Kurds and Shia Fight for Power in Baghdad

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"'It is all planned by the Americans who now want the Kurds to be involved in the sectarian fighting they engineered," he added.

"Many analysts in Baghdad believe the U.S. military is attempting to involve the Kurds in the escalating conflict by sending armed groups and death squads of other sects or ethnicities to engage the Kurdish forces in Baghdad in order to drag them into the conflict.

"However, the Kurds are reportedly attempting to not take sides and to remain neutral in the sectarian conflict, although most of them are Sunnis.

"IPS sources in Baghdad believe that bringing the Kurds into Baghdad in itself is the beginning of their participation in the sectarian violence, especially when they are attacked by Shiite militias on occasion.

"Others believe that the divide and conquer strategy by the U.S. military and U.S.-backed Iraqi politicians is being implemented across much of Baghdad.

"'The western half of Baghdad that holds the name of al-Karkh is inhabited by a majority of Sunni Arabs," Mohammad Shakir, a historian from the Dora region of Baghdad, told IPS. "But there are also a variety of Kurds and Shiite Arabs there, as is the case in most parts of Iraq where sects lived together in relative peace for centuries. This sectarian fighting was ignited by Iraqi politicians who came with the U.S. occupation to dominate power in Iraq."

"Kassim Awadi, an Iraqi political analyst in Baghdad, told IPS: "Although not likely to take place in the near future, the conflict between Kurds and the Shia fighters who are conducting an Iranian agenda could spread."

"'It seems to me that no sect will keep away from the civil war and it is not in the interest of either the U.S. occupation or Iran that any part of Iraq would stay stable," Awadi explained in an interview at his office. "The story of the fighting between Kurdish units and [Mehdi army] police units is not a strange one as the agendas for each party are completely different and the conflicts are definitely going to take place sooner or later if [Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki's government is to stay in power."

"Former Iraqi Army General Ahmed Khidir told IPS that he believes the violence in Baghdad is now permanent because occupation forces lost control long ago and are now completely reliant on various militias.

"'The U.S. army and the U.S. media are full of lies concerning being impartial, and the truth is that the Americans are working together with many armed groups who conduct massive killings," Khidir said. "One can clearly see the mass destruction policy towards Sunni areas while military operations against Shiite death squads are [restrained] and largely impotent."

(*Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who travels extensively in the region)

From InterPress Service via Dahr Jamail's listserve

U.S. Stands Tall--Except When It's Sneaking Around in Iran Destabilizing Their Gov't AGAIN

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The link in the first line below will get you to the story by Kurt Nimmo on Another Day in the Empire about the CIA opening its little bag of dirty tricks in Iran again. For straight news on the story, you can go here. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/27/wiran27.xml

Linda

"The CIA, naturally, does very little by way of “peaceful” intervention, as John Stockwell, former CIA Station Chief in Angola, under then director Bush Senior, revealed in 1987. According to Stockwell’s estimation, the CIA, as of the late 1980s, was responsible for killing around six million people in “secret wars” against third world nations, that is to say “covert action” of the sort we are assured is now peacefully carried out against the elected government of Iran. Add to the total the million or so killed through medieval sanctions against Iraq under Bush Senior, Clinton, and Bush the Junior, and Junior killing an additional 700,000 over the last few years, and you have crimes approaching those of the Nazis, responsible for killing 15 million, although “Uncle Joe” Stalin apparently rivaled this number by killing over 20 million people, and Mao Ze-Dong’s “cultural revolution” claimed nearly 50 million human souls. At any rate, the CIA, under various presidents, is a top drawer organization when it comes to killing people off in large numbers.

"Since one needs to be a psychopath to rule the nation, or be considered to be selected to rule the nation, it is hardly surprising Mitt Romney and Tom Tancredo are “shocked” over ABC News decision to run this story.

