TheDailyBanter.com

Iraq and US reach 2011 Withdrawal Agreement

By Peter Bauer

The AP reports that "Iraq's parliament approved a pact that requires all troops to be out in three years, (although) American troops could leave sooner if President-elect Barack Obama makes good on a plan to pull out combat troops within 16 months"

While it is exciting to hear that progress is being made, this information created more questions than answers.  The implications of this reduction go further than this article will address, but there is plenty to think about.

If Obama does reduce troop levels in Iraq, will he make good on his pledge to redeploy more troops and escalate the War in Afghanistan?

What role will Defense Secretary Gates play in this process?  His reappointment marks the first time a Pentagon chief has been carried over from a president of a different party.  Will Gates speed the process of troop reduction, or will he stonewall?

If the timetable is respected and troops do withdraw, what will happen to the Sunni Shiite rift?  Will a troop reduction lead to another rise in sectarian violence, or will they be able to establish peace and stability?

"We went to Iraq coz they bombed us, innit sir?"

One of the greatest things about teaching is that you get to witness first-hand the workings of young minds. As any idealistic teaching recruitment advert will tell you, there is nothing better than seeing a young person grapple to make sense of something, only to grab the fucker intellectually with both hands and receieve that sense of satisfaction that us really, really, really smart people get all the time.

On the other hand, there are also few things more frustrating than seeing a child struggle painfully to grasp even the simplest of concepts, no matter how much assistance they receieve. Yet this is part of the job, and despite the frustration it's probably the most rewarding part - assuming that they do get it in the end. When they don't, the best thing to do is just to point at an imaginary angry looking badger over their shoulder and then run to the nearest pub post-haste for a nice, numbing pint. Mmmm, denial never tasted so good.

The focus of this here brain nugget of mine is, however, not so much about the general confusion of young people, but more about the level of bewilderment that Mr Bush has caused children all around the world.

Hypocrisy at West Point

By Thomas Hauser

Caleb Campbell (United States Military Academy, Class of 2008) is 23 years old and was captain of the 2007 Army football team. Less admirably, he is a prime example of the hypocrisy that attends the war currently being waged at the behest of his commander-in-chief.

Virtually all of Campbell’s classmates will be serving in Iraq or Afghanistan by the end of this year. That’s in keeping with the requirement that West Point cadets commit to five years of active military duty in return for their education.

Students at the Naval and Air Force academies incur a similar obligation. Roger Staubach spent four years in the Navy (including a tour of duty in Vietnam) before beginning his Hall of Fame career with the Dallas Cowboys. David Robinson also served on active naval duty before achieving superstar status with the San Antonio Spurs. Air Force Academy graduate Chad Hennings was on active duty in his branch of the service before playing in the National Football League.

Intellectuals complicit in lack of Iraq War accountability

Daily Banter Special Comment
By Ben Cohen

After having an argument with a close family member about Tony Blair's complicity in the terrorist attacks on London in 2005, it occurred to me how the architects and supporters of the Iraq war have cleverly manipulated events to evade taking serious responsibility. And they have relied on the support of the chattering classes to do so.

The central argument with my family member was that Tony Blair's alliance with George Bush took Britain into two illegal wars, and was a major cause of the terrorist attacks on London. The family member seemed to think that it would have happened anyway, and Blair should not be held accountable. This family member is a well educated, well read and highly intelligent person, but seemed unable (in my opinion) to connect the dots.

A Triadic Conundrum: Turkey, Kurds, and the United States

Exclusive to The Daily Banter

By Daniel Ritchie

The United States has entered a precarious situation in an area of the world which has been notoriously entangled in historical turbulence: northern Iraq. The Ottomans, the British, the Baathists and now the Americans are playing a deadly game of divide and conquer, with the local Kurds being the major playing piece.

Resistance to Iraq War Grows in U.S

By Ben Cohen

Those who battle against their governments complicity in war, corporate corruption and environmental crimes are cast as extremists, not representative of the majority and a burden to society. It is often hard to understand what protesters are protesting about, given the scant attention paid to them and the massive distortions in the media. Despite their growing occurrences in the U.S, the focus is usually on the disruption they cause, rather than the cause of the disruption. However, with the emergence of the internet, protesters have been able to promote their cause from their own perspective. The videos and websites are often raw and amateurish, but a hugely valuable resource in understanding a movement that grows larger by the day.

The Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (OlyPMR) is a group attempting to end their community’s participation in the illegal occupation of Iraq by stopping the US military’s use of the Port of Olympia. Here's a video of their resistance movement, with footage you certainly won't see in the mainstream media:

Iraqis Reclaim Their Streets

By Ben Cohen

Unknown to most westerners, many Iraqis have been fighting for peace and democracy in their country since the U.S led invasion. With the U.S essentially selling off Iraq's natural resources to its own corporations, the country quickly fell apart due to the lack of proper post war planning. Despite the rhetoric about 'bringing freedom' to the Middle East, the U.S has done little to enact serious political change in the country, blocking democracy movements, and ramming through its own corporate friendly legislation. While the country burnt, American commentators blamed Iraqis for the catastrophe, accusing the Arab nation of being 'ungrateful', and 'unready for democracy'.

In a sign that further dismisses this imperialist notion that Iraqis are 'incapable of looking after themselves', community based groups around the country are banding together to reclaim their streets from criminal gangs and militias.

From the Guardian:

Under the embers of the wintry evening sun the Tigris river, usually as brown as old boots, had turned almost blood red. Its waters were calm but its oily sheen was disturbed by the oars of a rower as he sculled his way through the city's fractured heart.

Rove repeats lie about vote to go to war

By Ben Cohen

Having been a major player in the Bush Administration is a huge liability in the real world, for fairly obvious reasons. Without a position of power, Karl Rove is finding being irrelevant increasingly difficult to deal with. To counter this, Rove has been rewriting history to shift the blame for the decision to invade Iraq to . After the media lampooned him for his ridiculous assertion that the Congress pushed Bush into an early vote on the war, Rove unashamedly repeated the claim yesterday.

The evidence for this being total nonsense is overwhelming. In a question and answers session with the media in September of 2002, Bush was asked  , "Are you concerned that Democrats in Congress don't want a vote there until after U.N. action?"

Bush responded: "My answer to the Congress is, they need to debate this issue and consult with us, and get the issue done as quickly as possible.  It's in our national interests that we do so."

On September 19th, 2002 The New York Times quoted Donald Rumsfeld as saying:

''Delaying a vote in Congress would send the wrong message, in my view, just as we are asking the international community to take a stand and as we are cautioning the Iraqi regime to respond and consider its options,''

Ari Fleischer, press secretary at the time, had the following to say:

"It was definitely the Bush administration that set it in motion and determined the timing, not the Congress."

There are polite ways of describing Rove's initial actions. You could say he 'mispoke', 'mislead' or 'confused the truth'. But having done so again, after being presented with the facts, it is clear he is doing something far more heinous. He is lying.

David Barsamian Interview Part 3

In the final part of our exclusive interview with David Barsamian, we discuss the possible role of Israel in an attack on Iran, the Jewish population in Iran, the history of U.S/Iranian relations and much, much more. Click here to see part 1 and part 2

David Barsamian Interview part 2

By Ben Cohen
Editor

In the second part of our interview with author David Barsamian (see part one here), the topic of conversation moves to the occupation of Iraq, the business of war, the cultural history of Iran, and the consequences of another war in the Middle East. See below for part 2 of our exclusive interview: