-food primary articles, primary articles and food articles, the prices are declining," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/FDI-in-retail-BJPs-baby-we-are-trying-to-nurse-it-Pranab/articleshow/11039578.cms

Govt does not share view that China will attack India: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday refuted views that China is planning to attack India and maintained that the policy of both the countries is to engage in dialogue on the border issues though there has not been much progress in recent times.
Singh assured the Lok Sabha during Question Hour that India's borders with China "by and large remain peaceful". "Our government does not share the view that China plans to attack India," Singh said.
The Prime Minister's response came afterSamajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadavclaimed in the House that he has information that China has made preparations to attack India and has marked out areas near the borders for this purpose. He said the attacks were imminent. Yadav maintained that the neighbouring country has also stopped flow of Brahmaputra river water to India.
The Prime Minister, however, maintained that he had assurance from the highest quarters that China has not stopped flow of Brahmaputra waters to India. Singh accepted that there were intrusions from China into areas which India considers to be a part of its territory. However, China differs from India's claim on this issue. "These matters are sorted out by the area commanders of the two countries," Singh said.
The Prime Minister stated that India has followed the policy of engaging in dialogue and good relations with China and underlined that the erstwhile NDA government had also continued with this policy.
India and China have been engaged in dialogue through its representatives on the border issue. Singh said both countries had made some progress in talks in 2005 and thereafter, but in recent times not much has been made.

Ajit Singh may get civil aviation as part of deal with Congress

NEW DELHI: The Congress's alliance with western UP-based Rashtriya Lok Dal is expected any time now, with Jat strongman Ajit Singhlikely to get a plum Cabinet portfolio.


Sources said Singh was likely to meet Congresschief Sonia Gandhi and could be sworn in as early as next week. Talks between the two parties have been on for some time but were awaiting final clearance on Singh's choice of Cabinet portfolio.


Singh could get civil aviation ministry as part of the deal. The reservations in PMO over giving civil aviation to an ally at a time when the industry is passing through tough times and requires serious attention, seems to have softened.


RLD zeroed in on civil aviation after it appeared impossible for Congress to move ally Sharad Pawar out of agriculture which was his first preference. The government was also not willing to give his second choice -- ministry of commerce and industry. With key portfolios in the kitty of allies, civil aviation appeared a safe bet, as it is a plum portfolio which is also vacant. Vayalar Ravi of Congress holds it as additional charge besides overseas Indian affairs. RLD is also learnt to have sought the chairmanship of a national commission.


Congress has roped in RLD to boost its chances in western UP where Ajit Singh has a loyal vote base. The parties had already arrived at a seat-sharing deal and only the mode of Singh's induction in the Cabinet remained to be resolved. The issue has been lying on the prime minister's table for a few weeks.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Ajit-Singh-may-get-civil-aviation-as-part-of-deal-with-Congress/articleshow/11052175.cms

FDI in retail: Pushing with FDI could have led to mid-term polls, says Pranab Mukherjee

TNN | Dec 9, 2011, 03.40AM IST

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said the government had to put on hold the Cabinet's decision on FDI in retail since pressing ahead could have resulted in mid-term elections, in a candid admission which exposed UPA's government's numerical vulnerability and the consequent inability to push policies which don't have the support of all UPA constituents.


Mukherjee, who was speaking to Congress MPs, acknowledged that with Trinamool and DMK opposing the FDI decision, government did not have the numbers in Parliament to push through the reforms measure and would have lost the vote on opposition-sponsored adjournment motion. Elaborating, the finance minister said it would have been the first time in history that Parliament would have seen an adjournment motion with a ruling ally (Trinamool) supporting. "It would not have resulted in fall of government but would have mounted moral pressure on us for premature dissolution (of Lok Sabha)," Mukherjee was quoted as saying by Congress MPs.


"We have to keep this government going because we cannot go ahead with premature dissolution," Mukherjee was further quoted as saying by Congress MPs.


The remark, delivered suo motu at the fag end of a briefing to MPs on black money, set political circles aflutter.


The political spectrum was soon rife with speculation about what could have been the trigger for the stunning frankness by a weathered politician like Mukherjee. Some surmised it could have been meant to drive home the reality of numbers to its own MPs a day after opposition extracted a commitment from it not to move ahead on FDI in retail, as well as to sensitize the allies about the consequences of pushing the government beyond the pain threshold.


In fact, a school in the party felt Mukherjee's exasperation with Trinamool's muscle-flexing could have been the trigger for the plainspeak, although the finance minister told Congress MPs that the decision to let in FDI in retail was taken because the government felt it was a good policy measure and not because it wished to annoy any partner.


Mukherjee was among the senior ministers who made a strong pitch for the decision in the Cabinet, steering it past reservations of their colleagues.


The blunt acknowledgement of government's numerical frailty surprised even the BJP, leading it to suspect whether it was meant to break the unity among non-Congress players by invoking the threat of mid-term polls. A senior saffron leader doggedly refused to give an on-the-record response to Mukherjee's remark, but acknowledged the very mention of mid-term polls could break the larger opposition unity, especially because Left is not prepared for it. "We will not comment on it at all," he said.


Fear of polls has been used in the past to rein in aggression on the part of the opposition.


Sources said Mukherjee told a senior CPI leader during the Parliament blockade at the start of the winter session that government's failure to carry through an adjournment motion would raise the possibility of snap polls. He even cited the desertion of "outside supporters" SP and BSPto drive home his point.


The argument was the reason why CPI readily agreed for a general notice on price rise even as CPM insisted on a motion to censure the government. The debate over the nature of adjournment notice on price rise was overtaken by the controversy over FDI in retail.


Though the government evaded a notice on FDI for reasons of numbers, the issue was made worse by ally Trinamool joining the opposition. DMK, which too opposed the policy, was more flexible and agreed to limit its protest to "walkout", rather than, like Trinamool, register its resistance with a negative ballot.


In this backdrop, few were ready to ignore the Congress leader's reinserting of midterm polls in the political discourse as an innocuous bid to clarify reasons for government's volte face. Mukherjee said he understood the sentiments of the MPs who vociferously defended the decision and clarified it was not a rollback but only suspension. He said the government would move ahead with attempts to build consensus.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/FDI-in-retail-Pushing-with-FDI-could-have-led-to-mid-term-polls-says-Pranab-Mukherjee/articleshow/11039555.cms




Meanwhle,Russia's Vladimir Putin implicated Washington today in the killing of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and launched a tirade against Senator John McCain in an extraordinary attack on US policies.

Reeling under the prospect of USD 850 billion budgetary cuts over the next 10 years, thePentagon has warned that any additional budgetary cut would make it difficult to manage national security.

"I hope there are not any further cuts. We remain in a dangerous world. Large additional cuts, beyond what we already have, would be a problem for us to manage our national security," a senior Department of Defense official said.

"We hope they do not have large additional cuts now," the official said.

The budgetary cuts already being declared by the Administration and the Congress is making it tough for the Department of Defense, he said.

"We think that is hard to do, but manageable," the official said.

"Now our job is to figure out how to do it," he said. Earlier, the Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, in a message to his troops said the budget cuts could cripple the fighting force and he vowed to work closely with the Congress to avoid that outcome.

"The United States faces a series of tough choices ahead on the budget as we seek to balance the need for fiscal solvency with the need to protect our security," he said.

Panetta said the reductions in defense spending that will take place as a result of the debt ceiling agreement reached by Congress and the President are in line with what this Department's civilian and military leaders were anticipating.

The Russian premier used his annual televised phone-in to unleash the type of no-holds-barred attack that characterised his 2000-2008 term as president and threatens to shadow his expected return to the Kremlin in March polls.

Putin turned stone-faced when asked about a tweetfrom McCain -- one of Washington's fiercest critics of Putin -- warning Russia it faced an "Arab spring" revolt over the disputed December 4 parliamentary elections.

"Mr McCain fought in Vietnam. I think that he has enough blood of peaceful citizens on his hands. It must be impossible for him to live without these disgusting scenes anymore," Putin said in reference to Gaddafi.
"Who did this?" Putin demanded. "Drones, including American ones.

"They attacked his column. Then using the radio -- through the special forces, who should not have been there -- they brought in the so-called opposition and fighters, and killed him without court or investigation."
The Pentagon immediately dismissed the charge as "ludicrous".

"The assertion that US special operations forces were involved in the killing of Colonel Gaddafi is ludicrous," spokesman Captain John Kirby told AFP on the sidelines of US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta's visit to Iraq.

"We did not have American boots on the ground in the Libya operation. All our support was done through the air and on the seas."

Russia had initially allowed NATO's air campaign in Libya to go ahead by abstaining in a UN Security Council vote. But it then vehemently criticised a campaign that Putin at one stage compared to a Western "crusade".

Addressing journalists after a meeting with members of his team, Hazare said if time was an issue, then the winter session of parliament, scheduled to end Dec 22, should be extended.

"All those people attached with this movement and who feel strongly about the Jan Lokpal billwill participate in the jail bharo andolan. We will fill jails all over the country," he told reporters here.

Hazare added that there would be an indefinite fast either in Mumbai or Delhi from Dec 27. Besides, protests would be staged outside MPs' houses. The crusader said Delhi is the first option, but the agitation could be shifted to Mumbai if the national capital sees bitter cold.

And if the Lokpal bill became effective, there would be a "swagat" (welcome) ceremony at the Ramlila ground, Hazare said.

His warning came a day after the all-party meet failed to reach a consensus on the Lokpal bill that aims to tackle corruption in the country.

Although the government said the bill could be passed this session, the Congress party said there is no need to hurry through with it.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said: "I believe that it would be possible. There was an all-party meeting yesterday (Wednesday) where 35 different parties participated. All had different views on the issue. To say there was broad consensus on the issue would be wrong. This has increased the workload of the government."

He said the government was working hard to bring it in the current session of parliament.

"Even if we do it by Dec 20-21, I don't think why it cannot be done. On one day it can be discussed in one house and on the other day it can be done in the second house," Bansal said.

But Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said at a party briefing that there was no need to hurry.

"There is no need to hurry as attempts are made (by the government) to harmonise and reconcile divergent views," he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitely also strongly pressed for the bill to be passed in the current session.

"The government must not delay the Lokpal bill. The bill must come in this winter session," Jaitley said.

The 74-year-old Hazare said the bill had come in parliament eight times but has not yet been passed.

"This is not a question of Anna, this is a national question... It is a question related to the poor," Hazare said, stressing the importance of his version of the Lokpal (ombudsman) bill.

He declared that Class 3 and 4 government employees had to be brought within the ambit of the Lokpal.

"We will not accept it otherwise," Hazare said, adding that he would insist on it even if it meant risking his life.

However, Shiv Sena president Bal Thackeray came out strongly against the proposed Jan Lokpal bill, stating it could create a "Gaddafi" in the country.

"There is no need to create an impression among people that the Jan Lokpal bill will lead to 'Ram Rajya' in the country. There is a need to strengthen the existing anti-graft laws to end corruption in India," Thackeray said in Mumbai.
Indians pay $700M yearly as bribe for land services: Study
A whopping $700 million (about Rs 3,700 crore) is paid annually as bribe in India for land administration services, a joint study by United Nation's body FAO and Transparency Internationalhas observed.

According to the working paper 'Corruption in the Land Sector', jointly prepared by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and global anti-graft body Transparency International (TI), weak governance has increased instances of corruption in land-related issues.

"A study in India estimates that $700 million (about Rs 3,700 crore) worth of bribes are paid annually by users of the country's land administration services," the paper said.

The working paper, which includes studies conducted in more than 61 countries, found that corruption in the land sector varied from small scale bribes and fraud to high-level abuses of government power and political positions, FAO said in a statement.

Land administration services include land legislation, registration, valuation/taxation, land-use planning, land allocation and information.

The paper reveals that land related corruption was not confined to India but is a worldwide phenomenon.

In Kenya, the average bribe paid by those dealing with government land agencies was $65 in 2011.

Likewise in Mexico, a recent study reveals that illegal payments to land authorities ranked among the top 10 services plagued by bribery in the country, it said.

A bribe has to be paid at least once out of every 10 times a person solicits a land permit, the survey said, adding that in Bangladesh the situation was even worse.

Explaining the relation between corruption and increasing pressure on land use, the paper said: "Unprecedented pressures on land have been created as new areas are cultivated and taken over by expanding urban centres or abandoned due to degradation, climate change and conflict".

Increasing investment in biofuels, as a way to mitigate climate change, is one of the pressures affecting land use in many countries, it pointed out.

"...especially since many countries with governance and corruption challenges are considered the most attractive destinations for biofuel investment," the paper observed.

According to the study, corruption in land-related issues hinders the growth and development of the country.
15 DEC, 2011, 03.14AM IST, ET BUREAU

Cabinet meet on Food Security Bill: Sonia Gandhi asks minister to work for consensus among allies


RELATED ARTICLES


NEW DELHI: The Cabinet is expected to resume discussion on the Food Security Bill on Sunday to iron out differences over the coverage of the scheme and pricing of subsidised grain.


The decision on a special meeting follows an intervention by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to work out a consensus within the alliance over the UPA's flagship programme. "A special Cabinet meeting is convened on Sunday evening.


We will discuss that matter because this (the food security bill) is a major measure of the government," food minister KV Thomas said here on Wednesday. Thomas could also to travel to Kolkata this weekend to brief Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee on the bill, according to a senior UPA leader.


Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, however, indicated that Cabinet approval for the food security bill could take a bit longer. Stating that some states need to be taken on board before the final draft is cleared, he said a final discussion on the bill may take place only after 8-10 days.


But Sonia Gandhi, who has taken a personal interest in the ambitious scheme, has spoken to both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as food minister Thomas on the need to expedite the presentation of the legislation in Parliament. She is said to have underlined the fact that the draft bill has already been through various rounds of deliberations at different levels in the government, before it was put up for Cabinet clearance.


The criteria of 75% coverage of rural population and 50% of urban population under the scheme has already been discussed threadbare.


A section of the government also feels that availability of grain was unlikely to pose a problem as procurement would grow over the years. They have been arguing that broad-basing of the scheme will not incur additional expenditure as the add-ons are an extension of existing schemes like the mid-day meal scheme and one targeted at feeding lactating mothers.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Cabinet-meet-on-Food-Security-Bill-Sonia-Gandhi-asks-minister-to-work-for-consensus-among-allies/articleshow/11113665.cms


More stories from this edition of Food Security Bill




Lockheed Martin in $4 billion US F-35 fighter deal

Lockheed Martin Corp is being awarded a $4 billion fixed-price US Navy contract for 30 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, the fifth batch of low-rate initial production, the Defense Departmentsaid on Friday.


The deal would provide 21 conventional models for theAir Force, six carrier variants for the Navy and three short-takeoff and vertical landing versions for the Marine Corps, a notice in the Pentagon's daily contract digest said.


Details of the deal have not been worked out, said Michael Rein, a company spokesman, referring to the government announcement as an "undefinitized contract action" subject to further negotiation.


"This is welcome news for both Lockheed Martin and our many F-35 suppliers and will help ensure we continue to meet production schedules outlined by the program," he said by email.


The Pentagon currently plans to buy more than 2,440 F-35 aircraft in three separate models for the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.


It is the costliest Pentagon purchase in history, at a projected cost of $382.5 billion through 2035. The F-35 has been developed with eight foreign partners to replace at least 13 types of aircraft, including Lockheed's F-16, for 11 nations initially.


The Defense Department already has restructured the F-35 program twice in recent years. The fifth production batch fell to 30 from a previously planned 42 because more retrofits and changes have been required than had been projected.


US Defense Department suspends F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, air tests after device failure
The US Defense Departmentsuspended fleetwide ground and flight test operations on Wednesday of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, its costliest arms purchase and largest international cooperative program. .

The department acted after the failure on Tuesday of one aircraft's "integrated power package", a turbo-machine that starts the engine and cools the plane, the Pentagon's F-35 Joint Program Office said.

The office said in a statement that the suspension was a precautionary measure until experts understand the root causes of the failure aboard an F-35 conventional takeoff and landing variant at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

There are three F-35 models, or variants: A conventional takeoff-and-landing type for the Air Force; a short takeoff-vertical landing model for the Marine Corps and a carrier takeoff-and-landing variant for the Navy.

"Once the facts are understood, a determination will be made when to lift the suspension and begin ground and flight operations of the 20 F-35s currently in flying status," the statement said.

These aircraft are part of the system development and demonstration and low-rate initial production fleet.

The United States is developing the family of radar-evading F-35s with eight international partners -- Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway.

It is currently projected to cost the United States more than $382 billion to buy a total of 2,443 F-35 models over the next two decades. Other countries, including the co-development partners, are expected to buy roughly another 750 aircraft.

The F-35 is projected by Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier by sales, to account for more than 20 percent of its revenues once the Pentagon starts full production runs, likely in another few years.

The program had built enough "margin" into the test schedule to accommodate "these kinds of incidents that occur in a development effort," the Pentagon statement said.

Periodic updates on the matter will be released as warranted, it said.

Lockheed Martin is supporting the review efforts 100 percent, said Michael Rein, a company spokesman.

"We are working very hard with all involved to resolve this issue so we can begin flight operations again which is everyone's goal," he said.

F-35 competitors for international sales include Boeing Co's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Saab's Gripen, Dassault's Rafale, Russia's MiG-35 and Sukhoi Su-35 and the Eurofighter Typhoon made by a consortium of British, German, Italian and Spanish companies.

Lockheed's chief F-35 subcontractors are Northrop Grumman Corp and BAE Systems Plc . United Technologies Corp's Pratt & Whitney unit is building the engine.

U.S. renews imperialist offensive in Asia

By Gene Clancy
Published Nov 27, 2011 6:47 PM
In a coordinated military and diplomatic offensive, the U.S. government moved this week to challenge China and bolster its hegemony over Asia and the western Pacific. Both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were traveling through the region and making deliberately provocative moves toward China.
Obama made the militarist intentions of the U.S. perfectly clear. "The United States is a Pacific power, and we are here to stay," he declared in a speech to the Australian Parliament. He vowed to expand U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific region and "project power and deter threats to peace." (CBS News, Nov. 16)
Then Obama announced the deployment of U.S. troops near the northern Australian city of Darwin. Even before he arrived, Australian demonstrators protested the increased U.S. presence with signs reading "No bases!" and "Pine Gap is too much," referring to an already existing joint U.S./Australian spy base nearby.
Lawyer Diana Rickard said an influx in the number of U.S. troops in Darwin would make the community less safe. "We do not want American Marines in Australia doing the same things they have done in the Philippines, in Japan, in Germany and probably in most parts of the world where they have a military base," she said. "We do not want the violence to spread." (news.msn.com.au, Nov. 17)
Both in Australia and later in Indonesia, Obama clearly signaled that China stood as a barrier to U.S. intentions.
In the Philippines, Clinton stood on the deck of a U.S. warship in Manila Bay and reaffirmed the 60-year-old unequal Mutual Defense Treaty between the U.S. and the Philippines.
Clinton's visit was met by militant demonstrations. Her cavalcade was pelted with balloons filled with red paint.
Referring to the treaty, Secretary General of Bayan Philippines Renato Reyes Jr. said: "There is no reason to celebrate 60 years of the Cold War relic that is the MDT. This agreement is a lasting testament to the unequal and one-sided ties that bind our two countries."
Goals of U.S. imperialism
A turn toward a new U.S. strategy in the Asia/Pacific region was clearly outlined in a recent article by Clinton in Foreign Policy magazine. In an essay entitled "America's Pacific Century," she asserts, "The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the center of the action." (November)
Clinton clearly states the reasons for this new turn: "With Iraq and Afghanistan still in transition and serious economic challenges in our own country, there are those on the American political scene who are calling for us not to reposition, but to come home … [but] we cannot afford not to.
"Harnessing Asia's growth and dynamism is central to American economic and strategic interests and a key priority for President Obama. Open markets in Asia provide the United States with unprecedented opportunities for investment, trade, and access to cutting-edge technology. Our economic recovery at home will depend on exports and the ability of American firms to tap into the vast and growing consumer base of Asia."
In the same article, Clinton also makes clear that the U.S means to secure these economic advantages with military force:
"We are modernizing our basing arrangements with traditional allies in Northeast Asia … while enhancing our presence in Southeast Asia and into the Indian Ocean. For example, the United States will be deploying littoral combat ships to Singapore. … And the United States and Australia agreed this year to explore a greater American military presence in Australia. … We are also looking at how we can increase our operational access in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean."
Some 110 years ago, the U.S. was equally forthright in declaring why an imperialist policy was not only desirable but necessary:
"[T]oday, we are raising more than we can consume, making more than we can use. Therefore we must find new markets for our produce," wrote Albert Beveridge in "The March of the Flag." (historytools.org)
However, there are some important differences. In 1898, the U.S. was a rising imperialist power while China was broken and oppressed, dominated by a bevy of imperialist countries.
Today, U.S. capitalism is racked by a worldwide economic crisis, while China is strong and independent.
The Chinese response to Clinton's essay was defiant. Referring to Clinton's claim that "the United States is back," the People's Daily of Oct. 18 remarked:
"'The United States is back' is a famous phrase of Douglas MacArthur. The U.S. general, who once lost to the Japanese army during the Pacific War, said these words to announce the success of the U.S. counterattack when landing on the territory of the Philippines again. Today's Asia is totally different from what it was six decades ago."
Nevertheless, the U.S. represents a real danger, not only to China but to the entire world. It is a nuclear-armed military giant that is willing to subject its own people to increasing misery and threaten the entire world in order to defend its dying system.
It is important that people everywhere be vigilant and prepared to resist imperialism whenever and wherever it appears.


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15 DEC, 2011, 10.21AM IST, SHAILI CHOPRA,ET NOW

India's billionaires frustrated, want to shift base overseas

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The government may have saved its political skin by putting FDI in retail on hold, but it has added to the sense of gloom that's engulfing India Inc. For the past several weeks, there's been a depressing drum beat of stories of Indian businessmen choosing the relatively low growth, high-stability option of investing abroad over the uncertainty of launching new ventures at home.

Says the India head of a fabled global investment bank, "For me, there's no slowdown. My plate's full with mandates from Indian companies looking at acquisitions abroad."

But it's not just about the flight of investments anymore. Several Indian billionaires say they are frustrated enough to want to shift base overseas and run their increasingly transnational business empires from cities like London and Singapore. "I'm sick and tired of what's happening here. I don't want to live in this country anymore," said one of India's biggest barons.

The reasons are mainly two-fold: the policy paralysis brought on by a politically weak and scam-struck government, compounded by obstructionist competitive politics; and the climate of fear that has spread because of the raids on and arrests of businessmen. They have a third, more specific grouse (not that it's new): the time and hassle it takes to get environmental clearance and acquire land.

Bulge-bracket businessmen - from telecom and textiles to aviation and steel to real estate and minerals - are talking 'Quit India', but obviously not in public. We are looking for red carpet, not for red tape: Harsh Goenka

They may be exaggerating, but for the first time since the dawn of liberalization 20 years ago, the India story seems to be dimming compared to the welcoming lights of foreign shores. As RPG Enterprises chairman Harsh Goenka quips, "We are looking for the red carpet, not for red tape."

The foreign lure is emerging on three fronts:

Indians buying personal assets overseas

A significant jump in outward remittances

Company owners focusing on generating more offshore currency through larger global investments in a bid to hedge themselves against India.

The latest industrial production and GDP figures are cautionary indicators against India complacently comparing itself with the dismal economic situation in the US and the Eurozone. According to a just-released survey by industry body CII, CEOs are anything but bullish about their 2012 investment plans.

Homing In On London

In the past year, many high-profile Indians have bought homes in London's toniest neighborhoods. Bharti'sSunil Mittal, who purchased a home in Grosvenor Square a few months ago, is spending more time working out of there to keep up with the firm's global needs. The Munjals are said to have bought two homes in Kensington.

DLF's K PSingh, Essar's Ravi Ruia and Sahara's Subrata Roy often live and work out of the city that once ruled India. Real estate circles in London often refer to the Berkeley and Grosvenor Square areas as upmarket 'Indian ghettos'.

Says a former top banker based in London, "Cities like London and Singapore are safe havens and the rule of law is clear. There is a sense of individual security and privacy."

Ajay Piramal of Piramal Lifesciences has also bought himself a sprawling home in London, although he isn't shifting base. He points to India's problems: "You don't know what regulation is going to hit. Sometimes it is not even rational. Very old cases are being pulled out. This doesn't give you a sense of certainty."
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/indias-billionaires-frustrated-want-to-shift-base-overseas/articleshow/11114536.cms
NASA develops space harpoon to take samples from comets
NASA has developed a space harpoon to take samples from comets with surgical precision without landing on the rugged celestial bodies.

Engineers at the US space agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, have built a trial harpoon that is six feet tall.

The bow is made out of a pair of springs normally used to provide the suspension for trucks. The bow string is made out of steel cable half an inch thick.

It can fire projectiles at speeds of more than 100ft per second. Test projectiles are fired into large drums filled with sand, rock salt, ice or pebbles.

"We had to bolt it to the floor, because the recoil made the whole testbed jump after every shot," the BBC quoted the project's lead engineer, Donald Wegel as saying.

The engineers believe it would be safer to collect comet material using the equipment rather than trying to land on the celestial bodies.

NASA said the space harpoon could be projected "with surgical precision" from a spacecraft hovering above the target.

Experts said this would avoid the risk of trying to anchor the craft to a comet's rugged surface.

Comets are much smaller than planets and have much lower gravity as a consequence, so a landed spacecraft would have to find some way of attaching itself to the object to avoid floating off.

NASA said that the samples from comets could reveal the origins of the planets and how life was created on Earth.

Comets are made up of frozen chunks of ice, gas and dust. They orbit the sun and, if they are close enough to the star, project a tail in the opposite direction made up of ionised gases.

14 DEC, 2011, 10.13AM IST, NEW YORK TIMES

Next big bet for space: Airborne rocket launcher

Paul G. Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, said Tuesday that he was entering the rocket business with a concept seldom used until now: a plane that can take off the conventional way, then, at 30,000 feet, launch a rocket to orbit, carrying with it satellites, supplies, and - eventually - people. The first rocket launching could be as soon as 2016.

"You have a certain number of dreams in your life that you want to fulfill," said Allen, an avid philanthropist who has also financed efforts like a radio telescope listening for alien transmissions, "and this is a dream that I'm very excited about."

The airplane that his new company, Stratolaunch Systems, plans to build will be larger and heavier than the Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' record-setting flying boat that flew, just once, once in 1947. With wings that will stretch 385 feet - longer than a football field - it will dwarf the double-decker Airbus A380, which is the biggest commercial passenger plane flown today. It will take off from a runway, fly to a normal cruising altitude and then drop off a rocket, eliminating the need for costly launching pads.

"With government-funded spaceflight diminishing, there is a much expanded opportunity for privately funded efforts," Allen said. He noted that NASA had ended its space shuttle program this year, scrapped plans to return to the moon and begun relying solely on Russia for launching astronauts to the International Space Station. He said his new effort would help keep "keep America at the forefront of space exploration."

