— Rachel Maddow
(Source: nbcnews.com)
Josh's blog
Posts tagged Iraq
“ They are opening the George W. Bush presidential library to the public on the 10 year anniversary of the “Mission Accomplished” speech, which is either an inside joke or this is some kind of crisis management business school test of the “poop cruise” thesis that Americans really do have very, shockingly short memories. ”
“ Rarely do pundits apologize for the horrendous Iraqi losses inflicted by the war: more than a million deaths and millions more wounded with varying lifelong disabilities, including thousands of tortured prisoners, with an estimated 16,000 of them still unaccounted for. Twenty-eight percent of Iraqi children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and 2.8 million people are still internally displaced or living as refugees outside the country. Add to that the complete upheaval of the Iraqi economy, as well as its transportation, education, and medical institutions. Don’t forget the countless people suffering from trauma and depression, sectarian strife, terrifying birth defects from toxic pollution, and a brain drain that has left the country illiterate. Not since the American Civil War has the U.S citizenry had to endure such horrors. Yet discussion of these repercussions is noticeably absent as we still struggle to understand the scope of the Iraq war and what all of its lies have wrought. ”
“Supported by relentless artillery barrages, American and British armed forces pushed from Kuwait into the Iraqi desert on Thursday as cruise missiles pounded the heart of Baghdad.”
Iraq War’s 10th Anniversary Is Barely Noted in Washington (NYT)
“WASHINGTON — A decade after the night that American bombs first rained down on Baghdad, the president joked about wearing a green tie for a belated St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Congress noisily focused on whether spending cuts would force the cancellation of the White House Easter egg roll. Cable news debated whether a show about young women has too much sex in it.
But on one topic, there was a conspiracy of silence: Republicans and Democrats agreed that they did not really want to talk about the Iraq war.”
“ The Iraq war was unnecessary, costly and damaging on every level. It was based on faulty intelligence manipulated for ideological reasons. The terrible human and economic costs over the past 10 years show why that must never happen again. ”
— The New York Times
(Source: nyti.ms)
“President Bush ordered the start of a war against Iraq on Wednesday night, and American forces poised on the country’s southern border and at sea began strikes to disarm the country, including an apparently unsuccessful attempt to kill Saddam Hussein.
Mr. Bush addressed the nation from the Oval Office at 10:15 p.m. Wednesday night, about 45 minutes after the first attacks were reported against an installation in Baghdad where American intelligence believed Mr. Hussein and his top leadership were meeting. ”On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war,” the president said.”
— THREATS AND RESPONSES: THE WHITE HOUSE; BUSH ORDERS START OF WAR ON IRAQ; MISSILES APPARENTLY MISS HUSSEIN
“ You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror. ”
— George W. Bush
(Source: BBC)
“ If it was was literal they would have already been there many, many days ago. You see, the speed of light is pretty quick. ”