"Imagine, however, if the shoe was on the other foot, if a news story had slipped out revealing Iran launched “peaceful” covert action designed to destabilize the Bush administration. Every yahoo in the country would be in the streets demanding Iran be reduced to a glass parking lot.

"But then, it was Madeleine Albright, Clinton’s Secretary of State, who declared: “If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.”

"In other words, if we have to kill seven or eight million people, including babies and grandmothers, and overthrow elected governments, target hospitals and water purification plants with cruise missiles, spread around cancer by way of depleted uranium, so be it.

I Lost My Son to a Conflict I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty

Tweet "To be fair, responsibility for the war's continuation now rests no less with the Democrats who control Congress than with the president and his party. After my son's death, my state's senators, Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, telephoned to express their condolences. Stephen Lynch, our congressman, attended my son's wake. Kerry was present for the funeral mass. My family and I greatly appreciated such gestures. But when I suggested to each of them the necessity of ending the war, I got the brushoff. More accurately, after ever so briefly pretending to listen, each treated me to a convoluted explanation that said in essence: Don't blame me.

"To whom do Kennedy, Kerry and Lynch listen? We know the answer: to the same people who have the ear of George W. Bush and Karl Rove - namely, wealthy individuals and institutions.

"Money buys access and influence. Money greases the process that will yield us a new president in 2008. When it comes to Iraq, money ensures that the concerns of big business, big oil, bellicose evangelicals and Middle East allies gain a hearing. By comparison, the lives of U.S. soldiers figure as an afterthought.

"Memorial Day orators will say that a G.I.'s life is priceless. Don't believe it. I know what value the U.S. government assigns to a soldier's life: I've been handed the check. It's roughly what the Yankees will pay Roger Clemens per inning once he starts pitching next month.

"Money maintains the Republican/Democratic duopoly of trivialized politics. It confines the debate over U.S. policy to well-hewn channels. It preserves intact the cliches of 1933-45 about isolationism, appeasement and the nation's call to "global leadership." It inhibits any serious accounting of exactly how much our misadventure in Iraq is costing. It ignores completely the question of who actually pays. It negates democracy, rendering free speech into little more than a means of recording dissent.

"This is not some great conspiracy. It's the way our system works.

"In joining the Army, my son was following in his father's footsteps: Before he was born, I had served in Vietnam. As military officers, we shared an ironic kinship of sorts, each of us demonstrating a peculiar knack for picking the wrong war at the wrong time. Yet he was the better soldier - brave and steadfast and irrepressible.

"I know that my son did his best to serve our country. Through my own opposition to a profoundly misguided war, I thought that I was doing the same. In fact, while was he was giving all, I was doing nothing. In this way, I failed him.

Mike Whitney--We Need A Labor Party

Tweet "The country doesn't need two War Parties run by the same establishment elites. The present system is a fraud which marginalizes 95% of the American people and makes democracy impossible. What we need is a Labor Party that addresses the issues which are critical to working class people. Labor Party affiliation should be the equivalent of union membership"providing a clear statement of support for pensions, universal health care, maternity leave, yearly wage increases tied to productivity, profit sharing, collective bargaining rights and 50% representation on all corporate boards. The goal of a Labor Party should not merely be to live off the scraps from the corporate table, but to share political power in shaping the country's economic agenda. That's the only way that we can balance class-based interests and avoid unnecessary future conflicts.

"Anyone who thinks politics is just about "making money" is nuts. Political parties emerge to take power---and that should be the objective of Labor---raw political power. Nothing else will do.

"What's needed is a broad coalition of leftist organizations coalescing in a party that represents the objectives of working people.

"Labor needs a voice in government and the Democrats are not that voice.

"By capitulating to Bush, the Democratic Party has cut the ground out from beneath itself and hastened its own demise. Good riddance. Now, let's push the rusty hulk out of the road and go forward.

