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Territory in southwest Asia, ruled since 2005 by the Jumhūriyyat Al-‘Irāq

Iraq (Arabic: العراق‎ al-‘Irāq; Kurdish: عێراق‎ Eraq), officially known as the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جُمُهورية العِراق‎ Jumhūrīyyat al-‘Irāq; Kurdish: کۆماری عێراق‎ Komari Eraq), is a country in Western Asia, bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the southwest and Syria to the west. The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. Iraq is home to diverse ethnic groups including Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians and Kawliya. Around 95% of the country's 37 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish.

Geographical type: Territory

Latitude: 33° N — Longitude: 44° E

Area: 437,072 km²

ISO 3166-2 code: IQ

Notable Places

  • Gulf War - 1990-91 conflict between Iraq and forces led by the United States, in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
  • Iraq War - Invasion of Iraq by the U.S. and other countries, purportedly to find weapons of mass destruction

Measures of Freedom

Human Freedom Index [PDF], The Human Freedom Index 2021
2019: 5.02, Rank: 157, Personal Freedom: 4.49, Economic Freedom: 5.74
Iraq | Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2022
2016: Status: Not Free, Aggregate Score: 27, Political Rights: 5, Civil Liberties: 6
The Iraqi security forces and their allies in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) militant group made hard-won progress in 2015. IS lost control of significant towns and cities such as Tikrit, Sinjar, and Ramadi, the last of which had fallen to the militants in May but was mostly retaken by late December. However, IS retained control of important areas, including Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, and stepped up terrorist attacks in the capital and other government-held population centers.

