Iraqi Constitution. What a sham.

[Mowhawk]

I believe that Iraq’s constitution is not worth the paper it is written on. How can you draft a constitution with over two hundred thousands of invading foreign troops occupying the country? The United States has pressured the parties involved in the drafting of this worthless piece of paper until it meets their satisfaction. The U.S.G wants an American style federal system in Iraq and will not let the indigenous Iraqis decide their own future.

Where is the freedom the Iraqis have been promised in this unjust invasion for a so called "democracy"? How can a democracy exist under occupation?

There can't be a democracy without justice, nor can it be successfully transported from warplanes or through the barrel of machine guns. Since the invassion the number of Iraqi children who do not have enough food to eat has increased and more than a quarter are chronically undernourished. Instead of stabilizing the country, the U.S. occupation brought disaster and massacres to the Iraqi people.

It's just merely that GWB aka "the most dangerous man in the world", wants to use the constitution of Iraq as a tool basically to help justify his war to the american people whose support of the war is slipping badly.

And let me tell you this constitution is a big joke.

http://www.selvesandothers.org/article10960.html

What constitution? an American imposed one? Is it by dividing Iraq into so called Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish areas? I wonder why the Americans don't use this kind of democracy in the USA, giving the African Americans an autonomous state, the Indians, and also giving the spanish/Americans the same rights, and other minorities too. Or, maybe divide the government into different sects and maybe, we the Aussies will get a bit of the US too. There are six million jews in the US, and 10 million of Muslims who deserve to have their own enclaves too. Then the American government can convince other Euro-American citizens that this is democracy.

How can they have the nerve to claim that the majority of Iraqis voted for democracy when the poor souls didn't even know the names of those they were voting for, until the day of election? How could the people know the policies of those who were candidates, if they never knew them before polling day?

Torture Complaint Challenges the Constitution.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArti ... ocusoniraq

Constitution? What about our basic needs, demands Iraq press

http://www.khaleejtimes.com

Even the American media is giving it the thumps dwon.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01149.html

[michael_ital]

Good post Mow. It's obvious that the U.S still stands to gain the most by a fractionaliztion of Iraq. Because, as the article alluded to, a didvided Iraq is better to make deals for oil with, than is a united Iraq.

As for Israel, I read an article here in Toronto about a Toronto Jewish family moving to Israel so the family "could grow up in a jewish environment." The catch was, he was being offered a vast sum of money from the Israeli government to immigrate back there, in order to boost the popluation. There goal is to encourage as many jews as possible to immigrate there, using financial incentives, in order to try and outnumber Palestinians in the next 20 years.

[The-Screw]

i dont see how we have any right to discuss wether or not Iraq has a constitution when OUR former warlords now turned "political Leaders'' have made false promises in uniting the country and bringing peace years ago and have dont NOTHING since. we just love getting into other people's business and commenting on issues irrelevent to us dont we?

[Demure]

The screw, ofcourse we can discuss Iraq it's called keeping up with current affairs, doesn't necessarily mean we don't care about Somalia or that it's forgotten.

[michael_ital]

Screw, I see your point. But instability in the Middle east, much less total chaos or an Iraqi civil war, is relevant to the balance and stability of the whole world. And the whole continent of Africa stands to suffer because resources and brain power that could be used to help right Africa, will now be concentrated elsewhere, causing Africa to once again be ignored.

[The-Screw]

keeping with current affairs? if i were to ask you something that was happening in your country right you wouldnt know, in any case, i'm only saying fix your home b4 you discuss whats wrong with your neighbors'.

[Mowhawk]

[quote="The-Screw"]i dont see how we have any right to discuss wether or not Iraq has a constitution when OUR former warlords now turned "political Leaders'' have made false promises in uniting the country and bringing peace years ago and have dont NOTHING since. we just love getting into other people's business and commenting on issues irrelevent to us dont we?[/quote]

Screw

There is nothing wrong discussing any issue on those boards. My first trip to Somalia was last year, and since that trip, it reinforced the idea that I'm an Aussie from Somali parents, and do I have to ask your permission to discuss U.S foreign Policy when the Australian current government is licking GWB ass? I know that many Muslims in America are too scared to give their honest opinions. It is "un-American", but we need to fight for our sovereignty here in Australia. Not All The Way With GWB.

Mike and Demure

You got valid points there.

