Iraq

NOVANEWS July 22, 2010  by Michael Leon     U.S. Dept of State By Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — Can diplomats field their own army? The State Department is laying plans to do precisely that in Iraq , in an unprecedented experiment that U.S. officials and some nervous lawmakers say could be risky. In little more than a year, State Department contractors in Iraq could be driving armored vehicles, flying aircraft, operating surveillance systems, even retrieving casualties if there are violent incidents and disposing of unexploded ordnance. Under the terms of a 2008 status of forces agreement, all U.S. troops must be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, but they’ll leave behind a sizable American civilian presence, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad , the largest in the ...

NOVANEWS March 19, the seventh anniversary of the Iraq War invasion passed yesterday. No outrage on corporate television. No accountability. No regrets over 4,400 Americans dead, 30,000-plus wounded, and 100,000s traumatized for life. Most Americans know that the war was begun and sustained by self-conscious lies. Most don’t really care. At least Haliburton, Israel and Iran were happy. And Haliburton’s stock went from went from $9.53 (Jan 1, 2003) to a high of $53.07 in 2008 in Bush’s last year in office before it caved in a sea of corruption. Such is the political culture of the world’s greatest democracy. So wave your flag and shout “Mission Accomplished!” Ten Appalling Lies We Were Told About Iraq By Christopher Scheer, AlterNet “The Iraqi dictator must not be permitted to threaten Amer...