Articles

Again, the Isolationist Smear, by Sheldon Richman, 17 Jul 2014
Comments on the targeting of Rand Paul as "isolationist", by Rick Perry and other Republican hawks, based on Paul's stance about sending ground troops to Iraq while not ruling out air strikes
[Rand Paul's] message on Iraq is mixed: he says that he "would not rule out air strikes" or sending weapons to be used against the Sunni Muslims of the newly declared Islamic State in western Iraq and eastern Syria. On the other hand, he opposes sending troops. Yet even this is murky. He says, "I think it's a mistake to put ground troops into Iraq and the main reason is that the people that are taking over large swaths of Iraq are now allied with the people who we were helping in Syria." ... He also says Americans shouldn't fight for Iraq if the Iraqis themselves won't fight for it.
The Ayatollahs' Overlooked Anti-WMD Fatwas, by Sheldon Richman, 16 Apr 2014
Additional comments on Gareth Porter's Manufactured Crisis, focusing on the Ayatollahs' position on the use of chemical and nuclear weapons, prompted by the Obama administration visa denial to the Iran ambassador to the United Nations
The story behind Khomeini's anti-chemical-weapons fatwa, which Porter relates, is worth knowing. In 1980 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched an attack and a brutal eight-year war against Iran. Among the weapons Saddam used against Iranian forces — with the help of American intelligence relevant to targeting and damage assessment — were chemical agents. Yet Iran never responded in kind ... Porter notes that, according to a senior foreign-ministry officer, military leaders wanted to discuss a chemical retaliation against Iraq, "but Khomeini refused to allow it on the ground that it was forbidden by Islam."
Related Topics: Iran, Barack Obama
Bush's Doublethink, by Sheldon Richman, 19 Jan 2007
Analyzes President Bush's most salient statement and possible implications, of a speech made on 10 Jan 2007 announcing a troop "surge" plan
So may we assume that if al-Maliki and his government don't fulfill certain conditions, Bush is ready to withdraw American forces and bring them home? ... If that's all true, how could he pull out simply because the Iraqi government isn't making nice with the Sunnis? (How could al-Maliki do it anyway? His brutal patron Muqtada al-Sadr wouldn't stand for it.) And don't you think al-Maliki knows Bush can't withdraw? He hears Bush's speeches, too, and he's no dummy ... So which is it? Is Iraq a place the United States can't afford to leave? Or is leaving a threat credible enough to force al-Maliki to shape up?
Related Topics: George W. Bush, Democracy, Iraq War
The Cynical U.S. Policy on Chemical Weapons, by Sheldon Richman, The Goal Is Freedom, 6 Sep 2013
Discusses evidence of what is known and not so known about countries involved in the Middle East and chemical and nuclear weapons, referencing findings from Stephen Zunes, professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco
Saddam Hussein gassed and killed tens of thousands of Iranians during Iraq's war against Iran in the 1980s. Kessler writes, "As documented in 2002 ... the Reagan administration knew full well it was selling materials to Iraq that ... that Iraq was using [chemical] weapons [against Iran], but U.S. officials were more concerned about whether Iran would win rather than how Iraq might eke out a victory ... In 1988, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered chemical weapons attacks against Kurdish resistance forces, but the relationship with Iraq at the time was deemed too important to rupture over the matter ..."
Related Topics: Middle East, Syria
Democracy: The God That Failed, by Justin Raimondo, 12 Oct 2005
Discusses the actual results from the so-called Bush Doctrine involving "democratizing" the Middle East as well as several other countries which have a "democracy deficit"
The introduction of national elections and the process of drawing up a constitutional framework have exacerbated rather than tamped down Iraq's regional, ethnic, and religious divisions. The administration is hoping for a "yes" vote in the upcoming constitutional referendum – and so are the insurgents, who see passage of the anti-Sunni constitution as a recruiting tool. Instead of introducing the reign of calm, the democratic delusion has produced endless conflict, as Sunnis, Shi'ites, and Kurds compete for control of the government. The civil war ... threatens to shatter the nascent Iraqi state ...
Gravity works, by Victor Milan, Rational Review, 3 Feb 2005
Discusses the state of democracy in the United States in the wake of the January 2005 Iraqi parliamentary election
[Democracy is] all the more patently phony in Iraq, where it's being imposed at gunpoint by a hostile alien invader. ... Let's presume I'm mistaken in all the above; it's happened before. Let us postulate that the elections in Iraq were entirely fair and free, and that the occupying force will abide scrupulously by the outcome. In which case, congratulations: the US has bought itself a brand-new Iranian Islamic Republic. And yes, that's what I meant to type.
Related Topic: United States
If the State Falls, Does Society Crumble?, by Lew Rockwell, Mises Daily, 25 Jan 2007
Discusses the situation in Iraq four years after the 2003 invasion and evaluates the question of "just how integral is the state to society?"
The country of Iraq is in civil war. Sunnis long for the days of Saddam. Shiites long for total power, and, as the majority, they figure that they might just get it, and use it against their historic enemies. The Christians and Jews have largely fled the country. And the tit-for-tat killing grows ever more gruesome ... Saddam, on the other hand, was very careful to cultivate both necessary pillars of state stability. Yes, he killed enemies, but his preferred method was to buy them off in some way. He had all important religious leaders on the payroll, and helped religious minorities when they needed it.
