74.JPG

Rightly outraged though we are at the Libby commutation, let’s not forget the underlying crime – lying us into war. Churchill said that in war, truth must be surrounded by a bodyguard of lies. Not if you’re Dick and George — their lie must be surrounded by legions of lies.

Not just the big lie of Niger uranium and mushroom clouds to get us into the war, but so many lies about the war itself.

First we had several years of the “liberation” lie, now have the new “surge” version – “decreased civilian casualties.”

But take a look at the picture above – it is from an Iraqi town named Diwaniya. On Monday, F16s “hit targets in a street in the Shi’ite Muslim city of Diwaniya” in retaliation for mortar attacks on the nearby coalition military base Camp Echo. You can see the results – the photographer added the following caption:

A neighbor holds Qassem Abdullah’s family photograph he salvaged from the rubble of their home in Diwaniyah, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, July 3, 2007. Qassem’s home was destroyed in an air strike Tuesday, killing all of his four children. Qassem, his wife and sister are hospitalized in serious condition. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)


A day later, US forces said they were “reviewing the incident to ensure that appropriate and proportionate force was used” but a spokesman for the 900 Polish forces in the area “suggested a mistake might have been made.” And both US and international law forbids targeting of civilian populations.

This attack comes just one week after another air strike on residential neighborhoods that even Nouri Al Maliki objected to.

Then again Al Makiki is not so happy with his US allies these days. In fact, he sent his senior military adviser out to:

complain that despite the green zone government spending $ 500 million 7 months ago to be supplied with weapons the US has so far only supplied the green zone government with 5,000 light machine guns. Which as he accurately points out: “is not enough even to protect a small area of Baghdad. (translation from Arabic by the GorillasGuides team)


Reports like that makes me wonder about all those billions of dollars Congress keeps approving for the big lie of “arming the Iraqis so they can stand up.” Audit anyone?

One more big lie for today: remember all that Iraqi oil money that was going to pay for everything … until George found it was easier to just ask Congress for another blank check?

Well it seems that sources in Southern Iraq are now reporting that 50% of the oil produced in the last few months is being smuggled to “some countries and major international companies.” (translation from Arabic also from GorillasGuides)

Of course, George is really great friends with Sayyed Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, Leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq who he greeted at the White House in December 2006:

“I appreciate so very much His Eminence’s commitment to a unity government. I assured him the United States supports his work …”

And this great friend Al-Hakim is not only the head of the Badr brigade, reported to be the largest death squad in Iraq, but he’s also the head of a family known for their oil smuggling expertise so maybe George and his friends in those “major international companies” are telling the truth about one thing – their support for all Al Hakim’s family’s hard “work?”

h/t markfromireland for Churchill

Related posts:

  1. US Contractors Held in Iraqi Jail for Green Zone Murder
  2. Countering the Lies about Health Care Reform
  3. Demagoguing Fort Hood, Hoekstra Adds to List of Lies
  4. About Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s Lies
  5. Public Option: Too Cheap or Too Expensive? Republicans Can’t Even Keep Lies Straight