Allen thus joins the ranks of tycoons who are placing big bets on the heavens. The most prominent is SirRichard Branson, whose Virgin Galactic subsidiary is planning to fly tourists on short jaunts to the edge of space. Other big names are Elon Musk, who used his fortune as a founder of Paypal to establish SpaceX, a rocket maker that is racking up contracts with NASA, and Jeffrey P. Bezos, the Amazon.com founder, who has an space company called Blue Origin.

Allen was actually at the forefront of the billionaire space enthusiasts. A decade ago, he and Burt Rutan, a legendary aerospace engineer who, among many triumphs, built the first airplane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, teamed up to create SpaceShipOne, the first private manned rocket to reach space, in 2004. That won the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which had been offered as incentive to push innovative space technology.

But afterward, Allen receded from the space limelight as Rutan worked on a larger version of SpaceShipOne for Branson. The first tourist flights of Virgin Galactic, launching out of a newly built spaceport in New Mexico, could begin by late next year.

Still, Allen pursued his space dreams quietly in the background. "Since the end of SpaceShipOne, I have thought a lot about how to take the next big step," he said.


14 DEC, 2011, 03.02AM IST, JOSY JOSEPH,TNN

US promised India help if China attacked during 1971 Indo-Pak war

NEW DELHI: Despite its intense animosity towardsIndia during the 1971 war, the US promised New Delhi "all out" support in case China carried out any unprovoked attack on India, recently declassified documents reveal 40 years after the historic war that created Bangladesh.

The revelations add fresh twist to the narrative of the Indo-Pak war of 1971. Based on a set of freshly declassified documents of the ministry of external affairs, TOI had in early November reported that the US hostility towards India during the 1971 war was far beyond what was publicly known. And that the US had probably also prepared a few Marine battalions for operations against the Indian military.

Communications of the Indian embassy in Washington and of the government in New Delhi show that US offered "all out" help if China were to enter the Indo-Pak standoff to favour its all-weather friend.

After a meeting with Henry Kissinger, then adviser to President Richard Nixon, on August 25, 1971, Indian ambassador to the US L K Jha reported to New Delhi, "He said that in a 1962 type of situation, US will not hesitate to give all out help to India against China, and there is no change of position on this." Kissinger was referring to the military conflict between India and China in 1962 in which India was humiliated.

A few weeks before this meeting, during a visit to New Delhi, Kissinger told then defence minister Jagjivan Ram, "I might tell you that we would take a very grave view of any Chinese move against India."

Ambassador Jha had spent three hours with Kissinger in San Clemente White House, the vacation home of Nixon, on August 25, as tension mounted in South Asia. They discussed details of issues that could crop up in an upcoming meeting between then PM Indira Gandhi and Nixon.

But "in this one (letter to foreign secretary T N Kaul), I am dealing with one specific point relating to the US attitude in the event of China joining on the side of Pakistan in a conflict with us", the ambassador wrote. Discussions with Kissinger on possible Chinese aggression were prompted by queries from New Delhi, the letter shows. New Delhi was worried that China could open a second front against India, even as it fought Pakistan. Such a collaboration between China and Pakistan still remains a worry for the Indian security establishment.

"Then I asked that in order to be quite clear and free from any ambiguity or doubt, I would welcome a fuller formulation from him of the US position in case we are involved in any kind of a conflict with China." In response, Kissinger offered "all out" help in case of a 1962 type situation. Then he went on to discuss other possible scenarios.

"If it was a 1965 type of Pakistani attack, then even without Chinese involvement, US would take the toughest measures against Pakistan, and if China came to its help, it would not hesitate to help us with arms, though not with men," Jha wrote. The situation Kissinger referred was an unprovoked Pakistani aggression.

"However, the chances were that if the present situation escalates into a conflict, it would be very hard to tell who is to blame. Thus, if India sent two divisions of irregulars into East Bengal and Pakistanis sent four such divisions into Kashmir, it would not be a situation in which the US could possibly help even if China threw its weight on the side of Pakistan," Kissinger told Jha, according to the ambassador's letter.

This letter from the Indian ambassador was seen by the foreign minister, the secretary to the prime minister and most other senior officials.

Regime changes in West asia
US' neo imperialism
Colin Todhunter

The genuine desire of ordinary folks apart, the Arab Spring seems to have been backed by a US policy of destabilisation.
It's a familiar scenario. A major political event occurs and the mainstream media opts for simplistic explanations. Take the so-called 'Arab Spring', for instance. The overriding narrative is about how Facebook and Twitter has changed that part of the world.

The premise is that widespread, spontaneous, grass-root uprisings spread within individual countries and then from one country to another, largely as a result of the use of social media technology. What we were not informed of, however, was the extent to which many of these events had been managed and preplanned.

In many ways, the Arab Spring is reminiscent of the earlier revolutions in Eastern Europe that occurred in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Also portrayed by the media as grass-root uprisings, many of those 'revolutions' were in fact destabilisation-regime change operations, funded and orchestrated by the US. Although many independently acting ordinary folk did actually become involved, they ended up being highly disillusioned with the outcome. But the west got what it wanted – pro-western governments in power.

The covert US funding and management of the revolutions in Eastern Europe has been well documented. A series of governments were overthrown by mobilising disaffected, pro-western people financed by the US government via various foundations, such as National Endowment for Democracy, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Freedom House, the Centre for Non Violent Action and Strategies and the United States Agency for International Development.

The same has been true of the Arab Spring - a nice media friendly sound-bite denoting renewal and hope. In Egypt, US friendly Mubarak was ousted and a US friendly military junta installed. Not much change. Not much hope. The turmoil in Libya and now in Syria are spin offs from the events in Tunisia and Egypt. And it doesn't take much to appreciate that events across that part of the world are turning out to be favourable for the US.

That's because it has had its fingers all over the Arab Spring since before day one. While the mainstream media homed in on the role of Facebook and Twitter in the Egyptian uprising, little if anything was said about the US government's role, through its various foundations and institutes, in actually promoting the use of social media technology among the young and encouraging political activism in the Arab world.

French-Canadian Ahmed Bensaada's new book 'Arabesque Americain' documents the links, funding and main figures behind pro-democracy organisations in over a dozen Arab countries, including Egypt, Lybia, Tunisia and Syria, which were financed by the US. Indeed, he identifies the specific pro-democracy groups by name and the exact amount of US funding each received.

Hardly a series of autonomous, grass-root uprisings as the media would have us believe. Notwithstanding the genuine desires, frustrations and grievances that propelled many ordinary folk to eventually join in and take to the streets, much of the Arab Spring seems to have been backed by a US policy of destabilisation.

Arc of instability
George W Bush once stated that West Asia through to Pakistan represented an 'arc of instability' and that it was the US government's mission to export freedom there and to bring stability to the region. Look no further than Pakistan to see what the US has brought.

An active US high risk campaign has been mounted to divide, weaken and control a nuclear armed country by fuelling ethnic and regional tensions and exploiting factionalism between and within the military, intelligence services and civilian government. The ongoing destabilisation of Pakistan and even possible eventual strategically managed balkanisation would serve to counter Chinese influence and fit in with US aims to assume control of the wider region, from Morocco to the borders of a compliant India.

Divide and rule has been a tactic of many an empire throughout the ages, and it is no coincidence that so many nations, usually highly strategic for US interests - Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya, for example – have been destabilised, after having been weakened at the centre by the US. Of course, they are now being 'supported' by the US, except in the case of Syria (at least not yet).

With its ally Syria teetering on the brink, perhaps Iran was all along the ultimate goal for the US domino policy of destabilisation in the Arab world and West Asia. Oil rich and holding a key geo-political position in relation to the mineral rich central Asian republics, the US has been for some time taking aim at Iran. If its covert operations to undermine the Iranian government and ferment dissent fail, there's always direct military intervention, and the huge build up of US military hardware in the region suggests this is becoming a distinct possibility.

As part of 'exporting freedom, democracy and stability', the US is running covert operations, building bases (or massive embassy compounds) and is involved in training, arming, and funding local forces in 75 countries across the globe. Moreover, last year alone, its International Military Education and Training programme indoctrinated more than 7,000 people from 130 countries.

Countless ordinary decent folk are now living in chaos as a result of US and western interference. From North Africa through to Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and into Pakistan, the US has stoked up ethnic and political tensions and has attacked or debased the sovereignty of nation states in its attempt to secure control of the entire region. Whether it is part of the bogus 'war on terror', or whether it occurs under the lie of 'humanitarianism', US led imperialism has effectively brought an arc of tragedy to the region. And it's a tragedy of epic proportions.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/207985/us-neo-imperialism.html
Editorial
2012 – Tougher challenges, stiffer resistance
As The Guardian takes its New Year's break, very dark clouds are gathering on the world's political horizon. The global, capitalist economic crisis is deepening rapidly. The US government has imposed intolerable conditions for its working people. The European Union is in turmoil and two countries, so far, have virtually surrendered their sovereignty and had direct rule by representatives of finance capital forced on them.
This year the US directed a bombing campaign on Libya that followed on the systematic destabilisation of that country's government. Syria and Iran are now in imperialism's cross hairs as the US unfolds its plans for a new, more compliant Middle East. The US, with the Australian government's help, continues to thwart effective measures to tackle climate change that will devastate the impoverished global South first.
Everywhere we look we can see threats from imperialism and the ramping up of tensions that could lead to war. The Australian government is playing a dangerous role with its latest, disgraceful decision to allow the stationing of Marines at what will be a new US military base in the Northern Territory. The 13th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties held in Athens at the end of last week made the position clear in part of a statement endorsed by the representatives of parties from 59 countries in attendance:
"The intensity of the crisis, its global synchronisation, the prospect of the slow, weak recovery intensify the difficulties of the bourgeois forces in managing the crisis, leading to the sharpening of the inter-imperialist contradictions and rivalries while the danger of imperialist wars is being strengthened."
Impoverishment and war – it's the familiar, inevitable consequence of capitalist rule. Another feature of class exploitative societies is that the oppressed and marginalised will fight back and strive for a better life. We saw it with the massive struggle of the Egyptian people to be rid of the Mubarak dictatorship and usher in democratic rule. That struggle is far from over.
In the US there has been the Occupy movement against the dominance of the "one percent" over the lives of ordinary people. In Europe, huge protests have followed the imposition of austerity measures in the UK, Spain, Greece and elsewhere. In Greece workers have staged 22 general strikes against the deeper and deeper cuts accompanying instalments of the bailout of the bankrupt economy. The anger and resistance are not wilting; they're growing.
Workers in Australia have shown their determination to maintain hard-won rights and conditions. Nurses in Victoria, waterside workers and Qantas workers were in the forefront of the resistance to a government and employer offensive that has not abated. In fact, 2012 promises to be a year of tense struggle in the workplace as big business presses for more "flexibility" and a cheaper workforce with the global economic crisis trotted out as the excuse. The environmental movement and the peace movement will also have their hands full. It should be remembered that the Australian military is still bogged down in a shooting and bombing war at the side of US and NATO forces of occupation in Afghanistan. The attacks on Aboriginal communities continue and the rights of asylum seekers are still being denied.
Some people have the habit of making New Year's resolutions. As a pivotal year in the battle for survival unfolds, the Communist Party of Australia invites you to follow through on the thought you might have had to join the Party. You don't have to join the Party to find yourself in the thick of the class struggle but membership will give the orientation necessary to see the way forward through the current struggles to a socialist society. That goal might seem a long way off and the forces aligned against us are considerable but socialism is the only way to that brighter future we all aspire to. The alternatives now clearly before us are socialism or what they used to call "barbarism" in the classic works of Marxism.
An old saying goes that for the thousands thrashing away at the leaves and the branches of a problem, there's a much smaller number digging away at its roots. The CPA would welcome you into its ranks, to join us in gathering the forces to uproot capitalism and move on to a humane, sustainable and peaceful future. Season's greetings to all our readers.
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http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2011/1531/03-editorial.html
24 June, 2011

Imperialism 101

By Michael Parenti

Chapter 1 of Against Empire by Michael Parenti
23 September, 2010

What Do Empires Do?

By Michael Parenti

The purpose of all this killing is to prevent alternative, independent, self-defining nations from emerging. So the empire uses its state power to gather private wealth for its investor class. And it uses its public wealth to shore up its state power and prevent other nations from self-developing

10 March, 2010

Decade Of The Drone: America's Aerial Assassins

By Rick Rozoff

2010 is the tenth and deadliest year in Washington's use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for targeted assassinations and untargeted "collateral damage."

01 March, 2010

America's Permanent War Agenda

By Stephen Lendman

America's Permanent War Economy....has endured since the end of World War II....Since then the US has been at war - somewhere - every year, in Korea, Nicaragua, Vietnam, the Balkans, Afghanistan - all this to the accompaniment of shorter military forays in Africa, Chile, Grenada, Panama," and increasingly at home against its own people

14 February, 2010

What Do Empires Do?

By Michael Parenti

From ancient times to today, empires have always been involved in the bloody accumulation of wealth. If you don't think this is true of the United States then stop calling it "Empire." And when you write a book about how it wraps its arms around the planet, entitle it "Global Bully" or "Bossy Busybody," but be aware that you're not telling us much about imperialism

05 January, 2010

Wars "R" Us: Making The World Safe For

American Domination

By Emily Spence

Wars are big business, most notably for investors and employees in the aerospace and defense industries. The related purposes, like the ones guiding most corporations, are hardly humanistic. Instead new sources of revenue, cheap resources from conquered lands, and new markets for products and services are the sine qua non

04 January, 2010

What To Watch For In 2010

By Tom Engelhardt & Nick Turse

According to the Chinese calendar, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger. We don't name our years, but if we did, this one might prospectively be called the Year of the Assassin

01 January, 2010

Gangs And The Truth About American Interventions

By Timothy V. Gatto

Many of the young people that are active in these gangs are probably following the example that is presented to them every day. In this case I'm talking about the example that the United States government presents on the worlds stage. At this point one may ask oneself if the behavior of the United States doesn't present the same type of modus operandi that gangs display

18 August, 2009

Top 50 US War Criminals

By David Swanson

These are men and women who helped to launch wars of aggression or who have been complicit in lesser war crimes. These are not the lowest-ranking employees or troops who managed to stray from official criminal policies. These are the makers of those policies

30 July, 2009

Dismantling The Empire

By Chalmers Johnson

Three good reasons to liquidate our empire and ten steps to take to do so

27 July, 2009

Mourn On The Fourth Of July

By John Pilger

From his early political days, Barack Obama has followed in a long tradition among U.S. political leaders of promoting America's right to rule and order the world

20 July, 2009

Systematic Pressures Behind

US Military And Covert Action

By Dr Sagar Sanyal

Dr Sagar Sanyal discusses various domestic US institutions that either reduce democratic accountability of the military and intelligence agencies or that create systematic pressures for their use

02 July, 2009

How To Deal With America's Empire Of Bases

By Chalmers Johnson

The U.S. Empire of Bases -- at $102 billion a year already the world's costliest military enterprise -- just got a good deal more expensive. As a start, on May 27th, we learned that the State Department will build a new "embassy" in Islamabad, Pakistan, which at $736 million will be the second priciest ever constructed, only $4 million less, if cost overruns don't occur, than the Vatican-City-sized one the Bush administration put up in Baghdad

12 March, 2009

Too Many Overseas Bases

By David Vine

In the midst of an economic crisis that's getting scarier by the day, it's time to ask whether USA can really afford some 1,000 military bases overseas. For those unfamiliar with the issue, you read that number correctly. One thousand. One thousand U.S. military bases outside the 50 states and Washington, DC, representing the largest collection of bases in world history

13 November, 2008

Don't Let Barack Obama Break Your Heart

By Tom Engelhardt

On the day that Americans turned out in near record numbers to vote, a record was set halfway around the world. In Afghanistan, a U.S. Air Force strike wiped out about 40 people in a wedding party. This represented at least the sixth wedding party eradicated by American air power in Afghanistan and Iraq since December 2001

An Open Letter To Mr Barack Obama,

US President-Elect

By Friends Of Lebanon

Mr Obama, it has been a mere week since you were elected, and already you have destroyed any semblance of hope held for peace in the Middle East. Over sixty years of US subservience to the Zionist dream has not brought peace to anyone, not even to the Israelis. It certainly is time for a change. You can continue to seek profit from the illusion of power, or you can seek pride from the reality of respect. It is indeed time, as you say, to promote the cause of peace

17 October, 2008

How To Manage An Imperial Decline

By Aziz Huq

Do empires end with a bang, a whimper, or the sibilant hiss of financial deflation? We may be about to find out. Right now, in the midst of the financial whirlwind, it's been hard in the United States to see much past the moment. Yet the ongoing economic meltdown has raised a range of non-financial issues of great importance for our future

05 September, 2008

Going On An Imperial Bender

By Tom Engelhardt

How the U.S. garrisons the planet and doesn't even notice

25 August, 2008

NATO: A Tool Of U.S. Imperialism

By Ghali Hassan

The U.S.-controlled North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has lost its purpose to continue as a defence alliance. However, its aggressive expansion is endangering world peace and the survival of the planet

06 August, 2008

Obama And The Empire

By William Blum

I'm afraid that if Barack Obama becomes president he's going to break a lot of young hearts. And some older ones as well

28 July, 2008

The Military-Industrial Complex

By Chalmers Johnson

Although Eisenhower's reference to the military-industrial complex is, by now, well-known, his warning against its "unwarranted influence" has, I believe, largely been ignored. Since 1961, there has been too little serious study of, or discussion of, the origins of the military-industrial complex, how it has changed over time, how governmental secrecy has hidden it from oversight by members of Congress or attentive citizens, and how it degrades our Constitutional structure of checks and balances

12 June, 2008

A Failed Project For The New American Century?

By Tim Buchholz

So the war in Iraq led to an increase in the short term, but looks like it will lead to a decrease in the future. The dollar is reaching new lows and people are starting to invest in Euros and Yen instead. Our housing market has crashed. Our deficit continues to grow. And even PNAC's website, www.newamericancentury.org, has been taken down, saying only "This account has been suspended. Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible."

23 May, 2008

How The American Imperial Dream

Foundered In Iraq

By Michael Schwartz

It is past time for the rest of the world to shoulder at least a small share of the burden of resistance. Just as the worldwide protests before the war were among the upstream sources of the Iraqi resistance-to-come, so now others, especially Americans, should resist the very idea that Iraq could ever become the headquarters for a permanent United States presence that would, in the words of Bush speechwriter David Frum, "put America more wholly in charge of the region than any power since the Ottomans, or maybe even the Romans." Unlike the Iraqis, after all, the citizens of the United States are uniquely positioned to bury this imperial dream for all time

17 May, 2008

Terror Most Imperial

By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

Today, one of the more subtle tools of imperialism is the use of value-laden language that seeks to define the Arab and Muslim world. With labels such as 'terrorists' and 'Islamofascism', they wish to establish an 'Orientalist' perspective of otherness denoting barbarism as set apart from Israel and the West which represents admirable qualities. It is imperative to reject this imperial imposition of characterization and for each state, individually and collectively, to self-rule, foremost through self-definition

30 April, 2008

America's University Of Imperialism

By Chalmers Johnson

This essay is a review of Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire by Alex Abella

02 April, 2008

Empire Or Humanity?

By Howard Zinn

What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me About the American Empire

14 March, 2008

The Ruthless American Empire

By Timothy V. Gatto

On Wednesday, March 19th, there will be a mass civil disobedience demonstration on the steps of the Capitol. If you can be there, then be there. If you cannot attend, go to a rally near where you live. The future of this nation is at stake. This means our future is at stake. This monster that has been created must come to an end and this nation must return to its borders and re-join the community of nations. The simple fact is that all Empires fall. Do you want to be here when this one does?

