April 19th, 2011 § § permalink
Donald Trump is gonna run for president of the USA, as far as I can tell. He may not do and just be fucking with our minds. If he does though, Iraq had better watch out…
Trump: George, let me explain something to you. We go into Iraq. We have spent thus far, $1.5 trillion. We could have rebuilt half of the United States. $1.5 trillion. And we’re going to then leave. So, in the old days, you know when you had a war, to the victor belong the spoils. You go in. You win the war and you take it.
…
Stephanopoulos: It would take hundreds of thousands of troops to secure the oil fields.
Trump: Excuse me. No, it wouldn’t at all.
…
Stephanopoulos: So, we steal an oil field?
Trump: Excuse me. You’re not stealing. Excuse me. You’re not stealing anything. You’re taking– we’re reimbursing ourselves– at least, at a minimum, and I say more. We’re taking back $1.5 trillion to reimburse ourselves.
In the old days, you went to war because someone invaded you. If you won the war, you got reparations. In otherwords, the losing aggressor paid the winner compensation for the inconvenience, damage and effort needed to stave off the invasion. OK, it is a little more complicated than that and the victor usually took the piss, but basically, that’s it.
If the aggressor won, then the loser was occupied, taken control of and general fucked over even more.
What happened in Iraq was the aggressor won but, being generous, hasn’t tried to occupy the Iraq and has tried to get Iraq up and running again, albeit in a cack-handed, bloody way. The US doesn’t deserve any reparations. The people of Iraq didn’t ask the US to go in a fuck them over. Saddam was no direct threat to the US and had no connection to the big bogieman of Al Qaeda (however you want to spell it).
You don’t get reimbursed for expense paid to fuck over another country that a) didn’t ask for shit and b) was going to fuck you over.
This reimbursement Trump is on about is theft. Pure and simple. Just because the people of the US don’t want to give up their 4 litre engined cars and pick-ups.
Donald Trump even puts our own MPs to shame when it comes to claiming expenses.
January 26th, 2010 § § permalink
What I like about this country, is that for those most in need, those that can’t afford it themselves, there is legal aid provided for them.
August 28th, 2009 § § permalink
As an Editor of the Sun Lies blog I get to bask in the reflected glory of this post from Scepticisle…
it [The Sun] seems a little hazy on history as well, as this passage from the editorial makes plain:
Mr Brown has taken the country to war but is ducking responsibility for the conduct of it. The tradition of our country is that in wartime, the Prime Minister takes charge.
Lloyd George led us in World War One and Winston Churchill in World War Two.
Margaret Thatcher led from the front in the triumphant Falklands War in 1982.
John Major took charge in the first Gulf War of 1991. Tony Blair assumed full responsibility when we invaded Iraq to topple Saddam. And he did the same over the liberation of Kosovo.
Except Gordon Brown hasn’t taken the country in Afghanistan; Tony Blair did, in 2001. We’ve been there ever since. Brown as chancellor provided the funds for the war, it’s quite true, but was not personally responsible for taking us there. He also wasn’t prime minister when we entered Helmand in 2006: the defence secretary then was John Reid, who famously said he hoped that we would leave without firing a single shot. Then there’s the fact that we’re there in the country, not just on our own, but as part of the ISAF NATO coalition. Additionally, if we’re going to split hairs, Winston Churchill didn’t lead us into WW2; Neville Chamberlain did. The war in Afghanistan is also not, in any meaningful sense, a war with specific aims like all of those the Sun lists. It’s far more comparable to what we were doing in Iraq from the fall of Saddam up until our exit this year: peacekeeping, reconstruction and providing security. Missions, like Operation Panther’s Claw, which had the specific aim of clearing out Taliban so that people could vote in the presidential election, have been few and far between. As also argued above, we are quite clearly not in “wartime”.
I would like to post the lot, but that would be a little too much, I think. So, go and read the rest
May 4th, 2009 § § permalink
BBC…
My life is destroyed. I’m still living in hiding. I’ve asked to be taken anywhere in the world – away from here. There’s no justice in the world.
…
Ali (his name has been changed to protect him) had worked for British troops in Basra for almost 12 months. To be precise, for six days short of 12 months.
Miliband statement on Iraq 30th October 2007…
Staff who are currently serving in these categories, or who were doing so on or after 8 August 2007, will be eligible to apply for assistance provided that:
* they have attained 12 months’ or more continuous service. (In this context, continuous does not refer to service in a single job or capacity. Iraqi staff who have moved between the different categories outlined above will be eligible provided that there was no break in service between moving between different categories and total length of service is 12 months or more); and
* that they are (or were) redundant by their employer OR that they are (or were) forced to resign their positions because of what we judge to be exceptional circumstances. Decisions on whether a resignation has taken place in exceptional circumstances will be made by representatives of employing Departments on the ground. Staff who are dismissed for misconduct will not be eligible for assistance.
