You’ve got 5,000 armed foreign troops stationed in your country. You don’t say a word until the idiot foreign emperor stages a surprise visit. Then you’re outraged principally because he didn’t notify you or meet with you or put up any pretense that your country belonged to you in any way. At that point you demand that the U.S. occupation of Iraq finally be brought to a bitter better-late-than-never end. And you’re damn right.

14 years after a coalition of Western forces invaded and occupied the sovereign state of Iraq, the world is still waiting for withdrawal of U.S. troops.

13 years after a coalition of Western forces invaded and occupied the sovereign state of Iraq, the world is still waiting for U.S. withdrawal of its troops. We are convinced that U.S. intent is not to "save" Iraqis, but to advance its own imperial agenda.

Office of Special Plans was created by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to make the case to invade Iraq. "The office was charged with collecting, vetting and disseminating intelligence completely outside of the normal intelligence apparatus," says congressman David Obey. "In fact, it appears that information collected by this office was in some instances not even shared with established intelligence agencies and in numerous instances was passed on to the National Security Council and the president without having been vetted with anyone other than political appointees."

USA Today reported on April 19 that U.S. air forces bombing Syria and Iraq have been operating under new, looser rules of engagement since last fall. The war commander, Lt Gen Sean McFarland, now orders air strikes that are expected to kill up to 10 civilians without prior approval from U.S. Central Command, and U.S. officials made it clear to USA Today that U.S. air strikes are killing more civilians as a result of the new rules.

April 5 — six years ago yesterday — was when the videoCollateral Murder was shared with the world by Wikileaks, exposed from US military files by Chelsea (nee Bradley) Manning.

The modern, educated, advanced nation of Iraq was reduced to a virtual failed state … the United States, beginning in 1991, bombed for much of the following 12 years, with one dubious excuse after another; then, in 2003, invaded, then occupied, overthrew the government, tortured without inhibition, killed wantonly … the people of that unhappy land lost everything – their homes, their schools, their electricity, their clean water, their environment, their neighborhoods, their mosques, their archaeology, their jobs, their careers, their professionals, their state-run enterprises, their physical health, their mental health, their health care, their welfare state, their women’s rights, their religious tolerance, their safety, their security, their children, their parents, their past, their present, their future, their lives

We are outraged, to say the least, that George W. Bush, godfather of the war on Iraq, is being named “Father of the Year” today at a benefit for Save the Children.  Join us at the Hilton Hotel, 6th & 53rd in NYC at 11am — or, spread the word! This can't go by without protest & comment.

Some people—including people who have actively opposed crimes of the U.S. and its ally, Israel, in the Middle East—frequently express frustration that the Obama administration doesn’t seem to realize (as these forces see it) that every escalation of U.S. military involvement in Iraq and the region escalates the conflict with ISIS, drives more people to ISIS, and digs the U.S. into deeper quicksand.

U.S. Out of Iraq! Humanity Needs Another Way

On June 10, Barack Obama announced he was sending “450 additional U.S. military personnel to train, advise, and assist Iraqi Security Forces at Taqaddum military base in eastern Anbar province”—a new base in western Iraq, where the Islamic State (or ISIS) has been on the offensive. This brings the total number of U.S. troops and “advisors” in Iraq up to 3,500.

Debra Sweet | June 12, 2015

Obama on sending 450 MORE "advisors" to Iraq: "These new advisers will work to build capacity of Iraqi forces, including local tribal fighters, to improve their ability to plan, lead, and conduct operations.

These contractors were not “rogue” operatives; they are a key part of how the U.S. wages war

Monday, April 13, four Blackwater contract killers were sentenced to long prison terms for the 2007 massacre of 17 unarmed civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad during the height of the Iraq war. (The mercenaries were only charged for 14 of the 17 murders.)