02 December, 2007
World Of Terror, Sidr And The US 'Help'
By Anu Muhammad
The world has entered into a permanent system of war, militarization, destruction and dehumanisation. After Second World War, for different reasons, the US has emerged as the centre of this global system. The survival of the US as a super power, expansion of its hegemony and the function of global capitalism now mostly depend upon war machine and militarism. That gives birth to a new phase of imperialism and becomes a threat not only people and nations in the periphery but for whole human civilization
17 November, 2007
Averting World War III, Ending
Dollar Hegemony And US Imperialism
By Rohini Hensman
If the Bush administration has decided to attack Iran militarily, is there any power on earth that can stop it if the people of the US are unable or unwilling to do so? The argument below is that if the USA's ability to undertake imperial conquests depends on its obvious military supremacy, this in turn is ultimately based on the use of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency. It is the dominance of the dollar that underpins US financial dominance as a whole as well as the apparently limitless spending power that allows it to keep hundreds of thousands of troops stationed all over the world. Destroy US dollar hegemony, and the "Empire" will collapse
14 November, 2007
Cost Of US Wars $1.6 Trillion
By Bill Van Auken
The price tag for the wars being waged by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan will hit nearly $1.6 trillion during the coming year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Democratic staff of Congress's Joint Economic Committee
25 October, 2007
Torture, Paramilitarism, Occupation And Genocide
By Stephen Lendman
On October 5, George Bush confronted a public uproar and defended his administration claiming "This government does not torture people." Again he lied. Once secret US Department of Justice (DOJ) legal opinions confirm the Bush administration condones torture by endorsing "the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency." It also condones paramilitary thuggery, oppressive occupation, and genocide. This unholy combination is the ugly face of an imperial nation run by war criminals
24 October, 2007
The Imperial Presidency
By Ralph Nader
To what level of political insanity has this Washington Caesar descended? Only two countries can start World War III-Russia and the United States. Is Bush saying that if Russia, presently opposed to military action against Iran, persists with its position, Bush may risk World War III? If not, why is this law-breaking warmonger, looking for another war for American GIs to fight, while his military-age daughters bask in the celebrity lime light?
10 October, 2007
Reviewing James Petras' "Rulers And Ruled
In The US Empire"
By Stephen Lendman
The book is information rich on a core issue of our time. It discusses the US empire's "systemic dimensions," evolving changes in its ruling class, its corporatist system, myths about its coming collapse, contradictions in the current debate on immigration and market liberalization policies, the use of force and genocidal carnage, corruption as a market penetrating tool, the Israeli Lobby's power and influence, Latin American relations and events in the region, social and armed resistance, and much more in four power-packed parts under 17 subject chapter headings
05 October, 2007
The American Empire And The Commonwealth Of God
By Jim Miles
Book Review: The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God – A Political, Economic, Religious Statement. By John Cobb, Richard Falk, David Griffin and Catherine Keller
01 October, 2007
A Global Satyagraha Against Imperialism
By Rohini Hensman
Gandhi's birth anniversary on October 2 provides a fitting occasion to launch a global satyagraha against imperialism. Such a struggle is urgently needed today, given the carnage being inflicted by imperialism in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the threat of even greater carnage in Iran. Support for the people of these countries needs to be stepped up to a higher level globally if the continuing holocaust is to be halted
28 September, 2007
The State of the American Empire –
How the USA Shapes the World
By Jim Miles
Book Review: The State of the American Empire – How the USA Shapes the World By Stephen Burman. University of California Press, Myriad Editions,2007
26 September, 2007
A Culture Of Violence
By Stephen Lendman
What kind of country glorifies mass killing, assaults and abuse; one that looks down on pacifist non-violence as sissy or unpatriotic, yet claims to be peace loving. It's not in the third world, under dictatorship or controlled by religious extremists. It's the "land of the free and home of the brave, America the Beautiful" where human rights, civil liberties, common dignity and personal safety are more illusion than fact
21 August, 2007
Oil Wars: Fueling Both U.S. Empire And Ecocide
By Dan Brook
The war will end. U.S. troops will return home. The empire is running on fumes and will eventually stall out. The only questions are: How many more people will have to die before that happens? How many more billions of dollars will have to be wasted?
16 July, 2007
Plan Iraq:Permanent Occupation
By Stephen Lendman
Drawdowns, withdrawal, timelines, mission shifting, building democracy and all the other current and long-standing phony rhetoric aside, America is in Iraq to stay as a conqueror and occupier - that is, until Iraqis finally kick us out as they will in time in a part of the world long a graveyard for foreign invaders. But it won't happen quickly or before countless more thousands die, are injured, suffer immeasurably, are displaced, and lose everything
US Middle East Wars: Social Opposition
And Political Impotence
By James Petras
Everywhere I visit from Copenhagen to Istanbul, Patagonia to Mexico City, journalists and academics, trade unionists and businesspeople, as well as ordinary citizens, inevitably ask me why the US public tolerates the killing of over a million Iraqis over the last two decades, and thousands of Afghans since 2001?
09 June, 2007
Report Details CIA Prisons In Europe
By Joe Kay
A report released Friday by the Council of Europe confirms that the CIA has used interrogation centers in Europe, including in Romania and Poland, to secretly hold and torture prisoners captured in Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of the globe
16 May, 2007
Is Imperial Liquidation Possible For America?
By Chalmers Johnson
When Ronald Reagan coined the phrase "evil empire," he was referring to the Soviet Union, and I basically agreed with him that the USSR needed to be contained and checkmated. But today it is the U.S. that is widely perceived as an evil empire and world forces are gathering to stop us
15 May, 2007
Notes On A Cultural Renaissance
In A Time Of Barbarism
By James Petras
We live in a time of imperial-driven destructive wars in the name of 'democracy', savage exploitation in the name of 'emerging world powers', massive forced population displacement in the name of 'immigration' and large-scale pillage of natural resources in the name of 'free markets'
27 April, 200
Mr. Bush, Tear Down These Walls!
By Scott Ritter
The ongoing policy of building walls in Baghdad designed to segregate Sunni neighborhoods from Shiite neighborhoods is as morally despicable as it is ineffective. The Soviets built walls; the Nazis walled off entire communities, often as a precursor to rounding up the segregated population and shipping it off to concentration camps
24 April, 2007
Deaths In Other Nations Since WW II
Due To Us Interventions
By James A. Lucas
The overall conclusion reached is that the United States most likely has been responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 and 30 million people in wars and conflicts scattered over the world
23 April, 2007
Blacksburg To Baghdad:US Mass Murder
At Home & Abroad
By Gideon Polya
The Blacksburg Massacre was enabled because America is awash with guns, has a power-obsessed, abusive and racist culture and IGNORES the appalling human consequences of its actions
17 April, 2007
Blood For Oil Control
By Paul Street
U.S. forces are in Iraq to protect Iraq oil from the Iraqis themselves and from the possibility that the Iraqis might act to accelerate U.S. global decline by aligning their energy resources with the development of competing states and sectors in the world system
14 April, 2007
Iran May Be The Greatest Crisis Of Modern Times
By John Pilger
It is time we in Britain and other Western countries stopped looking from the side. We are being led towards perhaps the most serious crisis in modern history as the Bush-Cheney-Blair "long war" edges closer to Iran for no reason other than that nation's independence from rapacious America
27 March, 2007
A Cluster Bomb Treaty: Again,
It's The U.S. v. The World
By Scott Stedjan & Laura Weis
In an historic step forward, Norway hosted the Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions in late February 2007, where 49 countries met to discuss how to address the indiscriminate and lasting effects of cluster munitions on civilians. The Bush administration did not send a representative to the Oslo meeting and, absent a policy change, is unlikely to participate in subsequent meetings
19 March, 2007
If Elected, Hillary Clinton Vows
To Keep US Troops In Iraq
By Bill Van Auken
In a calculated bid to position herself for the 2008 Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton told the New York Times Wednesday that, if elected president, she would keep significant US military forces in Iraq for the foreseeable future
13 March, 2007
America's Perpetual Nuclear War
By Robert Weitzel
The world should note that America has been waging a "low yield" nuclear war that has been killing civilians for almost two decades. Missing from this war are mushroom clouds and very loud booms. Present is nuclear fallout with its insidious long-term effects on both combatant and civilian and its perpetual contamination of land and water resources
11 March, 2007
A Predator Becomes More Dangerous
When Wounded
By Noam Chomsky
Washington's escalation of threats against Iran is driven by a determination to secure control of the region's energy resources
10 March, 2007
Democrats "Withdrawal" Plan Paves
Way To Escalation Of Iraq War
By Bill Van Auken
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic congressional leaders unveiled a toothless plan Thursday that they claim would result in the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq a year and a half from now. The main purpose of this political exercise, however, is to unite the party behind supplemental funding legislation that will provide at least $100 billion more to pay for the escalation of the illegal war and occupation that has been waged by Washington for the past four years
02 March, 2007
Nemesis: The Last Days Of The American Republic
By Chalmers Johnson & Amy Goodman
In his new book, CIA analyst, distinguished scholar, and best-selling author Chalmers Johnson argues that US military and economic overreach may actually lead to the nation's collapse as a constitutional republic. It's the last volume in his Blowback trilogy, following the best-selling "Blowback" and "The Sorrows of Empire."
A Review Of Chalmers Johnson's Nemesis
By Stephen Lendman
Volume three is Nemesis and the subject of this review. In it, Johnson "tried to present historical, political, economic, and philosophical evidence of where our current behavior is likely to lead." He believes our present course is a road to perdition in the form of fiscal insolvency and a military or civilian dictatorship
Never Again To Antiwar Battle Fatigue
By David Howard
From the Holocaust witnesses we have learned to say never again to regimes of racism and fascism. From Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors we have learned to say never again to nuclear weapons. From the Iraq War we must learn to say never again to preemptive war, to torture, and to the insidious ideology of democratizing by the sword
01 March, 2007
America's March Madness
By Mickey Z.
Last month, I touched on a fraction of February's forgotten history vis-à-vis America's long history of global brutality. Here's a small taste of March's madness
14 February, 2007
The World Can Halt Bush's Crimes
By Dumping The Dollar
By Paul Craig Roberts
If the rest of the world would simply stop purchasing US Treasuries, and instead dump their surplus dollars into the foreign exchange market, the Bush Regime would be overwhelmed with economic crisis and unable to wage war. The arrogant hubris associated with the "sole superpower" myth would burst like the bubble it is
13 February, 2007
Bush's Plan For Iraq And The Middle East
By Abid Mustafa
Over the past few months, the Bush administration in the backdrop of the Iraq Study Group's (ISG) report has announced its plan for Iraq—apart from the Presidents refusal to formally engage Iran and Syria— the plan broadly concurs with the recommendation laid out by the ISG. Furthermore, the US has mobilised its surrogates in Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the gulf countries to implement this plan and prepare the ground for the emergence of a new middle east. What follows is a brief summary of what America is planning to achieve in Palestine, Iraq and Iran
12 February, 2007
"You Cannot Oppose The War And Fund This War"
By Kevin Zeese & Anthony Arnove
An interview with Anthony Arnove
War: It's Just A Pretext Away
(Lessons From Yugoslavia)
By Mickey Z.
Anyone viewing international events with even a shred of objectivity knows that the U.S. government is just a pretext away from bombing Iran. American history, after all, is teeming with convenient provocations that created an opening for military intervention
07 February, 2007
Forgotten February
By Mickey Z.
A brief peek at America's unrestrained brutality
Clinton, Edwards And Obama: Strike Iran
Why The Democrats Won't Save Us
By Joshua Frank
None of the front running Democrats are opposed to Bush's dubious "war on terror" or his bullying of Iran. They support his aggression in principle but simply believe a Democratic presidency could handle the job more astutely. All put Israel first and none are going to fundamentally alter U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East
02 February, 2007
Stepped Up US Preparations
For War Against Iran
By Peter Symonds
A relentless and unmistakable American buildup for war against Iran is currently underway. Military preparations are being accompanied by a daily barrage of propaganda against Tehran issuing from US sources and relayed uncritically via a compliant media
01 February, 2007
US Holocaust Commission And Holocaust Denial
By Dr Gideon Polya
The US recently successfully put a Resolution to UN General Assembly rightly condemning Holocaust Denial. However the Resolution ignored huge non-Jewish Holocausts e.g. the US-driven Iraqi Holocaust and thus was Holocaust Ignoring, something even worse than Holocaust Denial because it is Passive Holocaust Denial that admits of no refutation – who does one refute something that has not even been asserted?
24 January, 2007
Gangsters For Capitalism
By Clinton L. Cox
Although benign U.S. intentions are an article of faith among many Americans, theft, murder and oppression have always been central to U.S. policies and practices in the non-white world. George Bush's crusade for 'democracy' is yet another chapter in the shameful saga
Bush The Empire Slayer
By Bernard Chazelle
Victors are never war criminals. That's because they get to write the history books. Bush won't have that chance. The die has been cast and the hour is too late for him or anyone to alter the unforgiving judgment of posterity
20 January, 2007
Rice's Middle East Tour: Arab Rregimes
Back US War Drive In Iraq And Iran
By Jean Shaoul & Chris Marsden
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the Emirates have all signed up to the Bush administration's escalation of its aggression against Iraq and its plans for a military attack on Iran
Truth Is Speaking… Is Power Listening?
By Carolyn Baker & Jason Miller
Carolyn Baker interviewed by Jason Miller
19 January, 2007
Is The U.S. Planning A Horrific Global Nuclear War?
By Michel Chossudovsky
At no point since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, has humanity been closer to the unthinkable, a nuclear holocaust which could potentially spread, in terms of radioactive fallout, over a large part of the Middle East
17 January, 2007
Turning On The War
By Joshua Frank
It seems the only way the war will come to an end will be when soldiers start resisting by the droves. It's already happening with little fanfare all across the country. Many are finding refuge in Canada and elsewhere. These brave soldiers must be congratulated for taking such a path. They are the answer the antiwar movement has been looking for. Let's hope they lead by example. If their peers don't follow, we are in for a much longer, deadlier war
11 January, 2007
Bringing To Book The Guilty Men Of Baghdad
By Siddharth Varadarajan
The legal arguments used by the U.S.-sponsored Iraqi court to convict Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity apply even more forcefully to those American leaders who ordered the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq
Air strikes On Somalia: A New Stage
In Washington's Illegal "Terror" War
By Chris Marsden
US air strikes against targets in the south of Somalia have claimed a substantial number of civilian lives. The bombing campaign, begun Sunday night and continued on Monday, mark a major escalation in the Bush administration's lawless use of violence to achieve Washington's strategic aims under the auspices of its "global war on terrorism."
A Dark Anniversary
By William Fisher
This week, as the world marks the fifth anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a growing number of people and organizations – from military officers to religious leaders to legal scholars to human rights groups – continue to label the prison a black hole of injustice and demand that it be closed
08 January, 2007
The Tower Of Wealth Without A Foundation
By Siv O'Neall
The two mainstays of the neoconservative and neoliberal agenda can be reduced to the accumulation of more wealth for the tiny upper clique of the American population and to assuring the ever-lasting continuation of the U.S. empire. The rest of the world is simply of no consequence to the neocon way of thinking and that's where they make the huge mistake that is one day going to be their downfall
07 January, 2007
Bush's Solution To Iraq – No Mystery
By Dan Lieberman
Jordan and Syria, that feel threatened by Iraq and Iran, might become more conciliatory to the U.S. and Israel (USrael) and seek their protection (as in mafia protection). The U.S. might bow out and let Israel proceed in its own plans. Israel might be the biggest victor in this calamitous and haunting adventure
04 January, 2007
Hussein And Ford = Dead Criminals
By Mickey Z.
All you need to know about America is summed up here: Saddam Hussein was "the next Hitler" while Gerald Ford was a "healer."
30 December, 2006
War And USA
By David Truskoff
Christian Americans are the most war like people this planet has ever produced
28 December, 2006
A Look Back And Ahead In An Age Of Neocon Rule
By Stephen Lendman
It's time to pause at year's end to give thanks for our blessings but reflect that the spirit of the season demands that the madness of Bush neocon rule be stopped and ended before it's too late
Will Stinky Cut The Big One
By Sheila Samples
Bush is a brutal, pathological liar -- arguably a homicidal maniac. After losing two wars against helpless, unarmed nations, he's bored. The Decider is moving on to greater things, and those who know how to listen to him know the decision to nuke Iran has already been made. Before he leaves office, Bush plans to spread the same freedoms throughout Iran that Iraq is presently enjoying. Will Stinky cut the big one on his way out?
26 December, 2006
"Stephen Lendman Sounds Off"
By Jason Miller & Stephen Lendman
Despite his relatively recent start, Stephen Lendman has rapidly become one of the most ubiquitous and well-respected chroniclers of truth in the alternative media community.Here is a glimpse of Stephen and his worldview
Iran And North Korea Standoff:
US policy On NPT Is In Tatters
By Abid Mustafa
The US has not only failed to curb the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea, but has also made the world a dangerous place to live in. By signing a nuclear deal with India in violation of the NPT and not lifting a finger to reign in Israel's atomic weapons, more and more countries will follow Iran and North Korea in a bid to nuclearize. Thanks to the Bush administration, America now stands on the verge of becoming the worlds biggest proliferate of nuclear technology
23 December, 2006
The Birth Of An Empire
By Rosa Mariam Elizalde
An Interview with Gore Vidal
21 December, 2006
UK, US And Israeli State Terrorism
And Western Holocaust Denial
By Gideon Polya
Holocaust Denial is exactly what racist, lying Western academics, politicians and media have been guilty of in relation to past and present Western-imposed Holocausts in Asian countries, including India
The Decider Can't Decide
By Kevin Zeese
Indications are Bush is moving toward more troops, with Democratic leadership support, now Joint Chiefs of Staff reportedly opposes an increase in troops in Iraq. Washington, DC is confused in the face of military defeat. It is time to face the facts and leave
Elephants And Quagmires
By Bill Henderson
While the Bush administration, the media and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever-pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such reticence
19 December, 2006
"Defending Our Interests And
Our People" (Lessons From Panama)
By Mickey Z.
Estimates range from 500 to 3000 dead Panamanian civilians killed during the invasion and the fighting afterwards. Bush the Elder was later asked if getting Noriega was worth all those deaths. As if to confirm the unspoken tenet that some lives count more than others, the president replied: "Every human life is precious, and yet I have to answer, yes, it has been worth it."
17 December, 2006
The U.S. Government Hates Democracy
(Lessons From Italy)
By Mickey Z
As far as I'm concerned, we can't put forward enough reminders of how the U.S. government about peace, freedom, justice, etc. aside, the land of the free is not even remotely interested in spreading democracy. There is an abundance of evidence to back up this assertion. For now, I offer the example of post-World War II Italy
The Atrocities Of Augusto Pinochet
And The United States
By Roger Burbach
The Pinochet affair has shaped a whole new generation of human rights activists and lawyers. They are determined to end the impunity of public officials, including that of the civilian and military leaders in the United States who engage in state terrorism and human rights abuses while violating international treaties like the Geneva Conventions
16 December, 2006
Omissions In The Iraq Study Group Report
By Stephen Lendman
It remains to be seen how long it will take for a mass awakening to occur to arouse the public at home, as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan, making them no longer willing to put up with the kind of abuse and neglect they've so far failed to resist. If history is a guide, it will happen
08 December, 2006
The Empire Is Falling
By Robert Fisk
The Roman Empire is falling. That, in a phrase, is what the Baker report says. The legions cannot impose their rule on Mesopotamia
Vietnam, Iraq, And The M Word
By Mickey Z.
Other countries have war criminals. In America, we have the mistaken
07 December, 2006
Don't Expect U.S. To Create Democracy
In Iraq (Lessons From Greece)
By Mickey Z.
It would be nice to believe that the U.S./British invasion of Iraq may have been horribly mishandled but the motivation behind it was sincere. After all, it's a timeless classic: toss out a depot and introduce democracy. However, even the most perfunctory glance at previous U.S./British ventures would promptly expose the lies. An excellent example is post-WWII Greece
21st American Century Is About To End
By Abid Mustafa
Barely six years have elapsed since President Bush took office and the much coveted 21st century belongs to America is about to come to an abrupt end. America's pre-eminence in four corners of the world is being challenged by friends and foes alike
06 December, 2006
The End Of The Bush Dynasty
By Stephen Lendman
It now remains for his final exit that can't come soon enough for most who want him out now and may act to force it if the Congress won't act as a majority of the public demands. Whatever happens from here, the king is dead (even with his head in place), and with it the power and influence of a family dynasty brought down by the poisoned chalice of its ill-chosen successor, unworthy and unable to wear the crown and pass it to the next in line
Don't Let Dick Cheney Read Your Palm
By Mickey Z.
A look back at some of the predictions that Dick Cheney made on Iraq
02 December, 2006
Like Hitler And Brezhnev,Bush Is In Denial
By Robert Fisk
More than half a million deaths, an army trapped in the largest military debacle since Vietnam, a Middle East policy already buried in the sands of Mesopotamia - and still George W Bush is in denial. How does he do it?
01 December, 2006
Barack Obama And The Winds Of War
By Glen Ford
Barack Obama--who has never claimed to be a Black leader--is in fact not a leader at all. Nowhere is this more evident than in the most critical issue facing Americans and the world at this dangerous juncture in history: the war in Iraq
Noam Chomsky And Gilbert Achcar's New Book:
Perilous Power
By Stephen Lendman
A review
29 November, 2006
Nominee For US Defense Secretary
Advocated Bombing Of Nicaragua
By Joe Kay
In December 1984, Robert Gates, the Bush administration's nominee to replace Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary, advocated military strikes against Nicaragua in response to what he considered to be a growing threat to US interests in Central and South America. Gates was then deputy director of intelligence at the CIA
Lawyers File War Crimes Charges Against
Rumsfeld And Others In German Court
By Michael Ratner
Revolution Interview with Attorney Michael Ratner on the Case vs Rumsfeld
28 November, 2006
Impeachment Hearings For Bush & Co.?
How About War Crimes Tribunals
By Heatherwokusch
The administration has taken pre-emptive action against future war crimes charges, including pushing through the scandalous Military Commissions Act, which provides them retroactive domestic protection from prosecution regarding prisoner abuse cases
Razzle-Dazzle Time In Washington
By Kevin B. Zeese
The Democrats reaped the benefit of voter anger at the Iraq war and occupation on November 7 and regained control of both chambers of Congress. Will the Democrats satisfy the desire to end the Iraq War? Sadly, the initial signs are that voters are likely to get a lot of razzle-dazzle in Washington, but not much change in policy
27 November, 2006
Some Things You Need To Know
Before The World Ends
By William Blum
The good news is that the Republicans lost.The bad news is that the Democrats won.The burning issue -- US withdrawal from Iraq -- remains as far from resolution as before
The American Thanksgiving: Rejoicing
In Genocide And White Supremacy
By Glen Ford
No Halloween of the imagination can rival the exterminationist reality that was the genesis, and remains the legacy, of the American Thanksgiving. It is the most loathsome, humanity-insulting day of the year – a pure glorification of racist barbarity
25 November, 2006
US Could Bomb Iran Nuclear Sites In 2007: Analysts
By AFP
President George W. Bush could choose military action over diplomacy and bomb Iran's nuclear facilities next year, political analysts in Washington agree
Empire's Ally: Canadian Foreign Policy
By Greg Albo
The Bush doctrine and the imperial interventions across the Middle East, supported by Canada and the other Western powers, is the most visible symbol of this geo-political strategy. One of capitalism's most powerful fictions is - not for the first time - being laid bare for what it is: naked self-interest
Reclaiming America: Democrats Must
Truly Change Course
By Ramzy Baroud
To prevent the exodus of Empire-driven neo-conservative ideologues from being replaced by self-deceiving, Israel-comes-first Democrats, the American public must not be satisfied with its democratic revolution of early November. Americans must continue to push for a truly equitable, sensible and revolutionary foreign policy
23 November, 2006
Thanksgiving: The National Day Of Mourning
By Wampsutta
Text of 1970 speech by Wampsutta an Aquinnah Wampanoag elder and Native American activist
America Has Left The Building:
An Open Missive Of Anger And Hope
By Phil Rockstroh
I want you to realize this: There are hidden reservoirs of hope within us: reservoirs as boundless as the reach of your ruthlessness. These waters are as deep and potent as you are, at present, shallow and shameless. Yet, they're inaccessible to you -- as long as you insist your drink of choice will continue to be oil and blood, mixed with the runoff of melting Arctic glaciers
22 November, 2006
Rumsfeld's War And War Crimes
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
With U.S. laws protecting its government officials that are at variance with international laws, Rumsfeld's war crimes case may eventually go to the UNSC. But there, the USA will veto such resolutions further isolating herself from the rest of the civilized world
21 November, 2006
Rumsfeld Should Be Indicted
By Mahmood Khattak
Most of the people defending Rumsfeld would take the alibi that he was not personally torturing those people. Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death for killing 182 people, even though he did not pull the trigger himself. Hitler did not kill all the six million Jews in Holocaust himself
Democrats Seek Accommodation With Bush
Administration To Continue Iraq Occupation
By Joe Kay
Over the weekend, leading Democrats pledged their eagerness to work closely with the Bush administration in forging a bipartisan policy to continue the occupation of Iraq, and voiced their support for a substantial increase in the military budget and the recruitment of more Army troops
Third Parties Fight For American Democracy
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
A great democracy offers citizens sharp political choices. That's what gives political freedom meaning. With two-party control of America's political system, political options and discourse are stifled. We badly need more visible third-parties that can fully participate and reach the public with information about their platforms and candidates. In a nation that so worships competition it is hypocritical that there is so little political competition
20 November, 2006
Milton Lost: Can We Regain Paradise?
By Jason Miller
This article is dedicated to the untold millions who suffered as a result of Milton Friedman's creation of an intellectual bulwark for economic brutality. On 11/16/06, Friedman died of heart failure, an ironic cause of death for a heartless individual
18 November, 2006
A Prescription For Peace
Teaching Tommy During an Era of Fascism
By Doug Soderstrom
In looking back at that of my own education, I have come to the conclusion that much of what I learned was a matter of propaganda.Then, after having spent forty years as a psychologist teaching at the college level, my sentiments have not changed; we, as teachers, have done a terrible thing. We have chosen to mislead our students. We have led them to believe things that are simply not true
17 November, 2006
The Price Of Imperial Arrogance
By Stephen Lendman
Hitler just called for the people to support him and used his anointing to unleash a reign of terror across the continent. It now remains to be seen how much more damage George Bush will do with his power and what the newly elected Democrat congress will do about it that early-on doesn't look like much of anything. Dare we imagine the price to be paid for more of the same ugly business as usual and a president given the power of a dictator to act as he pleases without restraint and a willingness to use it
Democrats Must Offer A New Blueprint For Iraq
By Scott Ritter
It is imperative that the Democratic Party stake out a position on Iraq before the Iraq Study Group publicly announces its findings and recommendations
16 November, 2006
Depleted Uranium, Another Gift From The Imperialists
By Pauline Paulinson
With now over 10 trillion doses of DU in Iraq and Afghanistan, it comes as no surprise that widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a large scale public health disaster. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find DU in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and following 'Operation Iraqi Freedom', they found DU in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as in Iraqi civilians
To Hell With Centrism: We Must
Reclaim The Inspired Edge
By Phil Rockstroh
Rumsfeld is gone. Mehlman is gone. Delay is gone. Yet -- let's not have our progressives' version of a strutting on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier moment. Because mission has not been accomplished
15 November, 2006
To the Victors Belongs Impunity
By Jason Miller
Baghdad's kangaroo court has issued a verdict that virtually guarantees that Saddam Hussein will launch his journey into the hereafter from the platform of a gallows.Yet to ensure public furor against Hussein (and to distract the hoi polloi from focusing upon those guilty of similar crimes), the corporate media have conveniently jettisoned several important aspects of history down the Memory Hole
14 November, 2006
Here come The Odious Excuses
By Robert Fisk
The philosophers behind the bloodbath in Iraq are now washing their hands
The Only Way Out Of Iraq
By Mirza A. Beg
The failure is evident to all who can reason. As predicted our bungling leader has not only landed the sole super power in an un-winnable quagmire in Iraq, but now even Afghanistan is on the skids, spiraling towards chaos
Liar Liar Pants On Fire
By David Truskoff
In 1952 Hanson Baldwin wrote, about the war in Vietnam, "The people of France are becoming more and more Weary of conflict that brings them no return at a cost known to every tax payer" In November 2006 the American taxpayers said the same thing with their vote against the Bush War. There will be many investigations and subpoenas that will now lead to chaos and turmoil in American politics. but In the end greed will prevail. It always does. The liars will see to it
11 November, 2006
Myth Of The Brave Soldier
By Mickey Z.
There are many who identify themselves as "anti-war" who will vigorously defend the troops. Even when faced with documented evidence of criminality, Americans still cannot summon the bravery to condemn the military
10 November, 2006
Outlaw Empire Meets The Wave
By Tom Engelhardt
The wave -- and make no mistake, it's a global one -- has just crashed on our shores, soaking our imperial masters. It's a sight for sore eyes
08 November, 2006
Saddam Hussein Verdict: US Politicians,
Media Applaud The Gallows And The Noose
By David Walsh
It is, in its own way, entirely fitting that a show trial followed by a hanging should be hailed by the US media and both major parties as symbols of Washington's "democratic" mission in Iraq
07 November, 2006
Agitprop Capital Of The World (The USA)
Exports Its Poison To Venezuela
By Stephen Lendman
With the December election less than a month away, events are building toward a climax when Washington-orchestrated fireworks are sure to erupt. Expect them to be even uglier than the tactics used in the previous three failed attempts to oust Hugo Chavez
Unleashing the Christ Within:Last Hope
For The Moribund Soul Of A Nation?
By Jason Miller
In a collective sense, the soul of the United States is writhing in the agony of spiritual asphyxiation. Trapped in an overflowing cesspool of its own making, the nation's élan vital desperately needs freedom and an infusion of spiritual oxygen. Sans significant change, its odds for survival equal those of an under-sized fish carelessly tossed ashore by a heartless angler
06 November, 2006
Apocalypse No! Christian Fascism
And The Nazi Legacy
By Juan Santos
If Life on Earth is to survive, if we and millions of other species are to survive, human society will have to undergo the deepest of transformations on a global scale. Stopping Christian Fascism will only be the beginning
Blood And money
By John Pilger
If I have learned nothing else from witnessing numerous bloody contrivances, it is never to underestimate the stamina of rampant, rapacious empire and the dishonesty of its "humanitarian interventions". Millions of us, who are the majority, need to raise our voices again, more urgently now than ever
05 November, 2006
Botched Or Not, The Joke's On Us
By Mickey Z.
Every now and then, a series of events (and the reaction to those events) converge to effectively illustrate just how deeply the indoctrination runs in the home of the brave/land of the free. Senator John F. Kerry was the catalyst for the most recent such convergence. His "botched joke" laid bare the passionate cult of the soldier, America's enduring military fetish
03 November, 2006
America The Temporary
By Mickey Z.
America the Beautiful. The Declaration of Independence. The Statue of Liberty. Baseball, apple pie, and internal combustion engines built by Chevrolet. All of these are nothing more than the castles made of sand Jimi Hendrix sang about
The Great White Hunters Bwana Dick And Don
By Rana Bose
Do Bwana Dick and Bwana Don really think that the people of the world outside the United States are really scurrying around without any heads above their shoulders, waiting for justice to arrive from the Bible belt via the Great White Hunter?
02 November, 2006
Midterm Elections 2006:It's Always Darkest,
Right Before ...It Goes Completely Black
By Phil Rockstroh
I believe, at this late hour, the second best thing that could come to pass in our crumbling republic is for the total destruction of the Democratic Party -- and then from its ashes to rise a party of true progressives
Apocalypse No!
An Indigenist Perspective -Part I
By Juan Santos
Science has given us until roughly 2012 to take radical action to change the course we're on. In the next six years, they tell us, we will determine the fate of the Earth.With the US and its white colonial puppet Israel on a nuclear collision course with Iran and Syria, we may have less time than that
01 November, 2006
Terrorism: Facts Versus Myths
By Ram Puniyani
When I look
At the purple blue sky
At night,
I want to see stars,
Not bombers, circling the moonilight
The Forgiven: Clint Eastwood's Good War
By Mickey Z.
In the midst of our current, perpetual war against evil, America is yet again reflecting upon the "good war." If Clint Eastwood is allowed to recycle those images in ³Flags of Our Fathers,² as the author of an alternative history of WWII, why shouldn't I state my case yet again?
31 October, 2006
Hell Awaits America
By Jason Miller
Mass manipulation, blissful psychosis, and 7 easy wys to achieve damnation
30 October, 2006
American Voters Must Not Reward Failure
By Ramzy Baroud
On November 7 only the American voter has the power to decide: whether to reward failure or to gracefully search for a way out of Iraq
28 October, 2006
Christian Supremacists And American Imperialism
By Yoginder Sikand
Bush is on record as having claimed that only Christians have a place in heaven. Many other religious fundamentalists in other faiths, including Osama bin Laden, whom Bush regularly refers to as his principal adversary, think likewise about their own co-religionists. A recipe for despair? Perhaps, although, hopefully, not necessarily. But all the more reason for taking the battle against bigots parading in the guise of virtue even more seriously
Members Of Bush Gang Swore Under Oath
Saddam Was Behind 9/11
By Evelyn Pringle
For those Americans still wondering about a motive for Bush taking the country to war in Iraq, the first and foremost goal of the neocons was to gain control of the world's oil supply and the number two goal, was to set up a war profiteering scheme to funnel billions of tax dollars into their own bank accounts for many years to come