Related Topics: George W. Bush, Society, The State
Immorality, Inc., by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., Mises Daily, 31 Jul 2006
Argues that the lawlessness and violence in occupied Iraq is due to the immorality of modern day warfare and questions the claim that the U.S. invaded Iraq "to bring about freedom"
[T]wo armored vans ... were transporting cash ... in Baghdad ... [T]he vans met up with a military checkpoint made up by Iraqi Army trucks ... The cash ... was stolen by ... the Iraqi military convoy ... Who were the robbers? No one knows for sure. There is an equal chance that they were private robbers on the make, underground political rebels, or actual Iraqi troops who saw a main chance and took it ... Who or what taught the Iraqi people that crime pays, that violence is a tolerable mode of behavior ... Think back to the days after the bombs stopped falling on a newly "liberated" Baghdad.
Related Topics: Ethics, Government, Socialism, War
Improve the CIA? Better to abolish it, by Chalmers Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Feb 2004
Lists countries where the CIA conducted subversive operations and recommends abolishing the agency.
According to President George W. Bush and his chief weapons inspector, David Kay, the agency has done it again, misleading the nation about the alleged menace posed by the ousted president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. ... As for the CIA's prewar intelligence on Iraq, the recently appointed commission of prestigious Americans to investigate its shortcomings is unlikely to be able to tell us anything we do not already know.
Iraq after the Gulf War: Sanctions, Part 1, by Rahul Mahajan, Freedom Daily, Nov 2007
Reviews the effect of the sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and the Oil for Food program started in 1996
Never, however, have there been such comprehensive international restrictions on all exports and imports as were imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War; never have prohibitions on imports been enforced by attaching a country's entire foreign earnings and placing them in a closely monitored bank account, with numerous bureaucratic impediments to disbursement of funds.
Iraq after the Gulf War: Sanctions, Part 2, by Rahul Mahajan, Freedom Daily, Dec 2007
Continues the review of the effect of the sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and the Oil for Food program started in 1996
The United States, in its partial administration of Iraq through the sanctions, oversaw a decline in literacy, as elementary schools emptied for lack of supplies, and Iraq was forced to impose user fees. It saw the near-total destruction of the middle class and a massive 'brain drain,' as doctors, scientists, engineers, and other socially necessary people fled to the West.
Related Topic: Gulf War
Iraq Exit Strategy: America's Path Forward [PDF], by Libertarian Party, 29 Jun 2005
Proposal by the Libertarian National Committee for the U.S. to remove its troops from Iraq and a direct-aid program to allow Iraq to reconstruct its infrastructure (note: the occupation lasted another six years)
After September 11, 2001, the United States re-examined countries that could be potential threats to national security. Iraq was considered a gathering threat by the Bush administration. It was presented to the American public that Saddam Hussein was actively reconstituting Iraq's nuclear weapons program. Additionally, British intelligence erroneously reported that "Saddam Hussein sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." ... American and coalition troops have remained in Iraq for over two years since Bush's declaration of victory.
Iraqi Sanctions and American Intentions: Blameless Carnage? Part 1, by James Bovard, Freedom Daily, Jan 2004
Examines the effects of the destruction of Iraqi infrastucture during the 1990-91 Gulf War, the subsequent UN sanctions and the "oil for food" program
A January 22, 1991, Defense Intelligence Agency report titled "Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities" noted, "Iraq depends on importing specialized equipment and some chemicals to purify its water supply ... This could lead to increased incidences ... of disease ... Unless the water is purified with chlorine, epidemics of such diseases as cholera, hepatitis, and typhoid could occur" ... The infant/young-child mortality rate in Iraq rose from 50 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 133 per 1,000 in 2001 ... Iraq had by far the sharpest rise in infant/young-child mortality of any nation in the world during that period, according to UNICEF.
Related Topics: George W. Bush, Militarism
Iraqi Sanctions and American Intentions: Blameless Carnage? Part 2, by James Bovard, Freedom Daily, Feb 2004
Further examination of the effects of the Iraqi sanctions and the hypocritical comments from the administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, after the 2003 invasion
Joy Gordon, professor of philosophy at Fairfield University, spent three years researching the effects of the UN sanctions programs on Iraq ... As of September 2001, the United States was blocking "nearly one-third of water and sanitation and one quarter of electricity and educational — supply contracts were on hold." ... Gordon concluded that "U.S. policy consistently opposed any form of economic development within Iraq." As of mid 2002, the importation of almost $5 billion in humanitarian goods was blocked — almost entirely because of holds imposed by the U.S. and British governments.
Iraqi Sanctions: Were They Worth It?, by Sheldon Richman, Freedom Daily, Jan 2004
Analyzes the sanctions imposed on Iraq during the 1990's, and Madeleine Albright's memoirs, Madam Secretary (2003), where she attempted to recant on her 1996 statement that the sanctions were "worth it"