[Demure]

Screw what are you proposing we should do, talk about nothing but home, is that what you do? I find that very doubtful... in any case I applaud your sense of patriotism, but it's very misplaced in this instance.

[dhuusa_deer]

"There can't be a democracy without justice, nor can it be successfully transported from warplanes or through the barrel of machine guns."

That is not true. Japan and Germany were turned into functioning democracies after they were defeated and occupied. and for quite long time.

Democracy is also not contingent on justice. They'll no PEACE without justice. Democracy needs willingness on the behalf of the governed and proper mechanisms in place.


"Since the invassion the number of Iraqi children who do not have enough food to eat has increased and more than a quarter are chronically undernourished. Instead of stabilizing the country, the U.S. occupation brought disaster and massacres to the Iraqi people."

I know things are not as good as they can be in Iraq at the moment but what is written above is the furthest thing from the truth. Iraq is better place today then it was before the invasion. All the misery and suffering is caused by the insurgents (who killed 40 something innocent civilians today). If there was no insurgents, which take drain the US's resources and time, iraq would be on its way to normalcy.

[The-Screw]

in the news now, at Yahoo.com



http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050817/wl_nm/somalia_un_dc

that's what you should be worried about. not the war in Iraq.

[1nemansquad]

Screw, cry me a river abti
right this minute you have a future somali warlord speakin to you (1nemansquad) and until ma qabil is in command there will neva be peace

[Mowhawk]

dhuuso dere

You are very naive by comparing apples to yeast. Did Iraq start World War 3? Did the security council declare this war to be legit.? Didn't Kofi Annan called it to be an illegal war/invassion under International law? Who are the war-criminals in the Iraqi war context? I think we should value life whether it is European, Chinese, Iraqi or African. It would have been good to hear (sometimes) what you say from your mouth, rather than me being the recieving end of your continous dhuuso.

Look saaxib, from 1945 to 2005, the United States attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments, and to crush more than 30 populist nationalist movements because they were considered intolerable regimes, or unfriendly groups. Many elected regimes were toppled by the Americans and replaced with dictators, in places such as Iran, Chile, Iraq, Congo, Ghana and etc. They supported regimes like the Apartheid South African governments till 1990. Just imagine that the jetliners of 9/11 had crashed into the South Bronx, instead of the World Trade Center. Do you think it would have caused the same outpouring of grief? I don't thinks so. Many European-Americans tend to have a very limited view of humanity. They tend to be indifferent when the sufferings are experienced by other ethnic groups.

They always claim that they were in Vietnam, Iraq, Grenada, or Panama for the good of the people in those respective countries. How can they be concerned with their welfare when they don't view them as humans as they are. It seems very hypocrital to be so concerned with the bombings in the World Trade Centre, and, at the same time, to be indifferent to the carnage that is taking place in Iraq.

How about the 2,000,000 Vietnamese that died from U.S. chemical and biological weapons? To this day Japanese and Vietnamese continue to die from residual effects. Dhuuso dere go ahead and make excuses for those warmongers, but the rest of the world knows the truth. In the process, the U.S. bombed some 25 countries, caused the deaths and destruction of many millions of people, and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair. Whatever happened to the hundreds of thousands of innocent japanese civillians that died in Hiroshima and Nagazakii?

Over the years America ranks/ed as the number one country that has killed the most innocent civilians in wars. Most countries have had people killed by the U.S. Even the country (U.S.A) itself was based/founded on the slaughtering of its original inhabitants. America is a violent place both domestically and internationally. They aint interested in democracy but only in those that can deliver their own interest.

When will you condemn those mass killings? Nothing positive, or honest and objective sort of opinon comes from a guy called dhuuso.

Let us call spade a spade.

[dhuusa_deer]

Mowhawk,

How am I comparing apples and yeasts? Iraq was invaded and occupied. Just like japan and germany were invaded and occupied after ww2. All three countries were aggressors. Iraq, as you would remember attacked Kuwait, unprovoked and against international law. The regime of Saddam hussien should have been overthrown and iraq should have been occupied back in 1991. This current war is only resumption after long reprieve. So my comparison of Iraq with WW2 duos of Japan and Germany is valid for the mentioned reasons.

What are you trying to get at by citing US attempts and sucessful overthrows of local governments? That is real politik at work. Every country will do what it considers is in its best interest if it has the power to do so. The reason you don't see most countries overthrowing local governments is becuz they don't have the power, not becuz they are morally more sound then the US.