Is It Vietnam Yet?
By Cindy Sheehan
With the mid-term elections looming dangerously close, and with public opinion in opposition to George's failed foreign policies crossing the two-thirds mark, the White House announced that they are going to present their puppet government of Iraq with a "timetable" for US withdrawal. This reminds me of Richard Nixon's "secret plan" to remove US troops from Vietnam that he touted in his narrow electoral victory over Hubert Humphrey in 1968
27 October, 2006
James Petras' New Book:The Power Of Israel
In The United States
By Stephen Lendman
Petras' powerful new book is titled The Power of Israel in the United States. It's a work of epic writing and essential reading documenting the enormous influence of the Jewish Lobby on US policy in the Middle East
26 October, 2006
Nuclear Dual Standards
By Ramzy Baroud
The US administration's double standards in dealing with the intensifying nuclear crisis in North Korea further strengthens the argument that President George W Bush's colonial designs are either exasperated by the vulnerability of his foes or deterred by their lethal preparedness
The Shame Of The Nation: A Collective Perversion
By Stephen Lendman
The daily headlines about a single congressman's online pedophiliac behavior obscure the greater issue of a nation off its moorings and afflicted by the collective perversion of defiling the foundational equity and justice-for-all letter and spirit of what the nation long-claimed to stand for but no longer does if it ever did
Selling Satan: Iraqi War Dead And
The Collateral Damage To America's Soul
By Phil Rockstroh
Regarding the death of well over half-a-million Iraqis, the majority of the citizenry of The Corporatists States of America have experienced a comparable degree of regret and remorse that their oligarchic overlords experience when topping-off the tanks of their corporate jets with fuel purchased with money plundered from their employee's retirement accounts ... Sans conscience above -- sans conscience below
25 October, 2006
A Massive Turn Around Needed
By Ted Bohne
A massive turn around of American foreign policy is in order. This will do more to make the US safe than any action in Iraq which is well known to have never been a threat to the US. Remember, each day we wait to dismiss the current regime, American lives and Iraqi lives are being squandered like drunk's drinking money
21 October, 2006
How Not To Engage With The 'Muslim World':
Insights From Delhi
By Yoginder Sikand
In recent years, particularly following the events of 11 September 2001, several Western organisations based in Delhi have launched programmes ostensibly seeking to 'engage' with Muslims. Some of these are funded by their respective governments. Rather than aiming to promote serious dialogue between Muslims and the 'West', some of these programmes seem motivated almost entirely by narrowly-defined security concerns, and aimed at defending Western governments' imperialist policies and interests
20 October, 2006
Space: America's New War Zone
By Andrew Buncombe
The Bush administration has staked an aggressive new claim to dominate space - rejecting any new treaties that seek to limit the United States' extraterrestrial activities and warning that it will oppose any nations that try to get in its way
US Turns Space Into Its Colony
By Ehsan Ahrari
President George W Bush signed an executive order creating a new National Space Policy on Wednesday. The most crucial feature of this policy is that it "rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit US flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone 'hostile to US interests'"
19 October, 2006
Beware Empires In Decline
By Michael Klare
Just as an empire on the rise, like the United States on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, is often inclined to take rash and ill-considered actions, so an empire on the decline, like the British and French empires after World War II, will engage in senseless, self-destructive acts. And I fear the same can happen to the United States today, as we, too, slip into decline
17 October, 2006
Bush Unleashes The Nuclear Beast
By Joseph Cirincione
Rather than negotiate treaties to eliminate weapons, the Bush administration forged a strategy to eliminate the regimes that might use them against us. The Bush team felt they knew who the bad guys were, and they aimed to get them — one by one. But the strategy has backfired
Swallowing The Blue Pill: Frank Talk
On Race And Fascism In The US
By Juan Santos
As the US veers on a radical course toward fascism, the Democrats, who are riding high on a national wave of revulsion against the Bush regime, breathe not a word about reversing the legalization of torture or restoring habeas corpus; they say nothing about reversing the Patriot Act, nothing about averting war in Iran, and nothing of substance about pulling out of Iraq
Spiritual Felo De Se: Fealty To A Moral Abomination
By Jason Miller
Those leaders (like Chavez) who fight for the poor and oppressed are treated as threats and pariahs, champions of the privileged elite like Reagan are enshrined in the pantheon of American politics, and malefactors in the Bush Regime garner enough support to continue perpetrating their heinous crimes
13 October, 2006
Clutching Our Values Aboard
The Death Train Of Empire
By Phil Rockstroh
So what exactly are values anyway? Values are what the clergy and the corporatists allow us to keep for ourselves -- after they've made off with all the valuables
11 October, 2006
The End Of An Era
By Siv O'Neall
The era of superpower domination of the world is rapidly coming to an end. The very arrogance of the present superpower has caused its impending downfall
Who's Really Preying On Teenagers?
By David Howard
But if the idea of your school being obliged to pimp for the Army disturbs you as much as it disturbs me, you probably won't rest until the recruitment provision of NCLB is repealed and we all acknowledge that child recruitment is as obscene as child pornography
Piercing The Simulacrum: Of Faux Democracy,
Petty Tyrants, And Painful Realities
By Jason Miller
Given humankind's United States-led pursuit of self-destruction, an economic, ecological, or humanitarian cataclysm is virtually inevitable at some point. However, there is a silver lining. The survivors who rise from the ashes like the mythical Phoenix will be blessed with a second chance. And let's hope those Founding Parents will have the wisdom to remake civilization according to truly democratic, just, and humane principles
10 October, 2006
War For Souls And Empire In Christ's Name
By Yoginder Sikand
Although rarely commented on in the press, Christian fundamentalism has emerged as a powerful factor in shaping American foreign policies, particularly in the 'Muslim world'. With a born-again Christian fundamentalist as President of America this is hardly surprising
09 October, 2006
Revolt Of The Generals
By Ralph Nader
Daddy Bush should take his son and have him repeat after him again and again--"options for revision," "options for revision," "options for revision." Unless, that is, Bush and Cheney both do the country a favor and resign
A Subtle Kind Of Fascism
By John Chuckman
America is a democracy, isn't it? It certainly has many of the forms of a democracy, but when you closely examine the details, as I've written previously, American democracy resembles a badly worn wood veneer. The ugly structural stuff underneath sticks out the way elbows do in a threadbare coat
Canada Need Not Follow The US
By Javed I. Chaudry
It is high time, the Canadian government and its public learn to differentiate between right and wrong in the light of the lessons learned from the history rather than make decisions on the basis of political expediency
Lebanon- Foreplay For The Rape Of Iran
By Dick Mazess
A nuclear attack on Iran would not only alienate European allies and make the US a pariah state but likely would stimulate nuclear proliferation worldwide
07 October, 2006
Two Roads Diverged For America
By Anthony Signorelli
As I have written in my new book Call to Liberty, the political conditions in the country are ripe for fascism. If principled ideas do not emerge in the new leadership of the Democratic Party, the vacuum will likely be filled by dynamic ideas vying for prominence from the far right wing
06 October, 2006
Intervention And Terrorism
By Paul Buchheit
If we were to accept the recommendation of military experts to cut the military budget, eliminate a tax cut that benefits the rich, and end a controversial war, we could free up about $300 billion for alternative energy research. With American ingenuity and this kind of money, we'd have a good chance of overcoming the dependencies that cause people to want to attack us
05 October, 2006
"No Blood For Oil"
By David Truskoff
"No Blood For Oil" - Most popular sign carried all over the world during May, 2003 anti-war demonstrations
04 October, 2006
The Erosion Of Democracy And
Freedom In America
By Stephen Lendman
Anyone reading Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here" will be scared wondering if it really can happen here. Anyone living in the surreal age of George Bush and his out-of-control extremist neocon administration knows it already has, and we haven't yet found a way to stop it. This is no time for complacency. We are all now "enemy combatants."
02 October, 2006
Torturer-in-Chief
By Ralph Nader
The messianic, authoritarian George W. Bush and the minds of his cohorts have further collapsed the rule of law with his bulldozing through a divided Congress more dictatorial powers in his increasingly self-defined, self-serving and failing "war on terror."
Bush Uses The Word Fascism To Mislead
By John Cox
As a historian of Nazi Germany, I have been intrigued by the widespread use of the term "fascist" in public discourse over the last few weeks. Since early August, the Bush Administration has undertaken a coordinated campaign to link "fascism" with political Islam and with Muslim-based opposition to U.S. policy in the Middle East
29 September, 2006
A Soul Defying, Tacit Approval Of Torture:
How Did We Come To This?
By Phil Rockstroh
The pathology of American culture is as ubiquitous as its strip-mall ugliness. It is abundantly evident, in almost every aspect of contemporary life.To resist, we must cast off the fear of being an outcast. I remain hopeful: There is yet a molecule or two of the wild wolf left within us cringing, cloying Toy Poodles
Toadies And Timid Men -How Empires Die
By Niranjan Ramakrishnan
If Gandhi found a law permitting detention without trail by a foreign government abhorrent enough to launch a nationwide general strike, what is America doing when similar laws are being passed by its own government?
The Special Forces Rebels
By Jim Travis
Stan Goff and William T. Hathaway shine light into the military's heart of darkness. These two defectors from the elite guard have become effective opponents of the empire they once served, and their example will help other soldiers to rebel and tell their stories
Fool's Goal
By Sheila Samples
So we are left yet again to ponder the meaning of Bush's words while he eyes Iran and checks options on his table and paws through his tool box with the hallucinatory goal of killing his way to glory. A fool. With a fool's goal
28 September, 2006
US Threatened To Bomb Pakistan
Back To "The Stone Age"
By Kranti Kumara & Keith Jones
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's revelation that a top US official said Pakistan would be bombed "back to the stone age" if Islamabad didn't break its ties with the Taliban and provide logistical support to the US conquest of Afghanistan is yet another example of the mobster methods that have come to characterize US diplomacy, especially under the Bush administration
Wars And Debts And Taxes, Oh My!
By Michael Boldin
As stated so clearly in the Declaration of Independence, the American people have every right to write a new declaration of independence from the illegitimate, unlawful, and unconstitutional acts of their rulers. Such rights are inalienable and absolute in all people. Rights cannot be altered or abolished; governments can
27 September, 2006
Military Draft Needed For War With Iran And Syria?
By Steve Hammons
Will the U.S. soon need to activate Selective Service System plans for a military draft if open hostilities break out with Iran and Syria?There are signs that for many possible reasons, there are people and groups in Washington and elsewhere who desire a wider war - war between the U.S. and Iran and Syria - World War III.If they have their way, the necessity for a military draft would become a real possibility
26 September, 2006
Gearing Up for Rove's Pre-Election "Surprises"
By Bernard Weiner
What those surprises might be range from announcing the capture or death of Osama bin Laden to a surgical strike on Iran's fledgling nuclear program to ignoring a possible major terrorist attack against the U.S. -- or, conversely, announcing that they've foiled a frightening urban bomb plot. Or all of the above, and more
24 September, 2006
Two Winners In A War Without End
By Robert S. Becker
There are two winners, at least in the short run: the Bush government has shown great skill in leveraging the very fear and terror concocted by the terrorists. For what Bush has done is not only revenge 9/11, say in Afghanistan (with mixed results), but acts, as if in collusion with terrorists, to broadcast the very fear and terror by which they seek to achieve their political goals
Christian Fundamentalism And American Empire
By Yoginder Sikand
Like other forms of religious fundamentalism, Christian fundamentalism is a dreaded doctrine of supremacy, a cult of hatred and a recipe for disaster. And with an avowed born-again Christian at the helm of affairs in America one shudders to think of what more brutalities are in store for the world if Christian fundamentalism is allowed to remain unchallenged
23 September, 2006
Herbert Spencer's Evolved Capitalists
By Jason Miller
Someone needs to persistently document and decry the myriad foreign and domestic crimes of the American Empire. Join those of us who are. And perhaps one day justice will be served
22 September, 2006
Reflections On Our Inner Bush: Corporate Monkeys
In Our National House Of Mirrors
By Phil Rockstroh
We have summoned Bush by the incantation of our hidden intentions; perhaps, if we were to awaken to the George W. Bush concealed within, we might understand our own collaboration in creating him – and then, at long last, we can begin the process of dismissing him and all he represents
America Has Just Lost Two More Wars
By John Chuckman
The failure of America's military could be explained by the notion that failure is only what happens when you seek the wrong success. A poorly-governed people, as Americans certainly are, keeps being sent to wars in which they have no vital interest or commitment
21 September, 2006
Rise Up Against the Empire
By Hugo Chavez
Hugo Chavez's address to the United Nations
Imperialism 101 - The US Addiction To War,
Mayhem And Madness: Part II
By Stephen Lendman
We're at a moment now when there's still time to act before it's too late to save a nation conceived in liberty that may soon no longer have it
20 September, 2006
Control The Dictionary,Control The World
By Bernard Weiner
Bush, with a straight face, tells us that he has never authorized torture, and he thinks he can get away with that lie because the public is mostly unaware that his administration has totally altered the definition of "torture."
18 September, 2006
The American Military's Cult Of Cruelty
By Robert Fisk
The change to 'warrior' creed is encouraging soldiers to commit atrocities
16 September, 2006
Imperialism 101 - The US Addiction To War,
Mayhem And Madness - Part I
By Stephen Lendman
The US-led aggression in the Middle East and the three failed attempts to oust Venezuela's Hugo Chavez since 2002 (with a fourth now planned and likely to be implemented soon) are just the latest examples of this country's imperial agenda and the "new world order" it has in mind
Decline Of The American Empire
By John Chuckman
The rise now of China, Japan, Europe, and others – India, Korea, and to some extent Russia and Brazil – means the United States must be relatively diminished on the world stage, much as an only child whose mother just gave birth to quintuplets
04 September, 2006
Beware The Rise Of The Fourth Reich
By Indira Rai-Choudhury
I am afraid because this is the rise of the Fourth Reich...the rise of racist and immoral power hungry men that rationalize crimes against humanity and criminalize all dissent
01 September, 2006
Unconstitutional Orders Must Be Disobeyed
By Bill Mcginnis
If Bush Orders The Bombing Of Iran Without Congressional Authorization, The Military Must Disobey
30 August, 2006
Return Of People Power
By John Pilger
There is no difference in principle between the people's movement that saw off the Israeli invaders and the stirring of people everywhere as they become aware of the real meaning of the ambitions and hypocrisy of Bush and his vassal, who want us to be ever fearful of and cowed by "terrorism" when, in truth, the greatest terrorists of all are them
17 August, 2006
Pipelines To 9/11
By Rudo de Ruijter
This research article is intended to reveal the facts that lead to the US invasion of Afghanistan and to reveal the logical place of the 9/11events in that context. It is not meant to offend anyone. Don't read it if you are pleased with the "official" version of our history
09 July, 2006
Last Stand
By Seymour M. Hersh
The military's problem with the President's Iran policy
08 May, 2006
To The Rogue Tyrants Belong The Spoils
By Jason Miller
Regardless of what one believes about Chomsky or his motives, Failed States is a brilliant dissection of the increasingly inhumane and authoritarian political structure of the United States
05 May, 2006
The Salvador Option Has Been Invoked In Iraq
By John Pilger
The American public is being prepared. If the attack on Iran does come, there will be no warning, no declaration of war, no truth
04 May, 2006
Failed States
By Stephen Lendman
Comments On Noam Chomsky's New Book
28 April, 2006
GI's Beware of Radioactive Showers!
By Irving Wesley Hall
Bush's impending, insane nuclear attack on Iran has provoked an unprecedented rebellion within the top leadership of the United States military. At the same time, depleted uranium (DU) is steadily taking down our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's time for the soldiers to follow the lead of their commanders in order to end the war
25 April, 2006
Removing America's Blinders
By Howard Zinn
If Americans were more aware of how often our leaders have lied in order to wage war, would anyone have believed this president's justifications for attacking Iraq?
13 April, 2006
The U.S. Military Is In DU Denial
By Susu Jeffrey
Of the 580,000 Iraq War 1 veterans, 56 percent have applied for disability treatment and benefits. Depleted uranium is the sin of the father visited upon the next generation, whether it's parental illness, death, or birth defects and genetic damage inherited by untold generations. Brothers, if you're going over, bank your sperm. Sisters, if you're going over—have your babies first
12 April, 2006
Imminent Decline Of Empire?
By Ramzy Baroud
The miscalculated policies of the US administration in the Middle East are quickly depleting the country's ability to sustain its once unchallenged global position. Winds of change are blowing everywhere, and there is little that Washington's ideologues can do to stop it
The American Caesar
By Ralph Nader
In the name of fighting stateless terrorism, George W. Bush is looming as the American Caesar running roughshod over the civil liberties of the American people who have turned against him in ever larger majorities
10 April, 2006
Washington Considering Nuclear
Strikes Against Iran
By Bill Van Auken
The Bush administration is in the advanced stages of the planning and preparation for a full-scale air war against Iran, including the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons against selected targets
America's "Noble" Cause
By Jason Miller
Preserving its Right to Murder, Exploit, Torture, and Impoverish with Impunity
08 April, 2006
Amnesty Takes On Rendition
By William Fisher
As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and her team continue to face increasingly harsh criticism from Muslim communities, Amnesty International has issued a new report on one of the practices they criticize most: rendition
04 April, 2006
Pentagon Thievery - An Interview
With Jeffrey St. Clair
By Joshua Frank
The sooner the Iraqis evict US forces from Iraq, the better off we'll both be. Perhaps then America's imperial ambitions will be chastened. Perhaps the federal budget will be so busted that future forays will be curtailed and provocative and destabilizing weapon systems will be mothballed. And, perhaps, a third party will emerge to reclaim the banner of Jeffersonian idealism
03 April, 2006
Uncle Sam's Scientists Busy Building Insect Army
By Lynda Hurst
Defence research agency creates landmine-sniffing bugs
01 April, 2006
The War Drums Are Getting Louder
By Stephen Lendman
It looks almost certain we're now headed for a new one against Iran, and may try to "double our displeasure" by including a "fracas in Caracas." I just learned about an "Operation Bilbao" which appears to be blueprint to overthrow the Chavez government and likely includes in it targeted assassinations starting with the guy in charge
Failed States: The Abuse Of Power
And The Assault On Democracy
By Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky has just released a new book titled "Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy." It examines how the United States is beginning to resemble a failed state that cannot protect its citizens from violence and has a government that regards itself as beyond the reach of domestic or international law
The Art Of War For The Anti-War Movement
By Scott Ritter
It's high time to recognize that we as a nation are engaged in a life-or-death struggle of competing ideologies with those who promote war as an American value and virtue
30 March, 2006
Which Soldier Will Be The Last
To Die For Bush's Mistake?
By Evelyn Pringle
The war in Iraq is a mistake. No its worse than a mistake. Lets quit pussy-footing around and call it like it is. The war in Iraq is a grand profiteering scheme gone awry and Americans need to take off their blinders and face the truth
29 March, 2006
Hobson's Imperialism And The Desperate
Uncle Sam As Naked As Ever
By Pratyush Chandra
What else do all these abuses demonstrate about the state of the American youth pushed into the war, if not that imperialism necessarily dehumanises its own citizens? They are transformed into Full Metal Jacketed soldiers
24 March, 2006
War Making 101 - A User's Manual
By Stephen Lendman
What's at stake is nothing less than saving the republic (again what's left of it) and our sacred Constitutional rights. Unless enough of us are willing to fight for both and do it soon, there may be nothing left to fight for
The War Lovers
By John Pilger
For me, one of the more odious characteristics of Blair, and Bush, and Clinton, and their eager or gulled journalistic court, is the enthusiasm of sedentary, effete men (and women) for bloodshed they never see, bits of body they never have to retch over, stacked morgues they will never have to visit, searching for a loved one
Democratizing The World: One Torture
Victim At A Time
By Jason Miller
Analysis of the Long, Repulsive History of the United States Inflicting Torture on Its "Suspected Enemies" (in Conjunction with a Review of A Question of Torture by Alfred W. McCoy)
22 March, 2006
India And UK-US Bush Wars
By Gideon Polya
On the occasion of the Third Anniversary of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq it is timely to note the human and economic cost of the Bush Wars – 2.7 million excess deaths and a cost to the US of US$1-2 trillion
16 March, 2006
Terrorists Or Resistance Fighters:
America's Dilemma In Iraq
By Gerald Rellick
But now after three years, and the recognition that the war was a fraud, theses brave soldiers in Iraq know the difference: 70- 75% of them want the war to end and want to come home to their families rather than fight George Bush's personal war
14 March, 2006
Iraq: Permanent US Colony
By Dahr Jamail
US policymakers have replaced the Cold War with the Long War for Global Empire and Unchallenged Military Hegemony. This is the lens through which we must view Iraq to better understand why there are permanent US bases there
01 March, 2006
Imperial Conquest, Torture, And
A Little Matter Of Genocide
By Jason Miller
Americans are not an evil lot, but we are culpable for having allowed a string of truly despicable human beings to perpetrate the Iraqi genocide that has been taking place since the Reagan Regime. The monstrous psychopaths now infesting the White House have taken malevolence to a whole new level. Let us remind ourselves that The White House belongs to us and that Bush serves us
20 February, 2006
Rumsfeld Declares War On Bad Press
By Emad Mekay
Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld has signaled that he plans to intensify a campaign to influence global media coverage of the United States, a move that is likely to heighten the debate over press freedom and propaganda-free reporting
Check Your Conscience At The Door:
We're Building An Empire
By Jason Miller
This is America, baby! Shut up and swear allegiance to the Flag, the Dollar, the Corporatocracy, and to the Regime
17 February, 2006
UN Report Denounces US Torture And Calls For
Closure Of Guantánamo Prison Camp
By Kate Randall
A United Nations investigation has found that the US is committing acts amounting to torture at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The report, released Thursday, is a stinging rebuke to the American government's illegal practices, justified in the name of the so-called "war on terrorism." The UN body is calling for the prison camp to be closed
Eyes Wide Open
By Chris Floyd
Salon.com has obtained a cache of torture photos and videos from Abu Ghraib, along with previously unreleased investigation reports which detail "a total of 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse, 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse, 660 images of adult pornography, 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees, 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts, 20 images of a soldier with a Swastika drawn between his eyes, 37 images of Military Working dogs being used in abuse of detainees and 125 images of questionable acts."
15 February, 2006
The Anti-Empire Report
By William Blum
How I spent my 15 minutes of fame
14 February, 2006
The Pentagon's War On The Internet
By Mike Whitney
The Pentagon has developed a comprehensive strategy for taking over the internet and controlling the free flow of information. The plan appears in a recently declassified document, "The Information Operations Roadmap", which was provided under the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and revealed in an article by the BBC
13 February, 2006
Democracy In America -
It's Spelled C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N
By Stephen Lendman
The all-powerful rampaging U.S. juggernaut is not invulnerable. It faces at least 2 serious challenges. One is its own imperial arrogance, hubris and potentially fatal overreach that may hasten its own demise. The other is mass world public opinion that by using its "ultimate authority", becoming aroused and energized, flexing its collective muscle, can make even superpowers give ground
03 February, 2006
The State Of The Union Speech: Bush Repeats
Litany Of Lies On Iraq War
By Patrick Martin
The State of the Union speech Tuesday night was a typically choreographed affair in which George W. Bush appeared before a fawning audience and an uncritical media to deliver a stale rehash of the lies which the administration has employed to justify the war in Iraq and its attacks on democratic rights at home
30 January, 2006
Blair In Secret Plot With Bush To Dupe U.N.
By Simon Walters
A White House leak revealing astonishing details of how Tony Blair and George Bush lied about the Iraq war is set to cause a worldwide political storm. A new book exposes how the two men connived to dupe the United Nations and blows the lid off Mr Blair's claim that he was a restraining influence on Mr Bush
27 January, 2006
President Jonah
By Gore Vidal
Jonah, who, like Bush, chats with God, had suffered a falling out with the Almighty and thus became a jinx dogged by luck so bad that a cruise liner, thanks to his presence aboard, was about to sink in a storm at sea
The Nuclear "Threat" At the End Of
The Age Of Petroleum
By Zbignew Zingh
Barely three years after America invaded and occupied Iraq on the false pretense that it was developing atomic weapons, the Administration, once again, is clanging the nuclear alarm bells
26 January, 2006
Why I Now Genuflect To Charles Krauthammer
By Jason Miller
Driven by my renewed sense of purpose, and my blazing passion to follow my new-found inspiration, mentor, and idol, Charles Krauthammer, I elected to compile a compelling (yet succinct) detail, an accounting if you will, of the world's debt to America
25 January, 200
The Life And Death Of An Iraq Veteran
Who Could Take No More
By Andrew Buncombe and Oliver Duff
By his own admission Douglas Barber, a former army reservist, was struggling. For two years since returning from the chaos and violence of Iraq, the 35-year-old had battled with his memories and his demons, the things he had seen and the fear he had experienced. Last week after a brief stand-off with officers he shot himself in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene
Let History Judge
By Scott Ritter
When historians look back on the policies enacted by the Bush administration in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, starting off with the decision to invade Iraq in March 2003, they will be passing judgment on a United States that has violated international law as egregiously as any power in modern history
23 January, 200
Echoes Of War
By Ghali Hassan
If one compares the engineering of the crisis which led to the war of aggression against Iraq with the current engineering of crisis to justify aggression against Iran, one is not likely to identify differences. The lies and the language are the same
20 January, 2005
Phantom Osama Groomed For A Return
By Kurt Nimmo
After a long and suspicious hiatus, Osama bin Laden has resurfaced with new threats against the Great Satan.The latest incarnation of Osama was vetted by the CIA, the spook agency responsible for promoting the original Osama's illustrious career, that is before he died of kidney failure in December, 2001
Imperialism And Infinite Guilt
By Asim Srivastava
Last Saturday (January 14, 2006), an unmanned drone, apparently operated by the CIA, bombed the village of Damadola in Northwestern Pakistan, apparently in an attempt to assassinate the Al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri. He was not among the 18 people who were killed in the attack. There were 8 women and 5 children among those killed. Collateral damage in the global war on terror
The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
By Krassimir Petrov, Ph.D.
The proposed Iranian Oil Bourse will accelerate the fall of the American Empire
11 January, 2005
Sedition, Subversion, Sabotage
By William T. Hathaway
Capitalism, although resilient, is willing to change only in ways that shore it up, so before anything truly different can be built, we have to bring it down
Should God Bless America
By Craig Etchison
Is it not time for us to declare that our government will have only one special interst--treating all people and the environment with decency? Is it not time for us to decree that all decisions will be made in a single context--people and planet before profit? Maybe then we'll be worthy of God's blessing
08 January, 2005
America Is Going To Lose This War
By Sandy Shanks
The writing is on the wall. The American people are already being prepped for withdrawal, which equates to defeat for Americans and Iraqis alike any way you look at it
17 December, 2005
The Decline Of The American Empire
By Gabriel Kolko
Defeated in Iraq, bankrupt at home, despised around the globe (and that's just the good news)
17 November, 2005
Evidence Mounts That Bush Wants New Wars
By Bill Christison
Bush seems to be moving deliberately and rapidly toward new wars of aggression in an unforgivable gamble to overcome his troubles. His speech on Veterans' Day leads to this conclusion more clearly than any of his previous speeches and activities
17 October, 2005
Good Amrican's- Democracy's Grave Diggers?
By Sheila Samples
Good Americans, like their 1930s German counterparts, have already racked up a legacy of despair, misery and unbearable shame their children -- and ours -- must ultimately bear. It does not matter if Good Americans sit on the high court, if they are members of Congress, if they are propaganda conduits in the media, or if they are military ordered to turn on the very people they are sworn to protect, they are gravediggers of freedom and democracy. They will be the death of us all
08 October, 2005
God Told Me To Invade Iraq
By Rupert Cornwell
President George Bush has claimed he was told by God to invade Iraq and attack Osama bin Laden's stronghold of Afghanistan as part of a divine mission to bring peace to the Middle East, security for Israel, and a state for the Palestinians
04 October, 2005
Viewing Terrorism Through A Different Lens
By Jason Miller
A true victory in the "war on terror" would involve eradicating the US terrorist state and criminally prosecuting those who have perpetrated the associated war crimes. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and many others in that foul administration belong in Guantanamo Bay with those they have deemed to be terrorists
05 September, 2005
Katrina And America's Tipping Point
By Abid Mustafa
In the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and Bush's inept response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in New Orleans, the myth of America's super power status has been shattered
02 September, 2005
Honoring The Dead
By Dr. Trudy Bond
As if they were figurines, terrifying images of Iraqis and Afghanis dismembered by explosions are exchanged on-line for free access to a porn site. The invitation to post photos of shocking cruelty is proposed to US combat troops who are asked to post their horror shots in order to enter the porn section of the site. Once gaining entry, many site visitors have been unable to resist the deal offered bywww.nowthatsfuckedup.com
Why I Do Not Support The Troops
By Lucinda Marshall
As Cindy Sheehan has so eloquently pointed out, using our children as "human cluster-bombs" to kill other children in never-ending wars is not a family value, it is the callous betrayal of our youth and the wanton destruction of our future. It is for these reasons that I will not say that I support our troops
29 August, 2005
What If America Found Its Soul?
By Jason Miller
Waking up to Discover Your Soul is Missing....the Ultimate Nightmare
24 August, 2005
Pat Robertson Declares Fatwah On Chavez
By Leigh Saavedra
When a good friend referred to Pat Robertson's call to assassinate Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, as a "declaration of a fatwah on a president" I laughed, appreciative of the irony. But, can we simply laugh it away?
Pat Robertson's Threat
By John Levine and David Walsh
The call for Chavez's assassination is a serious threat coming from a leading Republican and close ally of the Bush administration. It is in line with the previous attempts of the Bush administrations to destabilize and unseat the Venezuelan government
The Democrats And Cindy Sheehan
By Joshua Frank
If Democratic politicians had a soul they'd be standing shoulder to shoulder with Sheehan's supporters at candle light vigils across the country. But that won't be happening anytime soon. The Democrats in DC aren't even sure Sheehan's actions are justified. They aren't even sure that her son died for an unjust cause
23 August, 2005
President Bush Knows The True Reasons
He Started A War In Iraq,But He's Not Going To Tell
By Jason Leopold
Every year, right around the anniversary of 9/11 the Bush administration spins the public about the reasons 1,864 American soldiers have died fighting for a lie in Iraq. And every year, it's just as crucial that the media tell the public the truth about the reasons the war was started
22 August, 2005
The President's Greatest Fear
By Doug Soderstrom
Can you imagine… a commander in chief having committed his country to war, but with no one to command? You see a military leader's worst fear is not that he will lose the war, but rather that, because he has lost the trust of his own men, no one is willing to follow
19 August, 2005
The Rise Of The Democratic Police State
By John Pilger
Terrorism is the logical consquence of American and British "foreign policy" whose infinitely greater terrorism we need to recognise, and debate, as a matter of urgency
18 August, 2005
New Abuse Photos Could Spark Riots,
US General Warns
By William Fisher
In response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and a number of medical and veterans groups demanding release of 87 new videos and photographs depicting detainee abuse at the now infamous prison, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, said the release would result in "riots, violence and attacks by insurgents."
Bush Menaces Iran With Threat Of Military Attack
By Peter Symonds
President George Bush's inflammatory comments last Friday menacing Iran with military attack have again underscored the lawless character of the US administration
16 August, 2005
UN Figures Show: US Controls Iran Permanently...
By Henk Ruyssenaars
Coming September 3d, when IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei reports on Iran's nuclear activities, the figures in this article will be used concerning the number of visits in the field to inspect in Iran. Showing that for years already nuclear development in Iran has been controlled by the US and UN: day and night. So: Why War?
Cindy Sheehan's War
By Tom Hayden
Cindy Sheehan inhabits an alternative world of meaning that more Americans need to experience before this war can end. She represents the survivors' need to define a meaning in her son's death - and her life - that is counter to the meaning offered by President Bush
Redemption Within Reach For
The American Empire
By Jason Miller
My wife and I will travel from our home in Kansas to be at the White House on September 24 to help hundreds of thousands of others delivering the demands for social justice and peace. It is my sincere belief that there are many others who care as much as she and I do, and it is my sincere hope that together we can reinvigorate the soul of America
14 August, 2005
Bush Raises Option Of Using Force Against Iran
By Reuters
President Bush said on Israeli television he could consider using force as a last resort to press Iran to give up its nuclear programme
11 August, 2005
The Bush Administration's Iranian Nightmare
By Michael Schwartz
The record of Bush administration belligerence makes it difficult to imagine America's top leadership giving up the ambition of toppling the Islamic regime in Iran. And who knows where future Washington plans and dreams are likely to lead -- perhaps to destruction, certainly to bitter ironies of every sort
Comparing Japanese, Jihadist And UK-US War Crimes
By Gideon Polya
As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the final end of World War 2 , it is useful to compare the human cost of jihadist terrorism and UK-US state terrorism with other violent crimes against humanity such as WW2 war crimes
10 August, 2005
Sixty Years Since Hiroshima And Nagasaki Bombings
By Joseph Kay
An article in three-parts marking 60 years since the dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
09 August, 2005
George Bush Knows Why They Hate Us
By Jason Miller
Terrorist acts and acts of military aggression are morally repugnant. Those committing these crimes deserve to face justice. Regrettably, as evidenced by the poignant example of Iraq, the leaders of the United States have been committing war crimes and acts of terrorism for years without consequence
http://www.countercurrents.org/imperialism.htm

