Clipmarks | invictus's 'iraq war' clips

Iraq's cuneiform tablets getting "virtual life"

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:20:38 GMT

clipped by: invictus

May 29, 2008 -- A technology normally used in reconstructive surgery to create prosthetic limbs is now being applied to create reproductions of Iraq's precious and fragile cuneiform clay tablets, according to an Italian team of researchers.

Thousands and thousands of artifacts were stolen and broken at Bagdad's museums following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, in what has been called the most catastrophic theft of antiquities since World War II.

Called "Duplication and Rebirth," the project consist of an electronic catalogue with bibliographical references, photographs, and when possible, 3D images of the tablets. These three-dimensional models can then produce exact replicas of the original relics.

While scholars estimate that roughly five million of the tablets are still buried in the mounds of Iraq, some 500,000 are kept in museum and private collections worldwide.

Tags: archaeology, iraq, mesopotamia, writing, cuneiform, technology, science

Iraq: From One Dictator to Another?

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:57:34 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

"Over a thousand Iraqis got killed and more than that number wounded just for a game of chess between warlords," Mohammad Alwan, a lawyer in Baghdad, told IPS. "All of them call for dissolving militias while they keep militias of their own. Most of those in power in the government are militia leaders."

Clip Source: www.antiwar.com

Following the failed attempt by the U.S.-backed al-Maliki to crack down on the Mahdi Army militia of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the situation in Iraq has become much worse. Iraq appears to be splintering more widely under this rule than under Saddam's.

According to statistics compiled by the U.S. military in Baghdad, there has been a sharp increase in attacks against U.S. and Iraqi security forces, from 239 in February to 631 in March. Most of these attacks are believed to have been carried out by the Mahdi Army.

The Mahdi Army is known to have substantial control of the streets of Baghdad, Basra, and many other predominantly Shia areas in southern Iraq.

Many Iraqis feel caught in a crossfire in what they see as a battle for power between the Shia factions.

After five years of occupation and suffering, with no end in sight, many Iraqis have become skeptical of all political and religious leaders.

Tags: iraq, al-maliki, mahdi army, civil war, shia

Bush hails 'major shift' in Iraq

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:05:04 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Huh, "major shift"? Sounds very intriguing.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

President George W Bush has declared a "major strategic shift" in Iraq following the US troop surge.

He said the US now held the initiative and was looking to deliver a "crippling blow" to al-Qaeda in the country.

US troop levels in Iraq are now due to be reduced by about 20,000 by July, but Mr Bush said after that, the "drawdown" process would be frozen.

Then, he said, senior commander General David Petraeus would have "all the time he needs" to assess the next step.

Gen Petraeus had called for a 45-day "period of consolidation and evaluation" after July, before any more troops left.

Tags: iraq, war, united states, george bush

Fixing Iraq's window

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:12:04 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

Tags: iraq, war, cartoons

My Five Year Old Kid vs. Their Five Year Old War

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:27:04 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

"I do not want to tell my kid when she's ten: this war has been going all of your life. I don't want to tell her that next year! I want to tell her, yes, there was a war for the first five years of your life, but then people had had enough! They knew voting for a fake anti-war candidate wasn't going to end the war, they knew watching TV and bitching about it wasn't going to end the war, and they finally voted with their feet. I want to tell my kid that on the fifth anniversary of the war, people said, ENOUGH! And hit the streets in San Francisco and in over forty other cities around the country, and reinvigorated an anti-war movement that brought the war to an end."

Clip Source: mrzine.monthlyreview.org

Y'all remember five years ago? Were any of you on the streets with Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW) in downtown San Francisco five years ago?

I wasn't. I was not on the streets because I had a brand-new baby who needed to eat every two hours, so I couldn't risk arrest. I spent the day volunteering in the legal office, taking calls from folks in the streets.

That baby is five years old now.

This war has been going on for almost her entire life.

And it's not just Iraq that is suffering. Iraq Vets Against the War said, "For every bomb dropped on Baghdad, a bomb explodes on the Gulf Coast." And they're right; all the resources used for the war are resources stolen from communities. Where are those trillions coming from? From schools, from publicly-funded health care, from basic infrastructure and human needs. What could our communities do with 2.8 trillion dollars?

Tags: iraq war, war costs, humanity, dasw, anti-war

The ‘Great Satan’ Strikes Out

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:03:38 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Interesting points by Robert Scheer.

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

How interesting that Ahmadinejad, unlike a U.S. president who has to be airlifted unannounced into ultra-secure bases, was able to convoy in from the airport in broad daylight on a road that U.S. dignitaries fear to travel. His love fest with Iraq President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who fought on Iran’s side against Iraq and who speaks Farsi, even took place outside of the safety of the Green Zone, adding emphasis to Ahmadinejad’s claim that while he is welcome in Iraq, the Americans are not.

