Iraq Government In Emergency Session As Battles Rage

Reuters:

Iraqi lawmakers will hold an emergency session on Friday in an attempt to end violence in the oil city of Basra after an army crackdown on Shi'ite militia sparked fighting across the south and mass protests in Baghdad.

Authorities have imposed a three-day curfew in the capital to contain the violence, in which more than 130 people have been killed since the government launched the offensive on Tuesday against fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[BitJam]

Democracy Now reports that it is US troops that have instigated the fighting against the Sadr Army. This offensive was started by the US. The question is why. The answer is they want to blame the fighting on interference from Iran to give themselves cover for launching an attack on Iran.

Bush is desperately trying to make himself relevant in the election process. He wants to start yet another war in order to make national security the overriding issue in the election.

[timothe]

Who is Democracy now and why are they a valid news source?

[HumeSkeptic]

Iraqi kids who were in Middle School when the war started are now young men and women who would have entered college. One can only imagine what effect this war has had on them, especially since many of them have had their family members killed or injured or arrested and tortured, and millions rendered homeless.

If there is a better way to make anti-American terrorists, I don't know what that is.

Americans can be certain of one thing: our cimes against Iraqis will not go unpunished. Tortured and humiliated people will not just forget and forgive. There will be more 9/11s. And it is our children who will most likely pay the price for the crimes of Bush and Cheney, and not just with money that we are borrowing to wage this war, but with their lives.

[RobertaInCT]

Excellent post...........

[bushdoescrack]

Americans can be certain of one thing: our cimes against Iraqis will not go unpunished



i agree, but what, if anything, will bring bush, cheney and rhummy to justice. these people are out and out liars and criminals and murderers, if it were you or i perpetraded these horrific crimes in iraq, we would be senteced to death. i feel bush and his hoods deserve no less.

[unenrolled]

The real threat to America comes from within

#1 Hillary
#2 Carville
#3 The people that would vote for a pathalogical liar, for the sake of a party

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Where have YOU been the past seven years?

[TLV]

I remember one of the first war scenes played out on the news was our soldiers hitting a college near Baghdad and the students were mighty pissed. Think of it - they were never able to return to classes again after that! And the reason for our troops being there? Wow----I think I've forgotten now.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

P.S. College professors, not to mention the doctors are a disproportionate number of those who have FLED THE CHAOS!!!

But at least the kids can visit the museum of the cradle of civilization, to see what their heritage once was. Oh wait...

[Bushgirlsgonewild]

.

You mean the Iraqi government didn't take Bush's advice and go on vacation?
.

[Sundialsvc4]

"So?"

[PeopleFirst]

Hillary's hiding money


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq8aopATYyw&feature=email

[HumeSkeptic]

US jets drop bombs in Basra

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associad Press Writer
21 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080328/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

BAGHDAD- U.S. warplanes carried out at least two airstrikes overnight in Basra for the first time since clashes between Shiite militias and Iraqi security forces erupted in the southern oil port this week, a British official said Friday.
...
---------------------------


"Thank you all very much. Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. (Applause.) And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country." - George W. Bush, May 2, 2003

[Bobby]

Please stop being Big Brother Huff Po!

[white mende man]

i do believe they are saving us from big brother. most propably the NSA has them turning over over our posts :(

[Bobby]

When it's all said and done, we will know that the Iraq war is just like the Vietnam war...all about WAR PROFITEERING. That and OIL. Remember the secret Dick Cheney energy meetings in early 2001. These meetings were BEFORE 9/11. Present at the meetings were "Kenny Boy" Lay, the biggest contributor to the Bu$h/Cheney campaign in 2000 and also the person that ruined Enron and thousands of stockholder's lives. Why? Because of the Bu$h modus operandi...GREED. Also present were all the heads of big oil. A number of things were discussed, but there were maps of the Iraqi oil fields. Why? Because when it's all said and done, most of that oil will be controlled by Exxon and the like.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Paper__Blood_and_oil__0107.html

In terms of war profiteering, just look at the profits that Blackwater, Halliburton, the Carlyle Group, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Bechtel and the other defense contractors are making. To know the future, you have to know the past. Just remember the history of the Bu$hes...

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2006/10/05/dynasty_of_death_part_1

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2006/10/10/dynasty_of_death_part_2

[timothe]

You're one of those 9/11 truthers, aren't you?

[HumeSkeptic]

Get educated. There is nothing conspiratorial about what Bobby has said. It is the truth, and well docimented.

