Click through for the video.
Collateral Murder, another U.S. massacre, this time caught on tape. When you watch the video bare in mind the U.S. military claimed the victims died in a battle that took place between U.S. forces and insurgents:
“There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force”
—Lieutenant-Colonel Scott Bleichwehl,
spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad. (New York Times)
The reality is a bunch of coward rednecks flying around in helicopters committing murder from high above.
When the Nuremberg Tribunal described a war of aggression as the supreme war crime, because it “contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole,” this is the kind of thing they were talking about. These trigger happy rednecks flying around in helicopters just shouldn’t be in Iraq in the first place.
And this redneck nation wonders why people want to fly planes into their buildings.
Great piece by George Monbiot on the campaign to arrest Tony Blair:
Already the campaign has borne fruit. Outside the Chilcot inquiry a woman called Grace McCann, inspired by the website, tried to apprehend Mr Blair, before she was restrained and removed by the police. She qualifies for the first bounty: one quarter of the total pot at the time of her attempt. She has pledged to give the money to relevant charities. The fund will remain open until Blair is officially prosecuted, and we will keep paying out to those who follow Grace’s example.
You can donate here.
Finally. Let’s hope this guy is good.
Ken MacDonald, Director of Public Prosecutions between 2003 – 2008, writing for the Times:
The degree of deceit involved in our decision to go to war on Iraq becomes steadily clearer. This was a foreign policy disgrace of epic proportions and playing footsie on Sunday morning television does nothing to repair the damage. It is now very difficult to avoid the conclusion that Tony Blair engaged in an alarming subterfuge with his partner George Bush and went on to mislead and cajole the British people into a deadly war they had made perfectly clear they didn’t want, and on a basis that it’s increasingly hard to believe even he found truly credible.
Hindsight is a great temptress. But we needn’t trouble her on the way to a confident conclusion that Mr Blair’s fundamental flaw was his sycophancy towards power.
Since those sorry days we have frequently heard him repeating the self-regarding mantra that “hand on heart, I only did what I thought was right”. But this is a narcissist’s defence and self-belief is no answer to misjudgment: it is certainly no answer to death.
Obama accepting his Nobel prize:
… perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of a nation in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek …
Except that America did seek armed conflict with Afghanistan.
In October of 2001 the Taliban publicly offered to hand Osama bin Laden over to a third country, provided the U.S. halted the illegal bombing of Afghanistan and produced the necessary evidence about involvement of bin Laden or any of his associates in the 11 September attacks. Bush rejected this, putting an end to any possibility of a potentially peaceful, legal resolution to the events of 11 September 2001, and opened up the way for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq and the threat of invasion of Iran, along with the millions who have lost their lives or had them destroyed as a result.
There have been a number of inquiries into the 2003 invasion of Iraq but as someone commenting on the European Tribune website put it, they
… are not intended to reach a finding that the public find credible, they exist to provide a smokescreen for a few years to cover the establishment for a few years in the hope everyone forgets about it.
They invade and lay waste another country, destroy the lives of millions of Iraqis for generations to come, all on some trumped up drivel about “weapons of mass destruction.” Now they’re arguing over the real reason. Oil. It’s not enough that control of Iraq’s crude is being divvied up amongst the capitalists of the world.…
I was surprised today to find one of my favourite technology commentators, John Gruber of Daring Fireball, declaring that no doubt remains as to whether the election was fraudulent. Really, because a theocratic government is cracking down on dissidents? If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from my experiences in the Middle East it is that all is not…