I suppose when death threats happen as often as they do in Iraq, they stop being exceptional and if you’ve only got a week or fortnight before you hit 12 months then you can tough it out. It’s only a few more days.
The employees are still being shat on and now the Brits are out, that’ll be then end of any help any Iraqi interpreters would’ve got.
April 30th, 2009 § § permalink
So, the British are officially out of Iraq.
It’s a pity we just gave the base back to the wrong country.
March 13th, 2009 § § permalink
Hagley Road to Ladywood…
The Sun likes to sneer at “council estate parents” who stick up for their kids even after they’ve been convicted of heinous crimes. Nothing can get those mums and dads to disown or condemn their criminal children, not even in the face of evidence. Whether it’s manslaughter, drug dealing, murder or setting fire to a bin, “he’s my son and he could never have done such a thing”, and cue the reports of the offenders’ families laughing in court or pulling faces at the victims’ relatives.
But if you just look at it, the Sun and the Daily Mail perpetrate this sub-human pattern in a much grander scale. The way they lashed out at the anti-Iraq war protesters in Luton (who accused British soldiers of brutality as well as of illegally invading another country) was textbook.
Read the rest
February 26th, 2009 § § permalink
Who is this twat Richard Beeston? Should I know him from anywhere?
He sound like a bit of a git to me. Get this…
Of all the parochial, navel-gazing, non-issues surrounding the Iraq war, the endless debate about the lead-up to it has wasted more time and energy than any other.
Some key participants are out of power and writing their memoirs (George Bush, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schröder). Some have died (Saddam Hussein, Robin Cook). The only man left standing is the improbable figure of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister. Dozens of books have been written and films made on the subject. At least one public inquiry has been held. It is tempting to think that anyone left in any doubt about what transpired is not really trying very hard. Jack Straw’s decision to keep pre-invasion Cabinet minutes secret is of little consequence to anyone outside Westminster. All this happened six years ago. Get over it.
‘Get over it’?
What has happened since the invasion, the way troops have been equiped, the planning of the whole post invasion thing, the, basically, slaughter of Iraqi civlians and the behaviour of the troops, when under orders and when using their own initiative, does need debating and investigating. I don’t deny that at all.
But to dismiss the whole reason why we’re there with a ‘get over it’ when the architects of the illegal invasion have not been, at least, brought to trial is, just, well, shit. He should be ashamed of himself.
Just because the key warmongers are out of power, doesn’t mean they can’t be tried.
I do not have time to look up this turds views on the war during the build up, but it’s fairly obvious that he was in favour of it and now instead of admitting he was wrong or anything like that, he just wants to sweep it under the carpet.
Just to dismiss the reasons for the war are a smack in the mouth for everyone.
Dr David Kelly. British soldiers that have died or been injured, the thousands of Iraqis that have died needlesly (pdf), and to a lesser extent the country as a whole in our reputation.
To put this chicken-shits argument in a way that is easily understood, what he is saying is, if the police doesn’t catch a rapist in 6 years, or the victim cannot report it in that time for whatever reason then, tough. Get over it.
January 29th, 2009 § § permalink
BBC:
Iraq will not renew the licence of US security firm Blackwater, which was involved in an 2007 incident in which at least 14 civilians were killed.
…
Five former Blackwater guards have gone on trial in the United States over the killings in Baghdad.
They have pleaded not guilty to killing 14 Iraqi civilians and wounding 18 others by gunfire and grenades.
…
A US embassy official confirmed it had received the Iraqi decision, and said US officials were working with the Iraqi government and its contractors to address the “implications of this decision”.
January 14th, 2008 § § permalink
Evidence was provided to the police relating to the crimes of:-
• genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and conduct ancillary to these crimes under Sections 51 and 52 of The International Criminal Court Act 2001.
• a crime against peace and complicity in a crime against peace under Articles 6 and 7 of The Nuremburg Principles.
• murder, incitement to murder and conspiracy to murder under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
• conspiracy to commit genocide, a crime against humanity and war crimes under the Criminal Law Act 1977.
Courtesy of one of the Chickens
Related: Justice Perverter
December 5th, 2007 § § permalink
EDM 401: Iraq Employees:
That this House recognises the courage of Iraqis who have worked alongside British troops and diplomats in southern Iraq, often saving British lives; notes that many such Iraqis have been targeted for murder by Iraqi militias in Basra, and that an unknown number have already been killed, whilst many others are in hiding; further recognises that many Iraqis who have worked for fewer than 12 months for the UK are threatened by death squads; and therefore calls upon the Prime Minister to meet the UK’s moral obligations by offering resettlement to all Iraqis who are threatened with death for the “crime” of helping British troops and diplomats.
Go here to see if your MP has signed it.
If they haven’t, send them a polite email asking them to, and if they won’t, why they won’t.
related: Dan Hardie: Letting Them Die