From Uruknet.info and Counterpunch.org

Blackwater Mercenary Shootings Light "Powderkeg"

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"A Blackwater guard shot and killed an Iraqi driver Thursday near the Interior Ministry, according to three U.S. officials and one Iraqi official who were briefed on the incident but spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation. On Wednesday, a Blackwater-protected convoy was ambushed in downtown Baghdad, triggering a furious battle in which the security contractors, U.S. and Iraqi troops and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters were firing in a congested area.

"Blackwater confirmed that its employees were involved in two shootings but could neither confirm nor deny that there had been any casualties, according to a company official who declined to be identified because of the firm's policy of not addressing incidents publicly.

"Blackwater's security consulting division holds at least $109 million worth of State Department contracts in Iraq, and its employees operate in a perilous environment that sometimes requires the use of deadly force. But last week's incidents underscored how deeply these hired guns have been drawn into the war, their murky legal status and the grave consequences that can ensue when they take aggressive action.

"Matthew Degn, a senior American civilian adviser to the Interior Ministry's intelligence directorate, described the ministry as "a powder keg" after the Iraqi driver was shot Thursday, with anger at Blackwater spilling over to other Americans working in the building.

"Degn said he was concerned the incident "could undermine a lot of the cordial relationships that have been built up over the past four years. There's a lot of angry people up here right now."

Washington Post via Angry Arab Newservice

Ali Abunimah Interviews As'ad Abu Khalil (Angry Arab) About Lebanon

Tweet Click on link to read whole article.

"EI: There is clearly an American hand in this. We saw the Lebanese government request military assistance, including ammunition and equipment from the United States, as a direct response to the events in Nahr al-Bared. How do you see the United States' role and let me broaden the question a little bit. How are the events in Lebanon linked to what is happening in Gaza and does the United States actually have a strategy for the region? What is the big picture here?

"ABUKHALIL: Certainly there is a heavy-handed American role in all this. A mere week ago the American Undersecretary of State for the Near East, David Welch, was visiting Lebanon. He met in an unprecedented manner with the commander-in-chief of the Lebanese army. This never happened in the past. We do not know what was discussed but the Lebanese press -- even the press loyal to the government -- indicated how unprecedented it was that Welch met with the commander-in-chief.

"As far as the Americans are concerned, we also have to note that first, there was an American official announcement that the Lebanese government made a request for emergency military assistance. And yet the Lebanese government promptly denied that it made such a request. And later they are denying the denial. Why are there these confused signals? What is being cooked behind the scenes? I think the answer to that is we have to look at the map of the Middle East to see the extent to which there are events that are quite related to one another.

"You look at Gaza and you find that the American funded, financed and armed militias of Muhammad Dahlan and [Palestinian Authority President] Mahmoud Abbas were tasked with fighting and killing other Palestinians. You look at Lebanon today and you find a Lebanese government financed, funded and armed by the American government and they are doing the same. Palestine and Lebanon have become more important not so much because of any attention that the US administration is willing to pay to those places, but particularly because of the failure of the American project in Iraq. So with victory eluding Bush in Iraq there is a desperate attempt to make some progress -- to use that cliché -- somewhere other than Iraq. And the places favored are Palestine and Lebanon because in those places there are US-armed and financed puppet militias that the US can use against its enemies and the enemies of Israel.

Via Electronic Lebanon

Hans Blix Says Israel and Iran Should Both End Fuel Cycles

Tweet WMD Commission head says Israel and Iran 'should both end fuel-cycles'
Yaakov Lappin

LUXEMBOURG - Israel should comply with the same demand being made of Iran, to cease its nuclear fuel-cycle and stop enriching uranium, Hans Blix, Chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC), told Ynetnews Thursday. Blix had earlier delivered a speech at the International Conference on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe being held in Luxembourg, where he warned that the "world is sleep-walking into nuclear rearmament."

Formally a top UN weapons inspector, Blix now heads the Sweden-based WMDC, which says it aims to "forge realistic and constructive ideas and proposals aimed at the greatest possible reduction of the dangers of weapons of mass destruction."

