14 December, 2009
US Firms Lose Out In Bidding For Iraq Oil Fields
By Patrick Martin
In a clear signal of the declining influence of American capitalism, even in a country conquered and occupied by the US military, companies from China, Russia, Malaysia and Angola, along with several European oil giants, won most of the rights for exploration and development of Iraq’s oil fields
Are Crippling Droughts
The Next Great Threat To Iraq?
By Martin Chulov
Until the oil money kicks in or its neighbors turn on the taps again, success in the salt pans is likely to be a rare high-water mark for Iraq. In the short term, it would appear that divine intervention is Iraq’s best hope. The means to address water management effectively seems decades away
14 November, 2009
Huge Rise In Birth Defects In Falluja
By Martin Chulov
Falluja: Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting
11 November, 2009
The Plunder Of Iraq’s Oil
By James Cogan
The awarding of development rights over the huge West Qurna oilfield in southern Iraq to Exxon-Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell last Thursday once again underscores the criminal character of the continuing US-led occupation. As the direct result of the Iraq war, major American and other transnational energy conglomerates are now gaining control over some the largest oilfields in the world
16 October, 2009
Security, Reconciliation In Iraq Are Irreconcilable
By Nicola Nasser
Negotiating the U.S. exit strategy with al-Baath and the Iraqi resistance, the real enemy, could prove the only viable way out of Iraq for the United States
23 September, 2009
Why I Threw The Shoe
By Muntazer al-Zaidi
I am no hero. I just acted as an Iraqi who witnessed the pain and bloodshed of too many innocents
17 September, 2009
Iraq: Massive Fraud And Corruption
In Higher Education
By Dirk Adriaensens
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a group of educators in Washington on 25 July that his country plans to send over 50.000 students abroad over the next 5 years. A noble initiative at first sight, until you look further behind the official smokescreen
30 July, 2009
Iraq As "Actor And Stakeholder"
By Dahr Jamail
Just like the myth of Iraq's "sovereignty," the myth of US withdrawal is just that. Until the latter occurs, the former does not stand a chance. This is particularly so, as long as Iraq, like Afghanistan, are arenas where the US military is being used to "ensure that all major and emerging powers are integrated as constructive actors and stakeholders into the international system."
22 July, 2009
The Obama Doctrine In Iraq
By Ashley Smith & Michael Schwartz
The mainstream media accepted without question the Pentagon's claim that it was beginning the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by pulling out of the cities, but the reality is far different
15 July, 2009
Peak Oil And The Remaking Of Iraq
By Michael T. Klare
Has it all come to this? The wars and invasions, the death and destruction, the exile and torture, the resistance and collapse? In a world of shrinking energy reserves, is Iraq finally fated to become what it was going to be anyway, even before the chaos and catastrophe set in: a giant gas pump for an energy-starved planet? Will it all end not with a bang, but with a gusher? The latest oil news out of that country offers at least a hint of Iraq's fate
10 July, 2009
Colonizing Iraq: The Obama Doctrine?