Here, try this:

From Afghanistan to Iraq: Connecting the Dots With Oil
By Richard W. Behan
AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/47489/
Monday 05 February 2007

" In the Caspian Basin and beneath the deserts of Iraq, as many as 783 billion barrels of oil are waiting to be pumped. Anyone controlling that much oil stands a good chance of breaking OPEC's stranglehold overnight, and any nation seeking to dominate the world would have to go after it.

The long-held suspicions about George Bush's wars are well-placed. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not prompted by the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. They were not waged to spread democracy in the Middle East or enhance security at home. They were conceived and planned in secret long before September 11, 2001 and they were undertaken to control petroleum resources."

.

[Bobby]

There are STILL a lot of questions about 9/11. Like why did Bu$h and Cheney have to testify TOGETHER and NOT under oath? Or like, did you ever hear of Operation Northwoods? Why were the events of 9/11 so SIMILAR to Operation Northwoods ? I don't know all of the answers to 9/11, but there are a TON of unanswered questions. I just guessing, but you probably think Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, huh?

[HumeSkeptic]

Yup! It's all about control of oil by U.S. corporations. The only other beneficiaries are some defence contractors.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Helllooooo.....

Basra = Domestic Gas Prices.

"In a speech Thursday, Mr. Bush expressed confidence that the violence and disruptions will be only temporary. He cast the Basra offensive as a battle to overcome lawlessness.

He framed the broader fight for Iraq in global economic terms, warning that defeat for the U.S. and its allies "would endanger Iraq's oil resources and could serve as a severe disruption to the world's economy.""


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120660810708368287.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[robodweeb]

Mission: Eliminate WMD. Done.

Mission: Depose Saddam. Done.

Mission: Liberate Iraq. Done.

How can we be "defeated" if we've done what we went to do?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Mission: Wreck the US Economy
Mission: Wreck the US Military
Mission: Set Record Corporate Profits (ExxonMobil)

Nocturnal Emission Accomplished.

Why leave now? Things are going per plan.

[highlyamused]

Oh my god........I finally see the light! The surge IS WORKING!

[lastams]

For anyone who has any serious interest in our Iraq “adventure” the Frontline 4-hour event, “Bush’s War” should be required viewing. Although the two part series covers much of the same ground as CobraII,
Fiasco, Assassin’s Gate, Armed Madhouse, and dozens of other publications, when presented together, the sheer magnitude of the hubris and idiocy of this administration can still shock and awe.
Of all the issues brought up by the series, perhaps this is the most striking; On the evening of 9-11, while the towers were still smoking, Rumsfeld and Cheney were pushing to include Saddam Hussein into the American response. Where others were mourning the loss of thousands of American lives, these two saw only opportunity to pursue their own agendas.

There should be a special place in Hell for the architects of this war.
The fact that such a large segment of our population is unaware of the well documented underlying currents in this conflict and can go on parroting the White House line, is testament not only to their own stubborn ignorance but the failure of Main Stream Media to actually REPORT the news.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/

[ClevelandTom]

I agree, "Bush's War" is an excellent piece of work. I suggest that it be made compulsory viewing for every politicians that takes a seat in the House or Senate for the next 50 years or so. Maybe the lessons that future leaders can learn from it will offset in a small way the enormous waste of blood, treasure and stature.

[trafficguy]

Bush will never withdraw any troops. He'd leave them on their own to fend for themselves before he'd withdraw from Iraq.

[timothe]

You mean like that brigade they sent home in December?

[TLV]

In December, Ohio had the largest call-up of Army Reserves in history.

[mono]

Where is McCain?

[robodweeb]

He can't leave the crypt until after sundown.

[kenlog]

ROFL !

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/graphics/mccain_shining.jpg

[highlyamused]

hahahahaha

[isisdawnra]

quick someone tell geogrie this news, yesterday he told the country that peace was going on in Iraq.
Yea! number 2 general saw soccer games being played from his helicopter and came to the oval office to report it to his commader and chief!!!
Amazing...seams like bushy would have better intel...being he is the leader of the free world and all

[TLV]

Bush was not even aware there was more than one ethnic group in Iraq. But then, he got pretty excited when he found out that China and Russia are big. January cannot come soon enough.

[highlyamused]

hahah I'd forgotten about the Big China and Russia thing. There's so many stupid things to keep track of with BushCo.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

As the Iraqis lie down, we will continue to lie.

[Dap]

Ya got a problem with that?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Got BILK?

[robodweeb]

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!

Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.
Scottish author & novelist (1771 - 1832)