In a report recently released by the WMDC, seen by Ynetnews, the Committee stated: "While Israel, feeling under threat from Iran and others, is not likely to discard its nuclear-weapon capability except as part f a peace settlement, it could help to reduce tension, as is now asked of Iran, by joining Iran and all other states in the region in a commitment to suspend and renounce any fuel-cycle activities," the report said.

"We assume Israel has 200 nuclear warheads. Stop the work in Dimona," Blix said.

'End reprocessing of uranium'

He outlined the Commission's vision for a nuclear free Middle East, and called on Israel to consider a "cessation of reprocessing of uranium" as a step to "contribute to the collective security of the Middle East."

"In the Middle East, Iran looked at Iraq and decided to go nuclear. Israel looked at the Arab states. And now Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf states are talking about initiating a nuclear fuel cycle, which would bring them closer to having the capability for nuclear weapons," Blix said.

"What would cause them to feel safe? The guarantee of a non-attack," he added. Blix dismissed military strikes, or the pressure created by the threat of such action, as failed means to end nuclear programs.

"The best way to guarantee security is a WMD free zone," Blix said. He said the Middle East should go down the road of the Korean peninsula, where both North and South Korea committed themselves to ridding the region of WMDs.

"If all countries in the Middle East commit themselves not to have a nuclear fuel cycle, that would create such a zone," Blix said. He added that he was not asking Israel to destroy its alleged nuclear arsenal, but to "end the reprocessing of uranium."

Attention, Democrats: I Told You So. Will You Wake Up Now?

Tweet "The Democrats were not defeated by George W. Bush or the Republicans during the recent vote on Iraq war funding. They did not cave in. They VOTED to support the Iraq war. Let me tell you something my friends, if something is not right I don’t do it. Period, end of story. If someone wants to hurt themselves I can’t always stop them, but I never support them. I don’t give anybody matches to light their cigarettes, I don’t over fill the plate when my father eats over my house (for health reasons), and I would not vote for something that I don’t believe in; no way, no how. Democrats in Congress made a clear lucid decision to continue on the path that this nation was on when Americans supposedly voted for change. No guns were held to their heads. They voted. Period, end of story. The Democrats have done nothing to change the criminal breakdown of our nation and unless unprecedented jail time is served by the members of the Bush administration and Congress who have treated this nation as the criminal electoral coup invaders that they are would, nothing of substance will have changed as a result of new Democratic control of Congress.

"You think your party is better than the Republican party? Think again. Maybe Democratic principles are more human, compassionate and respectable than the greed and hate based theocratic Republican principles, but the parties are not controlled by the voters. They are controlled by the establishment. The one establishment that controls our government.

Fighting the Empire and WINNING--James Petras

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"The success of the resistance movements in Iraq and Afghanistan and the appeal of their examples has encouraged new formidable anti-colonial struggles, led by Hizbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine, the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia as well as having stiffened the resolve of Iranian leaders to resist US demands to unilaterally suspend their nuclear programs. Further abroad, the weakening of US global military interventionist capacity has taken the heat off of progressive governments in Venezuela and revolutionary Cuba. The consolidation of the Venezuelan nationalist-populist government has had a powerful demonstration impact throughout Latin America, encouraging new anti-imperialist movements and dissident governments in Ecuador and beyond. In an all out battle of ideas, programs, foreign aid and solidarity, Bush is losing out to President Chavez: Unable to launch a full-scale military invasion, to eliminate the Chavez government, Washington has failed to match Venezuela's vast petrol subsidies and promising alternative integration proposals: ALBA has prevailed over ALCA.

"The failure of Washington's will to a world empire has led to the shrinking of power relative to its global situation prior to 2001. And in large part that is due to the fighting capacity and organized resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan: Both have demonstrated that despite the great store of modern technological warfare and monopolies of media propaganda, wars are decided on the ground, by the popular majorities directly affected. It is they who set in motion the conversion of enthusiastic domestic majorities for the US war to demoralized minorities; it is they who have given backbone and resiliency to the Middle Eastern governments who vacillate between collaboration with and rejection of the colonial powers.