By Michael Schwartz
After only five months in office, the Obama administration has already provided significant evidence that, like its predecessor, it remains committed to maintaining that "access to and flow of energy resources" in Iraq, even as it places its major military bet on winning the expanding war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. There can be no question that Washington is now engaged in an effort to significantly reduce its military footprint in Iraq, but without, if all goes well for Washington, reducing its influence
09 July, 2009
Forget The Headlines: Iraqi Freedom Deferred
By Ramzy Baroud
Before we take our eyes off Iraq, Americans must remember their own culpabilities in what transpired there. Antiwar activists and people of conscience must not forget that 130,000 US soldiers remain in the country; that the US has complete control over Iraqi airspace and territorial water; that there is not yet a reason to celebrate and move on
07 July, 2009
U.S. Occupation Of Iraq Continues Unabated
By Dahr Jamail
From June 28 to July 5, at least 82 Iraqis were killed and 225 wounded, which amounts to another typical week of US occupation of their country. Let us watch how the Obama administration reacts to the referendum at the end of this month, since President Obama is clearly not interested in withdrawing from Iraq anymore than he is interested in a withdrawal from Afghanistan
30 June, 2009
Oil And The Iraq “Withdrawal”
By James Cogan
It is fitting that today’s deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq’s cities coincides with a meeting in Baghdad to auction off some of the country’s largest oil fields to companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and British Petroleum. It is a reminder of the real motives for the 2003 invasion and in whose interests over one million Iraqis and 4,634 American and other Western troops have been killed. The Iraq war was, and continues to be, an imperialist war waged by the American ruling elite for control of oil and geo-strategic advantage
The Scramble For Iraq's 'Sweet Oil'
By Nicole Johnston
On June 30 major companies - including Exxon, Shell, BP and Total - will gather at Iraq's oil ministry in Baghdad for a two-day meeting to take part in the first bidding round for oil service contracts. However, what the oil companies will be entitled to if they secure a contract has become one of the most controversial elements of the bidding process
01 June, 2009
The Return Of The Resistance
By Dahr Jamail
At least 20 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq in May, the most since last September, along with more than 50 wounded. Iraqi casualties are, as usual - and in both categories - at least ten times that number
29 May, 2009
Torture Photos: US Soldiers Raped,
Sodomized Iraqi Prisoners
By Tom Eley
In an interview with the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph published Wednesday, former US General Antonio Taguba said that photographs the Obama administration is seeking to suppress show images of US soldiers raping and sodomizing Iraqi prisoners. Taguba, who conducted the military inquiry of prisoner abuse at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 after some photos of US soldiers torturing prisoners became public, said that among the photos are images of soldiers raping a female prisoner, raping a male detainee, and committing “sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and phosphorescent tube,” according to the Telegraph
28 May, 2009
Colonizing Culture
By Dahr Jamail
It is not difficult to see that the extent of devastation caused by the invasion and occupation of Iraq goes beyond loss of life, livelihood and property. The historical and cultural roots of the nation have been destroyed
24 May, 2009
Provoking The Inevitable
By Dahr Jamail
The results of attacks against the Sahwa are already evident in an escalation in violence that has taken two forms - a dramatic increase in spectacular attacks against Iraqi civilians and increasing attacks against occupation forces
04 May, 2009
Combat Operations in Fallujah
By Dahr Jamail
All is not well in Fallujah and al-Anbar province. The US military, having met the fiercest resistance throughout their occupation of Iraq in these areas, is once again conducting combat operations there
29 April, 2009
And So It Goes
By Dahr Jamail
Last week found Iraq swimming in blood once again. Attacks last Thursday brought the worst violence Iraq has seen in over a year, with at least 96 Iraqis killed and 157 wounded in two massive suicide bombings. Over 35 bombings have rocked Baghdad this month alone. There appears to be no end in sight for the escalating violence. For an Obama administration that plans to keep at least 50,000 US troops in Iraq indefinitely, look no further for a justification in doing so
27 April, 2009
Millions Of Iraqis Displaced
By James Cogan
As many as 2 million Iraqi citizens are still refugees in neighbouring countries and at least 1.6 million are classified as internally displaced persons (IDPs). Despite the US occupation forces and Iraqi government claiming that the security situation has “stabilised”, most of the people who fled their homes are too terrified to return
22 April, 2009
Iraq: Attacks Commence
By Dahr Jamail
Right now in Iraq, the formerly US-backed al-Sahwa (Sons of Iraq) Sunni militia, ripe with broken promises from both the occupiers of their country and the Iraqi government that they would be given respect and jobs, have gone into attack mode
19 April, 2009
Human Body Parts
By Dahr Jamail