Saddam Hussein went to war with Iran, but George W. Bush has given his Iranian foes a Shiite-run ally. Iran is now a major trading partner of Iraq that has offered a $1 billion loan

Instead of isolating the “rogue regime” of Iran, the Bush administration has catapulted the theocrats of Tehran into the center of Mideast political power. There can be no peace, whether in Lebanon, Gaza or Iraq, without the cooperation of the ayatollahs of Iran.

Tags: iran, iraq, ahmedinejad, united states, bush doctrine, middle east

Iraq denounces Turkish offensive

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:18:27 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Turkey says it is defending itself from rebel attacks

The Iraqi government has denounced a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq in some of the strongest terms heard since the operation began last week.

In a statement, the Iraqi cabinet expressed its "rejection and condemnation" of the operation.

It called on Ankara to withdraw its troops immediately.

Snow was impeding operations, Turkey's military said, as fighting entered a fifth day and was said to be close to a rebel base in the Zap valley.

The Turkish military says it has killed 153 rebels and lost 19 soldiers since the cross-border attack began on Thursday night.

The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) say they have killed 81 soldiers. Neither report can be independently verified.

Clashes are also reported to be continuing in the mountainous area of Hakurk.

Tags: turkey, iraq, kurds, pkk, war

Iraq fears clash between Turkish troops and Peshmerga

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:16:49 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Present "rumours" in Turkish press: A new "secret pledge" was made between the U.S. and Turkey. According to this, U.S. forces support Turkey's military operations against PKK, while Turkey "secretly" accepts the task that was assigned to Turkey by the U.S. administration: Being the "new security force" in Iraq after the U.S. withdrawal. Truth or just rumours? Only time will tell.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq fears that a prolonged Turkish incursion into northern Iraq could trigger clashes between Turkish troops and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga security forces, the country's national security adviser said on Monday.

Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said such fighting could have "very serious consequences" for a part of Iraq that has been relatively stable compared with the rest of the country.

"The ... longer Turkish soldiers stay inside Iraqi territory, the more likely this is going to happen," Rubaie told reporters in Baghdad when asked if he was concerned about clashes between Turkish and Peshmerga forces breaking out.

So far the battle-hardened Peshmerga have stayed on the sidelines of the Turkish military operation, which is taking place in a sparsely populated mountainous region. Kurdish officials regard the area as outside their control.

While Iraqi Kurds have little sympathy for the aims of the PKK, there is widespread anger over the incursion.

Tags: turkey, northern iraq, kurds, pkk, military, war

"What We Are Seeing Is the Fall of America"

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:40:20 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Harold Bloom speaks...

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Harold Bloom, Yale literature professor and cultural critic, is one of America's most prominent and provocative intellectuals.

Speaking at his home in New Haven where he is recovering from a recent health scare, a pale and weak Bloom seems to have symbolically embodied what he calls the "poor state of the nation."

"I am 77 years old and I have never seen this country in such a bad state. It is madness. What we are seeing is the fall of the Roman Empire, only now it is the fall of America, the glory of our Empire. This war is what Parthia was to Rome.

"We have caused a monstrous mess. We don't even count killed Iraqis. God knows how many Iraqi women, children and men have been killed by our accidental shootings, which we are such experts at, or by other Iraqis. No, 'Benito Bush' (Bloom's pet name for President George Bush) deserves, if we had a functioning civil law in the world, to be condemned for crimes against humanity. Bush is ultimately responsible for this war," Bloom says

Tags: iraq war, united states, middle east, chaos, war

Iraq's Kurdish leader snubs Rice

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:16:31 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Turkish troops have been massed on the Iraqi border

The head of Iraq's Kurdish regional government has refused to meet the US secretary of state because of the US position on Turkish cross-border raids.

Massoud Barzani had been scheduled to meet Condoleezza Rice in Baghdad, but withdrew "as a sign of protest" after several villages were bombed on Sunday.

The air strikes on alleged positions of PKK separatist rebels were followed by an incursion by 300 troops on Tuesday.

They moved 3km (1.9 miles) over Iraq's border, but later reportedly withdrew.

The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, has said almost 2,000 people in northern Iraq have fled their homes in recent days as a result of the Turkish operations.

Speaking to reporters in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Nechirvan Barzani, said its president had refused to meet Ms Rice because of Washington's tolerance of the recent Turkish raids.

Tags: iraq, turkey, kurds, pkk, united states, war, condoleezza rice, middle east

Iraq complains about Turkey bombing

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:27:34 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: No opposing voices here. Cheerful Turkish media behaves like "the voice of the military".

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Iraq's parliament on Monday condemned the bombing of suspected Kurdish rebel bases by Turkish jets — an attack that seemed to carry tacit U.S. approval — and denounced the raid as an outrageous violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

As many as 50 Turkish fighter jets were involved in the airstrikes Sunday in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq in the biggest attack against Turkish Kurd rebels in years, Turkish media said. An Iraqi official said the planes attacked several villages, killing one woman. The rebels said two civilians and five rebels died.

"We condemn this outrageous attack on Iraq's sovereignty," Iraq's parliament said in a statement.