Via Counterpunch.org

Cindy Quits the Dems

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"It used to be George Bush’s war. You could have ended it honorably. Now it is yours and you all will descend into calumnious history with BushCo.

"The Camp Casey Peace Institute is calling all citizens who are as disgusted as we are with you all to join us in Philadelphia on July 4th to try and figure a way out of this "two" party system that is bought and paid for by the war machine which has a stranglehold on every aspect of our lives. As for myself, I am leaving the Democratic Party. You have completely failed those who put you in power to change the direction our country is heading. We did not elect you to help sink our ship of state but to guide it to safe harbor.

"We do not condone our government’s violent meddling in sovereign countries and we condemn the continued murderous occupation of Iraq .

"We gave you a chance, you betrayed us.

"Sincerely,
Cindy Sheehan
Founder and President of
Gold Star Families for Peace.

Founder and Director of
The Camp Casey Peace Institute

Eternally grieving mother of Casey Sheehan

Daily Kos via Google Alert

"You're Making Some People Here Nervous"

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"I was there to support a graduating classmate. Sitting in the front row among proud parents, family and friends of graduating students, I was captivated by the speaker's words.

"'Nations and people do have dominant characteristics, and it's a good time, a necessary time, to think briefly about our own essential characteristics. What others think about us, how we see ourselves, and how we actually are, matters."

"But, the sense of awe did not last long. Two portly university security guards brought me back to reality.

"'Please come with us," one of them ordered. He caught me off guard. When I asked why, he told me, "You're making some people here nervous."

"It was disturbing to think that nothing more than my Middle Eastern appearance had aroused someone's suspicion. More shocking was the blunt inquiry of one of the guards about my national origin.

"I told him I was a US citizen. After showing forms of identification, including my card from the BBC Persian Service, he commented: "So, you're from Persia. Aren't Babylon and the Tigris River in Persia?"

"Officials at Georgetown say they have strict policies prohibiting racial and ethnic profiling, and have begun an investigation into the matter.

Courtesy BBC via Doug

Dems Mislead Public on De-funding of Iraq War

Tweet It was good to see Cindy Sheehan dumping the democrats. She is apparently attending a conference over July 4 to build an alternative to the two corporate parties. Below is a portion of an article by lawyer Glenn Greenwald laying out the reasons for the US public's persistent unwillingness to back de-funding of the war--basically Greenwald says the Dems have gone right along with Bush's argument about that issue. Neither Greenwald or Cindy explicitly say why the Dems have done this. When the debate reaches the point that corporate control of the government is acknowledged, we might have the basis on which to build that alternative. Linda

"Time and again, even those Democrats who supported a mandatory troop withdrawal would talk about de-funding like it was some sort of grotesque act of betrayal ("oh, absolutely not, we will not de-fund the war. We will support our troops"). Over and over, this is what Americans heard even from Democrats who oppose the war:

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have their own divisions. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has called for initiating a withdrawal but has rejected a cutoff in funding. "I think that sends the wrong message to our troops," he said a few days ago. "We're going to support our troops, and one way to support them is to find a way out of Iraq earlier, rather than later."

"Is it any wonder that Americans reached the completely irrational conclusion that to de-fund the war is to endanger the troops? Not only were Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman saying this, so, too, were most leading Democratic war opponents.

"Thus, it was perfectly natural for Americans to assume that if virtually everyone -- including war opponents -- agreed that de-funding was the one measure that should not be considered, then there must be something truly dangerous and radical about it. Since virtually everyone rejected it as an option, it became toxic, and even most Americans who want an end to the war no matter how it is achieved turned against defunding.

