Iraq
Obama: Continuing Bush’s War Crimes with Drone Bombing Campaign
- Category: Iraq
by Craig Considine
When Obama was campaigning on ‘Hope and Change’ in 2008, many Americans thought he was committed to implementing future foreign policies that would drift drastically away from the ’war on terror’ initiatives directed under the infamous Bush II administration.
Yet over one year into his Presidency, Obama has actually expanded upon one of Bush’s gross military endeavors: the United States’ drone bombing campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
For many Americans, it is unfathomable to think that Obama has been more gruesome than Bush. Even putting the two in the same sentence sounds like blasphemy. But the fact is the Obama administration has used the Predator and Reaper drones much more often than the Bush administration.
‘Suspected Militants’
- Category: Iraq
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By Craig Considine
Why does it seem these days that every bomb dropped and every missile strike kills ’suspected militants’? It is either a great coincidence that the targets are real militants or governments, like the US and Pakistan, are applying the label to try to cover up killing innocent civilians.
Along the Afghan border today in Parachinar, Pakistan, the Pakistani military killed 61 ’suspected militants’, including dozens at a seminary where Taliban commanders were believed to be meeting. The seminary is in the Mamuzai tribal area of Orakzai
BRussells Tribunal: U.S. Destruction of Iraqi Schools is a War Crime
- Category: Iraq
By Dirk Adriaensens,
"The Education system in Iraq, prior to 1991, was one of the best in the region; with over 100% Gross Enrolment Rate for primary schooling and high levels of literacy, both of men and women. The Higher Education, especially the scientific and technological institutions, were of an international standard, staffed by high quality personnel". (UNESCO Fact Sheet, March 28, 2003)[1].
As a result of U.S. ongoing Occupation of Iraq, today Iraq is more illiterate than it was five or twenty-five years ago, because the U.S. Administration and U.S. forces occupying Iraq began to root and destroy every aspect of Iraq’s education. "The Iraqi educational system was the target of U.S. military action, because education is the backbone of any society. Without an efficient education system, no society can function, writes Ghali Hassan in May 2005".[2]
Facts have proven him right. This is also one of the conclusions of the book Cultural Cleansing in Iraq.[3]
Afghanistan: Another Raid, Another U. S. Atrocity, Another Coverup
- Category: Iraq
By Dave Lindorff
Another night-time raid on a housing compound in Afghanistan. Another bunch of innocent Afghans killed. Another round of lies by the US-led forces of the so-called International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Only this time, among the dead are two pregnant mothers and a teenage girl.
And once again the US media remain mute, accepting the official story, which was of ISAF forces responding to an attack which in reality appears never to have happened.
U.S. Brings Democracy to Iraq? Hardly.
- Category: Iraq
by Craig Considine
Skeptics have reason to be weary of democracy in Iraq.
For starters, up to 500 candidates were banned a few weeks before the recent election by the Commission of Accountability and Justice as part its ’de-Baathification’ campaign of Iraqi politics and life.
The Baath party, as many are well aware, was Saddam Hussein’s party. Many Iraqis are paranoid about the Baathists to this day, so much so that a Commission has banned its members outright from partaking in the recent elections.
Over 1,000,000 Dead Iraqis from 2003 U.S. Led Invasion
- Category: Iraq
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By Craig Considine
George W. Bush and his cronies are not ashamed of themselves, but they certainly should be. They should also be held in front of the International Criminal Court for their gross crimes against humanity.
A study conducted by the British polling group Opinion Research Business (ORB) reveals that over 1,000,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the United States’ illegal invasion of Iraq.
The OBS sampled 15 of the 18 provinces of Iraq. Two of the provinces which were not included in the report were Kerbala and Anbar – two of Iraq’s most deadly areas.
Furthermore, OBS interviewed over 2,000 Iraqis and found that one in five had at least one dead family member.
2009 Toll of Nato Air Strikes: 131 Dead Children
- Category: Iraq
By Craig Considine 
After an air strike that killed many kids in the beginning of 2010, shouts of ‘Death to America’ and to ‘the Afghan government’ could be heard throughout Afghan villages and perhaps in other Muslim communities around the world.
Those local, regional and global anti-American, anti-NATO, and anti-Afghan government sentiments will only be more widespread and vicious now that a UN report found that some 346 children were killed in Afghanistan in 2009. 131 of those kids were killed in NATO air strikes. 22 more were killed in nighttime raids. And in the last few weeks alone, up to 50 civilians have been murdered. In essence, there have been more and more civilian casualties as the US/NATO forces attempt to ‘liberate’ the Afghan people. More are likely to come as well.
McChrystal’s Murderous Afghan "Protection" Racket – Death Toll Climbs to 27
- Category: Iraq
By Craig Considine 
The death toll of yesterday’s US/NATO air strike on a caravan of buses ’suspected’ of transporting militants has risen from original reports of 19 to at least 27.
And just like in every other case where US/NATO made a ‘mistake’ and killed civilians, including in this case 4 women and one child – NATO forces chief Gen. Stanley McChrystal had to offer his ‘apology’ to Karzai and the Afghan people, as if this would sooth everything over and cover up the wounds of terror.
Surge of Violence: U.S. Launches Massive Offensive in Southern Afghanistan
- Category: Iraq
by Larry Everest 
On Saturday, February 13, the U.S. and its allies launched their largest military offensive in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion in 2001. Some 6,000 U.S. and Afghan government forces moved—on foot and in the air—toward Marjah, a town of 80,000 located in Helmund province in southern Afghanistan, bordering Pakistan. This assault is part of a larger offensive involving 15,000 U.S., British, Canadian, Danish, Estonian, and Afghan government troops. It's the opening salvo of Barack Obama's new war strategy and 30,000-troop escalation, which he announced in December.
The U.S. claims it's doing everything possible to avoid civilian casualties, but in the first several days of the offensive at least 19 civilians were killed, including 12 whose home was hit by a U.S. missile. Ten were from the same family; six were children. Initially, the U.S.-NATO forces claimed that a missile had missed its target by 300 yards.
The Lying Language of Occupation: Murdered Civilians in Marjah are Human Beings, not “Human Shields”
- Category: Iraq
By Kevin Gosztola 
The narrative was set up from the beginning: the U.S.-NATO offensive in Marjah, Afghanistan would be one where not killing civilians would be at the forefront of conversation as major players in the conflict in Afghanistan, news organizations, and the people of Afghanistan and the world paid attention to the offensive.
It was only a matter of time before military leaders and politicians began to trumpet a charge commonly heard from occupiers, that the enemy is using civilians as "human shields."
NATO Commanders on Afghan Civilian Deaths: Rockets “Hit Their Intended Target”
- Category: Iraq
By Craig Considine 
As I highlighted in a previous article, this past weekend two NATO HIMARS rockets intended for hostile Taliban fire hit a home in Marjah and killed 12 civilians – 10 of which were of one family, 6 of which were children.
The day after the story leaked, McChrystal and NATO commanders said that the HIMARS rockets ‘misfired’ by up to 300 meters. They sent their apologies to the Afghan people. The whole operation was deemed a regrettable ‘mistake’ and one of the ‘unfortunate consequences of war.’
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World Can't Wait mobilizes people living in the United States to stand up and stop war on the world, repression and torture carried out by the US government. We take action, regardless of which political party holds power, to expose the crimes of our government, from war crimes to systematic mass incarceration, and to put humanity and the planet first.