To objectively analysis US history for supporting despots and their attempts of instilling their own puppet regimes, you have to study it in the backdrop of the cold war and the behaviour of the US's main challengers. Most of the US sponsored coup detats occured during the Cold War. The soviet Union, the US main challenger, was doing exactly the same thing. Example: their invasion of Afghanistan. Each country had its satrps, puppet regimes and each attempted and sucessfully carried out government coups.

I'm not suggesting the US is all innocent but to use past history as a guide of what the US might do or to condem its course of actions on such history, in this much changed world of today, is not tenable position to take.

"Many European-Americans tend to have a very limited view of humanity."

And what do you base such statement on. From all evidences available, the Euro-americans are more generous and kind than any other ppl in the world. The voluntary charities they give. The hundreds of billions of thier money they send to third world countries and the food they give to feed the starvlings. They allow many to come and share what they have by allowing millions to migrate to thier lands. They exhibit more compassion and sympathy for those of different color then do those of the same skin color.

"How about the 2,000,000 Vietnamese that died from U.S. chemical and biological weapons?"

What about them? What about the millions of Afghans that were killed by the USSR? They claimed to be replacing terrorist government with 'democratic' one. We know the US did bad things, that is no new news. But how is that relevant to current world?

BTW: the US didn't use biological weapons in Vietnam. They used Chemical orange, which was a chemical weapon. But I'm not aware of any biological weapons they used in that conflict.

"Over the years America ranks/ed as the number one country that has killed the most innocent civilians in wars"

Rubbish! Muslim empires killed more ppl. British empire killed more ppl. The soviets killed more ppl. Mao's china killed more ppl. The US like all other empires killed and kills ppl...so what? If you compare the US to empires the preceded it, you can't escape the fact it has killed fewer ppl, done far greater good for the world and exercised much greater self-restraint then its predecessors. The US can do anything it wants today but it doesn't. What is restraining it? What could possible stop the US from attacking half of the world if it choses to?

"They aint interested in democracy but only in those that can deliver their own interest"

Not entirely true. They would wish to have a 'friendly' democratic government over a dictatorship mainly for public image reasons.

"When will you condemn those mass killings?"

It is hard to condem something you don't know. What mass killings?

[Mowhawk]

dhuuso

"I'm not suggesting the US is all innocent but to use past history as a guide of what the US might do or to condem its course of actions on such history, in this much changed world of today, is not tenable position to take."

What has changed? The U.S is meaner, more arrogant and doesn't listen and abide to the international norms and laws established. It is embeded in their psychic and their collective belief towards Manifest Destiny.

What are you defending here, make yourself clear.

The Iraqi invassion, or the new constitution?

[Mowhawk]

ARMY RESERVIST WITNESSES WAR CRIMES New revelations about racism in the military

By Paul Rockwell
Online Journal Contributing Writer

April 1, 2005—Aiden Delgado, an Army Reservist in the 320th Military Police Company, served in Iraq from April 1, 2003 through April 1, 2004. After spending six months in Nasiriyah in Southern Iraq, he spent six months helping to run the now-infamous Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad. The handsome 23-year-old mechanic was a witness to widespread, almost daily, U.S. war crimes in Iraq. His story contains new revelations about ongoing brutality at Abu Ghraib, information yet to be reported in national media.

I first met Delgado in a classroom at Acalanes High School in Lafayette, California, where he presented a slide show on the atrocities that he himself observed in Southern and Northern Iraq. Delgado acknowledged that the U.S. military did some good things in Iraq. "We deposed Saddam, built some schools and hospitals," he said. But he focused his testimony on the breakdown of moral order within the U.S. military, a pattern of violence and terror that exceeds the bounds of what is legally and morally permissible in time of war.

Delgado says he observed mutilation of the dead, trophy photos of dead Iraqis, mass roundups of innocent noncombatants, positioning of prisoners in the line of fire—all violations of the Geneva conventions. His own buddies—decent, Christian men, as he describes them—shot unarmed prisoners.

In one government class for seniors, Delgado presented graphic images, his own photos of a soldier playing with a skull, the charred remains of children, kids riddled with bullets, a soldier from his unit scooping out the brains of a prisoner. Some students were squeamish, like myself, and turned their heads. Others rubbed tears from their eyes. But at the end of the question period, many expressed appreciation for opening a subject that is almost taboo. "If you are old enough to go to war," Delgado said, "you are old enough to know what really goes on." It is a rare moment when American students, who play video war games more than baseball, are exposed to the realities of occupation. Delgado does not name names. Nor does he want to denigrate soldiers or undermine morale. He seeks to be a conscience for the military, and he wants Americans to take ownership of the war in all its tragic totality.