India–Russia relations

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
India-Russian relations
Map indicating locations of India and Russia

India

Russia
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the 2008 G8 Summit in Hokkaido.

Indo-Russian relations refer to the bilateral relations between the Republic of India and theRussian Federation. During the Cold War, India and the Soviet Union (USSR) enjoyed a strong strategic, military, economic and diplomatic relationship. After the collapse of the USSR, Russia inherited the close relationship with India, even as India improved its relations with the West after the end of the Cold War.

India is the second largest market for the Russian defense industry. In 2004, more than 70% of the Indian Military's hardware came from Russia, making Russia the chief supplier of defense equipment.[1] More recently, the defense relationship has been strained due to repeated price escalations by Russia over the sale of the aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, the delays in delivery of critical defense equipment and the elimination of the Mikoyan MiG-35 from the Indian MRCA competition.

India has an embassy in Moscow and 2 Consulates-General (in Saint Petersburg andVladivostok). Russia has an embassy in New Delhi and 4 Consulates-General (inChennaiHyderabadKolkataMumbai).

Contents

  [hide

[edit]Soviet Union and India

A cordial relationship with India that began in the 1950s represented the most successful of the Soviet attempts to foster closer relations with Third World countries. The relationship began with a visit by Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the Soviet Union in June 1955 and Khrushchev's return trip to India in the fall of 1955. While in India, Khrushchev announced that the Soviet Union supported Indian sovereignty over the disputed territory of the Kashmir region and over Portuguese coastal enclaves.

The Soviet relationship with India rankled the Chinese and contributed to Sino-Soviet enmity during the Khrushchev period. The Soviet Union declared its neutrality during the 1959 border dispute and the Indo-China war of 1962, although the Chinese strongly objected. The Soviet Union gave India substantial economic and military assistance during the Khrushchev period, and by 1960 India had received more Soviet assistance than China had. This disparity became another point of contention in Sino-Soviet relations. In 1962 the Soviet Union agreed to transfer technology to co-produce the MiG-21 jet fighter in India, which the Soviet Union had earlier denied to China.

In 1965 the Soviet Union served successfully as peace broker between India and Pakistan after an Indian-Pakistani border war. The SovietChairman of the Council of Ministers, literally Premier of the Soviet Union, Alexei Kosygin, met with representatives of India and Pakistan and helped them negotiate an end to the military conflict over Kashmir.

In 1971 the former East Pakistan region initiated an effort to secede from its political union with West Pakistan. India supported the secession and, as a guarantee against possible Chinese entrance into the conflict on the side of West Pakistan, signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union in August 1971. In December, India entered the conflict and ensured the victory of the secessionists and the establishment of the new state of Bangladesh.

Relations between the Soviet Union and India did not suffer much during the rightist Janata Party's coalition government in the late 1970s, although India did move to establish better economic and military relations with Western countries. To counter these efforts by India to diversify its relations, the Soviet Union proffered additional weaponry and economic assistance.

During the 1980s, despite the 1984 assassination by Sikh separatists of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the mainstay of cordial Indian-Soviet relations, India maintained a close relationship with the Soviet Union. Indicating the high priority of relations with the Soviet Union in Indian foreign policy, the new Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, visited the Soviet Union on his first state visit abroad in May 1985 and signed two long-term economic agreements with the Soviet Union. In turn, Gorbachev's first visit to a Third World state was his meeting with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi in late 1986. Gorbachev unsuccessfully urged Gandhi to help the Soviet Union set up an Asian collective security system. Gorbachev's advocacy of this proposal, which had also been made by Brezhnev, was an indication of continuing Soviet interest in using close relations with India as a means of containing China. With the improvement of Sino-Soviet relations in the late 1980s, containing China had less of a priority, but close relations with India remained important as an example of Gorbachev's new Third World policy.

[edit]Soviet active measures in India

Active Measures were a form of political warfare conducted by the Soviet security services (ChekaOGPUNKVDKGB) to influence the course of world events.[2] The Mitrokhin archive, which was smuggled to the West in 1992, revealed that the number of newspapers directly on KGB payroll reached ten by 1973, while numerous other newspapers in India spread stories prepared by the KGB's disinformation experts. KGB also had a press agency[which?] under its control. During 1972 the KGB counted that it had planted 3,789 articles in Indian newspapers. In 1975 the number had increased to 5510. The KGB found that there was no shortage of Indian journalists and politicians willing to take money.[3][4] Yuri Bezmenov, who worked as a KGB agent in India, provided information about the Soviet manipulation of Indian society.[5]Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled some files about the KGB payments to the Communist Party of India, the Indian Congress Party, and the political elite.[6][7]

[edit]Russia and India

Relations with India have always been and I am sure will be one of the most important foreign policy priorities of our country. Our mutual ties of friendship are filled with sympathy, and trust, and openness. And we must say frankly that they were never overshadowed by disagreements or conflict. This understanding - this is indeed the common heritage of our peoples. It is valued and cherished in our country, in Russia, and in India. And we are rightfully proud of so close, so close relations between our countries.

— Dmitry Medvedev, about relations with India[8]

We are confident that India lives in the hearts of every Russian. In the same way, I can assure you that Russia also lives in our souls as a Homeland, as people who share our emotions, our feelings of mutual respect and constant friendship. Long live our friendship!

— Pratibha Patil, about relations with Russia[8]

[edit]Military relations

The Prime Minister of India, in collaboration with External Affairs Ministry, handles key foreign policy decisions. Shown here is the current Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh with the former President of RussiaVladimir Putin.

Defence relations between India and the Russian Federation have a historical perspective. The Soviet Union was an important supplier of defence equipment for several decades, and that relationship was inherited by Russia after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Today, the cooperation is not limited to a buyer-seller relationship but includes joint research and development, training, service to service contacts, including joint exercises. The last joint naval exercises took place in April 2007 in the Sea of Japan and joint airborne exercises were held in September 2007 in Russia.The last military exercise between Russian and Indian army units were held in Uttarakhand in October 2010. However, the bilateral relations seem to be strained with Russia cancelling both its 'Indra' series of military exercises with India for the year 2011. In April 2011, a flotilla of five warships from the Indian navy's eastern fleet that went for joint naval exercises to Vladivostok in the Russian far-east, was turned back without any manoeuvres. The joint army exercises scheduled to be held in Russia in June, 2011 was also cancelled shortly afterwards. One of the reasons given was that the MoD had not informed Moscow of the army exercises in advance. [9]

An Inter-Governmental commission on military-technical cooperation is co-chaired by the Defence Ministers of the two countries. The Seventh session of this Inter-Governmental Commission was held in October 2007 in Moscow. During the visit, an agreement on joint development and production of prospective multi role fighters was signed between the two countries.

An India–Russia co-operation agreement was signed in December 1988. It has resulted in the sale of a multitude of defence equipment to India and also the emergence of the countries as development partners as opposed to purely a buyer-seller relationship. Two programmes that evidence this approach are the projects to form Indian-Russian joint ventures to develop and produce the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft(FGFA) and the Multirole Transport Aircraft (MTA). The agreement is pending a 10-year extension.[10]

India and Russia have several major joint military programs including:

Additionally, India has purchased/leased various military hardware from Russia:

However, more recently the defense relationship between India and Russia has been drifting apart. The relationship has been strained due to delays and frequent pricing changes for INS Vikramaditya, and repeated delays in delivery of several critical defense systems. In May 2011, Russia canceled joint army and naval exercises with India allegedly in response to the elimination of Mikoyan MiG-35 from the Indian MRCA competition.[9][11] An Indian Navy report to the Ministry of Defence referred to Russia as a fair-weather friend and recommended the review of Russia's status as a strategic partner.[9]

[edit]Economic relations

Indian and Russian diplomats holding talks at Hyderabad House in New Delhi

Bilateral trade turnover is modest and stood at US$ 3 billion in 2006–07, of which Indian exports to Russia were valued at US$ 908 million. The major Indian exports to Russia are pharmaceuticals; tea, coffee and spices; apparel and clothing; edible preparations; and engineering goods. Main Indian imports from Russia are iron and steel; fertilizers; non-ferrous metals; paper products; coal, coke & briquettes; cereals; and rubber. Indo-Russian trade is expected to reach US$10 billion by 2010.

The India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC) is co-chaired by India's External Affairs Minister and the Russian Deputy Prime Minister. There are six Joint Working Groups [WG] under the IRIGC, namely, WG on Trade and Economy [trade and financial matters], WG on Energy [oil and gas, thermal and hydel power, non-conventional energy], WG on Metallurgy and Mining [steel, non-ferrous metal, coal], WG on Science & Technology; WG on Communication and Information Technology; and WG on Culture and Tourism. The 13th of the IRIGC was held in Moscow on 12 October 2007.

The two countries have set up India-Russia Forum on Trade and Investment at the level of the two Commerce Ministers to promote trade, investment and economic cooperation. The first Forum was held in New Delhi on 12–13 February 2007, which was attended by the Minister of Commerce and Industry and the Russian Minister of Economic Development and Trade, apart from a large number of business representatives from both sides. The Minister of Commerce & Industry, Shri Kamal Nath participated in the 11th Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum on 9–10 June 2007.

In February 2006, India and Russia also set up a Joint Study Group to examine ways to increase trade to US$ 10 billion by 2010 and to study feasibility of a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). The group finalized its report after its fourth meeting in Moscow in July 2007. It has been agreed that a Joint Task Force would monitor the implementation of the recommendation made in the Joint Study Group Report, including considering CECA.

The second BRIC summit was held in Brasilia in April 2010.

[edit]Cooperation in the Energy sector

Patil with President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev in India on 5 December 2008.

Energy sector is an important area in Indo-Russian bilateral relations. In 2001, ONGC-Videsh Limited acquired 20% stake in the Sakhalin-I oil and gas project in the Russian Federation, and has invested about US $ 1.7 billion in the project. The Russian company Gazprom and Gas Authority of India Ltd. have collaborated in joint development of a block in the Bay of Bengal. Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project with two units of 1000 MW each is a good example of Indo-Russian nuclear energycooperation. Both sides have expressed interest in expanding cooperation in the energy sector.

In December 2008, Russia and India signed an agreement to build civilian nuclear reactors in India during a visit by the Russian president to New Delhi.[12]

[edit]Space Cooperation

Space is another key sector of cooperation between the two countries. During President Vladimir Putin's visit to India in December 2004, two space-related bilateral agreements were signed viz. Inter-Governmental umbrella Agreement on cooperation in the outer space for peaceful purposes and the Inter Space Agency Agreement on cooperation in the Russian satellite navigation system "GLONASS". Subsequently a number of follow-up agreements on GLONASS have been signed. In November 2007, the two countries have signed an agreement on joint lunar exploration. These space cooperation programmes are under implementation.Chandrayaan-2 is a joint lunar exploration mission proposed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA) and has a projected cost of 425 crore (US$90 million). The mission, proposed to be launched in 2013 by aGeosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) launch vehicle, includes a lunar orbiter and a rover made in India as well as one lander built by Russia.

[edit]Science and Technology

The ongoing cooperation in the field of science & technology, under the Integrated Long-Term Programme of cooperation (ILTP) is the largest cooperation programme in this sphere for both India and Russia. ILTP is coordinated by the Department of Science and Technology from the Indian side and by the Russian Academy of Sciences and Russian Ministry of Industry & Science and Technology from the Russian side. Development of SARAS Duet aircraft, semiconductor products, super computers, poly-vaccines, laser science and technology, seismology, high-purity materials, software & IT and Ayurveda have been some of the priority areas of co-operation under the ILTP. Under this programme, eight joint Indo- Russian centers have been established to focus on joint research and development work. Two other Joint Centres on Non-ferrous Metals and Accelerators and Lasers are being set up in India. A Joint Technology Centre based in Moscow to bring cutting edge technologies to the market is also under processing. An ILTP Joint Council met in Moscow on 11–12 October 2007 to review cooperation and give it further direction. In August 2007, an MoU was signed between Department of Science and Technology and Russian Foundation of Basic Research, Moscow to pursue scientific cooperation.

[edit]North-South Transport Corridor

The "North-South" Transport Corridor Agreement [INSTC] has been ratified by all the three original signatory states, viz. India, Iran and Russia, and has come into force since 16 May, 2002. This route is expected to reduce the cost of movement of goods between India and Russia and beyond. The 3rd Coordination Council Meeting of the INSTC was held in October 2005 in New Delhi and the 4th meeting was held in Aktau, Kazakhstan in October 2007 to discuss further streamlining the operation of the corridor.[13]

[edit]Cooperation in the sphere of Culture

India–Russia relations in the field of culture are historical. Five Chairs relating to Indology have been established in MoscowSaint PetersburgKazan and Vladivostok. Days of Russian Culture were held in India in November 2003, in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. "Days of Indian Culture" in Russia were organized from September- October 2005 in Russia. 130th birth anniversary of Nikolai Roerich and 100th birth anniversary of Svyatoslav Roerich were celebrated in India in October 2004. Chief Minister of National Capital Territory of Delhi led a delegation for participating in the event "Days of Delhi in Moscow" from 28 May-1 June 2006. The "Year of Russia in India" was held in 2008. It was followed by the "Year of India in Russia" in 2009. There is a Hindi Department, in the University of Moscow.

[edit]Terrorism

On international terrorism, India and Russia agree that there is no justification for terrorism, and this must be fought against, without compromise and wherever it exists. Russia has supported the Indian draft at the UN on Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism [CCIT]. The two sides signed a MoU on cooperation in combating terrorism in December 2002. A Joint Working Group on Combating International Terrorism meets from time to time and its fourth meeting was held in Delhi on 24 October 2006.Both Russia and India have faced the problem of terrorism, India has seen it in the context of its military presence in Kashmir and Russia has seen it in Chechnya and both the countries are supportive of each other on the issue of terrorism

[edit]Nuclear Deals

On 7 November 2009, India signed a new nuclear deal with Russia apart from the deals that were agreed upon by the two countries earlier.[14]

[edit]See also

[edit]Further Reading

[edit]External links

[edit]References

  1. ^ VOA News Report
  2. ^ Mitrokhin, Vasili, Christopher Andrew (2000). The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West. Gardners Books. ISBN 0-14-028487-7.
  3. ^ The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB and the World
  4. ^ Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World (New York: Basic Books, 2005)
  5. ^ Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov): Love Letter to America. p. 9
  6. ^ The Indian Playground of the Soviet KGB. Axis Globe. 30.09.2005
  7. ^ Why Indian Media wants to trivialize KGB archives?. Nagesh Bhushan in September 2005
  8. a b Торжественный вечер, посвящённый Году Индии в России
  9. a b c "Russia cancels war games with India, navy reacts strongly". India Today. 2011-05-31. Retrieved 2011-07-22.
  10. ^ http://www.janes.com/news/defence/jdi/jdi091014_1_n.shtml
  11. ^ "Russia snubs India; cancels navy, army war games." IANS, 30 May 2011.
  12. ^ Pasricha, Anjana (2008-12-05). "Russia, India Sign Agreement to Build Civil Nuclear Reactors". Voice of America. Retrieved 2008-12-25.
  13. ^ Feller, Gordon. "Trade route of the future? India, Iran and Russia are pushing a North-South Transportation Corridor to reach Northern Europe. (Special report: European transport and logistics)." The Journal of Commerce 4.21 (2003): 26+.
  14. ^ "India, Russia sign nuclear deal"The Times Of India. 7 December 2009.
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Iraq War

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Iraq War
Part of the War on Terror
Iraq header 2.jpg
Clockwise, starting at top left: a joint patrol in Samarra; the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Firdos Square; anIraqi Army soldier readies his rifle during an assault; a roadsidebomb detonates in South Baghdad.
DateMarch 20, 2003 – present
(8 years, 270 days)[1][2][3][4][5][6]
LocationIraq
ResultCoalition combat operations concluded,[7][8] low level internal conflict ongoing
Belligerents
 United States

 Iraq
Iraqi Kurdistan Peshmerga
Iraq Awakening Councils
Withdrawn forces:
 United Kingdom (2003–11)
 Australia (2003–09)
 Poland (2003–08)
 Republic of Korea (2003–08)
 Italy (2003–06)
 Georgia (2003–08)
 Ukraine (2003–08)
 Netherlands (2003–05)
 Spain (2003–04)
 MNF–I (2004–10)
and 30 other countries in the Multi-National Force

Insurgent groups:

 Iraqi Ba'ath Party Loyalists
 Islamic State of Iraq
 al-Qaeda in Iraq
 Mahdi Army
Special Groups
Islamic Army of Iraq
Ansar al-Sunnah


Iraq Iraq under Saddam Hussein


For fighting between insurgent groups, see Civil war in Iraq.

Commanders and leaders
United States George W. Bush

United States Barack Obama
United States Lloyd Austin
United States Raymond Odierno
United States David Petraeus
United States George W. Casey, Jr.
United States Ricardo Sanchez
United States Tommy Franks
United Kingdom John Cooper
United Kingdom Andy Salmon
United Kingdom Richard Shirreff
Iraq Jalal Talabani
Iraq Ibrahim al-Jaafari
Iraq Nouri al-Maliki
Iraqi Kurdistan Massoud Barzani
Iraqi Kurdistan Masrour Barzani
Iraq Abdul Sattar Abu Risha (KIA)
Iraq Ahmad Abu Risha

Iraq Saddam Hussein
 (POW) Skull and crossbones.svg

Iraq Qusay Hussein (KIA)
Iraq Uday Hussein (KIA)
Iraq Tariq Aziz Surrendered


 Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri
 Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (KIA)
 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (KIA)
 Abu Ayyub al-Masri (KIA)
 Abu Suleiman (KIA)
 Abu Dua
 Muqtada al-Sadr
 Abu Deraa
Ishmael Jubouri
Abu Abdullah al-Shafi'i (POW)

Strength
Invasion Forces (2003–2004)
~300,000

United States
11,000 (current)[12]
Iraqi Security Forces
805,269 (military and paramilitary: 578,269,[13] police: 227,000)
Awakening militias
~103,000 (2008)[14]
Iraqi Kurdistan
~400,000 (Kurdish Border Guard: 30,000,[15] Peshmerga 375,000)
Coalition Forces (2004–2011)
176,000 at peak


Security contractors 6,000-7,000(estimate)[16]

Iraqi Army: 375,000(disbanded in 2003)

Sunni Insurgents
~70,000 (2007)[17]
Mahdi Army
~60,000(2007)[18]
al-Qaeda
~1,300 (2006)[19]
Islamic State of Iraq
~1,000 (2008)

Casualties and losses
Iraqi Security Forces (post-Saddam)

Killed: 16,623[20] Wounded:40,000+[21]

Coalition Forces
Killed: 4,805[22][23] (4,487 U.S.,[24] 179 UK,[25] 139 other)
Missing/captured (U.S.): 10 (9 rescued)[26]

Wounded: 32,753+ (32,226 U.S.,[27] 315 UK, 212+ other[28])[29][30][31][32]Injured/diseased/other medical:** 51,139 (47,541 U.S.,[33] 3,598 UK)[29][31][32]

Contractors
Killed: 1,764*[34][35] Wounded & injured: 59,465*[34][35]
Missing/captured: 16 (U.S. 5)

Awakening Councils
Killed: 1,002+[36]
Wounded: 500+ (2007),[37] 828 (2008)[38]

Total dead: 24,429
Total wounded: 73,253

Iraqi combatant dead (invasion period): 7,600–10,800[39][40]

Insurgents(post-Saddam)
Killed: 21,221–26,405 (2003-2011)[41]
Detainees: 200 (U.S.-held)[42]
12,000 (Iraqi-held)[43]

Total dead: 28,736-37,120

Documented civilian deaths from violence, Iraq Body Count – 2003 through October 25, 2011: 103,160–112,726 recorded[44] and 15,114 new deaths added from the Iraq War Logs[45]

Estimated excess deaths, (Lancet) – March 2003 - July 2006: 654,965 (95% CI: 392,979-942,636)[46][47]

Estimated violent deaths, Iraq Family Health Survey -March 2003 - July 2006: 151,000 (95% CI: 104,000-223,000)[48]

For more information see: Casualties of the Iraq War

*Casualty numbers from the US Dept. of Labor for Contractorsare combined for Iraq and Afghanistan.
** "injured, diseased, or other medical" – required medical air transport. UK number includes "aeromed evacuations"
***Total deaths include all additional deaths due to increased lawlessness, degraded infrastructure, poorer healthcare, etc.

The Iraq War (or War in Iraq) began on March 20, 2003[49][50] with the invasion of Iraq by the United States under the administration of President George W. Bushand the United Kingdom under Prime Minister Tony Blair.[51] The war is also referred to as the Occupation of Iraq, the Second Gulf War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom by the U.S. military. The war was formally ended by the U.S. on December 15, 2011, although sporadic violence continues throughout the country.