Saddam ... maintained an elaborate food-rationing program, presumably to hold the loyalty of the Iraqi people, which the sanctions were intended to dissolve. He did such a 'good job' of creating dependence on the government for food that current American administrators in Iraq find the Iraqis reluctant to give up the program even though Saddam is gone and the sanctions are over. ... Although the embargo on food ended in April 1991, Iraq was hampered in importing it because Iraqi oil couldn't be exported. Iraq was heavily dependent on oil exports and food imports: no exports, no imports.
Iraq Quiz, by Jim Cox, 15 Apr 2004
20 questions, with answers
Iraq: The Hidden Horror, by Justin Raimondo, 13 Oct 2006
Discusses the responses to a study by John Hopkins University professors estimating, as of July 2006, 654,965 "excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the [Iraq] war"
The U.S. military has steadfastly refused to maintain Iraqi body counts ... Independent sources of such information invariably depend on reported deaths: the Iraqi media ... It ... makes ... sense that the Johns Hopkins survey – which involved researchers personally interviewing a total of 1,849 Iraqi households, most of whom produced death certificates – would be far higher ... the total represents 2.5 percent of Iraq's population. ... The Iraqi government derides the Johns Hopkins numbers, as well they might: either that, or they'd have to admit they were installed into power by a pack of mass murderers.
Is Any War Civil?, by Sheldon Richman, 4 Dec 2006
Considers the controversy over whether Iraq was engaged in a civil war in 2006, and Tony Snow's comment contrasting the situation with the American 1861-1865 conflict
In the end, it doesn't matter whether Iraq is having a civil war nor not. In either case that country is in a situation that the U.S. presence can only make worse. Why? Because the U.S. military is a foreign occupier, and it is perceived as such. Polls show that the Iraqis do not want American troops there ... Not only has the [Bush] policy plunged Iraq into a caldron of violence, it predictably has given Iran what it couldn't achieve on its own: dominance over its next-door neighbor. Considering that Bush regards Iran as the leader of the "axis of evil," his policy looks peculiar indeed.
John Kerry's Tender Sensibilities, by Kevin Carson, 29 Aug 2013
Highlights the hypocrisy of State Secretary Kerry's comments on violation of international norms in Syria vis-à-vis the U.S.'s record in previous wars
While we're on the subject of chemical weapons, the story just came out ... that the US actively aided Iraq's Saddam Hussein in targeting Iranian troops with nerve gas ... The overall American policy arc in Iraq from the '80s on seems to be: 1) Help Saddam to make war on his neighbors; 2) help Saddam use weapons of mass destruction against his neighbors; 3) encourage Saddam to invade Kuwait; 4) bomb the hell out of Saddam in 1991 for invading Kuwait and making war against his neighbors; 5) bomb the hell out of Saddam in 2003 for possibly still having weapons of mass destruction.
Related Topics: Vietnam War, War, World War II
The Lethal Legacy of U.S. Foreign Intervention, by Sheldon Richman, 12 Feb 2014
Presents examples of the deadly lasting effects of U.S. foreign intervention: continuing sectarian conflicts in Iraq and unexploded bombs in Laos
Take Iraq, which the U.S. military left at the end of 2011 (though not before President Obama pleaded with the Iraqi government to let some American forces remain). Violence is flaring in Iraq, as Sunni Muslims, fed up with the oppressive, corrupt, U.S.-installed and Iran-leaning Shi'a government, have mounted new resistance ... Wasn't Iraq a terrible place before the 2003 U.S. invasion, devastation, and occupation? Iraq was certainly ruled by a bad man, Saddam Hussein, who repressed the majority Shi'a, but also mistreated Sunnis. Yet Iraq was not plagued by sectarian violence before the U.S. military arrived.
Mr. Bush's War, by Murray N. Rothbard, The Rothbard-Rockwell Report, Oct 1990
Starts off as a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the rationale for the Gulf War, but then delves into more serious reasons, including the Saudi, petroleum and Rockefeller connections
Saddam is definitely BAD. But–and here's the point–he was just as bad a few short years ago when he was the heroic "defender of the free world" against the BAD fanatical mullah-run Shiite Iranians (Remember them?). Remember how, in the extremely bloody eight-year war between Iraq and Iran (which, by the way, Saddam launched ...) the U.S. "tilted toward" (in plain English: sided with) Iraq? Well, the current Butcher of Baghdad was the same Butcher of Baghdad then. He was the same totalitarian despot; and he was also the aggressor. So how come the lightning-fast change?
The Noninterventionists Told You So, by Sheldon Richman, 18 Jun 2014
Analyzes the 2014 Iraqi situation from the vantage point of noninterventionism, contrasting it with those who still want the Obama administration to intervene
There was no ISIS or al-Qaeda in Saddam Hussein's Iraq before the U.S. invasion ... No one can grasp the complexity of one's own society, we noninterventionists said, much less a society with Iraq's unique religious, sectarian, and political culture and history ... Al-Maliki is everyone's favorite scapegoat now, and the ruler known as the Shi'ite Saddam certainly is a villain. He has arrested respected Sunni figures and ordered troops to shoot peaceful Sunni demonstrators. But recriminations against the Sunnis, who were identified with Saddam's secular Ba'athist party, started with the American administration of Iraq.
Related Topics: Iraq War, Barack Obama
Obama's Iraqi Fairy Tale, by Sheldon Richman, The Goal Is Freedom, 28 Mar 2014
Examines, in detail, Obama's 26 March 2014 remarks about the 2003 Iraqi invasion compared to Russia's annexation of Crimea