In Iraq, time leaves bloody marks upon each day of the ongoing US occupation. The policies of the Obama administration, adopted from the Bush administration, continue to wreak their havoc on the Iraqi people
13 April, 2009
Iraq in Fragments
By Dahr Jamail
All of the recent talk of withdrawal from Iraq is empty rhetoric indeed to most Iraqis, who see the giant “enduring” U.S. military bases spread across their country, or the U.S. “embassy,” the size of the Vatican City, in Baghdad. The gulf between the rhetoric of withdrawal and the reality on the ground spans the distance between Iraq and the United States, while the reality is pressed in the face of the Iraqi people each day the occupation continues
05 April, 2009
Iraq: Occupation Year 7
By Dr. Omar Al – Kubaisy
The transcript of the “Occupation year 7” speech by Iraqi cardiologist Dr Omar Al-Kubaisy to the European Parliament, 18th March 2009, about the horrendous consequences of the illegal, war criminal and genocidal US, UK and Australian invasion and occupation of Iraq
27 March, 2009
The Big Con On Iraq
By Gareth Porter
Despite President Barack Obama’s statement at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina Feb. 27 that he had "chosen a timeline that will remove our combat brigades over the next 18 months," a number of Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs), which have been the basic U.S. Army combat unit in Iraq for six years, will remain in Iraq after that date under a new non-combat label
26 March, 2009
Iraq: Let The Numbers Speak
By Dr. Souad N. Al-Azzawi
The numbers speak for themselves. Six. Six months is what it took for most Iraqis to realize no good could come of this war and occupation. Six years is what it has taken the rest of the world. Six years, six million Iraqis displaced inside and outside of Iraq- well over a million Iraqis dead or dying inside of the country
21 March, 2009
Iraqi Holocaust : 2.3 Million Iraqi Excess Deaths
By Gideon Polya
March 20, 2009 marks the 6th anniversary of the illegal, utterly unjustified, war criminal invasion of Iraq by US, UK and Australian forces. Post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths total 2.3 million and refugees total 6 million in a continuing Iraqi Holocaust and Genocide
20 March, 2009
Our Troops And Iraqis Are Still Dying
By Iraq Veterans
An Open Letter to the Peace/Anti-War Movement from Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans For Peace
16 March, 2009
The Ongoing Occupation Of Iraqi Artists
By Dahr Jamail
When Art, a crucial component that sustains the socio-cultural fabric of a society, and the Artist, who weaves this fabric, are both under assault, society tends to get frayed and fractious. As my sculptor friend Alawchi stated most succinctly, “It is dangerous for people to leave the arts. It’s dangerous, because art is the front face of the community. We now have the desertification of the art world in Iraq.”
12 March, 2009
Obama’s Manufactured Troop’s Withdrawal
By Ghali Hassan
On February 27, 2009, President Barack Obama announced to withdraw U.S. troops occupying Iraq by September of 2010. However, Obama’s withdrawal is nothing short of a colonial Occupation of Iraq, and a betrayal of Mr. Obama’s promise to end the U.S. war on the Iraqi people
06 March, 2009
Iraq: Medical Care At Last, At A Price
By Dahr Jamail
Prompt medical care is at last on offer in Iraq, for those who can find the dollars for it . Many are coughing up money for private treatment. When they have money, that is, in an economy with more than 50 percent unemployment
05 March, 2009
Iraqi Massacre Ignored By Media
By Gideon Polya
How can Australia’s taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) continue to get it so utterly wrong over US involvement in Occupied Iraq? This is a question that should be asked by an Australian Federal Parliamentary Senate Committee of this taxpayer-funded organization and by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) of the commercially-involved Australian Broadcasting Corporation
27 February, 2009
U.S. To Leave Residual Force Of
50,000 In Iraq After "Pullout"
By Anne Gearan
Some of the U.S. forces likely to remain in Iraq after President Barack Obama fulfills his pledge to withdraw combat troops would still have a combat role fighting suspected terrorists, the Pentagon said Wednesday
24 February, 2009
The New War In Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn
A new war is threatening Iraq just as the world believes the country is returning to peace. While violence is dropping in Baghdad and in the south of the country, Arabs and Kurds in the north are beginning to battle over territories in an arc of land stretching from Syria to Iranian border
21 February, 2009
Iraqi Doctors In Hiding Treat As They Can
By Dahr Jamail
Seventy percent of Iraq's doctors are reported to have fled the war-torn country in the face of death threats and kidnappings. Those who remain live in fear, often in conditions close to house arrest
19 February, 2009
Still Homeless In Baghdad
By Dahr Jamail
"We only want a normal life," says Um Qasim, sitting in a bombed out building in Baghdad. She and others around have been saying that for years. Um Qasim lives with 13 family members in a brick shanty on the edge of a former military intelligence building in the Mansoor district of Baghdad. Five of her children are girls. Homelessness is not easy for anyone, but it is particularly challenging for women and girls
17 February, 2009
Boys With Toys
By Dahr Jamail
It is not the threat of violence that weighs on the people of Iraq. It is the omnipresent occurrence of violence that has resulted in the desperate nation wide chant, “We are tired. All we want is for normal life to return.”