Prior to the invasion, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom asserted that the possibility of Iraq employing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threatened their security and that of their coalition/regional allies.[52][53][54] In 2002, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1441 which called for Iraq to completely cooperate with UN weapon inspectors to verify that it was not in possession of weapons of mass destruction and cruise missiles. The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) was given access by Iraq under provisions of the UN resolution but found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Additional months of inspection to conclusively verify Iraq's compliance with the UN disarmament requirements were not undertaken.[55][56][57][58] Head weapons inspector Hans Blix advised the UN Security Council that while Iraq's cooperation was "active", it was not "unconditional" and not "immediate". Iraq's declarations with regards to weapons of mass destruction could not be verified at the time, but unresolved tasks concerning Iraq's disarmament could be completed in "not years, not weeks, but months".[55][59]

Following the invasion, the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its nuclear, chemical, and biological programs in 1991 and had no active programs at the time of the invasion but that Iraq intended to resume production once sanctions were lifted.[60] Although some degraded remnants of misplaced or abandoned chemical weapons from before 1991 were found, they were not the weapons which had been the main argument to justify the invasion.[61] Some U.S. officials also accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of harboring and supportingal-Qaeda,[62] but no evidence of a meaningful connection was ever found.[63][64]Other reasons for the invasion given by the governments of the attacking countries included Iraq's financial support for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers,[65]Iraqi government human rights abuse,[66] and an effort to spread democracy to the country.[67][68]

The invasion of Iraq led to an occupation and the eventual capture of PresidentSaddam, who was later tried in an Iraqi court of law and executed by the new Iraqi government. Violence against coalition forces and among various sectarian groups soon led to the Iraqi insurgency, strife between many Sunni and Shia Iraqi groups, and the emergence of a new faction of al-Qaeda in Iraq.[69][70] In 2008, the UNHCR reported an estimate of 4.7 million refugees (~16% of the population) with 2 millionabroad (a number close to CIA projections[71]) and 2.7 million internally displaced people.[72] In 2007, Iraq's anti-corruption board reported that 35% of Iraqi children, or about five million children, were orphans.[73] The Red Cross stated in March 2008 that Iraq's humanitarian situation remained among the most critical in the world, with millions of Iraqis forced to rely on insufficient and poor-quality water sources.[74]

In June 2008, U.S. Department of Defense officials claimed security and economic indicators began to show signs of improvement in what they hailed as significant and fragile gains.[75] In 2007, Iraq was second on the Failed States Index; though its ranking has steadily improved since then, moving to fifth on the 2008 list, sixth in 2009, and seventh in 2010.[76] As public opinion favoring troop withdrawalsincreased and as Iraqi forces began to take responsibility for security, member nations of the Coalition withdrew their forces.[77][78] In late 2008, the U.S. and Iraqi governments approved a Status of Forces Agreement effective through January 1, 2012.[79] The Iraqi Parliament also ratified a Strategic Framework Agreement with the U.S.,[80] aimed at ensuring cooperation in constitutional rights, threat deterrence, education,[81] energy development, and other areas.[82]

In late February 2009, newly elected U.S. President Barack Obama announced an 18-month withdrawal window for combat forces, with approximately 50,000 troops remaining in the country "to advise and train Iraqi security forces and to provide intelligence and surveillance".[83][84] General Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said he believes all U.S. troops will be out of the country by the end of 2011,[85] while UK forces ended combat operations on April 30, 2009.[86]Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said he supports the accelerated pullout of U.S. forces.[87] In a speech at the Oval Office on 31 August 2010 Obama declared "the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country."[88][89][90] Beginning September 1, 2010, the American operational name for its involvement in Iraq changed from "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to "Operation New Dawn." The remaining 50,000 U.S. troops are now designated as "advise and assist brigades" assigned to non-combat operations while retaining the ability to revert to combat operations as necessary. Two combat aviation brigades also remain in Iraq.[91] In September 2010, the Associated Press issued an internal memo reminding its reporters that "combat in Iraq is not over," and "U.S. troops remain involved in combat operations alongside Iraqi forces, although U.S. officials say the American combat mission has formally ended."[92][93]

On October 21, 2011, President Obama announced that all U.S. troops and trainers would leave Iraq by the end of the year, bringing the U.S. mission in Iraq to an end.[94]

Contents

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2001–2003: Iraq disarmament crisis and pre-war intelligence

UN weapons inspections resume

The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002–2003, when Bush demanded a complete end to alleged Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and full compliance with UN Security Council Resolutions requiring UN weapons inspectors unfettered access to suspected weapons production facilities. The UN had prohibited Iraq from developing or possessing such weapons after the Gulf War and required Iraq to permit inspections confirming compliance. During inspections in 1999, Iraq alleged that UN inspectors included U.S. intelligence agents that supplied the U.S. with a direct feed of conversations between Iraqi security agencies as well as other information. This was confirmed by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.[95]

During 2002, Bush repeatedly warned of military action unless inspections were allowed to progress unfettered. In accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1441 Iraq reluctantly agreed to new inspections in late 2002. A third weapons inspection team in 2003 led byDavid Kelly (weapons expert) viewed and photographed with the cooperation of Iraqis two alleged mobile weapons laboratories which were facilities for the production of hydrogen gas to fill balloons.

Shortly before the invasion Hans Blix, the lead weapons inspector, advised the UN Security Council that Iraq was cooperating with inspections and that the confirmation of disarmament through inspections could be achieved in a short period of time if Iraq remained cooperative.[59]

Alleged weapons of mass destruction

Yellowcake uranium

A UN weapons inspector in Iraq

Before the Gulf War, in 1990, Iraq had stockpiled 550 short tons (500 t) of yellowcake uranium at the Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Baghdad.[96] In late February 2002, the CIA sent former Ambassador Joseph Wilson to investigate reports (later found to be forgeries) that Iraq was attempting to purchase additional yellowcake from Niger. Wilson returned and informed the CIA that reports of yellowcake sales to Iraq were "unequivocally wrong." The Bush administration, however, continued to allege Iraq's attempts to obtain additional yellowcake were a justification for military action, most prominently in the January 2003, State of the Unionaddress, in which President Bush declared that Iraq had sought uranium, citing British intelligencesources.[97]

In response, Wilson wrote a critical New York Times op-ed piece in June 2003 stating that he had personally investigated claims of yellowcake purchases and believed them to be fraudulent.[98]After Wilson's op-ed, Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was publicly identified as an undercover CIA analyst by a columnist. This led to a Justice Department investigation into the source of the leak.

On May 1, 2005, the "Downing Street memo" was published in The Sunday Times. It contained an overview of a secret July 23, 2002, meeting among British governmentMinistry of Defence, andBritish intelligence figures who discussed the build-up to the Iraq war—including direct references to classified U.S. policy of the time. The memo stated, "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."[99]

In September 2002, the Bush administration, the CIA and the DIA said attempts by Iraq to acquire high-strength aluminum tubes that were prohibited under the UN monitoring program and which they said pointed to a clandestine effort to make centrifuges to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs.[100] This analysis was opposed by theUnited States Department of Energy (DOE) and INR, which was significant because of DOE's expertise in such gas centrifuges and nuclear weapons programs. The DOE and INR argued that the Iraqi tubes were poorly suited for centrifuges, though it was technically possible with additional modification.[101] A report released by the Institute for Science and International Security in 2002 reported that it was highly unlikely that the tubes could be used to enrich uranium.[102]

An effort by the DOE to correct this detail in comments prepared for United States Secretary of State Colin Powell's UN appearance was rebuffed by the administration[102][103] and Powell, in his address to the UN Security Council just before the war, referenced the aluminum tubes, stating that while experts disagreed on whether or not the tubes were destined for a centrifuge program, the specifications of the tubes were unusually tight.[104] Powell later admitted he had presented what turned out to be an inaccurate case to the UN on Iraqi weapons, and the intelligence he was relying on was, in some cases, "deliberately misleading."[105][106][107] After the United States presidential election, 2008, and the election of Democratic party nominee Barack Obama, president Bush stated that "[my] biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq".[108]

Poison gas

The CIA had contacted Iraq's foreign minister, Naji Sabri, who was being paid by the French as an agent. Sabri informed them that Saddam had hidden poison gas among Sunni tribesmen, had ambitions for a nuclear program but that it was not active, and that no biological weapons were being produced or stockpiled, although research was underway.[109] According to Sidney Blumenthal, George Tenet briefed Bush on September 18, 2002, that Sabri had informed them that Iraq did not have WMD. Bush dismissed this top-secret intelligence from Hussein's inner circle which was approved by two senior CIA officers. The information was never shared with Congress or CIA agents examining whether Saddam had such weapons.[110]

Tenet (left, in pink tie) in the Oval Officewith President George W. Bush.

Biological weapons

Based on reports obtained by the German intelligence service from an Iraqi defector codenamed "Curveball", Colin Powell presented evidence to the United Nations security council that Iraq had an active biological weapons programme. On February 15, 2011, the defector—a scientist identified as Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janafi—admitted to journalists working for The Guardiannewspaper that he lied to the Bundesnachrichtendienst in order to strengthen the case against Saddam Hussein, whom he wished to see removed from power.[111]

Result

In December 2009, former Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that he "would still have thought it right to remove [Saddam Hussein]" regardless of whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction or not.[112]

Preparations for Iraq war

President George Bush, surrounded by leaders of the House and Senate, announces the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq, October 2, 2002.

During 2002 the amount of ordnance used by British and American aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones of Iraq increased compared to the previous years[113] and by August had "become a full air offensive". Tommy Franks, the allied commander, later stated that the bombing was designed to "degrade" the Iraqi air defense system before an invasion.[114]

In October 2002, a few days before the U.S. Senate voted on the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq, about 75 senators were told in closed sessionthat Iraq had the means of attacking the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. with biological or chemical weapons delivered by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs.)[53] On February 5, 2003, Colin Powellpresented further evidence in his Iraqi WMD program presentation to the UN Security Council that UAVs were ready to be launched against the U.S. At the time, there was a vigorous dispute within the U.S. military and intelligence communities as to whether CIA conclusions about Iraqi UAVs were accurate[115] and other intelligence agencies suggested that Iraq did not possess any offensive UAV capability, saying the few they had were designed for surveillance and intended forreconnaissance.[116] The Senate voted to approve the Joint Resolution with the support of large bipartisan majorities on October 11, 2002, providing the Bush administration with a legal basis for the U.S. invasion under U.S. law.

The resolution granted the authorization by the Constitution of the United States and the United States Congress for the President to command the military to fight anti-United States violence. Citing the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, the resolution reiterated that it should be the policy of the United States to remove the Hussein regime and promote a democratic replacement. The authorization was signed by President George W. Bush on October 16, 2002.

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix remarked in January 2003 that "Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance—not even today—of the disarmament, which was demanded of it and which it needs to carry out to win the confidence of the world and to live in peace."[117] Among other things he noted that 1,000 short tons (910 t) of chemical agent were unaccounted for, information on Iraq's VX nerve agent program was missing, and that "no convincing evidence" was presented for the destruction of 8,500 litres (1,900 imp gal; 2,200 US gal) of anthrax that had been declared.[117]

United States Secretary of State Colin Powell holding a model vial of anthrax while giving a presentation to the United Nations Security Council

In the 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush said "we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs". On February 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared before the UN to present American evidence that Iraq was hiding unconventional weapons.[118] The French government also believed that Saddam had stockpiles of anthrax andbotulism toxin, and the ability to produce VX.[119] In March, Blix said progress had been made in inspections, and no evidence of WMD had been found.[55] Iraqi scientist Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi codenamed "Curveball", admitted in February 2011, that he lied to the CIA about biological weapons in order to get the US to attack and remove Hussein from power.[120]

In early 2003, the U.S., British, and Spanish governments proposed the so-called "eighteenth resolution" to give Iraq a deadline for compliance with previous resolutions enforced by the threat of military action. This proposed resolution was subsequently withdrawn due to lack of support on the UN Security Council. In particular, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members France, Germany and Canada and non-NATO member Russia were opposed to military intervention in Iraq, due to the high level of risk to the international community's security, and defended disarmament through diplomacy.[121][122]

A meeting between George W. Bush and Tony Blair took place on January 31, 2003, in the White HouseA secret memo of this meetingpurportedly showed that the Bush administration had already decided on the invasion of Iraq at that point. Bush was allegedly floating the idea of painting a U-2 spyplane in UN colors and letting it fly low over Iraq to provoke Iraqi forces into shooting it down, thereby providing a pretext for the U.S. and Britain to invade. Bush and Blair made a secret deal to carry out the invasion regardless of whether WMD were discovered by UN weapons inspectors, in direct contradiction with statements Blair made to the British House of Commons afterwards that the Iraqi regime would be given a final chance to disarm. In the memo, Bush is paraphrased as saying, "The start date for the military campaign was now pencilled in for 10 March. This was when the bombing would begin." [123] Bush said to Blair that he "thought it unlikely that there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups" in Iraq after the war.

Opposition to invasion

In October 2002 former U.S. President Bill Clinton warned about possible dangers of pre-emptive military action against Iraq. Speaking in the UK on a Labour Party conference he said: "As a preemptive action today, however well-justified, may come back with unwelcome consequences in the future....I don't care how precise your bombs and your weapons are, when you set them off, innocent people will die."[124][125]

Protest in London, 2002

On January 20, 2003, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin declared "we believe that military intervention would be the worst solution."[126] Meanwhile anti-war groups across the world organised public protests. According to French academic Dominique Reynié, between January 3 and April 12, 2003,36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against war in Iraq, with demonstrations on February 15, 2003, being the largest and most prolific.[127]

In February 2003, the U.S. Army's top general, Eric Shinseki, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that it would take "several hundred thousand soldiers" to secure Iraq.[128] Two days later, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the post-war troop commitment would be less than the number of troops required to win the war, and that "the idea that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. forces is far from the mark." Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Shineski's estimate was "way off the mark," because other countries would take part in an occupying force.[129]

In March 2003, Hans Blix reported that "No evidence of proscribed activities have so far been found" in Iraq, saying that progress was made in inspections which would continue. He estimated the time remaining for disarmament being verified through inspections to be "months".[55] But the U.S. government announced that "diplomacy has failed", and that it would proceed with a coalition of allied countries—named the "coalition of the willing"—to rid Iraq of its alleged WMD. The U.S. government abruptly advised UN weapons inspectors to leave Baghdadimmediately.

There were serious legal questions surrounding the launching of the war against Iraq and the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war in general. On September 16, 2004, Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, said of the invasion, "I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN Charter. From our point of view, from the Charter point of view, it was illegal."

In November 2008 Lord Bingham, the former British Law Lord, described the war a serious violation of international law, and accused Britain and the U.S. of acting like a "world vigilante". He also criticized the post-invasion record of Britain as "an occupying power in Iraq". Regarding the treatment of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib, Bingham said: "Particularly disturbing to proponents of the rule of law is the cynical lack of concern for international legality among some top officials in the Bush administration."[130] In July 2010, Deputy Prime Minister of the UKNick Clegg, in an official PMQs session in Parliament, condemned the invasion of Iraq as illegal.[131] Theorist Francis Fukuyama has argued that "the Iraq war and the close association it created between military invasion and democracy promotion tarnished the latter".[132]

2003: Invasion

Map of the invasion routes and major operations/battles of the Iraq War as of 2007.
M1 Abrams tank fires its 120mm cannon at Iraqi forces during fighting in Al-Faw peninsula near Umm Qasr, 23 March 2003.
Destroyed remains of Iraqi Tanks near Al Qadisiyah, Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The first Central Intelligence Agency invasion team entered Iraq on July 10, 2002.[133] This team was composed of members of the CIA's Special Activities Division and was later joined by members of the U.S. military's elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).[134] Together, they prepared for the invasion of conventional forces. These efforts consisted of persuading the commanders of several Iraqi military divisions to surrender rather than oppose the invasion, and to identify all of the initial leadership targets during very high risk reconnaissance missions.[134]

Most importantly, their efforts organized the Kurdish Peshmerga to become the northern front of the invasion. Together this force defeated Ansar al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan before the invasion and then defeated the Iraqi army in the north.[134][135]The battle against Ansar al-Islam led to the death of a substantial number of militants and the uncovering of a chemical weapons facility at Sargat.[133][136]

At 5:34 a.m. Baghdad time on March 20, 2003 (9:34 p.m., March 19 EST) the military invasion of Iraq began.[137] The 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by U.S. armyGeneral Tommy Franks, began under the codename "Operation Iraqi Liberation",[138]later renamed "Operation Iraqi Freedom", the UK codename Operation Telic, and the Australian codename Operation Falconer. Coalition forces also cooperated with Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the north. Approximately forty other governments, the "U.S.-led coalition against Iraq," participated by providing troops, equipment, services, security, and special forces, with 248,000 soldiers from the United States, 45,000 British soldiers, 2,000 Australian soldiers and 194 Polish soldiers from Special Forces unit GROM sent to Kuwait for the invasion.[139] The invasion force was also supported by Iraqi Kurdish militia troops, estimated to number upwards of 70,000.[140]

The stated objectives of the invasion were; end the Hussein regime; eliminate whatever weapons of mass destruction could be found; eliminate whatever Islamist militants could be found; obtain intelligence on militant networks; distribute humanitarian aid; secure Iraq's petroleuminfrastructure; and assist in creating a representative but compliant government as a model for other Middle East nations.

The invasion was a quick and decisive operation encountering major resistance, though not what the U.S., British and other forces expected. The Iraqi regime had prepared to fight both a conventional and irregular war at the same time, conceding territory when faced with superior conventional forces, largely armored, but launching smaller scale attacks in the rear using fighters dressed in civilian and paramilitary clothes. This achieved some temporary successes and created unexpected challenges for the invading forces, especially the U.S. military.

Coalition troops launched air and amphibious assault on the Al-Faw peninsula to secure the oil fields there and the important ports, supported by warships of the Royal NavyPolish Navy, andRoyal Australian Navy. The United States Marine Corps15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, attached to 3 Commando Brigade and the Polish Special Forces unit GROM attacked the port of Umm Qasr, while the British Army's 16 Air Assault Brigade secured the oilfields in southern Iraq. Polish commandos captured offshore oil platforms near the port, preventing their destruction.

photograph of three Marines entering a partially destroyed stone palace with a mural of Arabic script
U.S. Marines from 1st Battalion 7th Marines enter a palace during the Fall of Baghdad.
Marine Corps M1 Abrams tank patrols a Baghdad street after its fall in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The heavy armor of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division moved westward and then northward through the western desert toward Baghdad, while the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force moved more easterly along Highway 1 through the center of the country, and 1 (UK) Armoured Division moved northward through the eastern marshland. The U.S. 1st Marine Division fought through Nasiriyah in a battle to seize the major road junction and nearby Talil Airfield. The United States Army 3rd Infantry Division defeated Iraqi forces entrenched in and around the airfield and bypassed the city to the west in its drive up north through western Iraq.

With the Nasiriyah and Talil Airfields secured in its rear, the 3rd Infantry Division supported by101st Airborne Division continued its attack north toward Najaf and Karbala, but a severe sand storm slowed the coalition advance and there was a halt to consolidate and make sure the supply lines were secure. When they started again they secured the Karbala Gap, a key approach to Baghdad, then secured the bridges over the Euphrates River, and the American forces poured through the gap on to Baghdad. In the middle of Iraq, the 1st Marine Division fought its way to the eastern side of Baghdad, and prepared for the attack into Badhdad to seize it.[141]

In the north, OIF-1 used the largest special operations force since the successful attack on theTaliban government of Afghanistan just over a year earlier. The Iraqi army was quickly overwhelmed in each engagement it faced with U.S. forces, with the elite Fedayeen Saddam putting up strong, sometimes suicidal, resistance before melting away into the civilian population.

On April 9 Baghdad fell, ending President Hussein's 24-year rule. U.S. forces seized the desertedBa'ath Party ministries and stage-managed[142] the tearing down of a huge iron statue of Hussein, photos and video of which became symbolic of the event, although later controversial. Not seen in the photos or heard on the videos, shot with a zoom lens, was the chant of the inflamed crowd foral-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric.[143] In November 2008, Iraqi protesters staged a similar stomping on and burning of an effigy of George W. Bush.[144] The abrupt fall of Baghdad was accompanied by a widespread outpouring of gratitude toward the invaders, but also massive civil disorder, including the looting of public and government buildings and drastically increased crime.[145][146]

According to the Pentagon, 250,000 short tons (230,000 t) (of 650,000 short tons (590,000 t) total) of ordnance was looted, providing a significant source of ammunition for the Iraqi insurgency. The invasion phase concluded when Tikrit, Hussein's home town, fell with little resistance to the U.S. Marines of Task Force Tripoli and on April 15 the coalition declared the invasion effectively over.

In the invasion phase of the war (March 19-April 30), 9,200 Iraqi combatants were killed along with 7,299 civilians, primarily by U.S. air and ground forces.[147] Coalition forces reported the death in combat of 139 U.S. military personnel[148] and 33 UK military personnel.[149]

Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraq Survey Group

Occupation zones in Iraq as of September 2003.

Shortly after the invasion, which has resulted in the debellatio of Iraq, the multinational coalition created the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) سلطة الائتلاف الموحدة, based in the Green Zone, as a transitional government of Iraq until the establishment of a democratic government. Citing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1483 (May 22, 2003) and the laws of war, the CPA vested itself withexecutivelegislative, and judicial authority over the Iraqi government from the period of the CPA's inception on April 21, 2003, until its dissolution on June 28, 2004.

The CPA was originally headed by Jay Garner, a former U.S. military officer, but his appointment lasted only until May 11, 2003, when President Bush appointed L. Paul Bremer. Bremer served until the CPA's dissolution in July 2004.

Another group created by the multinational force in Iraq post-invasion was the 1,400-member international Iraq Survey Group who conducted a fact-finding mission to findIraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes. In 2004 the ISG's Duelfer Report[150] stated that Iraq did not have a viable WMD program.

Post-invasion phase

On May 1, 2003, President Bush staged a dramatic visit to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln operating a few miles west of San Diego, California. The visit climaxed at sunset with Bush's now well-known "Mission Accomplished" speech. In this nationally televised speech, delivered before the sailors and airmen on the flight deck, Bush effectively declared victory due to the defeat of Iraq's conventional forces. However, Saddam remained at large and significant pockets of resistance remained.

After President Bush's speech, coalition forces noticed a gradually increasing flurry of attacks on its troops in various regions, especially in the "Sunni Triangle".[151] The initial Iraqi insurgents were supplied by hundreds of weapons caches created before the invasion by the Iraqi army and Republican Guard.

Initially, Iraqi resistance (described by the coalition as "Anti-Iraqi Forces") largely stemmed from fedayeen and Hussein/Ba'ath Party loyalists, but soon religious radicals and Iraqis angered by the occupation contributed to the insurgency. The three provinces with the highest number of attacks were BaghdadAl Anbar, and Salah Ad Din. Those three provinces account for 35% of the population, but as of December 5, 2006 were responsible for 73% of U.S. military deaths and an even higher percentage of recent U.S. military deaths (about 80%.)[152]

Insurgents used guerrilla tactics including: mortars, missiles, suicide attackssnipersimprovised explosive devices (IEDs), car bombs, small arms fire (usually with assault rifles), and RPGs (rocket propelled grenades), as well as sabotage against the petroleum, water, and electrical infrastructure.

Seabees of NMCB-15 (Naval Mobile Construction Battalion), on a convoy in Iraq in May 2003

Post-invasion Iraq coalition efforts commenced after the fall of the Hussein regime. The coalition nations, together with the United Nations, began to work to establish a stable, compliantdemocratic state capable of defending itself from non-coalition forces, as well as overcoming internal divisions.[153][154]

Meanwhile, coalition military forces launched several operations around the Tigris River peninsula and in the Sunni Triangle. A series of similar operations were launched throughout the summer in the Sunni Triangle. Toward the end of 2003, the intensity and pace of insurgent attacks began to increase. A sharp surge in guerrilla attacks ushered in an insurgent effort that was termed the "Ramadan Offensive", as it coincided with the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

To counter this offensive, coalition forces begin to use air power and artillery again for the first time since the end of the invasion by striking suspected ambush sites and mortar launching positions. Surveillance of major routes, patrols, and raids on suspected insurgents were stepped up. In addition, two villages, including Hussein's birthplace of al-Auja and the small town of Abu Hishma were surrounded by barbed wire and carefully monitored.

U.S. President George W. Bush with U.S. troops at the Bob Hope Dining Facility on Thanksgiving 2003 at Baghdad airport.

Capturing former government leaders

In the summer of 2003, the multinational forces focused on capturing the remaining leaders of the former government. On July 22, a raid by the U.S. 101st Airborne Division and soldiers from Task Force 20 killed Hussein's sons (Uday and Qusay) along with one of his grandsons. In all, over 300 top leaders of the former government were killed or captured, as well as numerous lesser functionaries and military personnel.

Most significantly, Saddam Hussein himself was captured on December 13, 2003, on a farm nearTikrit in Operation Red Dawn.[155] The operation was conducted by the United States Army's 4th Infantry Division and members of Task Force 121. Intelligence on Saddam's whereabouts came from his family members and former bodyguards.[156]

With the capture of Hussein and a drop in the number of insurgent attacks, some concluded the multinational forces were prevailing in the fight against the insurgency. The provisional government began training the new Iraqi security forces intended to police the country, and the United States promised over $20 billion in reconstruction money in the form of credit against Iraq's future oil revenues. Oil revenue was also used for rebuilding schools and for work on the electrical and refining infrastructure.

Shortly after the capture of Hussein, elements left out of the Coalition Provisional Authority began to agitate for elections and the formation of an Iraqi Interim Government. Most prominent among these was the Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The Coalition Provisional Authority opposed allowing democratic elections at this time.[157] The insurgents stepped up their activities. The two most turbulent centers were the area around Fallujah and the poor Shia sections of cities from Baghdad (Sadr City) to Basra in the south.

2004: Insurgency expands

See also: Military operations of the Iraq War for a list of all Coalition operations for this period, 2004 in IraqIraqi coalition counter-insurgency operationsHistory of Iraqi insurgencyUnited States occupation of FallujahIraq Spring Fighting of 2004
Apache-killing-Iraq.avi.ogg
Footage from the gun camera of a U.S. Apache helicopter killing Iraqi Insurgents.[158]
Coalition Provisional Authority director L. Paul Bremer signs over sovereignty to the appointed Iraqi Interim Government, June 28, 2004.

The start of 2004 was marked by a relative lull in violence. Insurgent forces reorganised during this time, studying the multinational forces' tactics and planning a renewed offensive. However, violence did increase during the Iraq Spring Fighting of 2004 with foreign fighters from around the Middle East as well as al-Qaeda in Iraq (an affiliated al-Qaeda group), led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawihelping to drive the insurgency.

As the insurgency grew there was a distinct change in targeting from the coalition forces towards the new Iraqi Security Forces, as hundreds of Iraqi civilians and police were killed over the next few months in a series of massive bombings. An organized Sunni insurgency, with deep roots and both nationalist and Islamist motivations, was becoming more powerful throughout Iraq. The ShiaMahdi Army also began launching attacks on coalition targets in an attempt to seize control from Iraqi security forces. The southern and central portions of Iraq were beginning to erupt in urban guerrilla combat as multinational forces attempted to keep control and prepared for a counteroffensive.

The most serious fighting of the war so far began on March 31, 2004, when Iraqi insurgents inFallujah ambushed a Blackwater USA convoy led by four U.S. private military contractors who were providing security for food caterers Eurest Support Services.[159] The four armed contractors,Scott Helvenston, Jerko Zovko, Wesley Batalona, and Michael Teague, were killed with grenades and small arms fire. Subsequently, their bodies were dragged from their vehicles by local people, beaten, set ablaze, and their burned corpses hung over a bridge crossing the Euphrates.[160]Photos of the event were released to news agencies worldwide, causing a great deal of indignation and moral outrage in the United States, and prompting an unsuccessful "pacification" of the city: the First Battle of Fallujah in April 2004.