Billions of dollars ostensibly spent to rebuild the infrastructure destroyed by American bombers (beginning in 1991) ended up lining the pockets of contractors ... Iraqis to this day suffer from inadequate public services like water, electricity, sewerage, and medical care ... The invasion unleashed a conflagration of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiites, unseen during Saddam's tenure and consciously facilitated by the U.S. government. Most Sunnis were cleansed from Baghdad. Countless were killed and maimed; millions more became refugees. The fire burns out of control to this day ...
One Hundred Years in Iraq?, by Sheldon Richman, 4 Apr 2008
Discusses John McCain's comments, made in Jan 2008, about staying in Iraq for 100 or more years and his previous comments on Iraqi reaction to the occupation, made during an interview on Charlie Rose in Nov 2007
McCain said "... It's fine with me ... if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaeda is training, recruiting, and equipping and motivating people every single day." ... McCain is wrong about al-Qaeda in Iraq. By nearly all accounts, it is a minor element in the country, largely despised by its fellow Sunni Muslims. Moreover, the group wasn't even in the country until the United States invaded. Saddam Hussein distrusted Osama bin Laden. Before 2003 an al-Qaeda operative was in northern Iraq, but that was the semi-autonomous Kurdish region that Saddam did not control.
Related Topic: Barack Obama
Rationalizing Haditha, by Justin Raimondo, 7 Jun 2006
Additional comments on responses to the Haditha massacre and similar incidents, from Rich Lowry, Christopher Hitchens, Nouri al-Maliki and Andrew Walden
Who, Iraqis wonder, is next to die at the hands of the American "liberators"? The message sent by recent American actions, whether intended or not, is clear enough: be afraid. Be very afraid... Whether such tactics induce servility in our Iraqi subjects or renew their determination to resist is unknown – but consider the remarks of newly elevated Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who said that killings and other abuse by the American occupiers have become a "daily phenomenon," and averred: "They crush them with their vehicles and kill them just on suspicion. This is completely unacceptable."
Road to Empire, by Justin Raimondo, 28 Nov 2007
Discusses the "Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship Between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America" signed on 26 Nov 2007, after the U.S. Congress went into recess
This agreement formalizes Iraq's status as a de facto U.S. protectorate, a province of the empire ... There's just one big problem for the War Party: the Iraqi constitution requires a vote by the Parliament in order to give the Status of Forces Agreement (or this preliminary declaration of intent) the force of law. And that looks problematic, at best, given the weakness of the Maliki regime. As Liwa Sumaysim, formerly tourism minister and now a member of the Iraqi Parliament from the fiercely nationalistic party of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, put it: "The Iraqi parliament must have the final word on it."
Sanctions: The Cruel and Brutal War against the Iraqi People, Part 1, by Jacob G. Hornberger, Freedom Daily, Jan 2004
Tells the history of the U.S. government sanctions against Iraq imposed by the United Nations before military action in the 1990 Gulf War, exacerbated by military targeting during the war and kept in place after the war
For 12 years, [the U.S.] had been waging a cruel and brutal, silent and undeclared war against the Iraqi people — a war which not only had plunged the Iraqi populace into economic privation and desperation but had also taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of their children ... The embargo was reinforced during the Persian Gulf War in a devious and sinister manner — by deliberately targeting Iraq's water, sewage, and electric-power facilities, with full knowledge of the likely consequence — the rapid spread of dangerous and deadly infectious diseases among the Iraqi population.
Related Topics: James Bovard, Children, Iran
Sanctions: The Cruel and Brutal War against the Iraqi People, Part 2, by Jacob G. Hornberger, Freedom Daily, Feb 2004
Continues the account of the U.S. government sanctions against Iraq, describing the "oil for food" program, the resignations of two senior United Nations officials in protest and the influence on the 11 Sept 2001 attacks
An implicit acknowledgement of the desperate plight of the Iraqi people, the ostensible purpose of the oil-for-food program was to provide a minimal, still small, caloric intake for the average person. Given that its setup and operation were based on an almost-perfect model of socialistic central planning, however, it shouldn't have surprised anyone that the program failed to significantly alleviate the plight of the Iraqi people ... Ironically, while the purpose of the sanctions was to squeeze the Iraqi people into ousting Saddam Hussein from power, the perverse result was the exact opposite.
The State in the Dock, by Lew Rockwell, 26 May 2006
Reflects on the then ongoing trial of Saddam Hussein (2004-2006) and wonders what would happen if other heads of state, including George W. Bush, were put on trial
Tariq Aziz, the senior member of Saddam's cabinet, riveted the courtroom the other day with testimony that the current puppet government is led by people who attempted to assassinate Saddam and Aziz in the 1980s ... There was no democracy in Iraq, so there was no gloss on the fact that Saddam protected his interests first ... For those people who were not involved in politics and didn't challenge his right to rule, the country seemed rather secular and liberal overall, a place unique in that part of the world where women had rights, there was religious tolerance (Jews and Catholics were left alone ...), and you could get a martini.
Stop the Cannon Fodder, by Charley Reese, Antiwar.com, 27 Jan 2007