Aiden Delgado did not grow up in the United States. His father was a U.S. diplomat. Aiden lived in Thailand and Senegal, West Africa. He spent seven years in Cairo, Egypt, where he became fluent in Arabic and developed a deep appreciation of Arab culture.

On September 11, 2001, completely unaware of the day's fateful events, Delgado enlisted in the Army, expecting to serve two days a month in the Reserves. When he turned on the television, he realized instantly that his whole world had changed.

After he joined the Army, Delgado began to read the Sutras. He became a Buddhist, a vegetarian, and eventually became a Conscientious Objector. Delgado was honorably discharged when he returned home. Delgado earned four service medals which, he says, are standard awards. He faced criticism from the Army when he began to speak out about military conduct in Iraq. Don Schwartz, spokesman for the Army in Washington, D.C., said that Delgado should have reported any wrongdoing to Army personnel. "He should have reported first to his boss, his commander. That is the standard way the chain of command works."

When I interviewed Delgado recently, he expressed his deep love of his country, but he also insisted that racism—a major impetus to violence in American history—is driving the occupation, infecting the entire military operation in Iraq.

Delgado's testimony tends to confirm the message of Chris Hedges, The New York Times war correspondent who wrote prior to the invasion of Iraq: "War forms its own culture. It distorts memory, corrupts language, and infects everything around it. . . . War exposes the capacity for evil that lurks not far below the surface within all of us. Even as war gives meaning to sterile lives, it also promotes killers and racists." Here is Aiden Delgado story.

Q: When did you begin to turn against the military and the war?

DELGADO: From the very earliest time I was in Iraq, I began to see ugly strains of racism among our troops—anti-Arab, anti-Muslim sentiments.

Q: What are some examples?

DELGADO: There was a Master Sergeant. A Master Sergeant is one of the highest enlisted ranks. He whipped this group of Iraqi children with a steel Humvee antenna. He just lashed them with it because they were crowding around, bothering him, and he was tired of talking. Another time, a Marine, a Lance Corporal—a big guy about six-foot-two—planted a boot on a kid's chest, when a kid came up to him and asked him for a soda. The First Sergeant said, "That won't be necessary Lance Corporal." And that was the end of that. It was a matter of routine for guys in my unit to drive by in a Humvee and shatter bottles over Iraqis heads as they went by. And these were guys I considered friends. And I told them: "What the hell are you doing? What does that accomplish?" One said back: "I hate being here. I hate looking at them. I hate being surrounded by all these Hajjis."

Q: They refer to Iraqis as "Hajjis"?

DELGADO: "Hajji" is the new slur, the new ethnic slur for Arabs and Muslims. It is used extensively in the military. The Arabic word refers to one who has gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca. But it is used in the military with the same kind of connotation as "gook," "Charlie," or the n-word. Official Army documents now use it in reference to Iraqis or Arabs. It's real common. There was really a thick aura of racism.

Q: What happened when you moved North, before you reached Abu Ghraib?

DELGADO: We were a company of 141 Military Police. We gave combat support, followed behind units to take and hold prisoners. I was a mechanic. I fixed Humvees. We followed behind the Third Infantry division. It was heavily mechanized with lots of tanks and scout vehicles. We could trace their path by all the burned-out vehicles and devastation they left behind. The Third pretty much annihilated the Iraqi forces. Iraqis did not have much of an organized military. They had civilian vehicles, and they resisted pretty valiantly, given how much we outclassed them. The Third Infantry slaughtered them wholesale. We took so many prisoners, we couldn't carry them all. Large numbers of civilians were caught in the crossfire.

Q: How were the civilians killed?

DELGADO: It was common practice to set up blockades. The Third Infantry would block off a road. In advance of the assault, civilians would flee the city in a panic. As they approached us, someone would yell: "Stop, stop!" In English. Of course they couldn't understand. Their cars were blown up with cannons, or crushed with tanks. Killing noncombatants at checkpoints happened routinely, not only with the Third Infantry, but the First Marines. And it is still going on today. If you check last week's MSNBC, they dug out a father and mother and her six children. We were constantly getting reports of vehicles that were destroyed (with people in them) at checkpoints.