US Marines fight in the city of Fallujahduring Operation Phantom Fury/Operation Al Fajr (New Dawn) in November 2004.

The offensive was resumed in November 2004 in the bloodiest battle of the war so far: the Second Battle of Fallujah, described by the U.S. military as "the heaviest urban combat (that they had been involved in) since the battle of Hue City in Vietnam."[161] During the assault, U.S. forces usedwhite phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against insurgent personnel, attracting controversy. The 46-day battle resulted in a victory for the coalition, with 95 U.S. soldiers killed along with approximately 1,350 insurgents. Fallujah was totally devastated during the fighting, though civilian casualties were low, as they had mostly fled before the battle.[162]

Another major event of that year was the revelation of widespread prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraibwhich received international media attention in April 2004. First reports of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse, as well as graphic pictures showing U.S. military personnel taunting and abusing Iraqi prisoners, came to public attention from a 60 Minutes II news report (April 28) and a Seymour M. Hersh article in The New Yorker (posted online on April 30.)[163] Military correspondent Thomas Ricks claimed that these revelations dealt a blow to the moral justifications for the occupation in the eyes of many people, especially Iraqis, and was a turning point in the war.[164]

2005: Elections and transitional government

Convention center for Council of Representatives of Iraq – مجلس النواب العراقي / ئه‌نجومه‌نی نوێنه‌رانی عێراق

On January 31, Iraqis elected the Iraqi Transitional Government in order to draft a permanent constitution. Although some violence and a widespread Sunni boycott marred the event, most of the eligible Kurd and Shia populace participated. On February 4, Paul Wolfowitz announced that 15,000 U.S. troops whose tours of duty had been extended in order to provide election security would be pulled out of Iraq by the next month.[165] February to April proved to be relatively peaceful months compared to the carnage of November and January, with insurgent attacks averaging 30 a day from the prior average of 70.

Hopes for a quick end to the insurgency and a withdrawal of U.S. troops were dashed in May, Iraq's bloodiest month since the invasion. Suicide bombers, believed to be mainly disheartened Iraqi Sunni Arabs, Syrians and Saudis, tore through Iraq. Their targets were often Shia gatherings or civilian concentrations of Shias. As a result, over 700 Iraqi civilians died in that month, as well as 79 U.S. soldiers.

The summer of 2005 saw fighting around Baghdad and at Tall Afar in northwestern Iraq as U.S. forces tried to seal off the Syrian border. This led to fighting in the autumn in the small towns of the Euphrates valley between the capital and that border.[166]

A referendum was held on October 15 in which the new Iraqi constitution was ratified. An Iraqi national assembly was elected in December, with participation from the Sunnis as well as the Kurds and Shia.[166]

Insurgent attacks increased in 2005 with 34,131 recorded incidents, compared to a total 26,496 for the previous year.[167]

2006: Civil war and permanent Iraqi government

Nouri al-Maliki meets with George W. Bush, June 2006

The beginning of 2006 was marked by government creation talks, growing sectarian violence, and continuous anti-coalition attacks. Sectarian violence expanded to a new level of intensity following the al-Askari Mosque bombing in the Iraqi city of Samarra, on February 22, 2006. The explosion at the mosque, one of the holiest sites in Shi'a Islam, is believed to have been caused by a bomb planted by al-Qaeda.

Although no injuries occurred in the blast, the mosque was severely damaged and the bombing resulted in violence over the following days. Over 100 dead bodies with bullet holes were found on February 23, and at least 165 people are thought to have been killed. In the aftermath of this attack the U.S. military calculated that the average homicide rate in Baghdad tripled from 11 to 33 deaths per day. In 2006 the UN described the environment in Iraq as a "civil war-like situation."[168]

On March 6, five United States Army soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment, raped the 14-year-old Iraqi girl Abeer Hamza al-Janabi, and then murdered her, her father, her mother Fakhriya Taha Muhasen and her six-year-old sister. The soldiers then set fire to the girls body to conceal evidence of the crime.[169] Four of the soldiers were convicted of rape and murder and the fifth was convicted of lesser crimes for the involvement in the war crime, that became known as the Mahmudiyah killings.[170][171]

On June 6, 2006 The US was successful in tracking Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraqwho was killed in a targeted killing, while attending a meeting in an isolated safehouse approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) north of Baqubah. At 14:15 GMT two United States Air Force F-16C jets identified the house and the lead jet dropped two 500-pound (230 kg) guided bombs, a laser-guided GBU-12 and GPS-guided GBU-38 on the building where he was located at. Six others—three male and three female individuals—were also reported killed. Among those killed were one of his wives and their child.

The current government of Iraq took office on May 20, 2006, following approval by the members of the Iraqi National Assembly. This followed the general election in December 2005. The government succeeded the Iraqi Transitional Government which had continued in office in a caretaker capacityuntil the formation of the permanent government.

Iraq Study Group report and Hussein's execution

Lee H. Hamilton (left) and James Baker(right) presented the Iraq Study Group Report to George W. Bush on December 6, 2006.

The Iraq Study Group Report was released on December 6, 2006. Iraq Study Group, made up of people from both of the major U.S. parties, was led by co-chairs James Baker, a former Secretary of State (Republican), and Lee H. Hamilton, a former U.S. Representative (Democrat). It concluded that "the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating" and "U.S. forces seem to be caught in a mission that has no foreseeable end." The report's 79 recommendations include increasing diplomatic measures with Iran and Syria and intensifying efforts to train Iraqi troops. On December 18, a Pentagon report found that insurgent attacks were averaging about 960 a week, the highest since the reports had begun in 2005.[172]

Coalition forces formally transferred control of a province to the Iraqi government, the first since the war. Military prosecutors charged eight U.S. Marines with the murders of 24 Iraqi civilians inHaditha in November 2005, 10 of them women and children. Four officers were also charged withdereliction of duty in relation to the event.[173]

Saddam Hussein was hanged on December 30, 2006, after being found guilty of crimes against humanity by an Iraqi court after a year-long trial.[174]

2007: U.S. troop surge

In a January 10, 2007, televised address to the U.S. public, Bush proposed 21,500 more troops for Iraq, a job program for Iraqis, more reconstruction proposals, and $1.2 billion for these programs.[175] On January 23, 2007, in the 2007 State of the Union Address, Bush announced "deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq."

President George W. Bush visiting US troops in Iraq, September 2007.

On February 10, 2007, David Petraeus was made commander of Multi-National Force – Iraq(MNF-I), the four-star post that oversees all coalition forces in country, replacing GeneralGeorge Casey. In his new position, Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq and employed them in the new "Surge" strategy outlined by the Bush administration.[176][177]2007 also saw a sharp increase in insurgent chlorine bombings.

On May 10, 2007, 144 Iraqi Parliamentary lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal.[178] On June 3, 2007, the Iraqi Parliament voted 85 to 59 to require the Iraqi government to consult with Parliament before requesting additional extensions of the UN Security Council Mandate for Coalition operations in Iraq.[179] Despite this, the mandate was renewed on December 18, 2007, without the approval of the Iraqi parliament.[180]

Pressures on U.S. troops were compounded by the continuing withdrawal of coalition forces. In early 2007, British Prime Minister Blair announced that following Operation Sinbad British troops would begin to withdraw from Basra Governorate, handing security over to the Iraqis.[181] In July Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen also announced the withdrawal of 441 Danish troops from Iraq, leaving only a unit of nine soldiers manning four observational helicopters.[182]

Planned troop reduction

In a speech made to Congress on September 10, 2007, Petraeus "envisioned the withdrawal of roughly 30,000 U.S. troops by next summer, beginning with a Marine contingent [in September]."[183] On September 14, Bush backed a limited withdrawal of troops from Iraq.[184] Bush said 5,700 personnel would be home by Christmas 2007, and expected thousands more to return by July 2008. The plan would take troop numbers back to their level before the surge at the beginning of 2007.

Effects of the surge on security

U.S. soldiers take cover during a firefightwith insurgents in the Al Doura section of Baghdad March 7, 2007.

By March 2008, violence in Iraq was reported curtailed by 40–80%, according to a Pentagon report.[185] Independent reports[186][187] raised questions about those assessments. An Iraqi military spokesman claimed that civilian deaths since the start of the troop surge plan were 265 in Baghdad, down from 1,440 in the four previous weeks. The New York Times counted more than 450 Iraqi civilians killed during the same 28-day period, based on initial daily reports from Iraqi Interior Ministry and hospital officials.

Historically, the daily counts tallied by the NYT have underestimated the total death toll by 50% or more when compared to studies by the United Nations, which rely upon figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry and morgue figures.[188]

The rate of U.S. combat deaths in Baghdad nearly doubled to 3.14 per day in the first seven weeks of the "surge" in security activity, compared to previous period. Across the rest of Iraq it reduced slightly.[189][190]

An Iraqi woman looks on as U.S. soldiers search the courtyard of her house in Ameriyah, Iraq. Searching houses for weapons is a common counter-insurgency technique used in Iraq.

On August 14, 2007, the deadliest single attack of the whole war occurred. Nearly 800 civilians were killed by a series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on the northern Iraqi settlement ofQahtaniya. More than 100 homes and shops were destroyed in the blasts. U.S. officials blamed al-Qaeda. The targeted villagers belonged to the non-Muslim Yazidi ethnic minority. The attack may have represented the latest in a feud that erupted earlier that year when members of the Yazidi community stoned to death a teenage girl called Du'a Khalil Aswad accused of dating a Sunni Arab man and converting to Islam. The killing of the girl was recorded on camera-mobiles and the video was uploaded onto the internet[191][192][193][194]

On September 13, 2007, Abdul Sattar Abu Risha was killed in a bomb attack in the city ofRamadi.[195] He was an important U.S. ally because he led the "Anbar Awakening", an alliance of Sunni Arab tribes that opposed al-Qaeda. The latter organisation claimed responsibility for the attack.[196] A statement posted on the Internet by the shadowy Islamic State of Iraq called Abu Risha "one of the dogs of Bush" and described Thursday's killing as a "heroic operation that took over a month to prepare".[197]

A graph of U.S. troop fatalities in Iraq, the orange and blue months being post-troop surge.

There was a reported trend of decreasing U.S. troop deaths after May 2007,[198] and violence against coalition troops had fallen to the "lowest levels since the first year of the American invasion".[199] These, and several other positive developments, were attributed to the surge by many analysts.[200]

Data from the Pentagon and other U.S. agencies such as the Government Accountability Office(GAO) found that daily attacks against civilians in Iraq remained "about the same" since February. The GAO also stated that there was no discernible trend in sectarian violence.[201] However, this report ran counter to reports to Congress, which showed a general downward trend in civilian deaths and ethno-sectarian violence since December 2006.[202] By late 2007, as the U.S. troop surge began to wind down, violence in Iraq had begun to decrease from its 2006 highs.[203]

Entire neighborhoods in Baghdad were ethnically cleansed by Shia and Sunni militias and sectarian violence has broken out in every Iraqi city where there is a mixed population.[204][205][206] Investigative reporter Bob Woodward cites U.S. government sources according to which the U.S. "surge" was not the primary reason for the drop in violence in 2007–2008. Instead, according to that view, the reduction of violence was due to newer covert techniques by U.S. military and intelligence officials to find, target and kill insurgents, including working closely with former insurgents.[207]

In the Shia region near Basra, British forces turned over security for the region to Iraqi Security Forces. Basra is the ninth province of Iraq's 18 provinces to be returned to local security forces' control since the beginning of the occupation.[208]

Political developments

Official Iraq-benchmark of the Congress, 2007.

More than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country for the first time. 144 of the 275 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition that would require the Iraqi government to seek approval from Parliament before it requests an extension of the UN mandate for foreign forces to be in Iraq, which expires at the end of 2008. It also calls for a timetable for troop withdrawal and a freeze on the size of foreign forces. The UN Security Council mandate for U.S.-led forces in Iraq will terminate "if requested by the government of Iraq."[209]Under Iraqi law, the speaker must present a resolution called for by a majority of lawmakers.[210]59% of those polled in the U.S. support a timetable for withdrawal.[211]

In mid-2007, the Coalition began a controversial program to recruit Iraqi Sunnis (often former insurgents) for the formation of "Guardian" militias. These Guardian militias are intended to support and secure various Sunni neighborhoods against the Islamists.[212]

Tensions with Iran

In 2007, tensions increased greatly between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan due to the latter's giving sanctuary to the militant Kurdish secessionist group Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK.) According to reports, Iran had been shelling PEJAK positions in Iraqi Kurdistan since August 16. These tensions further increased with an alleged border incursion on August 23 by Iranian troops who attacked several Kurdish villages killing an unknown number of civilians and militants.[213]

Coalition forces also began to target alleged Iranian Quds force operatives in Iraq, either arresting or killing suspected members. The Bush administration and coalition leaders began to publicly state that Iran was supplying weapons, particularly EFP devices, to Iraqi insurgents and militias although to date have failed to provide any proof for these allegations. Further sanctions on Iranian organizations were also announced by the Bush administration in the autumn of 2007. On November 21, 2007, Lieutenant General James Dubik, who is in charge of training Iraqi security forces, praised Iran for its "contribution to the reduction of violence" in Iraq by upholding its pledge to stop the flow of weapons, explosives and training of extremists in Iraq.[214]

Tensions with Turkey

Border incursions by PKK militants based in Northern Iraq have continued to harass Turkish forces, with casualties on both sides. In the fall of 2007, the Turkish military stated their right to cross the Iraqi Kurdistan border in "hot pursuit" of PKK militants and began shelling Kurdish areas in Iraq and attacking PKK bases in the Mount Cudi region with aircraft.[215][216] The Turkish parliament approved a resolution permitting the military to pursue the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan.[217] In November, Turkish gunships attacked parts of northern Iraq in the first such attack by Turkish aircraft since the border tensions escalated.[218] Another series of attacks in mid-December hit PKK targets in the Qandil, Zap, Avashin and Hakurk regions. The latest series of attacks involved at least 50 aircraft and artillery and Kurdish officials reported one civilian killed and two wounded.[219]

Additionally, weapons that were given to Iraqi security forces by the U.S. military are being recovered by authorities in Turkey after being used by PKK in that state.[220]

Private security firm controversy

On September 17, 2007, the Iraqi government announced that it was revoking the license of the U.S. security firm Blackwater USA over the firm's involvement in the killing of eight civilians, including a woman and an infant,[221] in a firefight that followed a car bomb explosion near a State Department motorcade.

2008: Iraqi forces arm

Soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 14th Iraqi Army division graduate from basic training.
Iraqi T-72 tank from Iraq's 2nd Armored Brigade passes in review during a ceremony marking the assumption of responsibility at Camp Taji.

Throughout 2008, U.S. officials and independent think tanks began to point to improvements in the security situation, as measured by key statistics. According to the U.S. Defense Department, in December 2008 the "overall level of violence" in the country had dropped 80% since before the surge began in January 2007, and the country's murder rate had dropped to pre-war levels. They also pointed out that the casualty figure for U.S. forces in 2008 was 314 against a figure of 904 in 2007.[222]

According to the Brookings Institution, Iraqi civilian fatalities numbered 490 in November 2008 as against 3,500 in January 2007, whereas attacks against the coalition numbered somewhere between 200 and 300 per week in the latter half of 2008, as opposed to a peak of nearly 1,600 in summer 2007. The number of Iraqi security forces killed was under 100 per month in the second half of 2008, from a high of 200 to 300 in summer 2007.[223]

Meanwhile, the proficiency of the Iraqi military increased as it launched a spring offensive against Shia militias which Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had previously been criticized for allowing to operate. This began with a March operation against the Mehdi Army in Basra, which led to fighting in Shia areas up and down the country, especially in the Sadr City district of Baghdad. By October, the British officer in charge of Basra said that since the operation the town had become "secure" and had a murder rate comparable to Manchester in England.[224] The U.S. military also said there had been a decrease of about a quarter in the quantity of Iranian-made explosives found in Iraq in 2008, possibly indicating a change in Iranian policy.[225]

Progress in Sunni areas continued after members of the Awakening movement were transferred from U.S. military to Iraqi control.[226] In May, the Iraqi army – backed by coalition support – launched an offensive in Mosul, the last major Iraqi stronghold of al-Qaeda. Despite detaining thousands of individuals, the offensive failed to lead to major long-term security improvements in Mosul. At the end of the year, the city remained a major flashpoint.[227][228]

3D Map of Southern Turkey and Northern Iraq

In the regional dimension, the ongoing conflict between Turkey and PKK[229][230][231] intensified on February 21, when Turkey launched a ground attack into the Quandeel Mountains of Northern Iraq. In the nine day long operation, around 10,000 Turkish troops advanced up to 25 km into Northern Iraq. This was the first substantial ground incursion by Turkish forces since 1995.[232][233]

Shortly after the incursion began, both the Iraqi cabinet and the Kurdistan regional government condemned Turkey's actions and called for the immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops from the region.[234] Turkish troops withdrew on February 29.[235] The fate of the Kurds and the future of the ethnically diverse city of Kirkuk remained a contentious issue in Iraqi politics.

U.S. military officials met these trends with cautious optimism as they approached what they described as the "transition" embodied in the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement which was negotiated throughout 2008.[222] The commander of the coalition, U.S. General Raymond T. Odierno, noted that "in military terms, transitions are the most dangerous time" in December 2008.[222]

Spring offensives on Shia militias

An Iraqi Soldier and vehicles from the 42nd Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Division during a firefight with armed militiamen in the Sadr City district of Baghdad April 17, 2008

At the end of March, the Iraqi Army, with Coalition air support, launched an offensive, dubbed "Charge of the Knights", in Basra to secure the area from militias. This was the first major operation where the Iraqi Army did not have direct combat support from conventional coalition ground troops. The offensive was opposed by the Mahdi Army, one of the militias, which controlled much of the region.[236][237] Fighting quickly spread to other parts of Iraq: including Sadr CityAl KutAl Hillah and others. During the fighting Iraqi forces met stiff resistance from militiamen in Basra to the point that the Iraqi military offensive slowed to a crawl, with the high attrition rates finally forcing the Sadrists to the negotiating table.

Following talks with Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Qods brigades of Iran'sRevolutionary Guard Corps, and the intercession of the Iranian government, on March 31, 2008, al-Sadr ordered his followers to ceasefire.[238] The militiamen kept their weapons.

By May 12, 2008, Basra "residents overwhelmingly reported a substantial improvement in their everyday lives" according to The New York Times. "Government forces have now taken over Islamic militants' headquarters and halted the death squads and 'vice enforcers' who attacked women, Christians, musicians, alcohol sellers and anyone suspected of collaborating with Westerners", according to the report; however, when asked how long it would take for lawlessness to resume if the Iraqi army left, one resident replied, "one day".[237]

In late April roadside bombings continued to rise from a low in January of 114 to over 250, surpassing the May 2007 high.

Congressional testimony

General David Petraeus in testimony before Congress on April 8, 2008

Speaking before the U.S. Congress on April 8, 2008, General David Petraeus urged delaying troop withdrawals, saying, "I've repeatedly noted that we haven't turned any corners, we haven't seen any lights at the end of the tunnel," referencing the comments of then President Bush and former Vietnam-era GeneralWilliam Westmoreland.[239] When asked by the Senate if reasonable people could disagree on the way forward, Petraeus said, "We fight for the right of people to have other opinions."[240]

Upon questioning by then Senate committee chair Joe Biden, Ambassador Crocker admitted that Al-Qaedain Iraq was less important than the Al-Qaeda organization led by Osama bin Laden along the Afghan-Pakistani border.[241] Lawmakers from both parties complained that U.S. taxpayers are carrying Iraq's burden as it earns billions of dollars in oil revenues.

Iraqi security forces rearm

An Iraqi Army unit prepares to board a Task Force Baghdad UH-60 Blackhawkhelicopter for a counterinsurgency mission in Baghdad in 2007.

Iraq became one of the top current purchasers of U.S. military equipment with their army trading its AK-47 assault rifles for the U.S. M-16 and M-4 rifles, among other equipment.[242] In 2008 alone, Iraq accounted for more than $12.5 billion of the $34 billion U.S. weapon sales to foreign countries (not including the potential F-16 fighter planes.).[243]

Iraq sought 36 F-16s, the most sophisticated weapons system Iraq has attempted to purchase. The Pentagon notified Congress that it had approved the sale of 24 American attack helicopters to Iraq, valued at as much as $2.4 billion. Including the helicopters, Iraq announced plans to purchase at least $10 billion in U.S. tanks and armored vehicles, transport planes and other battlefield equipment and services. Over the summer, the Defense Department announced that the Iraqi government wanted to order more than 400 armored vehicles and other equipment worth up to$3 billion, and six C-130J transport planes, worth up to $1.5 billion.[244][245] From 2005 to 2008, the United States had completed approximately $20 billion in arms sales agreements with Iraq.[246]

Status of forces agreement

The U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement was approved by the Iraqi government on December 4, 2008.[247] It establishes that U.S. combat forces will withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, and that all U.S. forces will be completely out of Iraq by December 31, 2011. The pact is subject to possible negotiations which could delay withdrawal and a referendum scheduled for mid-2009 in Iraq which may require all U.S. forces to completely leave by the middle of 2010.[248][249] The pact requires criminal charges for holding prisoners over 24 hours, and requires a warrant for searches of homes and buildings that are not related to combat.[250]

U.S. contractors working for U.S. forces will be subject to Iraqi criminal law, while contractors working for the State Department and other U.S. agencies may retain their immunity. If U.S. forces commit still undecided "major premeditated felonies" while off-duty and off-base, they will be subject to the still undecided procedures laid out by a joint U.S.-Iraq committee if the U.S. certifies the forces were off-duty.[251][252][253][254]

Some Americans have discussed "loopholes"[255] and some Iraqis have said they believe parts of the pact remain a "mystery".[256] U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has predicted that after 2011 he would expect to see "perhaps several tens of thousands of American troops" as part of a residual force in Iraq.[257]

Several groups of Iraqis protested the passing of the SOFA accord[258][259][260] as prolonging and legitimizing the occupation. Tens of thousands of Iraqis burned an effigy of George W. Bush in a central Baghdad square where U.S. troops five years previously organized a tearing down of a statue of Saddam Hussein.[142][256][261] Some Iraqis expressed skeptical optimism that the U.S. would completely end its presence by 2011.[262] On December 4, 2008, Iraq's presidential council approved the security pact.[247]

A representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani's expressed concern with the ratified version of the pact and noted that the government of Iraq has no authority to control the transfer of occupier forces into and out of Iraq, no control of shipments, and that the pact grants the occupiers immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts. He said that Iraqi rule in the country is not complete while the occupiers are present, but that ultimately the Iraqi people would judge the pact in a referendum.[261] Thousands of Iraqi have gathered weekly after Friday prayers and shouted anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli slogans protesting the security pact between Baghdad and Washington. A protester said that despite the approval of the Interim Security pact, the Iraqi people would break it in a referendum next year.[263]

2009: Coalition redeployment

Transfer of Green Zone

Aerial view of the Green Zone, Baghdad International Airport and the contiguous Victory Base Complex in Baghdad.

On January 1, 2009, the United States handed control of the Green Zone and Saddam Hussein's presidential palace to the Iraqi government in a ceremonial move described by the country's prime minister as a restoration of Iraq's sovereignty. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he would propose January 1 be declared national "Sovereignty Day". "This palace is the symbol of Iraqi sovereignty and by restoring it, a real message is directed to all Iraqi people that Iraqi sovereignty has returned to its natural status," al-Maliki said.

The U.S. military attributed a decline in reported civilians deaths to several factors including the U.S.-led "troop surge", the growth of U.S.-funded Awakening Councils, and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's call for his militia to abide by a cease fire.[264]

Provincial elections

Election map. Shows what was the largest list in every governorate.

On January 31, 2009, Iraq held provincial elections.[265] Provincial candidates and those close to them faced some political assassinations and attempted assassinations, and there was also some other violence related to the election.[266][267][268][269]

Iraqi voter turnout failed to meet the original expectations which were set and was the lowest on record in Iraq,[270] but U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker characterized the turnout as "large".[271] Of those who turned out to vote, some groups complained of disenfranchisement and fraud.[270][272][273] After the post-election curfew was lifted, some groups made threats about what would happen if they were unhappy with the results.[274]

Exit strategy announcement

On February 27, 2009, United States President Barack Obama gave a speech at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in the U.S. state of North Carolina announcing that the U.S. combat mission in Iraq would end by August 31, 2010. A "transitional force" of up to 50,000 troops tasked with training the Iraqi Security Forces, conducting counterterrorism operations, and providing general support may remain until the end of 2011, the president added.[275]

The day before Obama's speech, Prime Minister of Iraq Nuri al-Maliki said at a press conference that the government of Iraq had "no worries" over the impending departure of U.S. forces and expressed confidence in the ability of the Iraqi Security Forces and police to maintain order without American military support.[276]

Sixth anniversary protests

On April 9, 2009, the sixth anniversary of Baghdad's fall to coalition forces, tens of thousands of Iraqis thronged Baghdad to mark the sixth anniversary of the city's fall and to demand the immediate departure of coalition forces. The crowds of Iraqis stretched from the giant Sadr City slum in northeast Baghdad to the square around 5 km (3.1 mi) away, where protesters burned an effigy featuring the face of former U.S. President George W. Bush, who ordered the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and also the face of Saddam[citation needed] Shi'ites were brutally persecuted under Saddam's rule.[277] There were also Sunni Muslims in the crowd. Police said many Sunnis, including prominent leaders such as a founding sheikh from the Sons of Iraq, took part.[278]

Coalition forces withdraw

On April 30, 2009, the United Kingdom formally ended combat operations. Prime Minister Gordon Brown characterized the operation in Iraq as a "success story" because of UK troops' efforts. Britain handed control of Basra to the United States Armed Forces.[279]

On July 28, 2009, Australia withdrew its combat forces as The Australian military presence in Iraq ended, per an agreement with the Iraqi government.

The withdrawal of U.S. forces began at the end of June, with 38 bases to be handed over to Iraqi forces. On June 29, 2009, U.S. forces withdrew from Baghdad. On November 30, 2009, Iraqi Interior Ministry officials reported that the civilian death toll in Iraq fell to its lowest level in November since the 2003 invasion.[280]

Iraq awards oil contracts

U.S. Navy and Coast Guard personnel stand guard aboard the Al Basrah Oil Terminal in July 2009.

On June 30 and December 11, 2009, the Iraqi ministry of oil awarded contracts to international oil companies for some of Iraq's many oil fields. The winning oil companies enter joint ventures with the Iraqi ministry of oil, and the terms of the awarded contracts include extraction of oil for a fixed fee of approximately $1.40 per barrel.[281][282] The fees will only be paid once a production threshold set by the Iraqi ministry of oil is reached.