Iraq is an artificial country created at the end of World War I by British colonialism. It has always existed because a powerful central government, wielding its authority in the most savage manner, has forced it to hold together. That is the only history Iraq has. Can any honest American say that 10 years from now, Iraq will be a peaceful and prosperous country with many monuments to the Americans who liberated it? No, if Iraq exists, it will exist the way it always has–with a central government wielding its power in a savage and bloody manner.
Related Topics: Children, War
They Don't Mean Well, by Sheldon Richman, 15 Jan 2014
Reviews Barry Lando's article "The American Legacy in Iraq", which describes U.S. government intervention in Iraq since 1990 as well as Lando's interview with Scott Horton discussing earlier meddling
The U.S. government (specifically, the CIA) not only helped to bring Saddam Hussein to power, it supplied him the means and intelligence to use chemical weapons in his aggressive war against Iran in the 1980s ... Collusion with Saddam continued right up until he invaded Kuwait, as U.S. officials helped instigate that event by meddling on both sides ... Ironically, the U.S. government and its accomplices conducted biological warfare against the Iraqis ... The resulting deaths of Iraqis, including half a million children, were not unintended consequences, but foreseen results of America's malicious policy.
Related Topic: Foreign entanglements
They Lied About the Reasons for Going to War, by Jacob G. Hornberger, 23 Oct 2006
Examines various items of circumstancial evidence that would lead most reasonable people to conclude that George W. Bush and his administration lied about the rationales for invading Iraq in 2003, and then explores the real purpose behind the invasion
The ostensible purpose [of the sanctions] was to compel Saddam Hussein to comply with UN resolutions requiring him to disarm ... Yet, even though Saddam continued to steadfastly maintain, year after year of rising deaths among the Iraqi populace, that he had complied ... U.S. officials continued to maintain that Saddam had the burden of showing that he no longer had WMDs as a condition of lifting the sanctions, ignoring the obvious difficulty that anyone would have in trying to prove such a negative ... [T]he real purpose of the sanctions was what has become known as "regime change" ...
Related Topics: George W. Bush, Iraq War, War
The Troops Don't Defend Our Freedoms, by Jacob G. Hornberger, 21 Oct 2005
Examines whether foreign invasion, terrorists taking over the government and the federal government, through the President and its orders to a "loyal and obedient" standing army, are plausible threats to the freedom and well-being of Americans
Invading Kuwait over an oil-drilling dispute, Saddam provided the Pentagon with a new official enemy, one that would last for more than 10 continuous years. Obeying presidential orders to attack Iraq in 1991, ... the troops ended up killing tens of thousands of Iraqis. Obeying Pentagon orders to attack Iraq's water and sewage facilities, the troops accomplished exactly what Pentagon planners had anticipated — spreading deadly infections and disease among the Iraqi people ... the troops enforced the illegal "no-fly zones" over Iraq, which killed even more Iraqis, including children.
U.S. Hypocrisy on Iran, by Sheldon Richman, 14 Feb 2007
Discusses the hypocrisy of Bush administration pronouncements and actions about Iran "meddling in Iraq", considering the U.S. intervention in Iran in 1953 and the U.S. invasion and continued occupation of Iraq
[Bush] has authorized American troops to kill Iranians in Iraq if they seem to be engaged in activities hostile to the United States ... There is something surreal in all this. The U.S. government is warning Iran against meddling in Iraq. But the U.S. government is meddling in Iraq! Is there a clearer case of a pot calling a kettle black? Neither country should be meddling, but there are important differences. Iraq is next door to Iran but far from the United States. Iraq, backed by the United States, attacked Iran in 1980, leading to a grueling eight-year war, but never attacked America.
Related Topics: George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Iran
UpdThe War the Government Cannot Win, by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., 1 May 2007
Discusses how government cannnot win the war on terror because economic law is more powerful than the state; talk given at the Wisconsin Forum in Milwaukee
At the Baghdad airport, for example, your tax dollars paid for $11.8 million in new electrical generators. But $8.6 million worth of them are no longer functioning ... At the maternity hospital in Erbil, an incinerator for medical waste was padlocked and officials can't find the key. So syringes, bandages, and drug vials are clogging the sewage system and contaminating the water ... A federal oversight agency went to inspect a sample of eight projects that US officials in Iraq had declared to be a success. Of these eight successes, seven of them were not actually functioning at all ...
Who Lost Iraq?, by Justin Raimondo, 13 Nov 2006
Reviews and reflects on the title question posed in an opinion essay by retired U.S. Army Colonel and professor Andrew J. Bacevich
However, the tide ... turned completely when the Shi'ites ... rose up to demand real elections, rejecting the "caucus" system the Americans initially sought to impose, which would have installed neocon sock-puppet Ahmed Chalabi and his gang ... The Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, spiritual leader of Iraq's majority Shi'ite population, called his followers into the streets and Washington beat a hasty retreat. The elections were held; the Shi'ite parties swept into power, and their party militias began visiting a reign of terror on their former Sunni masters. The results: civil war, Iraq's slide into warlordism ...
Related Topic: Iraq War