Israel Continues to Bomb the Hell out of Gaza

Tweet GAZA (Reuters) - Israel pressed ahead with an air offensive in Gaza on Saturday, killing five Hamas militants, and arrested another Palestinian cabinet minister in the West Bank as Gaza militants fired more rockets into Israel.

The recent surge of violence has dashed hopes for a renewed truce called for by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose secular Fatah group is part of a unity government with Hamas despite Israeli and Western opposition to the Islamist group.

Israel's latest air strikes in Gaza around 2100 GMT (1600 EST) destroyed structures used by a Hamas-led security force, wounding eight passers-by. Earlier strikes also targeted buildings used by the group and killed five Hamas militants.

Israel has killed more than 40 Palestinians, mainly militants, in Gaza since mid-May. Gaza militants have fired 220 rockets into Israel in the same period, including some on Saturday. An Israeli woman died in an attack earlier this week.

Most of the West has launched an aid embargo against the Palestinian government, demanding Hamas, which won a parliamentary election last year, renounce violence and recognize Israel and past Palestinian peace agreements with it.

"Our message to the Zionist enemy is that you have no future on our land," Abu Ubaida al-Jarrah, chief commander of Hamas's Executive Force, said in a broadcast on the militant group's radio station aired during a funeral for the fighters killed.

Afghan Children Forced to Eat Mud: Corporations Eating $$

Tweet "The international community is in danger of repeating in Afghanistan the mistakes made in Iraq. Millions of Afghans have seen little material improvement in their lives since 2001, and most still live in desperate poverty. From the start, the damage inflicted by a quarter-century of war was underestimated; this is not about repairing the state but building it from scratch.

"Rural communities have seen some improvements, but essential services are scarce or inadequate. In provinces where Oxfam works such as Daikundi, there is no mains water or electricity, and virtually no paved roads. Average life expectancy in Daikundi is 42 and one in five children dies before the age of five. Afghan children chew on mud they scratch from the walls of their homes to stave off hunger.

******LATER IN ARTICLE:

"America is bankrolling Afghanistan. It is responsible for more than half of all aid to the country (aid that accounts for about a third of GDP), and it plans to provide $10.6bn in the next two years. But as in Iraq, a vast proportion of aid is wasted. Political pressure in donor countries for rapid results has led to projects that are unsuitable and unsustainable. Most aid money goes to programmes in the opium-intensive, insecure provinces in the south. To neglect secure provinces is to invite the insurgency to spread.

"Close to half of US development assistance goes to the five biggest US contractors in the country. Too much money is lost to high salaries and living costs, non-Afghan resources and corporate profits. The overall cost of one expatriate consultant is about half a million dollars a year. International contractors are indispensable, but there needs to be rigorous scrutiny, with targets for increased use of Afghan resources. An aid ombudsman could monitor complaints and make recommendations.

From The Independent via Angry Arab Newservice

Ali Abunimah's Letter to Secy Gen of EU Re: Israel's Kidnappings of Palestinian Officials

Tweet 24 May 2007

To His Excellency Mr. Javier Solana
High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy,
Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union
Brussels, Belgium

Dear Mr. Solana,

You will undoubtedly have heard the news that Israeli occupation forces have carried out 33 kidnappings today of democratically-elected Palestinian officials, including lawmakers, mayors and the minister of education in the Palestinian Authority.

All of the kidnap victims are reported to be affiliated with Hamas, the movement which won the elections held in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in January 2006. I believe these latest kidnappings have taken place in part because of your previous silence and inaction when Israel carried out similar kidnappings shortly after the elections. The total impunity that Israel and its officials enjoy when they violate the Fourth Geneva Conventions, UN Security Council Resolutions, the Universal Declarations of Human Rights, and agreements with the European Union, can only further encourage this rogue state to violate the rights of the Palestinian people.

At the same time, disturbing news reports indicate that collaborator militias armed and financed by the United States, and aided and abetted by Israel and the European Union are continuing to infiltrate into the occupied territories. These militias, led by Muhammad Dahlan, sparked the recent bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, and are acting as quisling forces against the Palestinian people under occupation. They play a similar role to the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s.