2010: U.S. drawdown and Operation New Dawn

U.S. withdrawal

On February 17, 2010, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that as of September 1, 2010, the name "Operation Iraqi Freedom" would be replaced by "Operation New Dawn".[283]

On April 18, 2010, US and Iraqi forces killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in a joint American and Iraqi operation nearTikritIraq.[284] The coalition forces believed al-Masri to be wearing a suicide vest and proceeded cautiously. After the lengthy exchange of fire and bombing of the house, the Iraqi troops stormed inside and found two women still alive, one of whom was al-Masri's wife, and four dead men, identified as al-Masri, Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi, an assistant to al-Masri, and al-Baghdadi's son. A suicide vest was indeed found found on al-Masri's corpse, as the Iraqi Army subsequently stated.[285] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the killings of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri at a news conference in Baghdad and showed reporters photographs of their bloody corpses. "The attack was carried out by ground forces which surrounded the house, and also through the use of missiles," Mr Maliki said. "During the operation computers were seized with e-mails and messages to the two biggest terrorists, Osama bin Laden and [his deputy] Ayman al-Zawahiri," Mr Maliki added. U.S. forces commander Gen. Raymond Odierno praised the operation. "The death of these terrorists is potentially the most significant blow to al-Qaeda in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency," he said. "There is still work to do but this is a significant step forward in ridding Iraq of terrorists."

US Vice-President Joe Biden stated that the deaths of the top two al-Qaeda figures in Iraq are "potentially devastating" blows to the terror network there and proof that Iraqi security forces are gaining ground.[286]

On 20 June, Iraq's Central Bank was bombed in an attack that left 15 people dead and brought much of downtown Baghdad to a standstill. The attack was claimed to have been carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq. This attack was followed by another attack on Iraq's Bank of Trade building that killed 26 and wounded 52 people.[287]

Iraqi commandos training under the supervision of soldiers from the US 82nd Airborne in December 2010.

In late August 2010, insurgents conducted a major attack with at least 12 car bombs simultaneously detonating from Mosul to Basra and killing at least 51. These attacks coincided with the U.S. plans for a withdrawal of combat troops.[288]

The last U.S. combat brigades departed Iraq in the early morning of August 19, 2010. Convoys of U.S. troops had been moving out of Iraq to Kuwait for several days, and NBC News broadcast live from Iraq as the last convoy crossed the border. While all combat brigades left the country, an additional 50,000 personnel remained in the country to provide support for the Iraqi military.[289][290] These troops are required to leave Iraq by 31 December 2011 under an agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments.[291] State Dept. spokesman P.J. Crowley stated "We are ending the war.... but we are not ending our work in Iraq, We have a long-term commitment to Iraq."[1]

On August 31, 2010, Obama announced the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom from the Oval Office. In his address, he covered his next year's plan for closing operations inAfghanistan, the role of the United States' soft power, the effect the war has had on the United States economy, and the legacy of American wars.

The United States has paid a huge price to put the future of Iraq in the hands of its people. We have sent our young men and women to make enormous sacrifices in Iraq, and spent vast resources abroad at a time of tight budgets at home. We have persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people—a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it is time to turn the page.
—President Obama's Address on Iraq, August 31, 2010[292]

On the same day in Iraq, at a ceremony at one of Saddam Hussein's former residences at Al Faw Palace in Baghdad, a number of U.S. dignitaries spoke in a ceremony for television cameras, avoiding overtones of the triumphalism present in US announcements made earlier in the war. Vice President Joe Biden expressed concerns regarding the ongoing lack of progress in forming a new Iraqi government, saying of the Iraqi people that "they expect a government that reflects the results of the votes they cast." Gen. Ray Odierno stated that the new era "in no way signals the end of our commitment to the people of Iraq." Speaking in Ramadi earlier in the day, Gates said that U.S. forces "have accomplished something really quite extraordinary here, [but] how it all weighs in the balance over time I think remains to be seen." When asked by reporters if the seven year war was worth doing, Gates commented that "It really requires a historian's perspective in terms of what happens here in the long run." He noted the Iraq War "will always be clouded by how it began" in regards Saddam Hussein's supposedweapons of mass destruction, which were never confirmed to have existed. Gates continued, "This is one of the reasons that this war remains so controversial at home." [293] On the same day Gen. Ray Odierno was replaced by Lloyd Austin as Commander of US forces in Iraq

However, there has been some controversy over whether the official declaration is accurate, with the issuance of a standards memo from the Associated Press stating "combat in Iraq is not over, and we should not uncritically repeat suggestions that it is, even if they come from senior officials." [294]

Ongoing tensions

On September 7, 2010, two U.S. troops were killed and nine wounded in an incident at an Iraqi military base. The incident is under investigation by Iraqi and U.S. forces, but it is believed that an Iraqi soldier opened fire on U.S. forces.[295]

According to reports from Iraq, hundreds of members of the Sunni Awakening Councils may have switched allegiance back to the Iraqi insurgency or al Qaeda.[296]

Wikileaks disclosed 391,832 classified U.S. military documents on the Iraq War.[297][298][299] Approximately, 58 people were killed with another 40 wounded in an attack on the Sayidat al-Nejat church, a Chaldean Catholic church in Baghdad. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq organization.[300]

Coordinated attacks in primarily Shia areas struck throughout Baghdad on November 2, 2010, killing approximately 113 and wounding 250 with around 17 bombs.[301]

Iraqi security forces transition towards self reliance

Preparing to buy 13 billion dollars worth of American arms, the Iraq Defense Ministry intends to transform the country's degraded conventional forces into a state-of-the-art military and become among the world's biggest customers for American military arms and equipment. Part of the planned purchase includes 140 M1 Abrams main battle tanks. Iraqi crews have already begun training on them. In addition to the $13 billion purchase, the Iraqis have requested 18 F-16 Fighting Falcons as part of a $4.2 billion program that also includes aircraft training and maintenance, AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missileslaser-guided bombs and reconnaissance equipment.[302] If approved by Congress, the first aircraft could arrive in spring 2013. Under the plan, the first 10 pilots would be trained in the U.S.[303]

The Iraqi navy also inaugurated U.S.-built Swift Class patrol boat at Umm Qasr, Iraq's main port at the northern end of the gulf. Iraq is to take delivery of 14 more of these $20 million, 50-foot craft before U.S. forces depart. The high-speed vessels' main mission will be to protect the oil terminals at al-Basra and Khor al-Amiya through which some 1.7 million barrels a day are loaded into tankers for export. Two U.S.-built offshore support vessels, each costing $70 million, are expected to be delivered in 2011.[302]

The United States Department of Defense had issued notification of an additional $100 million proposed sales of arms from the US to Iraq. General Dynamics is to be the prime contractor on a $36 million deal for the supply of ammunition for Iraq's Abrams M1A1 tanks. The sale consists of: 14,010 TP-T M831A1 120mm Cartridges; 16,110 TPCSDS-T M865 120mm Cartridges; and 3,510 HEAT-MP-T M830A1 120mm Cartridges. Raytheon is proposed as the prime contractor for a $68 million package of "Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Systems". .[304]

UN lifts restrictions on Iraq

In a move to legitimize the existing Iraqi government, the United Nations lifted the Saddam Hussein-era UN restrictions on Iraq. These included allowing Iraq to have a civilian nuclear program, permitting the participation of Iraq in international nuclear and chemical weapons treaties, as well as returning control of Iraq's oil and gas revenue to the government and ending the Oil-for-Food Programme.[305]

2011: End Game

Moktada al-Sadr returned to Iraq in the holy city of Najaf to lead the Sadrist movement after being in exile since 2007.[306]

During the year the proclaimed terrorist group al-Qaeda in Iraq was eventually defeated in May after Huthaifa al-Batawi was killed and who was the only man left in the group as the head leader.[citation needed]

On January 15, 2011, three U.S. troops were killed in Iraq. One of the troops was killed on a military operation in central Iraq, while the other two troops were deliberately shot by one or two Iraqi soldiers during a training exercise.[307]

On June 6, 2011, five U.S. troops were killed in an apparent rocket attack on Camp Victory, located near Baghdad International Airport.[308] A sixth soldier, who was wounded in the attack, died 10 days later of his wounds.[309]

On June 29, 2011, three U.S. troops were killed in a rocket attack on a U.S. base located near the border with Iran. It was speculated that the militant group responsible for the attack was the same one which attacked Camp Victory just over three weeks before.[310] With the three deaths, June 2011, became the bloodiest month in Iraq for the U.S. military since June 2009, with 15 U.S. soldiers killed, only one of them outside combat.[311]

In September 2011, Iraq signed a contract to buy 18 Lockheed Martin F-16 warplanes, becoming the 26th nation to operate the F-16. Because of windfall profits from oil, the Iraqi government is planning to double this originally planned 18, to 36 F-16s. Iraq is relying on the U.S. military for air support as it rebuilds its forces and battles a stubborn Islamist insurgency.[312]

With the collapse of the discussions about extending the stay of any U.S. troops beyond 2011, where they wouldn't be granted any immunity from the Iraqi government, On October 21, 2011 President Obama announced at a White House press conference that all remaining U.S. troops and trainers would leave Iraq by the end of the year as previously scheduled, bringing the U.S. mission in Iraq to an end.[94] However, in November 2011, the U.S. Senate voted down a resolution to formally end the war by bringing its authorization by Congress to an end.[313]

Casualty estimates

Wounded U.S. personnel flown from Iraq to Ramstein, Germany, for medical treatment (February 2007)

For coalition death totals see the infobox at the top right. See also Casualties of the Iraq War, which has casualty numbers for coalition nations, contractors, non-Iraqi civilians, journalists, media helpers, aid workers, wounded, etc. The main article also gives explanations for the wide variation in estimates and counts, and shows many ways in which undercounting occurs. Casualty figures, especially Iraqi ones, are highly disputed. This section gives a brief overview.

There have been several attempts by the media, coalition governments and others to estimate the Iraqi casualties. The table below summarizes some of these estimates and methods.

Source Iraqi casualties March 2003 to ...
Iraq Family Health Survey 151,000 violent deaths. June 2006
Lancet survey 601,027 violent deaths out of 654,965 excess deaths. June 2006
Opinion Research Business survey 1,033,000 violent deaths from the conflict. August 2007
Iraqi Health Ministry 87,215 violent deaths per death certificates issued.
Deaths prior to January 2005 unrecorded.
Ministry estimates up to 20% more deaths are undocumented.
January 2005 to
February 2009
Associated Press 133,280 violent deaths.
Health Ministry death certificates plus AP estimate of casualties for 2003–2005.
April 2009
Iraq Body Count 113,494 – 122,483 violent civilian deaths.
Reported in English-language media only.
(including new deaths added from the Iraq War Logs)
October 2010

Criticism and cost

A local memorial in North Carolina in December 2007; U.S. casualty count can be seen in the background.[314]

The Bush Administration's rationale for the Iraq War has faced heavy criticism from an array of popular and official sources both inside and outside the United States, with many U.S. citizens finding many parallels with the Vietnam War.[315] For example, the Center for Public Integrityalleges that the Bush administration made a total of 935 false statements between 2001 and 2003 about Iraq's alleged threat to the United States.[316]

Both proponents and opponents of the invasion have also criticized the prosecution of the war effort along a number of other lines. Most significantly, critics have assailed the U.S. and its allies for not devoting enough troops to the mission, not adequately planning for post-invasion Iraq, and for permitting and perpetrating widespread human rights abuses. As the war has progressed, critics have also railed against the high human and financial costs.

The court-martial of Ehren Watada, the first U.S. officer to refuse to serve in Iraq, ended in amistrial because the Judge Advocate General's Corps would not consider the question of whether orders could be illegal. A federal district court judge ruled that Watada cannot face double jeopardy on three of his five charges, but abstained from ruling on whether the two remaining charges of conduct unbecoming an officer may still go forward.[317]

Another criticism of the initial intelligence leading up to the Iraq war comes from a former CIA officer who described the Office of Special Plans as a group of ideologues who were dangerous to U.S. national security and a threat to world peace, and that the group lied and manipulated intelligence to further its agenda of removing Saddam.[318] Subsequently, in 2008, the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity, a group partially funded by George Soros has enumerated a total of 935 allegedly false statements made by George W. Bush and six other top members of his administration in what it termed a "carefully launched campaign of misinformation" during the two year period following 9/11 attacks, in order to rally support for the invasion of Iraq.[319][320]

  States participating in the invasion of Iraq
  States in support of an invasion
  States in opposition to an invasion
  States with an uncertain or no official standpoint

Criticisms include:

After President Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, some anti-war groups decided to stop protesting even though the war was still going on. Some of them decided to stop because they felt they should give the new President time to establish his administration, and others stopped because they believed that Obama would end the war.[335]

Financial cost

The financial cost of the war has been more than £4.55 billion ($9 billion) to the UK,[336] and over $845 billion to the U.S., with the total cost to the U.S. economy estimated at $3 trillion.[337]

CNN report noted that the U.S. led interim government, the Coalition Provisional Authority lasting until 2004 in Iraq had lost $8.8 billion in the Development Fund for Iraq. In June 2011, it was reported by CBS News that six billion in neatly packaged blocks of US $100 bills was literally air-lifted into Iraq by the George W. Bush administration, which flew it into Baghdad aboard C-130 military cargo planes. In total, the Times says $12 billion in cash was flown into Iraq in 21 separate flights by May 2004. All of which has disappeared. An inspector general's report mentioned that "'Severe inefficiencies and poor management' by the Coalition Provisional Authority would leave no guarantee that the money was properly used," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., director of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. "The CPA did not establish or implement sufficient managerial, financial and contractual controls to ensure that funds were used in a transparent manner."[338] Bowen told the Times the missing money may represent "the largest theft of funds in national history."[339]

Humanitarian crises

More than half of Iraqi Christians have fled to neighboring countries since the start of the war.[340] In FY 2007, the U.S. resettled 1,608 Iraqi refugees.[341]

Malnutrition rates have risen from 19% before the U.S.-led invasion to a national average of 28% four years later.[342] Some 60–70% of Iraqi children are suffering from psychological problems.[343]68% of Iraqis have no access to safe drinking water. A cholera outbreak in northern Iraq is thought to be the result of poor water quality.[344] As many as half of Iraqi doctors have left the country since 2003.[345]

The Foreign Policy Association reported that "Perhaps the most perplexing component of the Iraq refugee crisis... has been the inability for the U.S. to absorb more Iraqis following the 2003 invasion of the country. To date, the U.S. has granted less than 800 Iraqis refugee status, just 133 in 2007. By contrast, the U.S. granted asylum to more than 100,000 Vietnamese refugees during the Vietnam War." [346]

Human rights abuses

Throughout the entire Iraq war there have been human rights abuses on all sides of the conflict.

Iraqi government

  • The use of torture by Iraqi security forces.[347]

Coalition forces and private contractors

This photograph released in 2006 shows several naked Iraqis in hoods, of whom one has the words "I'm a rapeist" (sic) written on his hip.
  • Controversy over whether disproportionate force was used, during the assaults by Coalition and (mostly Shia and Kurdish) Iraqi government forces on the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah in 2004.

Insurgent groups

Car bombings are a frequently used tactic by insurgents in Iraq.
  • Killing over 12,000 Iraqis from January 2005 to June 2006, according to Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, giving the first official count for the victims of bombings, ambushes and other deadly attacks.[355] The insurgents have also conducted numerous suicide attacks on the Iraqi civilian population, mostly targeting the majority Shia community.[356][357] An October 2005 report from Human Rights Watch examines the range of civilian attacks and their purported justification.[358]
  • Attacks against civilians including children through bombing of market places and other locations reachable by car bombs.
  • Attacks on diplomats and diplomatic facilities including; the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003 killing the top UN representative in Iraq and 21 other UN staff members;[359] beheading several diplomats: two Algerian diplomatic envoys Ali Belaroussi and Azzedine Belkadi,[360] Egyptian diplomatic envoy al-Sherif,[361] and four Russian diplomats.[362]
  • The February 2006 bombing of the al-Askari Mosque, destroying one of the holiest Shiite shrines, killing over 165 worshipers and ignitingsectarian strife and reprisal killings.[363]
  • The publicised killing of several contractors; Eugene ArmstrongJack HensleyKenneth Bigley, Ivaylo Kepov and Georgi Lazov (Bulgarian truck drivers.)[364] Other non-military personnel murdered include: translator Kim Sun-ilShosei KodaFabrizio Quattrocchi (Italian), charity worker Margaret Hassan, reconstruction engineer Nick Berg, photographer Salvatore Santoro (Italian)[365] and supply worker Seif Adnan Kanaan (Iraqi.) Four private armed contractors, Scott Helvenston, Jerko Zovko, Wesley Batalona and Michael Teague, were killed with grenades and small arms fire, their bodies dragged from their vehicles, beaten and set ablaze. Their burned corpses were then dragged through the streets before being hung over a bridge crossing the Euphrates.[366]

Public opinion on the war

International opinion

According to a January 2007 BBC World Service poll of more than 26,000 people in 25 countries, 73% of the global population disapproved of U.S. handling of the Iraq War.[369] A September 2007 poll conducted by the BBC found that two-thirds of the world's population believed the U.S. should withdraw its forces from Iraq.[370] According to an April 2004 USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, only a third of the Iraqi people believed that "the American-led occupation of their country is doing more good than harm, and a solid majority support an immediate military pullout even though they fear that could put them in greater danger."[371] In 2006 it was found that majorities in the UK and Canada believed that the war in Iraq was "unjustified" and – in the UK – were critical of their government's support of U.S. policies in Iraq.[372]

According to polls conducted by the Arab American Institute, four years after the invasion of Iraq, 83% of Egyptians had a negative view of the U.S. role in Iraq; 68% of Saudi Arabians had a negative view; 96% of the Jordanian population had a negative view; 70% of the population of the United Arab Emirates and 76% of the Lebanese population also described their view as negative.[373] The Pew Global Attitudes Project reports that in 2006 majorities in the Netherlands, Germany, Jordan, France, Lebanon, China, Spain, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, andMorocco believed the world was safer before the Iraq War and the toppling of Hussein. Pluralities in the U.S. and India believe the world is safer without Hussein.[374]

Iraqi opinion

A woman pleads with an Iraqi armysoldier from 2nd Company, 5th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division to let a suspected insurgent free during a raid near Tafaria,Iraq

From 2005 to 2007, polls consistently showed that a majority of Iraqis opposed the U.S. invasion.[375][376][377]

Relation to the U.S. Global War on Terrorism

Former President George W. Bush consistently referred to the Iraq war as "the central front in theWar on Terror", and argued that if the U.S. pulled out of Iraq, "terrorists will follow us here."[378][379][380] While other proponents of the war have regularly echoed this assertion, as the conflict has dragged on, members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. public, and even U.S. troops have questioned the connection between Iraq and the fight against anti-U.S. terrorism. In particular, a consensus has developed among intelligence experts that the Iraq war has increased terrorism. Counterterrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna frequently refers to the invasion of Iraq as a "fatal mistake."[381]

London's conservative International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded in 2004 that the occupation of Iraq had become "a potent global recruitment pretext" for mujahideen and that the invasion "galvanised" al-Qaeda and "perversely inspired insurgent violence" there.[382] The U.S. National Intelligence Council concluded in a January 2005 report that the war in Iraq had become a breeding ground for a new generation of terrorists; David Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats, indicated that the report concluded that the war in Iraq provided terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills ... There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries." The Council's chairman Robert Hutchings said, "At the moment, Iraq is a magnet for international terrorist activity."[383] And the 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, which outlined the considered judgment of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, held that "The Iraq conflict has become the 'cause celebre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement."[384]

Iranian involvement

Although some military intelligence analysts have concluded there is no concrete evidence, it has been claimed that Iran has provided training, weapons, money, and intelligence to Shiite insurgents in Iraq and that up to 150 Iranian intelligence agents, plus members of theIranian Revolutionary Guard are believed to be active in Iraq at any given time.[385][386] Members of the Iranian Quds Force and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are thought to have trained members of the Qazali terror network in explosives technology and also provided the network with arms, munitions, and military advisors. Many explosive devices, including improvised explosives (IEDs) and armor-piercing penetrators (EFPs), used by insurgents are claimed to be Iranian-made or designed.

In January 2008, Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNFI) initiated Task Force Troy to identify Iranian-made weapons. Their report was delivered in July 2008. Of 4,600 weapons caches discovered, only 98 contained at least one Iranian-made weapon with these representing less than one half percent of the total number of weapons recovered. No Iranian weapons were discovered in Karbala or Basra and of the 350 armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) found, none were of Iranian origin. Despite frequent claims that Iran is supplying weapons to insurgents, the MNFI report criticized official U.S. statements on Iranian weapons, stating; "Iranian munitions found in Iraq were likely purchased on the open market."[387]

According to two unnamed U.S. officials, the Pentagon is examining the possibility that the Karbala provincial headquarters raid, in which insurgents managed to infiltrate an American base, kill five U.S. soldiers, wound three, and destroy three humvees before fleeing, was supported by Iranians. In a speech on 31 January 2007, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stated that Iran was supporting attacks against Coalition forces in Iraq[388] and some Iraqis suspect that the raid may have been perpetrated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps'sQods Force in retaliation for the detention of five Iranian officials by U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on 11 January.[389][390]

See also

References

  1. a b The Mouth of the Potomac (2010-08-19). "War is over: Last U.S. combat troops leave Iraq; 50,000 remain as advisers". New York: Nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  2. ^ Post Store (2010-09-01). "Obama's speech on August 31 declares combat in Iraq over". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
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  5. ^ Dershowitz, Alan. "Obama marks formal end of Iraq combat". Jpost.com. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  6. ^ Brush, Silla (2010-08-28). "Obama: 'The war is ending,' fulfilling campaign pledge". TheHill.com. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  7. ^ New York Times, January 24, 2010
  8. ^ "Microsoft Word - FINAL 23 1000 Jul SecDef singed.doc"(PDF). Retrieved 2011-01-15.
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  10. ^ "U.S. says Iraq pullout won't cause dramatic violence". MSNBC. 2010-11-18. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  11. ^ "UK 'to continue deporting failed Iraqi asylum seekers'". BBC. 2010-11-22. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  12. ^ CNN Wire Staff (26, November 2011). "U.S. military works to get troops home faster from Iraq"CNN. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
  13. ^ International Institute for Strategic Studies; Hackett, James (ed.) (2010-02-03). The Military Balance 2010LondonRoutledge.ISBN 1857435575.
  14. ^ Rubin, Alissa J.; Nordland, Rod (March 29, 2009). "Troops Arrest an Awakening Council Leader in Iraq, Setting Off Fighting"The New York Times. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
  15. ^ "The Kurdish peshmerga forces will not be integrated into the Iraqi army: Mahmoud Sangawi - Interview". Ekurd.net. 2010-01-22. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
  16. ^ "Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Programs Charlene Lamb's Remarks on Private Contractors in Iraq". State.gov. 2009-07-17. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
  17. ^ The Brookings Institution Iraq Index: Tracking Variables of Reconstruction & Security in Post-Saddam Iraq October 1, 2007
  18. ^ Ricks, Thomas E.; Ann Scott Tyson (2007-01-11). "Intensified Combat on Streets Likely". Washington Post. p. A01.
  19. ^ Pincus, Walter. "Violence in Iraq Called Increasingly Complex".Washington Post, November 17, 2006.
  20. ^ 260 killed in 2003,[1] 15,196 killed from 2004 through 2009 (with the exceptions of May 2004 and March 2009),[2] 67 killed in March 2009,[3] and 1,100 killed in 2010,[4] thus giving a total of 16,623 dead
  21. ^ http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/77707.pdf
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  26. ^ "Forces: U.S. & Coalition/POW/MIA"CNN. Retrieved February 22, 2011.; As of May 2011, eight Americans remain unaccouted for, including seven private contractors and one military servicemember. Their names are: Jeffrey Ake, Aban Elias, Abbas Kareem Naama, Neenus Khoshaba, Bob Hamze, Dean Sadek, Hussain al-Zurufi and Staff Sergeant Ahmed Altaie. Healy, Jack, "With Withdrawal Looming, Trails Grow Cold For Americans Missing In Iraq", New York Times, 22 May 2011, p. 6.
  27. ^ http://www.defense.gov/NEWS/casualty.pdf
  28. ^ 33 Ukrainians [5], 31+ Italians [6][7], 30 Bulgarians[8][9], 20 Salvadorans [10], 19 Georgians [11], 18 Estonians [12], 16+ Poles [13][14][15][16][17], 15 Spaniards [18][19][20][21], 10 Romanians [22], 6 Australians [23], 5 Albanians, 4 Kazakhs [24], 3 Filipinos[25] and 2 Thais [26][27] for a total of 212+
  29. a b Many official U.S. tables at "Military Casualty Information". See latest totals for injury, disease/other medical
  30. ^ "Casualties in Iraq".
  31. a b iCasualties.org (was lunaville.org). Benicia, California. Patricia Kneisler, et al."Iraq Coalition Casualties"
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  33. ^ http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/oif-total.pdf
  34. a b "U.S. Department of Labor - Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (ESA) - Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) - Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation (DLHWC)". Dol.gov. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
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  36. ^ 185 in Diyala from June 2007 to December 2007,[28] 4 in assasination of Abu Risha, 25 on November 12, 2007,[29] 528 in 2008,[30] 27 on January 2, 2009,[31] 53 From April 6 to April 12, 2009,[32] 13 on November 16, 2009,[33] 15 in December 2009,[34] 100+ from April to June 2010,[35][36] 52 on July 18, 2010 [37][38], total of 1,002+ dead
  37. ^ Moore, Solomon; OPPEL Jr, RICHARD A. (2008-01-24). "Attacks Imperil U.S.-Backed Militias in Iraq"The New York Times.
  38. ^ http://www.cfr.org/iraq/finding-place-sons-iraq/p16088
  39. ^ Press release (October 28, 2003). "New Study Finds: 11,000 to 15,000 Killed in Iraq War; 30 Percent are Non-Combatants; Death Toll Hurts Postwar Stability Efforts, Damages US Image Abroad".Project on Defense Alternatives (via Common Dreams NewsCenter). Accessed September 2, 2010.
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  41. ^ 597 killed in 2003,[39], 23,984 killed from 2004 through 2009 (with the exceptions of May 2004 and March 2009),[40] 652 killed in May 2004,[41] 45 killed in March 2009,[42] 676 killed in 2010,[43] 451 killed in 2011 (with the exception of February),[44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]thus giving a total of 26,405 dead
  42. ^ Van, Bill. "US Transfer of Iraqi Prisoners: An Ongoing War Crime". Globalresearch.ca. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  43. ^ "Amnesty: Iraq holds up to 30,000 detainees without trial". CNN. 2010-09-13. Retrieved 2011-01-06.
  44. ^ "Iraq Body Count". Iraq Body Count. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
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Further reading

  • Bellavia, David (2007) House to House: an Epic of Urban Warfare. Simon & Schuster. About the Second Battle of Fallujah – written by a participant.
  • Gordon, Michael (2006) Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
  • Larson, Luke (2010) Senator's Son: An Iraq War Novel, Key Edition
  • North, Richard. (2009) Ministry of Defeat: the British War in Iraq 2003–2009. Continuum.
  • O'Connell, Edward (2008) Counterinsurgency in Iraq: 2003–2006. Rand.
  • Ricks, Thomas (2006) Fiasco, The American Military Adventure In Iraq. Penguin

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