Q: Your unit, the 320th Military Police, was stationed at Abu Ghraib for six months. Who were the prisoners at Abu Ghraib? Where did they come from? Do you have any new information not yet reported in the media?

DELGADO: There were 4,000 to 6,000 prisoners at Abu Ghraib. I got to work with a lot of officers, so I got to see the paperwork. I found out that a lot of prisoners were imprisoned for no crime at all. They were not insurgents. Some were inside for petty theft or drunkenness. But the majority—over 60 percent—were not imprisoned for crimes committed against the coalition.

Q: How did so many noncombatants get imprisoned?

DELGADO: Every time our base came under attack, we sent out teams to sweep up all men between the ages of 17 and 50. There were random sweeps. The paperwork to get them out of prison took six months or a year. It was hellish inside. A lot of completely innocent civilians were in prison camp for no offense. It sounds completely outrageous. But look at the 2005 Department of Defense Report, where it talks about prisoners.

Q: When you arrived at Abu Ghraib, what did you see, beyond what we all learned from the scandal in the news? And how were you affected?

DELGADO: I was becoming disillusioned. I expected brutality from the enemy. That was a given. But to see brutality from our own side, that was really tough for me. It was hard to see the army fall so much in my esteem. The prisoners were housed outside in tents, 60 to 80 prisoners per tent. It rained a lot. The detainees lived in the mud. It was freezing cold outside, and the prisoners had no cold-weather clothing. Our soldiers lived inside in cells, with four walls that protected us from the bombardment. The Military Police used the cold weather to control the prisoners. If there was an infraction, detainees would be removed from their tents. Next, their blankets were confiscated. Then even their clothing was taken away. Almost naked, in underwear, the POWs would huddle together on a platform outside to keep warm. There was overcrowding, and almost everyone got TB. Eighteen members of our unit who worked closely with the prisoners got TB, too. The food was rotten and prisoners got dysentery. The unsanitary conditions, the debris and muck everywhere, the overcrowding in cold weather, led to disease, an epidemic, pandemic conditions. The attitude of the guards was brutal. To them Iraqis were the scum of the earth. Detainees were beaten within inches of their life.

Q: Were any detainees killed?

DELGADO: More than 50 prisoners were killed.

Q: What happened?

DELGADO: The enemy around Baghdad randomly shelled our base. Under the Geneva Conventions, an occupying power cannot place protected persons in areas exposed to the hazards of war. More than 50 detainees were killed because they were housed outside in tents, directly in the line of fire, with no protection, nowhere to run. They were hemmed in by barbed wire. They were trapped, and they had to sit and wait and hope they would survive. I know what it was like because a single mortar round would flatten a whole line of tires on the Humvees, a whole line of windshields. That's how I thought about the damage because I was the mechanic who had to replace the windshields. So the mortar bombardments killed and wounded many prisoners.

Q: So your commanders knowingly kept your prisoners in the line of fire? How many U.S. soldiers were killed during the shellings?

DELGADO: There were two U.S. soldiers killed during my stay.

Q: Were there any other incidents?

DELGADO: The worst incident that I was privy to was in late November. The prisoners were protesting nightly because of their living conditions. They protested the cold, the lack of clothing, the rotting food that was causing dysentery. And they wanted cigarettes. They tore up pieces of clothing, made banners and signs. One demonstration became intense and got unruly. The prisoners picked up stones, pieces of wood, and threw them at the guards. One of my buddies got hit in the face. He got a bloody nose. But he wasn't hurt. The guards asked permission to use lethal force. They got it. They opened fire on the prisoners with the machine guns. They shot twelve and killed three. I know because I talked to the guy who did the killing. He showed me these grisly photographs, and he bragged about the results. "Oh," he said, "I shot this guy in the face. See, his head is split open." He talked like the Terminator. "I shot this guy in the groin, he took three days to bleed to death." I was shocked. This was the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. He was a family man, a really courteous guy, a devout Christian. I was stunned and said to him: "You shot an unarmed man behind barbed wire for throwing a stone." He said, "Well, I knelt down. I said a prayer, stood up and gunned them all down." There was a complete disconnect between what he had done and his own morality.

Read the rest here

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Re ... kwell.html

Investigations into the Illegality of the Invasion

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/alexandr ... t_memo_526