16 February, 2009
The River Too Tells The Story
By Dahr Jamail
There is less water now in the Tigris, and it is less clean. The river has fewer fish, and rising fuel and other costs mean they are more costly to catch. It's not, as Hamza Majit finds, a good time to be a fisher
12 February, 2009
The New Fallujah Up Close And Still in Ruins
By Dahr Jamail
Driving through Fallujah, once the most rebellious Sunni city in this country, I saw little evidence of any kind of reconstruction underway. At least 70% of that city's structures were destroyed during massive U.S. military assaults in April, and again in November 2004, and more than four years later, in the "new Iraq," the city continues to languish
09 February, 2009
Full Circle
By Dahr Jamail
Among things that have not changed in Iraq is one that I hope never changes. After a four-year-long absence, each of my meetings here with former friends and fresh acquaintances seems to suggest that adversity has taken its toll on everything except Iraqi hospitality and Iraqi generosity. I am awestruck to find the warmth of the Iraqi people miraculously undiminished through grief, loss and chaos
07 February, 2009
No Unemployment Among Iraqi Gravediggers
By Dahr Jamail
Amidst the soaring unemployment in Iraq, the gravediggers have been busy. So busy that officials have no record of the number of graves dug; of the real death toll, that is
04 February, 2009
Security In Iraq: Relatively Speaking
By Dahr Jamail
One could say security is better if one is clear that it is better in comparison not to downtown Houston but to Fallujah 2004. Compared to days of multiple car bomb explosions, Baghdad today is better
03 February, 2009
Iraq's Shocking Human Toll
By John Tirman
About 1 Million Killed, 4.5 Million Displaced, 1-2 Million Widows, 5 Million Orphans
Generals Seek To Reverse
Obama Withdrawal Decision
By Gareth Porter
CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21
02 February, 2009
Iraq Elections Could Be A Telling Signpost
By Dahr Jamail
After strong polling for the provincial elections Saturday, Iraqis are looking out for new signposts of political recovery from the U.S.-led invasion and occupation
30 January, 2009
Iraq: A Capped Volcano Of Suffering
By Dahr Jamail
Baghdad today, on the eve of provincial elections, feels like it has emerged from several years of horrendous violence, but do not be misled. Every Iraqi I’ve spoken with feels it is tenuous, the still-fragile lull too young to trust
Threat Of Violence Looms Again Over Fallujah
By Dahr Jamail
The threat of violence hangs over Fallujah again as leaders of the Awakening Council fight for political power through the elections Jan. 31
29 January, 2009
Iraq: Tentative Hope Rises Ahead Of Elections
By Dahr Jamail
Uncertainty and tension are running high in Baghdad ahead of the provincial election due Jan. 31. But this time fears are also touched by a new hope