Turkey said the attack was aimed at rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and that U.S. intelligence had been used in the bombing. The PKK has battled for autonomy for southeastern Turkey for more than two decades and uses strongholds in northern Iraq for cross-border strikes.

Tags: turkey, iraq, pkk, kurds, militarism, war

Shooting War: A Graphic Novel on Iraq (video)

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:34:02 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: A video preview, based on a graphic novel by Anthony Lappé. Iraq war in 2011.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Shooting War, a graphic novel set in Iraq in the year 2011, has been chilling readers and making headlines about its vivid and surreal depiction of the war zone.

It's the year 2011. John McCain is our unpopular president, the war in Iraq rages on, gasoline is $10 a gallon, and Tom Cruise and Mary-Kate Olsen have just called it quits. When videoblogger Jimmy Burns captures on camera a suicide bomb blast that rocks a Brooklyn Starbucks (destroying his apartment above), he's immediately hired by maverick network Global News and packed off to Iraq.

[Video]

Tags: iraq, iraq war, graphic novel, books, video

America, America!

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:23:10 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: See the video clip at the source

Clip Source: mrzine.monthlyreview.org

Directed by KP Sasi and based on Kamaan Singh Dhami's anti-war song "American War Paar Da! (Check Out the American War!)," the 4-minute music video is a satirical but severe indictment of America's role in escalating world conflict. Originally written following the post-9/11 bombing of Afghanistan by the USA, and developed to address the occupation of Iraq, the song comments on various aspects of the American empire -- its stockpile of nuclear bombs, its cozy relation with fanatical and dictatorial regimes, and in fact, the very notion of American peace and liberty.

The song is set to the tune of the popular Sinhalese song "Surangini" and has English lyrics and a catchy chorus in Tamil. Dancing sometimes on Bush's shoulder, sometimes on the roof of Washington's White House, and sometimes in a colourful parade of children protesting against war, dancer Malavika Tara Mohanan embodies the indomitable spirit of resistance and satire.

Tags: music, united states, politics, satire, war

Turkey threats lift rebel Kurds' profile

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:38:15 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

The PKK started as a Marxist-Leninist group demanding an independent homeland, but shed socialist ideology with the end of the Cold War and says it seeks some degree of self rule, similar to that of Spain's semiautonomous Catalonia region.

Arrested in 1999, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan still enjoys a personality cult among sympathizers and is believed to send directives through lawyers from prison.

But the tight control that characterized the PKK eroded. In 2004, it dropped a unilateral cease-fire. Last year, a splinter operation called the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons bombed Turkish tourist resorts. An Iranian Kurd group affiliated with the PKK is fighting Iran.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

The PKK, estimated to have 5,000 fighters, could benefit politically from an Iraq campaign by claiming to be the champion of all Kurds in the face of an invader with a history of human rights abuses. Fighting could shift attention from moderate Kurds who have responded at the polls to the Turkish ruling party's pledges of better conditions and economic support.

"Turkey has played it badly," said James Brandon, a London-based analyst who visited the PKK's main base at Mount Qandil in northern Iraq last year. "The thing to do is to ignore the guys in Iraqi Kurdistan."

Turkey's military said it will wait for a decision on what to do when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan returns from a Nov. 5 meeting in Washington with President Bush, who has urged Turkey to act with restraint.

Even if Turkey's alliances fray, the PKK is unlikely to win international recognition and status as the sole representative of Turkish Kurd aspirations because of its track record of bombings and assassinations.

Tags: turkey, pkk, kurds, iraq, northern iraq

Conflict on a Second Kurdish Front

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 03:30:06 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

Like the P.K.K., the Iranian Kurds control much of the craggy, boulder-strewn frontier and routinely ambush patrols on the other side. But while the Americans call the P.K.K. terrorists, guerrilla commanders say P.J.A.K. has had “direct or indirect discussions” with American officials. They would not divulge any details of the discussions or the level of the officials involved, but they noted that the group’s leader, Rahman Haj-Ahmadi, visited Washington last summer.

Biryar Gabar, one of 11 members of the group’s leadership, said there had been “normal dialogue” with American officials, declining specifics. One of his bodyguards said officials of the group met with Americans in Kirkuk last year.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Deadly raids into Turkey by Kurdish militants holed up in northern Iraq are the focus of urgent diplomacy, with Turkey threatening invasion of Iraq and the United States begging for restraint while expressing solidarity with Turkish anger.

Yet out of the public eye, a chillingly similar battle has been under way on the Iraqi border with Iran. Kurdish guerrillas ambush and kill Iranian forces and retreat to their hide-outs in Iraq. The Americans offer Iran little sympathy. Tehran even says Washington aids the Iranian guerrillas, a charge the United States denies. True or not, that conflict, like the Turkish one, has explosive potential.

The guerrillas from the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or P.J.A.K., have been waging a deadly insurgency in Iran and they are an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., the Kurdish guerrillas who fight Turkey.

Tags: iran, turkey, pkk, pjak, kurds, iraq, war