I am writing to demand that the European Union take the following actions:

(1) Invoke Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association agreement to suspend all bilateral aid and agreements with Israel until all political prisoners and hostages are released.

(2) In particular, to observe the Palestinian civil society call for boycott of Israeli academic institutions at least until such time as all restrictions on Palestinian educational institutions are lifted by the occupation forces and the kidnapped education minister Mr. Nasser al-Sha\'er is freed by the rogue forces who have taken him hostage.

(3) Cease all EU aid and support for collaborator militias and quisling forces.

Yours sincerely,

Ali Abunimah
Co-founder, The Electronic Intifada

David Vest: Democrats Present Us With "A Teachable Moment"

Tweet "Keith Olbermann, using the same tone of humorless, near-postal anger he uses in every commentary, no matter the topic, calls the Democratic rollover a "Neville Chamberlain moment."

"I prefer to think of it as a teachable moment.

"At a time when even conservatives have come to loathe Bush, when people who thought he was going to round up all the "illegal aliens" and deport them are so upset, they think impeachment's too good for him, the Democrats labor to craft legislation "acceptable" to him.

"Liberals have already spent six and a half years loathing Bush -- longer if they live in Texas, a state whose statutes are said to recognize two classes of persons: Fuckors and Fuckees.

"(Republicans and Democrats, the big shots, belong to the former class. You and I belong to the latter.)

"There is nothing particularly wrong with loathing Bush. It only becomes a problem when it prevents progressives from finally figuring out that the people they're really going to end up having to fight are the Democrats.

"As Big Walter the Thunderbird used to say, "Sho' is tough."

"Right now, both major parties are playing dodge ball with the planet, trying to avoid "ownership" of Iraq. The only way at this point to "own" the war is to stop it, and there is no serious move afoot to make that happen.

"Having used antiwar sentiment, and disgust over Katrina, to regain control of Congress, the Democrats have no intention of relinquishing power. They all "support the troops," who are being asked to "lay down their lives for America" in far Mesopotamia -- but you didn't expect these people you elected to lay down their political careers for the good of the country ... did you?

From Counterpunch.org

John Pilger: Imprisoning A Whole Nation

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"When I last saw Gaza, driving towards the Israeli checkpoint and the razor wire, I was rewarded with a spectacle of Palestinian flags fluttering from inside the walled compounds. Children were responsible for this, I was told. They make flagpoles out of sticks tied together and one or two will climb on to a wall and hold the flag between them, silently. They do it when there are foreigners around and they believe they can tell the world."

Below are the beginning paragraphs of Pilger's story, the last paragraph of which is above.

"Israel is being allowed to destroy the very notion of a state of Palestine and is imprisoning an entire nation. That is clear from the latest attacks on Gaza, whose suffering has become a metaphor for the tragedy imposed on the peoples of the Middle East and beyond. These attacks, reported on Britain's Channel 4 News, were "targeting key militants of Hamas" and the "Hamas infrastructure." The BBC described a "clash" between the same militants and Israeli F-16 aircraft.

Consider one such clash. The militants' car was blown to pieces by a missile from a fighter-bomber. Who were these militants? In my experience, all the people of Gaza are militant in their resistance to their jailer and tormentor. As for the "Hamas infrastructure," this was the headquarters of the party that won last year's democratic elections in Palestine. To report that would give the wrong impression. It would suggest that the people in the car and all the others over the years, the babies and the elderly who have also "clashed" with fighter-bombers, were victims of a monstrous injustice. It would suggest the truth.