Interviews

Pentagon Whistle-Blower on the Coming War With Iran, by Karen Kwiatkowski, James Harris, Josh Scheer, 27 Feb 2007
Topics include possible conflict with Iran, the Pentagon situation prior to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Office of Special Plans, Vietnam, terrorism and neoconservatism; includes audio and transcript
KAREN KWIATKOWSKI: ... Most of the money we gave to Halliburton was for construction and completion of these bases ... [O]f the 150,000, 160,000 troops we have in Iraq probably 110,000 of those folks are associated with one of those four mega bases. Safely ensconced behind acres and acres of concrete. To operate there indefinitely, no matter what happens in Baghdad, no matter who takes over, no matter if the country splits into three pieces or it stays one ... [A]nd there's many in Congress and certainly in this administration, Republican and Democrat alike that really like that.

Cartoons and Comic Strips

Declaration of Thingamajig, by Mark Fiore, 22 Jun 2011
On the wars ... hostilities ... thingamajigs of the U.S. empire
How do you spell Iraq?, by Mike Adams, Dan Berger, 29 Jan 2007
Related Topic: Ron Paul
More Wisdom of the Ages From Bernie and Phil, by Wiley Miller, Non Sequitur, 19 Oct 2014

Videos


Pirates and Emperors - Schoolhouse Rock, 17 Sep 2006
Related Topics: Imperialism, Iran, Nicaragua
Space Aliens from Luxemburg: A Horror Story, by Stefan Molyneux, 14 Mar 2008
A "subtle parable" about aliens trying to put a stop to a "moral abomination"

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Iraq" as of 19 Sep 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.