"Some say," said the Channel 4 reporter, that "Hamas has courted this [attack] ..." Perhaps he was referring to the rockets fired at Israel from within the prison of Gaza which killed no one. Under international law an occupied people has the right to use arms against the occupier's forces. This right is never reported. The Channel 4 reporter referred to an "endless war," suggesting equivalents. There is no war. There is resistance among the poorest, most vulnerable people on earth to an enduring, illegal occupation imposed by the world's fourth largest military power, whose weapons of mass destruction range from cluster bombs to thermonuclear devices, bankrolled by the superpower. In the past six years alone, wrote the historian Ilan Pappé, "Israeli forces have killed more than 4,000 Palestinians, half of them children."

Consider how this power works. According to documents obtained by United Press International, the Israelis once secretly funded Hamas as "a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] by using a competing religious alternative," in the words of a former CIA official.

Today, Israel and the US have reversed this ploy and openly back Hamas's rival, Fatah, with bribes of millions of dollars. Israel recently secretly allowed 500 Fatah fighters to cross into Gaza from Egypt, where they had been trained by another American client, the Cairo dictatorship. The Israelis' aim is to undermine the elected Palestinian government and ignite a civil war. They have not quite succeeded. In response, the Palestinians forged a government of national unity, of both Hamas and Fatah. The latest attacks are aimed at destroying this.

Abandoning Our Troops and The People of Iraq

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Jeff Cohen (via Left I on the News) from Commondreams on the Dems capitulation.

"One need not be a linguist like George Lakoff to know that it’s hard to win a debate on the other guy’s assumptions. Or worse, the other guy’s lies.

"For years Team Bush has sought to shroud their devastating and deepening Iraq occupation in the myth of troop protection. When they doled out contracts to Halliburton and Blackwater, it was about “funding the troops.” Even as VA health services were threatened, it was about “funding the troops.” Every yearly extension of the Iraq occupation is about “funding the troops.”

"As Democratic leaders in Congress moved to hoist the white flag of surrender this week - giving Bush/Cheney billions more for Iraq without any timeline for withdrawal - we heard Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeatedly assuring the media that before Memorial Day, “We will have legislation to fund the troops!”

"The shared pretense of the White House and Democratic leaders is that funding the Iraq occupation is somehow a program on behalf of the troops. Like a subsidy for family farmers.

"Instead of challenging this misleading rhetoric by saying “The only way to support the troops is by ending an unwinnable occupation and fully funding a safe withdrawal,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid proclaims, “We will never abandon our troops in a time of war.” Along with the utterly confused: “No one wants us to succeed in Iraq more than the Democrats.”

"What Democrats need to be saying, repeatedly, is that it’s Bush/Cheney who abandoned several thousand U.S. troops to avoidable deaths in a disastrous occupation, and tens of thousands to horrible injuries. And that they’re willing to abandon still more troops to unnecessary death and injury. Democrats also need to talk about polls that consistently show most U.S. troops in Iraq support withdrawal, as do most Iraqis.

"As Military Families Speak Out says: “Funding the war is not supporting our troops. The way to support our troops is to bring them home now and take care of them when they get here.”

From Angry Arab Newservice: Tragedy of Palestinians

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The Palestinians: leaving Nahr Al-Barid refugee camp to Al-Baddawi refugee camp. In Israel and Lebanon, they call them terrorists.

For those who don't know Angry Arab, he is being sarcastic with this last remark. Linda

IPS: U.S. Curfew Begins to Choke Samarra

Tweet "'This is not the first siege that we have suffered," Nahla Alwan, a pharmacist in the city told IPS. "The Americans have done this so often and they will keep doing it since we do not accept their occupation and all the disasters it has brought us."

"She added, "'They should know that we resent them more now, and we will teach the future generations to take revenge for the innocent souls killed by the American criminals."

"A doctor in Samarra's main hospital, speaking like many others on condition of anonymity, told IPS that at least 10 people, including seven babies, had died because of lack of fuel for generators needed to run incubators and life-saving equipment. At least two elderly patients were among the dead.

"Despite pleas from residents to U.S. and Iraqi forces to allow in aid, none has arrived and the curfew continues.